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-ˋˏ 𝐀𝐌𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 ˎˊ-
↳ chapter thirty-one „
· ━━━━━━ ୨💌୧ ━━━━━━ ·
❝ the turning point ❞
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-ˋˏ irl! ˎˊ-
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Dream frowned.
He and Malak were due to their scheduled weekly call and the latter had yet to answer him. It's been only a few minutes after he texted her, but he couldn't help the sinking feeling in his gut after she had missed his call.
"She's probably just busy," he thought to himself.
"But she's not supposed to be busy," countered the voice in his head.
"Something must have come up, then," Dream argued.
"And she couldn't warn you about it?"
"She could."
"And she didn't."
As if on cue, his phone rang, displaying that Malak was calling him. Dream picked up instantly, "Hello?"
"I am so sorry!" Malak quickly apologized.
She pushed her thick, dark hair away from her face as she made herself comfortable on her bed.
"My phone died right before my class ended," she rolled her eyes and Dream chuckled. "I couldn't charge it until I had walked back to the apartment."
"It's fine," Dream reassured. "Don't worry about it."
"Yes, but I'm still sorry," she laughed nervously.
Malak then stopped and narrowed her eyes.
Dream frowned and turned to look at what she could've been staring at.
His room was a mess, but he thought she couldn't see because he made sure the only light in the room came from his set-up.
"I like what you did to your hair," she stated, taking him by surprise.
"Oh," he smiled. "Thanks, I decided to grow it."
"Yeah, I can see," she pointed. "You've got it tied into a bun, it suits you."
Dream laughed lightly.
"God," Malak lay her chin on the palm of her hand, a stupid grin on her face. "I love it when you laugh."
Dream's giggles died down as his mind stumbled to a halt. "What?" he asked.
"I'm not kidding," Malak replied. "It's just so bright and warm and— oddly comforting."
Dream glanced away.
"Malak?"
"Hm?"
"When's the last time you had a good night's rest?" Dream asked, watching her nose scrunch up.
"What do you mean?" She frowned. "We slept on call a few hours ago."
Dream remained silent.
"Why are you asking me this?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Is it because I complimented your hair?"
"I— No?" Dream stammered. "It has nothing to do with my hair!"
"Then what is it?" She teased him. "Have you never been complimented? Are you flustered?"
"Flustered—!" He scoffed, swallowing hard. "It's just a bit weird, you've never complimented me before."
At least not in that way.
"Really! Have I never?" Malak hummed. "Oh well," she shrugged, "there's a first time for everything."
Dream kept quiet.
"Don't you have plans or something?" She asked. "I mean, it isn't as late in Florida as it's here."
"Well, unlike you," he began, "I rather stay at home than go out. And yes, I do have friends."
Malak snorted.
"Okay, monsieur I do have friends," she snickered and Dream blushed. "I just find it hard to believe that you prefer staying at home than heading out."
"What can I say?" he shrugged, leaning back in his seat. "There's a lot more to me than you know."
"Oh?" Malak inquired, tilting her head ever so slightly. "I didn't know that. It isn't like I flew out all the way to meet you, George, and Nick. Me? Never."
Dream shook his head and smiled. "You're unbelievable," he stated.
"Unbelievably funny," she corrected him. "Anyways—"
Yells erupted from the neighboring room.
"What was that?" Dream asked, amused.
"The twins most probably got impostor together, again," she sighed. "As I was saying—"
Malak jumped as the door to her room suddenly slammed open, dropping her phone in the process, leaving Dream staring at the ceiling and Malak looking annoyed at whoever stood at her door.
"What is it today with people keeping on interrupting—"
Dream leaned in and watched as Malak's face fell into that of worry.
"Samantha," she gasped, hopping off of her bed and rushing out of his sight of view. "Que c'est-il passé? Pourquoi est-ce que tu pleurs?"
Dream heard loud sniffing and the shuffling of bags and decided it was best that he ended the call.
However, something pushed him to stay just a little longer.
"Samantha?" Malak called again.
There was a pause before the blonde burst into tears.
"Mon Dieu," Malak gasped. "Qu'est-ce que ton père a fait cette fois?"
Samantha did not answer her, but sobbed even harder.
Dream, realizing he wasn't going to understand anything Malak was going to say, finally decided that he'd call her back and make sure that everything was alright.
He left her a message, letting her know that they could continue their call later.
Although, he couldn't help the sinking feeling of emptiness in his gut as he pulled up one of his friends' videos to distract himself.
It wasn't until over an hour had passed that Malak replied to him. The reply came in the form of a call.
"Hi?" Dream said as he answered the phone.
The fluttering in his stomach turned into nausea after taking in the look of exhaustion on Malak's face.
"Are you okay?" he immediately jumped to ask.
Malak smiled sadly. "I'm okay, I promise," she responded.
"What happened?" he found himself asking.
"I'm sorry about that," she winced. "Sam ran into some trouble with her family, so I had to take care of that," she briefly explained. "She's exhausted herself to sleep. Sorry, again."
"Malak," Dream spoke, baffled. "What are you saying sorry for? Please stop apologizing for being a decent person and a good friend."
She blinked at him for a moment before the corners of her lips tugged upwards into a soft smile.
"Thank you," she sighed and leaned into her arm so that she was staring at him from under her eyelashes.
Dream's heart skipped a beat. "Of course," he breathed.
"I— if you don't mind me asking," he continued, "What kind of trouble is Samantha running into with her family? Maybe I could help?"
"Oh," Malak mumbled. "Oh. No, Clay. It's nothing like that," she rushed to explain. "It's just that Sam's father isn't particularly happy about the fact that she's pursuing a career in fashion design. They argue about that, often, and it doesn't usually end well."
"So—"
"No, nothing like that," she interrupted. "But thank you, for asking," she paused, "and offering."
Dream nodded.
"Sometimes," she spoke after a minute of silence, "I wonder what would've become of me if my parents weren't— well, my parents."
"What do you mean?" he prodded.
"I remember how anxious I was when I finally decided to tell my parents that I was interested in pursuing a major in Arts and Drama," she told him, frowning to herself. "I thought they might laugh at me, but they didn't. I cried when they told me that it was a great idea, that I had so much potential."
Malak scowled and buried her face in her hands.
Dream's breath caught in his throat.
"Please, don't cry," he whispered.
Malak looked up at him, dejected.
He wondered, if Malak's so busy taking care of others who's taking care of her? When was the last time she checked herself?
"Malak," Dream hesitated.
She watched him, expectant.
"If you ever need to talk about anything, anything, I'll be there for you."
She stared at his worried expression. "Thank you," she hummed thoughtfully.
"Jesus," Dream ran a hand through his hair and took in a sharp breath. "I wanna hug you so badly right now."
Malak blinked.
Fuck.
"I miss you too," she smiled, her cheeks turning a tint of rosy pink.
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-ˋˏ 💌 ˎˊ-
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author's note„
so like what's been happening with the mcyt fandom lately? I stopped being a part of it for years now so I have idea what's been going on 😅