Chapter Text
denial
when dream and george had first met, they were just teenagers. they both hated the idea of school and spent hours gaming and talking with their friends. it wasn’t a surprise they got on like a house on fire. they had wildly different personalities, but shared every interest possible. dream spent every second he wasn’t doing schoolwork with george. they fell asleep on call, ranted about their shitty days, talked through their coding problems. they were inseparable.
dream was only a teenager when he got his first crush on a guy.
it was hard to know it was a crush. it’s always hard to analyze emotions you’ve never felt before. at first he thought it was purely admiration, he respected george more than any one else he had ever met. but, was it really realistic? he had always thought of george as his equal, could he really be feeling such a strong feeling of admiration towards one of his peers?
it wasn’t until george made a new friend that dream realized he wasn’t feeling admiration or platonic love towards his friend.
“dream? you on? i have news!” george’s voice came through his speaker. dream was idle on teamspeak when george finally logged on. he quickly unmuted.
“george!” he yelled into his microphone as a greeting, grinning even more when he heard his friend’s giggles on the other side.
“dream!” george shouted back, “you’ll never guess!”
“yeah? what’s up?” dream was still grinning and patiently picking at his fingernails, waiting for george’s response.
george giggled again, the excitement clear in his voice, “i got a girlfriend, dude!”
dream could feel himself stiffen and a sick feeling made itself present in his stomach. “a girlfriend?” his voice didn’t shake, surprisingly. he sounded normal, but inside he felt like every cell in his brain was going to burst.
“yes! her name’s maddie, she works at a coffee shop nearby-”
dream unintentionally let george’s voice trail off, no longer able to focus on it. his mind was racing with a million thoughts, mostly consisting of ‘i feel so sick. why do i feel so sick.’
“so? dream?” george’s voice came through and dream sobered up. george still had the giddy, childish excitement in his tone.
“she sounds nice, george. i’m glad for you.” dream said, regretting it as soon as it left his mouth. his voice was monotone and bland. he sounded the complete opposite of happy for his friend. george let out another laugh, but this time it was followed by a beat of awkward silence.
“i just wasn’t aware you liked girls, is all.”
it was the right thing for dream to say, apparently, because george let out a hearty laugh and a ‘hey!’ dream was only half joking when he said it, but that had been enough to quiet the sick in his stomach and put the grin back on his face.
sometimes george wasn’t around to fall asleep on call anymore. dream settled by putting on some of george’s youtube videos. he was a bit louder than george typically would be at this time of night, but dream didn’t really mind. whatever would dull the ache in his heart would do.
----
years later, when george would mention offhand, “remember my first girlfriend? god, we were so cringe.”
dream would laugh and think to himself,
‘oh yeah. that stupid little crush i had on george.
thank god i got over that. ‘