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George and Dream laid on the floor together, George’s head slotted right next to Dream’s, so close to each other that if they turned their heads, they’d practically be kissing. Both of them had their phones held high above their heads, tiktok open and scrolling mindlessly as they enjoyed each other's company in silence.
“Oh! Dream, look-” George gasped suddenly before snorting and rolling his eyes as he turned his phone screen to show his boyfriend. “They’re those cringey couple shoes that people get.”
Dream hummed as he watched the video playing on George’s phone.
The couple in the video got matching yellow and tan converse. He kind of liked them.
“They’re cool,” Dream said and George shrugged, moving his phone to continue scrolling.
“They’d be better if they weren’t converse, I think. I like-”
“You like vans better, I know, Georgie.” Dream chuckled, leaning over to press a quick kiss to George’s cheek. The brunet scoffed, a soft smile on his face. “If you ever wanted to get matching vans, I’d be down. They’re kind of cool.”
George hummed.
“You don’t think that they’re cringe?” George asked, setting his phone on his stomach and turning his head to face Dream. The blond shook his head and set his phone down too.
“No, not cringe. I think…” Dream hummed, trying to find the right words. “I think they’re kind of cool. Imagine if we got green and blue ones? Like, you got grey ones with green and blue highlighting or whatever and I got black ones or something. That’d be cool, wouldn’t it?”
George smiled to himself as he thought over getting custom Vans with Dream. It’d be a subtle yet cute way for the two of them to match, unlike those gross “King” and “Queen” hoodies that some other couples in their school had. He never wanted to be like one of those couples.
“How about we think on it?” George asked and Dream nodded, sitting up.
“Sure, Georgie. Whatever you want,” The blond smiled as George sat up. They smiled while sitting silently looking fondly at each other. “Alright, come on. Let’s go do something productive?” Dream suggested as he stood.
George groaned.
“Don’t wanna…” Dream laughed and grabbed George’s hands, hauling the older to his feet and into a warm hug.
“We could make brownies?” Dream suggested and George’s eyes shined excitedly.
“Why didn’t you say that in the first place?” George asked as he pulled away. “Come on!”
Two weeks later and George was fed up.
His entire tiktok feed was couples doing cute cringey stuff and he didn’t want to see it anymore.
“Dreamie?” George asked from his spot on the blond’s bed. Dream, who was sitting at his desk, turned and smiled at George.
“What’s up?”
George hummed, staring at the little glow in the dark stars that littered his boyfriends ceiling. “I think I want to get those dumb shoes.”
Dream made a noise of confusion. “Shoes?”
“Yeah, the matching couple ones,” George said, swinging his legs off the edge of the bed as he sat up straight. “We talked about it a few weeks ago. Matching Vans? Green and blue?” Dream ‘ohed.’
“Oh yeah! Okay… Well, do you want to come sit and design them with me? On the Vans website?” Dream asked, patting his lap while wiggling his eyebrows. George rolled his eyes but nodded and stood up, crossing the room and planting himself right in Dream’s lap with a content smile on his face.
Dream rested his chin on George’s shoulder after the brunet got comfy and quickly typed “VANS WEBSITE” into the search bar of google.
After a few random clicks, both boys were staring at the customization screen, unsure what kind of design they wanted to go for.
“Um…” George said as they stared at the shoe choices. “Maybe the Old Skool ones?” George said, pointing at the shoe on screen. Dream clicked it.
“How about… Okay, hear me out,” Dream said as he made the middle of the shoe light grey. “This will be your shoe, alright?” George nodded and watched Dream’s mouse wiggle across the screen as he made the toe, tongue and heel of the shoe green. The eyestay and binding and foxing stripe were all made blue and Dream hummed.
“Is that it?” George asked.
Dream nodded and George smiled. They were simple but he liked it.
“I like it,” George said and Dream grinned, opening up another customization tab to make his shoe. It was the exact same, except reversed so the heel, tongue and toe of the shoe were blue and the eyestay, binding and foxing stripe were green.
The two finalized things, making sure that they were sure they wanted to go through with buying the shoes, and then they placed the orders, both of the pairs getting shipped to Dream’s house, the arrival date set for three weeks.
“Hey boys!” There was a knock on Dream’s door and the two looked over right as Dream’s mom entered the room. “I brought you two a snack!” Estelle, Dream’s mother, grinned at them as she brought over a plate with fruit and vegetables on it.
“Thanks mom,” Dream smiled and she nodded, setting it down on the desk.
“Oh, what’s this?” She asked as she glanced at Dream’s laptop screen. “Shoes?”
George nodded, a wide smile on his face as he stole a carrot stick from the plate and shoved it into his mouth, biting into it loudly.
“Mhm! Matching Vans!” He said and she laughed.
“I think they’re darling. Have you ordered them yet?” She asked and both boys nodded. She smiled and ruffled both of their hair before excusing herself to go make dinner.
Dream pulled George closer, keeping one arm securely wrapped around his smaller boyfriends waist as he reached for a celery stick. “I’m kind of excited for them to come now.”
George hummed in agreement.
“Me too… We should make a cringey tik tok about it,” Dream laughed and shook his head.
“I don’t know about that…”
“We’ll see I guess,” George said cheekily before taking Dream’s celery stick and eating it himself.
Three weeks passed in a blur and soon enough Dream and George were sitting on Dream’s living room floor tearing open the packages to get to the shoes. George grinned as he opened up the box containing his shoes and he pulled one out, holding it up to examine it.
He liked the way it looked on the website when they were designing them, but he absolutely adored how they looked in person, sitting in his hand. And he was sure he’d love how they would look on his feet while standing next to Dream.
“Wow…” Dream said as he slipped one of his shoes on his foot, lacing it up quickly. George was quick to follow, putting on both of his shoes and standing up. The two looked down and admired the shoes together before George took a quick picture, saving it to his snap memories and shoving his phone in his pocket.
“I love them!” George said. “I don’t care if we’re labeled as a cringey couple now, I love them!” George said and Dream laughed, nodding in agreement.
“We should send a picture to Sapnap,” Dream suggested and George nodded.
“Yes! Make him jealous that he and Karl don’t have matching shoes!” George laughed jumping excitedly. Dream took his phone out and the two stood face to face, their shoes going every other. Dream, then George, then Dream, then George.
Dream snapped a picture of it, captioning it “Got matching shoes with @GeorgeNotFound. You jealous yet?” and sending it to their best friend, Sapnap.
The reply was almost instant, seeing as Sapnap was nearly always on his phone. He had replayed the snap, screenshotted it and then sent back a selfie captioned “Only jealous cause u and i don’t have matching shoes daddy dre~”
George and Dream laughed at the response, knowing Sapnap was probably going to send a picture to his boyfriend and demand they get matching shoes now too.
“Come on, how about we go do something? Break them in?” Dream suggested as he put his phone away.
“Sure, but can we show your mom first?” George asked as he took Dream’s hand, pulling him slightly towards the back door where Estelle and Dream’s younger siblings were hanging out in the backyard by the pool.
“Of course, Georgie.” Dream cooed as he allowed himself to be guided towards the half open sliding door.
“Estelle!” George called as they walked onto the back patio. Dream’s mother looked up from her book and smiled at her second oldest child and his boyfriend. “Our shoes came!” George said excitedly.
Estelle gasped and set her book down, sliding her sunglasses up and into her hair so she could get a better look at the shoes. George and Dream walked closer and showed off their shoes, letting Estelle coo and compliment them on how darling they looked with their matching shoes.
“Simp!” Drista, Dream’s sister, said from where she was floating at the edge of the pool. Dream stuck his tongue out at her and she laughed, blowing a raspberry back.
“They’re cute, boys! I really like them!” Estelle complimented and they both thanked her before saying they were going to go grab food from somewhere in town. She nodded and the two left with a happy goodbye.
“Ugh, this line is so long!” George whined as his shoulders slumped.
Dream raised an eyebrow, stuffing a fistfull of cotton candy into his mouth.
“It’s moving fast though?” Dream said as they walked forward a few steps. They were at a local carnival waiting in line for the ferris wheel.
“I know, but it’s still annoying,” George said with a slight pout. Dream chuckled and held a bit of cotton candy up to George’s lips for the brunet to take.
George hummed as he opened his mouth, allowing Dream to set the candy on his tongue and waiting for it to dissolve into nothing but a pile of sweet sugar.
“Good?” Dream asked and George nodded. “Good.”
“Excuse me,” Dream turned around as he felt a tap on his shoulder. He smiled at the two girls behind him and raised an eyebrow. “Hi! I just wanted to let you two know I really like your shoes!” Dream looked down at his shoes, noticing that he and George were both wearing their matching vans.
“Thank you!” He smiled and she nodded.
“Did you guys do that one tik tok trend too?” She asked and Dream blushed and nodded.
“Yeah…”
“We did too! We aren’t wearing them right now but we have matching converse!” The girl motioned to herself and then the girl standing next to her and Dream nodded. “Anyways, sorry for bothering you! I just liked your Vans!”
“Thank you!” George chimed in from behind Dream and the two girls went back to talking quietly to each other as Dream turned around.
“And you thought they were cringe,” Dream teased and George rolled his eyes.
“They were! I didn’t know other people like, actually got them! I’ve never seen another real life couple with matching shoes!” George said and Dream huffed, a smile on his face.
“Well, apparently other real life couples have them,” Dream nodded over his shoulder and George crossed his arms.
“Stop teasing me and give me more cotton candy,” George whined, his lower lip jutting out in a pout. Dream raised an eyebrow at his boyfriend. “Please?”
“There you go,” Dream laughed, reaching into the cotton candy bag and holding up a chunk for George to take, which he did so very happily.
George’s breath shuddered, his eyes wide and his arms wrapped around himself as he tried to grasp what the fuck had just happened.
One second, he and Dream were walking peacefully, side by side on the sidewalk, ice cream cones in their hands and the next second there were screeching tires and George was shoved onto the grass, and Dream-
“What’s your-” George looked up at the officer talking to him. “Hey? What’s your name, buddy?” He was asked and George shook his head.
“Is he okay?” George asked.
“Your friend?” The officer asked and George shook.
“My- My boyfriend, Dream. Is- Is Dream okay?” George asked, peering up over the shoulder of the officer to try and find where his boyfriend was. The officer grasped George’s shoulders and stood taller, getting in the way of George’s view.
“My friends are over with him now, they’re going to do everything they can to make sure he’s okay, alright?” George nodded slowly. “Can you tell me your name?”
“It- I-” George swallowed and nodded. “George,” He said and the officer nodded.
“Cool, that’s an awesome name. How about you come with me to my friend over here? Alright? She’s gonna check you out for injuries,” George was guided towards the second ambulance on the scene and sat down on the pull down step. A woman smiled gently at him as the officer walked away and she pulled out a small flashlight.
“Hi there, what’s your name?” She asked as she pointed the little flashlight in one of George’s eyes.
“George?” He said and she nodded, moving the flashlight to the other eye.
“Perfect, Hi George… My name is Nadia. How are you feeling?” She asked as she shoved the flashlight away.
“I’m fine. Where’s Dream?”
“Dream?” She asked. George knew she knew who he was though.
“My- He’s my boyfriend. Where is he?” George asked, standing up to look around. When had the other ambulance left?
“Dream is on his way to the hospital. We’ll get you there shortly, alright?” She asked and George shook his head.
“I need- Is he okay? Is Dream okay?” He asked but she ignored his question, turning to say something to the second paramedic. Something about going into shock and a concussion he thinks.
“Hang on, George. We’re gonna get you to Dream soon, alright?”
George was not brought to Dream soon.
In fact, George didn’t see Dream again until his funeral nearly two weeks later.
George was told that Dream had died from internal bleeding in the ambulance on the way to the hospital after the accident and after the police watched a local homeowners security footage of the accident, if Dream wouldn’t have shoved George out of the way of the car he would have died instead.
George wishes he would have died instead.
George wishes for nothing more than to be the one in Dream’s place. The blond, his boyfriend, the love of his life, was laying still in a coffin because George hadn’t been paying attention.
Dream would still be alive if George had just been paying more attention to his surroundings. If he hadn’t been rambling about some bullshit nonsense and would have focussed for ten seconds, Dream would be alive right now and he wouldn’t be standing, staring down at the still, unsmiling face of his dead boyfriend.
“He’d hate this,” Drista murmured from George’s side.
“He would,” George agreed, tears welling in his eyes. Drista took George’s hand and squeezed it.
“I miss him,” She whispered and George nodded in agreement.
If George had just been paying attention, then-
“George,” George turned around, his eyes wide as he stared at Dream’s mom. She pulled him into a hug, a broken sob falling past her lips. “Oh, George…” She whispered to him but he couldn’t respond.
The funeral was beautiful, but there were so many tears and unhappy faces and George knew how much Dream would have hated it.
And during George’s speech, he told everyone how much he loved Dream, and would continue to love Dream and he reminisced on all their happy memories with each other. He spoke about how he loved Dream more than anything, how he adored Dream’s compassionate heart and how he was such a kind and caring person, always looking out for everyone but himself. He told everyone about their matching shoes and how Dream wasn’t embarrassed about being one of those cringey couples.
He told everyone about how Dream would want them to smile and be happy and to care endlessly about themselves and everyone around them to honor him.
He had to stop his eulogy half way through, being cut off by tears streaming down his face and choked sobs forcing themselves from his throat.
And later that night, as George laid in Dream’s bed for the final time after they buried the love of his life, Estelle popped her head in.
“George?” She asked. He looked up, a tear falling down his face. “I… I just wanted to let you know that we buried Dream in his Vans. The ones that you have matching his.” She whispered and George’s lip quivered.
He’d be matching his boy for the rest of eternity in those cringey couple shoes he wasn’t even sure he wanted.
But now, he didn’t think they were so cringey.