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dream needed him, desperately. he wanted to hear his voice - that soothing, adorable voice. his content was not performing at its best, and he knew that. he knew that this day would eventually come: his downfall. he feared for this day. he dreaded for this day. and now, it is finally happening. only his greatest pal can calm him down. him... and only... him.
george skimmed through his photos, specifically an album of his loyal parrot. no one at the time knew why, but only he knew. he did not have the courage to tell his buddies as he knew from past experiences that informing them about tragic news resulted in negativity. he kept quiet. no socialising. no streaming. no negativity.
🎵 i really wanna, change the world but can't change my clothes! 🎵
george's phone rang. he jolted up from his slumping position. usually, he would be thrilled to receive a call from him. today, he felt tired out mentally. more talking could result in catastrophic reactions.
his phone stopped its irritating tone. george sighed as he muttered an apology under his breath.
˜"*°•.˜"*°•°*"˜.•°*"˜
george didn't answer his call. dream plopped onto the bed as his mind spiralled into millions of ways that things could go wrong. he could be evicted from his apartment with sapnap. he could be forced into a job that he will never enjoy. he could be cancelled by social media for being the worst role model. he could be...
no.
he shouldn't give up. if the world is against him, so be it. he doesn't need anyone's approval but his.
how about...
george?
he didn't bother to pick up the call. what if george already knew of dream's downfall and figured that he was not worthy of his time anymore?
no, a real friend wouldn't do that.
... what if george would? what if dream had been believing a lie that george was indeed a genuine best friend to him?
no, those years meant more to dream than some wild thoughts in his head.
but what if the thoughts were true?
dream approached his roommate for help.
˜"*°•.˜"*°•°*"˜.•°*"˜
GeorgeNotFound is live!
dream tapped his roommate, which progressively became aggressive. without realising, dream slapped his best friend with the highest strength he had.
“dream! ouch! what do you want?” sapnap yelled.
“george is live, george is live, george is live-“ dream repeatedly announced.
“yeah, and?”
“i’m still convinced that he’s mad at me,” dream sighed. he checked his discord server, where george was chilling in the public vc. “should i join the vc?” dream asked.
“if you want to. besides, you joining can benefit his stream,” sapnap shrugged.
“sapnap, my analytics have been in deep shit lately. it won’t boost anyone’s career if i join,” dream groaned.
“you join his calls not because you want to boost up his audience,” sapnap reminded. “you’re his homie. you are not someone that he uses to gain an audience. see?” sapnap showed his troubled friend george’s viewer count. “he’s up to 40K viewers. no offence, but even without you he’s able to climb high.”
“you’re right,” dream agreed.
“if he was mad at you and didn’t want to talk to you, would he be this happy?” sapnap showed george’s stream where laughter ensued.
“he would if he wanted to get rid of me ages ago,” dream muttered.
“did that nightmare of yours from a few nights ago traumatised you?” sapnap asked. “wake up, dream, your boyfriend would still need you around.”
“boyfriend?!” dream scoffed.
“you out of all people should understand that letting go of a friend is difficult,” sapnap continued.
˜"*°•.˜"*°•°*"˜.•°*"˜
“dream!” george exclaimed. “hey!”
“hey george, how’s my love doing?” dream flirted.
“dream…” george sighed in disappointment. his red cheeks showed otherwise.
dream smiled. his suspicions were proven to be false.
“you’re streaming, huh? why didn’t you invite me?” dream asked teasingly.
“what’s with that tone of voice?” george scoffed.
“wHaT’s WiTh ThAt ToNe oF vOiCe?” dream mocked.
“stop it, dream!”
dream laughed out loud as if his neighbours were not at all asleep during the night.
“what are you doing awake anyway?” george asked.
“someone missed my call and they have to answer to me first before i go to bed,” dream paused. “i wonder who it is, george?”
“i was doing the dishes,” george scoffed.
“doing the dishes?” dream asked. “why don’t you do me instead?”
“DREAM!” goerge yelled out of embarrassment.
“you’re so red!” dream wheezed. “guys, clip that, he’s so red; he's like a tomato!”
the chat was wild with laughter, along with the usual spamming of “dnf”. the mods struggled to keep up with the spamming.
˜"*°•.˜"*°•°*"˜.•°*"˜
after the wild stream, george settled down and started a private call with dream.
“dnf is trending on twitter,” dream laughed.
“i know, i'm getting tagged left, right and centre,” george chuckled.
“same here. it's insane how popular we’ve gotten,” dream sighed.
“it’s hard to believe for me as well. my viewer counts have been increasing,” george agreed.
“really?”
“yeah, it’s insane.”
here goes nothing.
“my youtube analytics have been showing me otherwise recently,” dream admitted.
“dang, how did that happen?” george asked.
“i don’t know,” dream sighed. “i've went through every possible reason and cause, still nothing.”
“maybe it’s just a glitch. who knows?” george assured.
“probably.”
“don’t worry, dream. you’re gonna be fine, i promise,” george said.
“thanks for the confidence,” dream smiled. “just asking, why didn’t you pick up my call just now?”
“i was dealing with some… issues,” george replied.
keep it together, george. a death is nothing of a big deal. there is no need of concern or pity.
“something’s wrong,” dream pointed out. “george, you were hiding it on stream as well. you ended it abruptly as well when chat started to mention jackson.”
silence fell.
“george?”
“i trust you to not exaggerate what really happened. he died earlier this week…”
dream was quiet. all this while, george was suffering too and it was something much more horrible than poor-performing analytics.
“george, i'm sorry-“
“don’t be,” george sniffed. “i don’t want anyone else to know about this. can you promise that?”
“i promise,” dream replied. “sorry for bringing that up.”
“it’s okay, you didn’t know.”
dream felt terrible. here he was, sobbing over numbers. george was dealing with a worse state than dream’s. losing a loyal animal friend is the most hurtful event in a person’s life. he shouldn’t feel let down over mere numbers.
“if there’s anything i can do, let me know anytime,” dream said. “i'll respond to you immediately.”
george blew his nose dry. “thanks, dream, for being here.”
“even at your ugliest crying moments?” dream joked.
“you would love the mucus on this tissue paper,” george teased.
“george!”