✑ 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴 ; 𝘮𝘤𝘺𝘵 + 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 ∴ ✉

Four

The soft light of dawn coats the edges of your vision, the smell of grass and soil evident on the air. You feel something bump against your side, and a warm breath of wind pushes your hair from your back and onto your face. You open your eyes, met with stalks of green. You frown, and sit up quickly, wincing as pain shoots up your spine. You look behind you, jumping and letting loose a squeal as you're met with the soulful eyes and black muzzle of a cow. You reach out a hand and tentatively pet them between the eyes, and stand up, brushing clumps of dirt off your torso and legs. You turn your head to the side, studying the rolling hills and bent flowers of the field you woke up in. However, you don't question your location, and begin to wander down the slope as if you'd done this hundreds of times before, because the fact was, you had. Almost every night since you were 12.
At the base of the hill, there's a lake with an old willow tree by the waters edge where you carved your initials, and across the other side on the bank there's a small dock with rotting wood and a red and white striped boat that bobs merrily on the water. You sit down on the bank, tearing at the grass and staring at nothing. About five minutes later, a shadow falls across the ground, and a man appears at your side, wordlessly joining you by the water. You lean into his familiar form, not bothering to hide the tears that trek their way down your face. He strokes your hair off you face, and puts a hand under your chin, tilting your head so he can look you in the eyes. You give a watery smile, 'Hey, dad,'

You wake up with a blanket wrapped around your shoulders. You proper yourself up with your hands and squint. Your brother is sitting at the table, a bowl of cereal infant of him, looking at his phone.
'What's the time?' You ask, your voice cracking from sleep. You yawn, stretching your hands out in front of you then flopping back onto the couch.
'9:15,' He reply's and you sit up again.
'What about school?'
He shrugs, and turns off his phone, turning his head to look at you. 'Mum said we didn't have to go to school, there's no point if we're moving,'
You nod, and get up, bundling up the blanket and throwing it back onto the couch.
'She's at the shop, by that way,' Your brother says.
'Who?'
'Mum,' He puts his bowl by the sink and grabs the bag that was at his feet, 'I'm going to Mel's, tell mother dearest that I'll be back around Lunch,' Mellisa, Mel for short, was you brothers bubbly red-haired girlfriend, who was also in her final year of college. You were quite fond of her, and she sometimes helped you edit YouTube videos when you were too tired to do anything but eat.

 You wave, and your brother salutes you before stepping outside and shutting the front door behind him. You walk up the stairs to your bedroom, picking up your phone from your bed and sitting down on your computer chair. You check instagram first, speed running people's stories and then answering the few messages that some of your followers had sent. You respond to Amellia's please to get to school, then open Twitter. You send out a Tweet letting everyone know that you would be going live at 12:00pm, then like the tweets from Tommy and Niki. You turn on your computer and open discord, sending a smily face into the group chat you have with Tommy, Wilbur, Niki, someone called Ori, Jshlatt, Philza, and Jack Manifold. Wilbur responds with a smily face of his own. He sends you a message through a private chat, asking if you want to play Phansmophobia with him and a few other people. You agree, and open the game, joining Wilbur and the others.
'Hey, everyone,' you say, and turn up the sound on your headphones.

'Hello!'
'Hi' You smile, 'so, who are you guys?' A girl's voices comes through, announcing her name as Shelby.
'What do we call you?' Shelby asks, 'And have you ever been to Tescos?'
'Umm,' You think for a second, 'I don't think so,'
'Wilbur will have to take you,' She laughs.
'Yeah, come on Wilbur,' You say, and start to flick through the character selections.
'He's just giving Shelby special treatment,' The other person, Scott Major, or Smajor says.
'I am not!' Wilbur says indignantly.
'Don't worry, I'll talk you up for her,' You whisper, moving your character in front of his face. You can here him groan, and you grin. You spend the next two and a half hours making fun of the ghosts, Wilbur, and laughing until your cheeks hurt. 12:00pm rolls around and you say good-bye, to Shelby and Scott. You're playing Among Us with Wilbur and a few others for the first time, and you're ready to make a fool of yourself in front of almost 9K people.