hopeless purpose (dreamnotfound)

adulting

"we need to talk"

the metal door slammed shut behind dream, launching them into an eerie suspended silence. george nods shortly and sits down on the single concrete step with his sneakers planted in the dewy grass.

george is almost fooled into believing that dream had left him sitting there alone in the cold, that is until a rubbled scuff of sneakers against the ground sounds out, and a presence squats down next to him mimicking his position.

there's silence for a bit. nothing but the chirps and croaks of distant critters in the night, and the buzzing white noise of nature's melodies. wordlessly, out of the corner of george's eye where he'd once been looking out onto the fielded forest, an open palm splayed out to him. his pupils darkened for a moment and urged their way upwards to meet dream's doing the same. it was enough to compel him into convincingly grabbing the hand.

his pale, dainty fingers interlaced amongst tan; tan ones the held tightly like if they were to let go then they'd be lost forever. with his arm outstretched to the side, the towel on george's shoulder lost its traction and fell slack to the concrete.

dream studied the haunting array of goosebumps that burst to life across the other's fair skin and quickly scooted over closer. close enough to transfer some of his own body heat onto george. now he could just untangle their hands and rid themselves of the temperature issue altogether, but he didn't want to. truth be told, george was unknowingly his lifeline with only that simple touch and he refused to give it up.

george's eyes trailed sadly over dream's face that was buried in refrained distraught and anxiety. dream however, was solely focused on multitasking. using his free hand to drape the towel back over george's exposed skin and making sure to gently tuck it in to his sides for extra provided warmth, he'd wrapped george up like a cocoon bundled in loving protection.

the cold chills dissipated and flattened out until there was nothing left but the occasional light hair standing on end from a stray breeze. deeming his works satisfactory, dream finally peered up at george and leaned back into his own personal space.

the unnecessary extra fiddling and repeated tucking in of the towel in the same spots over and over again had subconsciously been a distraction. or at least an act of stalling. stalling for the conversation to come because ultimately it could go so terribly wrong.

but now there was nothing left to bide time with. he'd just have to bring himself to speak. speak the truth that had been weighing on his heart solemnly for the past few days.

with a deep breath and george still curiously awaiting an initiation to any form of discussion at all, dream started. "i'm kinda shit at this in case you couldn't tell," he stalled once more. a neutral expression of disamusement however, urged his nerves to go away because his audience was losing interest.

"i like you", he blurted.

george's face remained blank for a moment, not sure of how to process that. sure all the telltale signs had been there and they'd quite literally kissed before, but it was still a whole different ballgame to hear it out loud. to be able to override his constantly overthinking thoughts with absolute certainty and definitiveness that dream indeed does have feelings for him? well it was odd to hear.

a forced overly confident laugh rang out. "well i'd hope so considering...", george scoffed alluding to all that they'd already done together- all the intimacy. but also leaving room for a different interpretation because perhaps dream would hear that and think that george had interpreted his words as strictly friends, and then maybe dream would further clarify his feelings. now that could be manipulative on george's part, but the need for even more provided reassurance would always be necessary to his ever-doubting, pessimistic brain.