He's Not Okay - DNF

Six: The Thriving George Epidemic

Time passed by - weeks upon weeks were spent in worry, on the edge of their anxiety as they constantly felt accused. Weird looks they got in the hallways, people judging them as they were now famously known as "the last people to see Karl".

It irked them in ways they could never describe. Not on paper, not in words, and not in actions.

Or should they say, it irked Sapnap and Dream.

George, however, was thriving.

It was the little things that confused the duo at first - such as George walking in every morning with a slight smile on his face to talking about how his night went in such a nonchalant way that it almost convinced Sapnap that his friend might be a genuine sociopath.

And then it turned into bigger things.

Bigger things like what happened today.

There Sapnap and Dream were, leaning against their lockers as they discussed how little they had slept the night before, exchanging methods to cure insomnia when they noticed the hallway had become a little too quiet. Students had slowed their walking, lowered their conversations to small murmurs as their attention seemed to be collectively grabbed by something new in the school.

Something which the duo hadn't seen yet.

"Okay - why did everyone just comically stop in their tracks all of a sudden?" Sapnap raised a brow, leaning close to his friend as he looked around.

"I'm not sure, but I have a bad feeling about it-"

They didn't have to wait long until the cause for concern arrived, bright red jacket making him stand out.

There George was, brunette hair tossed in scruffy curls, framing his face where Dream swore he wore makeup. A small tint of red dusted his cheeks with a too-perfect complexion, eye-bags long gone and looking extremely healthy. He wore a varsity jacket which Dream recognized as his own, paired with a white crop top which no doubt was the reason everyone was so hyper fixated on his best friend.

It wasn't out of the ordinary for George to break the boundaries between gendered clothes, oftentimes wearing shorts which seemed to be more common for boys to wear nowadays - but a crop top?

It was unheard of in this day and age - 1991 and most of the population was still bigoted, scared of the idea of the wrong gender wearing a shirt that's just a little too short, and George's case was no exception. It frightened Dream as to what people would think of him.

Suddenly, Dream was hyper-aware of the stares his friend got as he practically strutted down the hall, expecting to see looks of disgust, no doubt shaming the brunette for even thinking about wearing what he was wearing. However, what he didn't expect was to see the majority of students... admiring him?

Sure, George looked hella good, and Dream himself didn't mind his outfit choice for today, he just didn't expect the rest of his peers to be so accepting too.

Maybe it's just because it's George. Everybody loves George.

Well, most of them.

That kinda changed ever since the bathroom incident.

Before Dream knew it, Sapnap was aggressively nudging his elbow into his side, trying to grab his attention as George stood in front of him.

The brunette raised a brow, arms crossed as he looked up to the blonde. "Are you okay?" He asked, making Sapnap scrunch his face up.

"What do you mean 'is he okay'? We should be asking you that!" He snapped back, catching George off guard.

"I'm fine? This is the best I've felt in weeks." He mumbled, tilting his head to the side as he awaited an explanation as to why his friends were acting so weird.

"You're prancing around as if one of your best friends didn't go missing just a while ago!" He shot back, emphasizing the word missing with a harsh hiss to prove a point.

George only shook his head, giving a light chuckle in response. "So? That shouldn't mean I can't have fun! I'm just trying to lighten to mood, dammit." He argued back, keeping a hushed voice as to not attract any more attention than they already have.

"Lighten the mood? Do you hear yourself right now?"

"Oh just shut the fuck up! If you guys want to wallow in guilt then you can do that, just don't drag me down with you!" The brunette raised his voice slightly, starting to walk away when Dream made a last-minute decision in grabbing his jacket sleeve.

"What?" George snapped once again, Dream unfazed by his aggressive tone.

"You're still wearing my jacket." He stated, George rolling his eyes.

He began to strip himself of the material, meaning to hand it back to Dream when the blonde stopped him yet again.

"What? Don't you want it back?" He seethed through a clamped jaw, staring daggers at his best friend in a fit of petty rage.

"No. You can keep it." He replied in a soft, barely above a whisper tone.

Any other time, he would've asked for his jacket back, but he couldn't bring himself to do that today. In some odd way, he found comfort in the way George found comfort in the item and he'd feel dreadful taking it away from him.

Even if his friend was acting strange.

---

"I guess you were right with not speculating about Alex - heard he's back in school now." Sapnap sparked the conversation as they walked to school a few days later, Dream scarfing down some more sweets they had picked up from the corner store. "Might want to keep an eye out for him today."

Dream hummed at his friends' suggestion, debating it in his own head. "I don't think there's really a point to that - other than proving the rumors wrong, that is." He pointed out. Although his logic made perfect sense, his friend still seemed to disagree.

"I don't know man - he's one of the only other people George interacted with just before the bathroom incident, maybe he knows something we don't-"

"Are you suggesting we go detective on our best friend?" Dream interrupted in a sharp tone, the raven next to him rolling his eyes.

"Aren't you suspicious of what happened in that bathroom? I mean, it's not every day you just black out and wake up to find yourself eating you-"

"Sh! Keep it down, will you?" Dream growled in a low tone, accompanying his statement with a harsh elbow jab to the others side.

Sapnap raised his fist as a playful warning, earning a rare grin from the blonde. "I'm just saying what happened - and answer me! Don't you wanna find out what made George do it?"

A small silence washed over the duo, the sound of their footsteps on the broken pavement following them as they neared closer to their school. They saw groups of their peers appear on the street, making their own way to the same destination as they soon merged into a small crowd, suddenly feeling quite small in their mere pair.

"I guess... it could be useful."

"Then it's settled: look for Alex."