Just A Friend | Dnf

chapter seventeen: damage control

BEGINNING OF CHAPTER AUTHOR'S NOTE

!!TW!!

TRIGGER WARNING FOR SENSITIVE TOPICS! PLZ CHECK THE STORY DESCRIPTION FOR AN EXTENSIVE LIST OF TRIGGER WARNINGS AND CONTENT WARNINGS

(also, real quick: some of y'all commented or messaged me that it would be easier to follow along with the POVs of each chapter if i put them at the start. each chapter pov is either dream or george, and they alternate- dream, george, dream, george, etc. but if it would help some of you, i'll gladly start putting the pov at the beginning of each chapter! hope you are enjoying the story so far!)

*Dream's POV*

I scrolled on my phone- staring at the thousands of Tweets flooding my timeline, each with their own...unique position. They were all talking about the same Twitter post from Jace Harris- a random guy who works at the hotel we stayed at the night before.

Twitter for iPhone

"2:07 pm

Jace Harris @/ jaceoface2638

saw two certain content creators getting pretty close at work today. my coworker says they stayed in a room overnight together, and after i caught this video of them right outside the hotel, i'm not at all surprised they shared a room. anyway, come stay at the ritz-carlton at 4750 amelia island parkway to sleep in the same hotel room as your fave controversial (and apparently gay) minecraft bros! @/ GeorgeNotFound @/ Dream"

Below the Tweet was a video, which showed George and I kissing each other in the hotel parking lot. One side of George's face was clearly in view, and even though my face was hidden slightly by the hoodie I was wearing, it was still easy to identify me in the video.

Now that I had face revealed, met several fans, and been out in public a lot, there was no denying it: it was my face in that video, kissing my 'best friend' on the lips. And there was now digital evidence that we shared a hotel room together, too. Anyone with half a brain cell could put those puzzle pieces together:

The whole internet knew I had fucked George, that we were together (or at least seeing each other), and that I was hiding us from the world.

I read through loads and loads of supportive Tweets- there were thousands of them. Fans saying how happy they were for us, how excited they were to have more queer content creators to watch, how this wouldn't change how they thought about either of us at all.

Those types of Tweets were so amazing, and almost helped soothe the burn of all the other Tweets.

Almost.

I just couldn't help but focus on the negative ones as well, because even though there weren't many of them, they had somehow made their way to the top of my Twitter timeline. And the people writing these absolutely unhinged Tweets didn't hold back one bit.

Twitter

"is anyone really surprised they hid their relationship for this long? dnf just wanted to drag on the queerbaiting a little longer until their actual gay relationship wasn't a fantasy and the fans didn't find it fun anymore. leave it to 'straight' creators to profit off something that us gay men get bullied and killed for on the daily. smh."

"Dream always convincing the fandom that he and George aren't dating, would never date, DNF is just a joke, blah blah blah. How does it feel to be not only a speedrun cheater, but now a liar to millions of adoring fans who bow to your every move?? Great job, asshole."