Shot in Love and Crime (DNF)

Chapter 61: Cake

Dream POV.

The group of five were all chatting happily to each other. George was mainly talking with Quackity and Karl while the three of them ate. Bad and Sapnap ate with them too, but were more cautious to take bites when George’s attention was elsewhere because the brunette had not seen them without a mask.

I however wasn’t eating, instead sitting in the long grass and watching the rest of them, although my attention was mainly on George. He was eating a large slice of cheesy pizza while having a conversation with Quackity, as Karl had moved over to sit beside Sapnap.

Over the past couple of months he had been happy for short periods of time, allowed a small smile to appear on his face, or let out a small giggle at one of our comments, but it was rarely anything more than that. Today however, it was pure excitement and joy in his face as he talked to his old school friend.

I glanced over my shoulder at the tall silverleaf maple, remembering the times that George and I had spent here over the years. We’d spend afternoons up here reading, talking, cuddling, kissing, making out, and sometimes even less PG things than that. I had seen the look on the brunette’s face when he got here, knowing that he remembered those fond memories.

“Dream!” I broke out of my thoughts before looking towards the sound of George’s voice calling me. When the brunette could tell I was looking down at him he smiled. “Are you going to eat something? There’s plenty to go around!”
I smiled at him from under the mask, but shook my head. “I’m not that hungry, thanks.”

The brunette pouted at that, and immediately I changed my mind as I noticed how adorable he looked, and chuckled to myself before standing up. “Fine.” I murmured, “I’ll eat something.” I walked towards the table, looking over what was left, and there was a lot.of that.

At most, there was half a pizza in each of the different boxes, half a bowl of each type of candy, and half a bag of each flavour of chips. I guess now, looking back on myself a couple hours earlier, I had gone slightly overboard with my purchases. I was not angry or disappointed in myself, because if George and the others here didn’t eat it, people back at the mansion would.

The whole group watched as I grabbed a paper plate off of the stack (because we’d gotten a whole pack despite the fact that there were only six of us), and then began grabbing some of the food. A couple of slices or pizza, small handfuls of some of the chip flavours, and I grabbed an apple, which was in a pile of fruit that had remained untouched.

I went to retreat back to my spot on the hill, but George called over to me, asking me to join him and the rest of the group. Seeing his face, still as adorable as ever, looking up at me, convinced me to go and join them, so I settled down in a spot beside Quackity. I lifted my mask to just above my lips so that I could eat, and found George examining my features.

Part of me wondered if he had recognised me, if he was about to make a stab in the dark and guess who I was, but after a few moments he lowered his gaze to his food and picked up a slice of pizza that was half eaten. Quackity and Bad also both took a couple of seconds to look over the lower half of my face, and they turned away, however they did it quicker than George did.

None of us really said anything to each other once I joined them, in fact I was scared to say something without the mask off, because with it on my voice was more distorted which meant he couldn’t recognise it as easily. I could tell that every couple of seconds George glanced up at me but he never said anything.

We each ate our way through the food on our plates, then Bad encouraged everyone back around the table for George to cut the cake. “God, I’m eating so much today.” The British brunette complained as he took a knife to cut some slices. “The buffet earlier almost made my stomach explode, and all this food doesn’t make it any easier.”

“Well I guess it means you won’t have to worry about starving.” Bad chirped out the reply playfully, causing George to chuckle at him.
“I guess you’re correct,” the brunette responded as he took the knife. It took a few seconds for him to line the large knife off but then he began to slice the multi-tiered cake into slices.

He cut the first slice, just a small piece of the top tier before giving a confused glance over at the rest of us. “Why did you guys get red velvet of all flavours?” He questioned.
“Well we didn’t know what flavour you liked.” Karl answered with a shrug. “Each tier is a different flavour. I don’t know which one is which though.”

“That’s too kind Karl.” The brunette smiled. “But I really don’t mind what flavour the cake is. I’m honestly surprised that you guys wanted to celebrate my birthday.”
“I wouldn’t let any of these guys go without celebrating your birthday.” Karl reassured, giving the Brit a quick side hug.

After they pulled away from the hug George continued cutting up the top tier of cake into six pieces, which were relatively the same size. Then he handed the slices out to all of us. “There is enough cake here to feed an army,” he huffed after all of us had been given our pieces. “So if any of you want seconds or thirds or fourths then help yourselves.”

All of us settled back down on the grass, and began eating. Red velvet wasn’t a flavour that I liked however I wasn’t going to be rude and stand up to grab myself another piece so I just ate it quietly.

Just like earlier when I ate the pizza and other things that I had chosen for George’s birthday none of us really talked as we ate. I was still worried about him recognising the sound of my voice and so whenever he asked me a question or anything I’d shove a bit of the cake in my mouth, before making a huge show of me chewing it excessively.

The six of us managed to eat the first two tiers of cake, with the second flavour having been vanilla. After we’d finished the group worked together to put all of the food, paper plates left over back into bags and containers before stacking them up in a van that Bad and Sapnap had the task of driving here a couple hours earlier.

Bad had gotten into the van after the food was loaded up, and wished George a final happy birthday before driving off, planning on putting all the food away for people to eat later. Karl and Sapnap also decided to leave in the brunette’s car, with Karl telling George that he’d drop his stuff off in his room.

Quackity was the final person to say goodbye, giving George a hug before returning to the casino because apparently they had a special night theme called ‘free booze for Babes’ which he wanted to be there for. That left just myself and George.

I watched as my old school friend walked off to his sports car before turning to ask if George was ready to go, but he was gone from my side. I quickly spun around, worried he was making a run for it, but then I got a glance up at the hill behind me. George was sitting up there, his back resting against the trunk of the silverleaf maple that we’d sat under so many times before.

His gaze was up to the sky, looking at the clouds which were barely visible in the darkening evening, and I couldn’t help but walk up there to join him.
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