Howl In The Night (DNF)

Chapter 17: Dessert

George POV.

I was honestly surprised by how meaty the food turned out to be, it somewhat put me off with the ham, but there was also bacon, minced beef, and chicken drumsticks which I had failed to notice earlier. So I only had a small serving of the dish that was provided, since I didn’t think I’d be able to stomach too much.

My parents were slightly better than I was, having larger servings and chatting happily with the rest of the table as they did. It somewhat made me confused, since the taste of the four different meats was a lot for one person to take at once, so how they seemed so fine with it was beyond me.

Dream and his parents however, they seemed perfectly fine with it. They were wolfing down their meals, seemingly having more meat than potatoes and lettuce and any other food by nearly double. The trio were easily chewing through tough pieces of meat with surprising ease, but didn’t even seem to realise they were doing it.

It reminded me of a kid I was friends with back in the UK, and he had a father who was a hunter, so every dinner they’d have a large leg of ham, or venison, or steak, or there’d be some other shows of victory on their plate. This might be the case with Dream and his family, that they were hunters showing off their prizes in a form of freshly cooked meals.

After a while, all of the table had cleared their plates besides myself, and I could feel all of their gazes on me while still somehow continuing all of their conversations, and it put me under pressure. I began chewing much faster, lowering my gaze to my plate so they weren’t watching.

“So George, did you like dinner?” Dream’s mother asked the moment the last scrap of food had gone from the plate into my mouth.
I didn’t want to be impolite after she spent half of her day working on the meal, and so I just gave her a small smile. “It tastes nice.” I complimented.

She smiled, happy with what I said and then she stood up. “How about I go get us all dessert and then we can have some coffee.” The group all seemed fine with it, beside me. I was paranoid that the dessert would also incorporate meat in some way.

I mean, what if they go with bacon sponge cake, or ground turkey ice cream, or beef flavoured pancakes. Any of those sounded really unappetising and would probably result in my equally meaty dinner to make a reappearance. So with a shake of the head I muttered something about how I was full.

The woman seemed fine with it and she nodded while Dream also stood up. The blond began gathering up everyone’s plates and I noticed the extended amount of time he spent beside me, with his body brushing up against my arm in a motion that made me freeze. My eyes remained focused on him the entire time, and it was obvious he knew what I was doing.

When he returned to the table this time he was carrying some bowls for whatever dessert we were going to be given, but I noticed as he set them out that he only grabbed four. Dream quickly set the four plates out, with two in front of my parents, one in front of his father, and a final one in the empty spot where his mother was sitting.

Then the blond settled back down in his seat, tapping his feet while waiting patiently for his mother to return with the food. After a minute of silence the woman walked out carrying a large pastry type dish covered with delicious smelling chocolate.

I noticed how stiffly both Dream and his father were sitting at the sight of the food, but decided to ignore it. “Now, my family and I don’t often have chocolaty dishes such as this one, but I decided to go all out for our guests.” Dream’s mother, who I still didn’t know the name of, smiled.
“You didn’t have to do all that for us.” My mother responded to the other comment.

“Nonecence Ashley, a special once-in-a-lifetime occasion calls for a special one-in-a-lifetime dessert.” As she spoke she gave her son a knowing glance and I could practically feel myself cringing on the inside at what she said. After all, surely moving to a new town could not be considered a ‘once-in-a-lifetime occasion’.

That was when she noticed that her son did not have a bowl in front of him. “Dream, are you not going to be having any dessert? I thought that you’d have wanted some.”
“I’m not feeling too hungry right now Mom.” He replied. “Maybe I’ll have some later.” After making his comment, Dream’s gaze drifted over to me.

“Alright then.” His mother responded, seeming surprisingly upset about the fact her son wasn’t going to be eating dessert at the same time.
“Would George and I be able to go upstairs to my room, instead of sitting around here while you guys talk?” Dream asked.

“Of course.” James responded, giving his son a grin. “You can go upstairs, just make sure you both behave.” I didn’t like what he was insinuating with the ‘behave’ line, but I just stood up without saying anything. The two of us walked quietly back up the stairs to his bedroom, with him in the lead of course.

When we sat down on the bed I instantly pulled my phone out, at this point not caring any more about being polite or not. I went to Karl’s contact and messaged him, beginning to type out a rant about this weird dinner that I was in the middle of. Only one or two sentences had been typed out by the time Dream spoke up.

“So, do you want to play some video games or something?” He questioned, shifting awkwardly from where he sat a metre or so away from me. “I have a new street fighter type game that I wanted to play, but I haven’t had the chance yet.”
“Sure.” I responded. “I guess I could play that.”

I made the decision as I turned my phone off, just because it was nearly flat and I could rant to my best friend later. Dream smiled happily as I said that, turning on the console for the TV opposite his bed before settling down beside me and handing me a controller.

It had been a while since I’d played video games in person, so I happily took the controller and began playing alongside the blond, ignoring the weird and uncomfortable feelings that I had been feeling earlier since I knew that regardless of what I thought I’d be here until my parents were done with their talking.
_________________________________________
1163 words