Far From Home.

chapter 13

dream jolted awake.

shit. i fell asleep.

the sun wasnt up yet, and dream looked down at george, still asleep in dreams arms.

dream moved his hand from georges back and into his hair.

hes so soft.

he took a deep breath and leaned his head back against the wall. his eyes fluttered, and he began to fall asleep again.

no, wake up.

dream shook his head, and focused his eyes on the stars. his blinks got longer.

-

dream woke up again, this time because george squeezed him unusually tight.

"woah, are you-" he looked down at george, who was still asleep, but had a confused, worried expression.

he must be dreaming.

george sat up and his eyes flew open.

"dream!" he hugged dream as hard as he possibly could.

"oh my god- are you okay?"

"yeah, i just had a weird dream. wait where are we?" george looked around at the building dream was leaning against, the sun almost in the middle of the sky.

"the guy at the hotel didnt let us stay."

george climbed off dream, and stood up. dream stood up after him.

"howd you sleep?"

george looked at him with a thoughtful expression. "good. what about you?"

"good." he didnt want george knowing he was awake most of the night, in fear of georges life.

he'll just scoff and say he can protect himself.

"im really hungry." george started walking out from behind the building and looked around the city. "oouu. dream look its frog hollow tavern." he read it like he didnt know how to read.

dream stood besides george and saw the small restaurant. "george we have no money."

"so we just starve? lets dine and dash. plus, i have to pee." he started walking toward the small cafe and dream grabbed his shoulders and turned him around before he could cross the street.

"dine and dash- george what the hell?"

"dream let go."

"no, what? were not going to steal from them."

"let go." george knew that he wasnt going to, but he still didnt like dream acting like his dad. he shook dream off his shoulders and turned around to cross the street and as he did, a car was approaching, going considerably over the speed limit.

"george!" dream jumped forward and grabbed georges hand and yanked him back onto the sidewalk as the car whizzed past. they both fell onto the ground, dreams head hitting the sidewalk. "fuck-"

"dream!" george sat up and ran to dream. "oh my god what the hell got over me? dream are you okay?" his tone was worried.

"im fine." dream stood up holding his head and walked past george on the sidewalk, looking for anywhere they could just eat.

george ran and caught up to him. "dream? are you mad at me?"

dream stopped walking and turned towards george with a serious expression that hed never seen before. "you almost got yourself killed."

"i was watching."

"no the fuck you werent." he turned back around and started walking again. "stay with me. you dont know how to protect yourself."

"what the hell, why are you being so angsty? im like 3 years older than you, i know what im doing." he caught up to dream.

"im upset because you totally disregardful everything so that you could steal from a fucking restaurant and because i got like 2 fucking hours of sleep last night."

"you told me you slept good, why were you up so late?"

"i was protecting your ass."

george looked at his black converse, at a loss of words. "oh."

i dont need protecting.

a long silence fell over them. then a sign caught dreams eye. kids eat free!

"george! you look like a 14 year old, come here!" dream ran up to the sign. "look! you eat free!"

george stared in disbelief. "youre joking."

"no seriously, i can say-"

"im 23, dream." george rolled his eyes and walked past dream. "plus, no ones gonna believe that. dont forget that we both have hickeys."

dream had completely forgotten. "yeah.." he touched around his neck and thought for a moment. "i guess it would look kind of suspicious if me and my kid both had hickeys. oh right, the guy at the hotel thought you were drunk last night and that we both came back from a party." dream ran to catch up with george.

"he wasnt wrong." george smiled and looked up at dream, then blushed and looked at the ground.

"george! you freak!" dream laughed as he watched george stare at the ground smiling in embarrassment.

george looked up and saw a walmart on the edge of the city. "dream, i know youre not one for stealing, apparently, but this might be our only option."

dream looked up and saw the walmart and immediately understood. "i mean i just dont wanna steal from a high class restaurant."

george turned to look at dream in admiration. "thats okay."

"i know." dream felt george looking at him, but was still majorly disappointed in him so he didnt look, although he wanted to.

george turned his glance back to the road ahead of him. "i still think we should call the police." normally, he wouldnt suggest it, but he was desperate to get home.

"no." dream refused to have anything to do with the cops.

"we cant keep doing this dream." george stopped in front of the walmart and faced dream. "you can do whatever you want but im not doing this until we travel across the world. traveling with you has been the best experience but can we do it when we can actually eat places, and sleep in beds? this just isnt fun."

dream agreed with everything george was saying. "i know." he looked at the ground, avoiding georges face, an expression of pure sadness on it.

this really fucked him up.

"hey, its gonna be okay." dream swept him into a hug, and his heart shattered when he felt george sobbing into his chest. "itll be okay."