It was a harmless joke, I swear. I was just messaging Dream on Discord talking about how I'd love to live in the United States one day. I'd love to go to places there like Las Vegas or New York. The movies always portrayed the U.S as the place to be. Nonetheless, I was never actually intending to go. The process was far too long and I was completely content in London. It was more of a spur of the moment idea as I found out that by marrying someone from America, you could be granted citizenship. That was it. I never had intentions to marry Dream. He offered.
And was I really going to say no?
After a year of trying, I finally got approved for a visa. It was difficult convincing the embassy that Dream and I were in love. We had to send each other lovely messages about how we wanted a future together and to even adopt two children. Dream went as far as saying specific ages. He was always so extra. To be honest, I found it uncomfortable. If it wasn't for Dream's undying determination to get me that visa and marry me, I would have given up and just stayed where I had been my whole life. But when Dream set his mind on something, there was no point in arguing
.I had never been on an airplane before, and the thought terrified me half to death. The thought of having no escape if we were to plummet thousands of feet into the ground didn't sit very well with me. And as I sat in the waiting area for my plane to board, I thought I was going to have a heart attack and die on the spot. My heart pounded hard in my eardrums, and I could barely hear Dream over the phone.
"Just calm down, dude. You'll be fine," He told me.
"Easy for you to say. There's a reason I made you come to me, you know," I replied.
He laughed, "Yeah, no. It was because Wilbur asked me on a date. What was I gonna do, say no?"
I didn't even have the energy for friendly banter. I only had five or six minutes before I'd be entering the death trap that was a public airlines airplane. How safe were they? Even though planes crashed less than cars, that didn't mean it never happened. What if I was so unlucky that I was about to enter the one plane in a million that was foreseen to crash and kill me?
"George, breathe. I can hear you hyperventilate through the phone."
"How did you do this, Dream?" I said with a nervous chuckle. My hands were trembling along with my voice.
"I'm not a baby, that's how."
"Dream!"
He laughed again, "But seriously? I just did it. I focused on the outcome, which was seeing your cute face in person."
That made my heart race even further. I was already freaking out, and Dream's flirty jokes weren't helping. "Stop," I said, and he wheezed.
"What? Your face is like a baby's. Maybe that's why you're afraid of planes."
"Dream stop," I groaned, dropping my head back as his stupid wheeze clogged my right ear. The door to my plane opened and a man with bags the size of marbles under his eyes came out. That was reassuring.
"Now boarding plane two-eighty," He said into an intercom that would echo throughout the entire airport.
"My plane's boarding," I said, standing up and grabbing my luggage.
"Alright. I'll see you when you get here. For now, I'm gonna sleep. Goodnight."
"Alright. Wait, what time is it for you?"
"Hm? Oh, it's almost three in the morning."
"Oh. Okay, goodnight."
"Night." He hung up. I pocketed my phone and took a deep breath. I'd be fine. Dream lived when he came to visit, and he lived to see his home again. If he could live, I could live too. But as the guy scanned my ticket, I had a sense of impending doom. Like he had just scanned my ticket to my death and there was no going back now.The bridge was suffocating, but nobody around me seemed to mind. Not even the toddler that stared at me over his mother's shoulder not that far ahead of me. The plane was even more suffocating. The aisle could barely fit me and my carry-on.
"Is this seat taken?" I asked an old wrinkly woman who was currently staring out the window. When she turned to me, about twenty bones popped in her back alone.
"No, you can sit," She said.
"Thanks." I lifted my carry-on over my head and into the overhead bin before sitting down next to her and clicking my safety belt as soon as possible.
"Is this your first time on a plane?" The old lady asked me.
"Yeah. Can you tell?"
She smiled, "Yeah, a little bit. You'll be fine. My grandkids live in the U.S so I have been on this plane many times, and other than slight turbulence, it was smooth sailing."
"Turbulence?"
"When the plane shakes a bit."
My head was growing light headed by the second. I rested my head back against the chair and grabbed onto both armrests beside me.This was going to be the longest twelve hours of my life.
When the flight attendant came out and told us what to do in the event we fall and die, I was just about ready to faint. The only thing keeping me from doing so was the old lady next to me holding my wrist and telling me we'd live and to even consider her good luck as she had been on this plane at least twenty times and had never crashed.
I didn't want to admit it, but it helped.
***
I had basically spent my entire day in the plane. No matter how hard I tried to sleep, I could not get any more than half an hour at a time. Maybe I should not have caught an early flight. Maybe then I could sleep. But I didn't, and what felt like night time turned out to be total sunshine by the time we landed.I was used to staying up all hours of the night, but seeing the sunlight as I left the airplane didn't quite register right in my brain. I forgot about time zones.I pulled out my phone as I waited to see my luggage in the baggage claim.
George: I landed.
My phone buzzed only seconds later:
Dream: Hurry up, Sapnap and I are bored.
My eyebrows raised. Sapnap? Nobody told me Sapnap was here. I thought he lived in Texas? I took my luggage and followed the crowd to an escalator. On my way down, I saw a group of people, many of which with signs in their hands with names on them such as Melinda or Carson. In the very back, I saw a huge sign with glitter and markers that said on it "GEORGE HAS BEEN FOUND!!!" I could not roll my eyes any harder than I did in that moment. There were two people holding it. One had on a Nike hoodie and a large smile on his face. The other had a plain white shirt and basketball shorts on as well as a paper plate with a smiley face covering his face. You have got to be kidding me.I pushed through the crowd to the back where the two men were.
"Georgie!" Sapnap cried, pulling me into a tight hug and leaving Dream with the huge sign.
When we pulled away, I turned to the idiot to my right. I didn't have to see his face to know he had a large grin plastered on. Sighing, I let go of my luggage and grabbed his mask. I lifted it off his face and off his head. And I was right. His shiny emerald eyes stared at me and his mouth was split into an ear-to-ear grin.
"Hi, Dream," I said with a soft smile. He pulled me into another hug, but he went all in. He towered over me quite a bit, and he engulfed me. His face buried into my shoulder.
"Hi," He said softly in my ear. I pushed away from him.
"Why did you guys make this extravagant sign?" I asked, pointing to the large cardboard sign.
"Because your plane was taking too long, George!" Dream said. "Sapnap arrived at around ten and we went to my place and made this sign."
"You're lucky, George. All I got was a tired Dream still in his pajamas holding a paper that said Sapnap in sharpie."
"I don't live far from here. I live like fifteen minutes away," Dream said. "I didn't see a need to look nice, but George is different. George is my wife."
I gave him a hard eye roll. "One, we're not married yet, and two, you're the wife. You're the clingy one always telling me you love me."
"He's got a point, you know," Sapnap said. Dream wheezed, and his ears turned a bright red. It was so red I could see it through the mess of his thick sandy hair.
"Whatever, come on. I only have one bedroom, so we're all sleeping together," Dream said, leading us through the airport. The crowd had since dispersed and they had flocked to all the stores scattered around the port. There were tech shops that sold cheap headphones and chargers as well as food stores with pizza and water. The airport was huge, and it looked like it had two stories. But maybe the roof was just tall. We weaved through the parking lot before arriving at Dream's cheap nineteen nineties car. I was about to open the door when he cut between me and the door.
"Excuse me, let me be a gentleman," Dream said, opening the door. "M'lady?"
I laughed, "You're so stupid." I entered the car and it smelled so much like him. I wasn't sure how often he was in the car, but it had the same ocean scent he always had attached to him except it was millions of times more potent. Dangling from the mirror inside was the white blob from his profile picture.
"You seriously made your white blob thing?"
It was made by a fan!" Dream said. "I also got figurines of the three of us. Also by a fan. Don't open my closet. It's full of fan mail."
"Dang show off," Sapnap said from the back. "Point the AC at me, I'm burning up." He reached over, facing the vents to him.
"Sapnap! Put your seatbelt on!" Dream shouted. "I'm driving!"
"You don't have to leave me roasting just because you're driving," Sapnap said, sitting back in his seat and buckling up.
"Thank you," Dream sighed, looking at him through the mirror with the dangling white blob. "So George, we've got ninety days to elope. Wanna do it right now?"
"I just got here, Dream," I said. "And I'm tired."
"But it's only like eight where you live."
"Yeah, but I also had to wake up before eight this morning and barely got any sleep on the plane."
"Alright, so I'll take you guys home and George can pass out on my bed."
"Wait, what?"
"Ooooh George," Sapnap smirked.
Dream laughed, "Sapnap's taking the couch in the living room now. I'll sleep on the floor."
"But you guys are getting married," Sapnap said. "Shouldn't you guys be able to sleep in the same bed?"
"Yeah, but we're only getting married so George can live here. We're not in love or anything."
Sapnap grinned, and sat back, his arms crossed. "Yeah, alright."
"What? We're not in love," Dream said.
"I'm not saying you are."
"No, it sounds like you're saying we are," I said
"No, I'm not. But two bros shouldn't have a problem sharing a bed. Dream's got a huge bed anyway."
"Yeah, and half of it is for my cat," Dream said.
"Well, I don't want you sleeping on the floor," I said, looking at Dream, who was already looking at me instead of the road. When we made eye contact, he quickly looked away.
"I mean... we could." He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel and stared ahead at the upcoming traffic. "If... If you don't mind."
I shook my head, "No, I don't. Just don't... touch me."
Dream laughed, "George!" His cheeks faded into a red tint. I had only seen his face one time, but we didn't talk about anything like that before. It was always strictly online where I couldn't see him. Never had I ever seen him flush red before.And now I wondered how often his cheeks burnt red when the cameras weren't on him.
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