CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE. ✧ ೃ༄
❝ PROGRESS AND BEGINNINGS. ❞

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TW:// MENTIONS OF
LACK OF EATING.
THAT TOPIC CAN BE
SENSITIVE TO MANY
SO PLEASE BE AWARE

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USER1 @USER1
Replying to @angelicasspotify
Oh she's really going through it

USER2 @USER2
Replying to @angelicasspotify
Isn't this her other go-to
sad song?? No ☹️ she really
needs that break

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USER3 @USER3
Honestly, I'm just happy that
she's taking a break. She's been
needing it for a while now

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USER4 @USER4
Replying to @USER3
Im sure her friends are
already checking up on
her. They're always doing
so from what she and George
mention

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USER5  @USER5
Replying to @USER4
I wouldn't be surprised if
it was Dream. Ever since he
went on that podcast, it
ruined her a lot

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USER4  @USER4
Replying to @USER5
Honestly. And the fact
that he acts like it's her
fault 😬 man's needs to
sit his white ass down

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Angelica had her earphones as she closed the curtains and was laying on her back while staring at the ceiling. She was relaxed, but yet, overwhelmed. As if they had sensed her sadness, Gumbo and Patches were by her side, sleeping as if nothing was wrong.

She sighed, turning around in her bed, resting on her side to sleep since she hadn't done so the night prior... and the night before. It seemed as if Dream's words hit her harder, surprisingly. Why would she listen to him? He was a jerk! Why would she need to listen to his stupid words that popped in his stupid head? God, she hated that man. And to think, to think, she was willing to become friends with him. To make matters worse, she lived with him, and she couldn't help but admit that she was grateful that he's allowing her to stay, but she just wanted to leave.

"Angelica?"

God, she could even hear his irritating voice in the back of her head. She buried her head in her pillow as if that would make his voice go away. She wished, though, because now she realized that he was indeed calling out for her after he knocked on the door.

"I-I wanted to ask you, um," Dream awkwardly let out. She looked down at the animals and they looked back at her comedically as if wondering why Dream was even speaking. Even Patches was staring at her as if she herself was wondering what her owner was even doing, "can I have Patches back?"

And there it goes. Hope just left her body. She was hoping that finally, finally, he was going to apologize, but nope.

"Can I come in?" No response. "Um, knock once if I can come in?" Knowing that he's not going to leave, Angelica rolled her eyes and knocked on her headboard, alerting him that he could. "Alright, I'm coming in."

He opened the door, eyeing her figure on the bed with blankets surrounding her with his cat and her dog next to her.

"C'mon, Patches," he called out, expecting Patches to come to him like she usually did. But she simply stared at him, too, and stayed put. "Patches, come here." Nothing. He sighed and glanced at his phone held tightly in his hand and saw the time "7:31" glaring at him. Now that he remembered, he hadn't seen Angelica in the kitchen making herself something to eat. Not that he noticed or anything, but she usually ate dinner between the hours 5:00 to 6:00 PM.

He looked at her and cleared his throat. "Have you eaten today?" She frowned at his words. She didn't want to eat. "I didn't even see you eating yesterday now that I'm noticing," he mumbled. "But, I'll take that as a no. Do you want... something to eat?"

"I'm not hungry," she breathed out, staring at her closed curtains.

"You haven't eaten anything this entire day," Dream noted. "You didn't eat breakfast, lunch, and you haven't eaten dinner either. You usually make spaghetti on Tuesday." She didn't say anything. "You're eating something and I'm not going to listen to you fucking complain."

"Dream—"

Before she could say something else, Dream slammed the door and she heard his footsteps thumping down the stairs. She looked at the cat and grabbed her, bringing her to her chest where Patches nuzzled against her neck.

"Your owners crazy," Angelica mumbled, her hand reaching over to scratch Gumbo's head and scratching behind his ear. She patiently waited for Dream, continuing to stare up at the ceiling as Joji's voice blared through her ears, blanket covering her lower face.

"I came with food."

Dream came into her room with a tray of food, holding onto two plates in one hand, a drink in another, and a plate between his bicep and forearm.

"C'mon, sit up for me," Dream groaned a bit, placing down the plates on the bed as best as he could while softly shooing away the animals. Angelica stayed put. "I know you aren't feeling well, I know it's..." He closed his eyes, shaking his head. "I know it's my fault. I got an earful from Bad, George, Corpse, even, Sapnap, and Quackity, and I may have overstepped."

Angelica huffed and sat up, just wanting him out of her room. She made sure the lower half of her face was well covered and he gave her a nod in confirmation that she wasn't showing anything else. "Look, it's not you that did this. Well, it was partly you, but it wasn't entirely you."

"Either way, it's my fault," Dream gulped, passing her some dinner his mom had made. "My mom made that. She slapped me, Sapnap told her what I said and George even messaged her."

"Don't think that I'm going to feel bad," Angelica glanced at him before staring at the food. "I-I don't feel like eating. My anxiety makes me so nervous to the point where I get nauseous eating."

"I heard that it's good when you eat with someone," Dream pointed out before grabbing the forks. "Here. I'll eat with you."

"Next to me?" Angelica raised an eyebrow and Dream rolled his eyes, sliding on the floor. He sat criss-cross on the floor, facing her, with a plate in one hand. He looked up at her and he gestured to her plate.

"C'mon, just eat a little," he said, smiling in satisfaction when she slowly nibbled on the salad he had added, still continuing to hold onto the blanket over her face. "So, how'd you get Gumbo?"

Knowing that her dog was very important to her, he had hoped that talking about her dog will distract her from the nauseous feeling she felt when she ate.

"I actually found him on the side of the street when I was heading here to Florida," Angelica explained, nibbling on the steak, glancing back at him before glancing back at her plate on her lap. "I took him to a nearby vet to make sure he was okay and I quickly took him in."

"Where'd you get the name Gumbo from?"

"From Princess and the Frog," she replied. "I love that movie. Coraline, too, and I was close to calling him Wybie, but I saved him. I called Gumbo because Tiana's gumbos always looked so good."

"I've noticed," Dream chuckled, passing her a cup of water that she gingerly drank. "Is Spanish your first language?"

"Yep," Angelica nodded, taking a few more bites as she stared at Dream. "I entered elementary school without knowing English at all so I was put into a Bilingual class. I was then put into a program for students that had English marked down as their second language so, I slowly started learning English along the way until I eventually graduated from Elementary."

"I've been meaning to learn Spanish," Dream told her. "I want to communicate with my Spanish speaking fans and I want to be able to understand Quackity, too, since, off-stream, he tends to curse me out."

"Yeah, you mentioned to me the word enchiladas," Angelica chuckled. "I thought you didn't know that word at all."

"I do know what it means," Dream chuckled next. "It's just that your sister mentioned it so I thought I should mention it since you told me to tell you the words Rose taught me."

"Do you remember the words?"

"I remember the "Angelica is bien bonit-ah"," Dream noted. She squinted her eyes. "It wasn't my fault. I genuinely thought it meant that you were a bother. I was called a simp after I posted that."

"That was pretty dumb of you."

Chuckling, Dream glanced at her plate as she moved it in front. "Hey! You finished."

Angelica looked at it, a frown of confusion etched on her face. "Oh, hey! Look at that. I didn't even notice."

"Do you want to eat a strawberry shortcake?" Dream asked. "I got you your daily package."

"Not right now," she smiled a little, shaking her head. "What I ate was enough. Thank you."

"Don't start falling in love with me, brat," Dream snorted, grabbing her plate and the other plate filled with food that he was going to eat. "Are you going to go outside?"

"No," Angelica softly spoke, starting to slide under blankets. "I-I feel tired. But, my mom told me never to lay down after I finished eaten so I'm just going to..." she sat up a bit, "be like this for a bit."

"Are you okay?" Dream asked her.

"I'll be better," Angelica hummed, glancing at him. "Tomorrow should be a better day."

Dream smiled at her words and curtly nodded. "We'll take Patches and Gumbo to go walk tomorrow. At least do some type of progress. We can go get some ice cream right now if you want."

"No, no thank you. I'm okay," she paused and stared up at him. "Wait, you're going to walk Patches? She's a cat."

"We can just walk Gumbo," Dream shook his head. "Anyway, have you taken a shower?" Dream raised an eyebrow at her and she shook her head, making sure lower face was still covered.

"I-I don't feel like it..."

"Hey, it's okay," Dream tried to reassure her from his position by the door since he noticed her another frown forming. "You can start doing things at your own pace. I won't pressure you. Whenever you feel like you want to do those things then do them. Just know we did a bit of progress with you eating and more progress by walking tomorrow and just being outside."

"Thanks."

"Don't fall too in love with me," Angelica scoffed at his words.

"Get out of my room."

"My house."

"You sound like my parents."

"Am I your dad?" Dream snorted, starting to close the door.

"Shut up. Get out."

"Bye!"

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Just realized it's 3 am 😄😃

Anyway, hopefully I'm not
rushing their friendship since
Dream was a dick last chapter
and he's suddenly being apologetic,
but he would know how to try to
make people better, too, and would feel
bad when he noticed how far he went.

Also, I drew myself :D
I need to show my art teacher
this drawing...