CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO. ✧ ೃ༄
❝ CRYING OVER HER BOOKS. ❞

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"Angelica? Angelica?"

Angelica buried herself deeper into her blankets, letting out a sigh when she heard the knocks on her door. Dream popped his head, staring at her figure.

"What?" Angelica breathed out.

"Do you want to go walk Gumbo?" He asked and she covered her lower face, turning to look at him. Her puppy say by his foot, head tilted to the side staring back at her. "I don't want you to stay up here, locked in."

"I-I just don't feel good," he saw the way her eyes glazed with tears and frowned. She covered her entire face with the blanket, curling up into a ball with her knees touching her chest. 

Dream stared at her before moving closely to her. He sat at the edge of her bed and plopped backwards, his arms spread open until one of his hands accidentally hit Angelica on her face.

"Ow."

"I'm just going to stay up here with you then," Dream shrugged, before sitting up to grab a blanket. He came back to plop himself on the bed and covered himself.

The two stayed silent. Angelica didn't feel like arguing with him to get out of her room so she simply let out a small sigh and focused on the absurd thoughts invading her brain. It was overwhelming her, tears starting to fall from her eyes, and she reminded herself to stay quiet because Dream was next to her.

One thing she could say, though, was that she hated feeling like this. Like she couldn't even do anything. It wasn't her fault. She was just mentally tired. For what? No reason. She had been dealing with depression and anxiety at a young age, especially insomnia, which she got from her mom. She couldn't help feeling like how she did now. She usually dealt with this alone, so knowing that Dream was there with her made her want to bawl her eyes out.

"Do you like books?" Dream suddenly asked. No answer. "I saw that you had a pile of books. Do you want me to read them?" Silence. "Knock a bit on the headboard for yes and two for no."

Knock.

Dream smiled a little and headed towards the books splattered on the floor. "I'll buy you a bookshelf for these." He squatted down and rummaged through them all until he stopped. He picked one up and he hummed. "This one seems interesting."

He hurried to his place on her bed and opened the book, clearing his throat dramatically. "Love Is A Mixtape," he started before his voice dropped at reading the next few words, "Life and Loss," he glanced at the girl, "One Song At A Time by Rob Sheffield."

"Prepare yourself," Angelica breathed out.

Dream snorted. "It can't be that bad."

"Suit yourself," Angelica mumbled, grabbing onto her tissue box next to her.

Dream started to read and Angelica couldn't help but listen to his voice intently. It was really soothing, she couldn't help but think. She could hear his lisp, it wasn't noticeable, but if you hear it close enough, you could hear it, and all she thought about was Corpse and Karl's words over how it was messed up that people with a lisp couldn't even say "lisp."

"'It was the first connection we had,'" Dream continued reading, "'and we depended on it to keep us together. We did a lot of work to meet in the middle. Music brought us together. So now music was stuck with us. I was lucky to be her guy for a while.'" He got quiet. "Please don't tell me..."

Angelica shook her head, a small smile on her lips.

"'Nobody ever liked it except me and Renèe,'" Dream continued, too into the book by now, "'and now she's gone...' No! Dammit! Give me the tissues."

Angelica passed him the tissues and he leaned back a little until his back was on the headboard, words being spewed out of his mouth.

After a couple of hours later, the two were left in tears, small sobs escaping their lips. Especially Dream as he continued reading the book and couldn't even let out a sentence without crying even more. His cheeks were flushed and he would wipe away his tears with the sleeve of his hoodie, grabbing a tissue and blowing his nose like the girl beside him.

As he finished, he placed the book between the two. They stayed in silence, processing the book. Dream let out a shaky breath.

"Where do we go from here?" He asked. He looked down at Angelica and saw that her eyes were red and puffy like his. "I-I don't even know what to say... I'm so heartbroken."

"I told you to prepare yourself," Angelica sniffed.

"I feel empty," Dream commented, staring at his feet, dozing off. "I... I don't even know what to say or to describe what I just read..."

"I have more sad books," Angelica said. "We can continue crying together."

"What book always makes you cry?"

"The Fault In Our Stars," Angelica replied, watching him stand up to grab the book. He sat back on the bed and he let out a couple of breaths, preparing himself. "I always watched the movie but Ansel-whatever-his-last-name-is just ruined it. Anyway, continue."

Starting to read the book, Angelica could feel her eyes fill with tears. For once in her life, she wasn't alone dealing with this. Even if she didn't like the guy, she couldn't help but admit that reading sad books and crying together didn't make her feel a little bit better.

"'What else?'" Dream read after a couple more hours later. "'She is so beautiful. You don't get tired of looking at her. You never worry if she's smarter than you. You know she is. She is funny without ever being mean. I love her...' God, Augustus, marry me."

The two fell into a series of giggles at Dream's words, tears still falling down their faces and Dream shushed her despite he himself giggling. He sniffed and got back to his stoic expression.

"'You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man,'" Dream continued, "'but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers. I do, Augustus. I do.'"

Dropping the book next to the one they had previously read, the two couldn't help but laugh at their teary-eyed faces.

"We're over here crying over books," Dream chuckled. "Oh, my God. I never saw my day coming like this."

"I didn't either."

Dream eyed the time and hummed. "I'm going to make some food. I'll bring it up to you." He stood up to leave and just as he closed the door, he turned around to look at her. "I'm still sorry for overstepping. I shouldn't have done typed in that comment."

Before hearing her response, Dream closed the door, leaving her with her thoughts. Angelica slowly brought down the blanket that was covering the lower half of her face and sighed, wiping her eyes. She turned to look at Gumbo and Patches.

"That was fun."

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

this book, this chapter, should
tell you all I'm a hopeless romantic,
but, I'm also one that does not
like affection or rejection so...

While reading this chapter, let's
keep in mind I'm not going to
make Angelica's depression/sadness
disappear just because she falls
in love with Dream. No. Her staying
in bed and not feeling mentally well
is something that she does struggle
with and I'm not going to make
it all disappear later on.

Anyway, hope you all like it.
I'm going back to listening to
Run by Joji on repeat. Good
song by the way.