18, 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 (𝐩𝐥)

After a few days of the beginnings of World War Three, I decide to hop on a stream and do something not Minecraft related.

"Disclaimer," I say into the mic. "The song I'm about to sing is about nobody. I know what you guys are like, coming up with your conspiracy theories. I mean, I won't stop you but, just so you know, they're wrong. Because this is about nobody. I'm kidding. Do whatever you want. Here we go."

twitch chat

ITS ABOUT CELESTIA

bruh i saw the blue haired girl on twitter simping fo dream tho

yall calm ur asses she even did a disclaimer LMAO

POGGERS

CELESTIAFOISJEFOISEF

Who's Celestia? is the first thing that springs into my mind. I narrow my eyes at the chat. What?

I check Twitter and scroll up to some updates from today. I've been streaming for a really long time so I haven't been checking my phone. When I scroll up enough, I find that Dream has replied to something and he's got tons of likes.

I click on the thread.

I try my best to ignore the thread, continuing with my stream. The chat can't stop talking about it--it's the stans again--but some of them manage to keep their normalcy. When the stream ends, I lean back in my chair and sigh.

My phone rings.It's from Clay.

I pick it up. "Hey."

"Hey. I was watching the stream. Celestia and I weren't flirting. If anything, I was shutting her down," he rushes out.

I blink. "Uh, okay."

"Okay?"

"Is that why you called me up? To clarify?"

"Well, I wanted you to hear it from me. I didn't want you to listen to your chat. They were kinda..."

"Toxic?"

"Kinda," he mutters. "I'm sorry about all of this."

I bite my lip. "Don't apologise. You can flirt with whoever you want."

"I wasn't flirting."

"I know, but if you were," I say softly, "it's not like we're dating."

He goes silent.

What even are we?

I mean, technically we're Minecraft husband and wife.

Is that cringe or wholesome in an ironic way?

It's not real, that's for sure.

...

The next day, I decide to get rid of all this controversy. There's already so much stuff going around about how I'm "desperate to be in the Dream Team" and how I "hate female streamers." Olive is used as the main example for this claim and she's not even a streamer.

So I invite Celestia to a call.

I don't know much about her apart from a few clips. I know Minx has met her before and she's called her one of the most genuine people on the platform.

"Hey," I say when I hear her join.

"Hey, hi, hey," she greets back. "Are you streaming?"

"Nope. You?"

"Nah."

There's a long silence that fills the call between us.

"That song wasn't about you. I just thought it was a fun song," I blurt.

She laughs lightly. "Thank god. I got scared."

"You shouldn't have been. I barely know you," I murmur, feeling guilty.

"I didn't know you and Dream were a thing. I always thought you guys were playing it up for clout, being best friends and all," she explains.

"I mean, we were playing it up..."

Celestia hums, "But not anymore."

"We're not dating or anything."

"Might as well be," Celestia laughs. "Listen, I'm not gonna prey on him. I've got guys in my DMs. Besides, I wasn't being serious about him anyway. It's, you know..."

"Twitter."

"Exactly." She laughs again. "You know, Clay even called me up to tell me that although the tweets were funny, they were just for fun. I got rejected even when I was pretending to like someone. I hate men."

I snort with her. "Did he actually do that?"

"I promise you. He literally called me to clarify that he didn't like me."

"Oh my god," I say, grinning. "He called me to say the same thing."

"He must really care about you," Celestia teases.

"Mmm," I hum, smiling slightly. I'm so glad she can't see my face right now. "That song really wasn't about you though. It just came out at such a bad time."

"I got you," she chuckles. "And even if it was, I'd love to have a song written about me."

"I'll write you a love song instead."

"Oh my god. Please do."

We end up talking for a long time, to the point where when we're both supposed to stream, we decide to stream together. Instead of Just Chatting--as we've done loads of that already--we decide to beat Minecraft together. Apparently Celestia hasn't done it before so I agree. As long as it's super chill and there's no big green thing trying to beat me up with an axe.

About half an hour in, while we're going down a cave looking for a mineshaft, a beautiful voice pierces the voice channel:

"HELLO, I'M THE GEORGE SIMP AND I HAVE ARRIVED."

Maia. Mxmtoon. The singer.

"Maia. Maia, please date me. I simp. I simp," I scream immediately. "I'll shine your shoes. All of them. Even the white ones that are a pain in the ass. Please, Maia."

Celestia laughs and plays along. The two of us simp for Maia the entire time, trying to get her to sing or react shyly.

The three of us spend the rest of the stream attempting to beat Minecraft, but Celestia and Maia know the minimum about the game so it takes longer than expected. Either way, it's funny watching them try. Celestia falls into lava the most times; and Maia has crazy luck finding diamonds, only to fall into lava. So I really don't know who's worth.

I end up building the portal, to which Maia comments, "Did Dream teach you that?"

Celestia coos. "Ah, I see how it is." I can practically sense her winking at her chat.

"I don't know who that is," I say sarcastically. "And I'm not that good at the game."

"Cap," Celestia laughs.

"That is indeed utter cap," Maia affirms.

By the end of the stream, the three of us end up Just Chatting with our facecams on. We chat about everything. I even end up pulling out my guitar and play the Sofia the First theme song; Maia on the vocals; Celestia on the harmony.

We're practically high by the end.

"Az, I want your skills."

"Celestia, I want your hair."

"Az, I want your face."

"Maia, I want your voice."

...

"I've decided that I really like Celestia," I say on the phone. "And Maia, obviously. She's the most chill professional singer I've ever met."

There's a silence as Clay shakes his head at me. We're FaceTiming and he has his camera on.

He takes a long swig of something. "I hate Maia."

"What? Why's that?"

"She copied my tweet. The shoe-shining one."

I snort. "Yeah, okay, that's why. It's totally not because you're a jealous GeorgeNotFound simp."

"I am not a George simp."

I can hear him growing angrier and louder. As it's like 3 AM, I know he's in one of his high on life moods. It's funny when he gets passionate.

I stifle my laughter. "Mhm."

"That girl...I can do exactly what she does," Clay mutters, sitting back down in his seat in front of his desk.

"Oh yeah?"

"I'M SITTING HERE"—he hits his desk really hard—"CRYING IN MY PROM DRESS."

That's it. I snort and all of my previously suppressed laughter comes tumbling out of my mouth. I stop and start again, wheezing and punching my mattress.

I manage to calm my laughter down and glance up at my phone through thin eyes. Clay is grinning at me. Dimples, I think, dimples.

When I fully calm down, I mumble, "Sorry," and attempt to drink my water without choking on it. I almost do, but calm myself again. Putting the lid back on, I exhale and look back at Clay. His smile has faded and he's looking at me seriously.

"By the way, about the 'us not dating' thing..." he trails off.

"Yeah?" I can feel myself tense up.

"I like you, Az."

My heart beats loud in my ears and my arm hairs bristle. That's definitely not from the cold.

"If you didn't know that already," he adds.

I bite my lip to hide my smile. "I like you too, Clay."

He blanks out for a second, glancing up at me then back at the wall. "Mhm," he hums to himself. Then he shakes his head softly, letting out a laugh. "It sounds so childish saying 'I like you' when I'm not in high school."

"I know what you mean," I say, shrugging. "'I want to give you all my netherite' gets the point across even better, I think. Way less childish too."

"I'll keep that in mind." He smiles again. "It's true though."

"Really? Because Tommy stole all my netherite armour the other day trying to get his stupid disc back—"

"No, idiot, about me liking you."

I smile slightly. "I know."

"It's true."

"Same here."

He sighs, leaning back in his chair. "But I'm waiting for the right time..."

"The right time?"

"To...do something about it."

I pull my legs onto the chair. "Like, to ask me out?"

"I wanna do it right."

I slip my jumper over the tips of my fingers and cover my lips. My smile is getting obnoxious. "There's no way you could do it wrong."