Admittedly they'd sat there way too long, the table is way too loud and annoying but the servers, who weren't paid nearly enough, didn't complain. The table next to them had at some point but the sound slowly went back up.

By the time they were done, and Tommy had eaten his third ice cream, they were still buzzing with excitement.

There were hugs all around, for Astrid at least, as she waved goodbye to the gaggle of people going back to Wilburs for a few extra hours. Astrid, George and Sophie are the only ones left waiting outside the food place.

Her phone buzzed, a quick look down showed a message from George, her eyes shot up seeing the man in question on his own phone an emotionless look on his face as he glanced up for a second to meet hers.

"Hey, Soph," she started, getting the attention of the taller girl, "I'm gonna be home a bit later" she tried to be inconspicuous, silently trying to find a way to tell her she was going to the lad's house, without the lad in question finding out they spoke about him so often that there was a joke around him.

"What, really?" Her eyebrows furrowed before his face lit up, "great, okay, George we can share an Uber back" the smile on her face showed everything Sophie was hoping would come out of the ride.

His head shot up, looking between the two as he stuttered, no words coming from his mouth.

"He lives in the opposite direction" Astrid spoke quickly, clearly not thinking, "he-he said earlier that he lived...away from us" her voice faltered throughout the sentence, how could she be so stupid?

"Oh, well we could just-"

"No, she's right" George cut in, obviously seeing the dilemma in their situation, "it wouldn't make sense to get one together"

Sophie seemed dejected but got the point. Soon her Uber pulled up, shooting a quick 'text me when you get there' to Astrid, always one to make sure she was safe.

"You too" Astrid spoke back, waving at Sophies Uber as it drove away and they were left in silence.

It wasn't awkward, just tense. The two hardly looked or spoke to each other until George quietly showed her the Uber was on its way.

"You're not very subtle, are you?" Was what George chose to go with when they got in the Uber.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Just that there were better ways to tell her no than...that" he was teasing, she knew that from the tone of voice and quirk on his lips, but it still bothered her somehow.

"Ways that you were going to tell her?" Astris had to look away, accusatory, scared that their little teasing conversation would turn real, that the tension she was creating could break their whole foundation.

He didn't reply, the light in the car telling her he was on his phone. They were still at least ten minutes away from his house when he spoke again.

"Twitters going crazy"

She was happy he chose to look over their last conversation.

"I'm not surprised" her body turned back to his, "we haven't all met up in ages, and now Tommy and Tubbo were here too"

George nodded, humming in agreement as he kept scrolling, leaning over to show her a few excited tweeters and edits already made, not liking many - because he was on his main - but he appreciated them all the same.

They continued this for a few minutes, Astrid looking over at his phone as he scrolled down the trending tab, that was until a certain tweet caught both their attention.

A 'fan' commenting on how they didn't want Astrid, Sophie or even Niki at the meeting up, how they didn't deserve to be there because they weren't as big, how apart from Niki they weren't on the Dream SMP so shouldn't be at the meetup. George locked his phone quickly, head shooting up to see if she had read it, only to see she obviously had.

Her face stoned, trying not to show how much the tweet hurt her.

She'd had the same thoughts herself, to be completely honest, about how she had got there through knowing Niki, how she probably wouldn't have her platform without Niki and Wilbur, how they'd helped her throughout her whole twitch career.

It hurt, but she couldn't say they were wrong.

——————

Written: 17th July 2022

Published: 18th July 2022

Its been like 3 days and its a lot harder to get back into daily updates than I remember but i'll keep doing it :p