Well, staying up all night with George seemed like a good idea... at the time.
But it took all but an hour for you to reach the verge of passing out, your heavy eyelids betraying you and your mind's desire to keep talking to him.
You'd switched your cameras back on once Sapnap left. George had turned on his LED lights, they were cyan today. It outlined his features in a thin teal glow.
You peered at George's widely awake face, which was getting more and more fuzzy through your sleep-deprived vision. It'd been a while since you'd pulled an all-nighter, and the rush of rebellion gave a tiny sparkle to your eyes. Although your eyelids were drooping after only 15 minutes.
"I miss the music, put some on," you said groggily. "I'm gonna fall asleep otherwise." You pulled your blanket to your face so that it covered beneath your nose, and it took all of your energy to not fall asleep right then and there.
"Erm, alright," George said hesitantly, and you grinned. His voice was bright and cheery, the morning rasp gone, but you could tell he was trying to keep it subdued for you. "Gimme a song then."
"You pick.
"No."
"Yes."
"No," he said grinning, finally breaking and letting out a chuckle..
"What kind of music do you listen to anyway?" you asked.
George shrugged, playing with something in his hands. "Pick a color."
"Pink, I guess?"
George switched his LED lights to pink, with the remote he was fidgeting with. You smiled, he looked nice in the magenta-ish glow. You only just noticed a greenish lava lamp in the background on the side table behind him, and asked him about it.
"I dunno, I probably got it at a museum somewhere."
"Why do you still have it?"
"I just never got rid of it, I guess." You could tell he was trying to change the subject, but were too tired to care very much.
Eventually, though, you remembered the silence and returned to the question.
"You never answered, what kind of music do you like?"
George rolled his eyes. "Still on about that?"
You hummed yes.
He sighed. "I dunno, like, the popular stuff I guess."
"So... pop?" You tried to imagine him blasting Taylor Swift at 3 am, like you had many times before.
"Eh, no... like, hip-hop, I guess."
"Ah," you said, trying to read his expression to see if he was joking. He apparently was not. You couldn't imagine him listening to UK hip hop, for some reason. He was probably talking about American music- probably his friend's influence.
Although the mere thought of George listening to JuiceWRLD made you chuckle.
But you bit your tongue as you were about to make a snarky comment, feeling guilty. He just didn't strike you as a rap kind of guy.
"Play a song, then," you pushed, smiling stupidly and leaning forward.
"Fine, fine- if it means you'll shut up," George finally gave in, and you giggled. "You have spotify?"
"Yeah? Why?"
"Link it to your discord, so we can do a listening party."
"Ooh, sounds fun!"
You saw George smile the slightest bit at your innocent bubbliness, which in turn made you more bubbly. The way he snickered with his eyes closed, giving into the chaotic force that you were... you couldn't get enough.
And finally, George reluctantly clicked on a song.
It had a loud beat, and a bassline that wasn't quite familiar to you.
"I dunno this one," you said, loudly in order to be heard over the blaring music, "What's it called?"
"Erm, 20 min by Lil Uzi Vert."
"Oh I've heard of him... I think." You hadn't.
"I'll put another one- you'd better know this one," he grinned, clicking on another.
The first seconds of electronic music played out familiarly, the pre-beat drop melody humming. You knew this song- of course you did, you'd been to a party before.
"Travis Scott, eh?" you asked, smirking, right as the beat dropped.
"Yeah," George said smiling at the ground, bopping his head as the opening bars of 'Highest in the Room' sang out with a hefty amount of autotune. You grinned, bopping your head as well.
"She fill my mind up with ideas," you sang-spoke loudly, waving your hands dramatically the way someone would at a concert. "Hope I make it outta here!"
George laughed and started humming the next part with you before actually saying the lyrics, " I see some things that you might fear, I'm doin' a show I'll be back soon".
"Soon!" you added as the background vocals, cupping your hands, to which George giggled. After the next line you did the same with "Nah!"
You hummed and sang your way through the song, losing you knowledge of the lines around ten in. George knew them all though, and you assisted by repeating the last words.
"Next one!" you urged as the song faded out, and he smirked right as a lively beat began playing over a repeated melody.
You scrunched your nose indicating that you didn't know this one, to which he responded, "Clout by Offset."
"Ah."
You smiled and hummed along as he murmured the lyrics, and you could feel the soothing rhythm he went into while doing so. It was the same for the next song- "Dive" by The Kid LAROI, and the next, "dnd" by glaive.
You leaned back in your chair, using your knees as elbow rests over a fluffy blanket that rested on your lap. It was well past midnight now, and before you knew it 10, then 20, then 40 songs had passed. Time lulled easily, between your quips and conversations and stolen smiles and humming. You quickly became grateful for George's rap-ish taste in music- if it had been your slower, more melodious tunes playing you would've fallen asleep instantly. But the aggressive tracks kept you up and awake.
You didn't even realize how much you'd been grinning until your cheekbones were sore from it.
As a song from before began playing, George finally stopped the music.
"Looks like we've exhausted my playlist- your turn," he said. His eyes were darker now, matching his room. Under his eyebrows were shadowy caverns and only a small glint of light caught in the reflection of his pupils. He leaned forward ever so slightly, perhaps not even intentionally, resting his chin on the palm of his hand. And the angle at which he looked up at you- or, well, the computer screen- was... mystifying. No, more like... sultry. Alluring. Mysterious, in a sexy way.
You bit your lip, looking him in the eyes that were displayed on your screen.
"Okay," you said, hushed and a bit more breathy than you would've liked. "I'm moving to my bed first though, I'll call you back."
"What? Oh, well, sure. I guess." You smiled, quickly hanging up the discord call before he could see you blushing any more than you were.
A message appeared in your chat after you hung up- Dont take forever.
You paused a second, mindlessly staring at the message. His face, more specifically his eyes were burned into your mind. The way it sent slow motion flames down your arms from your chest, that kept replaying the more you thought about it.
But eventually you shook your head vigorously to shake out the thoughts, reluctantly emerging from your home of blankets and pillows that you'd rested in on the chair for at least 6 hours.
Before flipping open your laptop and jumping onto bed, you ran to the bathroom and took down your hair. It hugged the sides of your face, with just enough of a greasy shine. Not that he'd be able to see it anyway, as you shut off your main light and replaced it with your bedside lamp. It didn't provide anything but an extremely dim glow to your right, but the screen of your laptop would do most of the illuminating.
You scrambled back onto discord, joining back into the call.
"Alright, back," you said, a pillow in your lap and a blanket wrapped around you as you stared at the device that was propped up on two pillows in front of you.
"That took a while."
"Not forever, though."
"Eh, might as well have been." Even though he said it in a snarky tone, his words sounded terrifyingly like something a boyfriend would say.
You kept forgetting that he'd actually called you his girlfriend, the other day. When you were in person, with him, it was as though your emotions were steeled to the point where you only thought through the lens of logicality. Of course I'm his girlfriend, we've been going on dates. We're dating.
But at home, in the comfort of your bed and pillows and all your vulnerability, it was as though your feelings were amplified tenfold.
I'm his girlfriend. Just saying the words in your mind seemed endlessly far away, and they twisted in your stomach in a strange way. It should feel like pride, and joy... but it felt most like an uncomfortable gut wrench. And you couldn't figure out why.
"Decide on a song yet?" George asked, cutting your spiraling thoughts short.
"No," you breathed out, peering up gently.
George's expression had... shifted. Nothing else did- the lighting was the same, although he did have his knee up to his chest now. But he hung his head a tiny bit, so that he was looking up at the camera lens at an angle.
Ugh, not this again. You'd just begun to get over it.
"Then get lookin, unless you want more Travis Scott."
"No!" you laughed jokingly, keeping your gaze down, tracing the designs of your pillowcase with your eyes. Keeping them on anything but on him.
"Okay, but don't judge my music taste."
"No promises." George's giggle made you feel almost in more disbelief about the whole "girlfriend" thing. In your mind, he was still just a crush. A stupid, unbelievable, unachievable crush.
But here he was, one a facetime call with you from your bed.
You smiled, finally letting yourself snatch another glance before scrolling through your playlist. Your eyes flitted over tens of songs- some were too pop-y, some too slow, too upbeat, too boring, too sad- and you finally shrugged and just clicked on one.
"This ones cute," you murmured, turning up the volume on the spotify output.
"Stargazing... The Neighborhood?" George read from the discord listening party. "They made, like, Sweater Weather right?"
You laughed. "Yeah, that's another good one."
He hummed in agreement.
You leaned back in your bed against a tower of pillows you'd propped up.
After that song played Daddy Issues by The Neighborhood, and you didn't bother changing it since George didn't protest.
But the, well, for lack of a better word erotic lyrics certainly awakened something in you.
Your eyes were barely open from sleep deprivation, the melody of the song somehow weighing your eyelids down more. Your heartbeat was in your temples as chills ran up your spine. Sitting in steady yet sensual silence, you finally brought your eyes up to George's.
His expression looked dangerously reminiscent of that flirty side-gaze that he'd given you before, at a time that felt like ages ago now.
Though this time, it was filled with something different.
It was as though in the place of simple and wholesome admiration, there was something... deeper. A crimson maroon instead of a peachy pink, or perhaps even a rose red. Something... lustful. Sensual- no, seductive. But tame, just barely.
It was strange, your mind using those words to describe George.
But you couldn't help it, as your eyes swallowed every little detail and implied infraction visage. Every hidden message and faraway meaning, everything that you couldn't quite perceive and certainly couldn't reach.
You wanted nothing more than to take it all for yourself.