"OH GEORGE!" Dream screamed into the microphone. He was playing Minecraft with his best friend, GeorgeNotFound, and beating him in PVP. George, taking the beating, screamed back "STOP IT DREAM!" in his typical British accent. Dream's face blushed, either from excitement or something else, as he drained George's health and won the match.

"That's not fair, Dream! You always beat me. You've gotta give me a chance," George whined Britishly.

"Shut up George, this is payback for colonizing America," Dream replied jokingly. He sat back down to drink some gatorade as George continued his whinging.

"You're not even from the part of America that the crown colonized!" GeorgeNotFound exclaimed, "You're literally in Florida, that was the Spanish!"

"Wow, look who's educated," Dream teased playfully. "Whatever, you're just salty you lost."

"Shut it Dream!" GeorgeNotFound blushed, knowing that he had been found out. Wanting to change the subject, he prodded Dream on a topic he had wanted to breach many times: "But besides knowing you live in Florida, I don't know anything else about you. For the Queen's sake, I don't even know your name—"

"Queen's sake? God, you really are British, aren't you George? Are your teeth all messed up too?" Dream replied, also trying to change the subject.

"For starters, my teeth are perfectly fine. Second, I just want to know more about my best friend I always play online with. Come on, Dream, at least tell me your name," George asked, pleading with his voice.

Dream stayed silent and left the Discord voice call. George sighed and knew that he had messed up. For some reason, Dream was always secretive about his identity and angry whenever he tried to ask. He should have known that this time wouldn't be any different. George closed his laptop and looked at the admissions letter beside his bed. The reason he had been so consistent with his questions was because he was going to Florida for college and he wanted to see his best friend in person.

"Whatever," George sulked to himself. "If he doesn't want me to know about him in real life, he can stay alone."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, Clay stared at his closed gaming laptop. Clay, who went by "Dream" online, was torn about whether to tell his best friend the truth.

"It wouldn't hurt for him to at least know my name," Clay thought to himself. But as quickly as he thought it, he reversed course. "No. If George knows my name it'll only be enough time until he learns about that. And then he won't want to be my friend anymore."

Clay looked at the pride flag in his room. It was composed of five stripes: green on both ends, black on the second and fourth stripe, and white in the middle. The "Dreamsexual" flag was one that symbolized his own yearning for acceptance, a dream that one day he would be accepted for who he was.

In the past, Clay would stare at his ceiling for hours at a time. He spent his high school years holding back what was on his mind and telling others he was "just fine." But the fact is, he would stay on his mattress and wear his mask. The mask that would keep him safe from having to tell everyone who he really was.

"If I told George what I really was, he wouldn't want to be my friend anymore," Clay surmised to himself, "because he's British and hates my kind." It was unclear whether Clay was referring to being queer or American.

"Anyway," Clay thought in a more upbeat turn, "that doesn't matter anymore. I'll be going off to college and hang out with people like me and make real friends. Maybe even," Clay blushed, "get a boyfriend." Although Clay liked to fantasize about getting a boyfriend, his fantasy boyfriends would always have the same British accent as George. Shaking his head to let go of those fantasies (George is British, of course he wouldn't see me that way!), Clay opened his laptop again to review his college housing application.

Applying to the best university in his state, the University of Florida, Clay learned that they had housing for people just like him, the Lavender LLC. A dorm for specifically LGBT+ people, Clay was excited to finally be among his kind. Instead of being stuck around heterosexual people and playing straight (similar to the hit 2018 game Among Us), Clay would finally be able to take off the mask. Although playing games online allowed him to relax for a little bit, he was still scared to tell even his best friend, George, what he really was.

Checking the webpage for his housing application, Clay saw that he was accepted into the Lavender LLC. His roommate, however, said "to be assigned." Although he already knew that his roommate was going to be randomly assigned, Clay's heartbeat still rose nervously.

Small worries such as "What if they're homophobic?" or "What if they think Dreamsexuals aren't valid?" floated through Clay's head until he just as quickly shut them down. "This is a dorm for LGBT+ people!" Clay reassured himself, "They have to be accepting of people like me."

He closed his laptop for good this time. His room, small and covered in Dreamsexual pride flags, was dark except for the colored LEDs he attached to the walls. Needing some air, Clay went outside and walked to his local Wawa. Ordering a hoagie, Clay grabbed the receipt and went to pay for it at the register. Pulling out his Wawa Rewards card, he thought to himself, "Wow! What a good deal! With a Wawa Rewards card, I'm able to receive rewards for every fifty dollars I spend." Paying for his hoagie and leaving the building, Clay sat outside and devoured his Wawa hoagie.

Suddenly, Clay's phone began to vibrate. It was a Discord message from GeorgeNotFound:

"Dream, I'm sorry. I know you're super secretive about your identity and stuff and I guess it sort of bothered me because you're my best friend and I don't really know that much about you."

Clay waited a second and another message popped up:

"If it's something on my end, please let me know. I want to be there for you even if you're not going to tell me."

Clay's heart beat quicker as he read the message. He took a bite out of the Wawa hoagie and typed out a reply:

"It's nothing about you, George. You're also my best friend–it's just things on my end. Don't worry about it, and I'll see you tomorrow! :)"

Clay closed the app and saw his "[Dreamsexual Panic]" lockscreen. He turned his phone off and looked around to see if others saw it. He sighed in relief and finished off his Wawa hoagie, glad that he took the time to sign up for his Wawa Rewards membership.

—

George saw Dream's reply and sighed. Why was he always so difficult? Whatever, George was a pushover and always willing to forgive Dream no matter how badly he was treated. Although he was salty at being beat in PVP and Dream's sudden departure at his prodding, George already found himself forgiving Dream.

"It's probably some personal stuff he's going through," he excused Dream in his head. "Maybe he's a secret agent or something," George thought, letting his imagination go wild.

After saluting a portrait of the Queen, George went to his sink. He stared at his toothbrush, perfectly clean from disuse, and pondered on whether he should use it for the first time. After a while, he shrugged and grabbed it, deciding to break his toothbrush-ginity.

"Bollocks. If I'm going to the colonies for university, I might as well blend in with the locals," George thought to himself. After brushing his teeth, he stared in the mirror and practiced repeating in an American accent:

"I love hamburgers. I love eating at McDonalds."

After getting the accent down, George sat at his bed, satisfied that he would blend in. He hadn't told Dream, but he was all packed up for moving to Florida. His room was basically empty, save for a bisexual pride flag and picture of the queen he had in the corner. He was going to the University of Florida and had hoped to visit Dream there, but Dream shut it down before he even had an opportunity to tell him about his plans.

George had wanted to move from the Queen's land to the colonies because of how unaccepting they were of people like him. It was the homeland of J.K. Rowling, of course. Despite that, he never told Dream about his sexuality because it never came up. Although George wanted to talk about it, Dream seemed disinterested in those topics.

Secretly, George had been harboring feelings for his online best friend, but knowing he was straight, he didn't act on it. "Golly," thought George, "Dream is the straightest guy I know. If he knew what I thought about him, he would make fun of me for being British and a flamer!"

Shaking those thoughts away, George checked his housing application status to the University of Florida, George saw that he was accepted into the Lavender LLC, a dorm for people like him (not British but queer). His roommate status said "to be assigned" and he was nervous it would be someone Britishphobic. Dream loved to be jokingly mean about his Britishness, but what if it was someone serious? What if it was a dirty Republican who supported complete Irish independence? George prayed by his portrait of the queen and hoped it would be someone reasonable.

He lay back down and imagined the opposite scenario. What if his roommate became his – George gulped at the thought – his boyfriend? He shook his head and covered it with a pillow, embarrassed by the thought.

"Bad George!" He thought to himself, "As long as your roommate is normal and takes their normal pills, it'll be fine."

On opposite ends of the globe, both boys, one colonizer and one colonized, were on their mattress and staring at the ceiling, sighing and wishing that they would only be understood by others.