CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
"irl."

          after their meet up, dream and george went to grab dinner, and sapnap led olivia to her hotel room. it happened to be just across the hall from his. he had carried her luggage from the lobby up to her room and had refused to get a cart to make it easier to carry. granted, she didn't have much, just her carry-on and a checked bag full of clothes and essentials. she kept reaching for her carry-on that he had snatched from her in the lobby, but he would just pull away. he didn't want her to carry anything for some reason. she wasn't complaining though, but she did feel a bit bad.

          when they reached her room, he pointed across the hall. "that's my room! we're neighbors!" he grinned at her. she returned it as she used her card to unlock the door. she held the door open for sapnap so he could drop her luggage. while he carefully placed her bags on the floor, she took in her surroundings. a massive bed that looked like a cloud, a huge bathroom, a couch that pulled out into another bed, and a balcony that had a beautiful view of san diego. after making sure that her room was clear of anything dangerous or unsanitary, she made her way to the balcony. she gently slid the door open and stepped out, sapnap following behind her.

it felt like she could see the entirety of san diego from here. the cars zooming past below them provided a nice bit of white noise. the lights from the skyscrapers across from them, slowly flickered out, one by one. when traffic was slowed, she could hear the faint sound of waves crashing into the shore. a slight breeze sent a shiver through liv. sapnap gently placed his arm around her, slightly rubbing her arm to make her warmer. she leant into him, the pair still staring out at the world. they could've stayed there for hours in silence and been perfectly fine.

          their peace was interrupted by a buzzing from sapnap's pocket. using his free hand, he reached for his phone. "it's dream," he told liv. she nodded at him, letting him know he could take the call. he let his arm drop from around her and stepped back into the hotel room to take the call. she leant on the railing while she waited for him to come back, still taking in the view. she was hoping they could go to the beach one day, but a beach trip with some of the most popular streamers probably wasn't the best idea.

          sapnap stepped back outside, and she turned her head to look at him. "hey, livvy." her heart flipped. "there's food in dream's room if you want any? he got burgers." he told her, still standing by the door. the weight of liv's travels hit her like a wave, crashing down all at once.

          "i'm good, thank you though. i have to finish editing my face reveal," she made her way inside, carefully stepping past him. he followed her, shutting and locking the balcony door behind them. liv reached for her suitcase that had all of her clothes in it, unzipping it and staring into the fabric abyss, searching for a change of clothes.

"do you want any help with editing? i'm sure if we split up the work, it would only take like an hour!" he knew that she had spent her entire plane ride editing all that she could, so that she would have the bare minimum to do once she landed. she smiled at him and shook her head at him.

"no thank you, sap. i appreciate it, though! but it'll only take me like twenty minutes, and then i have to wait for it to render, and then it'll be ready to premiere!" she told him. he sighed, taking his hat off and ruffling his hair.

"do you want to come over when you premiere it? we're right across the hall."

"i will once i'm done with rendering it!" she finally decided on what she wanted to wear to bed and fished it out of the suitcase. "go eat! i bet you're hungry!" she waved him on, knowing that he probably hadn't eaten since they landed, which was hours ago. the dream team had gone straight from the airport to the convention for the pre-party, and from what she had heard, the refreshments were not up to par. liv wanted to go to the party, but her flight got in too late, so she just met with the boys at the hotel. he groaned, feeling bad about leaving her alone. but he also knew she needed alone time to complete any task.

          "okay, i will! we'll save you some food, okay? you better come over right after you're done rendering it, though. i know dream and george want to hang out with you before everything gets hectic tomorrow," he told her. she gave him a thumbs up, clutching her pajamas in her other hand. "i'll see you in a bit. bye, livvy!" he smiled at her as he gently shut the door behind him.

          after he was gone, she quickly changed into her pjs and pulled her laptop out of her carry-on. she opened up her editing software and plugged her sd card into her computer. she quickly but carefully crafted the remainder of her face reveal, which was quite literally just cutting a couple parts of the meet up out and adding music over top of the clip. she watched it over once before deciding that while it wasn't necessarily perfect, it was her. and that was all she needed it to be. she started to render the video.

about thirty minutes later, the seven minute video was finally done rendering and ready to premiere with the click of a button. she reached for her phone on the nightstand and texted sapnap.

livvy :)
hey luv just got done rendering
u guys still awake???

sap :D
yess we're waiting for you
come over!!

          she clambered out of her hotel bed, slid on her slippers that she brought from home, and mentally prepared for what was about to come. the world was about to see her face, and she was terrified. but she was also content. the logical part of her brain knew that it didn't matter what the people on the internet thought of her appearance, and that was all that mattered. she did a quick once over of herself in the mirror, hair pulled into a low bun that was falling out, pajama shorts, and a baggy t-shirt, complete with the slippers. it would do. she made her way across the hall and gently knocked on sapnap's door.

         the door swung open. "livvy!" dream shouted, being greeted with a shush from liv. it was 10 o'clock and he was shouting in this hotel. but who was liv kidding? it was full of twitch streamers with messed up sleep schedules anyways. she grinned at the tall guy in front of her, still not having fully adjusted to seeing his face. she could only imagine that's how everyone felt about her. "welcome to casa de dream team, make yourself at home." he stepped aside so she could come in.

          she sat down on the couch in the suite and opened her laptop back up. soon enough, the entire dream team was trying to crowd around her to see the finished product of her video. sapnap to her right, dream to her left, and george trying to squeeze in on the arm rest. "god, george, if you wanted to sit on my lap, just say so!" dream joked, sending laughs throughout the hotel room. liv couldn't laugh though, she was too focused on the idea of her video that sat on her screen, unplayed and unposted. nick noticed the girl's disorientation and put his hand on her shoulder, pulling her out of her own mind.

"it's all good, livvy. we're with you. you got this," he gave her a smile. she returned it, nodding at him. taking a deep breath, she looked at the two boys on the other side of her.

"are we ready?" she was met with a chorus of encouragement. this was all she needed. she published the video, with the set premiere time for five minutes from now. just enough time to get a tweet out. she quickly opened a new tab for twitter and linked the video, posting no context with it or anything. just the suspicious title of, "hmm i wonder what this video is." she kept taking deep breaths as the comments on the starting soon screen started blowing up. her fans were all there within a matter of seconds. as the countdown started from ten seconds, sapnap gently took one of liv's hands and intertwined her fingers with his own. he was with her, no matter what. finally, the video started.

          her eventual face reveal was met with screams from everyone in the chat and hotel room, even though they all already knew what she looked like. they all watched the video intensely, although they had lived through the documented events mere hours ago. by the end of it, liv was almost in tears with the overwhelming support in the chat. when the ending screen with her message popped up, the waterworks started. they weren't sad tears, though. she was overwhelmed with joy knowing that so many people supported her, and she was with some of her biggest supporters in the world during this moment. sapnap wrapped his arms around the girl, dream and george eventually joining in. she pulled away and wiped her tears with her sleeves.

          "i love you guys so much, you know that?" she laughed through her tears.

"ew, don't get all sappy on us, liv. that's gross," george joked. dream nudged him.

"george! don't be rude! livvy, we love you more!" dream went back in for a second hug which she gladly accepted. she looked at sapnap, who was just grinning at the pair. she smiled at him. after she pulled away from dream, sapnap wrapped her up into another hug. she put her arms under his and leant into the embrace. she was quickly learning that both dream and sapnap's love languages were physical touch; while george's was just making fun of people.

after the moment was over, liv scrolled through twitter on her laptop, seeing everyone's replies to her tweet, including her friends' whom were sitting next to her. she grinned at the overwhelming support. obviously, there were the few comments that stung, but she brushed them off. she would worry about them later. right now, she felt limitless.

authors note.
just to clarify, the last couple chapters
+ this one take place kind of at the same
time, just so that we get all perspectives
of this moment :)