Your Utterances Sting Worse than North Carolina Winters.

friendship is the medication for an overactive mind.

A few days had passed since the night Karl made his promise to Sapnap and to be honest he was growing more and more impatient. The younger spending many of these days anxiously fidgeting waiting for any word from the hazelnut haired boy. Karl was one of those people obsessed with giving gifts just to see the expressions of joy on peoples faces as they unwrapped them. As if touch isn't already enough of course, someone kind like him would also enjoy giving gifts Sapnap thought. Karl had a certain air around him that made him very detail oriented, but not too detail oriented to the point where it frustrated others. For he was just somebody who cared so much about every last detail, often spending extra money to get custom wrapping for people's gifts and buying them personalized extremely thoughtful presents; the other half of Karls love felt more powerful than the rays of a thousand suns and more glorious than the touch of a biblical angel. When they shared those moments where Karl would cuddle him, hold him, or even just brush past him Sapnap felt like his brain could implode at any moment. Because when Karl Jacobs loved you he loved you so intensely gentle, so perfectly accurate, and so thoughtfully you could feel it seeping through every one of the five senses.

Sweet thoughts suffocating his brain as he scrubbed his face in the bathroom mirror, the soothing motions removing anything that could have gathered on his face throughout the previous night. Sap was slightly in a rush because he woke up a bit later than he usually did, if it was just him he would be alright with being late but knowing Karl was relying on him he couldn't disappoint the boy. Shuffling around his room throwing around clothes looking for something he could quickly throw on, he settled on a pair of light blue wash jeans and a quaint knit sweater reflecting hues of green and grey. Before rushing down to his kitchen and grabbing a granola bar to eat on the way to school he shoved his keys in his pocket roughly. Jumping into the passenger seat and backing out of his driveway eventually zooming towards Karl's place, he reflected using the time he had to think during the ride silently backtracking to his confusing feelings of love for his best friend. Completely buried under the weight of his thoughts of the hazelnut haired boy he reached the others driveway hardly even realizing it. Noting that he probably drove there on autopilot, knowing the route perfectly from how many times he had driven it in the past 9 or so months. And so he pulled the vehicle into park and began to press lightly on the horn directly in front of him, snickering to himself playfully knowing he was being bothersome to the boy inside because he could have just sent him a simple text letting him know he was outside. Pressing the horn a few more times at a more rapid pace, the boy burst from his dark green painted front door with a more than exasperated look across his face before practically stomping to Saps car and whipping the passenger door open, flopping himself into the black leather seat.

'Morning Jacobs,' the younger boy giggled towards him, 'I like your sweater.' Easing his eyes towards the beige coloured crewneck fabric that had a white collar peeking out from underneath it paired with a pair of coffee brown corduroy pants.

'Don't play innocent Sap,' he joked sternly. 'It's too early to hear your horn blaring at me while I'm enjoying my cereal.'

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The school day flew by easily, not many particular struggles for either of the boys. Sapnap grappled with a notably important Physics test he crammed for hours on end to prepare for and Karl lost a very important assignment and ultimately met the wrath of his period 2 Art professor. The boys met up again at lunch passing jokes between each other and their friends at the table. He loved days like these where he could enjoy his friends' presence, although he had many friends throughout his many classes, nobody could compare to the likes of Alex and George who he met a few years ago in a middle school math class. He always wanted to be closer with them, the first few months he spent without talking to them and noticing them every class. He began to perk up everytime they entered their class, excitement clouding his mind while he prepared himself to laugh at every witty remark they threw out into the air and at the teacher. Although most would have called them disruptive and annoying, Sapnap laughed harder than anyone else in the class at the pair's jokes and really grew to enjoy his math class. And before long the boys had welcomed him to the spare seat beside them briskly adopting the heckling, troublesome behaviour of his peers. And ever since then they remained the same, only growing older and marginally more mature than their past selves, leaving the jester act for outside of their highschool classrooms.

And then there came Clay, but Sap hated calling him that, his respective nickname 'Dream' became preferred to the boy. They were childhood friends. Sapnap spent his third grade year getting pushed around by kids because he was new to the school. Although it was cliche, Sapnap still views Dream as his older brother, taking him under his wing as the older of the two, always being there to clean his wounds and provide comfort by taking his mind off the shit kids did to him in class. And although Dream couldn't stop much from happening during the school day because they were in different grades, he was the first one outside Saps' classroom a few minutes before the bell to deal with any kids who wanted to try something. And through the constant support of Dream many of the kids began to back off and slowly Sapnap developed a few classroom friends, no one being greater than Dream ever, and that message still rung true to this day.

In more recent times, his freshman year of highschool he and Dream went out for the varsity football team. Every year since they met the pair played various sports with each other, for fun and extracurriculars as well, and they grew to love them together. So obviously trying for varsity when they reached highschool practically felt natural to the boys. And they made it, they didn't pass with flying colours or anything, the captain at that time made that very clear to them, letting them know that if they wanted to be top players they would need to spend a lot of time cleaning up and refining their skills. Despite Dream already being on the team for a year they both needed help in bettering themselves as athletes. That's where the football crew came in, welcoming Sap with open arms as Dream introduced him to them. And so they spent hours on end with the boys like Punz and Antfrost and so many more grinding to improve their skill set which brought them to the present day, Dream being reigning captain of the Concord Cobra Varsity Football team and Sapnap following behind him as a star player next in line for the throne.

It feels good for Sapnap to be able to recall fond memories of the boys that surrounded him around this lunch table, arm to arm, giggling and throwing out insults with no malice intent behind them. Shoveling the fork between his fingers into his mouth, consuming the last bits of his caesar salad and listening to the peers around him bicker back and forth. Music to his ears, despite the obvious fact that most people find them annoying to be around when they bicker like this, Sapnap finds it as something that helps mute the rushing thoughts that seem to eat up his brain about the boy that sits next to him. His head still remains mostly quiet around the boys even when all his brain wants to rot about how he loves the others feeling and persistence to always be touching him one way or another, even if he's just connecting their sides or bumping their knees together. Lunch goes as expected, Dream and George call on Sapnap to settle a petty dispute between them and Karl and Alex put on their usual British accent and speak to each other. And after lunch there were no outstanding events as the afternoon progressed until the final bell of the day rang out in their classes.

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He lugged his heavy duffel into the locker room, tossing it to the ground with a huff as he promptly loaded all of his gear onto his body. He just got back to the school after leaving briefly to drive Karl back home, even though he knew he was cutting it close with how long was left before practice officially started. That didn't stop him from doing whatever he could, sometimes going way too far out of his way to do whatever for the boy just at the simple unspoken promise of seeing his eyes gleam full of appreciation to the younger. He let himself get wrapped up in his thoughts so he could proceed onto the field with a fuzzy brain, prepared to train until his legs practically gave out. And so practice flowed on with passing and recurring thoughts about Karl while running drills with the team.

Sapnap felt so fucking gross, stripping his football gear at the end of practice always felt like he was shedding the most grimey, sweat slicked second layer of skin every single time. He threw on some sweats and a t-shirt knowing better than to use school showers to clean up; the water pressure could never begin to scrape off the levels of grime he felt after a 3 hour practice. Digging around his duffel for his keys, listening out for that distinct jingle so he could retrieve them, he jogged out to his car starting that drive home. And before he could think about anything else he was back inside of his bathroom stripping his clothes once again, running a barely lukewarm shower for himself, and meanwhile he might not be thankful for it, his muscles would be for that cold brush of water against them. Scrubbing roughly to remove the sweat, and dirt, and everything else he was sure he felt, he ran circles through his scalp massaging shampoo and conditioner in, and finally fully rising off. Getting out and drying his aching body, just barely wrapping his towel around himself he heard his phone ringing out.

'Come over after school.' Karl prompted to the other hanging up before he could reply with an answer.