sweet tooth - karl jacobs

chapter 18- stay

"well, i already bought the food..."

i shrug and watch him place the bag on the kitchen counter.

"fair enough."

holly hears the two of us talking, and waltzes into the kitchen. karl gasps when she sees her, then crouches down to pet her.

"you have a cat!" he says while scratching the white cat's head.

"i do," i reply, admiring how good he is with holly. it's surprising, because my cat is like me. she doesn't love meeting new people and takes a while to come out of her shell. but she seems obsessed with karl.

"what's their name?"

"her name is holly."

"she's precious."

"she seems to like you."

"who doesn't?" karl flashes a smile at me and i roll my eyes.

"i could name someone. but maybe she'll change her mind after she eats whatever you brought."

and so the two of us eat orange chicken, chow mein, and rice together, with the occasional banter thrown back and forth. we both vent about our days, talk about mallory's antics, and so on. i hate to admit it, but karl is great company. always smiling, always laughing at the right moments. he's like a little ball of light in this dark world.

the two of us kick back on my couch and decide we want to watch reality tv, and agree upon keeping up with the kardashians. both of us get a kick out of the stupid show, and stay up too late watching it.

"i'm exhausted," i say, glancing at my clock on the wall. 12:15 am.

"do you have work tomorrow?" karl asks.

"no. thank god."

"cool, we can have a little hangout day. if you're up for that."

say no. you can't get close to him. you can't let him into your life. that's only going to make things so much more complicated, and what if you catch feelings for-

"yeah, i'm down."

goddammit.

i head to my room while karl takes the couch for the night. i fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, and i hope that karl is comfortable enough in the living room. but then again, i slept like a baby on that couch earlier today, so it can't be awful.

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i'm awoken by my phone ringing at 3:00 in the morning. i groan, attempting to drown out the noise, but it's not working. so i reach over and grab my phone, checking to see who the hell is calling me at such an hour.

incoming call: ava evergreen

my eyebrows lower in fear. ava's always dead asleep at this time, and doesn't call me unless it's an emergency. i immediately pick up.

"ava?" i whisper, trying my best not to wake karl, who is probably sleeping. "are you okay?"

"uh..." ava answers in a shaky voice.

"talk to me, what's wrong?"

"so, you know how i have finals tomorrow?"

"mhm."

"which means i have to be at school at 8?"

"mhm."

"which means i-"

"get to the point."

"right. well i snuck off to meet with jake a few hours ago, and when i came home mom and dad were in my room waiting for me. so i'm kinda grounded and kinda don't have a car for a while."