this love ☼ dreamnotfound

{ 39 }

george hadn't answered his texts in days, he didn't even bother trying to ask clay, obviously sapnap couldn't come, and alex said he was sick. alex never cancelled plans even if he felt sick. karl didn't push it though, he would completely understand if alex just wasn't in the mood.

sapnap was the first person to wish him a happy birthday, texting him at twelve in the morning. karl couldn't explain how much he wanted sapnap to come home. he would let sapnap stay at his house in a heartbeat, and he knew his parents would allow him to for as long as he needed to. unfortunately, it just wasn't that simple.

his parents were out running some last-minute errands for wrapping paper and other birthday necessities while karl was home alone on his couch watching movies that he's seen a million times. he was still in the clothes he slept in and hadn't even bothered to brush his hair. he got emotional as he sat there; his friends always made his birthdays the best days ever, but this year, they couldn't do that.

suddenly, karl's doorbell rang. his parents hadn't been out for that long- they couldn't possibly be back already. they rarely had to ring the doorbell either because his dad never forgot to take his keys with him.

pulling himself off of his couch, karl walked towards his front door, hearing the doorbell ring a few more times. it was annoying, but it made karl curious about who could possibly be at his house.

he opened the door to reveal tina, punz, and foolish standing on his front porch. they all had gifts in their hands and huge smiles on their faces.

"happy birthday!" tina greeted, bringing karl in for a hug. foolish and punz joined them.

karl hadn't even processed that three of his friends had just showed up on what had been his worst birthday ever, but it made him genuinely smile. maybe he could have a good day after all.

"what are you guys doing here?" karl wondered. none of this had been planned.

"we wanted to surprise you," foolish told him.

punz added, "yeah, it's your birthday. duh."

"is something wrong?" tina worried, observing karl's appearance. it was almost two in the afternoon and he looked like he had just woken up.

"not anymore," karl decided. his eyes lit up knowing that there were people who would still make time for him.

punz and foolish sat on the living room couch while tina brought karl upstairs, helping him finally get ready for the day. it really did make him feel a lot better.

around three hours passed before karl's parents came home, happy to see that karl had friends over and hadn't just been sitting alone all day. they brought home dinner, cake, loads of presents, and over-the-top decorations. they just wanted karl to have a good birthday; they knew he wasn't doing very well.

karl had sapnap on facetime when he blew out the candles on his cake and opened his presents, and tina thought it was the sweetest thing ever. karl's friends had spoiled him too, and he insisted that they didn't have to get him anything, but they argued and said he deserved it.

afterwards, they all wanted to go outside to see if any of the stray cats were out. punz was the first one out the door, and he spotted something on the porch. he picked it up and turned over his shoulder to look at karl. he told, "this was outside." he held the box out to him.

karl took it and inspected it; it was a pretty small box that was beautifully wrapped. there was no note attached or any implication of who it was from.

"what is it?" foolish asked.

"i think it's a box," karl replied sarcastically. obviously he didn't know what it actually was.