overworked and under-informed

epilogue - summer

𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖌𝖊𝖗 𝖜𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 𝖆𝖗𝖊 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖔𝖕𝖊𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗

✬˖༄ ♡ ࿐*✬

the car comes to a stop right as karl's phone buzzes in his hand, and he glances down to see that his mom responded with an array of heart emojis - and one pencil, though karl assumes that was unintentional. he had messaged her no more than twenty minutes ago to let her know he'd landed safely, just like she'd asked him to.

he has a string of texts from his group chat with nolan and kris too, but he'll open them later.

 knowing his friends, they would have been messaging during the entirety of karl's flight and he doesn't have time to answer right now, not when he's paying the driver and stepping out of the car and onto a street he's only seen in pictures and calls.

the car leaves and karl takes a moment to take in his surroundings, turning full circle to notice all the things he hadn't before. the boys never bothered showing him down the road, because why would they, and karl looks now to see that their road ends only a few houses down. there's a corner shop on the bend, and karl vaguely remembers one of the boys saying it's where they go for last-minute alcohol.

the sound of a door clicking pulls karl's attention back to the house in front of him and he smiles when he sees the familiar boy.

grabbing his suitcase, karl makes his way up the driveway.

"sapnap is going to be so pissed," the darker-haired man says, laughing brightly. he steps out of the house to meet karl on the doorstep, pulling him in for a hug.

karl lets go of his suitcase to hug ponk back. out of all of sapnap's housemates, they get along the best, though karl has grown to consider them all friends. "why?" he asks with a laugh.

ponk squeezes him tight. "he just went to pee. we told him you were still ten minutes away." ponk's housing a smug grin as they step out of the hug and karl gapes playfully, genuine giggles bubbling up through him.

he'd been so anxious on the plane. now, he isn't even remotely thinking about his nerves.

"why didn't he just track me?" karl asks, reaching back to grab his luggage again. sapnap and karl started sharing their location not long after the ravenette left so they would know when the other was busy -either with work or school. karl doesn't even remember how ponk, sam, dream and foolish managed to worm their way into the circle so that they too could all track one another, but it happened.

"sam took his phone away because he was getting too worked up, waiting for you," ponk answers honestly, but their smile indicates that it was more amusing than concerning. he steps back, holding the door open as karl enters the large house, immediately relieved by the cool air conditioning. "we thought he'd get a migraine if he checked for texts one more time, and that was way before you were even expected to land."

that explains why the ravenette hadn't messaged yet. karl had quite firmly said he didn't want to be picked up from the airport, preferring to see everyone in a more private place so he wouldn't have to worry about strangers judging him (anxiety, whatever) and he was surprised when sapnap didn't call and offer to pick him up for the millionth time.