Journey- Karl Jacobs

Chapter 8- Meeting the family

"Karrrlll! I've missed you so much!" Karl's sister squealed as she greeted them and wrapped him in a hug.

"Hey Corry." He chuckled as they parted from their hug, then the girl with the silky brown hair turned her attention to Ellie.

"And you must be Ellie!" the over excited girl pulled Ellie into a warm embrace too, "How on earth did my dork of a brother manage to get someone as gorgeous as you?" 

"Thank you so much, it means a lot coming from someone as beautiful as you are." She giggled as Corry beckoned them inside, out of the cold. They were immediately greeted with another woman just as perky as very similar looking to the one they just met, who Ellie assumed was Karl's mom. She was a similar height to herself, faded brown hair, relatively youthful features given her age and dressed in a fluffy lavender jumper with black sweatpants. 

"Karl my baby!" She sang hugging him and pinching his cheeks. Karl flushed red with embarrassment and avoided eye contact with Ellie, who stood there giggling quietly.  "And sweetie you must my boy's darling girlfriend, it's lovely to meet you, how are you my dear?" The woman exclaimed and pulled her into a hug too. 

"Hi Mrs Jacobs, I'm good it's really nice to meet you too." She smiled. 

"Oh please dear call me Sarah, Mrs Jacobs makes me sound older than I already am." They both giggled before Karl showed Ellie up to the room they would be staying in so they could put their bags in there. Karl's old room was painted a royal blue colour on all 4 walls, a long white desk with multiple stickers on it, a chest of drawers of the same colour, a tall wardrobe and a double bed with pale blue sheets. She sauntered over to the desk and ran her fingers over the layers of nickelodeon, Disney and cartoon network adhesives. 

"Can you tell I've not changed?" Karl giggled as he pressed his body up against Ellie's back and hugged her tightly, placing a trail of kisses on her neck. The feeling lingered on her skin as she swivelled round and placed one on his lips, both smiling as they pulled apart. "Sorry by the way, if my mom and sister were a bit, much." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Oh don't be silly, they're so sweet! Now I see where you get it from." She smiled and went over to unzip her suitcase, taking out her phone charger and plugging it into an outlet on the wall. Karl popped his head into the hallway as his sister shouted something Ellie just about couldn't hear. He strolled back in with a wide grin on his face and plonked down on the bed next to where she was sat. 

"Sooooo, we're going out to dinner tonight. All of us. To a fancy restaurant." Karl smiled guiltily, he did previously know this as they did it every year on christmas eve, but completely forgot to tell Ellie. She could tell by his face he was sorry and did know this before, so just playfully rolled her eyes and got up to go through the folded clothes in her suitcase.

"You're lucky I packed a nice outfit." She giggled, pulling out a long sleeved black button up shirt, an A-line red skirt that came just above her knees, shimmery black tights, and a pair of short black ankle boots. Karl went to the bathroom to let Ellie get changed, which she also did as he switched up his outfit to his nicest looking jeans and white long sleeved shirt. 

*Author's note: So, I was trying really hard to write a the scene at the restaurant but it was giving me major writers block for like over a month so I made the decision to just skip to when they got back home. All you need to know is it was a nice meal and they met Karl's Dad and brother when they were there. Thank you for understanding :)* 

It was around 8 pm by the time they got back after the luxurious meal they had thoroughly enjoyed, and Ellie was surprised just how loving and accepting Karl's family were having her around. She loved hearing the stories his mum had from him and his siblings' youth; by the sound of it they hadn't changed a bit. It was a great bonding opportunity for them all, even for Karl as it had been a while since he had been to visit his family. 

About an hour later the two were changed into comfier clothes and just relaxing in Karl's room- quite bored to be honest- when an idea popped into him mind. 

"Do you feel like going out?" He asked, bouncing down on his bed next to Ellie.

"What? We've just been out." She said looking up from her phone confused.

"There's somewhere I really want to take you, it's not too far to walk and I think you'll really like it." Karl smiled, proud of the idea which showed in his sparkling grey eyes. 

"So you want to take me to some random place, at 9 o'clock at night on christmas eve in the freezing cold?"  She queried as he nodded giddily and a wide grin spread across her face. "I'm so down." 

Karl jumped up in excitement and went to grab them both a hoodie as it was admittedly freezing outside; before putting them on and leading Ellie out the front door. 

The frosty air nipped at their faces on their walk to this mystery place Karl was dying to take Ellie to. On the way he was pointing out all kinds of things about his neighbourhood and the dumb stuff he used to do with his friends. 

"See that big tree over there? I fell out that tree twice in a row and ended up breaking my wrist on the second fall." He pointed at a large oak tree which was leafless but covered in ice.

"Why on earth did you do it twice?" Ellie laughed and shook her head wondering why he would climb back up a tree given just fallen out of it.

"This idiot was picking on my sister and had thrown her favourite teddy up in the tree. I got halfway up when I fell first but I went back up to get it. Second time I got the plush and threw it down to her but I fell moments after and landed funny on my hand: it was worth it though to see the smile on her face." 

"So you've always been a sweetie then." Ellie said and they both giggled. 

"We're here! Does this remind you of anywhere?" Karl gasped and grabbed her hand to show her a cute little skate park next to a dimly lit diner, just like-

"Just like our first date." She blushed and gazed around at the park that looked so similar to the place where they first got to know each other on that warm summer day. "Oh how things have changed." 

"Not for me, I loved you since I first saw you, it was you who didn't like me." Karl reasoned resulting in him getting a light slap on the arm as they sat down in one of the skating bowls.

"It's not that I didn't like you, I just hated the male species as a whole." She rested her head on his shoulder as the laughter rippled in the air, just as it did when they went on their first date. As the night grew darker and the clock turned later, large flakes of snow started falling from the sky, covering the floor in white and making the air seem even colder. 

The pair made the decision to go home after over an hour of sitting there, talking about everything and anything that came to mind. They arrived home at around 11 so made sure to be quiet not to wake the other people who were fast asleep in the house. 

"I just need to check on something- I'll be up in a sec." Karl said as Ellie hung her hoodie on the coat rack next to the front door and gave him a questioning look, but carried on upstairs anyway, not giving it much of a second thought. 

He took himself over to the unlit christmas tree where all the presents were piled underneath. He found the bag of gifts that were from him and rummaged around to find one of the presents with Ellie's name written on the tag. He debated leaving it in there for a minute anxiously picking at his nails, but instead pocketed it, put the bag back and tip toed upstairs to bed.

"Did you find what you needed to?" Ellie asked, already in bed and propped up on her elbows to talk to Karl who was just putting his hoodie on the back of his door, the gift still inside.

"Yeah, I was just checking to see if I'd put my sister's gift in the bag, I wasn't sure." He lied but she thought nothing more of it. He slipped into bed next to her and they cuddled up close, slowly drifting off to sleep together.

~~~💙~~~

Thank you so much for reading and sorry again about the skip in the scenes, it took me almost a month to write a half-decent one and I just didn't feel like publishing if it wasn't written to the best of my ability! <3