old fashioned || karl jacobs x reader

12: clueless

The stream turned out to be extremely successful, much to my surprise. I was sure people would leave as soon as they saw my face on the screen, but, if anything, Karl's views skyrocketed because of the confusing situation. He had amassed something short of 300,000 views at one point and several hundred subs throughout the night. This would only encourage Karl to bring me on again, I assumed, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. The chat was rather kind to me every time I did make a cameo on his stream, whether small or major. The most heartwarming thing was seeing my name across Twitter afterward, followed by kind comments and mentions.

Finally, the year had come to an end, forcing me to realize how long I really had been with Karl. I had been living with him for not even three months, yet it somehow felt like over a year that we had known each other. His personality was just so magnetic and he had that effect on people, which wasn't a bad thing at all. Only a few times I had felt disconnected from Karl, those were times at the beginning of our friendship when we were just getting to know each other. Every other moment, though, it was as if we had been friends for years.

Leading up to New Year's Eve, Ellie accosted me at work, a smile on her face and bright and eager as ever. It had been a while since I had spoken to her, but she seemed as comfortable with me as usual. She extended an invitation to me to attend a New Years' party she was hosting at her house. Thankfully, I had nothing going on that night and accepted gratefully. Before I could even ask about Karl, she told me I was welcome to bring a guest if I wanted, seeing as I probably wouldn't know too many people there. Of course, my first thought was Karl if he had nothing going on.

Stupidly, though, I had forgotten. I meant to come home and ask if he wanted to come but I ha pushed it to the back burner. With all of New Year's Eve off, I spent the morning laying in my bed, wrapped in his sweatshirt, wondering what was missing. That aching feeling of having forgotten something rang through my bones but I couldn't quite place it. Truth be told, I had felt like that a lot recently so the feeling hadn't waned.

Something about the day Quackity left was missing. At first, I didn't care too much that I had forgotten a good chunk of our day, but as time went on and as I kept quiet about it, more anxiety generated about it. I wanted to ask Karl about the later part of that night after we watched Survivor, but I was almost afraid of what it would be. Maybe he didn't remember either and that night was just a blur. Still, recognizing that and realizing that it could've been nothing still ignited this fear in me even if there wasn't proof of anything bad.

I crawled out of my room, sleep still lingering in my body but I figured there was no use in laying in bed indefinitely. Karl's sweatshirt that hung loosely around my body almost covered the pajama shorts I had on as the hem hung low. While padding out to the kitchen, I brushed a hand through my hair to refresh me a bit before facing the world. Greeting me was my roommate at the counter, like every morning, while he scrolled through his phone.

When he heard my quiet footsteps, his stagnation shifted over to me, smile pasting across his lips. "Good morning," he hummed sleepily, a tinge of rasp dangling through his voice.

I smiled back and treated myself to a bowl of cereal. "Morning," my voice barely broke through in response, "how was your stream last night?"

His eyes were fixed on me the whole time I made my bowl. "Good, good. I was just on Quackity's stream, though, so it wasn't that big of a deal," Karl replied with a nod.

"Does he miss me?" I teased with a playful smirk.

A soft laugh left his lips. "He actually asked about you last night. He was wondering if you were gonna take up streaming now," he informed me.

I rolled my eyes and leaned over the counter while shoveling a spoonful of (favorite cereal) in my mouth. "I'm good," my response was slightly muffled, "I'll let that be your thing and I can be your special guest."