bucket list//dnf

chapter 4 - frozen yogurt

"dumbo," nick stated confidently. he raised his hands and adjusted his headband, but didn't take it off. his eyes flickered across the living too, before returning to george. 

"nope," george responded, popping the "p". he looked up at nick's headband. the beat-up card that had been placed in the red headband did indeed say "dumbo", but george wanted to mess with his friend.

nick's expression turned sour. "how is it not? ugh. i give up." he crossed his arms and fell back into the couch, slouching, until he yanked the headband off his head and looked at the card before frowning and laughing.

"you dickhead! it did say dumbo!" nick exclaimed. george giggled.

george opened his eyes. he was sitting cross-legged on his bed and his phone was laying innocently in front of him. the screen was on, and frozen on a the details of a contact george wanted to call but didn't have the courage to.

the words "karl j :)" bored up into his brown eyes. he bit his lip and looked back at it. one of his pale fingers stretched forward, pulled back, and inched forward again. george's finger hovered over the call button next to karl's contact.

he squeezed his eyes shut and let his finger come in contact with the phone. it started buzzing.

george peeked at it. "calling karl j :)" was displayed on the screen. he felt his stomach tumble over itself in sheer nerves. george was terrified. he had no clue how this was going to go- all he could do was hope for the best.

it stopped buzzing. instead of saying it was calling karl, it showed karl's name and the amount of time they had been calling, three seconds.

"hello?" a voice said at the end of the phone. george winced.

"um, hi. is this . . . is this karl jacobs?"

"yes, is this george davidson?"

"yes."

silence. and not the comfortable kind.

"was this a butt-dial?"

"no. i just- how do i explain this? i-" george sighed. "i have no friends. and you were nice before i became really socially awkward a year ago. i still am, clearly," george chuckled. karl giggled softly too.

"i was wondering if maybe you wanted to be friends? i know that two years ago you tried, really hard, to become friends with nick and i, and i'm so sorry for being too awkward to realize that we probably needed someone like you to be friends with, and-"

karl cut george off. "what happened with nick, by the way? you said you didn't have friends. i thought you and nick were inseparable."

"he, um, he died." george muttered. "a month ago."

"oh." karl said sadly. "i'm so sorry for your loss. are you doing okay?"

"i'm- i'm not okay, but i'm doing better. i'm not as sad. i still miss him, but i'm definitely better." george said. he chuckled quietly. "sorry for dumping that on you right away."

karl giggled. "it's okay." he paused. "so am i a pick-me-up-friend?" karl joked. george shook his head, even though he knew karl couldn't see him.

"no. to be honest, i should've befriended you long before nick passed, but i guess him leaving me was the wake-up call i needed." george didn't realize he was speaking the truth until the words were already out of his mouth. his cheeks flushed in embarrassment as silence engulfed the room.

"well." karl said thoughtfully. "i would love to be your friend. do you want to meet up somewhere later today and catch up?"

george thought for a moment before nearly falling off his bed in his hurry to dig the list out of his pocket. he ended up laying in his back with one leg hanging off the bed and the other bent at the knee at a weird angle. he grabbed the list and sat back up. george quickly opened it and scanned the list.