wait; karl jacobs ✓

five

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1 week.

karl had not talked to talia in one week. he had messaged her plenty, tried calling her a few times, and all he got back was a "im okay" when he told her he was worried.

they had never gone this long without talking.

ever since they first became friends they always prioritized speaking with each other. like when talia snuck her phone into summer camp so she could secretly message him at night. or when karl was literally on a private island in the middle of the ocean and still found ways to make sure she was getting updates.

the last few days were spent wondering what he could have possibly done wrong, and also trying to keep himself busy. he didn't realize how much time he spent talking and hanging out with talia until the boredom of not having her around struck.

"karl, would you mind running to the store for more cups? just literally as many as you can buy." jimmy instructed.

"sure thing." he said, clearly not his chipper self.

karl had been spending a lot of time thinking lately. wondering if maybe he shouldn't have brought up the fact that she wasn't in videos as much anymore. wondering if it was stupid for him to sleep in the bed with her.

his thoughts were pretty all consuming. he couldn't stop thinking if he had lost his best friend. and almost as if his trance of thoughts was broke, he regained his attention just in time to see talia passing the aisle he was on during his walmart run.

"talia!" he shouted, jogging to follow her.

she turned around and her expression looked as if she had seen a ghost.

"oh, hey karl." she replied, looking around to see who was nearby.

"where have you been? i haven't seen you in like a week." he hated to put her on the spot, but he also deserved some answers from his best friend.

"i've just been crazy busy. i'm sorry." she couldn't make eye contact.

"well you could have told me that, nerd." karl awkwardly laughed.

"yeah," she looked down at her phone. "hey, i'm sorry. i really need to get going. i'll talk to you later karl."

she turned to make her exit from the store but was stopped by karl grabbing her hand.

"wait," he stopped until she finally made eye contact with him. "we're okay, right tal?"

"right." she said, unassured in herself. she offered a sad smile and left him standing alone.

"sapnap," karl sat at his desk with his head in his hands. "i don't know what to do."

sapnap sat in his room in florida, listening to his heartbroken friend from several states away. he genuinely hurt for him.

"she's never acted like that towards you. this is so crazy."

karl was feeling a lot of things. at the top of the list was upset. he was upset because his best friend wouldn't even talk to him and could barely bring herself to look at him. following feeling upset would be feeling scared. karl was scared he had lost any chance of ever having talia as his.

"i think you need to give her space, and wait on her to come to you." sapnap said, bracing himself for karl not to like that answer, but he simply stayed quiet. so sapnap continued.

"she's clearly dealing with something. and i don't know, just from what you're saying i don't think it's personal to you. i think you just need to give her that space. it still sucks how she's treating you but she would never intentionally treat you bad."

"you're right," karl sadly admitted. "fine. i'll give her space, but i'm not gonna like it."

"i think i'm gonna go get a walk." talia called out, grabbing her coat off of the hook near the door.

"you're not gonna go stay at karl's house again are you?" max replied, not even bothering to look up from his phone.

"max," she warned. "we already talked about this. i'm really not cool with you hanging this above my head."

the last week has been, well, tense to say the least.

when max got back from the beach, something was clearly wrong, but he wasn't quick to offer up that information. after lots of persuading, he finally admitted that he was not very happy to check her phone location early in the morning and finding her at karl's house.

that led to a big argument about how max was not feeling like a priority, and that he always felt that he fell second to karl. and in a way that talia tried convincing herself wasn't an ultimatum, max told her that he needed to start seeing a shift in her priorities or he was leaving her.

talia was terrified. max had become such a large part of her life, especially since they moved in together, that she told herself losing him wasn't an option. so she decided to prove herself to him.

she quit talking to karl. the first time she ignored his phone call, she cried. there were sometimes she just wanted to hear her best friend's laugh. she needed one of his hugs. she wanted to explain it all to him. but she wasn't worried about convincing him that it made sense, she was worried he'd convince her it didn't make sense.