wait; karl jacobs ✓

fifteen

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"talia? oh my- wait, whats happening?" sapnap threw the door open and stopped in his track.

seconds earlier he was terrified if talia was okay with what was happening on twitter. now he stood confused as he looked at talia laying asleep in karl's arms as he gently ran his hand through her hair. karl quickly and quietly put a finger to his lips to tell sapnap to be quiet.

"i know you didn't just shush me."

"she's asleep, wait." karl carefully moved talia so her head would lay on her pillow and silently followed sapnap out of the room.

the two stood in silence staring at each other, both waiting for the other to initiate the inevitable conversation. finally sapnap waved his arms to motion for him to talk.

"um, well- i don't know. we kissed, she kissed me." karl said, not knowing what information his friend was looking for exactly.

"are you serious?" karl found sapnap extremely difficult to read at that moment.

"yes?"

the still silence lasted for only a moment longer before karl immediately found himself being squeezed in a tight hug.

"you did it! well, i guess she did it, but it happened! tell me about it. did you finally tell her everything?"

"well, not really. she was kind of panicking about the twitter stuff, and then she kissed me, and then she panicked more, and then she went to sleep." once he said it, karl realized it didn't sound too romantic.

"oh, alright. that works. you're gonna tell her how you feel now, right?"

karl quickly tucked in his lips, almost wincing in pain at his friend's question, seeing as he had been asking himself the same thing. his mind seemed to be at war over this small thought that demanded an answer.

he should tell her. tell her how for years he has been in love with every small part of her existence. how in high school his breath would hitch when she would walk in the room and he was reminded how beautiful she is. how his favorite moments were when her favorites bands would release new music and she insisted that they would go on drives to listen to it accompanied with no talking. how his heart would flutter when he was on set for a shoot and someone would let him know that talia had just arrived.

but then he would argue with himself that he shouldn't dare tell her. at least not yet. she just had her ex boyfriend blow her out for the whole internet with accusations of her cheating on him with karl. he was sure that the last thing she wanted was a relationship that would make it seem that these rumors were true. there was also the fear that a new founded relationship wouldn't work. what then? he couldn't afford to not have talia in his life.

"i don't know," karl dropped his head, ashamed. "i want to so bad. i just- i don't know."

"i know that you are really nervous, but i don't know if you really have a choice now."

"you sure you want me to do this?" karl said after ensuring his microphone was off.

talia simply nodded her head. not long after she woke up, she asked karl if they would clear the air on the allegations max made. he of course agreed, seeing as she asked just before he could offer to do so.

now they both sat in front of karl's webcam and computer, staring at the plain black screen that said "streaming starting soon". normally he had some cool animation and music playing, but that didn't feel super appropriate.

"ready?" he asked.

talia glanced at the lined sheet of notebook paper that she had wrote a few notes on of things she wanted to say. she wanted to come clean on everything. she wanted to offer herself freedom from all of the things she had been carrying, along with wanting to clear karl's name. she couldn't care much about what max had said about her, but she carried so much guilt knowing that karl's name had now been tainted.

"i'm ready." she said as she smoothed out her piece of paper.

karl clicked the necessary buttons to allow the waiting screen to disappear and for his and talia's face to fill the screens of the 75 thousand people who were currently watching.

"hey everyone. this isn't gonna be super long, we just wanted to give it a minute so we don't have to repeat ourselves. this is gonna be the only time we are gonna address this stuff, so please respect that. um, so yeah. i think we're just gonna get into this?" karl looked to talia who gave an approving nod while she silently prayed that she would have the courage to say all of the words that she needed to and wanted to say.

"okay then lets just get into this," karl said, sitting up a bit straighter. "in case you all weren't aware, tal and i have been friends for about 7 years now. we have always been super close and always will be. we knew each other before her and max even started dating and our interactions in our friendship have always stayed platonic. if you didn't see what was posted and are really confused right now: max and talia broke up a few weeks ago and he made a post earlier today claiming that he caught talia cheating on him with me, which did not happen in the slightest."

karl looked at talia to gauge where she was so far, but she didn't offer many clues.

"there is always gonna be two sides to every story, and i've honestly never been more disappointed in the internet than in the last few hours. so many people were so quick to say some of the nastiest things about both me and talia before we could even see the post and get our thoughts together. i don't wanna speak for tal- do you wanna kind of explain your side?"

talia glanced at her cheat of notes before taking a deep breath.

"yeah-well, i'm not too sure how to do this. i left max a few weeks ago after finding out that he was cheating one me after i had my suspicions for a while. i was content in leaving the relationship and not looking back, but obviously max felt otherwise seeing as he made this post. i just-" talia cut herself off as she felt herself get choked.

she instantly look down at her lap to attempt to keep anyone watching from seeing the tears in her eyes. karl reached under the table and discretely squeezed her hand. she reached up and crinkled up the piece of paper she had prepped for this.

"i just hate that he felt so wronged somehow in our relationship that he took to trying to dirty our names. and i honestly couldn't care much what is said about me, but its different that karl was brought into something that didn't involve him. i would never cheat. i loved max and i loved him the year and a half i gave to him. he just couldn't find enough value in that."

karl allowed the silence to sit, not wanting to interrupt if talia had anything else to say. after some time she glanced up at him to allow him to finish.

"that's really it. i know this was short, but this isn't a production. its the truth. we aren't going to address this anymore past what was just said, so if you find difficultly in believing what we had to say then it's probably best to quit following our online presences. okay- well, i guess thats all. we will be back to content soon, more of just when we are ready. bye you guys."

karl quickly ended the stream and looked to talia. his eyes scanned every detail of her face, hoping for an answer of how she was feeling. his efforts came back void as she couldn't give any hints to our emotions.

"i think-" karl started but was quickly cut off.

"we need to talk."

a/n:
uhh so this is awkward

its been almost 6 months since i have updated and this chapter has been in progress for 5 months

the delay has been a mix between severe writers block and college absolutely kicking my butt

so i'm sorry and can't make promises but im going to try prioritizing writing again because its one of my biggest joys

love you all