𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐀𝐆𝐍𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐒, k.jacobs

TWENTY.

TWENTY ;
speechless

real life !

Karl is a coward and he knows it. It became more and more apparent as he hesitated outside of their house, reluctant to face her when he knows she's going to be disappointed once again. She had never outright said those words, but Karl knew the truth. It was in the way she could hardly even look at him for longer than a few seconds at a time, and it was in the way she looked at him when she thought he wasn't looking. It was the same way she looked when she found out any bad news and he hated the fact that it was directed at him more than anything.

This time, the universe wasn't on his side and Marley didn't open the door. She had no reason to considering he hadn't messaged her beforehand letting her know he was stopping by.

It took him ten minutes of lurking outside like a creeper to knock on the door, and two more minutes for Marley to actually open it.

"Hi," he said quietly as he played with one of the rings on his fingers. "did I wake you up?"

The answer was obvious. Marley was still in her pajamas and her hair was thrown up into a clearly rushed ponytail, but she was still the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

And she didn't look particularly thrilled to see him.

He couldn't blame her. It was nearing two in the morning and he looked more or less like a walking corpse.

"That's kind of a dumb question, Karl," she replied, offering him a half smile. "Are you okay? It's late...you know that, right?"

Karl nodded, looking just to the left of her face. "Yeah, I know. But I got a last minute call from Jimmy and we're flying to California at five for the next week. It felt...wrong to not see you before I left. I'm sorry for coming over so late and waking you up, but I had to say bye before I left or I'm pretty sure I would have a heart attack and die."

Marley stared at him for a few seconds before shaking her head, "I don't think that's how it works, Karl," she hesitated, before nodding towards the house. "Are you going to come inside?"

"No," he said in a soft voice, finally making eye contact with her. "If I go in I don't think I would be able to convince myself to leave."

"You wouldn't have to," she muttered.

He winced lightly before stuffing his hands in his pockets, "You know that's not true, Mars."

She shrugged, arms moving to wrap around her middle. "It could be."

"It will be," he corrected with a sad smile. "When I come back home, I promise you that i'll fix us, okay? I'll get my shit together and i'll come home and we'll be okay again."

"Don't promise that unless you intend to keep it," she said, narrowing her eyes at him. "I can't handle anymore heartbreak from you, Karl Jacobs. Please don't force me to do anything that'll hurt us both."

Karl winced again before offering her his pinky. Once she wrapped hers around his, he quickly brought them close to his face and pressed a soft kiss against them. "I'm not going to break this one, Mars."

"Good," she said with a soft smile. "Make sure you don't fall in love with any California girls while you're there or were going to have some serious problems, okay?"

He let out a surprised laugh as he held onto her hand for a little longer, "I wouldn't dare."

"That's good to hear," she replied, "now since you're here...you wanna take Alex back to California with you? He's threatened to sue me like twelve times today and i'm sick of it."

"I think taking him back with me might actually make him threaten to sue you more. It'll also guarantee getting videos of him pretending to sob sent to you randomly throughout the day," Karl said with a chuckle. "If it helps, i'm pretty sure he said he was going back home on Friday."

Marley groaned and ran a hand down her face, "Great, four more days stuck with an actual toddler. This is great news that i'm so excited to hear."

As she stood there, smiling up at him and seemingly too tired to be annoyed with him, Karl contemplated telling her everything. They had fallen back into their old dynamic quickly and it was nearly enough to convince Karl that nothing was wrong.

But as he opened his mouth to finally tell her, Karl was reminded just how much of a coward he truly was.

A/N
hahahaha pointing and laughing hahaha