Behind a Broken Mirror

Chapter 5

I smiled, listening to Wilbur, Tommy, and Tubbo sing. They were singing Non-Stop from Hamilton, and it was so messy, but it was somehow still good.

Before stream started, Karl said he wanted to do a duet with me. Not going to lie, that gave me major anxiety. But seeing the others joke around a lot, I felt better about it, because I didn't have to be perfect.

I was brought out of my thoughts when Karl tapped on my shoulder. He looked concerned, and I got extremely worried. What did I do?

"Camera and mic is off." He whispered, and I gave him a confused look.

"Why? What happened?" I ask, and at this point my anxiety is through the roof.

"You're bleeding, Raven." Karl says, and I look down.

Sure enough, there's a small patch of blood seeping through my shirt. My breath hitches, and I pull my shirt up a little. There's a cut right where I hit my ribs on the desk, it wasn't bad, but it needed to be treated soon.

"Shit.. I'm so sorry-" I rush, but Karl stands up and leaves the room.

I feel like shit for ruining today's stream. I really hope I'm able to make it up to Karl. This is only the second time we've seen each other in person, and I'm not ready for this to be over already.

When Karl came back in, he had a med kit. He looked at me nervously. I couldn't tell what he was asking, but I nodded anyway.

He walked over, gently placing a wet cloth over the cut. I closed my eyes, trying not to pay attention to what he was doing. I will never be okay with looking at cuts or injuries.

My head felt heavy, and I was getting worried. Was I about to pass out? If I pass out this will really ruin everything. But no matter how hard I tried, I still slipped, and everything went blank.

Then I felt a hand on my forehead, and my eyes flew open. Everything came back. Then I realized that Karl was pretty close. My cheeks started to burn, so I cleared my throat.

"Is it over?" I say quietly, and Karl nods, backing up.

"I ended stream, by the way. You fell asleep." Karl whispered, and I sighed.

"I'm sorry for ruining the stream."

"You didn't ruin it, Raven. You were hurt and that was more important than some dumb karaoke stream."

I stared at him, receiving a soft stare right back. My brain told me to say something, but I knew if I tried, words would fail me. It looked the same for Karl.

We just stared, saying nothing to each other. For a moment, it felt like we had gotten closer. There was no way though, right? It was starting to get awkward, so I finally found some words.

"Can we try again tomorrow?" I ask, and Karl smiles.

"Yeah, we can." He says, and then I stand up.

"Well, I should get going then. See you-"

"Wait! Why don't you stay? It's a bit of a long drive, isn't it?"

I stare at him, my cheeks flushing red.