sweet tooth - karl jacobs

chapter 4- late

"i've been meaning to ask..." ava says awkwardly after a moment of silence. "i don't know if you comfortable answering, so you don't have to respond, but..." she inhales slowly. "have you talked to rachel since-"

"i'm gonna stop you right there," i say.

"i'll take that as a no..."

rachel is our older 23-year-old sister. you'd expect rachel and i to be close, since we're only 2 years apart, and for ava to be the outsider since she's 5 years younger than me, but you couldn't be more wrong. ava and i are very close, ava and rachel are neutral, and rachel and i hate each other.

for reasons i won't get into.

though ava and i look very similar, rachel doesn't even look related to us. she has emerald green eyes and dark brown hair that goes to her waist. her skin is more pallor than ours, and she has a natural hourglass figure.

and i hate her. i hate everything about her.

and i'm not talking about hating her because i'm jealous that she attracts the male gaze a lot more than i do. not at all. i hate her mostly because of her naturally mean-spirited personality.

"have you been talking to her?" i ask, mixing my drink unconsciously.

"would you hate me if i said yes?" ava hangs her head in shame.

"no, why would i hate you? she's your sister, and you decide who you talk to. no one else decides that for you."

"but she's your sister too."

"exactly. that's why i hate her even more."

"don't say hate, haven. that's a strong word."

"hate isn't a strong enough word to describe how i feel about her."

"okay." ava covers her ears and starts chewing on her bottom lip. "let's change the subject. i don't wanna talk about this anymore."

"i don't either." i take a bite of a cinnabon delight and feel the warm cream cheese frosting ooze out and drip down my hand.

an awkward tension hovers in the air for a while before we resume casual banter about random things.

"do you need me to drop you off at home?" i ask as ava and i get in my car after dinner.

"nope, because i got a car now!" she smiles brightly. my head snaps to her and my eyes are wide.

"no way! you passed your driver's test?"

"with flying colors!" ava gives a smug smile.

"i'm proud of you, aves, good job." i give her a fist bump and drive back to my apartment.

i drop my little sister off at the apartment complex parking structure and watch her get into her new white car. it hurts to watch, because she's all grown up now. it happened too quickly. and i didn't see a lot of it happen, because i moved out when i was eighteen and ava was thirteen.

as soon as ava drives away, i make my way into my apartment and flop onto my bed. holly walks over and stares for a brief moment, before continuing to do whatever it is she does.

i turn on my phone and find myself scrolling through instagram. i consider looking up "karl" to try to find the boy's account, but stop myself.

that's weird. and creepy.

so i turn off my phone and stare at the ceiling for a bit.

after a while, my eyelids start feeling heavy. i think the food coma is hitting. that and i only got three hours of sleep last night.

so i allow myself to close my eyes, forgetting to set my alarm for the next morning.

*.:｡✧*.｡✰*.:｡✧*.｡✰*.:｡✧*.｡✰*.:｡✧*.｡✰

"damn it!" i yell at myself when i wake up at 10:05 the next morning. my shift started over an hour ago.

i throw myself out of bed and quickly put on a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes. i hardly bother with hair and makeup, messily brushing through my blonde hair and only putting on mascara. i search for my keys in a panic, then hustle out the door.

i pray my manager lets this slide, considering i worked unpaid overtime yesterday.

i jump into my car and drive a bit above the speed limit in order to make it to sugar shack in as little time as possible. of course i normally walk, but when you're extremely late, walking isn't an option. so i get there in two minutes, when a normal drive would take five. which was definitely not safe, but i'm in one piece, so i'm not complaining.

i try to enter the shop as discreetly as possible, but ms. jenkins is waiting for me behind the counter.

"haven?" she asks in a stern voice. i grimace.

crap.

i put on a fake happy face as i turn around to face my manager.

"ms. jenkins! good morning," i say, making sure to flash my pearly whites. "i'm so sorry, i was super busy with my sister last night, and i slept through my alarm. i promise it won't happen again."

okay okay, so i lied. but who cares? i can't lose this job.

ms. jenkins' expression doesn't change.

"i'm less annoyed that you're late and more annoyed that you kept someone waiting for you." i raise an eyebrow.

"pardon?"

before i know it, a boy enters from the back room. my eyes widen and my mouth hangs open.

"hey, blondie," karl says. 

(A/N HEYYYY EVERYONE WELCOME TO THE NEW STORY!!! i hope you enjoyed these first four chapters! :D i'm super duper excited to keep publishing chapters, and i hope you're liking the story so far!! since this story is very new, i would really appreciate it if you could vote, comment, share, and add this story to your reading lists!! tell all your pals that the story is out B) I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!! thank you for starting this new journey with me, and i'm so excited to see where this takes us <33)