sweet tooth - karl jacobs

chapter 50- happy birthday

everyone jumps out of their hiding spot, the lights turn on, and the music turns up. party blowers are being blown a million times per second, and a bunch of confetti makes a loud "pop" as it falls from the tube.

karl's smile glows radiantly before he clamps a hand over his mouth, and i swear i see tears form in the corner of his eyes.

"THANK YOUR HOST!" dream shouts over everyone else, pointing towards me. karl looks towards him, then follows his finger to lock eye contact with me. his eyes trail down my body, then back up to my face as his face turns the same color as my dress. he walks over to me and wraps his arms tightly around my waist, as i put mine around his neck.

"you did this for me?" he asks through sniffles, which is making me want to cry. but i know i can't, otherwise garrett will drag me to the bathroom and redo all my makeup.

"you've done so much for me," i reply. "i hope this is a decent repayment."

"it's perfect. you're perfect. inside and out. you look so beautiful right now. i mean, you're always beautiful but this is a type of beautiful i haven't seen from you before, and i'm... at a loss for words."

i smile as i run a hand through his soft, brown locks.

"thank you. and i'm sorry i didn't wish you a happy birthday earlier. i swear i've been counting the days until your big day, but i didn't say anything out of fear i'd spoil the surprise."

"this definitely makes up for it."

and when i feel a couple of tears hit my shoulder, it takes everything in me to not start bawling my eyes out like a baby.

"i think it's time to greet your other guests," i say as i pull away from him. "there's a lot of them."

karl nods as he walks around saying hi to everyone, and the lights dim back down so garrett's silly disco ball can make its grand appearance.

music is blasting, drinks are flowing, and bodies are dancing. i'm having trouble keeping track of everyone, and i attempt to find a familiar face.

"haven!" a voice behind me calls. i whip around, immediately recognizing the voice as quackity.

"oh my god, quackity?" i ask as the two of us exchange a quick hug. "it's nice to finally meet you!"

"likewise, i can't believe you were able to put this together!"

"oh please, i had a lot of help, including help from you! i wouldn't have been able to do this if you didn't help drag karl's ass to the movies for almost four hours."

"the movie was lame," sapnap says, approaching quackity from behind with a red cup in his hand. i smile at the sight of him. "hello, you two."

"nice to see you again, sapnap. it's been a while," i say. he nods.

"you outdid yourself."

"like i said to quackity, it wouldn't have been possible without you." i pause for a moment. "have you seen george? i want to meet him, even though he probably doesn't want to meet me."

i recall the many times we've called and how exasperated he would always sound while talking to me. which makes sense, considering i have no idea how to stream or play games like he does.

"i saw him at the shots table earlier," sapnap laughs, possibly laughing a bit too hard. "he's probably so fucking wasted by now."

"you sound pretty wasted yourself," quackity quips back.

"shut up. i'm not."

i smile at the two of them as i make my way to the newly named "shots table," and i spot george egging dream on to take a shot. i've seen george in pictures before, and it's easy to find his familiar, attractive face in the crowd.