Sweet tune ( karlnap )

Clocks

Possible tw: mentions of alcohol
Karl's pov this time :)
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For the first week I followed the same pattern: wake up, write, visit the band and smoke weed with them, work and drink until my knees ceased and my steps felt light.
I made sure to drink the right amount so i was still kind of lucid but not enough to think;
every day i kept myself busy with each task i could think of, obsessively occupying all the space in my mind, from walking around the apartment and naming each object i saw to scrubbing the bathroom's tiles untill my hands hurt and nails bled.

I didn't want to think about him, i couldn't. I was aware that the moment the first two letters of his name started lining up in my mind it would have been the last one without the void of his absence constantly harrassing me everywhere,
so i just stopped thinking about it.

When the topic came up during conversations i would diverge from it or make sure they knew i wasn't gonna partake in the discussion;
William once told us about an evening where, as he was writing a letter to his brother Thomas, he accidentally spelled the wrong address and sent it to another house.
After a few weeks he received a response from a girl which i recall with the name of Violet or some other color, who notified him of the error yet still answered every question the first letter asked to his brother, sparking an immediate interest in Will and quickly turning her into a mysterious and romantic infatuation.

When he invited us to share a story like his, he received a handsign by Callahan that indicated the number zero, my blank stare and a half-assed story about Charlie falling in love with this blonde girl with thorny lips he made love with and later found out to be a scarecrow. He admitted he drank excessively that evening.

Sometimes, during concerts, I would receive winky smiles and long-eyed glances by young women with luxurious furs around their naked shoulders and slim waists, which i kindly rejected as they approached me between a drink and the other.
"Why are you refusing all these beautiful women?" Will asked me, watching a blonde girl leave the seat next to mine as he leaned onto the table to see me across a few people between us. His voice was slightly raised so i could hear him through the chatter and music.
I simply shrugged, trying to make up an excuse in my mind.
"I'm not looking for distractions." I responded before thanking the barista, a ginger i recognized from his white strand of hair popping out of his pale forehead, for handing me a drink.
William looked at me blankly as he sipped on his rum and decided to get up and sit where the youthful 'distraction', as i defined her, was just a minute before.

"You're young." He started, raising his eyebrows and hinting a smile in the hope i would catch his message.
"You're only a few years older than me." I replied in plastic ingenuity, already cutting off any idea he could have proposed.
"And you really don't want to feel the breeze of falling in love? Of...of..." He started with shiny eyes, tripping over his words saturate with emotions and excitement. "...of falling asleep in the hope of seeing her in your dreams?"
I reached for my glass in a swift, nervous instinct, and taking a quick shot i swirled the sweet pain on my tongue to distract the scorching one pulsing in my wrists and temples and aching in my heart.

I gulped, exhaling a cold breath with humid lips.
"Nope." I mumbled, pressing my tongue against the palate on the 'n' and trapping it between a thin line with the 'p'.
He opened his mouth to respond, but Mr. Quackity interrupted him, approaching us quietly.
"Karl. Come with me please." He called me then, his words striking the conversation like a thunder.
William chuckled as he noticed my slight jump from the seat.
I mumbled a yes and immediately got up, pinning a few bucks on the table and following him as he silently left the room.
He led me outside the building, where he simply opened his car and got in.
I hesitantly entered the vehicle, quite confused and with a slight feeling of anguish mixing with the booze in my stomach.
I didn't dare open my mouth, but i kept watching outside the window to catch anything that would hint us where we were going.