teacher's pet

double take

𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳

≛

"what's wrong, karl?" delilah asked, her voice full of genuine concern. her gaze followed karl as he moved through the kitchen, feeling like a ghost in his own house.

"nothing," he dismissed. he looked around the space surrounding him, and it all felt so unfamiliar. the brunette was cold on the inside, and even his mother's calming presence couldn't pull him out of his head.

"come on, sweetheart. talk to me," she encouraged gently. when she's alone, without cynthia to play bad cop, her genuine kindness seems to excude off her in waves.

karl was almost tempted, but he didn't even know what was wrong with him. there was something, he just didn't know what.

he looked over to the side of the kitchen, his gaze landing on the sky outside – full of sun and wholly cloudless.

"i think i'm going to go on a walk," he said. maybe the nice weather would cheer him up. or, at least, he could walk until his mind was empty from the hell it was going through right now.

karl hated being sad without reason.

"do you want me to come?"

karl could only shake his head as he went to leave, dismissing himself without another word as if he was never there.

his exit was silent and, if he hadn't warned his mom where he was going, he doesn't think anyone would've even realised he was gone.

karl hasn't been walking for long, and he's still in his neighbourhood, but it sort of feels like he's been walking for hours.

everything just feels so slow. he's almost lethargic as he moves, each step weighing on his limbs and dragging him lower and lower.

he hates not knowing why he feels so awful, especially considering nothing has really happened to make him feel so down. he didn't have school, he hasn't seen sapnap, and his family have stayed out of his way besides his short run-in with his mom before he left.

but he's been sad since this morning. since the second he woke up and the darkness in his room seemed to reflect how he felt in his heart.

he thought the walk would clear his head, but it hasn't really changed anything.

karl has been sad sort of constantly recently, unless he's distracted with reading or hanging out with lucas, and he curses himself for that because he knows it's unhealthy to make his happiness so dependent on someone else.

it's hard though, and he doesn't think it's his fault that nothing and no one else has put in the effort to make him happy. sapnap tries, of course, and karl appreciates his best friend endlessly, but their relationship is so severed by everything they went through.

and by everything, karl really only means the way that sapnap broke his trust, and the fact that they haven't been able to even begin to recover from that because it just keeps happening. every time karl tries to heal, everything just comes crumbling down again because his friend and brother don't know how to keep their mouths shut.