imaginary | karlnap

fourteen

nick and karl began to fall back into their routine with little bumps here and there. they were on their toes around each other for a while until they were comfortable enough to loosen up. though, the two knew that things wouldn't be the same.

no matter how hard they tried.

– ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ –

karl was currently sitting at the desk in his room working on a math assignment for school. the boy was bent over his textbook, looking over the page as his pencil worked furiously, writing down the equation and trying to solve it.

the thing was, the boy couldn't figure out where he was going wrong since he got to a point where the equation was unsolvable, which caused him to erase the equation once more. the paper was so thin and worn from where he previously wrote the equation as the ghost of pencil markings stared back at him. he rewrote the equation and followed the steps in his notes, but went wrong somewhere and got back to another unsolvable equation. the eraser removed the equation once more, but not before ripping the paper in the process.

"dang it!" karl yelled, frustrated as he crumpled up the paper and chucked it across the room, not caring where it landed. the boy hated math, but it made it worse when the subject made him feel stupid for even trying.

nick had been spaced out in his corner, only coming to when he saw the paper ball fall in front of him silently. he looked over to see the boy hiding his head in his hands, taking in deep breaths to try and keep himself together.

the yelling must've been heard in a different room of the house because sean, karl's brother, soon peeked his head into the room to see what the commotion was about.

"you okay karl?" sean asked, noticing karl frustrated.

"math homework. it absolutely sucks, it's not like we're gonna use this out in the real world," karl complained as he began to redo his homework on a separate piece of homework.

"you need help on it?"

"i'll figure it out," karl muttered harshly and his brother took it as a sign to leave the room before he became the next target for his brother's frustration.

once the coast was clear, karl turned back to where nick was sitting. his eyes were burning with the frustration from the assignment.

"do you know how to do this problem?" karl asked the male sitting down. nick looked at him confused for a moment before getting gestured over to the desk.

"i've been out of school for a while," nick lied as he looked down at the problem in question, "i can try to help you out though."

"i bet you never graduated," karl teased with a small laugh, causing nick to laugh as well.

"i did."

"shocker."

"do you want help with your homework or not?"

karl quickly nodded and shut his mouth before anymore teasing came out. nick looked over the problem a few times before beginning to explain it in simpler terms that karl could understand. the two took about ten minutes on the problem before they finally reached an answer. they didn't know if it was completely right, but it was an answer for the teacher. that's all that mattered, plus karl didn't seem frustrated anymore.

– ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ –

it was now pitch black outside, with no stars showing or even the moon. karl was laying in bed, while nick was on the floor next to him, stretched out with his hands behind his head. the silence was calming as nick closed his eyes. he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep, but the motion made him let out a soft sigh.

"hey sapnap?"

"yeah?"

"can i ask you something?" karl's voice was soft, as if he was scared of the answer he was bound to get.

"what are you wondering?"

"what are you really?"

nick was taken aback as he opened his eyes and glanced up at the boy on the bed. karl was unmoving as if he was bracing himself for the answer.

"what do you mean?" nick asked, confused as to why karl asked him so suddenly.

"you aren't an imaginary friend. my uncles know you and you all seem pretty close. the imaginary friend can only be seen by the kid, but my uncles can see you. is there something that you aren't telling me? how do you know george, clay, and bad?"

nick sighed and sat up. he couldn't lie to the boy anymore because he was old enough to know better.

"do you want the truth?" nick asked, receiving a small yes in response.

"alright then," nick spoke before diving into the truth and explanation that was long overdue for karl, "you caught me."

"i'm not an imaginary friend. i'm your guardian angel."

– ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ –

hi there everyone!

i know that the past 3-4 chapters haven't been developing the storyline as they should have. however, as i said in earlier chapters, i wanted to incorporate clay, bad, and george a bit more in the story, which i did. now, we'll get back on track for the storyline.

also thank you guys for 600 views. that's crazy!