Chapter Text
Karl traced his fingers along the brick encompassing his high school walls allowing that eerie feeling to consume him. Slight uncertainty creeped up on him as he continued through his hallways way after classes were concluded. He had briefly stepped out of their school gym where the band was performing to take a few breaths, leaving his once beaming friend behind. Slowly strolling and letting his mind get taken away by photographs from the earlier classes and newspaper clippings of winning football games. He let his brain swirl around the thoughts of the people who came before him, who walked these same corridors and would eventually walk out the front doors never to walk back through them ever again, just like he was on his way to doing.
And before he could stop his own wandering mind he was brought back to reality by hearing the muffled music from the gym coming to a quick close. He felt his heart sink, scared to even move an inch back towards where the noise was coming from. He had left his friend's show and wandered around the hallway for so long he had missed his closing. So as he sunk a little bit in his shoes he began to slink back towards his abandoned friend hoping to apologize and reconcile as quickly as he could with the younger.
‘Hey Sap! You were amazing on strings as you always are nimrod!’ He exclaims brightly.
Sapnaps eyes darted away from eye contact for a few seconds before reconnecting with Karls. He let out a deflated smile as he spoke back ‘Yeah thanks Karl.’ he says quickly and quietly before facing slightly away to start collecting his items.
There was a slight tense and awkward vibe in the air as the two conversated about nothing at all, just simply mindless chatter to keep ‘em going. As they made their way towards the front doors, Karl quickly wrapped his scarf around himself, bracing for that slightly cold autumn breeze and stopping deadpan right before the exit sign.
‘Sap... I really am sorry for today. Y’know that right?’
No answer. Just eyes relentlessly scanning his face over and over again.
So Karl tries again.
‘I’ll make it up to you I promise’ he continues.
And the eyes that were once emotionlessly scanning his face were replaced with bright eyes, glowing at the promise of something special, just for him.
‘Alright Jacobs, it better be good. I was pretty sad today watching you wander off.’ he starts his sentence off quite loudly but by the end of it he was speaking quite sheepishly.
‘C’mon idiot, just take me home so I can plan’ Karl rolls his eyes.
———
He slumps into the passenger seat of Sapnaps car, hands shivering as he quickly passes a half whine to the body next to him asking for some heat. And once Karl has warmed up, he and Sapnap fall into their routine. The same routine they’ve had for almost a year now, ever since Sap had gotten his license he vowed to take Karl everywhere. And so every night after school he got used to passive touches and warmth electrifying his arm from his shoulder to his fingertips where the pair had touched and rested comfortably on the middle console. He got used to hearing Sap hum along to the tunes softly echoing from the radio and he had gotten used to coming home later and later accidentally spending hours afterschool with the boy. He had practically memorized what his silhouette looked like in the eerie, not-quite-dusk, faded street lamp lighting and ingrained every detail of the way those same street lamps highlighted and contrasted between his features.
He bobbed his head along to whatever song Sapnap was quietly playing in the background, making the comfortable silence a little less deafening as Sapnap made a sharp turn pulling into the others driveway. And at that moment Karl had no idea what had gotten into him. But he just wanted to be close to the boy. He has no idea how he could even possibly get closer as they were the type of touchy, clingy, inseparable friends who needed to be anchored to one another through touch. Although their arms were still brushed together, slightly moved since Sapnap shifted the car into park, Karl yanked his hand up intertwining their fingers, his eyes passing over the hands that now lay together just watching.
‘Sap I’m so sorry you know.’ he starts, ‘I never meant to let you down like that. You were amazing tonight, I mean that. I’ll do my best to make it up however I can.’ He started to shuffle in his seat, eyes that bounced from their hands to the boy's features and back to their hands, three squeezes, and he slung his bookbag over his shoulder hopping out of the car before the younger could speak a single word in response.
———
The drive back home was a silent one for Sapnap, all he could think about was the lost companionship and heat that came with it. As he slowly pulled into his own driveway, grabbing all of his shit from the backseat and heading to his front door. When he entered he was greeted with a few small hellos from his parents and a few surface level questions about how his performance went to which he answered with a series of autopilot answers before scurrying up to his room. The satisfying click of his door closing was all the reassurance he needed before he lay back and flopped onto his king size mattress resting for a few mere minutes before sitting up once again. As he began to rummage through his bag hunting for his assignments, the ones that weren’t due for another few weeks, but he chased that high of academics, in love with the feeling of constantly being ahead and progressing and advancing his mind.
It was about 3 minutes after 9pm when Karl stepped through his front door, Saps headlights lowly beaming on him as he pulled away one he got reassurance Karl made it inside safely. Karl dropped his things and the front door urgently kicked his shoes off of his feet and rushed up his stairway clutching the large banister to the right of him. He practically sprinted before landing in his computer chair, thumping his fingers rhythmically whilst waiting on the computer to start up so he could begin his research. He spent a solid three hours googling anything he could and everything he knew Sapnap enjoyed to prepare the proper make up present.
It was just past 12 when he had finally completed the planning stages of Sapnaps gift, first he would begin with an epic movie night consisting of fuzzy blankets and Saps favourite snacks and movies, then second of all he would give Sapnap the gift he had ordered him. He spent hours googling information about the youngers specific violin, and other endless searches like what the best products/brands are, highest quality violin items, where to rent movies near me, dvd players on kijiji.com and so so many more.
His head was pounding by the time he was ready to put his face to his fluffy, gorgeous pillow which at that state of exhaustion he probably would’ve married it. But before he could truly depart his conscience from reality, let his eyes drift from the street lights peeking through his blinds and doze off in a dreamy state thinking about the gifts he was going to give the boy, his long discarded phone had dinged, not once or twice, but three times.
———
sapnap
i could never rlly be mad at you
im sorry if i made you feel bad
goodnight jacobs :)
And so the older man stared quizzically at his screen for a few seconds before his mind settled on an appropriate answer.
karl
goodnight sap
dont worry ur pretty little head about a thing
———
And so there was only one thing the boys could be sure of at that moment, and that was that two boys, separated by rooms and houses and streets distant from one another, lay their head back at the same hour in the night, with the exact same train of thought passing through their drowsy brains. How lucky they were to have each other even on their most solemn days; because the distance between them never felt large whether they were beside one another or miles apart because their hearts were threaded together, infinitely pulling each other back and never relinquishing