𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐃𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒, k. jacobs¹

Chapter XI

I wake up to sunlight shining through my blinds. I squint my eyes at the bright light, my eyes not used to it yet. I rub the sleep out of my eyes as I turn over in my bed, getting more comfortable under the sheets. I almost scream at a sudden sound right next to my ear.

"Ah, you're awake." A voice calls out. I look over and see my phone, still on call with Karl. Karl. Oh my Zeus, we just sleep called. For the entire night. Did I snore?

"Yeah. Good morning pretty boy." I say. What the duck. I must still be confused from sleep. Yeah, that's it. So I get fairly confused when he replies, not hesitating for a second.

"Good morning to you too pretty girl." I can practically hear the smile. I grin at his words. He's a wonderful friend. A sudden wave of sadness hits me. 'Just a friend? Are you sure?' A traitorous voice in my head says. 'Yes, I'm sure.' I tell them off, sternly. He was just a friend. But did I want him to be? No, no, no. You can't mess this friendship up. Not yet.

"Wanna get some breakfast with me?" I say getting up from bed, already thinking about what I should get. "Sure." He tells me and I can hear the sound of metal against porcelain.

"How long have you been up for exactly?" I ask him, my brows furrowed. How long has he just listened to me sleep?

"Oh, maybe an hour or so." He says casually. I blush and my face tenses up from embarrassment. "Why did you stay on call then?" I ask him, still embarrassed for taking up so much of his time. He laughs.

"Because I waited for you to wake up. Plus you seem so peaceful when you're sleeping." Okay, now I'm defiantly red. If my brother finds me like this I'll never hear the end of it. I groan. "What's wrong pretty girl?" He laughs at himself. I roll my eyes.

"Nothing. It's just I have to study for a test today." It's not a lie. I have a test to study for, it's just not why I groaned, but he'll never have to know that. I'm at the bottom of the staircase when I remember that Nick maybe wants to eat as well.

I run back upstairs and Karl notices my hurried steps. "Why are you running?"

"I forgot about Nick." I'm breathless. I take a second to breathe before opening my brother's door. "Nick? Are you up?" I hear a grunt from his bed and then some other sounds of him moving around. "Did you stream all night again?" I'm irritated now. He always does this. He hums in response and I snort while walking out of his room, slamming the door behind me.

"What happened?" Karl sounds confused. "He's out like a candle because he streamed all night and our parents are coming home tonight as well as our sister." I roll my eyes. Typical Nick. It's a love-hate relationship, just normal sibling things.

"Oh. Where have they been?" He starts some small talk.

"Just with my aunt and uncle, they only live about an hour away from us." I shrug, even though he can't see me. "I was thinking pancakes.. or maybe waffles. What do you prefer?"

"Oh, I like pancakes, you should get pancakes." He says, quite excitedly. I smile. "Ok then, pancakes it is." We laugh for a bit before going quiet, I can hear him chewing his food. 

"Oh, am I disturbing your eating? Sorry." I quickly apologize. Dang it, now I felt bad. What if he wouldn't eat his food in time and went around hungry because of me? 

"No, no, no. It's fine." He hurriedly says. I suspiciously hum in response, not really believing him, but I still don't hang up.

We're silent as I go around the kitchen, first making the pancake batter and then cooking them on the stove. That's when I realize that we have no whipped cream. Meh, whatever. As long as we have syrup. I kneel down to open the counter. That has an amount of exactly no syrup.

"DANG IT." I curse. What would I do now? Eat the pancakes with just some butter? Or berries? I could always just take Nick's car and drive down to the store, but was I really up to do all that for some pancakes at this hour? I'm lost in thoughts when a sound breaks the silence.

"What's wrong?" Karl asks me, confused. Oh, I had forgotten about him.

"Nothing, it's just that we have no syrup or whipped cream to my pancakes," I complain. I notice that I sound like a toddler whining about something absolutely irrelevant. He laughs at my problem. "HEY! It's not funny." I try to lecture him but can't help the growing smile on my face.

"Sorry, sorry it's just-" He gets cut off by his own laugh. "Sorry. You can always come here, I have some syrup." I just stare at my phone in disbelief. Was he serious? If so, how dumb is he?

"Are you serious? I mean, I'd love to, but you kinda live too far away." He laughs embarrassed. Yep, defiantly braindead. I shake my head and smile.

"Oh, right, sorry." He falls silent for a moment. "But you're still welcome." His tone doesn't change from his normal joyful one. Was this boy for real? I can feel my face heat up at the realization. Did he just-? No. No, he didn't. My brain is working overtime trying to lurk out what he's proposing.

"You mean I'd fly that far just to see you?" I'm still smiling, not thinking about how my words will sound in his head.

"Yeah, I mean you don't have to.." He trails off, sadness and regret filling his voice. Dang it, why did I always have to screw things up?

"No, I want to, it's just I thought you were joking." I try to laugh it off, but it sounds really strained. He laughs as well for a bit. "I would never." Now he's laughing for real, and for a moment I think he's laughing at me, but he's laughing at himself.