Call it Fate

Chapter Four: Silent Stares and Hot Strangers

Karkat's POV:

    When Karkat and Nepeta arrived at the large, mansion-like house, they were greeted by Jane and her cousin, Jake. "Nepeta, Karkat, good to see you two!" Jane grinned and stepped forward to give them each an awkward one arm hug since she was cradling a large bowl of batter in the crook of her other arm.

    "C'mon, Roxy's been waiting for you." Jake waved them in and told them where to put their jackets.

    At first, Karkat expected to see only the Egberts and this mysterious "Roxy" that had invited them, based on the fact that they were still technically early, but when they got into the massive living room it turned out they were a tad bit tardier than originally planned.

    There, lounging on the massive pieces of furniture sat a multitude of familiar faces and those of strangers. "Neppy!" one of the platinum blondes leapt to her feet and launched herself at the girl standing next Karkat, nearly giving him a heart-attack.

    "Roxy!" Nepeta squealed back, holding out her free arm for a hug; her other arm still pinned her keyboard between her palm and her hip.

    Karkat remembered vaguely being introduced to this girl but it must have been either been a very long time ago or when he was drunk because he barely recognized her. "Soo glad you could make it." She pulled away from Nepeta, flashing a Cheshire cat grin.

    "I'm glad, too." Nepeta beamed back with just as much excitement.

    "C'mon, I'll show you where you can set up your cool deely-bobs." The overzealous blonde lurched in the direction of another hallway, motioning her friend to follow.

    "For the last time, it's just a keyboard!" Nepeta giggled. Karkat started to trail behind when his roommate turned around and held up a hand for him to stay. She glanced at the other guests who were just staring at them, apparently enjoying the show. Her hand was moved to the side of her mouth to block what she was mouthing out to him.

    "Make some friends."

    And just like that, she was gone.

    Karkat turned to face the group of strange people. He recognized John, of course, and Jade. But other than that, he was kind of lost. There were three blondes left sitting there, all seeming pretty bored with him again, if they were ever interested before.

    The first one that Karkat noticed was a fairly pretty girl who sat next to John. Her petite body was shrouded in a loosely fitting purple halter strap top and a two-sizes-too-big pair of grey shorts over some calf-length leggings. Her hair was cut into a stylish bob that framed her jawline perfectly, but that was pretty much all Karkat could see of her face before she buried her nose in the large black leather-bound book that hid pretty much her entire face.

    One of the others was sitting next to her, his arms relaxing on the back of the couch.

    His outfit wasn't much to write home about; a simple T-shirt and torn up jeans hung loosely around his very obviously muscular body. A pair of leather, fingerless gloves clung to his knuckles and a pair of pointy, anime-esque sunglasses resting squarely on his nose. His hair was slathered back from his face and up to a point in the back of his head. There were so many hair products used to do this anti-gravitational tick that Karkat could practically smell it from where he was standing a good eleven feet away. He must have noticed Karkat's stare situate on him because he lifted one of his hands to give a half-hearted little wave. Karkat awkwardly waved back.

    Just as he was about to study the last blonde in the room he felt a great weight hit him squarely in the back with an enthusiastic "Karkles!"