A LITTLE LESS SIXTEEN CANDLES; A LITTLE MORE TOUCH ME // Karl Jacobs X Reader

5

As soon as your lunchbreak hit, you dashed out of your store and into Hot Topic. Noah didn't get her lunch break until about ten minutes after yours, and you would usually take the time to order lunch for the both of you so that when she arrived, the food would be waiting, but you were too eager to tell her about what had happened. 

You glanced at the register to see one of her coworkers there, a high school boy boredly scrolling on his phone. He barely glanced up when you walked in, and didn't look at you when you stopped in front of him.

"Where's Noah?" You asked. 

"In the back, restocking shirts." He said.

You skipped to the back, where Noah was folding shirts to put them on the shelves, her back to you. You all but tackled her, pummeling her shoulder blades excitedly. Noah let out a small 'oof' and stumbled forward, catching herself on the display. 

"Jesus Christ Y/N." She said, spinning around to thwack you on the forehead in retaliation. "I'm trying to do work here."

"Sorry, sorry." You said. "I'm just really excited."

"About?" Noah asked, going back to restocking. 

You blinked at her incredulously. "What do you mean? Didn't you get my snap?"

"I haven't looked at my phone since this morning, we've been kind of busy." Noah said, setting down the last tee shirt, and stepping back to make sure everything looked how it was supposed to. 

"Check!" You insisted. 

"Alright, alright." Noah said, pulling out her phone. "This better be worth the abuse..." 

You moved around behind her so that you could see the screen as well, watching as she opened snapchat and clicked on the most recent snap from you - ignoring all the other ones that had amassed during the day. The picture you had taken that morning popped up on her phone; slightly blurry, but the exclamation points were clear. 

Noah looked at it for a few seconds before she put together just what you had sent. "Wait, is that him?"

You nodded excitedly. "He came back for more candles!"

Noah peered at the picture again. "He looks kind of short. But you were right, his hair is really fluffy."

"He's taller in person." You said. "But it gets even better, if you'll believe it." 

Noah checked the time and then slid her phone away. "Oh really? Well, how about you tell me over some Taco Bell?"

"Sounds good to me." You said.

Noah led the way out of her store and into the gentle flow of the masses, meandering through the people towards the food court. You followed along next to her, watching the people stream by as you walked. Subconsciously, every time a shock of fluffy brown hair would cross your vision, your heart would speed up, even though it wasn't him. 

You needed to calm down. You had only met him twice and you didn't even know his name. 

Once you got to the food court, Noah headed to your usual table, plopping down to claim it. "You can just get me whatever." She said. 

"To drink?" You asked. Since Noah gave you a ride to and from work everyday, you paid for lunch for both of you.

"Anything but Pepsi." She said. 

Order in hand, you headed over to the taco bell front in the food court and picked out what you wanted for yourself and Noah, along with drinks. The wait was relatively short and within a few minutes, you were returning to the table with a box of tacos and two drinks in hand. Plopping everything down on the table, you slid into the seat across from Noah.

Noah took one of the drinks and one of the tacos and settled in. "So. It gets better."

You smiled. "It does. It gets so much better."

Noah waved a hand for you to continue.

"So he comes back for more candles," You said, picking up where you had left off. "And he looks just as lost as last time, so I go over to help him."

"Of course." Noah said, nodding. 

You continued on. "But so we're talking about candles and stuff, and he was kind of surprised that I remembered him, but I was like 'how could I not?'-" 

"Actually?" Noah asked, leaning forward slightly to take a bite of taco. 

"Actually." You said. "And he blushed a little bit, so I think he got it."

Noah grinned. "And did he say anything back?"

Even though the moment was long gone, butterflies still flared up in your stomach. "This is the best part," You said excitedly. "So he points at a candle and wants to see it, so I grab it for him of course, even though it wasn't something like the other ones he had picked. But then he tells me that the design on it reminded him of my eyes-"

"Holy..." Noah said, invested in the story. "Smooth motherfucker!"

You giggled excitedly, taking a bite of your lunch and a sip of your drink. "I know! I still can't believe that it actually happened!"

"Did you get his number?" Noah asked. "Or at least give him yours?"

"Well..." You took another bite of your taco instead. 

"Y/N!" Noah said. "Please tell me that after he was obviously flirting with you, you gave him your number!"

"I got too scared!" You said sheepishly. "I was going to write it on the receipt, but he was watching me the whole time and it made me nervous!"

Noah groaned, resting her forehead on the table in defeat. "You're hopeless."

"I'm not hopeless!" You argued. 

"Did you even get his name?" Noah asked. 

You paused. "Okay, so maybe I'm a little hopeless..."

"It's okay." Noah picked her head up off the table. "We can salvage this. There's a good chance that he's going to come back to buy more candles just so he can flirt with you, and you can just give him your number then."

"Even you talking about it makes me nervous." You said. "What if-"

"I'm going to stop you right there." Noah said. "He flirted back. Whatever bullshit about him not being interested was going to come out of your mouth can stay there." 

You closed your mouth around the straw of your drink sullenly.