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

10

Somehow, the stars aligned and Noah was right. You got a text from an unknown number as you were making dinner for yourself and almost dropped a knife right on your foot. 

You screeched and jumped away, the blade clattering to the floor right where you had been standing. You just stood there for a moment, eyes darting between your phone screen and the knife on the floor as your heart pounded. 

It had to be him. 

You picked up the knife and finished slicing your tomato to add it to the turkey sandwich you had been making before you had been interrupted. A few pieces of lettuce later and you were done, carrying your phone and your sandwich to the living room, where you had left the TV on and were planning to spend the rest of your evening. 

As soon as you sat down, you opened your phone to read the text. 

hey :) this is cute candle boy :)) 

Your chest exploded into a flurry of excitement and you had to set your phone aside and take a moment. It was him. What were you supposed to say to that? How did people have conversations? Everything was so much easier when you had been talking about candles...

So like in many of your times of crisis, you called Noah.

She picked up on the third ring. "What do you want?"

"Jesus." You said. "Not even a 'hi', or anything?"

"Hi Y/N." Noah said, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "What can I do for you this fine evening?"

"Candle boy texted me." You said. "I don't know what to do-"

"What did you call me for, you should be texting him!" Noah said, and promptly hung up on you. You pulled the phone away from your ear and looked at the black screen.

You were on your own then.

Which was fine. You were perfectly capable of doing this on your own. It was just having a conversation. You had already talked to him in real life, this would be a piece of cake. 

Your fingers hovered over the keyboard on your phone. 

First you should set his contact right? Candle boy Karl was a great contact. Maybe you should wait a few minutes before responding... you didn't want to seem overeager. And what were you going to say? You could go with a simple 'hii :)' but was that too simple? Did you go with 'heyy' or maybe 'heyy :)'?

You groaned, burying your face in the couch. This was hard.

Noah's advice from weeks ago floated into your head. Be bold.

Maybe it was hard, but it wasn't impossible.

You took a bite of your sandwich for strength and looked down at the phone in your hands with renewed courage. You would go for a simple 'hi :))'. You tapped it out and hit send before you could second guess yourself, and took a second bite of your sandwich. It was a good sandwich.

You tried to pay attention to the show you had been watching, but it felt like your entire body was abuzz, glancing at your phone every few seconds to see if there had been a response. Of course, there wasn't, but it didn't discourage you from checking. 

You settled into the couch with your sandwich as some of the excitement wore off. He probably wasn't going to respond for a while, and it would do no use to agonize over every notification. You would just enjoy your dinner and your show, and then probably go take a nice warm shower-

Your phone buzzed and your hand shot out, grabbing it to see a text from Candle Boy Karl.

:))) it's karl by the way i dont think i got to give you my name

That was faster than expected. And with a lot of smiles. God, he was even adorable over text. Although really, what had you been expecting?

You tapped out another response, throwing wait time out the window. If he was going to respond fast, you wouldn't pretend you weren't sitting right next to your phone. 

y/n, idk if i told you yet :)) and karl with a k??

Around thirty seconds later your phone pinged with his response.

yeah with a k cuz im ~quirky~ like that :)))))

The smiles... the smiles were melting your heart. You exchanged your phone for your sandwich and took another bite. You needed to think about what you were going to say. Did you go for something flirty, or something sweet, or what? What did you even say to what he said? You should have started with something easier, like how old he was... could you ask him that or was that weird? He looked around your age, but you hadn't really seen him around before... did he go to college around here, like you? You probably would have run into him already then...

This texting thing was harder than it seemed. But, you couldn't dawdle around a response forever.

quirky huh? 

His response was almost immediate. 

yeah meow ;)

You snorted and smiled stretching over your lips. What were you getting yourself into...

...never do that again plz or ill have to block u 

Again, his response was only a few seconds wait. 

:0 dont block me!! ill get sad :(

Your heart squeezed in your chest. You needed to slow down - you barely new this guy. He had only just told you his name a few minutes ago (although technically you had known it a little longer, but that was cheating). Still, your feelings were eating this up.

you wouldnt be that sad u barely know me

You set your phone aside in favor of your sandwich again, and then the TV remote. The show you had been almost sort of halfway watching had ended, and you had wanted to put a movie on anyway. The question was, what movie? Were you in the mood for Avengers or for The Perks of Being a Wallflower? Or maybe tonight was more of a Dead Poet Society night?

You were about to select something when your phone pinged. You picked it up right away to read Karl's response. 

yeah but id like to get to know u a lot better :))