twenty-seven

                                    

                                          
karl's third pov
                          
– ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ –
                          
"i'm going down to the lake," karl announced to his family as he stood up from the chair that he was occupying on the porch. 
                          
the six of them were currently playing some card game that karl never understood how to play correctly. it had been the evening routine for them since they arrived. karl's trip was on the third day and he still had no luck finding sapnap. the luck was already slimmer than ever since sapnap had said that he hadn't been to a lake since he was a kid. karl only had four days left to hope to find him. 
                          
"okay honey, be careful," his mom replied, taking a sip of her tea before continuing the conversation she was having with his aunt. 
                          
karl walked off the porch and away from the camper. the sun had begun to dip down in the sky as it got later in the evening, casting a golden aura across everything in sight. the campground was still bustling with kids riding by on bikes and playing tag or running around on the playground. the lake crowd had begun to thin out as karl approached an empty area. he sat down on the hill, leading down to the sandbar that separated the lake from the grass. 
                          
he had gotten a severe sense of deja vu from the lake. 
                          
he looked down at the sandbar in front of him and had vividly remembered sapnap throwing rocks into the lake in an attempt to learn how to skip them, then the wrestling match that had left them in a very questionable position, and finally them relaxing after fighting over what shapes the clouds were. 
                          
when they both were happy.
                          
not even five minutes later, karl pushed himself up from his spot and began to walk down to the sandbar, his eyes dropping down to see if any rocks were at the surface of the sand. he saw a couple of flat ones near the water as he bent down to pick up the closest one.
                          
the rock was a mix of yellow and red sandstone and bumpy on one side. karl's thumb ran along the underside of the rock finding it to be as smooth as it could possibly get. it was perfect. he settled the rock in the space between his thumb and pointer finger and took a few steps back from the water's edge before bringing his arm back to throw the rock.
                          
he wasn't able to throw the rock because of a mix of voices shouting behind him.
                          
"nick!" 
                          
"what are you doing!"
                          
karl turned around just in time to be tackled to the ground in a hug. one that had felt so familiar as if he had been in the embrace a thousand times. the scent of vanilla had drifted to his nostrols as karl tried to push himself out of the grasp of whoever was holding onto him.
                          
"excuse me? i don't mean to be rude, but i think you have the wrong person," karl wriggled in the unknown person's grasp as two sets of footsteps were heard running down to the two on the ground. a liquid began to coat the crook of his neck as he realized the person hugging him was crying.
                          
"angel..." a broken voice drifted into his ear as karl tensed up at the voice. it was sapnap. 
                          
"nick, you can't go up and tackle people you don't know," a voice sounded from up above sapnap and karl. 
                          
"sapnap?"
                          
"are we back there?" karl asked, hope filling the monotone void of his voice. 
                          
"no honey, this is real life," sapnap croaked out as he pulled himself up and off of karl before bringing the once trapped boy up with him once again.
                          
"sapnap, why are you hugging karl as if your life depends on it," a familiar voice sounded out as karl looked up to see emerald green eyes looking back down on him.
                          
"karl?" sapnap's voice echoed as karl looked up at the two friends staring down at them.
                          
"could you give us some privacy?"
                          
"of course," with that, the two other lovebirds began to walk away, leaving sapnap and karl alone together again. 
                          
karl had been pulled onto the texan's lap as sapnap held onto him for dear life. karl didn't say anything as he wrapped his arms around his lover, relief pouring out of his body. a tear escaped karl's eye as he continued to sit there, waiting for sapnap's cries to quiet down. karl had then realized that sapnap might have taken it a lot worse than karl did. time seemed to have froze around them as karl forgot that they were in a public place. he believed that it was just the two of them with nobody else around.
                          
after a while of comfortable silence, karl was finally ready to break it with three words that had been stuck in his chest for the past three months, and he was ready to get them out. 
                          
"i missed you."