Chapter Text
Even Bech Næsheim stands in the middle of the yard, looks up at the school build like he has for the last two weeks since he transferred to Hartvig Nissen and sighs a heavy, tired sigh. Behind him, he feels his best friend lets out an amused huff.
“How long are you going to keep doing this?” he asks and Even can hear the laughter in his voice. “When are we moving on to the acceptance stage of grief?”
“Never,” he grumbles, and he knows he sounds like a child, but he’s annoyed as a group of 1st-year walk by them. More than one gives him a look, some curious, some interested, some apprehensive. It’s not new, he’s been getting those looks since the moment he stepped foot at this school. Apparently changing schools’ mid-year warranted being studied like a bug under a microscope and hushed whispers. “Do they have to stare so much?” he questions not really expecting an answer yet he hears another sound of amusement. He turns around to face his friend despite himself with a questioning look.
“It’s because you’re so pretty,” Mikael, his best friend, general pain in his ass says with a shit-eating when Even rolls his eyes at him.
“It’s true! With your James Dean hairstyle, your popped collar jacket, and ridiculously good-looking face. Of course, they’re going to stare,” he continues with a mocking sigh as he sympathetically pats Even on the shoulder. “It’s your lot in life buddy, to be stared at and have outrageous rumors being whispered about you, if only you were ugly.”
Even keeps a serious expression even though he wants to give in and smile at his friend’s absurdity. “The rumors are entirely your fault, and you know it. You keep spreading different ones every day about why we got expelled from Bakka, yesterday I heard we put livestock in the teacher’s break room, a goat and some chickens Mika.”
Mikael’s grin only grows at that, a glint in his eye that always makes Even nervous. “I wanted it to be a cow, but it needed to be believable, where would we even get a cow, you know. Today’s rumor will be that we hosted a skinny dipping party in the school’s pool, it was epic, went down in Bakka history.”
Even stares at him, feeling a dull pain behind his left eye, over the years he’s come to call it ‘the Mika pain.' “Why are you doing this? Why are you like this? Are you suffering from delusions? Because we can’t both be messed up in the head, that doesn’t work, and I called dibs on being crazy.”
“It’s a social experiment,” Mikael says easily not even addressing Even’s self-critical comment on his disorder, and he gets a rush of affection and gratitude for his friend who has never once since Even was diagnosed acted any differently towards him. “I’m documenting everything, it’s going to make an excellent movie about gullibility, might even submit it to some festivals.”
“What a shit movie that will be,” Even says, biting his lip to keep from laughing when Mikael lets out a gasp of outrage, hand over his heart like the drama queen he is.
“We all can’t be pretentious assholes like you and your shitty idol,” Mikael taunts back. “Oooh, I’m Even Bech Næsheim, and my favorite director is Baz Luhrmann who makes movies that only make sense if you’re high and always kills off a lead to be edgy.”
Even narrows his eyes at the age-old argument. “How you’re a film student is beyond me.”
“Michael Bay is a cinematic genius.”
Even laughs at that. “You couldn’t even say that with a straight face.”
Mikael nods rubbing his hands over himself as he gives a full body shutter. “It felt dirty just saying it.”
Even opens his mouth to crack a joke at that when he spots him over by the bike rails, sitting on one as he talks with his friends. One of them says something that has him laughing hard and Even is mesmerized as he watches him throw his head back. Tall, slim, in more layers than Even can count, blond hair and the prettiest face Even has ever seen.
“Oi, am I boring you?” he hears Mikael question but he doesn’t turn to his friend, he continues to watch, enthralled by what’s before him.
“Dude, what’s with you?” Mikael asks turning to look in the same direction as Even, and he can tell the moment Mikael spots what has Even attention. “Oh,” Mikael says, amusement coloring his voice once more. “Him again. What is it with you and blondes, first Sonja, now this kid.”
Even shrugs because he doesn’t really know how to explain it, he noticed the boy before on the first day he and Mikael arrived at Nissen, and he hasn’t stopped noticing him since.
“So, are you ever going to make a move?” Mikael questions with a raised eyebrow. “I mean staring at him longingly from afar was cute at the beginning, and by cute, I mean ridiculous and enjoyable for me. But it’s starting to get a little creepy, maybe it’s time to move this along, and I don’t know find out his name? Tell him that his hair shines like the golden sun and that you want to hold his hand.”
“I have a girlfriend,” he argues, and it sounds uncertain even to him. He and Sonja are ‘taking a break,' because in her words he was childish and in his, she was suffocating him. He knows she’s waiting for him to come to his senses and run back to her. With each passing day though, being away from her felt more and more freeing and if that wasn’t a sign that they were better off on their own he didn’t know what was. Sonja had once been an important part of his life, and she deserved better than a boyfriend who was growing resentful of her presence or who was fascinated by beautiful blonde boys.
“Really, Even?” Mikael asks giving him a look of disbelief and Even is reminded once again how well his friend knows him. “That’s what you’re going with. That’s weak man and if you’re honest with yourself, not even true anymore.”
“I can’t just go up to the guy,” Even argues. “What would I even say to him? ‘Hey, I know you don’t know me, but you’re the only thing that’s keeping me from missing my old school, and I like staring at you because you’re the prettiest thing I have ever seen. Any chance you’re into guys or better yet me?’”
Mikael stares at him for a moment before shrugging unconcerned. “Sure, why not.”
Even gives him an incredulous look. “You mean besides the fact that he will probably run away screaming in the opposite direction because that’s crazy?”
“It’s not crazy,” Mikael argues giving him a look because while he lets it slide sometimes, Mikael doesn’t like it when Even uses the ‘C’ word about himself. Throwing his arm over Even’s shoulder, he lets out an annoyed sound as he hangs off Even awkwardly due to their height difference. “It’s a bit extra, but you’re the king of Extra, so it’s right up your alley.”
“I don’t even know his name,” Even says, frowning a little as he says it. It wasn’t for lack of trying, but still being new at Nissen he hadn’t made any new friends.
Not that he has actually gone out of his way to make them when he still has Mikael at his side and the fact that he and his friend have seemed to develop a ridiculous reputation in a short period of time.
“Yeah, you’ve dropped the ball on that one, I admit,” Mikael concedes, smiling when Even gives him a dry look. “But no worries that why you have me. Your best buddy, your ultimate pal, the king of wing-manning.”
“Everything you just said fills me with nothing but worry,” Even says dryly. “Seriously a chill just went down my spine.”
“That’s because you are dramatic as fuck,” Mikael answers honestly, grinning when Even gives him a ‘really’ look. “Now come on, your good old buddy Mikael is going to make it all better and help you woo the cute boy, all I ask is that you name your child after me.”
Even laughs at that, giving his friend’s shoulders a squeeze as the walk into the school with their arms around each other. “So, we’ve moved on from me getting his name to having kids with him.”
“I’m that good,” Mikael proclaims solemnly. “Besides with your looks and my brains, how can we not succeed.”
Even gives him a side look. “Are you saying I’m just a pretty face?”
“Well,” Mikael starts slowly, a grin spreading on his happy face, laughing when Even shoves away from him. “I wasn’t going to say anything, I know how sensitive you can be.”
Even laughs at that. “Asshole.”
“Don’t be rude,” Mikael frowns as they reach Even’s locker, he waits next to it while Even gathers his books. “I’m going to be your, Yente.”
Even closes his locker with a bang as he lets out a snort. “Fiddler on the Roof, really Mika?”
“Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match,” Mikael sings out loudly with a wide grin as a few students sent weird looks their way, nothing new really. “Find me a find.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Even rolls his eyes, grinning as he gives in. “Catch me a catch.”
“Oh, I am buddy,” Mikael promises, signaling with his head. Even looks over to find his blonde boy by his own locker, looking over at them, a clear result of Mikael’s loudness. Even’s eyes lock with the boy’s and even from where he stands Even can see just how green the boy’s eyes are. The boy stares back at him for another moment before he turns away, he’s not fast enough that Even doesn’t catch the blush on his cheeks though, it fills Even with a kind of excitement he can’t remember feeling before. “I’m going to look through my book,” Mikael continues with another broad smile and waggles of his eyebrows, as he misquotes the next line of the song.
Loving his friend for his support and just utter Mikael-ness, Even plays along and says the next line. “And make me a perfect match.”