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Mahdi had noticed something about Isak was different for a while now. He had known since after the fall-break. At one point Isak started to fade out, more than usual, of course. Isak started ditching them and coming up with bad excuses, he also lied a lot, and blamed it on stress. Grow up Isak, Mahdi though, everyone deals with stress. Isak even had a pre-game without him, Jonas and Magnus. Like what the fuck, who has a pre-game without their best friends?
It started getting bad, or not bad, worse, when he ditched Magnus’ birthday. What kind of friend does that? Sure, he had said previously that it had been a lot of stress lately, but it is never that much stress that you miss your friends birthday. That party could have been the perfect way to stop dealing with life for a few hours.
The week after Magnus’ birthday was bad. How come Isak managed to be both so happy, and grumpy at the same time? Jesus, his mood swings was worse than a girl on her period. So he though, who not go to a party? Have a nice time pregaming, enjoy the part, get drunk, have fun. It seemed like the perfect plan when he suggested it. Of course the boys was in. It was a party, they was always in.
It didn’t go as planned though, Isak seemed distant at the pregame. So when Magnus found out about Emma’s party, the night seemed saved. But, apparently not. Turns out, Emma hated Isak. What the hell did Isak do now, he was always so smooth around girls, and last time Mahdi checked, Emma seemed pretty keen on Isak. So they went to the party. Isak wouldn’t say anything about it. Fuck it, the boys said, we want to part, Emma has a party. If you fucked up with you and Emma, Isak, that is all your fault. Don’t let your mistakes ruin a night for us.
They went to the party, and some douche decided they were not allowed to join. What a dick move. All out of the blue, Isak started paying attention. Isak had this whole speech on how he knew Emma, and she would allow them to join. With some hesitation and a killing look from Isak, Isak got in. He was going to find Emma, and then this would all be over, and they could party. They saw Isak disappear into the crowd. All they had to do now was wait, and they waited. It seemed like they stood there forever. Magnus tried to flirt with Vilde, who was way out of his league. Jonas sent some scary looks to the douche in the door.
Finally Isak came back. What the hell took him so long? And when he got to them, he just decided to leave? What the fuck Isak? So Mahdi, as the fun guy he is, decided that the best way out of this, is by a joke.
“The boy is going to a family-party,” he said, and expected a fun response. The response he got was not so fun. Isak showed him into the wall. What is happening? Has Isak gone crazy or something? But then Mahdi looked up at Isaks face, and all he could se was that Isak had this hurting face. But before Mahdi could think any more about it, Isak was gone. Just as fast as he had shown up, he left. Mahdi looked at Magnus and Jonas, who looked just as confused as him. And just like nothing happened, they joined the party.
Mahdi couldn’t remember any more after that, the whole night was just a blur.
The next Monday, when Isak didn’t show up to school, Mahdi and the others started getting worried. He asked Jonas about it, figuring Jonas knew Isak best. After all it was Jonas who brought the whole gang together. They were a weird combination, the four of them, but they fit well together. Jonas and his anti-capitalist ass, Isak who was way to fucking smart and closed up, Magnus who was The Dumb One™ and him. He didn’t quite know where he fit it, but that was okay.
So when Jonas said that Isak didn’t answer his text, Mahdi started to worry even more. The other guys hadn’t seen the look on Isaks face when he shoved Mahdi. Isak looked crushed, sad, alone, hurt and disappointed, all at once.
The upcoming week was hard on Mahdi. He somehow felt like the whole Isak situation was his fault, like he had pushed Isak too far. He considered sending Isak a text, but then again, he didn’t want to make it worse. So he kept his radio silence, and so did Isak. During school the boys avoided talking about him, but they all had one thing in their minds. What the fuck was going on with Isak? Where was he? Why didn’t he answer? They just tried to put their minds to other stuff, like that party this weekend or their upcoming tests.
The next time Mahdi saw Isak was the next Monday. It had been ten days since the incident, and it looked like Isak hadn’t slept since. Isak was back, but he wasn’t there. He kept distant the whole week. Isak said he hadn’t been sleeping a lot lately, and that’s the reason he snapped all the time. They all just gave him the look, because sure, that’s why he hasn’t been there. But Mahdi decided not to push; worried Isak might just drop dead to them again.
At school the next Monday Isak seemed better, still not fine though. Him and Jonas kept sending each other looks all the time. What the hell was going on this time? Mahdi just figured to leave it, Isak probably talked to Jonas about something. It wasn’t like Mahdi expected Isak to come to him about this stuff that bothered him, he knew they wasn’t that close.
On Wednesday Mahdi and Magnus was sitting in a classroom. Magnus had found his song and was just “dancing”, it probably wouldn’t even count as dancing if you asked anyone. He had these ridiculous moves, and he made even worse faces. All of the sudden Jonas and Isak walked through the door. According to Jonas, Isak was having a pre-game on Friday.
“I am with ya man!” Magnus said too loud, and also in English. Mahdi couldn’t help but look at him a little, before returning to Isak. Isak seemed scared that Mahdi was mad at him, who he wasn’t, only worried.
“I’m not going to get violent again,” Isak said reassuringly while he looked at Mahdi. Mahdi burst into a smile, because that wasn’t exactly his biggest concern at the moment. “That’s chill,” Mahdi simply just said to Isak. Of course this was the moment Magnus started talking about some stupid rumors about Isak being gay and that’s why Isak showed Mahdi.
As Mahdi was discussing with Magnus, Isak and Jonas sent each other more looks. Magnus had no filter and started talking about how Mahdi wasn’t a Muslim and how to pronounce homophobe. Mahdi just wanted Magnus to shut up, because Mahdi wasn’t a homophobe, and he didn’t like other people thinking he was so either. But Magnus just kept talking about more stupid stuff.
Then there were more looks between Isak and Jonas.
Isak started talking about the dancing chicks. Oh god, the dancing chicks. He still saw them when he closed his eyes. But Isak kept going, talking about some dude. Mahdi tried to study Isaks face as he talked, and then he remembered the guy. He was so tall, a fucking giraffe, had hair that defied gravity and looked pretentious as fuck.
So when Isak told them he used to have a thing with this guy, his mind just went blank. How do you respond to this? Mahdi decided just to sit there until he could figure out the right thing to say. His plan worked well until Magnus opened his mouth. God, that boy did not have a filter.
“What the fuck, are you gay!?”
Mahdi could feel Isak going in a defensive mode as he held a little speech about not being keen on all guys all the time. Mahdi may be a little slow, but he wasn’t stupid either. Isak managed to stumble together a sentence “I’m not gay, or well maybe I am a little gay”. So Isak was gay, okay he could work with that. That was probably why he had been so closed off recently. But then, Magnus decided to open his mouth again, and ruined what Mahdi was about to say.
Magnus spoke, and Mahdi realized this was his shot to show the others he was informed and didn’t assume anything about other people. So he pulled out a “maybe he is pansexual?”. Of course Mahdi had to explain what pansexual was to Magnus and Jonas, and they ended up having a discussion about the differences between bisexual and pansexual. Isak mostly stayed mute, but Mahdi didn’t mind for once. This had most likely been a hard day on Isak.
Two days later, during the pre-game, the old Isak was back. Mahdi suddenly saw how much he had missed this side of his friend. Then the conversation tuned over to Even, the guy Isak had hooked up with. Mahdi learned that Even was playing Isak, that Isak let Even play him, that Magnus didn’t know anything about gay sex and that this Even guy seemed a little odd, as he didn’t respond to Isak.
All out of the blue, Even was at Isaks apartment. The boys was getting kicked out, and the night went along.
The upcoming week Mahdi didn’t think much about Even, but he couldn’t help but noticing something different about Isak. Isak was glowing, is that what you called it? This was new to Mahdi, he had only seen Isak grumpy or high before. Not that Mahdi minded it though.
That weekend Isak stopped answering to messages again. First Mahdi just thought Isak was fucking Even or something, but when Isak didn’t show up for school on Monday, he was sure. Something was up with Isak again. Oh god, what had happened this time? Mahdi shared some looks with his friends, and they all though the same thing. What is going on with Isak? Mahdi asked Jonas if he could find out, since the two of them seemed to have some weird kind of connection.
Just as Mahdi was going to start his lunch on Tuesday after chatting up with Jonas, Isak showed up. And he had waffles!! Oh man, no one could imagine how much Mahdi loved waffles, so he just burst out to saying: “are you kidding, they have waffles in the cafeteria?” And just as fast as Isak had showed up, Mahdi was gone.
The line for getting waffles was so fucking long, and it took forever. Once he got back to the table, he realized he had missed a lot. Jonas and Magnus, who apparently had arrived, discussed how cool Magnus was, while Isak looked completely lost. He asked Isak a quick “you good?” whom was left answered with a nod, and joined the other two boys.
Keeping up with Isak and his drama was hard, but he did his best. He texted Jonas, and turns out Even is bipolar. Not wanting to look stupid, he googled it and tried to make sense of it. Jonas also briefly mentioned something about Magnus’ mom, so he sent a texted to ask Magnus about what bipolar disorder really is. It took Magnus 5 minutes to respond.
“Yeah my moms bipolar. Sometimes she gets extremely happy and sometimes she gets really sad, that’s basically it. Oh and people usually do crazy stuff when they are manic. So the dickhead of out friend, Isak, believes Even was manic their entire relationship, which he probably wasn’t if you wondered.”
After the text Magnus sent, Mahdi was forced to have a conversation with Magnus about his “fucking awesome” mother and al the crazy shit she has done. During one point of this conversation, Mahdi realized he’d rather sleep than continue, but he didn’t want to seem rude. So there he was, stuck talking to Magnus the entire night.
Days passed, and Isak once again looked better. During the weekend he got back together with Even, which seemed like a good thing. Isak was again less grumpy, and more enjoyable. Isak even turned down a party with the dancing chicks, THE DANCING CHICKS, to host a Christmas party with Vilde’s kose-group. And now he was doomed to go, because Magnus kept insisting he had something going on with Vilde.
Sure the party was fine, he did enjoy himself even if this wasn’t how he would prefer to spend his Friday night. If he was honest, a lot happened, Magnus even hooked up with Vilde! Mahdi saw the looks Isak and Even sent to each other across the room, and the first thing that hit his mind was hot disgustingly cute they were. Isak deserved it though; he had been trough hell the past few months.
Months passed, and Mahdi enjoyed watching the evolution, or evenlution, of Isak (and Even). Seeing how they become more comfortable with PDA, and everything else. Somehow they managed to look even more disgustingly cute every day that passed.
Sometime in late March, or early April, Isak told the boys he was moving in with Even. To be fair, it wasn’t quite the shock for any of the boys, despite their short relationship and young age. The past months Isak had spent every breathing minute with Even, and Even had slowly become a part of their squad.
Mahdi usually saw himself as a loving and supporting friend, even if he wasn’t so good at showing it to other people all the time. So this was his opportunity to show it. He lifted boxed to their moving van, and kept smiling all day. He felt like one of those “love and support” memes, and it felt awesome.
If he was going to look back at the last six months, Isak was a different guy. He was more open and happy. Isak never made sloppy excuses anymore, and he actually answered in the group chat. At one point Mahdi had realized that he loved Isak, no homo though, and that he would do shit to him. Even get in fights, which he did. It was only once, and it was totally worth it.
Sometimes it felt like he had gotten a new friend in this new Isak, or well two if you counted Even. It didn’t take long before they were a package deal, but Mahdi didn’t mind it. Even was after all a pretty cool dude, and he was just happy for his friend.
All Mahdi did next, was to wish for them to have luck in the future.