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Since his “coming out” (which was a nice way of saying forced outing by one Emma Larzen), Isak has had a grand total of 1 (one) relationship. And using the word relationship is incredibly over exaggerating what amounted to be a few hook-ups here and there and a few weirdly tense dates before Isak got ghosted. However, in Eva’s mind, that was a relationship.
That was almost six months ago now. Isak had had a wonderful grace period of about twenty four hours before Eva had latched onto him, asking if he was going to have a quick rebound fling, which quickly evolved into asking about any new boys on the horizon, which evolved again into Isak’s dating life being the first (and sometimes only) topic of conversation that Eva starts with him.
And over those six months, the attempts at Getting Isak A New Boy had become gradually more obvious.
“Can I not just come by myself?” He’s sitting on a park bench, watching as Eva paces in front of him, trying to fulfill her october goal of 20,000 steps a day. She’s in the process of announcing her Halloween party theme, a gathering which she has hosted every year since first year, and which has become more and more extravagant as the years have gone on.
“Isak.” She pouts at him. “There is a theme.”
“Fine. Then I’ll just not come.”
“You have to come! You promised me you would!”
“Yeah, but that was before I knew the theme.”
There is a theme. A theme which Isak hates. Pairs costumes. Fucking pairs costumes.
Now see, the math checks out in Isak’s head. He has three friends. Four divided by two is two. He has enough friends that everyone can have a pair and no one will be left out. But five divided by two is two and a half, and Magnus and Mahdi already paired up and Jonas is so dickwhipped for Eva that they’re doing a cute couples costume or some shit like that. And that’s all his friends, down for the count, and Isak has no more friends.
Here’s where Eva’s plan becomes transparent.
“Maybe…” she speeds up her pacing, pointedly not looking at him. “Maybe you could take a date?”
Isak doesn’t reply, looking down at the ground. Eva, misinterpreting his desire to avoid this conversation, snoops. “Why are you looking like that?”
And yes, Isak is a total, utter, complete idiot for the next eleven words which come out of his mouth, but he really just wants this conversation to be over. “Oh yeah, there is someone I might be able to take.”
Those eleven words cement his fate. They not only trap him in a lie, but they prolong the conversation between him and Eva for five painstaking more minutes, where he has to dodge and weave all of her questions about this person who he has totally just made up, eventually darting out with the failsafe excuse of Eskild texted me to make me go on a coffee run and I owe him because I didn’t do the dishes this week.
So fuck, now he’s trapped in his own lie. How does he find a date in five days. Isak was just so tired of everyone trying to be involved in his love life all the time. As he opens the door to Kaffebrenneriet, Isak mind flies everywhere. He’s so caught up in his own mind, he doesn’t notice the ease it takes for him to open the door or the tall, blonde guy who comes walking out of it straight after.
“Fuck!”
It takes a moment for Isak to realise that the person who spoke wasn’t him, and another to place the sudden source of pain on his chest as hot coffee that was about three seconds ago located in the cup in the man’s hand.
“Oh fuck that’s hot” Isak mumbles, looking up at the guy and then almost immediately looking back down, because yeah the coffee on his shirt is hot but the guy is so so much hotter than how his peripheral vision made him out to be.
“Sorry, fuck, I wasn’t paying attention.” The guy looks around kind of frantically, grabbing onto Isak’s wrist and dragging him into the KB. “Let me get you some tissues hold on. Stay right there.”
The guy disappears up to the counter for a split second, barely enough time for Isak to process anything, and then before he knows it, the guy is back in front of him, haphazardly dabbing at his shirt with a massive wad of napkins, each one stamped with the KB logo in the right hand corner.
“I am so sorry, fuck,” the guy mumbles, before looking up at Isak, clocking his facial expression and thrusting the napkins in his face. “Fuck, maybe you should be doing this. I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything.”
Isak doesn’t respond. He doesn’t even know if he has the brain cells left to use.
“Is there anything I can do to make it up to you? Can I buy you another coffee… or like a new coffee or something uh…”
“Isak. My name’s Isak. And no, it’s all good.” Finally his brain decides it’s time to come online, responding awkwardly to the beautiful man in front of him in the exact opposite way that he actually wants to.
“Even. Are you sure there’s nothing I can do for you? A coffee? New shirt?” His hand comes up to the back of his neck, rubbing awkwardly there. “My number?”
“Uh, third option?”
The guy grins at him.
Isak looks at the guy, Even, a bit stumbled. In shock from both the hot coffee on his shirt, and the very hot guy talking to him, Isak’s barely able to say a word.
“You know what, I’ll give you my number, and you can get back at me.” Even takes a pen from behind his ear, takes Isak’s arm, and writes Call me x 443 98 132 . He blinks at Isak, and walks away.
Later that day, after Isak has showered, he sits on his bed and stares at his own arm. After looking for his phone for a few minutes, he finds it and types out a message to Evens number.
Hey Even, it’s Isak. You said to text
you if there was anything you
could do. Actually, there is one
thing you could do to
help me, if you’re interested.
The reply was almost immediately.
Sure, I’ll do whatever you want me to;)
uhm well thanks i guess
so i kinda need a date to this thing
are u available this saturday(november third)?
Of course
What kind of date are we having?
can u make it to mine to pregame at 19?
there’s a party at 21, that i lied about
having a date to
Sure x
Just send me the address and I’ll come;)
Okay, so Isak had fixed a date, and also sent Even his address. Everything was prepared and he was ready for everything.
Turns out, Isak was not prepared for everything. On Wednesday, Isak was having his weekly after-school-coffee with Eva.
“Isak. Will you at least tell me his name, so I know who he is when I greet him?”
“Fine. His name’s Even”
“Great! Now tell me more about this mysterious Even”
“Uhm well, he’s very tall and eh..” Fuck, what did he do now. He doesn’t really know anything about Even, apart from him being a tall guy. Sure, Even sent Isak daily messages telling him how much he was looking forward to Saturday, but that’s pretty much all he knows.
“Well, uhm, we met at a café?” He wasn’t exactly full on lying, just telling a little white lie. What Eva doesn’t know, doesn’t harm her.
“Are you asking me or telling me?”
“I’m telling you! I just don’t want to say too much, because the whole thing is still pretty new. We’ve just met a few times and I don’t want to jinx it”
“Oh my God, Isak you really like this guy, don’t you?”
Oh fuck, Isak was getting deep into this lie. There was no getting out of this now. Trying to keep the lie up, Isak just shrugged to answer Eva. She just continued asking Isak questions throughout their date, and Isak still wouldn’t answer them.
Even
Wednesday October 31st 21.37
Just three days left now, I’m
really looking forward to this x
nice
btw did i mention that the party is
couple costumes themed?
i already said we’re going as vikings
Damn, there goes my
plan to dress up as your god.
haha very funny
anyways i managed to tell
my friend, aka the host of the
party, that we’ve been on a
few dates before.
I’m honored, you think
I’m date-worthy ;)
not what i was saying
so if we could make a
fake backstory at the pregame
that would be cool!
Perfect! I’m going to
need to know everything about you.
Starting now!
What’s your favorite color?
uhm i don’t know
blue i guess?
Great choice! I’d love to
ask you more questions, but
I have an assignment to write.
Bye xxx
bye, good luck with your
assignment
Days passed, and Isak had to admit (to himself of course, not to anyone else), he was really starting to look forward to Eva’s party and spending time with Even. Isak and Even has been texting constantly the past days, and it turns out there’s more to Even than bad pick up lines.
Well, that was until Saturday at 5pm. Even was arriving in 2 hours, and Isak was freaking out. He never should’ve agreed to go to the party in the first place. There was just so much to get ready before Even showed up. He needed to clean, and eat and get dressed and everything. Thank God Eskild wasn’t there to see how much of a gay disaster he’s being.
Eventually Isak managed to scramble some food into himself, and put on his costume. He even managed to clean the apartment some, even if he just pushed all the mess into Eskild’s room.
At precisely 7pm Even ringed the doorbell. Fuck, Isak didn’t know he was this nervous. He opened the door, and there he was. Even was even more beautiful than he remembered. So Isak stood there awkwardly in the doorframe, and managed to mumble out a tiny welcome.
“Hello Isak, what a pleasure to see you again! May I come in?”
“Uhm yes sure, of course.” Isak said, as he internally hit himself for being this awkward. This was just two bros meting. Guys being dudes. You know, the normal stuff.
“What a lovely place you have Isak. Oh, and I brought some beer!” Even still looked beautiful, wearing some weird and historically incorrect viking helmet and a fake beard. How was it even possible for a human being to be this perfect.
“Beer! Awesome! You can put it in the fridge over here if you want to.”
As Even opened the fridge and started unloading the beer inside, Isak spent the opportunity to check out Even’s ass. Damn, it was one great ass. Isak had to physically pinch himself in the arm, to remember what he was here for.
“So yeah, thanks for being my fake date. I was kinda caught up in a lie there”
“My pleasure, Isak”
“Yeah so I managed to tell my friend, Eva, that I had a date to the party. And well I didn’t, and then I was stupid enough to tell her we’ve been on a few dates before. I hope it’s not too much, you can still back out if you want to.”
“Isak, if I didn’t want to go on this date with you, I wouldn’t have said yes in the first place. Just the fact that you didn’t have a date in the first place is shocking, I mean, have you looked yourself in the mirror?”
Isak blushed, he was not prepared for that.
“You’re not so bad yourself”
“Oh I know, I mean look at these hips!” Even said as he shaked his hips in something Isak guess was supposed to resemble a dance.
“Idiot! Anyways, I also told her that we met in a coffee shop, so that part wasn’t a lie though, just everything else.”
“Great! Now let’s get to planning our previous dates!” Even said with a bit too much enthusiasm.
Isak grabbed them both a beer, and they sat down in the couch.
The next hours passed so quickly Isak didn’t notice that they were probably going to be late for the party. Even was so easy to talk with, and the conversation flowed the entire time. He was totally Isak’s type. They spent the time talking about everything and nothing, and managed to make out a backstory for their “relationship”.
At 9.30pm they made it to the party. Even called it fashionable late. It seemed like the party was already full of people as Isak and Even walked inside, but Eva somehow saw them right away.
“Isaaak! You’re late!” She said, sounding a bit tipsy, while hugging Isak.
“Uhm yeah, sorry for that, but we’re here now, aren’t we?”
“Oh YES! You’re Isak’s hot and mysterious date. Isak wouldn’t tell me anything about you.” Eva pouted, trying to look sad, but her drunken self took over.
Before Even could say anything to Eva, he grabbed Isak’s hand, and intertwined their fingers and kissed his cheek. Oh, that’s new. Isak could feel himself going red, but damn he wasn’t complaining. He had a pretty boy in his hands and was the right amount of tipsy, he was ready for anything this night would give him.
“Sorry for Isak being so secretive about me, whatever this is, it’s still new. Nice to meet you Eva, i’m Even.” Even held out his hand, to shake Eva’s, but she went straight in for a hug. Even let out a surprised squeak.
“Isak, why didn’t you tell me he’s this handsome!? Okay, I’m going to need to know everything, just sit down over there and I’m coming soon, I just need to pee” Eva said as she ran off to the toilet.
To the sound of Sigrid’s Sucker Punch , Even dragged Isak towards where Eva told them to sit down, still holding his hand. They sat down, and chatted casually for a few minutes, still holding hands. All this handholding made Isak dizzy.
At last, Eva finally showed up. She started quizzing Isak and Even about each other, and giving Isak looks. Eventually, Jonas showed up.
“Eva! I’ve been looking for you all night!” Jonas said to Eva, before turning to greet Isak. Jonas saw Isak and Even’s intertwined fingers, and gave Isak a look.
“Hi! I’m Jonas, Isak’s best friend, and you are?”
“I’m Even, Isak’s date for the night.” Isak could feel both Jonas and Even staring at him.
“The fuck Isak? You have a date, and you didn’t even tell me?” Jonas said to Isak, a little offended, before he turned to Even, “No offense dude, you’re probably cool.”
Even lifted his hands in the air, as he said “None taken”
“Jonas, come and dance with me!” Eva dragged Jonas away to the dance floor before either of them could say anything. After thirty seconds, Eva and Jonas were making out, and the boys were left to themselves.
They continued chatting, just like they had done at Isak’s house, and they drank a little. Time passed, and Isak lost all logic of time. He didn’t know if it had been 15 minutes or three hours. Suddenly, Even stood up.
“Come on, dance with me, I love this song!” Isak hadn’t even noticed the music playing, Don’t Kill My Vibe by Sigrid.
Isak may only have known Even for a few days, but he was already head over heels for him. So of course Isak joined Even dancing, even if it wasn’t his best side. The dance floor was packed, but at this moment Isak only noticed Even. Everything else in the world was blocked.
Normally, Isak hates dancing. He can’t really move along to the music, and he has this awkward gay look to himself. But with Even, he could just be himself, without the fear of anyone judging him. It was almost like he was in a trance. Sadly, that trance was broken when he heard Jonas, Mahdi and Magnus shout at him. He looked over to find the three boys looking at him and Even, giving him the thumbs up.
“So, do you think I convinced your friends that we’re dating?” Even asks him, almost out of breath from all the dancing.
“Hell yeah, you almost convinced me we’re dating” Oh fuck, Isak can not trust Drunk Isak. Why does he always open his mouth without thinking.
“Well, why don’t we change that to being the truth?” Damn, this fucker was smooth.
“Change what?” Isak said, pretending he didn’t get the memo, when he only wanted to hear Even actually say it out loud.
“Why would we fake date, when we could date for real?” Even was looking at him with his intense blue eyes.
“Yeah sure, I guess I wouldn’t mind”
“Wouldn’t mind? Isak, you’d love to be my real date”
Before Isak could answer, Eva was dragging Isak away from Even.
“Sorry Even! I just need to borrow Isak for a few seconds” Eva said loudly, even drunker than earlier.
When Isak and Eva was safely dragged into a silent corner, Eva leaned up to him and whispered
“Isaaaak, I swear you handsome viking over there looks like sex on legs! Let’s just say, I’m wishing you good luck tonight” She smirked at him, as Isak turned around to look at Even.
Eva wasn’t wrong, Even did look incredibly good. Isak tried not to think about how Eva said he looked like sex on legs, but with him being just the right amount of drunk, it wasn’t easy. Luckily for him, Even met his eyes just then, and gave him a wink.
Looking back, Isak was so thankful for his own drunk self for having this much confidence. Because right after Even winked at Isak, Isak just blocked Eva out, and walked up to Even.
“You sure are one smooth motherfucker,” he said, before moving right in to kiss Even.
Oh boy, Even was one good kisser. Turns out, those pretty lips are useful for at least one thing, and Isak can’t wait to find out what other things they might be useful for.
“I might be, but from now on I’m your smooth motherfucker”
Next morning, Isak was prepared to wake up with a hangover and instant regret, instead he woke up with an arm wrapped steady around his waist.
“Good morning!” Even said to him, snuggling him even tighter.
“Good morning to you too!”
Isak turned around, to look Even in the eyes. Even leaned in, and gave him a good morning kiss.
“So, what do you want for breakfast, boyfriend?”