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Sana doesn't expect to see Even in the Nissen court yard of all places.
At first she doesn't even recognise him, just sees a group of random third year boys talking and smoking. It's only when her gaze has moved on, still looking for her friends, that her brain goes “wait, hold on” and she flicks her eyes back.
She hasn't seen him in, what? Eight months now? At least. She doesn't really know what happened either, she just knows that at some point he stopped coming over and Elias' friends were all extra weird for a while. It wasn't something that she really spent too much time thinking about. She figured they'd had a fight. Maybe he'd said some dumb white boy thing and they stopped talking to him. She wouldn't be surprised. He is a white boy, and all boys are dumb, so. It's a solid theory.
She didn't ask, but she assumed he graduated with them last spring, so the fact that not only is he here in her school's court yard, but two weeks into term, with a backpack on his back, talking to… Marius and David, she thinks? Two boys she remembers as being in their second year last year. And Even's talking to them like they're old friends so… well. It seems to indicate very clearly that he goes to school here now. That he did not graduate.
That's her first indicator that maybe it wasn't a dumb white boy thing that made Even vanish from her brother's life, but Sana doesn't particularly care to find out.
Vilde comes bounding up to her before Even can look around and maybe catch her gaze. She wonders briefly if he's already seen her – if he knew she went here when he enrolled. If it influenced his decision either way.
“I got the kosegruppe!” Vilde announces with a bright grin and Sana's attention snaps to her.
“You got it?!” she asks, not entirely able to mask either her shock not her excitement. As far as she knows, the revue people don't usually let second years handle any of their groups on their own, so Vilde must have done some truly fantastic pestering or arguing. Uncharitably, Sana thinks it was probably the former, but Vilde does at the very least have the enthusiasm needed for “spreading joy and love” so who knows.
“Yeah! I did!” Vilde giggles.
Sana grins and opens her arms for a hug that Vilde accepts with delighted surprise written all over her face.
“We've got to start planning right away,” Sana says when the pull apart again and Vilde nods energetically.
“I have so many ideas, Sana! It's going to be amazing,” Vilde says and then she's off, chattering away about all the things she wants to do with the kosegruppe.
Sana forgets about Even.
They pass each other in the hall two days later, Even with two people Sana only vaguely recognises, and Sana on her own.
Their eyes meet and Sana puts on a small, careful smile. She really doesn't know what the protocol is and it still might be a dumb white boy thing.
Even's eyes widen a little, his pleasant smile slipping just slightly. He ducks his head like he goes to look away but then looks at her again and smiles. At her. A weird, tiny little smile that's more grimace than joy.
Sana has no idea what to do with it.
Even doesn't seek her out – and why would he? – and she doesn't seek him out either. When she's at home studying at the kitchen table while Elias and Mikael talk about some youtube channel they may or may not want to start, she thinks about asking. About what happened, why Even never comes over with the rest of them. But she doesn't really know how to bring it up. It's not really any of her business. Even was never her friend. She's not even sure what his last name is, for crying out loud.
It's only when Vilde starts recruiting for the kosegruppe that Sana talks to him for the first time. Even's eyes seem a little wary when she comes over, but as soon as Vilde starts blabbering at him about kosegruppe and making friends and spreading love, he listens to her politely, seeming for all the world perfectly into it. He laughs at all the appropriate points, but never in a way that seems like he's laughing at Vilde, and Sana can see her flush steadily worsen.
Sana catches Eva's eyes and shares a look with her – Vilde really is a sucker for a pretty boy who pays her some attention – but looks back away quickly before they do something embarrassing like start to giggle.
“Yeah,” Even says. “I'll check it out.”
And he does.
He comes by Friday evening, and Sana sees him at the neon pre-game just two weeks later. For a bit she entertains the idea that he might be working up to talking to her, but he never does. He seems to be befriending Isak, if their girlfriends (?) are planning Halloween pregames together. She doesn't really know either of them well enough to have an opinion about them either way, but she knows that Eva likes Isak and speaks well of him, despite him being her best friend's ex. The only other things she knows about Isak are: Chris had a crush on him and was a little crushed when he started seeing Sara. He was somehow mixed up in that bullshit fight last year. He's a selfish dick at least sometimes, but far better at biology than she'd like him to be.
She puts it out of her mind. She's busy enough as is without wondering about her brother's ex-friend.
And then his name pops up in a text from Vilde to Isak that she really didn't mean to look at. But she saw Vilde's name and figured it was kosegruppe business, curious about what it could be, since she isn't aware that Vilde's planning anything.
It's not about kosegruppe business and suddenly Sana feels things click into place inside her head. Isak's temper and his caginess, the way he'd looked when she got angry at him about being a dick about her religion, only he wasn't-- oh no.
She looks away quickly when Isak catches her looking, pretends she didn't see anything.
Privately, a terrible thought occurs to her.
What if… what if this is why…? But surely Elias wouldn't…?
What exactly happens next with Isak and Even she's not sure. One moment they're on Isak's instagram, clearly having the time of their lives, the next they're both missing school and when Isak comes back he looks more miserable than she's ever seen. And then at the kosegruppe Christmas party, she walks in on them kissing in the kitchen like it's no big deal at all. And more than that, Isak introduces her to Even as his friend.
Truly, Sana doesn't know what to say to any of this.
But Isak looks happier and lighter, and Even does too. When he smiles at her now, it's more like they share a secret, less like Even's contemplating running away from her. So when Isak says “You two know each other right?”, she nods.
“The kosegruppe,” she says and he grins at her. It's a bit strange, knowing that there's something Even hasn't told Isak, but she supposes they've hardly been together long enough to have swapped their entire life stories yet. It's none of her business.
In time, maybe Even will be her friend, rather than her brother's former friend, or her new friend's boyfriend, and it'll become her business – to ask, at least. For now, she leaves them be.
The End