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Everyone knew who David Schreibner was. He was the senior with tattoos covering every inch of skin along his arms and had multiple piercings along his ears and nose. He was intimidating, to say the least. Everyone tried to avoid David, afraid of what he might do or say if anyone got in his way. His facial features never moved from their stone-cold expression and he was always alone in the cafeteria. He had been at the school for a little over a year now and no one seemed to know anything about him.
Matteo rubbed his face as his geography teacher droned on about the United States and all of the small nuances about the country. He grabbed his pencil and started twirling it lazily, attempting to entertain himself. It quickly became just as boring and he set his pencil back down on the table and let his gaze drift around the room.
Most people were taking notes or drifting off like he was, but then his eyes landed on a black hoodie. David, who was a row ahead and one seat to the left, had a pencil in hand, but he was definitely not taking notes. Matteo watched as David drew small lines and shapes. The entire page was filled with dark lines and if he squinted hard enough, Matteo could make out a small bird or plant. He smiled to himself, focusing on the way the muscles moved in David’s hand or how his fingers moved across the pen.
“Mr. Schreibner,” the teacher barked, breaking both Matteo and David out of their thoughts.
A soft shade of pink slowly rose onto David’s right cheek as the teacher scolded him for not paying attention. A few snickers rose around the room but were quickly silenced by a glare from the dark haired boy.
.oOo.
A week went by before David was brave enough to start drawing in class again. But when he did, Matteo immediately noticed. Instead of doodles, these were partial sketches of whatever came to David’s mind. An eye, a hand, a bird. Matteo was so mesmerised by the movements in David’s hand, that he almost missed when the boy paused and turned in his seat. When David’s eyes connected to his, Matteo quickly looked away, his cheeks and ears heating up. He refused to look over for the rest of the lecture.
.oOo.
Matteo was wandering through the library only a couple of days later. He was actively avoiding the cafeteria, as it was one of the days where his mind was like static and large groups of people made him want to sit in a corner with his head in his knees.
He walked along the different aisles, fingers running along the spines of the books. His gaze drifted from one section to another, glancing at the empty tables when he would pass an opening in the shelves. He would occasionally stop and flip through the book, if the spine felt particularly interesting, or the size of the book was abnormal. None of them were what he would consider to be his taste; they were either biographies or research texts or thick map books.
As Matteo continued to weave his way through the metal shelves, he became lost, unaware of his location in the library. From the dust settled on the books and shelves, he assumed they were sections anyone rarely visited. He spent some time in the dim back aisles, resting his forehead against the rows and rearranging the books so they were out of order. As he was resting against the metal, eyes closed and deep in static thought, a rustle came from behind him, causing him to jump in his skin.
He turned around and slid a finger down the spine of one of the books behind him, hesitating, unsure if he wanted to see what was on the other side. After a few moments of contemplation, he ran his finger back up, hooking it on to the top of the book, and pulling slowly. A familiar figure came into view.
David had his laptop set up and a headphone wire was emerging from the side. He had his hoodie up and head was resting on his crossed arms in front of him. Matteo grabbed a few more books from the shelf, allowing for a better view of the boy he was intrigued by. He focused on the screen, trying to see what such a mysterious boy could be watching. When his eyes finally sharpened and made out the picture on the laptop, he almost laughed out loud. David -- tattoo covered, dark clothing covered, intimidating David Shreibner -- was watching a compilation of cat videos.
A sweater-covered hand covered Matteo’s mouth to stifle his giggles. He found it so endearing that this boy that everyone was afraid of doodles in class and watches cat videos for fun.
Suddenly, there was a noise from the scene in front of him. It didn’t sound like it came from the video; it was too natural. It took a moment for Matteo to process that David had laughed. Giggled , even. He had never seen David smile, let alone laugh, and he didn’t process it in time to savor the sound. Luckily, only a second later did the sound occur again. This time, Matteo was ready, and the giggle he heard made his smile grow wide.
He watched David watch cat compilations until a bell chattered, signalling that he had needed to go to class. He held his gaze on the mysterious - and dorky - boy in front of him one last time, before leaving the library.
.oOo.
The following day, Matteo had an idea. As students were filing in to the Geometry classroom, he quickly scribbled down a note on a torn piece of paper. He greeted Jonas half-heartedly, waiting for a particular person to enter the room. As Jonas was chatting away in the seat next to him, Matteo watched as David strolled into the room and right to his seat. He looked different today. Not in the way he dressed or held himself, but to Matteo, it was all… different . Suddenly, his features weren’t stone-cold, but soft and warm. His tattoos and piercings were intimidating, but artistic. His dark clothing, well, was still dark clothing. But it worked for him.
David laid his head down on the desk, face in his arms, as he did every morning before the lecture. Matteo took this opportunity to awkwardly shuffle around his desk and drop the note into David’s bag. When Matteo returned to his seat, Jonas was giving him an odd look. “What was that about?”
Matteo shrugged, “he dropped a piece of paper and I just wanted to return it.”
Jonas nodded, still skeptical, but dropped the topic.
The class went by dreadfully slow, even while watching David doodle in his notebook again. Matteo’s leg bounced as he waited for the bell to ring, wanting to see David’s reaction to the note. When the annoying trill finally sounded, Matteo kept himself planted in his seat, watching the boy. Jonas prodded him to get up, but after multiple failed attempts, he rolled his eyes and walked away.
David finally snapped out of his drawing haze and went to put his notebook in his bag, pausing when he noticed something unfamiliar. Matteo laid his head on his arms as he watched the paper emerge from the bag. David’s eyes scanned the torn scrap, the corner of his lip curling up. His head snapped up and started to look for the author, when his eyes landed on the only person left in the room. Matteo smirked softly, which caused David’s eyes to grow wide.
Matteo got up from his seat and stood in front of David, who looked gorgeous up close. His mind went fuzzy - and not like the static it was the previous day - and almost lost his train of thought. Stay cool, he told himself and worked up the nerve to start talking.
“I thought it would be cool to watch cat videos together at lunch today, yeah?” Matteo lifted his chin slightly.
David nodded and replied softly. “Yeah.”
.oOo.
“Do your tattoos mean anything?” Matteo asked one day, walking to the library.
Eating lunch in the library became routine for David and Matteo. It kept Matteo away from the crowded lunchroom and David enjoyed the company. They would get stares from students in the hall and Jonas continued to pass odd looks, but Matteo brushed them all off. His crush on David - which he discovered after he couldn’t sleep one night - was growing stronger and he had no intentions of stopping it.
He had started asking more personal questions, want to learn everything he possibly could about David Shreibner. He knew about his love for cats and art (especially drawing birds), his close relationship with his sister, and that he wanted to be a filmmaker after Uni. He had all kinds of ideas for films, all revolving around aliens and monsters and science fiction. But now, Matteo wanted to know more.
David rolled up the sleeves of his long-sleeved t-shirt as he explained. “Some of them are for the culture I grew up in. This one,” he pointed to the sunflower and a flower that Matteo didn’t recognize, “was my sister’s idea. She loves sunflowers, since they’re so happy and joyful and always face the sun. She thinks of them as always searching for the bright side of life.
“The other flower…” his voice went quiet and his finger drifted to the unfamiliar plant, “is a Protea flower. It symbolizes change and transformation.”
Matteo lifted his gaze to try to meet David’s eyes, but he was still focused on the tattoo. “What’s it for?”
Dark brown eyes finally met cloudy blue. Matteo couldn’t read his expression but he could tell it was a difficult subject. He quickly tried to take his question back, “it’s okay, you don’t have to - ”
David smiled sadly, rolling down his sleeve. “I just… can’t talk about it yet.”
Matteo nodded, then motioned his head toward the direction of the library. “Let’s go, yeah? We have some videos that need to be watched.”
.oOo.
“How did you find me? That first time you saw me watching cat compilations?” David asked.
David and Matteo were laying on Matteo’s bedroom floor, joint being passed between them. They were buzzed to the point of asking deep and philosophical questions, which neither boy minded.
Matteo took a puff from the joint and hummed, handing it to David. Their fingers brushed, causing chills to run down his spine. “I was just walking through the library. I didn’t want to be in that fucking lunchroom anymore. I just needed to get away from it. The noise, the people. I was losing my mind. I probably still am, just like my mom.”
Silence followed Matteo’s reply. The sandy-haired boy let his head droop to the side to look at David. The joint was between his lips and Matteo couldn’t help but stare. When David took the joint from his lips and blew smoke, Matteo’s gaze followed every movement. From his lips to the top of the smoke trail, then back down to his face. He focused on how long his eyelashes were and the slope of his nose. The hairs he could make out above David’s upper lip.
Suddenly, his hand reached out, the back of his fingers brushing lightly against David’s cheek. His head snapped over to the movement, causing Matteo to flinch away before his hand got caught.
It occured to Matteo what he just did and heat rose to his cheeks. He turned his head back to facing the ceiling and dropped his hand to his side. “Sorry, I -- sorry,” he mumbled.
Fear raced through his mind. He stepped too fair, he let his emotions get too attached, he --
Something was running through Matteo’s hair. He sat still and focused. Fingers. Long, soft fingers were being pulled through his hair. He carefully turned his head, afraid of the moment going away.
David was staring directly at him now. Matteo was never good at reading people, but there was something in his eyes that told him that David wanted this, too.
The fingers continued to weave their way through sand-colored hair and Matteo let his fingers wander down a tattoo-covered arm. The pads of his fingers barely touched David’s skin as he let them slide to his elbow. He could feel the goosebumps rising on the other boy’s skin and it made him smile.
He brought his hand back down David’s arm, down to his wrist. David’s hand paused in his hair, as if to let Matteo’s touch lead the way. Matteo gently wrapped his fingers around David’s wrist and brought it away from his hair. He brought his free hand up and drew lines and shapes in the palm of the other boy’s hand and he felt him shiver from the delicate touch. Matteo chuckled and finally weaved his fingers with David’s and let their hands drop to the ground.
Matteo closed his eyes to soak in the moment. He could lay like this forever.