Chapter Text
Robbe Ijzermans would never claim to be particularly observant. He only had to look at his year-long crush on his best friend to be able to tell that he lacked the ability to read people particularly well. That or he was just willfully ignorant. The fact that he was the cause of Jens’ temporary break up was a good example of this as well. Robbe genuinely didn’t realize that he and Jana had liked each other that much. Anyways, Robbe reasoned, the two of them were so on again off again that he could hardly be blamed for their relationship drama.
This isn’t to say that Robbe is completely unaware. He was aware of his attraction to Jens; he was aware that Jana was an obstacle in the way of their friendship. He was even, on some level, aware that nothing was going to come from his feelings. Jens was the first person nice enough to give him the time of the day. His interest reflected that. But he knew, even at the time, that it would bloom and then wilt soon enough.
If Robbe was honest with himself, which he tried not to be, he was so focused on ensuring no one could tell his thoughts and feelings, that he hardly had time to notice others around him.
This was all to say that Robbe had no idea who had left the stray piece of paper in his locker.
At first, he took no note of it. Pushing it out of the way with the rest of the contents of his locker. When it fell to the floor, his first thought was to leave it there, but with his luck he would be caught by a teacher, or worse by Amber, and made to listen to an entire speech about the problems of littering. Robbe just couldn’t risk it.
He bent down to retrieve the paper and put it in the bin. When he reached for it though, he noticed that there was writing on it. Writing that wasn’t his. Curious, Robbe opened the paper, void of lines and thick, to find a message written on it.
If you come from art, you’ll always be art.
Robbe looked curiously about, trying to see if there was anyone around watching him. When no one seemed to be paying him any mind, Robbe unfolded the paper. Above the words was a detailed drawing of eyes.
Robbe stared at them, captivated. The lines were fine, curved and placed delicately on the page. Although clearly a sketch, the work seemed as if it was completed with the utmost care. The image itself was lifelike in its detail. The set of eyes were wide and expressive. The eyebrows were thick and downturned, like the outer corners of each eye. Together they gave the impression that the eyes were sad, seeming as if they shined with tears. The iris was shaded darkly, and Robbe could almost see a hint of a secret within their shaded depths. Robbe looked at them for a long moment, they were almost familiar, but he couldn’t put his finger on why.
He was interrupted from his gazing by the sound of the bell ringing. Robbe realized all at once that he was supposed to be in science on the opposite end of the building. So stuffing the paper back into his locker, Robbe ran for his class.
+
By the time lunch rolled around, Robbe had all but forgotten the odd events of the morning.
He arrived at the lunch hall and stopped, searching for his friends in the crowd of students. It may have been too sudden a stop though because a body walked into him from behind.
Stumbling forward, Robbe already began to turn around to try to face the person. Hands held onto his arms as they flailed, keeping him from falling backwards. “Sorry, sorry.” Robbe said, reorienting himself and taking note of the hands that still held him steady. He looked up past dark washed jeans, and then up some more past a leather jacket and graphic tee, until he caught a shock of white hair and the softest shade of green eyes he had ever seen before.
“It’s chill.” The boy he bumped into said, a soft smirk growing on his lips. “Maybe keep an eye out before sudden stops though?”
Before Robbe could form a reply, the boy let go of his arms and walked off into the den of people.
Robbe watched him as he left.
When he lost sight of the blond, Robbe returned once again to the task of finding his friends. He spotted them towards the windows and made his way over slowly, subtly looking in the direction the boy had disappeared hoping to catch that shock of hair once again.
“I can’t handle her though.” Jens was saying, reaching out to greet Robbe with a fist bump, without breaking conversation with Moyo and Aaron.
“Who?” Robbe asked, still preoccupied with the space behind his friends leading outside, where the blond had headed.
“Jana.” Moyo said. “She is still angry at Jens because of the Britt thing.”
Confused, Robbe brought his full attention to his best friend. “What happened now?”
“Britt wants me to help her study for history.” Jens said, by the way his shoulders slumped, Robbe could tell he was already tired of the conversation. “I tried to explain that there is nothing to worry about to Jana- Britt said there is someone new she has an eye on- but Jana still doesn’t want to hear it. I have to listen to her talk about her friends for hours, and yet I can’t even get enough words out to explain myself. I don’t know what to do.”
“I wish Amber was jealous over me.” Aaron said.
And that was Robbe’s cue that he could zone out again. He couldn’t find the blond near the lunch hall doors, so he started looking out the window into the yard to see if he could spot him. It took some looking, but eventually Robbe found the blond sitting alone under a tree and focused on something in his lap. His head was bopping up and down to whatever was playing out of his earphones. He wasn’t facing Robbe, so the brunet felt comfortable staring at the line of his shoulders under the black leather jacket and the way his bleach blond hair caught the sunlight as the wind carded through it.
He must not have been particularly subtle, because soon Aaron interrupted the conversation to call out Robbe. “He looks super cool, doesn’t he?”
Robbe startled, pulling his gaze from the boy outside to his friend. “What?”
“The new guy.” Aaron gestured to the blond outside.
“New guy?” Robbe fiddled with the food in front of him. “It’s the middle of the year.”
“Yeah he just transferred over a couple weeks ago. Apparently, it was rough at his last school.” Jens said.
Robbe looked curiously over at the blond. The slope of his shoulders seemed to take on a new sense of loneliness to Robbe.
“Apparently he’s crazy.” Aaron said casually, though he startled when Robbe turned sharply to look at him. “Sorry, sorry. Wrong word. It’s just the rumor is that he got super violent and freaked everyone out at his last school. I heard he was kicked out.”
Jens snorted. “Right because rumors are always true.” He glanced at Robbe. “Did something happen?”
Robbe shook his head. “I was trying to place him when I bumped into him earlier.”
Moyo leaned forward to punch at Robbe’s shoulder. “Well you better watch out. I heard he’s as mean as they come. All he’s been doing is glaring at everyone and icing them out. Little Robbe is gonna be dead meat by the end of the week if he doesn’t watch his back.”
“It’s probably a good idea to stay away.” Aaron agreed.
Jens shrugged at Robbe when he looked at him. Robbe was curious, but otherwise he was happy to let the conversation drift away to other subjects.
Robbe spent the rest of the lunch period trying to figure out why all of the information he’d just been given only served to make him more interested in figuring out what was going on with the man outside.
+
The new guy didn’t seem to be in his grade. Robbe looked out for him in every class he had for the rest of that day. He knew that if he had been in his grade, Robbe would have seen him for the first time way before their lunch encounter. One look at the blond, and Robbe was looking for him everywhere now.
It seemed the same for the blond as well. He was always looking back. In the hallway Robbe would pass him, or Robbe would see him in the yard or lunch hall. Every time Robbe felt a chill run down his spine, and it was not at all unpleasant. When he saw Robbe his head would tilt to the side, a small smirk working onto his face. Sometimes his tongue would peek out of his mouth or he would bite at his lips. Each time this happened Robbe would blush, feeling hot all over. He was sure he was just seeing things, that his mind was playing tricks on him, because there was no way a boy that looked like that was giving Robbe the time of day. But each time Robbe had himself just about convinced he hadn’t actually seen anything, he’d spot the blond looking again.
Robbe was waiting for his friends in the yard later that week, when he spotted the blond again. He was walking swiftly down the outdoor space ignoring everyone around him with a serious look on his face.
Robbe supposed he could see how someone like that might seem intimidating, with his leather jacket and alternative tastes. He definitely didn’t seem friendly by the sharpness of his eyes or the frown on his mouth. Still, Robbe couldn’t help but be interested. He didn’t seem scary to Robbe but rather mysterious. Robbe wanted to know him, not stay away from him.
When the blond caught sight of him, that dark look left his face entirely. The blond looked excited to see him, that playful smirk lighting up his face once again. His footsteps slowed and his gaze was focused on Robbe’s direction. Robbe even turned around to make sure there was no one behind him. He had to double check. When he returned his gaze to the blond, his smirk had bloomed into a full-blown smile. It rounded his cheeks and made him look younger. Robe felt his stomach bottom out at the sight.
The blond didn’t stop by Robbe though. He kept walking right past the brunet as they shared eye contact. As they passed each other, Robbe turned his head to follow the blond’s movement. The blond did the same, looking back at Robbe as he continued forward. And just as he stepped out of reach, his tongue peeked out of his mouth to lick at his lip as his eyes travelled down Robbe’s body. Robbe felt hot again, just like every time before. The blond looked back into Robbe’s eyes and winked, before disappearing into the school and leaving Robbe flustered on a bench. Robbe may not have been observant, but the blond was anything but subtle.
Robbe sat dazed, unsure what he had just experienced was real.
+
Robbe was collecting his language textbook from his locker when he spotted the picture again. He had been so caught up in the new kid, he didn’t have time to think about where the image had come from. He was interrupted from his thoughts when Aaron and Jens arrived at his locker. He could clearly hear them discussing the school gossip as they waited for him to finish getting his things.
“His name is Sander Driesen.” Aaron said, by way of greeting.
“Who?”
“The new guy you bumped into?” Aaron reminded him.
As if Robbe would have forgotten. He nodded his head, trying to feign disinterest, but this was the first piece of information he had gained about the blond. Sander. Robbe was eager to learn more. “Who did you learn that from?” He asked, trying to be casual.
“Amber heard from Jana, who heard from Britt. Apparently, she knows someone who went to his old school.”
“That and she’s been stalking his grade.” Jens added.
“Huh.” Robbe hoped he came off as uninterested. He knew that when Aaron felt like he had to impress the people he was talking to, he would often give more information than necessary freely. Robbe could learn more without seeming like he wanted to.
“Yeah. He’s a year above us, so Britt doesn’t know the girl at the other school too well. All she heard was that he caused some property damage last year, and got it confirmed for sure. It was one of the reasons he was expelled.” Jens nodded along to Aaron’s words, as if this wasn’t news to him at all.
“Did you hear all this already?” Robbe asked. “Are you and Jana good again?” The answer to that changed daily.
Jens shrugged. “Who knows? But yeah, she told me. Though she added that the property damage was vandalism. Apparently, the guy graffitied a huge mural on school property and caused a bunch of work for the school to fix. We spent last night trying to find pictures of it. I heard it was well done, but I didn’t hear what it was of.”
Sander graffitied something. He drew. Robbe felt his hand tighten on the paper that was still clutched within it. His eyes dropped down to it, wondering…
Jens eyes followed his, dropping down to the paper too. “What is that?” He asked, reaching for the sheet in Robbe’s hand faster than the brunet could move it.
Robbe watched wide eyed, as his best friend opened the paper and read it, scrambling for an answer. “It’s just this drawing I found randomly in the hallway.” He lied.
Aaron and Jens looked at the paper curiously.
“It’s really nice.” Aaron said.
“You just found it in the hallway?” Jens asked. The way his eyes draw into slits at the corners as he squinted. The look suggested he was skeptical of Robbe’s explanation.
“Yeah.” Robbe said, leaning into the lie. “It was on the floor in the middle of the hall, and I picked it up to put in the garbage. I thought it looked kind of cool, so I didn’t throw it away.” Aaron nodded along easily enough, but Jens still looked curious and his ‘hmm’ in reply didn’t seem promising. “Why? Do you know whose it is or something?”
“No, not at all.” Jens answered, handing the paper back to Robbe. “I just must be seeing things.”
It was Robbe’s turn to be curious. “What?”
Jens shrugged his shoulders again. “It must be a coincidence, but I just thought those eyes on the paper kind of looked like yours.” He explained.
Robbe felt his heart skip a beat, turning to study the eyes on the paper. His palms felt itchy and his cheeks hot as he studied the drawing and the words beneath it. “Yeah.” He said a moment later, regaining his composure. “It must be a coincidence.”