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Valentine's day meant nothing to Øystein, it was just another made-up corporate "holiday" to capitalise on the human emotion of love. Not that he had much of that anyway. He hated seeing people walk around all lovey-dovey blind to the fact it's an obvious money grabbing ploy. He rarely told anyone this - he tried telling Jørn and he called him a "jealous virgin". Even Kjetil, his right hand man, who he shared basically every opinion in common with, shrugged and said "if it makes people happy".
School was practically a warzone - couples arguing left and right about what one got the other, excitement or disappointment over who had a crush on who, and a sense of mystery matching the handwriting of anonymous cards to a person. He didn't get anything, but he wasn't expecting anything so it didn't bother him. It was usually the guys that asked out the girls anyway, and he wasn't interested in any of the girls here.
His stomach flipped as he thought of Kjetil. He was probably getting asked out so many times today because he was a bit of a flirt. Or a lot of a flirt.
He was dreading going home to his parents interrogating him about what he got girls for Valentine's day, when he was getting a girlfriend, and complaining that his "demonic music" was getting in the way of him finding one. So he asked Kjetil and Jørn to meet him in the empty music classroom after school to practise, but mostly to prolong going home. And practise was never unwelcome.
He strolled up to the classroom with his guitar case slung over his back and opened the door to find Kjetil sat on a desk reading some magazine, his legs long enough that they reached the ground. He and Kjetil always got there first because Jørn had to come from another school, and Øystein was glad to have some time alone with him without having to hear Jørn's annoying quips throughout. His head was tilted sideways so his hair fell over his face in a way that was so endearing it made him grin.
"Hey," he leant the guitar case against the wall and hopped onto the desk next to Kjetil, who reached out to pat his shoulder as a greeting.
"Hey 'Stein,"
"What're you reading then?"
He shuffled up so their sides were flush together and placed the magazine in the middle.
They sat in comfortable silence interspersed with commentary about the bands in the magazine until Kjetil broke the silence.
"How was your Valentine's day?" he teased.
"How do you think?" he elbowed Kjetil lightly and he snorted. "What about yours?"
He looked away and shrugged. "Pretty shit. I asked a girl out and she said no." he said with no discernible emotions.
"Someone rejected you?" Øystein questioned, almost confused. He didn't really know why he reacted so strongly, considering he usually hated it when Kjetil dated people - it interfered with their practise schedule.
"Yeah, what about it?" he laughed.
"It's just-" a million phrases crossed his mind to fill in the blank - you're handsome, funny, smart, your eyes, your hair, your face, your hands, but he settled with "- you're every girls dream, basically. She's missing out."
Kjetil couldn't stop a smile from stretching across his face.
"No way!" he laughed.
"I mean it! Like- your..." Øystein waved his hands around to emphasise everything, "Who wouldn't want a tall, handsome, blond, talented drummer?" With each word he said Kjetil's face grew more red.
"You're just saying that to make me feel better," he tilted his head to one side again and his silvery hair looked even smoother in the artificial lights and it covered one eye perfectly - it was stupid, how was even his hair attractive?
"You know I'm not, 'Til," Øystein mumbled and Kjetil's face grew even warmer.
"I still have these, anyway," Kjetil reached behind to grab his bag and pulled out a plastic bag full of little heart shaped chocolated wrapped in pink foil.
"Did you make those yourself?"
He snorted, "Of course not, but I spent my money on them. You have 'em." he pushed the bag into Øystein's lap.
"What?- I can't take them, you keep them. They're yours," and stupidly, he felt himself getting flustered.
"Nah, I don't need them,"
"I can't take all of them. We could share?"
"Deal."
As they sat side by side and ate, he remembered a riff from a Venom track he wanted to play for Kjetil. He watched Øystein sit cross legged and stare down at his guitar with focus etched onto his face, eyebrows furrowed, eyes harsh and pink lips pressed together. His fingers moved over the strings with practised ease, more blunt and wide than slender but still precise. He noticed Øystein's forarms were quite defined as he gripped the neck of the guitar, and when his thick hair fell over his face like a curtain he felt weirdly soft.
"I'm surprised no one asked you out today," he muttered, resting his head in his hands.
"What?" he lowered his guitar and flicked his hair out of his face, "No you're not!"
"I am. You're all tough outside but kind really, don't girls like that? Cute face, strong arms, and you've got nimble fingers after playing guitar like that..."
Øystein's face was completely red from his cheeks to the tips of his ears and he had to avoid looking into his eyes. "Fuck off! Dude, you're so weird..."
But Kjetil's laugh was infectious and one of his favourite sounds, so soon he was laughing too.
Jørn arrived a short while later and walked in on the two of them sitting shoulder-to-shoulder again, magazine and bag of chocolates inbetween them.
"What the fuck?" he mumbled.
"What?" Kjetil replied through a mouthful of chocolate.
"You look gay as shit, cuddled up like that,"
Øystein rolled his eyes. "He got fucking rejected, now he's sad and got no one to eat his chocolates with,"
"Hey-"
But there was no use defending himself, Jørn was already laughing like that was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. "Man, that's so sad! Lemme have one of those,"
Throughout practise and when he got home and when he couldn't sleep, all he could think about was what Kjetil said. And what he said. It felt weirdly natural to say those things about him outloud, it wasn't weird to compliment your best friend, and Kjetil wasn't disgusted with him or anything like that. He was just stating the obvious, he is attractive. And when Kjetil said those things about him he didn't find it gross or weird, instead - he had a strange revelation that he wanted Kjetil to find him attractive and cute and whatever.
He didn't know what to do with that revelation. He just knew that the thought of Kjetil liking him like that made his stomach flip and the thought of Kjetil in general made his body go warm.
Huh. Weird.