Chapter Text
Jakob mimicked the way he was going to throw the bread a couple of times, speculating how the bread would probably move once it flew out of his hand. The flat part was supposed to hit the side of Kevin's head which would then splat apart in pieces as Kevin would lower his head to mimic the impact.
They had quickly decided it would probably be best if Jakob threw the bread. Axel had made himself known not to be the best when it comes to sports, and since the bread could practically be considered a frisbee, Jakob had deemed it a sport.
It wasn’t the first time Lina came to them with a video open on her phone screen saying the words: ‘have you guys seen this trend?’ showing the men the video they knew they had to recreate about 5 minutes later. The boys started to get tired of having to record a new tiktok and instagram video every 20 minutes, but at least this wasn’t another video of them dancing Bara Bada Bastu in front of some building or together with a man in the costume of a carrot to make children eat their vegetables or something like that. They always went along with her ideas, at mello it wasn’t really optional to resist Lina's video ideas.
“Are you sure you are okay with this?”
“Yes I am sure Jakob, I trust you, the bread isn’t that hard anyways.” Kevin walked towards the counter grabbing a small pink cup which he was going to fill with candy for the video. He isn’t even a big candy eater, it would be more realistic if Jakob was the one getting the candy, but the audio has the name Kevin, not Jakob. Besides, reality doesn’t really matter in these reels, people won’t pay attention to those kinds of details.
Lina took her position and lit the flashlight she brought with her, it made the pink colours even more intense. Jakob stood a small meter to her left with the bread steadily in his hands.
He did one last practice now that he knew exactly where Kevin was going to stand. practising how much speed and force he would need to give the bread to make sure it made the right impact.
“Everyone ready?” Lina asked, looking at the victims of her social media video ideas.
“Three… Two… one…”
Jakob lifted his hands slightly above his head and pressed his lips together as Kevin reached for the candy not even two meters in front of him. He pulled his hands back and then moved them forward, releasing the bread from his grip.
As soon as Jakob's fingers lost contact with the bread he knew that it was wrong.
Instead of the bread flying straight, like they had planned, the bread started to spin, only slightly but just enough to hit Kevin’s head with the edge instead of the middle. Besides that he also noticed that he was standing closer than he anticipated, so he used too much force.
The impact was immediate, it started with Kevins head that didn’t go down, but instead went sideways, soon his neck followed and then his whole upper body bent down towards the white countertop. His arms slid over it as he had to take a few short steps to not fall down to the floor. His left hand let go of the pink cup as he slid further away from Jakob.
A smile formed on Lina’s face, it looked really good on camera. Jakob however raised one of his hands in a fist and held it in front of his mouth and his other hand was lifted to his ribcage. He wanted to walk towards Kevin, but Lina was still filming. He didn’t want to ruin the take so he waited a few seconds until he thought it was enough. But he knew, he knew it hit his friend too hard.
Kevin curled his hand to find his grip before lifting his body from the counter and standing up straight. He felt his feet wobble, not because of weakness, but because of shock. This was not how it was meant to go.
He set a few steps towards his friend and he saw Jakob approaching him with his right hand moving towards as if he wanted to protect him. Lina was still filming with her phone and held the light up. The light was way too bright for Kevin, who had to look towards it to see Jakob.
“How did it go?” Jakob asked while walking.
Kevin immediately felt a headache coming up, and the shock was present in his body, it felt like he was shivering while walking. He tried to force a smile, but he couldn’t look his friend in the eyes as he felt a wet line filling up in his eyes trying to force their way out and a weight rising up in his chest.
No don’t cry. Don’t cry. It wasn’t that bad. It didn’t even hurt that bad.
The shock made his entire body tight. The pain on the side of his head was uncomfortable, but it wasn’t even that bad, why was he becoming so emotional about this?
“I am good.” He said looking down, slightly nodding his head, trying to comfort his friend, trying not to get too much attention. If people get too close now, the tears would definitely start to flow. He could already feel how they were right at the edge of his waterline.
The forced smile stayed on a tad too long, and looked a bit too consistent. Jakob noticed it, he wanted to lay a hand on Kevins arm, he wanted to look him deep in the eyes to make sure that he was alright, but he noticed how Kevin was behaving. It sent a clear message: please, not now.
His left hand reached for the space behind his ear, where the bread hit, he could feel that it was getting a bit sore, and a little bump was forming. But as far as he could tell, there was no blood.
Please just focus on something else. I can’t cry in front of the camera, I can’t cry in front of Lina.
“It hit edge first, didn’t it?” He asked, smiling slightly concerned and feeling guilty about hurting his friend. Jakob saw the bread rotating before his eyes while still looking at Kevin who slightly nodded with his hand still lightly massaging the small bump before lowering his hand again to not get too much attention.
Lina moved closer with her camera, knowing that this would be fun for the behind the scenes video she already had planned.
“How crazy.” Jakob said, still looking at Kevin who was desperately trying to avoid looking him straight in the eyes and instead looked just past him where he unfortunately met the camera of Lina’s phone.
“It’s okay.” Kevin said, nodding one last time trying to comfort everyone. But he felt unstable, and found himself suprised when he saw that his arms weren't visibly shaking.
Lina and Axel, who was filming the 'behind the scenes', both pressed on the buttons to stop recording.
“This was crazy.” Lina laughed, “Are you really okay?”
“It’ll be fine.” Kevin said, Lina interpreted that as a ‘yes’ but Jakob and Axel looked at each other, they knew better, their friend was hurting but also too ashamed to admit it. Kevin needed someone to distract them from the situation.
“Well, now that we have finished filming this, let’s actually get some of this candy here.” Axel said putting his phone in his front pocket and grabbing a bigger cup to fill with all the tasty stuff they could find.
“Oh, yeah,” Lina looked at Axel, which was a relief to Kevin, the less eyes on him, the better.
“By the way, later today A*teens wants to film a video with you guys after their rehearsal. That’s probably around 5ish. Is that doable? I’ve also got a few other video ideas that we could maybe film after that.”
Amazing… even more videos. Jakob thought.
“Yeah, sure. We could do that.” Axel replied.
“Great!” She grabbed a candy cup herself and started to look around the room to see what she wanted to eat.
Kevin still had the smile on his face, but he knew that he couldn’t hold that for much longer, he noticed how his throat was getting dry and every movement felt like he was on a vibrating plate. Except the plate was not an external force, it was his own two feet. It felt like everyone noticed, even though he was the only one that did.
“I’m gonna quickly go to the restroom.” He said to Jakob.
Amazing, my voice is shaking, so much for pretending that I’m fine.
With trembling legs he made his way out of the candy section towards the nearest restroom. He opened a stall, closed it and turned the lock. His hands were now visibly shaking and now that he was in solitude he felt the strength leaving his legs. He rested his back against the wall and slit down till he sat on the floor with his knees in the air, as everything started to spin. Kevin put his hand on his head again and noticed how the pain was growing stronger now that the adrenaline started to run out. It was a throbbing pain, a rhythmic reminder of the strength his best friend possessed.