Chapter Text
There’s about five minutes left of science class, and Isak's paid roughly zero attention for the past 40 minutes. Instead he’s doodling Illuminati triangles in his Science for First Year textbook and semi-discreetly texting Jonas memes with his iPhone hidden under the table, so the teacher won’t notice.
Like, he likes science, he really does, but he’s tired and can’t focus and there’s something about the teacher’s voice, the way she just drones on and on in her monotonous teacher-voice, that makes him tune out and alternately doodle in his textbook and come up with funny memes to text Jonas instead of actually listening.
“...For this project," the voice drones, "...which will be a 5-page assignment on CO2-emissions and global warming, you’ll work in pairs. The paper is due on Friday. Your partner will be the person to your right, and-“
A little slap to his arm makes him briefly look up to his right, eyes settling on Sana, who raises her eyebrows at him. He gives her a curt nod, acknowledging that they are partners now, apparently.
She looks him over.
“You better get it together and be able to concentrate, when we work on this assignment.”
He rolls his eyes back at her. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
Sana is smart. She likes science just as much as himself, and she’s great at it too. He has sat next to her in class enough times to know that she can hold her own in discussions on natural selection, relativity and even quantum physics and parallel universes.
So really, it’s cool that the teacher paired him with Sana, he feels chill about it, like he could’ve been paired up with Sara whom he dated for a week last year, and who still flirts with him at parties, and who knows nothing about science. That would’ve sucked. So yeah being paired with Sana is cool. Right until she turns to him with a stern voice.
“Look Isak, I have a German essay and a Norwegian essay due next week, so… Can you meet up and work on this thing today?” she taps a pen on the desk, and his enthusiasm for being paired up with her is dwindling by the millisecond. Schoolwork was in no way on his to-do list for today, and he’d been looking forward to kick back at Jonas’ for an afternoon of Call of Duty. Just the two of them. No Eva or Jonas’ little sister Thea, or Elias.
But Sana just narrows her eyes and shoots him a strict “is that alright with you, or?”, and he knows there is no way she’ll acknowledge gaming as a valid excuse for not doing schoolwork, so he nods with a weak eye roll,
“Yeah, okay, whatever. We can work on it today, I guess.”
It’s only 5 pages. And this way, at least he won’t have to spend time on it later this week. He will have to text Jonas though, and tell him that he can’t make it this afternoon, and that sorta sucks. Still, at least he’s not stuck with some chick, who’s more interested in gossiping about other chicks or making out, than actually getting some work done.
“What time are you done today?” Sana asks.
“Uh, 15:00.”
“Okay. I’m done at 14:00. How about you come to my place when you’re done? I live pretty close to here,” she says, and her no-bullshit, all-business tone of voice is nothing like how chicks usually talk to him.
For some reason he really appreciates it.
“Yeah, okay,” he says back, and Sana's already packing up her textbook and laptop, standing up from the chair,
“I’ll text you my address.”
She's out the door, before he even gets his phone out to text Jonas.
∙
At 15:12 he's at Sana’s apartment building, double checking the message she sent him with her address and then scanning over the names, finally pressing the button next to the little sign reading Bakkoush. He blows on his hands to try to warm them in the cold late-November air and does a few small jumps on the spot to keep warm. Then there’s the click of the door and he pushes it open and walks up the stairs.
Sana greets him at the door and points to a clothes rack with hangers and jackets,
“You can hang up your jacket here.”
He nods and hangs up his jacket, stuffing his dark-blue beanie in the jacket pocket. Then he toes out of his sneakers and pushes them to the side next to Sana’s white Air Force 1s and three pairs of trashed guys sneakers haphazardly scattered on the floor.
Carding a hand through his beanie-messy hair, he follows Sana to the kitchen.
“Do you want some water?” She asks, opening an overhead cabinet with glasses.
“Uh, sure. Thanks.”
As Sana fills two glasses with water, there's the sound of loud voices laughing and joking somewhere in the apartment,
“Nooo, she didn’t say that?! Isabel said that??”
“She did, man. I swear.”
“Whatever, I don’t believe you, dude."
He looks up at the sound of footsteps and then three guys scramble into the kitchen. Two of them have dark hair; one has a crewcut and the other longish hair reaching down to his shoulders.
The last guy is wearing a black Wu-Tang hoodie and a Yankees cap with locks of dirty-blonde hair peeking out underneath it, and Isak can’t stop looking at him. He’s tall; something like seven or eight inches taller than his friends, who are kinda short like Jonas. At 5’11 Isak considers himself tall-ish, but this guy looks to be four or five inches taller than him. Also, he’s... Pretty. Not like Jonas is objectively good-looking with his dark curls and bushy eyebrows. This dude is pretty; all sharp cheekbones and jaw, blue eyes and full lips with a sorta slight indent in the middle of his bottom lip, that Isak can’t take his eyes off. He wants to have a closer look. Kinda wants to touch, too. And okay, yeah, fuck, this is hands down the most beautiful guy, he's ever seen. Ever.
When the guy catches his eyes and quirks an easy smile at him, it feels like he's touched a hotplate, and he quickly averts his gaze to the floor. Settling on sock-clad feet.
“...Hi sis.”
Tentatively, Isak trails his eyes up again at the words coming from one of the other guys - the one with the crew cut -who’s apparently Sana’s brother.
”What do you want?” Sana narrows her eyes at the guy, and Isak can’t help his lips pulling into a tiny smile at the sibling dynamic. Just like him and Lea, his older sister.
”Chill. We’re just getting something to drink.” Sana’s brother replies with a smile. Then he smirks, nodding his head at Isak. ”Who’s this? You haven’t told me you have a boyfriend?”
“Ugh, shut up," Sana says, "This is Isak. From science class. We’re working on a project.”
”Okay, okay.” Her brother smiles and stretches his hand out to him.
”Hi, I’m Elias.”
The name inadvertently makes him recoil a little; his thoughts immediately straying to Jonas’ asshole friend/weed connection, who keeps hanging around, cracking stupid gay jokes and commenting on his taste in music, clothes, everything. And he knows rationally that this Elias is not the same guy, but there’s still something that reminds him a bit of him. It could be just the name, or the fact that they have the same hair color.
He shakes it off, just before the silence turns awkward, and takes the guy’s hand.
“Hi. Isak.”
Shaking his hand, Elias jerks his head at the two other guys,
”This is Mikael and Even.”
“Hey.” They both say, and Isak gives them both a short noncommittal glance and a nod, making sure not to look at him for too long. Mutters back a quick ”hey.”
He memorizes his name, though. Even. Lets it settle in the back of his mind, even though chances are he’ll probably never meet him again.
When Sana brushes by him with two glasses of water and a curt, “let’s go”, he follows her out of the kitchen, careful not to look back at Even again, as Elias' teasing voice floats behind them,
“Have fun with your science project...”
And even if Sana's walking in front of him, he swears he can almost feel her rolling her eyes.
∙
Two hours later, after debating global warming, including whether or not Al Gore’s movie on the topic can be considered a valid source or not and a lot of googling, Sana’s mother pops her head in through the door. Looking a little surprised, when she sees him sitting there at Sana's desk,
“Oh. Hello.” She smiles.
“Hei,” he says back a bit awkwardly, because really this whole interacting with parents is so not his thing. He’s so bad with parents. And what if he's not even allowed in Sana's room? He's a boy after all.
Sana’s mom just smiles though, then redirects her gaze to Sana,
“You didn’t tell me you had company today?”
“No? Well, this is Isak. From school. We’re working on a project.”
Mrs. Bakkoush nods with a smile, so he guesses he is allowed after all. It's not like they're doing anything illicit eiter. The thought alone is absurd for so many reasons.
“What’s the project on?” Mrs. Bakkoush asks, looking between him and Sana and it fleetingly makes him think about how he hasn’t seen that look on his own mother's face in a while. Genuine interest.
“It’s for science class," Sana replies. "CO2-emissions and global warming.”
“Okay.” Mrs. Bakkoush nods again. “...Well, it's nice to meet you, Isak.”
“Yes, you too.” He manages, and Sana’s mother takes a step back, just about to turn around, when she turns back to look at him,
“Do you want to stay for dinner, Isak? Elias’ friends are joining us, too.”
“Uh...” He wavers, casting Sana a side-glance, but her face doesn’t provide him with any clues as to what his answer should be. The image of Even’s lips flashes for a second, before he quells the image. Next, his mind jumps to when was the last time he had friends stay for dinner. Jonas hasn’t stayed for dinner since sometime last year.
Before mom went crazy, he thinks bitterly.
Swallowing around a lump in his throat, he looks back up at Sana’s mom,
“Uh. Yeah. I’d like that.”
“Great.” She smiles and then looks at Sana. “Dinner will be ready around 19:00.”
“Thanks mom.”
Leaving the door slightly ajar behind her, mrs. Bakkoush leaves them alone again, and clearing his throat with a cough he looks over at Sana,
“...Is it okay that I, uh, stay for dinner?”
She briefly looks up from her laptop,
“Sure. Maybe we can finish this up after dinner and be done with it.”
"Yeah." He nods, then turns back to his own laptop and they continue working side by side for a while until Sana’s mother calls out “dinner!” and they walk out of Sana’s room and towards the living-room with Sana leading the way.
The sound of old-school hip-hop float out from an open door as they pass by - a deep, frustrated groan and a “but like, isn’t there an equation for that, or?” too- and as he walks by the open door, he can’t help looking inside:
Elias is in a swivel chair by the desk, a couple of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg posters hanging on the wall above him. Even, and the other guy from before - Mikael? - sit crosslegged on a couch with laptops on their laps. Isak’s eyes are drawn to where Even’s hands are resting on the keyboard, his eyes focused on the screen. How he drums his long fingers on the keyboard for a second, and then leans his head back with a frustrated sigh,
“...Ugh, I fucking hate Physics.”
“Same, man." Mikael agrees. "Why did we even choose this fucking elective?”
“Yeah, we could’ve picked something easy," Even says, "...Like Psychology or something. Just like Mutta and Adam and Yousef.”
Elias snorts a laugh at them and then stands up,
“Yeah well, nothing to do about it now. Come on, guys. Let’s just have dinner and then we’ll try to sort this shit out afterwards. We can try to ask my sis or something...”
As all three of them stand up, Isak realizes that he’s staring, so he hurries to follow Sana, a few steps ahead of him, into the dining room. Registering the sound of footsteps behind him.
∙
Dinner is sorta awkward for him, because everyone seems to know each other - except for him. He doesn't know anyone, has barely ever spoken to Sana before today, and he definitely feels like the odd one out. Mikael and Even are across the table from him, easily conversing with Elias and Sana and even Sana’s parents.
And he's just so bad at small talking with parents. He does however manage to answer “Grefsen”, when Sana’s mother asks him if he lives close by, and, “yeah, uh. It’s fine, I guess,” when Mr. Bakkoush asks him how he likes Nissen so far.
Even sits directly across from him, and as he scrambles for words and tries to make smalltalk, he can feel him looking at him. Not in a bad way, it's not like he's staring at him or judging him for his lack of social skills, more like he's... smiling? He wants to look back, but it's-- he can't. Won't.
When Even half-turns to Sana’s mom with a smile, complimenting her on her cooking, he's finally off the hook.
“This is really delicious. As always," Even says, “Did you use saffron?”
“Thank you, Even. I did, yes. I’m glad you like it.” She smiles back. “…You’re always such a nice boy.” Then she directs her gaze at Elias, faux-sternly. “You could learn a thing or two from Even, Elias.”
Even snorts a laugh and places a hand over his heart with a “shukran.” and Isak watches as Elias gives his mom an eyeroll, and it's blatantly obvious that he and Sana are siblings.
“Ugh, mom, we can’t all be like him.” Elias nods at Even.
Snorting a laugh, Even grabs Elias’ shoulder, shaking it gently,
“Hey, you should always be nice to your mom though, man.”
“It’s true." Mr. Bakkoush chimes in. "Women are to be treated with respect.”
Isak looks over at Sana, who’s sending Elias a gloating smirk, and then Sana’s mom passes over the huge pot of chicken stew with a smile,
“Here Isak, have some more food. You boys are all so skinny. You need food to grow.”
“Uh, yeah, thanks,” he says, accepting the pot, and when he glances up, Even’s raising his eyebrows slightly at him. A little nod at the pot like go on, so he ladles up a few more spoonfuls of chicken stew and lets the spicy flavors mix on his tongue.
Wondering how the fuck saffron tastes.
∙
After dinner, they retreat to Sana’s room to continue working on their global warming-paper, that’s progressing much quicker than he'd dared hope for. They’ve barely reopened their laptops though, when there’s a knock on the door and Elias pops his head in,
“Siiiiiiis, can you come help me and the guys out for a sec?”
Sana squints her eyes,
“Help you with what? I’m kinda working here.”
“It’s just that we have a physics lab report to hand in tomorrow, and we can’t figure out the g-effect…and since you’re such a science ner-“
Sana gives him a look, and Elias clears his throat,
“...Um, I mean since you’re so smart, I was wondering if you had a second to spare. To help your brother out. Pleaaaaaaaase?”
Sana raises a single brow back. “You know we probably haven’t even covered that stuff yet, right?”
Elias nods. ”I know. But can you please just look at it? Or maybe help us make sense of the textbook?” he bats her eyes. Gives her another pleading look until she rolls her eyes at him,
“Okay, whatever. So, g-effect? Do you mean g-force?”
“Yeah. Gravitational something, I don’t know…” Elias says with a sigh.
“Gravitational acceleration?” Isak supplies, making Elias looks over at him,
“Uh, yeah. I think so.”
Sana stands up with a sigh and jerks her head motioning for Isak to follow, and they both trail after Elias to his room.
Inside, Even and Mikael look up from where they’re sitting in Elias’ couch, laptops flipped open on their laps.
”I brought backup, guys.” Elias says with a wave at Sana and Isak, and Mikael huffs out a “oh thank God.”
Even shoots them both a smile,
”Thank you for helping us out.”
“Yeah well, no promises.” Sana shrugs, and Even gives her a solemn nods. His smile stays in place, though,
“Of course.”
He shifts his gaze from Sana and over to him, and Isak’s mouth goes dry.
Elias grabs his attention by leaning forward and angling his laptop, so Sana and he can see,
“Yeah, so this is, uh. It.”
It’s a welcome distraction from Even’s smile, so Isak steps closer, letting his eyes scan over the text,
“So, you’ve done some experiments with free-falling objects? And you’re supposed to determine the gravitational acceleration?”
“Uh, yeah.” Elias says, looking somewhat surprised back at him.
“Uh, we didn’t do the experiments…” Mikael pipes up from behind, and Isak turns around to see him wave a hand between himself and Even.
“...No, these guys thought it was a great idea to ditch class and get high instead…” Elias huffs out in explanation.
“Sorry.” Even bites his lip, and Isak files away the information. Likes to smoke up, check.
He forces himself to look away from Even biting his lip, and turns back to Elias,
”But you did the experiments? So, you have the data?”
“Yes.” Elias nods, scrolling up to a table of results and letting him scan over the numbers.
“Well,” Sana cuts in, “…if you have the data, it shouldn’t be so hard, should it… Can’t you just calculate the initial velocity and-“
“The initial velocity is zero, because it’s a free-fall experiment.” Isak says, eyes still on the screen.
“Oh. Right.”
Elias gestures to the swivel chair, smiles at Isak, as he lets himself plop down and scrolls through the document, quickly making sense of the experiment and the objective of the report,
“Okay, so you need to determine g as a function of displacement, so you just…” He grabs the physics textbook lying on the desk and flips a few pages back and forth trying to find the paragraph describing gravitational acceleration for free-falling objects.
“Yeah, here. Use this kinematic equation.” He points to an equation in the textbook, “...you already have the variables v, t and a, so you just insert them in this equation, and you’ll get the value for ‘d’, which is the displacement. Easy.” He winks, feeling a bout of self-confidence.
Elias looks back at him wide-eyed, then looks down at the page. “Uh. Wow. Thanks.”
“No problem.” He nods back, then stands up from the swivel chair. “...What year are you in, though?”
”They’re third-years…” Sana supplies.
”At Bakka.” Even smiles.
”Oh, well… that explains it.”
”Explains what?” Even smiles, eyebrows drawing together in question.
”Why you’re struggling with basic physics. I mean, aren’t you Bakka-people all about creative media, street-art and drinking pretentious hand-picked coffee at Tim Wendelboe between classes?” he smirks, looking at Even.
”Oiiiii burn, bro! You just described 90% of Bakka, including these two fuckers here...” Elias laughs, waving a hand between Even and Mikael.
Even also cracks a laugh at his rant and Isak registers how the corners of his eyes crinkle when he laughs and how sharp his canines look.
“Hey, what’s wrong with creative media and ethically sourced coffee?” Even shoots back, and Mikael snorts a laugh. “...thought you were more into ethically sourced weed, bro.”
“That too.” Even smiles.
“Shit I swear, if my mom knew how much weed you smoke, she wouldn’t be all like Even you’re such a sweet boy, blah blah blah...” Elias trails off.
Even snorts a little laugh and then bites his lip imploringly. “Don’t tell her, please.”
It makes the corners of Isak’s lips pull up into a crooked smile, and then Sana speaks up,
“Anyway, do you need more help to write your third-year lab report, or can Isak and I go back to our own project?”
“Nah, we’re good, I think.” Elias smiles, “…not that you were much of a help, sis.”
Sana rolls her eyes, and Elias turns to Isak again. “Thanks, man.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Mikael and Even echo.
“No problem,” He says back, and throwing a short glance over at Even and a salute at Elias, he follows Sana when she whips around and determinedly leaves the room.
“Sorry about that,” she says, when they've made it halfway to her room.
“No worries. I don’t mind.”
∙
A few hours later, Sana clicks submit and then looks up from her laptop screen,
“There. Done. It’s uploaded.”
“Sweet" he replies, lifting his hand to cover his mouth in a yawn. Then lazily packs his textbook and laptop in his backpack. Pulls on his hoodie,
“Nice working with you, Sana.”
“You too, Isak.” She looks up at him and smiles. “...Also, nice job on serving my brother and his friends. They’re so full of themselves because they’re third-years.”
“I think they seemed alright, actually." He shrugs. "I mean, the third-years at Nissen are much worse…”
“True.” She nods. “...Those rich-kid Penetrator guys with their Porches or whatever.” She rolls her eyes. “Well, Even is cool I guess, and Mikael is occasionally cool. Elias is a douchebag, though.”
He snorts a laugh and for a second considers asking Sana about Even, like what’s his last name or his insta- or snapchat handle, anything really. But yeah, that would probably be weird, so he refrains.
“Anyway, see you in class tomorrow,” he says instead an she nods back a,
“See you.”
Slinging his backpack over his shoulder, he pads out into the corridor to put on his shoes and jacket. Stops in his tracks though, when he sees Even bent over, tying his trashed Nikes. Smiling up at him before he stands back up, stretching to his full height,
“Hey. Going home?”
“Yeah.” He manages back, taking down his jacket from the hanger and shrugging into it, “where is, uh...” he looks around the corridor.
“Mikael?” Even smiles, shrugging into his own jacket and opening the door for him. "...He bailed about an hour ago.”
“Oh. Okay.” Isak says, all previous bravado gone, when he feels Even’s shoulder brush against his own as they both start to descend the stairs.
“Yeah, he just vanished," Even says, casting him a side-glance, "...Left Elias and me with all the tricky stuff.”
“Tricky stuff? You mean those basic kinetic equations?” Isak bounces back, defaulting to sarcasm, because that's at least familiar territory.
Even quirks a smile, as he opens the door to the street and the cold and pitch-black November evening. Motions for Isak to go first, and he does, but they both come to a stop on the pavement right outside the door.
“Well, we can’t all be geniuses, you know.” Even winks, or rather, attempts to wink, and it makes him feel funny. Some sorta stupid swoop at his belly.
“I‘m not a genius.” He pulls the sleeves of his threadbare green Etnies hoodie down to cover his knuckles, wiping his nose against his sleeve.
“Okay.” Even smiles. “…You did sound pretty pro up there, though.”
“Well." He shrugs. "Physics is my subject. I know my shit.”
Even smiles. “It’s definitely not my subject.”
“No, I kinda got that, seeing as you guys needed help from a couple of first-years.” He smirks, getting a laugh out of Even, and then he’s left with that weird, swoopy feeling again. He’s aware of his lips quirking into a smile entirely on their own accord,
“What is your subject then?”
“Creative media.” Even smiles.
Isak can’t help snorting a laugh at the obviousness of it,
“Of course.”
“Wow, you really hate Bakka, huh?”
“Nah. I just think it’s pretentious is all.”
“Okay.” Even nods, but he’s still smiling, and as the silence stretches between them, Isak suddenly feels hot all over, despite the air being close to freezing.
“So, which way are you heading?” Even finally asks him.
“Uh, Grefsen.”
“Me too. Or, Bjølsen actually, but it’s close.” Even winds a wool scarf around his neck. “How are you getting home? Tram?”
The thought of sitting next to Even in the tram makes his mind short-circuit and his heart rate picks way up,
“Uh, no. Bike.” He lies.
“Okay.” Even nods and gives him one more smile. “Well, it was nice meeting you, Isak.”
“Yeah, uh, you too. Even.” He stutters a bit on the -ven, mind stuck on the way Even said his name.
"Bye." Even turns around with a smile and walks in the direction of the tram, and Isak walks a few steps back, pretending to unlock a bike.
Waits a good ten minutes before he walks to the tram, and when he gets there, there are thankfully no traces of Even.
On the tram ride home, he pulls up his phone, opening Instagram and Facebook searching for Even. Via Sana’s Facebook profile he navigates to Elias’ and finds a few photos where Even is tagged along with five other guys. He studies the pictures, and then clicks on the tag, navigating to Even’s profile. His profile is not public though, and there’s almost no information about him, beside his profile pic and the cover photo which looks like some old Seinfeld meme. Clicking on his profile pic, Isak lets himself indulge in looking at him until the female tram voice chimes "Grefsen" and he gets out.
∙
The house is quiet when he steps in, so he’s careful to not make any noise when he toes out of his sneakers, hangs up his jacket and sets his backpack on the floor.
He makes a quick stop at the bathroom to pee and brush his teeth and then he heads to his room and strips down to his boxers before flopping down on his bed. He leans over and picks up his phone from the pocket of his jeans discarded on the floor. Then he spends a few minutes scrolling through Reddit and Insta and Facebook before opening up a new browser window and navigating to Pornhub. He scrolls down over thumbnail after thumbnail with titles like “Hot blonde gets deepthroated” and “Amateur cam girl will make you cum”.
He picks a random video with a decent-looking guy and a girl, pressing play and making sure to turn the volume down low.
Shoving a hand down his boxers, he tugs himself half-heartedly for a good minute, before giving up and letting his arm flop down on the bed with a frustrated sound from the back of his throat. He looks up at the dark ceiling for a couple of moments before lifting up his phone again and navigating to Pornhub Gay. His cheeks heat up and his heart starts beating violently against his ribcage as the page loads, and he’s hard as soon as the first thumbnails are fully loaded.
He turns the volume off entirely and clicks on a video titled “Frat boys go wild at college party”, wrapping his right hand around himself again. One of the guys in the video is tall and dirty-blonde, wearing a snapback, and it effectively makes him grow even harder in his own palm. Because if he squints, the guy kinda looks like-
He strokes himself to flashes of strong hands, long fingers, sharp cheekbones and plush lips, those lips, lips, lips, li-. He comes in his hand with a choked moan.
∙
When he wakes up the next morning, he has a missed alarm and a very wet, very sticky spot in his boxers. He barely has time to think what the fuck, then his mom is knocking at his door.
”Isak, it’s time to get up… don’t you have school today?”
”Uh yeah.” He all but squeaks, heart racing. “...Yes. I’m up.” He chokes out lamely to keep his mom from coming in, from seeing him. From knowing.
“Good.” His mom replies, and the door remains closed.
Breathing out a sigh of relief, he gets out of bed, steps out of his boxers and throws them in the bottom of his closet. Puts on a fresh pair before heading for the shower.