IG Famous!Sander Chapter 4
DY notice? The POV chapters each begin with the same line. That’s ~soulmate~ energy
Catch up: Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3
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Chapter 4: Robbe
Robbe was buzzing with a kind of nervous energy.
He’d finally agreed to meet up with the boys at the park — somewhat reluctantly, somewhat anxiously — for reasons he didn’t completely understand. He closed the group chat, his fingers thumbing back to the boy’s — Sander’s — profile before he could stop himself.
His stomach was doing little flips he did not appreciate as he carefully scrolled through each of his photos. It was obnoxious how good-looking he was. How confident he appeared. Robbe wished he had some of it. He tried to keep his fingers still, stopping himself from automatically double-tapping (oh my god, the nightmare that would be, he thought to himself) any of the aesthetically-pleasing photos he saw.
God, he was attractive. And talented. And hot. Did he mention hot? But even if Robbe wasn’t up-to-date with the happening on social media, or in-the-know with the whos-whos of popular figures in his town, he knew these kinds of boys. Good-looking, but knew it. Too cool for anyone. Untouchable. So there was literally no point in torturing himself with images of this supermodel boy and his tan skin and his perfect life. There was no point in torturing himself with the idea that this boy was wondering about him. It meant nothing.
Yet, he was still thinking about it as he skated to the park, music blasting from his earbuds. Why had Sander even bothered asking that photographer about him? There was nothing even remotely captivating about him, even in a photo with nice composition or cool colors. It was just a comment, he told himself. Those social media types were all about engagement, right?
But despite this script that he kept repeating to himself all the way to the park, his stomach was in knots. Nervous tumbles that wouldn’t let up, especially when he thought back to this morning, when he had been scrolling Sander’s feed. He’d returned to the top and refreshed out of habit. As he did, he jumped slightly as a new photo popped up, recently posted. A selfie. A shirtless selfie. Robbe’s mouth was suddenly dry and he felt himself turning red as he remembered the image. Morning light drifting over Sander’s lightly-browned skin, illuminating muscles and ridges...
Then, suddenly, he was flung backward. He’d hit a bump coming into the park and had landed hard on the ground, his skateboard rolling out from under him. Except, it wasn’t a bump. He’d run smack into someone, who was already talking, apologizing.
“Geez, I’m sorry, I wasn’t—” but he stopped.
“Oh. My God.” Robbe said, and while he’d meant his tone to be apologetic — it was him who hadn’t been paying attention — it was those damn ridges, after all… his strained voice came out more...shocked. Because standing over him, already reaching down to pull him up, was a tall boy, with a shock of bleached-blonde hair and a camera slung over his shoulder. The boy. Sander.
Robbe tried to speak again, but his mouth was desert dry and his face felt like it was on fire. Plus, everything in his brain was reduced to punctuation: ? and !.
“Oh, uhm. I. Sorry,” Robbe finally managed, voice rasping.
Sander was still holding out his hand, but it looked like he considered drawing it back. A dark blush was creeping up his neck and cheeks.
“No, it’s...uh, it’s my fault. I...I wasn’t looking where I was going.” He seemed to regain some composure, leaning down again to offer his hand to Robbe, seeming confident now. How did he manage that?
Robbe’s stomach flipped as he grabbed Sander’s hand, letting him be pulled upright. He tried not to think about the warmth, the softness of Sander’s palm, the length of his fingers curling around Robbe’s. Was his stomach going to just be an endless tangle of knots? His thoughts an endless !!!! ?
“Are you okay?” Sander asked, sounding genuinely worried.
Robbe nodded and brushed himself off, focusing on gathering his things carefully, as if that would distract his blush away. Sander walked over, picking up his skateboard from where it had landed near a bench and handed it back to him. Before Robbe could stop himself, he heard himself speak.
“You’re...Sander Driesen?”
Sander’s face fell a little, looking sheepish now.
“Oh, you...you know me?”
If Robbe had been confident enough, he would’ve said, “And you know me.” But he didn’t. He just looked at Sander, face still bearing the blushing results of this entire exchange.
“Well, yeah,” Robbe said, trying to clear his throat. He definitely wasn’t about to mention the many, many minutes he’d spent staring at Sander’s abs. Or that he’d been led to his profile in the first place because his friends had basically Nancy Drew’d his comment from a random photo of him. Or that he knew that Sander knew who he was.
“From..you know...Instagram?” Robbe said, smiling slightly. “All the kids at my school won’t shut up about you.”
Sander laughed. “Oh! Well, I guess...I’m sorry about that. I’m...definitely not worth talking about.”
“Well,” Robbe said, shrugging. “I think your 500,000 followers would disagree.”
At this, Sander lifted an eyebrow. “Oh, so you really keep tabs on me, then?”
Robbe was sure his face was on fire. In fact, his whole body was probably igniting into flames this very moment. Goodbye, world.
“Right,” he said, looking anywhere but at the very attractive boy lifting very attractive eyebrows at him. “I guess I better—” Robbe was gripping his board and starting to walk away, but Sander spoke again.
“Look, I’m sorry again, ….” he paused, waiting for him to offer up his name.
“Oh. Robbe. I’m Robbe.”
Sander smiled, a deep smile that seemed to reach to his eyes. It made Robbe a little woozy. Was he breathing?
“Nice to meet you, Robbe.”