Not all mistakes are bad, some are a blessing in disguise.
Up until now, everything had gone well for Jens. He was already in his second week of his long summer trip and already made new pub friends in Berlin, found cute dogs to pet at the train station and taken a bunch of pictures in Switzerland - the Alps were breathtaking.
When he arrived in Italy, things took a turn when the airbnb Jens rented turned out to be already occupied by another traveler. Being at the peak of travel season, Jens had no other option than to share the place with the stranger.
[A small scene is under the cut]
Falling in love was the last thing Jens had planned for this trip, but he was falling hard and fast for the stranger in his airbnb. Perhaps it was his striking blue eyes or the cute curl that always fell on his forehead that made the feelings arise, but Jens couldn't tear his eyes from the Netherlander.
It had not been easy at first. Lucas wasn't a pessimist, but when it came to his heart and feelings, he was pretty guarded. Perhaps he was hiding some past relationship trauma too - Jens didn't dare asking.
''What's the point of starting something that will end in a couple days?''
''What's the point of fighting something we both want?'' Jens asked back, raising an eyebrow. ''We met from a mistake, I say we make lemonade with our lemons.''
Lucas laughed at the bad humor, shaking his head.
''I went on this trip because I was tired of living the same life everyday, seeing the same people. So far, I got too drunk and fell asleep on the stairs of a hostel. I took the wrong bus to the mountains and forgot my backpack in said bus. I got lost and found myself with sheeps in a field. A little love adventure is part of the game, don't you think?''
''I don't want you to catch feelings,'' Lucas said. ''When I go back to Utrecht, I won't be able to pursue this relationship. I've got to focus on college and taking care of my mother.''
Jens shrugged. ''Antwerp isn't too far from Utrecht. I wouldn't mind taking a train or a bus.''
But, Lucas shook his head. ''I can't give you what you want, Jens. I...I'm gonna break your heart.''
Jens shook his head, pressing his forehead against Lucas'. ''Break it. Crush it. I don't care. I...I want this. I want you.''
He knew whatever they had would not be lasting; it was an ephemeral love, a summer love. But, he was planning to make the most of every second.
Jens awoke to birds chirping and the sound of a guitar playing. He smiled, knowing exactly where it came from. He opened his eyes and hissed from the bright sunlight of the airbnb. It should be a sin to pull the curtains so early.
One of the downsides of sharing the place with Lucas was that he was a morning person. Not the kind who goes on runs. No. Lucas liked to sit outside with a cup of coffee and watch the street wake up. Sometimes, he'd take his guitar and strum its strings - like this morning.
Once his eyes had adjusted to the light, Jens watched Lucas from the bed. A piece of curly hair was falling over his face as he looked down at his guitar, placing his fingers over the neck and strumming the strings with the other. He had the voice of an angel, soft and warm. Jens didn't know the song he was singing, but it was his new favorite.
''What is it you're playing?'' he asked with his morning voice, joining Lucas on the balcony. It was pleasantly warm outside, nothing like the chilly mornings in Antwerp.
''Lana del Rey. But, you probably don't know her.'' A mocking smile curled on Lucas' lips. ''As you said yesterday, you 'only listen to rap'.''
Jens laughed, shaking his head. ''Fuck you.''
Down the balcony, noises of cars and voices of early risers were audible.
Lucas reached for his coffee on the small table and took a sip. With his bright blue eyes, unbuttoned linen shirts and sunkissed skin; he was the epitome of a summer dream. ''Want to get breakfast? There's this café a few blocks from here that we could go. According to this app, they have the best cappuccino of the village.''
The ad was probably a marketing trap, but breakfast did sound nice. Last night's pizza was far behind.
''I'll shower and then we can go,'' Jens said.
The other boy hummed in approval, but grabbed Jens' arm before he could get inside and pulled him close. ''Wait.'' Lucas put down his guitar by the balcony doors and pulled Jens down by the back of his neck for a kiss.
quick fic time! okay so this is based on an old tik tok trend that was popular like a while ago so yeah.
ship: van der stoffels (jens x lucas)
it was a normal night for jens. he was laying in bed, all warm and cozied up with his blanket, and just watching tik tok. ever since jens downloaded tik tok out of curiosity, he’s been addicted. his for you page included lots of food, lots of groups of friends having fun, the occasional verified dancer, and a bunch of random stuff in between all of that. jens’ tik tok addiction would make him stay up until late at night, the latest being 6 am. this specific night however, was one where jens saw a specific tik tok that made him really excited to see a certain person. the tik tok started with the camera being pointed at a girl who looked excited, and a guy next to her on his phone. this song was playing, jens didn’t know what it was but he liked it. the girl looked like she was getting ready for something and then, the audio went: “byyyy your electric...” and then the girl leaned in towards the guy, and kissed him. the guy looked shocked, but when the kiss broke, the guy smiled and looked flustered. in an instant, the guy leaned in and started kissing the girl before the video ended. it was nice. jens’ heart was beating fast. he was thinking of someone. his best friend, lucas. jens had the BIGGEST crush on lucas. jens practically dreamed of lucas every night. jens knew that he would be heartbroken if he even dared to ask lucas out, but maybe tik tok actually came to the rescue. this audio would give jens an answer. that’s it. jens has to do some planning.
so after looking at all the videos under that audio to get a general idea on how to make a video with that audio, it was time to plan. jens texted lucas if he wanted to hang out later (because it was 3 am). the purpose of this trend was to kiss someone when the audio said: “by your electric”, and then see if the other person kisses them back or not. jens was all in for the idea of kissing lucas, and even if he didn’t kiss back or anything, he could just say it was for a tik tok. okay great, sounds good. jens needed to sleep in order to rest up to see lucas. he knows lucas would accept to hang out with him but lucas is probably asleep, so he can’t respond (obviously). jens just fell asleep, dreaming about that moment that’s going to happen.
lucas accepted his hangout offer, and jens almost instantly rushed out of his house going to lucas’. once he arrived to his house, jens checked to make sure he had everything ready for what was going to happen. phone charged? check. breath? not smelly. looks? clean. tik tok audio? saved and ready to be used. hotel? trivago. he was fucking ready for this. jens went in lucas’ house and they just hung out for a bit.
a while later, lucas was on his phone, and jens thought this was the perfect time. jens tried not to make as much noise as possible as to not distract lucas. jens entered the tik tok app, looked for the audio and clicked create video. jens then propped up the phone in an angle where you can see the bed jens and lucas were on. then he set up the timer for 10 seconds, so he had enough time to prepare. as those 10 agonizing seconds finished, the audio started, and lucas looked at jens confused. jens was smiling like an idiot. then jens heard his cue. “byyyyyy your electric....” and jens leaned in to lucas. once the audio hit “looooooveeeeee”, jens was already kissing lucas. he kissed him with so much passion, and lucas just sighed. lucas melted and kissed jens back with so much passion. jens then got on top of lucas, while still kissing him, straddling on top of lucas, and just continuing to kiss him. jens and lucas both melted as they both ran out of breath. jens was just staring at lucas with such love in his eyes. lucas leaned back in and kissed jens once again, and once again they were back to making out, and lucas got on top of jens and straddled him. they continued kissing for hours and hours on end. ignoring everything and everyone else. jens was the only thing that mattered to lucas, and lucas was the only thing that mattered to jens. they were both in love with each other.
and this is how tik tok helped develop a relationship.
Nervous about accidentally looking at Jens too long, about giving Milan or Robbe or Moyo or Aaron a hint at what they have, nervous about sending him too soft a glance, too familiar a smile. He’s had to smother his nerves, stop his knee from bouncing up and down, his fingers from twisting his ring (though this happens without his noticing).
Milan is excited, seemingly too excited to notice Lucas’s nervous fidgeting. He puts out a few videos games, a few movies, a few bowls of chips, a plate of fruit, a few beer bottles, a few soda cans, and all the while Lucas twists his ring a few times, tugs his curls a few times. When Milan finally looks at him across the living room, as Milan is tossing cushions onto the sofa and Lucas is laying on the other sofa, his legs kicked over the armrest, kicking the air. Milan grins, and Lucas’s fingers stop fiddling with his ring.
“Excited?” he asks, watching Milan step back and analyze the sofa before going back in and moving all of the pillows up against the back.
“I’m so excited.” Milan’s voice is shimmering with eagerness. “It’s not often that all of them come over, especially because Robbe moved out.”
“Mm.”
A few minutes later, Milan is in the kitchen, doing something. Lucas doesn’t know. Maybe he’s getting cookies out of the oven, maybe he’s setting up a bunch of flowers on the table. Lucas is a little distracted. He tugs at the sleeves of his sweater, staring up at the ceiling, still kicking his legs. There’s a storm of excitement and nervousness and anxiety. He’s excited to see Jens again but unsure of how he’ll act. How he’ll greet Jens. A handshake? A nod? A quick muttered “Hey”? A smile? What kind of smile? Lucas’s fingers drum over his stomach as his eyes dart across the ceiling, avoiding the light bulb.
His eyes only move away from the ceiling, going to the door as his head turns on the sofa when he hears voices outside. His hands and legs still and his eyes widen, glancing to the kitchen door, waiting for Milan to appear, but he doesn’t, and there’s a knock, startling Lucas.
“Luc, can you get it?” Milan’s voice calls from the kitchen, and Lucas huffs, pushing himself so he rolls off the sofa, landing on the floor and standing. He pushes his hair back but doesn’t bother trying to straighten or fix his sweater.
He opens the door to Moyo, who grins.
“Luc! What’s up?” He holds his hand out and Lucas slaps their palms together, smiling.
“Not much, you?”
“Hanging with my bros.”
Lucas laughs and steps to the side, pulling the door open for them to enter. Aaron does the same as Moyo, hits their palms together and lets their fingers hook momentarily before stepping past him to the living room. Robbe’s next, greeting him with a “How are you?” and Lucas responds “I’m doing okay, you?” and Robbe grins before saying, “Great.” He does look great, his eyes shining under his growing curls, one hand behind him, laced with Sander’s.
When Sander’s passed him, after a smile and a “Hey,” and a handshake, Jens appears, and Lucas suppresses his smile into a casual greeting smile.
“Hi,” he says, softer than intended, and Jens’s smile grows. He holds his hand out and Lucas shakes it, the same as he did with the others, ignoring the urge to pull him in close. Jens squeezes his hand gently before letting go and stepping out of the way so Lucas can shut the door. Lucas catches Jens shoot him a wink as he follows the guys into the living room.
Jens sits next to Moyo, in the corner of the sofa Milan was trying to decorate earlier, farthest from when Lucas sits after he enters the room. Sander is on Moyo’s other side, Robbe on the floor between his legs as Sander’s fingers comb through his hair gently. Aaron sits on the floor under Jens, who has his legs pulled up in front of himself like he’s trying to look small. Lucas wonders if he is. If he always is.
“Hello, my darlings,” Milan says as he enters, tearing Lucas’s gaze away from Jens. He’s carrying another bowl, a smaller one filled past the brim with grapes. He sets it on the coffee table before going around, pressing kisses to everyone’s cheek, starting with Jens, and Lucas feels the quick sharpness of jealousy that he can do it, but Lucas can’t.
He considers texting Jens. But he wouldn’t know what, or if the notification would come up if Moyo would see it sitting next to him. So he doesn’t.
The boys chat with Milan for a bit, but Lucas is only half listening.
They play some video games, but Lucas is only half paying attention.
His eyes keep reverting to Jens sitting in the corner. From the angle he can see his profile, occasionally constricted by Moyo’s hair as Moyo leans forward, focusing on the game. Jens is smiling, the corner of his eyes crinkled up as he laughs at Moyo losing the game to Aaron. There are loud “No-o-o!’’ shouts, and Lucas laughs along with the others, looking to the television before looking back at Jens.
He draws him in his head, gentle, curved and harsh, sharp lines forming his profile, and he almost smiles, knowing exactly what brushes he would use to paint him. (He hasn’t painted him yet, but the collection of drawings hidden in the dictionary on his desk continues to grow. He’s been drawing constellations around him lots lately; either that or music notes and flowers.) He’d use the small, angled brush to paint his skin, the old frayed brush to blend the shading of his cheekbone and neck. The tiny, thin brush would work for his lashes and brow. The thick, tapered brush would work for his hair, but he’d go over it again with the thin one to do stray strands.
Lucas forces himself to look away, watching the game on the television for a little bit, listening to the boys shout and laugh, until he’s bored, and he looks down at his phone. He scrolls aimlessly, pausing to read memes and watch videos, and he doesn’t notice Jens glancing at the guys before looking at him, doesn’t notice Jens smile softly.
“Lucas!” Milan says after a while, when the room is quiet, strained with Moyo’s and Aaron’s focus, and Lucas looks up, startled. “You should show Sander some art.” Sander, Robbe, and Jens all look at him, and Lucas will his face not to burn up pink.
“Oh, yeah!” Sander exclaims, looking at Lucas, his eyes wide.
“I can get some paintings from my room,” Lucas says, slowly lowering his legs off the sofa, and Sander nods. As Lucas walks across the room, toward the door, he’s acutely aware of Jens’s eyes following him.
When he comes back, two canvases and two papers in hand, Sander sits up, shifting in his seat, and Robbe moves back on the floor, away from Sander’s legs so Lucas can place the canvases in his lap. They’re both landscapes done in oils, photos he found online, and Sander analyzes them both carefully, quietly. Lucas stands to the side awkwardly, and he glances up to see Jens looking at him, not the art. They both suppress smiles, and Lucas is longing to reach out and touch him.
Lucas stoops and picks up a beer bottle from the table after a few seconds, when Sander finally speaks.
“How the hell do you keep the paint layers so thin?” He looks up at him and Lucas cracks the bottle open. “When I use oils it ends up with globs of paint, and it takes, like, months to dry.”
Lucas laughs, taking a sip.
“I have no clue, honestly, I just paint.”
Sander shakes his head, looking bewildered, and looks back to the paintings.
“I love this post here,” he says after a second, pointing to a fence post covered in snow. Lucas smiles, That’s his favourite part of the painting, the snow on top of it, the shadow underneath it. Blending the colours was fun, if a little tedious, making sure the perfect shade of greypurpleblue, making sure not to go over the line of the shadow too many times so it didn’t blend with the white of the snow.
Sander carefully places the paintings on the coffee table in front of him before he looks at the drawings Lucas brought. One is the portrait of Zoë, the other a portrait of a woman he found online, her tongue sticking out, her freckles standing out against her skin, box braids falling over her shoulders.
“Holy shit,” Sander says, lifting the latter to look closer. “Her braids!”
“I’m proud of that one, it took a while.”
“You should be.” Sander holds it out to the side and Robbe cranes his neck, cooing as he scans the paper.
“Is that Zoë?” Robbe says, looking past it to the drawing still sitting on Sander’s lap, and Sander lifts it.
“Yeah,” Lucas says, lowering the bottle after taking another sip. “She makes me think of Girl With a Pearl Earring, so…”
“Jens, look,” Sander says, holding it up so Jens can see past Moyo, who is staring intently at the screen. Jens lifts his head, looking up from his phone in his lap and just barely glances at Lucas before looking at the drawing.
“Oh, shit,” he says, and Lucas just manages to suppress a laugh. “That’s incredible.” He looks to Lucas, raising his brows in earnest, and Lucas cheeks heat.
“Thank you,” he says, looking to the ground.
Sander and Lucas continue talking about art, even when Lucas sits on the other sofa, drawing his legs up in front of himself and leaning against the armrest, holding the bottle between his torso and his legs. Robbe moves back in front of Sander and within seconds, Sander’s fingers are back in his hair, combing through the strands as he tells Lucas about the classes he takes, about what projects he still has to complete.
Lucas listens intently, nodding and sipping his beer, absentmindedly rubbing the glass of the bottle, the same way he rubs the fabric of his pants or his sleeves when trying to pay attention in class, the same way he does when listening to Jens talk about ballet.
While focusing on Sander, he doesn’t see Jens peering at him over Moyo’s shoulder.
---
When the bottle in Lucas’s lap is empty, he doesn’t realise until he goes to take another sip and nothing comes out. He lowers it, looking to the guys, who are almost all watching Robbe compete with Aaron (who won the last round, much to Moyo’s dismay), and sees that their bottles seem to be empty too. He stands, tossing his phone to the sofa.
“I’m gonna get another beer, do you guys want anything?”
“Can I get a beer too?” Moyo asks, looking at him, and Lucas nods.
“Robbe? Sander?”
Robbe doesn’t look away from the screen, his fingers moving over the controller quickly, but says “Can you get me one too?”
“Yeah. Sander?”
“No, thanks.”
“Aaron?”
It takes a second for him to respond, his eyes wide, staring intensely at the screen.
“Uh… Yes, please.”
Lucas laughs lightly and looks at Jens, who is already looking at him, and jerks his chin up. Jens shakes his head.
“No, thank you.”
Lucas nods and heads into the kitchen, carrying his empty bottle.
He tosses it into a plastic bin under a counter, wincing as it clatters loudly against other containers, bottles and plastic boxes. The bin was his and Zoë’s idea. Senne had gone out and gotten it the same day, and Milan didn’t notice it until after he’d gone out and gotten another one. Lucas stole this one, put it beside his desk, where it sits almost full of discarded paper.
He gets more beer from the fridge, and as he’s placing the third bottle on the counter, about to reach back in to grab an extra for Milan, the kitchen door opens and he glances over the fridge door to see Jens, turning and closing the door quietly with both hands.
“Hey,” Lucas says casually, trying not to grin.
Jens turns and steps toward him, grabbing the bottle out his hand and placing on the counter before tossing ht fridge door shut and placing a hand of Lucas’s hip, pushing him so his back presses against the counter.
“Hey,” he murmurs before pressing his mouth to Lucas’s. Lucas gasps, his hands flying up to hold Jens’s neck, and Jens pulls him in, his fingers tightening on his hip as his other hand grips his shoulder. Lucas lets out a quiet hum when Jens’s tongue sweeps across his lip.
“Thought you were gonna repress the urge,” he says quietly when they pull away for a breath.
“Can’t,” Jens replies, sliding his hands up to Lucas’s neck, pulling him in and biting down on his lip. Lucas’s heart glows, glad to know that Jens was struggling as much as him. Part of him wants to slip his hands under Jens’s shirt (or pants), but another part of him half expects the door to the kitchen to swing open.
“You don’t think this is a little dangerous?” he whispers when Jens pulls away. Lucas tilts his head and presses his lips to Jens’s jaw, gently, slowly, kissing down his neck, and Jens moans, low in his throat. Lucas smiles, biting his skin softly, and kisses to the neckline of his sweatshirt, a red one with an abstract design on the front. (Lucas loves it. If he has the opportunity next time he’s at Jens’s, he’ll steal it.) He opens his mouth, licking a stripe up Jens’s neck, and then pushes him back. Jens steps away, opening his eyes and looking at the ceiling, smiling resignedly.
“Can’t be too long, they’ll get suspicious,” Lucas tells him, his voice still lowered just in case. He opens the fridge again, feeling Jens watch him, and grabs two more beers, handing one to Jens and turning to pick up the others from the counter.
He pecks Jens’s lips lightly before stepping past him to leave, and Jens follows, huffing dramatically.
“You didn’t say if you wanted one or not, so…” he says when he hands a beer to Milan, who smiles gratefully and takes it. Lucas hands Milan Aaron’s beer as well, and Milan places it on the floor next to him.
When Lucas is sitting on the sofa again, beer opened and in his lap, a leg hanging over the armrest, his phone buzzes. He has to reach behind himself to get it, having forgotten to pick it up from the sofa before dropping himself onto it.
It’s a text from Jens, and Lucas looks up at him, suppressing a smile. Jens shoots him a glare, weakened by a soft smile, before looking at the television, laughing and smacking Aaron’s head as he messes up.
why would you do this to me
Lucas balances the bottle in his lap carefully before responding.
:)
It’s a few seconds before Jens looks at his phone, still laughing as Aaron curses at Robbe. When he does, Lucas sees him roll his eyes, smiling, and almost laughs out loud.
fuck you
Lucas takes a swig from the bottle, grinning.
maybe later
He looks up at the television as he sends it, and pretends not to hear Jens clear his throat, a recovery from choking on his beer.
He only looks over, faux concern across his face, when Sander says “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good, I just— breathed it.”
“Been there,” Milan says, shaking his head in sadness as he looks away from Jens back to the screen, and Lucas snorts.
They don’t text for the rest of the afternoon.
But, of course, there are lots of stolen glances, longing gazes.
---
“So,” Milan says, shutting the front door. Lucas looks up from his phone, up from a ill call you tonight text from Jens, to which he responds counting down the seconds.
“So,” he repeats as Milan enters the room. Milan leans against the door frame, and Lucas feels like he’s his father, about to have a Talk with him.
“You like the guys?”
Lucas lets his phone fall to his chest. He’s laying on his back on the sofa, his legs over the armrest, similar to how he was before they arrived.
“Yeah, they’re cool. Sander is really nice to talk to.”
“I thought you’d like to talk to him,” Milan says, smiling. “So what about Jens?”
Immediately, Lucas heats up. He can feel his face flush with anxiety, feels his shoulders suddenly feel too light.
“What about Jens?” He tries not to stutter. He also tries not to fidget, keeping his hands still on his phone, though he wonders if the complete statuesque stillness could also be suspicious.
“I saw you stealing a few glances at him…” Milan tilts his head and narrows his eyes.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
“I don’t…” Lucas can practically feel red radiating off his face, unsure of what to say, what to do.
“Do you like him?”
“Milan—” Lucas sits up, setting his phone to the side, but he’s interrupted by a squeal.
“Oh my god! You do!”
“Mi—”
“Oh, Luc, I’m sorry,” Milan interrupts again, suddenly looking sad. “I’ve only known him to date girls.”
Lucas stares.
“But,” Milan continues, “He had been known to cuff his pants so maybe there’s hope.”
He tries desperately not to laugh.
“Okay,” Milan says, clapping his hands together and crossing the room to sit on the floor in front of Lucas. “Tell me.”
“Tell you...what?” His heart is pounding.
“Tell me why you like him. I know you’ve only met him like twice but go on.”
“I— I don’t know,” he says, shifting so he’s facing Milan, crossing his legs on the sofa in front of him. “He’s pretty.”
And sweet.
And nice, and kind, and funny, and supportive, and encouraging, and considerate, and gentle, and careful, and everything Lucas could hope for. And more.
“He seems nice,” he adds.
Milan’s face breaks up into a smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners, his nose scrunching.
“Do you think you might have a crush on him?” he asks, almost signing it.
“I don’t know, maybe.”
Milan seems unreasonably excited about the prospect of Lucas having a crush on Jens, but Lucas won’t complain. He feels giddy with it, with being able to talk about Jens (even if he can only talk about the interactions they’ve had in the flat) (and not even all of them), with having someone that’s this supportive and excited about it. It feels like this is what he should have had, all though middle and high school, this experience of sitting with someone else, and just talking, openly, freely.
He never told anyone (except Noah, right before Lucas moved) about his crush on Kes. It was a secret, a burden, a stone to carry in his heart until it eroded away. So he tells Milan. He tells Milan everything. About Kes, about how his crush developed in middle school, how he fell for him hard, but hid it away, hoping, praying even, that it would just disappear. About the whole situation with Isa, about how badly he felt. He tells him about how he’s hardly spoken with Kes, with Isa, with Jayden, as of late, even though the whole mess from that year was behind them, even though Kes and Isa, as far as Lucas knows, are friends again. He tells him about how he’s scared of it, of losing contact with his friends, but somehow he’s at peace with it at the same time.
And Milan listens.
This goes on for a few hours.
Zoë comes home in the evening, finds them sitting on the sofa together, still talking. She goes to the kitchen and comes back with glasses and a bottle of wine.
If he could draw this moment, he would. He watches the two of them, Milan talking and Zoë sipping her wine, Zoë talking and Milan sipping his wine, them both looking at Lucas as he talk, the way they look at each other when they laugh, the way they hold their glasses out as they do, careful not to spill it on the sofa or the rug. Memorising it all.
He would draw the whole day if he could. It’s been a good day. Sneaking looks at Jens (not so subtly, apparently), exchanging secret smiles, laughing at how the guys interact.
He could paint it later. Something abstract. The idea of this day. Something with lots of reds.
Lucas works at the campus bookstore and just can't keep his thoughts clear of the boy with the golden eyes
so this is the first chapter of my new vds fic :))!! I probably won't be posting on a schedule or something because ✨school, work and my social life✨
but I hope you enjoy this first little chapter.
Wandering through the streets of Utrecht late at night. His brown eyes, looking golden in the yellow light of the streetlights, look straight into Lucas's soul.
"Wait, stand still for a second." says Lucas softly. He picks up his phone and takes a picture of the boy.
"What was that for?" The boy asked, a blushing creeping on his cheeks.
"That way I can always look at you."
Lucas closed the space between him and the boy. Kissed his full pink and responsive lips.
But it all ended when the store doorbell rang above the door. Lucas was pulled back from his daydream, back to the real dull world.
He's never said a word to the boy he keeps daydreaming about. Every time he sits there at his regular table in the corner of the store, he simply can't take his eyes off him.
The way he bites his lip while reading, the frown that occasionally appears on his face and fuck the way his exposed skin glows when he stretches.
"Hi… uh I had a question," said the girl who had come in a few minutes ago. "I'm looking for a book for my social studies class and I can't find it."
"What is the name of the book and who is the writer, then I will look it up for you in the system." Lucas said with a forced smile. Always keep smiling dude, he heard Kes say in his head.
The girl pulled a crumpled piece of paper from the bottom of her bag. "Here, my professor wrote it down for me." Lucas typed in the author's name on the computer and saw that there were two more copies of the book available. "We still have the book in the store, I’ll show you."
Sure, they had to just pass the table where the pretty boy was sitting to get to the shelf where the book was. A math book on his table, but too empty of a notebook next to it. More of those perfect frowns to look at, Lucas thought.
"Look, this is the book right?" The girl nodded. "Thank you very much, I would never have found it myself." And the girl sat down at a table in the corner of the shop.
Working in a campus bookstore was certainly not Lucas's dream job, but it was quiet and only ten minutes on the bike. Especially the evening shifts were great. There were almost no people in the evening and after six o'clock he was the only employee. So he often sat at the desk with his sketchbook, or with his laptop and homework. Nobody asking anything from him.
Back at his desk, his eye went back to the pleasant view from before.
"Dude, just go and talk to him. You've been looking at the boy for weeks." Kes said, who caught him staring as he came out of the office.
"I don't even know his name."
"Then you ask for his name," Kes said sighing.
Going to the boy was really not an option. Lucas thought too much about the boy. During his breakfast, on the bike to campus, in the shower. He had this picture-perfect thought of the boy inside his head. Afraid he wouldn't be like Lucas hopes so hard.
"No, he's working. I don't want to distract him. "
"I'll take your morning shift next Saturday and you'll go and talk to him now. This is a one-time offer, Saturday mornings sucks." Kes said, eyebrows raised waiting for a response from his friend.
Lucas rolled his eyes. Deep down he really wanted to talk to the boy, but he’s just to scared. What should he say, what if he just wants to work on his schoolwork without being interrupted? But he had to be honest, he really didn't want to work Saturday morning. It was always way too early and busy for his hungover head.
"Come on, I see you want it. I'm not blind either, he's super hot." Kes said.
Lucas had no choice but to agree with Kes, he's insanely handsome.
Kes put the stack of books he had taken from the office next to Lucas. "I've already done the rest of the books, so you can do this," a huge grin on his face.
Lucas looked at the pile, theology. "You fucker." He picked up the pile and walked over to the shelf behind the boy.
"You've got this sweetie," he heard Kes say. He couldn't stop his eyes from rolling to the back of his skull.
.
The first two books were put back on the shelf when a phone rang.
"Hey Lotte" said a Flemish voice behind him. "Uhm I'm in the bookstore, I was busy for school, but I have like no motivation left so I'm going home in a minute. Can I call you back when I get home?" The boy closed his books when he chuckled. The boy is fucking chuckling, Lucas thought. "I miss you too, but I'll be in Antwerp for the weekend. I'll call you back in 15 minutes, okey? Bye Lot.’ and the boy hung up.
The books and his laptop quickly slipped into his bag and he pulled up his chair.
"Have a nice evening," Lucas said as the boy was about to walk away.
"You to," the boy said back.
.
When Lucas had restored the rest of the books, he went back to the counter.
"WOW, you must have said exactly four words to the boy! What an achievement." Kes said sarcastically.
"I can't talk through his conversation can I," said Lucas, slightly irritated. "Oh, and he's fucking Flemish"
"Any more to complain?" Asked Kes chuckling.
"I think he's in some kind of long-distance relationship."
"It's not going well, is it buddy," Kes really couldn't hold back his laugh. At that moment Isa walked in.
"Hey Luc!" Said the girl cheerfully. "Are you also at Engel's birthday on Friday?"
"Uh, yes I think so," and the girl answered him with a big smile.
"Then I'll see you on Friday, dude. Good luck crying for the last two hours. We are going to eat with Ies her mom."
"Will you show up this time, bro?" Lucas said teasingly.
The boy and girl both raised their middle fingers at him and walked and away.
"Bye Luc!"
.
The last two hours did not seem to pass.
He walked into the office and saw the unfinished mess that Kes had left behind. Another big pile of books with damage that needed to be fixed.
The last two people had left and for the last hour there were no customers, so he took the chance to draw those golden eyes.
Why do all the nice guys have to be straight and taken, Lucas thought.
