Chapter Text
Mandag 26/6 - kl 18.07
He’s only been back for seven minutes, but Isak is already so done.
The worst thing about all of this is that he wasn’t even supposed to be here today. He wasn’t supposed to come back until tomorrow, but thanks to Daniel somehow managing to get hit in the head with a shovel badly enough to require a trip to the emergency room, Isak had been called in to finish his shift for him.
At least he got to sleep in this morning. Small mercies, and all that.
And okay, it’s not like being here is that bad. Most of the time he actually likes his job, has liked it pretty much since his first day, which is two years ago now. Ever since then, Fossbakken Camping has more or less become his second home during the summers, considering how much time he spends here. If he’s not working himself, then he’s keeping his friends company when they do. Or, if him and the boys all have the day off, they usually end up here anyway to hang out on the beach or nag Magnus’ parents for free food or bother their other friends when they work.
But despite how much he does like his job, he wouldn’t exactly have minded if his first day back for the season had started off with less of a hassle.
As he walks into the storeroom, where the incident had happened, Isak is met with chaos. He can admit that the room is usually a complete mess, something he might contribute to himself once in awhile, and it’s just a matter of time before an accident like this would happen. But he couldn’t imagine anything being able to make the state of the room worse than normal.
Well, everyone has to be wrong sometime, he supposes.
While a variety of tools are covering parts of the floor more often than not, it’s now barely visible through the layers of rakes and shovels and pots and tarpaulin and different-sized buckets, and whatever else is hidden in there.
Isak stands in the doorway for a moment to brace himself, before deciding to ignore the sea of things on the floor, instead pushing his way through the mess to reach the reason he stepped foot in the storeroom in the first place: the hose hanging on the back wall. He’ll deal with the other stuff later. Or, preferably, not at all. Maybe he could leave it to someone else to clean up. Knowing his luck, though, he’ll probably have to do it all by himself.
As if the state of the room wasn’t bad enough, he reaches the hose to find it wrapped around various items that make up the mess on the floor, and Isak can’t help the frustrated groan he lets out at the sight.
Fucking Daniel.
Yes, he might have gotten hurt and all that, which could maybe gain him at least little bit of sympathy from Isak. But why did he have to make such a mess after himself? Why does he, and the world, hate Isak so much?
With great reluctance, he starts his struggle to untangle the hose. It takes longer than he’d like to admit, but eventually he manages to pull it free from all the garden tools, and he moves on to tackle the intricate knots on the hose itself. The lightbulb hanging from the ceiling in the storeroom is barely shining at all, swinging slightly back and forth on its cord, making Isak squint his eyes in the dim light.
The lack of light in the room is quickly getting annoying, and Isak can feel the beginning of a headache build up between his temples, so instead of suffering in the darkness any longer, he folds up the hose as well as he can and gathers it up in his arms, before turning around to continue the fight outside. By leaving the privacy and comfortable stillness of the storeroom he will most likely have to interact with other people, but at least he’ll be able to see the hose better out there, and hopefully also avoid any further developments of a headache.
But of course it’s not as simple as that.
He doesn’t know how it happens. He’s walked in and out of the storeroom hundreds of times in all the months he’s worked here. So the fact that he suddenly forgot all about the abnormally high threshold is admittedly very strange. But he did, and as a result of his muddled mind he ends up falling helplessly to the ground, his knees scraping painfully against the rough sidewalk as he lands.
“Fuck!”
“That’s a bad word.”
Isak’s head snaps up to find the source of the voice, and he doesn’t have to tilt it far at all before he’s met with the sight of a small boy. Isak doesn’t have much experience with kids, which is sort of surprising considering the fact that this is his third summer here and during the countless hours he’s spent at the campsite, there hasn’t been more than a few minutes at a time where he’s not constantly surrounded by the deafening noise of children doing everything from crying to laughing (or sometimes even some scary mix in-between).
Despite this, he hasn’t really interacted with any of them, doing his best to avoid the whole playground/activity area and thankfully not even having to cover any shifts for any poor soul who has to endure that on a daily basis. But, based on the knowledge he does have and the size of this kid, he would say he’s probably around three or four years old.
That’s about as far as his evaluation goes, though, and after that he just blinks at the kid for another moment, eventually stuttering out an intelligent “Uhh” as some kind of answer.
“My brothers say it all the time but mommy says it’s bad,” the boy continues, a frown barely visible behind the dark hair falling into his eyes.
Isak finally manages to snap himself out of the confusion caused by unexpectedly being approached by a random kid, and then immediately goes on to mentally cursing himself for defiling this three-year-old’s world by swearing in front of him.
In Isak’s defense, he hadn’t even seen anyone close to him as he exited the storeroom, and the kid is really tiny, but still. He thought the start of his day was a bad enough as it was, but this situation right here might actually be even worse. Thankfully, he’s friends with his bosses’ son, so hopefully that will give him some leeway in case this kid’s parents find out about this and decide to complain about him to the management. Otherwise this might lead to a summer with a lot less money in his bank account.
“Yeah, it is bad. So don’t say it,” Isak hurries to say, hoping, praying, that will be enough to prevent the kid from repeating that word anywhere near his parents.
As soon as the words are out of Isak’s mouth his mind uselessly decides that now would be a great time for him to remember the whole thing about kids and how they supposedly “do what we do, not what we say”, something Isak has no idea how he even learned in the first place. But it’s about ten seconds too late, because based on that theory he just did the exact opposite of what he should have done.
So yup, he’s fucked. Knowing his bosses’ son probably counts for nothing after all.
However, this kid seems to be an exception, because he just studies Isak for another moment before crouching down and shifting his focus to the ground where a group of ants are making their way over the sidewalk. Isak lets out a relieved sigh. Crisis averted. Although when he catches sight of the hose in his hands again, he almost wishes it hadn’t so he could avoid trying to untangle the hose for just a little while longer.
Rock. Isak. Hard place.
Surprisingly, the faceplanting had somehow managed to help him solve the problem, and it only takes another minute of concentration before the hose is straightened out.
He’s just about to start what was meant to be his actual first task of his workday -- watering the plants throughout the campsite -- when the kid speaks again.
“What’s your name?”
Isak looks up at him, finding him still on the ground next to the ants. “Isak. What’s your name?”
“Leon,” the boy says, and then he points a tiny finger towards his feet. “Isak, this ant is really happy.”
The unexpected comment startles a laugh out of Isak, and he has to take a few seconds to collect himself enough to be able to speak. “How can you tell?”
“It’s smiling,” Leon says, as if that should have been obvious.
“Okay.” A part of Isak wants to point out that ants can’t really smile, but he figures he’s done enough damage to the boy, what with the swearing and all that. He can let him have this moment of happiness, even though the nerd inside him itches to correct him. Instead, he just watches Leon for a while longer and then goes back to the flowers.
“My favourite bugs are bees and ants. You know why?” Leon asks, but Isak doesn’t even have time to open his mouth before Leon continues, his words almost tumbling out faster than he can say them. “And ladybugs! You know why? Ants are really strong. And ladybugs are so cute and bees make honey for you.”
Isak smiles at him. “That’s true.”
Leon nods weakly, most of his attention back to the ground where he’s trying to get one of the ants to climb onto his hand without much success, the ant only turning around as soon as it gets close to his fingers.
As the conversation seems to be over, Isak once again returns to doing his job, and he manages to finish watering all of the peonies by the storeroom and the entire colourful flowerbed on the other side of the sidewalk without any trouble, or further interruptions. Then, just as he’s about to move on to the bushes by the tent area, a loud voice startles him out of his task.
“Leon!”
The sound is followed by a woman striding up the sidewalk towards them, her skirt flowing around her knees with her rapid movements. She’s visibly frustrated, at least if her narrowed eyes and they way she’s pressing her lips together is anything to go by.
Leon looks up at her as she keeps getting closer, grinning widely despite the expression on her face, and he’s practically bubbling with excitement when he talks. “Mommy! Look at this ant! It’s really happy!”
The woman lets out an exasperated sigh. “Yeah, yeah. Come on. We need to go.”
“Why?”
“Because. Come on!” the woman demands, before grabbing onto Leon’s arm and hauling him to his feet.
Leon pouts, then turns to Isak. “What’s your name again?”
“Isak.”
“Okay. Bye, Isak,” Leon says. He starts to wave but then his mom grabs onto his hand and more or less drags him towards the parking lot.
Isak watches them until they disappear in the sea of cars, lost in thought for a moment before he finally goes back to the flowers. The next thirty minutes or so are a blur of hydrangeas and petunias and probably at least ten other types of plants that Isak can’t remember all the names of. He’s in the middle of watering a couple of rose bushes by the main building of the campsite when his brain, once again, finds something more interesting to focus on than work.
The guy is sitting on the bench outside the camping shop, elbows resting on his knees and phone in his hand. He’s wearing a Fossbakken Camping shirt, which is weird, because Isak has never seen him here before, and it’s not like the campsite is that big. If he had been here before, Isak is a hundred percent sure he would recognize him. If not from the fact that he works here then he would definitely remember his face.
Because shit.
He has no idea how someone can look this good, especially considering the luminous green of their shirts. Not even a pretty face should be able to outshine that colour. That should honestly be impossible, but, somehow, this guy can truly pull it off. Although Isak is fairly certain there’s nothing that would look bad on this guy, but still. It’s unbelievably unfair, especially when Isak himself mostly resembles a grumpy glow stick when he wears the shirt.
“Isak.”
He’s almost overwhelmed by the sudden need to know who this guy is, and it’s strange that he doesn’t already know about him since they usually get informed when they have a new member joining their team. The longer he thinks about it, the more unsure he gets. Maybe they did actually inform him somehow, but he just didn’t pay attention. He wouldn’t be surprised in the least if that were true; he usually tunes their administrator, Monica, out when she talks, and only skimming distractedly through her emails. She tends to repeat herself at least three times, and Isak has better things to do than listen to, or read, all of that. Like daydreaming, for example.
At least, that’s the preferable option most of the time, but this time Isak regrets doing it. He could really have used some warning about this, to at least try to prepare himself for it.
So taking into consideration the admittedly pretty big possibility of him missing the announcement about the new guy, he makes a mental list on ways to proceed with the mission of finding out who he is.
- Look through the staff room for any information about any new recruits.
- Search through the mess of his inbox for any email that might mention something about it.
- Find some casual way to ask the boys about him.
- Ask him.
Number four is out of the question almost immediately, and so is number three. Because Isak is self aware enough to know that there’s no way he would be able to be casual about this, not around the boys. They know him too well for that. So, the first two it is. If he hurries to eat his dinner today then he could have time to do it during his break and-
“Isak!”
“What?” Isak snaps out of his head and finds himself face to face with Jonas. A suspiciously amused Jonas, who nods his head in the direction of the rose bush, which Isak is still watering, the liquid flowing over the edge of the pot and already having created a puddle around his shoes.
“Fuck,” Isak curses, quickly releasing the hose to make the water stop. If there’s a blush on his face it’s because it’s still hot outside, okay, even though it’s already close to seven. When he looks back up again Jonas is just standing there smirking at him.
“Shut up,” Isak mutters, before turning the hose back on and aiming it in Jonas’ direction.
Unfortunately, he jumps out of the way before the water has time to hit him. Asshole.
Tirsdag 27/6 - kl 12.33
Isak somehow manages to time his lunch with all three of the boys, which is not as easy as it might sound. They are all on different schedules this whole week, so for all of them to be there, and have time to take their lunch break at the same time, is pretty close to a miracle.
It’s not only a positive one, though, because he and Magnus had been done a few minutes before the other two, so he spends the start of his break having to endure what feels like at least an hour of Magnus talking about a girl who had been eating at the restaurant today and who was “totally flirting with me, dude!” Fortunately, despite how the time seems to move in slow-motion, it’s not actually that much later before Mahdi appears, almost sprinting around the corner of the main building. He’s quick as he makes his way over to the two of them, efficiently interrupting what was now less a conversation and more Magnus rambling excitedly to himself.
“Ah, shit,” Mahdi says when he’s close enough for them to hear him, but instead of stopping at their sides, like any normal person would, he keeps going until he’s standing behind Isak’s back. “Boys, save me.”
“What are you doing?” Isak frowns, trying to turn around to look at him. He only manages to catch a short glimpse of Mahdi, finding him crouching down slightly, as if to make sure he’s fully hidden behind Isak, before Mahdi puts one firm hand on each of his shoulders to stop him from moving too much.
“Don’t move,” Mahdi snaps, before continuing in something closer to a whisper. “I just barely managed to avoid Alex. I’m gonna work with him all afternoon, I need to at least be able to eat my lunch in peace before I’m forced to interact with that idiot.”
Magnus snorts. “So you’re gonna hide behind Isak? Wow, you’re practically invisible.”
“Shut up,” Mahdi says, just as Alex comes walking around the same corner Mahdi rounded less than a minute ago. Isak watches Alex as he makes his way towards them, but then he veers off in the direction of the parking lot instead. He stops as soon as he reaches it, leaning against a lamp post and taking out his phone, then pressing a few buttons before putting it to his ear. Fortunately for Mahdi, Alex doesn’t even spare as much as a glance in their direction during his entire walk across the courtyard.
“So,” Isak starts when Alex seems to be caught up in a conversation with whoever is on the other side of the line, “are you going to hide behind me forever, or…?”
Mahdi peeks out from behind Isak to scan the area for Alex, then letting out a sigh as he finds him otherwise occupied, taking a few steps to stand on Isak’s right instead. “Okay, it’s fine. Just… please don’t look at him. If he sees you he might take that as an invitation to come over.”
Mahdi has barely gotten the words out before Magnus turns around to, apparently, do exactly the opposite of what Mahdi just said. But he doesn’t even have time to blink before Mahdi hits him in the shoulder, causing him to turn back to them.
“What the fuck, Mahdi?” Magnus exclaims, one hand coming up to rub at the sore spot.
Mahdi just scowls back at him. “What part of ‘don’t look’ don’t you understand?”
“How am I supposed to not look at him if I don’t even know where he is?”
Mahdi sighs in frustration. “Just... don’t look anywhere?! Just look at us, I don’t know.”
“I’ve seen enough of your ugly mugs to last me a lifetime. And, I was actually just looking for Jonas.”
Isak snorts out a disbelieving “Yeah, right” at the same time as Mahdi says ”Oh yeah, where the fuck is he?”
“I saw him mowing the grass by the tents maybe half an hour ago, but he should be done by now,” Isak says, getting his phone out of his pocket to see if he’s missed any messages from him, but finding the lockscreen empty of any notifications. “Nothing new since then.”
Magnus groans. “Can’t we just start eating without him? I’ve been here since six, staring at food the whole day without eating anything.”
Isak shares a look with Mahdi, before turning to face Magnus again. “You want us to believe you didn’t eat anything for over six hours?”
“Okay, fine,” Magnus admits. “I had some fruit as like, breakfast or something. And mom said they wanted to start serving cupcakes in the shop so I might have tried a few of those just to see if they were good.”
Isak is saved from having to respond to that (which, honestly, would probably have been an eye roll or something to that extent) by Jonas finally deciding to show up.
“Did you say cupcakes?”
The question makes Magnus dive into an incredibly detailed description of the different kinds of cupcakes and all of their individual pros and cons (The ‘cons’ part makes Mahdi exclaim an indignant “How can there possibly be any cons about cupcakes?”). The topic stays the same as Isak opens the door to lead them inside, all the way up the echoing stairwell, and into the staff room. They quickly claim their usual table by the big windows looking out over the roof of the restaurant and all the way to the lake, and by the time they start eating the conversation has only shifted as far as other baked goods.
But despite Isak’s interest in the subject, what with baked goods being approximately 27% of his diet -- the other 73% a mix of chips, take-out and whatever else that he can make in less than five minutes--, his mind wanders back to the guy.
Isak had tried his absolute best to find information about him on his own, having searched through the entire staff room, as well as all the folders of his overflowing mail inbox, on his break last night, even forgetting to eat dinner. But he hadn’t found anything. Not even as much as a mention of any new team members. So he has no other choice but to move on to number three on his list.
Ask the boys.
And while he really does not want to bring it up with them, his need to find out more about the guy is bigger. Jonas already knows, anyway, considering he caught him practically drooling over the guy yesterday. And if Jonas knows, the other two are never far behind.
The problem now is just how to ask them about it. He’s set on the fact that it’ll be embarrassing, in one way or another, no matter how he does it. But still, if he can figure out the least painful way to get through the conversation then maybe it won’t be that bad.
In the end, he doesn’t even have to start it up himself. They’re at the end of their lunch break, still sitting at their table and finishing the food, when Mahdi brings him up.
“So, have you seen the new guy?” he asks. “Even?”
The name takes up all of Isak’s attention for a few glorious seconds before Jonas lets out a loud snort somewhere to his left, making Isak glare at him in warning.
“What?” Magnus asks, looking up at Jonas, the last piece of his sandwich halfway to his mouth.
“Nothing,” Jonas smirks, and Isak knows it was all for nothing. He has no doubts about what Jonas’ next words are going to be, even before he says them. “Isak thinks he's hot.”
Yup, he called it.
“Jonas!” Isak protests, rather uselessly.
Jonas just shrugs. “What? It's true.”
Isak doesn’t have time to try to save the situation from getting worse before Magnus and Mahdi start talking over each other, begging Jonas to tell them how he knows, and then it’s too late. Because, like the traitor he is, Jonas tells them everything. And Isak seriously considers going through the time consuming and mentally exhausting process of finding a new best friend.
“I hate you,” Isak mutters as he gives up on that idea quicker than it came to him, but his words are drowned out by the other three’s laughter so he doubts Jonas even hears them.
When they finally calm down enough to be able to talk again, Isak mostly ignores them through the remainder of their lunch break, letting them continue the conversation without him. He still pays close attention to what they say, though, because they keep talking about Even, and while Isak got what he came for -- a name -- knowing more than that wouldn’t exactly hurt.
Surprisingly, most of the information comes from Mahdi, who has apparently known Even for about four months without ever mentioning him before. Isak’s initial reaction to that unexpected turn of events is annoyance at Mahdi for withholding the knowledge about Even for this long. However, for every second Isak sits there and listens attentively to Mahdi as he reveals details about Even, the irritation subsides more and more until it completely fades into nothingness.
Mahdi tells them how he and Even met for the first time at Elias’ birthday party, as Elias turned out to be their mutual friend, and that they’ve all been hanging out together quite a few times since then. Evidently, that’s also part of the reason for how Even ended up working in the shop at the campsite.
Through Mahdi, Isak also finds out that Even is twenty, that he started working here sometime last week, and that he just graduated from Elvebakken. Something about the timeline of the pieces of information doesn’t really add up, but before Isak can decide whether or not he should join the conversation again to ask about it, Mahdi glances over at Isak, giving him a sympathetic smile as he speaks again, his next words obviously directed at Isak.
“And, he also recently broke up with his girlfriend of four years. So, I don’t know. Maybe now is not the best time to start anything.”
Some small, unfamiliar part of Isak withers at the words, but he ignores it and forces himself to make his voice sound unaffected. “What? It’s not like I was gonna do anything about it, anyway.”
The boys all share a look with each other.
“I wasn’t!”
Magnus frowns at him. “Why not?”
“I know this might be a foreign concept to you, Mags, but you don’t have to hit on every person you find hot,” Isak says, and to his surprise, the comment makes Mahdi and Jonas shift their attention to Magnus instead, teasing him for a moment before starting up a discussion about the best ways to pick up girls. So Isak tunes them out for the last few minutes of their break.
As he and the boys walk back downstairs to start the second half of their workday, his thoughts are split in two. One side is delighted about how he had found out way more about the new guy -- Even -- than he had expected, and he feels excited about all the new information.
The other side is disappointed.
He can’t help it. It was true what he told the boys; he hadn’t actually planned on making a move on Even. But it was still nice to at least have the possibility of it leading somewhere, even if it never would.
He tries his best to push that other side to the darkest corner of his mind, hiding it there so he can focus on the good. Because it’s summer and the weather is actually nice for once, and he’s spending his time with his friends. And it is good. He doesn’t have time feeling anything other than happy, doesn’t want to waste even a minute on a disappointment that doesn’t even matter, in the end.
Because that’s just it. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t make any difference.
Onsdag 28/6 - kl 06.25
Transporting all the sun loungers between the storage room and the beach is a pain in the ass. And, to make things worse, it’s also part of Isak’s daily routine for the majority of his work days.
In an ideal world, they could just keep them on the beach for the entire season and stop all this hauling back and forth. But, because people are assholes and think stealing pieces of furniture is a great night-time activity, that’s impossible. Isak spends at least ten minutes every time the task is his responsibility wishing he could live in a universe where it isn’t. Or one without those kinds of idiots, whichever one is the closest.
It’s disgustingly early in the morning, and no one will probably even use the sun loungers for at least another two hours. Not that it matters, because they still need to be available just in case someone, for some unexplainable reason, wants to lie down in one before the sun has travelled any noticeable distance from the horizon.
Isak mutters to himself, cursing his job and his life and the world, as usual, as he prepares for his third trip of hauling chairs across the campsite, starting to break a sweat despite the rather chilly morning. The upside to having done this so many times before is that he’s an expert at this by now. He knows exactly how many of the sun loungers he can take at once, how to place them on the garden cart they use to transport them on to make them as stable as possible, and he even knows the best route to take to the beach so that it takes as little time as possible, while also avoiding any bumps in the road or unnecessary turns that could make the chairs fall off.
So, accordingly to his vast knowledge on the subject, he now has five loungers stacked on top of each other on the cart, and he’s just about to start the two minute walk to the beach when the tower of chairs decide to suddenly betray their previous agreement of staying still if he stacks them exactly like this, and instead begin to tip to one side. Luckily, Isak is awake enough to react before they fall of the cart, and he’s standing there, an armful of chairs as he tries to push them back up and stabilize them again, when Even comes up to him.
Because of course he does. Of course this is when he’s going to talk to him for the first time.
And, as always, Even looks amazing, and Isak just has to hate him a little bit. How does he keep defying logics all the time? It’s way too early to even be awake at this time -- at least according to Isak -- so for someone to not only manage that, but to also look as if they’re on their way to model at some fucking photoshoot is just unreasonable. And, again, extremely unfair.
“I don't think that's going to work,” Even says, forgoing any normal kind of greeting and instead insulting Isak’s stacking skills, which instantly bursts the bubble that had been clouding his mind. And fine, apparently Isak might not have been as good at this as he thought, but how dare he?
“What?” Isak asks, raising his eyebrows in offense.
“Maybe you shouldn’t put that many on top of each other," Even suggests, as if he would know more about stacking chairs than Isak, who is still actually a master at this, despite what it might look like right now. Everyone can have bad days.
“I've been doing this for the past two summers,” Isak argues, rightfully, “and it has always worked with five so it’s gonna work now, too.”
Even smiles at him. “If you say so.”
“I know how to do my job!”
“Hey, I’m not saying you don’t,” Even says, holding both hands up in surrender.
Isak frowns at him before turning back to what is worryingly starting to resemble the Leaning Tower of Pisa more and more for each passing second. Because just like with that tower, there is something wrong with the foundation of this one too, and it just won’t stay still, no matter how much he tries to move the chairs around to balance them on top of each other.
“Do you need some help?” Even asks, interrupting Isak’s concentration as the question makes him look up at Even instead of focusing on solving the impossible puzzle in his hands.
“What? No, I'm fine.”
“Okay,” Even says, and he looks like he’s holding back a laugh, which, rude.
“Are you just gonna stand there and watch as I eventually give up and get crushed to death by these sun loungers or did you actually want something?”
Even does laugh this time. “I just wanted to say hi,” he says, still smiling as he reaches out a hand for Isak to shake.
Isak sends him a look of disbelief, glancing pointedly to where his hands are otherwise occupied.
“Oh, right,” Even says, running the hand through his hair instead. Isak’s eyes do not immediately zone in on it and he absolutely doesn’t start wondering if it’s as soft as it looks or if it’s just an illusion. If he did do either of those things, he might have almost missed the next words out of Even’s mouth, and he doesn’t. So, case closed. “I’m Even.”
“I know,” Isak blurts out before he has time to even think about it, his brain reacting on autopilot without him being conscious enough to stop anything stupid before it has time to come out. After realising his slip-up, he clears his throat before continuing. “I mean… you’re the only new one here so it’s kinda hard not to notice you.”
Even smiles at him. “Yeah, I get that.”
Isak manages a small smile in return, and then just stares at Even for another moment like the idiot he is, before he remembers that he should probably introduce himself, too.
“I’m Isak, by the way.”
“I know,” Even says, and his smile is closer to a smirk now.
“Oh,” Isak breathes, completely unprepared for that comment.
Even knows his name? How? Did someone just randomly tell him or did he ask anyone? Did he see it on the work schedule they finally put up on the notice board in the staff room? (The work schedule that was not there two days ago and which made Isak’s task of finding out Even’s name about ten times harder, not to mention more embarrassing considering he had to involve all the boys, too.)
“I asked Sana,” Even says, and Isak realises to his dismay that he apparently said some part of that out loud. The question is just which, and the fact that he has no idea, that he might have said all of that for Even to hear, makes him want to slap himself for being this out of tune with his ability to focus on the right things. Which in this case would have been keeping a close eye on his brain-to-mouth filter instead of letting his mind get lost in thoughts about Even.
He’s quickly finding the last part to be easier said than done, though.
“We work together in the shop?” Even continues when Isak does nothing but blink at him.
“Oh, right,” Isak replies when he finally finds his voice, and brain, again. “How do you like it? Working here?”
“So far, so good. I mean, I already knew Sana since before, so that’s pretty chill.”
Isak nods, distracted as he awkwardly shifts the chairs around a bit since they have started to hurt where the weight of them make their edges dig into his arms. “Yeah, that’s nice.”
“She had some interesting things to say about you,” Even adds, making Isak let out a snort.
“Yeah, I bet.”
“Something about how she saved you from failing science?” Even says, raising an eyebrow in question.
“That’s such bullshit! It’s pretty much the other way around. She wouldn’t have more than a 3 without me.”
Even laughs. “She also told me you would say that.”
“Of course she did.” Isak shakes his head as he lets out a breath, but he can’t stop his mouth from curving into a small smile.
“Well, I have to go back to the shop now, but good luck with that.” Even nods to the chairs with a smirk, making Isak roll his eyes at him.
“I don’t need luck.”
Even just smiles at him. “I’ll see you later.”
“Uh... okay,” Isak mumbles, the short sentence sounding more like a question than anything else.
Even throws a hand up in a sort of wave before turning around and heading towards the west side of the camping site, where the shop is situated, and Isak watches him go for longer than he should. He barely even realises he’s doing it until his grip on the chairs loosens enough that he drops them completely and they slide off the cart, ending up in a messy pile on the grass beneath it.
Fuck.
This is going to be a long day.
Torsdag 29/6 - kl 14.08
Isak is so fucked.
It’s been three days. He’s only known about Even for three days, and they’ve talked to each other once. That’s it. That’s basically nothing. But he’s still taking up more of Isak’s thoughts than he should, despite Isak trying his very best to steer them away from that topic.
Because he knows he shouldn’t keep doing this. He knows it can’t go anywhere, knows that nothing is going to happen. No matter how much he sometimes would like to forget about it, he does remember the conversation he had with the boys a few days ago. Even just got out of a four year long relationship. With a girl. Which means he’s probably straight, anyway, so there’s even less of a reason to think about him. So even if he were ready to date someone new, the possibility of that being a boy, being Isak, is probably in the single digits, if that.
Although, he’s also aware that that’s a very narrow-minded way of thinking, and he mentally scolds himself every time that thought appears in his head. After that comes a replay of the conversation he had with the boys after work yesterday when he brought this up after Magnus tried to convince him to go for it anyway, despite what Isak had said the day before. First there’s Jonas’ “That’s very heteronormative of you”, followed by Mahdi’s “He could be bi, or pan, hello?”, complete with the hand gesture he had made to himself.
He knows the boys are right, but he can’t allow himself to entertain that thought for too long. He can’t let that glimmer of hope take up too much space in his heart, because he knows how it’s going to end.
So he pushes away all the feelings that can’t be considered platonic. Pushes them into that dark corner next to the pile of other things he wants to forget or doesn’t have energy dealing with.
(The pile is getting worryingly big but that’s an issue for another day, another Isak. Someone who is stronger than he is, who has another approach than ignore it, and maybe it’ll just disappear by itself.)
The thing is, though, that no matter how much he tries, he can’t stop looking at Even, and he has somehow managed to convince himself that it’s okay. Looking doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t hurt anyone. It’s just like watching a tv-show, or youtube video, or something. It’s nice to look at for a while, keeps him entertained, but then when he turns it off and it’s out of his sight, it’s also out of his mind. Simple as that. Isak is completely chill about this. He has the whole thing under control.
The only problem is that now that he’s so aware of Even’s existence, it’s like he sees him wherever he looks.
Isak should be trimming the bushes between the soccer field and the cabins the campsite offers for rent, but how is he supposed to focus on that when Even is standing at the side of the parking lot looking like that?
Not that there’s anything special about his look -- he looks just like he usually does -- but still.
He’s just standing there, talking to Elias, dressed in his casual clothes, which means he’s off work for today. Nothing unusual at all. They’re too far away for Isak to hear what they’re saying, or even make out most of their facial expressions, but he can see that they’re laughing, Elias playfully pushing Even away from him, almost making him fall into the bushes. Just like normal.
But maybe that’s it. Maybe the thing about Even, the thing that makes him different from anyone else, the reason why Isak is unable to stop thinking about him, is just this. He doesn’t need to do anything extraordinary or be dressed a certain way for Isak to notice him. He just does anyway.
Why he manages to do that, well, that’s a good question. One that Isak doesn’t know the answer to.
Before Isak can get too caught up in that train of thought, there’s a small finger poking at his leg and he’s abruptly dragged back to reality, realising that he’s once again managed to get lost in his own head enough to forget his surroundings. He really needs to start paying more attention before he does something stupid.
Or, more stupid than he already has.
“Why are you staring at that boy?” Leon asks, pointing over to where Even is now standing by himself.
“I’m not!” Isak exclaims, his voice coming out way too defensive. This is a three-year-old he’s talking to, for fuck’s sake. He really needs to find his chill.
(If he ever even had any, that is.)
“Yeah, you are,” Leon says matter-of-factly. “Is he your friend?”
Isak sighs in an attempt to let some tension out. “No.”
“Why?”
“He just isn't.”
Leon looks up at him, then shifts his gaze between him and Even for a moment, eyebrows drawn together in deep thought. Then he turns back to Isak with a wide grin, as if he just came up with an amazing idea. “I can ask him!”
“No!” Isak protests, again with absolutely too much force. Seriously. Chill. He clears his throat once before trying again. “No, uh. That's fine.”
Leon hums distractedly and turns to look at Even again. “He’s really big. I think he’s like a hundred.”
“A hundred years old?”
“Yeah,” Leon says, making Isak let out a short laugh.
“Why?”
“I told you,” Leon says, looking back up at Isak and shaking his head as if he’s tired of Isak’s problems with paying attention to what’s happening around him. Not that Isak can blame him since he did the exact same thing only a minute ago. “He’s so big.”
“Just because someone is tall doesn’t mean they’re old.”
Leon frowns in confusion. “What?”
“You can be tall but still young,” Isak says, and Leon’s eyebrows draw even closer together.
“Why?”
“Because it depends on your DNA. And the environment you live in affects it, too,” Isak starts, before realising that the whole topic of genetics might be a little bit too advanced for a three-year-old. “Uh... it’s like, things inside your body, and what kind of food you eat and where you live. And all of that decides how tall you’re gonna be.”
Leon stares at him for a moment, tilting his head to one side before pointing over to Even again. “Can I be that tall?”
“Uh, yeah, maybe. When you’re older.”
“Like twenty-one? My brother is twenty-one and he’s the biggest in the whole entire world,” Leon says, moving to stand on the tip of his toes and stretching both of his hands up towards the sky as if to illustrate just how tall his brother is.
“Really?” Isak asks, amused. “What’s his name?”
“Cream cheese,” Leon says, making Isak blink in surprise.
“Your… your brother’s name is Cream cheese?”
“Yep! And also Diamond and Milk and-”
“Wait,” Isak holds up a hand to stop the boy from what seems to be the start of an endlessly long list of names. “How many brothers do you have?”
Leon smiles excitedly. “Twenty-one!”
“Wow. That’s a lot,” Isak says, slightly impressed by the boy’s vivid imagination.
“How many do you have?”
“Zero.”
“Oh,” Leon pouts for a short moment, as if he considers Isak’s lack of brothers to be disappointing, before it turns into a wide grin again. “You can have one of mine if you want!”
“Thanks,” Isak smiles, then turns back to the bush to try to actually get some work done. He manages about half a minute before he is once again interrupted by Leon.
“Look, it’s your friend!”
Isak turns to look where he’s pointing, and, sure enough, Even is making his way over, only about thirty meters away by now. With his long legs it only takes him seconds before he’s right in front of them.
“Hello,” Even says as he comes to a stop.
“Hi,” Isak greets back, and then Leon jumps in, once more pointing at Even.
“Woah! Isak look how big he is!”
Isak closes his eyes in part embarrassment, part irritation, wishing the kid would just stop talking for once -- even though he’s well aware that that’s not going to happen any time soon, at least not if the two short conversations they’ve had so far is anything to go by -- but Even just lets out a bright laugh.
“How did you get so big?” Leon asks.
“Magic,” Even says, smiling playfully at the kid.
“Isak says it’s….” Leon trails off, frowning as he tries to remember. “‘D’ something.”
“So,” Even directs a smirk at Isak before turning back to look at Leon, “the D is what makes me big, huh?”
“Yes!” Leon exclaims excitedly.
Isak drags a hand over his face in an attempt to hide his flush. “Oh my god, Even. He’s talking about DNA.”
“I know,” Even winks.
Isak stares at him, shaking his head and trying not to smile. Which doesn’t work at all, especially not when Even just keeps smiling back at him.
“You’re weird,” comes a voice from somewhere around their waists. Isak looks down at Leon, who blinks at them for a few seconds before walking away towards the playground.
“Funny kid,” Even says when Leon isn’t within hearing distance anymore. “How do you know him?”
“We bonded in the bouncy castle over our mutual love of minions,” Isak deadpans.
Even gasps dramatically. “Oh no.”
“What?”
“I thought maybe we could be friends but now that’s out of the question.”
Isak raises his eyebrows. “Being a fan of minions is where you draw the line?”
“They’ve taken over the world, Isak,” Even says, gesturing around himself, as if there would be at least ten minions in their field of vision. “It’s pretty scary. I don’t want to be dragged into that, who knows what could happen to me? I might never be the same again.”
“Maybe that wouldn’t be all bad,” Isak smirks, before realising that he and Even don’t even know each other, despite how easy it already is to talk to him, and maybe insulting him -- even though it clearly was a joke -- isn’t the best way of making friends.
Luckily, Even just laughs again. “Well, you’re not wrong there.”
“I should tell you now that I’m never wrong.”
“Good to know,” Even says, then brings his left arm up to look at his watch for a few seconds before turning back to Isak. “When do you get off work?”
“At four.” Isak pauses for a moment. “Why?”
Even smirks at him. “I was gonna ask you if you wanted to go see Despicable Me 3, but since you’re stuck here for another two hours then I guess I just have to go by myself.”
“Ha-ha.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.”
“Wow,” Isak says, mock offended. “First you won’t even wait for me so I can go with you, and then you’re going to spoil the movie for me?”
Even shrugs. “Yup.”
“Unbelievable.” Isak shakes his head at him again, and is met with yet another smirk from Even.
“See you tomorrow!” he says, turning around to walk back over to the parking lot.
Isak watches him go.
Fredag 30/6 - kl 12.49
Isak has been contemplating for the last twenty minutes whether or not he should go to the shop to see Even.
He did say ‘see you tomorrow’, but Isak is already done with more than half of his shift and he hasn’t seen a glimpse of Even yet. The fact that he hasn’t seen as much as a trace of him, not even at a distance or a brief glance, or even heard any mentions of his name, makes the doubts build up quicker than Isak can push them down.
He’s just being nice. It’s just something people say. He didn’t mean it literally.
Those three thoughts, and any variation of them his mind can come up with, keep spinning around and around in his head until it’s all he can think about. Which is why he doesn’t notice where he’s putting down his glass of water until some of it spills over the edge onto his plate, soaking parts of his already sad-looking slice of pizza.
After letting out a tired sigh in irritation, Isak frowns down at what is left of his lunch. Then he makes a decision.
Enough.
That’s it. He can’t keep doing this, can’t keep assuming things and letting his mind run with ideas when he doesn’t know the truth. He’s distracted enough as it is, he doesn’t have room to add to that list by thinking about things he could easily get an answer to.
So. The shop it is.
He only has eight minutes left of his lunch break, and since Mahdi had the day off today and Jonas and Magnus had their break earlier than Isak, which means they’re already back to work, he doesn’t even have to come up with an excuse as to why he would leave the comfort and quiet of the staff room before he absolutely has to.
After throwing away the rest of his lunch and putting away his plate and fork in the dishwasher, Isak rushes down the stairs, fast enough that he almost slips on the shiny steps, his footsteps echoing in the stairwell. He throws a feeble “hi” in Eva’s direction as he passes her sitting in the reception, not daring to stop to talk to her lest that would also stop his determination, then pushes the door open and keeps heading towards the shop, still fast enough that he can’t be tempted to change his mind.
Apparently he is slightly too focused on his mission as he almost trips over something soft and grey running in between his legs right outside the door to the shop. Isak winces, hoping he didn’t hurt what he could now identify as a big cat, but it just moves to lie down under the bench next to the door, curling up into a ball of fluff.
Isak takes a breath, and then enters the shop.
Sana is sitting by the register, absentmindedly flipping through the pages of a magazine due to the lack of customers, but Even is nowhere to be seen. Isak stops for a moment. He was so focused on seeing Even that he didn’t even consider the possibility of him not being here. Thinking fast, something Isak might not always be the best at, he moves over to the shelves of food, pretending that was the actual reason he came in here -- to buy a snack. Which he might need to do anyway since he had ruined half of his lunch. He could use that excuse to stall for time, and hopefully Even will be back before he has looked through the entire shop.
“Even isn’t here.”
The three words startle Isak enough that his arm hits a big basket next to him, full of balls in a wide variety of sizes and colours. The motion makes every single one of them spill out and bounce haphazardly over the floor.
“What? I don’t- I wasn’t-,” Isak splutters before Sana saves him from what would have been an embarrassingly bad attempt at coming up with an excuse.
“Stop. I know you, Isak. We’ve been… friends, I guess, for two years. I’m not stupid.”
“Then how come you only got a five in biology?” Isak smirks, switching tactics and hoping that that would be enough to make Sana change the subject.
“We’ve been over this a million times. The answer key was wrong. But it doesn’t matter. My point is, I know you came in here to stare at Even, but he’s on his break, so, he’s not here. Which means you can leave now so you don’t scare any more of my customers.”
Isaks gapes at her. “I’ve never done either of those things!”
Sana just directs an unimpressed stare his way. “You literally just made a girl turn around in the doorway when you knocked over those balls.”
“Oh. Sorry,” Isak says sheepishly, looking down at the mess he had made before finally starting to pick them up.
“And,” Sana continues, “every time I see you and Even at the same time, you always end up staring at him at one point or another.”
“He’s just… nice to look at,” Isak says, aiming for casual but, knowing him, probably missing by about a mile.
He can see Sana roll her eyes as he keeps picking up the balls, finding more of them than he had initially thought was in the basket. He finds the last one -- at least it’s the last one as far as he knows, there’s most likely more of them hiding somewhere -- wedged under the bottom of the small ice cream freezer, and he has to wriggle it for far longer than he will admit until he eventually gets it out. When the ball is back in the basket where it belongs, he turns to face Sana again, his need to change the subject completely vanished now as he suddenly remembers something absolutely unacceptable.
“I can’t believe two of my best friends knew about Even but neither of them ever as much as mentioned him before.”
Sana sighs heavily. “Despite my extreme intelligence and the general assumption of the public because of that fact, I can’t actually read minds, Isak. How was I supposed to know you would think Even is the best thing you’ve seen in your, admittedly pretty boring, life.”
Isak huffs. “Why are you always exaggerating? I told you I just find him, like… aesthetically pleasing, or something.”
“Or something.”
“Shut up,” Isak mutters half-heartedly, staring at the floor to in the hopes she won’t be able to see how he’s most likely blushing. As he does, he finds another one of the balls, lying on one of the bottom shelves partly hidden behind a package of pasta.
After bending down to pick it up and putting in the basket with the other ones, he turns back to smile at Sana, pondering whether or not he could find a way to spend a few more minutes in the shop, on the off chance that Even is on his way back. Unfortunately, he’s interrupted before he’s able to make up his mind.
“Don’t you have work to do?” Sana asks, sounding annoyed.
“Fuck,” Isak curses after looking at the clock on the wall behind her and realising his lunch break was over five minutes ago. “Yes. I do.” He pauses, then directs a winning smile at Sana. “I just got distracted by how pretty you look today.”
Sana rolls her eyes at him again, but it mostly just looks fond this time. “You know I’m not Even, right?”
“Fuck off. I would never say that to him. Also he doesn’t even distract me, so...”
The lie is obvious enough that Sana doesn’t even bother calling him out on it. She does raise a pointed eyebrow in his direction though, but Isak chooses to ignore it, instead turning around to walk out of the shop.
“See you later, best bud!”
“I’ll let Even know you were here.”
“If you do that then I’ll tell everyone about how I’m better than you at biology,” Isak calls back as he pushes the door open, looking over his shoulder to smirk at Sana.
She shakes her head, her muttered “So many lies today” reaching him right as the door closes behind him.
He almost trips over the cat again on his way out, but it’s fine. Everything is fine.
And this summer might not be that bad, after all.