Chapter Text
He had a terrible headache.
Not unusual. Lately, his body liked inventing new ways to be inconvenient.
Was it the weather? Was it the continuous chatter around him? He had no clue.
He walked down the corridor, annoyed, his left index scraping against the thumb’s nail. Even if he tried to walk faster, many people still easily surpassed him, or for a second glanced at him, amused. Or curious.
He hated not knowing which was worse.
He finally made his way to the school library. The fact that it was ruled to talk moderately discouraged many people to start conversations or interrupt the silence, and that was exactly what he needed that time.
He sat down, laying his cane on the floor, hiding it a little with his leather bag.
He let himself quietly inhale and exhale slowly, trying to relax for once in the entire morning. He took out his mp3 and plugged in his earphones, that of course had to be all entangled.
GOD, he wanted so much that day to end quickly.
As if the world had been created only to mock him, immediately after he thought that, the doors of the library opened, making loud voices slide in. His upper lip twitched. Well, out of all the library, what was the probability that they could have gone right in his section? He tried to calm himself with that thought, but an unsettling discomfort lingered in the back of his mind.
He could only catch a couple words, between the laughs of some young men and the footsteps of one person growing closer. and closer. and closer.
He inhaled deeply, still caught up in trying to untangle his earphones, that could have spared him from an awkward conversation—
“Hey, do you need a helping hand?”
He wanted to scream, it was like the words “game over” had been projected on him, all red and heavy, while the world had become black and white. Conversations always went wrong eventually.
“No. Thank you.” He answered, lightly making the “no” clear with a sharp silence between the two sentences.
“Alright,” he said easily, like Viktor hadn’t just snapped at him.
Trying to hide the fact that he was about to throw the earphones away because of how useless they were in that moment and how pathetic they made him look, he shoved the earphones in his jacket’s pocket.
He then used the second technique to seem-busy-while-you’re-not. He needed something that made sense. Something that didn’t ask questions.
He took out his physics school book and opened a random page and literally started to write it down.
He heard the footsteps stop to a shelf. Was that person really going to pick a book??? From THIS section???
Viktor meant to look away. He didn’t.
He was a young man, probably got here with a sports scholarship, probably was all brawn and no brain. His foot tapped lightly as he was scanned the shelves.
…No, not scanned. His eyes tracked the lines properly.
Viktor frowned.
Probably was taking a book only to take a pic of it later and post it, just to receive compliments by the thousands of girls that probably followed his account.
Disgusting.
What was he even picking?
He’s for sure searching for either a popular book and a niche book, just to make him appear nerdy and smart.
Double disgusting.
If it wasn’t for his looks, probably wouldn’t have a partner.
He looked back at his book and notebook, silently hoping that the wooden shelves after centuries would have finally broken and threw themself on him.
“Oh, you’re into physics too?”
His neck nearly snapped by how quickly it turned to look at the young man, feeling exposed. How did he—he glanced down. Ah, right, the notebook.
“Yes.”
“Cool! I like physics too! What course are you taking?”
“Biomedical Engineering” If he could have been sharper, he would have been. “And you?” He was ready. maybe something like oh, nothing! I just kick the ball and jump in the mud!
“Mechanical Engineering” The other boy smiled.
His eye twitched. How. He didn’t hesitate when he said it. Was he really sincere?
Like, he didn’t look like a nerd! At all! He looked like he failed math classes at primary school! How could he be there! He’s probably the menace of the class. He’ll probably hear about his dorm room exploding or something sooner or later.
“what’s your name? I’m Jayce. Jayce Talis.” He smiles, putting down the couple books he had taken on the table the other was in and held out his hand.
“It’s Viktor”
He took the offered hand.
Warm. Firm. Unbothered.
Annoying.
Viktor let go a second too quickly.
He didn’t like that.
He didn’t like him.