Starstruck (the Idea of Always)

Zondag 13:36

LUCAS
Lucas had been hanging out at Milan's flat with Ralph all day. Robbe had chatted with him a bit, just about school and things like that, before Sander showed up and they left to get lunch. Sander and Robbe looked like a good couple. Lucas had exchanged just a few words with Sander ("Hey, what's up?") but he could tell that he and Robbe were happy together. That made Lucas happy, even though he didn't know either of them well.

Before Sander had shown up, Lucas and Robbe had exchanged Instagrams. After they had, Lucas put his phone down so he wasn't being rude, but he was itching to find Jens's account. He had realized that they had only exchanged their numbers, and nothing else, and Lucas wanted to look at the pictures he had posted. As soon as Sander and Robbe left, he pulled his phone out and opened Robbe's Instagram.

There was a picture from the party the other day, and a picture of Robbe and Sander decorating the Christmas tree. Lucas looked at each picture individually, smiling briefly at the photo of Robbe and Sander laying together smiling blissfully, until he found a picture with Jens in it.

His smile grew as he opened the picture, Robbe and Jens crouching next to Aaron, who was lying on his stomach, wearing what looked like a bunny onesie. He zoomed in on Jens and stared for a second before tapping the picture to see if Jens was tagged. He was.

Lucas forgot he was smiling as he scrolled through Jens's account. There were lots of pictures of food, all of them tagged #vettigevrijdag. Lucas laughed quietly and shook his head. There were lots of vlog posts (he would have to watch them eventually) and lots of pictures taken with the guys.

He stopped when he came across a picture of just Jens, with a serious expression and a red zip-up mock neck shirt. He really was pretty. Lucas took a screenshot before continuing scrolling.

His smile faltered when he found a picture of Jens and a girl he recognized from the holiday party. The photo was taken by her, a selfie, and she had her arm around Jens, his face smushed by her hand. The caption read "We cute".

Lucas turned his phone off for a second, wondering if they were dating. They hadn't seemed that close at the holiday party, in fact, he didn't think he had seen either of them exchange a word. Maybe they had before he arrived. He opened his phone again and checked the date for the picture. October 2018. Maybe they had dated and had broken up. But why wouldn't he delete the picture? Maybe the ended on good terms. And if they were dating, why would Jens have referred to the two of them hanging out a date?

This made Lucas pause again, suddenly wondering if maybe it had been a date. When Jens called it that, Lucas had laughed and gone along with it, but then later Lucas himself had asked when their next "date" was. Jens had gone along with it, too. Maybe it was a date, and Lucas was just oblivious.

Or maybe he was just overthinking things.

He opened his phone again and scrolled back up to the top of Jens's account, and tapped "Follow".