While the World Ends Around Us (Make Believe With Me)

Darling be patient, stare into the vacancy, take a deep breath

Dirt on your heels, you've made a mess
Down by the carpark, high off your head
Honey, don't worry, nobody's angry at any of this
Darling be patient, stare into the vacancy, take a deep breath
Anyway // Noah Kahan

Jens thinks Lucas has a crush on Moyo.

It almost makes Lucas laugh.

It's logical, he supposes, when he looks at the situation from Jens's point of view, but from his own...

Moyo is nice. And he's cute. And funny. He's a sweetheart, when he texts Lucas and asks what he's up to (and if he has answers to an assignment from the only class they share, physics. Lucas is gradually becoming more sure that both of them are going to fail). He's very interested in Lucas's art, gushing about every drawing and sketch and painting Lucas sends him a picture of, no matter how half-assed or messy it is, no matter how much Lucas hates the piece. Moyo tells him he has to go to art school, and if he doesn't, Moyo will sue him, which Lucas laughs at.

"Have you met Jens's little sister?" Moyo asks one day while they talk on the phone, and Lucas's face, for some fucking reason, heats up, and he's glad they aren't Facetiming.

"Uh, no, but he talks about her a lot." He pauses, looking at his drawing. It's messy, abstract, and he doesn't really know what he's actually doing. "Lotte, right?"

"Yeah," Moyo says. He's playing a video game, and Lucas can hear the clicking of the controller. "She likes to draw."

"Yeah, Jens said. He's sent me a few pictures of her work."

"You make it sound so professional."

"All artists are professional," Lucas says lightly. "All art is real."

Moyo is quiet for a second.

"You have a beautiful brain," he says finally.

"...That's the best compliment I've ever gotten."

But Jens happens to beat it two days later.

If Lucas is honest, it's a bit pathetic that it so easily beats Moyo's compliment as number one, but... It's Jens.

It happens when they're talking on the phone, late at night, as Lucas stares up at the ceiling that he can just manage to see in the pale moonlight streaming through his blinds. Jens can't see Lucas's cheek light up red, like every freckle is burning like the sun.

"I think I just like the idea of humans," Lucas is saying softly, thinking back to every sketch, every drawing, every painting he's ever done. "Like the diversity. Expressions. Little details like the way their eyes shine. I think it's beautiful."

Jens is silent, and Lucas waits.

And waits.

And waits.

"You still there?" he asks quietly, in case Jens has fallen asleep, but Jens finally says,

"God, you're so cute."

Lucas inhales slowly, squeezing his eyes shut, his face set alight.

"Being an artist sounds so cool, but I don't have the patience to learn," Jens continues, oblivious. "I thought about learning when Lotte started drawing, but it never went anywhere."

Lucas's mouth moves silently for a second, his eyes still shut, trying to find words.

"I— I don't really think there's a wrong way to do art."

"No?"

Lucas can hear Jens's smile in his voice, and it makes Lucas grow warmer.

"No," he says. "It's just self expression. There's no good or bad."