As The World Falls Down

Gold Earring and a Tempest

"Morning."

"Hey, morning." Robbe grinned back.

Sander appeared to be studying his face. Robbe smiled softly to tell him that he was okay, and there was no point to talk about it anymore. Sander smiled and squeezed his shoulder briefly.

"That's new." He had noticed the gold earring he got yesterday. Sander stepped closer to look at it, Robbe could smell fresh morning air and the subtle touch of sandalwood on him. Sander's hand moved, taking the loop between his fingers.

Robbe felt the naked brush of his thumb and forefinger on his earlobe, his stomach fluttering. That was the first time Sander touched him with his naked fingers on his naked skin like that. Too much naked in your mind. Faster that he wanted the touch to last, it was gone. His inside was still jumping around, wanting more excitement. Yeah, me too.

"Looks good on you." Sander grinned.

Robbe giggled, punching his arm lightly to cover his embarrassment. They said goodbye when the bell rang.

*

During the second break, Robbe noticed that the school was buzzing. He was standing in the yard with Jens, Aaron and Moyo, chatting. People were whispering excitedly, some of them were moving from group to group, delivering some hot gossip probably.

"Something is happening," Robbe announced.

"Girls," Moyo snorted. Aaron chuckled.

"Looks juicy," Jens was also looking around curiously.

"Boys!" Jana was half-running toward them, the girls walking fast behind her.

"Have you heard?" She asked after catching her breath. They were all gathering around in a half circle.

"What is cooking?" Jens asked.

"It's about Sander." Jana glanced at him.

Robbe straightened up from his lazy posture. "What about him? Something happened?"

She grimaced. "Britt has an ex who has friends who has another ex that studied in the same school here Sander used to go. Long story short, they saw Sander's picture and they had started talking about him and it went around. They said he was a trouble kid, used to fight a lot, breaking rules, and then he was also kicked out."

Robbe tried to digest the information. "Wait, that's not true. Sander is not from here, he's from Brussels."

Then he realised what he had said. But if people started to spread these kind of lies, then it's better for them to know that small thing.

Zoe turned to him, "You know that?"

Robbe was getting confused. "Ehm yeah, so that's just lie then?"

Zoe said cautiously, "He moved to Brussels two years ago. Apparently he moves back here now."

Robbe was frowning, thinking about their conversation in the empty house. Sander didn't actually lie, he did told him his previous school, but God, Sander and his quirk.

"Fighting doesn't get you kicked out," Moyo said.

"Jana was talking in a mess," Luca said, slapping her forehead softly.

Zoe took the role to explain, "He wasn't kicked out from his school here. But from his school in Brussels."

Moyo made a confused gesture with his hands, because it still wasn't clear.

"He's also failing classes, bad attendance, so when he got into a fight or fights, we don't know, not sure how bad it was, but on top of everything, the school expelled him. He didn't pass last year."