Derk was sitting in the canteen in Leeuwenborch. Trying to finish writing a report while eating his pumpkin soup, he was feeling tired and tense. For the past three weeks he had been waiting to hear his marks for an important exam, and there was still no news.
A small group of people joined him at his table. He smiled politely at them, but they appeared not to notice. Nothing unusual there; lately he seemed to have become invisible. Things had been pretty quiet on that front ever since his spell of flirting with Vera. And while he certainly thought Tom was a hot guy, something was holding him back from being fully homosexual… Derk didn’t want to draw attention to himself in that way. He wanted to be ordinary. Normal. Get married someday, have children, be one of the crowd. Couldn’t he just do that? He’d kissed girls a couple of times since Tom but it was becoming increasingly obvious that the opposite sex simply wasn’t his thing.
Derk’s attention was drawn toward a buff body in a grey V-neck. Broad shoulders and a good chest were clearly outlined. A muscular neck and a chiselled jaw line beneath friendly brown eyes. Derk’s breath caught in his throat and he blushed. Wow. This guy was clearly a fitness fanatic. His thoughts drifted back to the Bongerd, a few months earlier. In a large mirror, Derk could see the people behind him. Tom was holding a dumbbell behind his head to train his scrawny triceps. ‘Getting outrageously strong,’ was his motto. Derk traced the contours of his body, smelled the warm scent of sweat, heard the clink of metal on metal. Bang! A falling coffee cup brought him back to the canteen.
Derk froze and switched his attention back to his laptop. He felt extremely hot but did his utmost to concentrate on his report. It was impossible. With a sideways glance, he peered over to where the guy had just been standing, but V-neck was gone.
There was no way it could ever lead to anything, thought Derk. Guys like that are only attracted to girls. Derk himself played a lot of sport but he couldn’t claim to be muscular. He was a little on the slender side compared with the grey V-neck. ‘Perhaps tomorrow I’ll try going to the gym,’ he decided.