Let Bn be the group of upper-triangular invertible n×n matrices and Xn be the set of strictly upper triangular n×n matrices of square zero seen as an algebraic variety. Bn acts on Xn by conjugation. In this paper we give first results on the geometry of orbits Xn/Bn in terms of link patterns.Further we apply this description to the computations of the closures of orbital varieties of nilpotency order 2 and their pairwise intersections. In particular, we connect our results on intersections to the combinatorics of meanders in Temperley–Lieb algebras and pairwise intersections of the components of a Springer fiber over a nilpotent element with two Jordan blocks.