Chapter Text
[3] Rachel
He doesn’t actually mean for Rachel to be the next one he tells- really, he doesn’t. Cory and Topanga are the obvious next step for both of them, but it’s less than an hour that they’ve been back in their New York apartment when the phone starts ringing. Shawn’s run out for takeout, both of them feeling too lazy to cook with nothing left in the house since they’ve been away, so Eric grabs it before it goes to voicemail.
“Eric? Eric, can you hear me?” Her voice comes out a little crackly, bit muzzled by the static, no doubt the result of whatever far-flung corner of the earth she’s found to explore this month, but it’s still familiar enough to remind him he misses her and put a smile on his face.
“Rachel? That you?”
“Who else?” She sounds excited, now that she knows the connection is clear.
They spend a while talking about what they’re up to, lately. He asks her where she’s at (just outside of X’ian, China), what she’s doing (making plans to scale a cliffside before settling in to teach for a few months, apparently), and when she asks him about himself he spends way too much effort trying to sound casual and not at all like he’s currently gnashing his nails over how much, exactly, he should reveal.
She sees right through him.
“Mmhm,” The suspicion in her voice is palpable, even through the poor connection. “What aren’t you telling me, Matthews?”
The thing is- it’s just- well, Rachel is kind of all over the place, these days, and he loves that about her. Loves that for her, really, he does, couldn’t be happier to see her living out her dreams. But that means they almost never talk, he never knows when they’ll talk next, if it’ll be days or weeks or even months, and he knows he should tell Cory, next, knows he should definitely ask Shawn about this but the thought of Rachel finding out months later than everyone else, of feeling like he’s keeping something from her, when she clearly knows it, for however long it takes for them to talk again. Well. He just-
“Shawn!”
“What- is Shawn there?”
“Uh, no-“
“Tell him I say hello! Ask him how Jack’s-“
“No. No, Rach. I mean- what I’m not telling you. Uh. It’s Shawn. It’s just, I’m not even supposed to be telling you this, okay? We haven’t even told Cory yet, so you’ve got to keep it a secret.” He insists, and really, it’s dumb. Why would Rachel ever call Cory? But maybe she’d call Jack, and he’s pretty sure Shawn would be pretty upset if Jack found out from anyone but him.
“You know you’re just making me worried, right?”
Eric laughs and winces when it comes out sounding just about as strained as it feels. Maybe he’s a bit more nervous than he realized.
“Not helping.” She informs him.
“Yeah, my bad.”
Eric takes a deep breath and does his best to exhale slow, force his heart out of his throat, and goes on before he can lose his nerve.
“It’s nothing bad. It’s actually really great. It’s- Shawn. We’re together.”
There’s quiet on the other end of the line for a long minute and Eric curses himself for letting the whole interaction be so fumbled, just making himself more nervous than he needs to be.
“I mean- I’m assuming you don’t mean you live together, because I already knew that.” There’s a light, teasing tone to Rachel’s voice, but something else, too.
“Yeah, no. I mean-“
“Like a couple.” She finishes. It’s quiet again, and he really doesn’t think he can handle it.
“Man, Rachel, I get that this is a lot and all but you’re making me kind of nervous, could you just say something? Please?” Rachel laughs, and it sounds a bit out of breath.
“Right, Eric, oh my god. Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you nervous.”
“It’s fine-“
“Obviously, I still love you, you idiot.” Eric lets out a relieved breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding and feels his whole body sag with it. Lets out a groan and Rachel laughs, more solid, this time. “It’s just- Shawn Hunter, really?”
“Hey!”
“No- I mean, Shawn’s great. I don’t know him all that well, but he seems great. But isn’t he, like, basically your adopted little brother.”
“Oh- ew! Don’t be gross!”
“You don’t be gross! It’s a valid question.”
Eric laughs into the receiver, slightly mortified. Sometimes he forgets that no one else actually knows about how they’d been, growing up. How early on things had begun to shift.
“Okay, maybe, maybe, I can see how from your limited and very wrong perspective you might think that. But, let me tell you, Rachel, you really could not be further from the truth.”
“I would hope so, yeah. I'm happy for you, though, you know?” It makes something warm and fuzzy and undeniably, embarrassingly tender well up inside her chest when she speaks. "Even if it is a bit strange."
They’re both laughing a bit, now, and it’s easier to feel good about things, after that. Sure, he does feel a bit sorry about not telling Cory first, but he thinks, all things considered, this wasn’t a bad decision.
He promises her he’ll explain the whole story one day when they can actually sit down and talk about it, and she, in turn, promises it won’t be too long, now. Somehow, he doubts it, but it doesn’t feel bad. Maybe he can even convince Shawn that taking a trip themselves wouldn’t be a bad idea.