Work Text:
the 2018-19 school year | february
- quinn’s freshman year
- cole’s sophomore year
- reid’s senior year
02/01/2019
Reid Burke created a group.
Group: Reid Burke, Cole Kolinsky, Quinn Cooper, Brianna Cameron, & 18 others
Reid Burke: hello fellow associates
Reid Burke named the group “Cast Bonding.”
Jhiron Hassan: reid
Jhiron Hassan: waht is yuor obsession w makng a new gruop chat every time yuo need to say soemthing
Jhiron Hassan: jst use the deh cast chat
Reid Burke: NO because my beautiful wife isn’t in the cast chat
Brianna Cameron: Could you not just text me separately?
Jhiron Hassan: ^^^^
Reid Burke: wow. smh
Reid Burke: glad to know you both hate me
Reid Burke: anyway to the non-haters
Reid Burke: i’m having a small shindig in my apartment tonight for some good old fashioned cast and crew bonding
Reid Burke: not saying it’s mandatory but it’s mandatory
Reid Burke: you WILL be kicked off the show if you do not attend
Kelsie Wilkes: Wait, seriously?
Reid Burke: no but let me have my fun
Reid Burke: wait kelsie you mean to tell me you dont WANT to spend your friday evening in my apartment????
Spencer Bergen: These notifications are annoying
Spencer Bergen left the group.
Kelsie Wilkes left the group.
Reid Burke: lmaoooooooooooo typical
Reid Burke: anyway those who are not bitter and/or grouchy should come to my apartment tonight
Reid Burke: duffy hall, apartment 3
Cole Kolinsky: i’m only going if ezra is going
Ezra Aquino: I’m going
Cole Kolinsky: SHIT
Quinn Cooper: Duffy Hall is by the lower commons, right?
Jhiron Hassan: freshamn moment
Ezra Aquino: Major freshman moment
Reid Burke: yes quinn
Reid Burke: wait does this mean you’re coming :’)
Quinn Cooper: Yes I would love to!
Reid Burke loved a message
Alison Garcia: will you be bringing your hockey boyfriend
Quinn Cooper: Of course not— he’s not part of the cast!
Alison Garcia: :(
Alison Garcia: i want to be his friend
Quinn Cooper: I’ll be sure to tell him.
Alison Garcia: yayyyy
Maggie Atkins: i can’t make it, i’m sorry :(
Quinn Cooper: Maggie! :(
Claire Deshaies: Nooooooo!
Maggie Atkins: i’m sorry!!!!!!!! i have plans :(((( i’m going out with a guy i met last weekend
Alison Garcia: OMG A HOT DATE
Claire Deshaies: Is he cute?
Quinn Cooper: I thought that was tomorrow!
Maggie Atkins: no it’s tonight!
Maggie Atkins: and yes he’s cute. he’s on the cross country team
Reid Burke: quinn’s dating athletes legacy…
Quinn Cooper: Hahaha!
Quinn Cooper: I can confirm that he is handsome and seems nice.
Alison Garcia: leak his ig handle
Maggie Atkins: lol if tonight goes well i will do so
Claire Deshaies: Have fun! We’ll miss you!
Maggie Atkins loved a message
Maggie Atkins: thank you!
Reid Burke: okay so for those of us who do not have hot dates with the cross country team, 8pm
Reid Burke: be there
Reid Burke: we will be performing a seance to summon the ghost of connor murphy
Cole Kolinsky: i wish that happened in the show
Quinn Cooper: But doesn’t it, though?
Quinn Cooper: Isn’t Sincerely Me basically a seance?
Reid Burke: LMFAOOO
Claire Deshaies: He has a point
Reid Burke: we should screenshot that and send it to dr c no context
Quinn Cooper: Oh, goodness. I feel like she’d be thoroughly alarmed.
Cole Kolinsky: dear evan hansen halloween special. evan and jared perform a seance to summon connor’s ghost. connor appears, curses them out, and leaves.
Reid Burke: i love a man who truly knows his character
Quinn Cooper: Cole is becoming one with Connor Murphy.
Cole Kolinsky: i feel like i was already one with connor murphy before this show
Jhiron Hassan: waht is wrong wth yall
Reid Burke: love u jhiron <3
Jhiron Hassan left the group.
Reid Burke: NOOOOOOOOOOOO
Reid Burke added Jhiron Hassan to the group.
Jhiron Hassan left the group.
Reid Burke added Jhiron Hassan to the group.
Jhiron Hassan: i will blcok you reid
Reid Burke: do it coward!
Brianna Cameron: I feel like I should warn people that this is exactly what tonight at the apartment is going to be like.
Reid Burke: babe :( now they’re not going to come
*
Private Message
Quinn Cooper: Hey Cole! Do you want to walk down to Reid’s apartment together tonight? I’ve never been to the apartments by lower commons and I’m worried that I might get lost. Besides, I thought it would be nice if we were both going to meet up beforehand :)
Cole Kolinsky: lol sure! i can help you find it
Cole Kolinsky: you live in wilson right
Quinn Cooper: Unfortunately, yes.
Cole Kolinsky: my condolences
Quinn Cooper laughed at a message
Quinn Cooper: However, you don’t have to meet me at Wilson. I’ll be at the hockey rink tonight for my boyfriend’s game, so do you want to meet there?
Cole Kolinsky: sure!
*
“Wait, let me get this straight, Q. You’re going to a party … without me?”
Quinn shoots what he hopes is the world’s biggest stink-eye in Ben’s general direction. The lobby of the Kiersey ice arena is a bit crowded, which is typical after a home game— so Quinn raises his voice, to ensure he’s heard. “Contrary to what you may believe, Benjamin,” he chirps, “I do have other friends at this school.”
Ben laughs, but it’s a good-natured laugh, one not meant to mock him but just to joke around. Almost six months of knowing Ben Shaley has taught Quinn a lot about his sense of humor, which is, at its heart, that of a complete wise-ass. This is why Quinn isn’t offended in the slightest when Ben retorts, “Yeah, but you don’t have cool friends besides me.” After a pause, he reaches next to him, where Remy is standing, to ruffle his hair— or at least what little sticks out from under his Team Canada stocking cap. Remy attempts to dodge him, but doesn’t get too far. “And Remy.”
Sebastián, to whom Quinn has anchored himself for the duration of their loitering in the arena lobby, feigns offense, bringing his hand to his heart, near the pocket of his game-day suit jacket. “Ouch.”
“You don’t count,” Ben says, and then flashes Quinn another snarky grin. “Anyway, I’m not offended that you’re ditching us, Quinny. I’ll just cry later because you hate me.”
“Well, good, then,” Quinn replies, because two can play at Ben’s quick-witted game, “why don’t you. I’ll consider it an accomplishment.”
Sebastián cackles. “Roasted.”
Ben, now, is the one who pretends to be offended. He looks to Remy next to him, as if to seek support. “I’m being attacked in my own house.”
Quinn wants to tell Ben that the ice arena is not, in fact, ‘his own house’— but after the game Ben just played, beating Avon College three to zero, he knows he wouldn’t be completely correct in saying that. In fact, tonight’s score is still up on the scoreboard, on the far wall of the rink between the American and New Hampshire flags. While Quinn may not completely understand all the ins and outs of hockey just yet, he does know that what Ben did in tonight’s game is called a shutout— and that those, for goaltenders, are a special and relatively rare accomplishment. The time he’s spent around the hockey team, especially Ben and Remy, since starting to date Sebastián, has taught him thus plus many other terms.
So in a way, thanks to the good game played tonight, this is Ben’s house. Quinn merely shrugs, and leans against Sebastián’s shoulder. “Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it back, Mr. Shaley.”
Ben laughs. “Watch out, Nando. He’s feeling extra sassy tonight.”
Quinn can’t help his self-satisfied smile. It’s getting kind of loud in here— which, much like being crowded, is standard for the arena lobby after home games— but just then, his phone buzzes in his pocket, and he’s saved.
Cole Kolinsky: hey, are you inside the hockey rink? i’m outside the front door but it looks like chaos in there lmao
“Oops.” Quinn opens the text, to respond to it. “My poor friend Cole is lost.”
“Tell him to come in,” Ben says. “I want to meet your so-called other friends.”
Quinn laughs, and lifts his eyes to Ben for a moment before he types. Cole is a newer friend to him than Ben is, since Quinn really only met him upon the start of production for Dear Evan Hansen — and Quinn has posited, in the past few weeks of getting to know him, that he and Ben would probably get along pretty well, thanks to their similar music tastes, and both being from Rhode Island. While he thinks he’d like to facilitate that introduction, he’s not so sure he wants to do it in the middle of the crowded arena lobby— so for the moment, he decides, it can wait. “Maybe another time, Ben,” he says. “You could come to open mic on Thursday at Bluegrass. I think Cole is playing.”
“Sweet. I’m there.”
Quinn Cooper: Oops! I’m terribly sorry… you’re right, it is chaos in here. I’ll be right out— you don’t have to come in.
Cole Kolinsky: okay cool thanks
When he looks up from his phone, he turns to Sebastián, who is already smiling down at him. Sweaty and disheveled from the game, but back in his suit, he is every bit the handsome hockey boyfriend that the Dear Evan Hansen people ask him about. “Have fun, baby.”
“Thank you.” Quinn goes on tiptoe to kiss his cheek, and then gives his hand a squeeze before letting it go. “I hope you have a nice night.”
“I’ll miss you,” Sebastián says, and then he winks, which makes Quinn’s stomach flutter. “See you after you get back?”
“Of course.” Even a theatre party won’t get in Quinn’s way of having Sebastián up to his room for the nightly snuggle. “I’ll text you.”
“Sweet.” Sebastián gives him a proper kiss, and Quinn can’t help the warm feeling in his chest— despite the cold of the ice rink. This only lasts a second, though, because he and Sebastián are always prone to the threat of ‘chirping’ when one Benjamin Shaley is nearby. Or Remy, for that matter.
“PDA police!” Ben cries, which breaks them apart.
Remy mimes pointing a gun at them. “You’re under arrest.”
Quinn rolls his eyes, and Sebastián just laughs, hugging him to his chest before he lets him go. “What are you two gonna do about it?”
“Arrest you, obviously.” Remy stands at attention for a second more, then tucks his ‘gun’ into his ‘holster,’ which is really just the belt he’s wearing on his blue suit. “But I guess I’ll let you off with a warning this time.”
“So merciful,” Quinn says, and Sebastián laughs again. He walks backwards away from the three of them, and waves as he goes. “Have a nice night, you three.”
“Oh, we will,” Ben replies. “I’m getting drunk. In your honor. Since you’re not coming to the post-game tilly.”
“Excellent,” Quinn laughs, and then, with one last smile at Sebastián and wave over his shoulder, he sets off to locate the lost theatre kid just outside of the arena doors.
*
Cole is regretting his life choices.
Well, not all his life choices. Really, just two of them. The first is pretty straightforward— he’s regretting the way he dressed to leave his dorm. It’s colder than it was when he came back from class, much earlier today, and he should have worn his heavier jacket, so now he’s paying the price by shivering in his Docs while he stands awkwardly outside the rink. He checks his phone for new texts, but Quinn hasn’t replied since two minutes ago.
He guesses two minutes isn’t really that long, except when you’re standing out in the cold. Which leads him to his second regret: that being, going out in the first place. Because, as is usually the case when he chooses to socialize, he’s gotten himself anxious over absolutely nothing. He doesn’t know why tonight’s gathering is freaking him out— after all, it’s with all people he already knows, and it’s just at Reid’s apartment, a place he’s been to plenty of times. Plus, it’s cast bonding— something he knows he should participate in, since he doesn’t want to gain the reputation of the Dear Evan Hansen cast’s resident social hermit, lest he become a little too much like Connor Murphy. It’s just… well, sometimes it sounds a lot more appealing to just sit in his room with his guitar than to go out on a Friday night. Like normal college students do.
He guesses this is the problem with being a socially anxious disaster human being. Even when he wants to socialize, he doesn’t want to socialize.
He’s saved from his wallowing— and almost freezing to death— by, at long last, a Quinn sighting. Quinn is hard to miss, even among the steady stream of people leaving the rink after watching the game. He busts out the front doors with a purpose to his step, dressed up for no reason from head to foot, in a peacoat, dress pants, shiny brown shoes, and what looks like a hand-knit scarf. “Cole!” He flashes a bright smile, as he pushes his ginger hair all to one side, like a flourish. “I’m terribly sorry I kept you waiting.”
“No, uh— don’t worry.” In reality, Cole has probably only been standing outside the ice rink for five minutes total, so he should probably not be dramatic. Except isn’t that what theatre students are supposed to be? “I, uh… haven’t been here that long.”
“Oh, good.” Quinn tucks his hands into the pockets of his peacoat, and visibly shivers, as he surveys their surroundings. “ Goodness , it’s a chilly night out here.”
“You can say that again.” Cole turns to go, and tips his head in that direction. “Reid’s apartment isn’t really that far, though.”
“Well, that’s a relief.” Quinn seems to get the idea, and falls into step next to him. One thing Cole has learned since they started Dear Evan Hansen rehearsals is that Quinn picks up social cues from other people really naturally. It makes him easy to work alongside, which is probably why Dr. C cast him as the lead in the first place. Well… that and he’s probably the strongest singer— and actor— that Cole has ever met.
It’s sometimes hard to believe that Quinn is a freshman, but then again, certain things— like not knowing where Duffy Hall is— give him away. “So… you’ve never been to lower commons?” Cole asks, as they’re leaving the hockey arena behind them.
Quinn’s smile is sheepish, like he’s also extremely aware of how much of a freshman thing that is. “Not extensively.” He tucks his scarf into his peacoat. “The first-year meal plan doesn’t work in the dining area, and the apartments are all upperclassmen.”
“That makes sense, yeah.” In reality, Cole himself doesn’t have much of a reason to go down to lower commons, except to see people who live in the apartments. He spent a bunch of time at Claire’s apartment last semester, but, that’s, well… a thing of the past, so it’s pretty much just Reid that he goes down there for now. “It’s nice down there,” he comments, and tries not to feel self-conscious about the fact that he sounds like an admissions tour guide. “The apartments aren’t exactly, like, fancy, but, uh— well, you get a lot of space.”
“Would you live in one?” Quinn asks.
Cole almost laughs, and then shakes his head. “Getting an apartment requires having three friends who actually want to live with you.” It’s only after he says this that he realizes how self-deprecating it sounds, and he cringes at himself a little.
Thankfully, Quinn doesn’t cringe. Instead, he says, “Aw, I’m sure you could find people.”
Cole shrugs. “I do better in my single.”
Quinn nods now, knowingly, and that’s when Cole remembers him saying something about living alone in Wilson. Probably because of his hearing. “I understand that for sure.”
There’s a brief lull in conversation, then, as they walk along— and Cole is almost surprised that it doesn’t feel that awkward. Quinn is the kind of person who’s sociable enough to make you feel comfortable in conversation, and Cole is grateful for that. It kind of balances out his whole feeling like a human disaster thing. They walk in the quiet, between campus’ street lamps, towards the hill to get down to lower commons. “But, uh…” Cole finds himself saying, after a minute. “Reid’s apartment is fun. His roommates are cool.”
“He lives with Jhiron, right?”
“Yeah, and, uh— Eli, the rehearsal pianist?” Cole says. “I dunno if you’ve met their last roommate, but Jake’s cool, too. It can get kinda rowdy in there, but, uh— it’s pretty fun.”
“I see.” Quinn pauses, and smiles, almost absentmindedly, before he adds, “My boyfriend’s hockey friends are quite rowdy. They were asking to meet you.”
“Really?” Cole feels a twinge of anxiety at the prospect of meeting members of the hockey team, but then again, maybe he shouldn’t make assumptions about people he doesn’t know. Maybe they are nice. “Uh— that’s funny.”
“Well, it was mostly just Ben.” Quinn is still smiling, like the thought of Ben— whoever that is— makes him laugh. “He’s… an interesting character. I think you’d like him.”
Quinn says this with sincerity, like he’s given actual thought to the idea that Cole would get along with this guy, which makes Cole kind of curious as to why he would think that— but before he can really ask, Quinn changes the subject altogether. “Oh, I meant to ask you,” he says. “Are you playing at open mic night next Thursday?”
In this conversational topic, Cole can find real comfort. Quinn is a considerate enough friend to have taken interest in Cole’s life even outside of theatre, including asking about music stuff. So he nods, and replies, “I’m planning on it,” and tells him about it as they keep walking along.
*
“ Baaaaabe !”
Immediately after he yells across the apartment, Reid receives a dirty look from Jhiron. He guesses he kind of deserves it. The target of his call, Bri, is ultimately only a few yards away— she’s been in his and Jhiron’s room for pretty much the entire afternoon, watching HGTV on her tablet. Not only that, but the glorious apartment number 3 of Duffy Hall is really not that large to begin with, so he probably didn’t need to yell. Still, it takes Bri a second to poke her head out of the door to his room, so he considers himself warranted in his yelling. It’s not like it’s news to his roommates that he’s loud.
Bri looks amused— and also cute as hell, but then again, that’s also not news. “You okay?”
“I need your opinion.” Reid holds up his phone, and then tips his head toward Eli’s speaker, which he’s just connected to. “On music.”
Bri grins, and then crosses the small distance of the apartment’s common space to reach his side. “Okay.” She rests her chin on his shoulder, to look at his phone with him, and hugs him around the waist. “What’s the dilemma?”
He scrolls through his Spotify, which is a disorganized mess at best and a clinical display of his mental state at worst. Eli has always been the music curator of Duffy Hall, Apartment 3, not Reid, but Eli is doing something with the jazz band tonight, so Reid has been left to his own devices. “Do you think I should play showtunes,” he asks Bri, “or would that be overkill?”
Bri thinks about it for a second, then blows a wavy, blonde strand of her hair away from her face and replies, “I feel like they would like it. I mean… they are the drama department.”
Reid nods. She’s just confirmed his own train of thought, and he feels more justified with her approval in mind. “I feel like you’re right.” He sifts through his playlists— his music may be a mess, but his playlist titles are something he prides himself on, like ‘ t swift hot girl summer ,’ ‘ god can’t kill me because i simply refuse to die ,’ ‘ early 00s songs that make me dissociate ,’ and ‘ i love my girlfriend music .’ When he reaches ‘ broadway music: party edition ,’ he hits shuffle and messes with the volume while Legally Blonde starts playing.
Bri squeezes him around the waist, and then nuzzles into his neck, and he smiles. “Hi,” he hums, and she doesn’t reply— instead, she just lets out a soft sigh, a contented noise that’s cute as fuck. Jhiron has abandoned the premises, disappearing into their room, so Reid doesn’t really feel that bad about PDA. Not that he and Bri have ever really cared about PDA to begin with. He turns away from Eli’s speaker so he can hug her back. “Are you sticking around for the shindig or bouncing?”
“Hm…” Bri keeps her head hidden in his neck for a second longer, then lifts her face, which now looks contemplative. “I’m not sure. I mean, I’m… not technically part of the show, so—”
“If that’s what’s stopping you,” he says, “you know it doesn’t really matter, right?”
“No, I know.” She pauses, and then reaches to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He crosses his eyes to watch her finger, which makes her laugh. “I think I’ll probably stay for a little while, but I might go to bed early.”
“That makes sense.” Reid would probably whine in other circumstances at the thought of Bri leaving the party early— but she’s kind of had a week from hell in her classes, since she’s finishing up a big gallery project in the arts center. The whole HGTV binging thing is her way of engaging in what he would refer to as ‘hashtag self care.’ She was literally in the studio until after nine o’clock last night. “But seriously— you know they won’t care that you’re not in the cast, right?”
“Of course I know that,” she laughs, and he has to take a second for himself right then, not really for any particular reason aside from the fact that she looks so cute when she laughs, and he loves her so much. He genuinely has no idea what he’s going to do next year, when he’s graduated and she has one year left. With Bri in the apartment across the hall for the past two years, it’s been practically like living together.
Reid is trying not to think too hard about all of the goodbyes he’ll have to say this May. But, in a way, he’s actively working to help ease the senior angst— by taking advantage of what time he does have left at Kiersey, to do things that he enjoys, instead of accidentally losing entire afternoons to watching sitcoms on Netflix. Seinfeld is, to him, what HGTV is to Bri.
Hence, having the entire Dear Evan Hansen cast and crew over to his apartment.
Reid is a problem solver. At least, if you consider it ‘problem solving’ to host parties to distract himself from the impending doom of adulthood and saying goodbye to all of his favorite people at graduation.
One day at a time. He gives Bri a kiss, and announces, “I love you,” while Elle Woods is singing in the background.
“I love you ,” Bri replies, and then there’s a knock at the door.
Reid glances at his phone for the time— it’s 7:51, but someone is fashionably early. Not that he cares, really. Bri pats him on the chest, as she tells him, “I’m gonna go clean up the mess I made in your room.”
He snorts a little. “You made a mess?”
She winces, like she’s embarrassed. “There are Starburst wrappers all over your bed.”
“Half of them are probably mine.”
Bri laughs, but nods, as she’s heading back for the bedroom doorway. “That’s… probably true, actually.”
Reid turns up the volume on Eli’s speaker just slightly, and then makes his very best attempt at patting down the many wrinkles on his patterned button-down before he goes to answer the door. “Salutations,” he calls, before he even sees who’s there— and when he does see who it is, the whole fashionably early thing makes a lot more sense.
“Hello, Reid!” Because it’s Quinn— the star freshman, who literally everybody has been talking about for the past two months, is physically incapable of arriving at rehearsal less than ten minutes early. He’s dressed like he just came from a nice dinner, winter scarf and all, and he’s not alone— he brought Reid’s other favorite underclassman, Cole, who looks cold but in good spirits.
“My associates!” Reid cries, pulling the door all the way open. “Welcome to my palace!”
“Sorry we’re kinda early,” Cole mutters, and Reid just laughs as he lets them both in.
“Cole Kolinsky,” he says, and claps him on the shoulder for good measure. “There’s no such thing as being early to hang out at my apartment.”
“Wow!” Quinn is saying, as he unbuttons his gray peacoat and looks around. Reid loves this kid— a Friday night on a college campus, and he’s dressed to the nines. “It’s quite cozy in here.”
“I told you the apartments were nice,” Cole says.
“Oh, riiiiight —” Logically, Reid was aware before right now that this would be Quinn’s first time in his apartment. He is, after all, only a freshman. “I forgot you’ve never been here before! Here— I’ll give you the tour. Early bird special.”
Quinn laughs, and follows his lead. Reid is, at his heart, an entertainer— and this is what he does best, even in his own apartment.
*
Watching Reid show Quinn around the apartment is slightly amusing— at least for Cole, because he got this exact same tour of the place last year, when he was a freshman. It’s almost like Reid has a script memorized, but Cole wouldn’t really be surprised if he did. He brings him to the kitchenette, and then points out Jake and Eli’s room, before ducking into his own.
“It’s so quiet,” Cole says, while lingering in the common area. He isn’t really sure if they can hear him from Reid’s room, so he might be talking to himself. It wouldn’t be the first time. “I didn’t actually think we’d be the first ones here.”
“Well, it’s good that you are,” Reid calls, from somewhere in his bedroom, and it takes Cole a second to realize that he’s actually responding to him, which means he did hear him, and he wasn’t talking to himself. “Maybe we should practice our choreography.”
“Oh, my goodness,” Quinn laughs, and Cole makes a strange noise, which should barely qualify as a laugh, and covers his mouth with his hand. It’s only been two weeks of rehearsals since they got back from break, but he’s already had enough “Sincerely, Me” choreography to last a lifetime. And they’ve barely even started.
He guesses he signed up for this. Literally and explicitly.
“Sincerely, Me makes me feel out of shape,” Cole adds, uselessly.
Reid pokes his head out of the bedroom doorway. “It reminds me that I am out of shape,” he says.
“Me, too,” Quinn laments, which Cole feels like is definitely not true. Quinn has the strongest dance background of the three of them— actually, he’s the only one of the three of them with any dance background— so he’s probably just doing this to relate to the conversation, and not because he’s actually out of shape.
Cole sinks down on Reid’s couch, which is the kind of thing that swallows you the second you decide to sit on it, and which he has fallen asleep on multiple times in the past. He isn’t sure, in all of his visits to Duffy Hall, that he’s ever seen this place this quiet. “Reid, where is everyone?” he asks. “I thought your beautiful wife was coming.”
“I’m in here!” comes Bri’s voice from the bedroom, and then, like everybody has been hiding in there for some reason, not one, two, or three, but four people emerge— Reid and Quinn, plus Bri, and also Jhiron. More accurately, the first three of them actually walk out of the room, and Jhiron appears briefly to wave before disappearing again. It is, after all, his bedroom too.
“Oh, hey, Bri,” Cole remarks, unceremoniously, and then, because he feels rude, he adds, “And Jhiron.”
“Sup,” comes Jhiron’s disembodied voice from the bedroom, which is pretty in character, because he’s always a disembodied voice when he’s using the booth mic in the theater.
“Hey, Cole.” Bri crosses the apartment to the kitchen, where she stuffs a plastic bag full of what looks like candy wrappers into the wastebasket.
Quinn, meanwhile, looks confused. He’s squinting at Reid and Bri, looking between the two of them. “Wait…” he says, slowly, and then looks to Cole, like he’s looking for some kind of answer. “I didn’t realize that you two were actually—”
“Oh—” Cole snorts, as he realizes what he’s done. “Sorry— sorry.”
“We’re not actually married,” Bri says.
“Yet,” Reid adds, as he leans in his bedroom doorway, folding his arms. Cole watches him catch Bri’s eye and wink at her, which makes her blush, and she affirms it by repeating, “Yet.” The entire exchange is so incredibly cheesy and wholesome that it makes Cole feel the full effect of his own current singleness. Ouch .
“I’m sorry,” Quinn laughs, and shakes his head, as he hovers next to the edge of the couch. He looks unsure of where he should stand, and Cole remembers feeling the exact same way the first time he came here. “I suppose I just assumed.”
Reid folds his arms. “An easy mistake to make, to be sure.”
From the bedroom, Jhiron’s disembodied voice strikes again. “Ring by spring?”
While Cole laughs, and Quinn with him, Reid raises his voice. “Look— okay, I literally would ? I would do it right now. But Bri’s dad says I can’t propose until after she graduates.”
“Can confirm,” Bri remarks. “He gave him a low-key lecture over winter break this year.”
“Because he hates me,” Reid adds, which makes her roll her eyes.
She joins him in the doorway, and starts chiding him like an actual wife would. “My dad does not hate you.”
Reid ignores this, and addresses Cole and Quinn. “He just thinks I’m a loser who’s never gonna get a job.”
“Is he wrong?” Jhiron mutters.
“Not even a little,” Reid replies, and Bri smacks him very lightly on the shoulder. He hugs her instead of fighting back, and sings, “I may be a bum, but I’m a bum who’s in love!”
“Aw, Reid, you aren’t a bum,” Quinn replies. “Who says you won’t get a job?”
Reid releases Bri from the hug to give Quinn an exaggerated shrug. “The haters.” He flashes two thumbs up, then adds, “You can sit, y’know, frosh.” As Bri disappears back into the room, Reid walks out of the doorway. “Make yourself at home. Mi casa es tu casa .”
Quinn sits on the edge of the couch, tentatively, as he replies, “Wouldn’t it be su casa?”
Reid shrugs again. “I took Latin. My grammar’s all fucked up.”
In the bedroom, Jhiron remarks, “Nerd.”
“ You’re a nerd,” Reid retorts, and then the song playing from Eli Fisher’s speaker changes over from Legally Blonde music to a new song. Cole guesses that Reid has one of his Broadway playlists on. Reid pretty much only whips out the Broadway music when he’s having cast parties.
“ Pulitzer and Hearst, they think we’re nothing. Are we nothing? ”
“NO!” Reid yells, in tandem with the ensemble on the track, as he punches toward the ceiling for good measure.
“Oh, my goodness.” Quinn sits bolt upright. “ Newsies !”
“Yeah!” Reid cries, and then he gets very serious for a second. “Wait. Quinn. If you don’t like Newsies , you have to leave my apartment right now.” He points to the door. “I’m deadass—”
“No!” Quinn interrupts, before he can finish. “No, no— I love Newsies; I don’t dislike it. I was gasping because I was excited.”
“Oh, thank God.” Reid plops himself down on the couch between the two of them, and leans back to stretch his arms across the back. “I was about to throw you out with no mercy.”
“ Goodness , no. Of course I like Newsies .” Quinn folds his arms, and then he, too, leans back into the couch— add a few more people, and Cole would feel like they’re in the Friends intro. “As a matter of fact, I was in it.”
“No shit!” Reid cries.
Cole leans forward, which is kind of a difficult feat, because of the couch’s human-swallowing qualities. “Who did you play?”
“Oh, c’mon, Coley,” Reid says. “ Obviously he was Jack Kelly.”
“Actually, I wasn’t,” Quinn replies, with a laugh. “I was Race.”
“ No shit ,” Reid repeats. “Can you do the voice?”
“Oh, goodness. Well— I don’t see why not.” Quinn pauses, and then straightens his scarf, like that helps him get into character. With a quick clearing of his throat, he does exactly what Cole has seen him do in Dear Evan Hansen rehearsals— he ceases to be himself, and takes on a whole new persona. Except this time, it has a New York accent. And a healthy amount of snark. “Ya don’t need money when you’re famous!” He mimes touting a cigar. “They gives you whatever ya wants—”
“ Get out !” Reid yells, and Cole laughs— watching Quinn transform from his polite, overly proper, responsible-if-uptight self into an awkward, hormonal teenage straight boy in rehearsals is already funny, so this is even better, because newsboy with a New York accent is even harder to pull off. “Holy shit, that’s so good!” Reid says. “Is there a recording of this somewhere?”
“I can find one!” Quinn replies— his face has lit up, like this is a fond memory. “It was my favorite show in high school.”
“Did you have to dance a ton?” Cole asks.
“The whole time.” Quinn still looks gleeful about this, even though, to Cole, who is barely surviving “Sincerely, Me,” this sounds like a nightmare come true. “I did flips and leaps and everything.”
Cole shudders. “That sounds awful.”
“It was wonderful .” Quinn puts a hand to his heart. “We sold out two weekends of shows. I miss that one every day.”
“I’m jealous,” Reid remarks. “I wanna see the video.”
“I’ll send it to you,” Quinn says. “Everyone did a lovely job. Our Jack and Katherine had such wonderful chemistry.”
“Excuse you.” Reid’s eyes narrow, like Quinn has just said something wrong. “Clearly you’re misinformed, frosh. Jack and Davey belong together.”
Quinn squints at him, with a small smile. “You think so?”
“I know so.”
“But then what about poor Katherine?”
“She can be with Davey’s sister!”
“From the movie?”
“Yes!”
“I dunno.” Cole is acquainted enough with the plot and characters of Newsies to add to this conversation, which he considers an accomplishment in and of itself, since some Broadway shows are less familiar to him than others. Reid made him watch the Newsies proshot last year during Book of Mormon season, but Cole even knew of the show before that. “I, uh— I feel like Jack and Katherine are a good couple.”
“ Cole !” Reid puts his hand over his stomach, like he’s been shot there. “Don’t betray me like this!”
“I suppose I can see what you’re saying,” Quinn remarks, tilting his head to the side, “but I do agree with Cole here.”
“This is deeply offensive to my high school self,” Reid whispers, as Bri re-emerges from his room. This time, she’s holding a bag, and she looks like she’s leaving. “The utter disrespect. In my own house. Bri agrees with me, right, babe?”
Bri raises an eyebrow. “What’s happening?”
“They’re disrespecting the love between Jack and Davey from Newsies .”
“Ohhh.” Bri’s smile indicates that she’s holding back a laugh. “Reid feels really strongly about this one. I’ve read the Newsies fanfic.”
Cole turns on Reid. This is new information, and feels slightly forbidden but also hilarious. “You did not seriously write Newsies fanfic.”
“I didn’t write it. I just read it.” Reid rolls his eyes, and then leans back into the couch again. “You people are fake bitches. How can you not recognize true love right in front of your eyes?”
“I do recognize true love,” Quinn says. “In Jack and Katherine!”
“ Quinn ! That’s literally blasphemy!”
“It’s the plot of the musical !”
Cole nearly keels over laughing; his stomach is starting to hurt. “Sorry,” he says, “sorry, but I’m still on the fact that you were reading Newsies fanfic in high school, Reid.”
“Okay,” Quinn says, “but who hasn’t read Newsies fanfic?”
Cole takes off his glasses to wipe his eyes. “Me!” he cries. “I’ve never read Newsies fanfic.”
Reid arches an eyebrow. “The way you say that implies you’ve read other fanfic.”
Cole falters— and then immediately kicks himself, because in his hesitation, he unwittingly confirms Reid’s theories. Which kind of makes him want to die. “Uh.”
“Coley!” Reid shakes him gently by one shoulder. “Now you have to spill.”
“We won’t judge you.” Quinn folds his hands on his own knee, like a talk show host— or maybe a therapist. “This is a safe space.”
“It’s not really that bad,” Cole murmurs, because, in the grand scheme of things, his fandom allegiances are basic at best— bands and sci-fi movies. “I mean…” Oh, fuck it. It’s just Reid and Quinn. Well, and Bri, but whatever. “Uh, it’s just Star Wars .”
Bri lets out a gleeful gasp. “Okay, but what characters, though?”
“Uh.” Cole feels like he’s blushing. “Leia and Han?”
Bri cries, “Yes!”
Reid claps him on the back— hard — and Cole laughs, even though he feels like he’s had the wind knocked out of him. “I knew you had good taste.”
“Well, uh—” Cole shrugs. “Leia was, like, my first TV crush.”
“She was everybody’s,” Bri says, and Reid nods knowingly. Quinn looks dubious, but, well, that makes sense. Cole laughs when he catches his eye, which makes Quinn laugh, too. The song from Newsies is finishing up over the speaker.
Meanwhile, from the bedroom, Jhiron pipes up, “What the actual fuck is wrong with y’all people?”
“Jhiron,” Reid calls, “I’ll have you know, this is what cast bonding is all about.”
“Talking about fanfiction?” Jhiron says ‘fanfiction’ like it’s in another language.
“Exactly.” As if on cue, there’s a knock at the door. Reid springs up off of the couch, like he’s snapping into host mode. “And with that, gentlemen and lady, let the party begin.”
Cole snickers a little. “Maybe they’ll have opinions on who belongs together in Newsies .”
Reid whirls around on the heel of his Converse, just before he’s about to answer the door. “They best have the correct opinions,” he says, “or they’re getting kicked out.”
“You haven’t kicked us out,” Quinn teases.
Bri laughs, and Reid flashes this huge grin. “Frosh,” he remarks, “you’re part of the family already.”
The smile on Quinn’s face is so wholesome that Cole even smiles a little, too.
Reid yanks the door open, and with a flourish and a major increase in noise, the cast bonding begins.
*
8:13 PM
Reid Burke changed the group name to “jack and davey 4ever.”
*
Much later that night, when Quinn reunites with Sebastián, he asks him how it went. “Did you have fun, cariño ?”
“So much fun.” Quinn gives him a hug, as he lets him into his room. From here, they’ll hole up for the night, and Quinn will get his promised boyfriend cuddle time. “They’re really lovely people.”
Sebastián smiles down at him, and he looks so damned handsome, with the string lights on Quinn’s wall reflecting in his eyes. “Good, baby. I’m glad.”
Quinn laughs a little, as he replays the night in his own head— and chooses to offer Sebastián a little slice of life from the theatre department. “We started out arguing about fanfiction, and things progressed from there.”
“Arguing about fanfiction?” Sebastián bites back what looks like a laugh of his own. “You’re… gonna have to explain that one.”
“Oh, I’ll be happy to,” Quinn replies, patting him gently on the chest. “In fact, it’ll be my pleasure.”
*
12:19 AM
Quinn Cooper: I made my boyfriend watch Newsies and he says Jack and Davey should be together.
Reid Burke: YOUR BOYFRIEND IS CORRECT
Reid Burke: VICTORY!!!!