Work Text:
The first “text” was simple. Straight-forward. Innocent enough.
(323) 555-5555: hey is this Ryland
i hope i have the right number
this is Tom btw
you know Tom Ryder
To be fair, it's actually four separate messages. The series of notifications that had pinged the sole reason he had taken notice while Colt had been speaking to him. He looks at the number, looks at the messages, wonders if it's real or if someone is pranking him. His brain tries to make sense of it, processing at an all time low until Colt’s voice breaks through. He closes the message and returns his phone to his ear, telling Colt about it.
Colt is freaking out over the phone, like it’s a big deal. Ryland doesn't really get it, but lets him have his moment before interrupting.
“Are you done?” His exasperated tone is more put upon than anything, “because this is probably fake anyway. It's not like I have any way to know for sure.”
“Whats the phone number?” Colt asks.
“Huh?”
He repeats, "What's the phone number, Ry?” it's a bit more stern.
He reopens his messaging app and rattles off the number. There's a fumbling sound from Colt’s end of the call and then he repeats the number back. He asks Ryland again to confirm. Asks him if he read the number correctly. Tells him to triple check. It's getting almost annoyingly offensive at this point. He's a teacher, for crying out loud, he knows how to read. He tells Colt as much.
“Fine, fine. Damn," Colt concedes, returning a bit of Ryland’s sass. “That's Tom's number. It's legit.”
For the second time in less than half an hour Ryland feels like his brain is lagging and in need of a reboot. At least he has confirmation. Of course Colt would know, he should've thought of that. His first instinct is to doubt it, maybe Colt was in on it. But, no, that's unlikely. He wouldn’t do that to Ryland.
“Do not answer it. Just delete it, okay?”
“Wha.. why?”
“Ryland,” great Colt is scolding him now. “Just do it. Haven't you been listening to me? All those times I called you just to complain about him for 20 minutes. He's the worst.”
Ryland wants to call him out on his biases. He wants to remind Colt that he is a full grown, responsible adult. He can make his own decisions. He wants to tell Colt off for demanding he be rude enough to not respond, now that he knows it's real.
It's not like it means anything.
Ryland doesn't say any of this. Instead he says, “Fine, I'll delete it.”
He doesn't.
He texted back. And then he texted back maybe a hundred more times because Tom responded. And isn't that something? Tom Ryder responded. Not once, not twice but too many times to even count anymore. And not just that. Tom Ryder was initiating it. It's not something Ryland could've anticipated.
He thinks they could become friends. Possibly. Maybe. Can someone be friends with someone like Tom Ryder?
Maybe he should drop the last name? It feels impersonal. But…. gosh it's… he doesn't know? Too early maybe. Does he want to keep that barrier yet, even if it's just in his mind?
At first their conversations felt stilted. Ryland struggled with responding, often typing a reply and not hitting send. Then deleting it and retyping a new one. Cycling and cycling. Overthinking. He felt like he was trying too hard to seem like he wasn’t trying at all. He hasn’t had someone seem so genuinely interested in him without being friends with Colt first in a long time. He doesn’t want to mess this up.
Then Tom sent a picture. It was a selfie. Holding a peace sign by his face and winking. A large city scape set piece behind him. (Ryland thinks he can spot Jody in the background too, but it's out of focus.) He makes this one Tom's contact photo.
Ryland sends one back. In his classroom. The whiteboard behind him with a few drawings from his students visible and a messy diagram from the most recent lesson. He does not wink, choosing instead to raise a brow. He does put up his own peace sign to the side. He doesn't think about his glasses hanging off his face.
The photos are fun. They aren't all selfies. He tries to match Tom's energy. Ryland isn't sure he's entirely successful. Hotel rooms exchanged for classrooms. Ryland doesn't have pets to return for pictures of Tom's dogs, instead he sends shots of birds he sees while biking to work. Tom sends a “fit check”, Ryland sends one back (he had thought about asking his students about that first, but thought he might die of embarrassment). A couple times Tom sends a good night photo always super late after Ryland has already gone to bed. Ryland sends a good morning back to those. Ryland likes the selfies the best though.
Things get easier. Conversations flow better. Ryland finds himself much less anxious about the whole thing. He is the first to text occasionally. It makes him feel cool to know that someone, especially someone at Tom's level, is willingly engaging with him. At the same time it feels like this could end at any moment, maybe that's why it feels like things are moving fast. Like if they slow down Tom might realize how lame and boring he is and stop responding. It's only been a couple weeks since that first text and they haven't put a label on it. Is that a thing adults do with friends?
They have banter now. It's casual and completely unserious, he assumes, it's hard to tell when it's all been text and photo.
Ryland: I watched Annihilation of Valor while making my lesson plans the other day.
Tom: oh so you didnt even give it your whole attention
Ryland: I found it difficult, considering how historically inaccurate it was.
Tom: i thought you were a science nerd
Tom: why are you grillin me about history
Ryland: -a photo of himself with his eyebrow raised-
Tom: dont look at me like that
Ryland: -the same photo but slightly more zoomed in-
Tom: seriously Ry
He had stolen Colt’s nickname for him. Ryland couldn't complain.
Tom: we both know the best part was my monologue anyway
Ryland: I don't know about that. The stunt sequence during the major battle might've been better. It must have been a crazy rig to fling Colt like that.
He knew that bringing up and comparing Tom to his brother always got a rise out of him. It was clear Tom was friendly with Colt, but he hated being compared to him.
Tom: you just dont understand anything about acting.
Ryland: Does that make you a theatre nerd? Or would it be a cinema nerd?
Tom: i think they call that a cinephile
Ryland: So you do know big words. I'm not calling you that. Sounds inappropriate.
Tom: -selfie copying the previous two that Ryland had sent-
youre inappropriate
Ryland hid his smile under his hand, suppressing a snicker, 'this is fun,' he thinks.
Tom asks for something new and that's why it's so scary. It feels like a shift in a not necessarily new but more concrete direction. It might make “maybe” friends into “actual, real” friends. It makes Ryland hesitate. It could also mess up this whole thing they’ve got going. He's never had a lot of friends. Maybe he's reading too much into it, maybe he's not reading enough. Colt would know, but he doesn't want to talk to him about this. Doesn't want to tell Colt he didn't delete those texts a month or so ago. He'll freak out.
Tom Ryder: When can I call you?
The issue is not the answer. He's available this evening, like most. He's got some grading to do, but he can take a break from it to talk. He does it all the time for Colt. This is different though. This feels like confirmation of, well, something.
He hesitates.
Types an answer.
Reads it.
Deletes it.
He does this two more times, before getting frustrated with himself. Before he can psych himself out by overthinking (more than he has already) he presses send.
He looks at the messages. Heaves a sigh and then puts his phone away to be ignored for the next hour at minimum and up to 3 hours depending on how classes go for the rest of the day.
His phone is ringing. His phone is ringing and it's Tom Ryder on the other end. He just has to accept the call. Deep breath, swipe.
“Hello, Ryland speaking.”
That was way too formal. Too awkward. Right?
Tom chuckles. It's nice. He sounds…. nice. They haven't spoken since that one time on set. There's been a couple videos and Ryland has seen him in movies, but this is different.
“Hey, it's me,” Tom's greeting makes sense. He doesn't need an introduction. He's Tom fudging Ryder.
The conversation is a little disjointed to start, mostly Ryland’s own fault. Tom is smooth, he adapts. He meets Ryland where he is and then pulls for more. They start with small talk. The basics, but it gives them a place for the conversation to go. Ryland has anxiety sitting in his chest. He can't hide as easily here as he can in text.
Soon they've got a decent flow going. Ryland asks about Tom's current and upcoming projects. Tom tells him what details he can, makes jokes and talks in character voices. In turn he asks Ryland about his class. Ryland brags about his students.
It's going better than Ryland expected. It's getting late though and he's gotta wrap this up soon if he doesn't want to be chugging coffee, more than usual, tomorrow.
He waits for a lull in the conversation. They speak at the same time by accident.
“So, um….”
“I wanted to…”
“Oh sorry, you go first,” Ryland says.
Tom takes the cue without hesitation, “I have some time coming soon, between projects. I'll be in L.A. for a few days.”
“L.A. huh?” Ryland may be making assumptions but he's already thinking about his schedule for the next couple weeks. It's maybe 6 hours driving to L.A., traffic permitting, he rarely drives though. That could be a problem. It wouldn’t work this weekend either. Colt was coming to visit him, they’d have to meet up the following weekend instead. Hopefully that works out. Tom pushes forward before he can say so.
“Yeah, I wanna meet up. Do you have some time coming up?”
If Ryland had any doubts about whether they were friends or not this definitely diminishes that. Now he just has to figure out how to respond.
“Uh, yeah I have some time. Next Saturday or Sunday? I can make it work. I don't frequently drive though.” He confesses, a bit embarrassed.
“Don't worry about it, I'll figure it out,” Tom assures, like its just that simple. With his resources it probably is. “Let's plan for Saturday. I'll call you again with details, yeah?”
“Okay, yeah, call me.”
They bid each other a good night, shortly thereafter. Ryland feels keyed up, excited and filled with disbelief.
“He's gonna call me,” he talks to himself as he goes through the process of collecting his things for work tomorrow. “He's gonna call me and we're gonna meet up.”
This is new territory for him. He marks the date on his calendar and circles it for emphasis, then puts it in his phone as well. It's 9 days away. Only 9 days.
He's not counting but it has been 2 days. Colt is visiting which is great. They had spent most of the day together. They had a late breakfast at the diner near Ryland's apartment and followed up with a trip to the beach, just to hang out and catch up face to face. They separated briefly . Colt went to pick up Jody, while Ryland made a pit stop home. Ryland really likes her. He hopes it works out, because she really is amazing. It felt like the stars had aligned perfectly for Ryland, Colt and Jody to all get some time together.
A short walk and 30 minutes later they are secluded in a booth of a dim bar. It's a bit more lively tonight, since it's a weekend but the corner they've claimed isn't terribly loud. They only have to raise their voices slightly. Jody and Colt are sitting close enough their shoulders occasionally touch.
One drink becomes two. None of them are looking to get too crazy with it tonight. They exchange a few stories. Ryland talks about some of the off the wall things his students have done recently. Colt starts talking about a recent fight choreography they'd done for a film before Jody jumps in.
She has a sly smile on her face as she amends Colt's story, “He was laying on the concrete stairs, bleeding from his chin and what does he do?”
Ryland gives Colt a pointed look. His brother had clearly been trying to leave the injuries out of his own account. Colt has the wherewithal to look a little sheepish before holding up a thumbs up and grinning.
“Colt,” Ryland says in a tone indicative of a lecture before his ringtone interrupts. He pulls it from his pocket and looks at the screen discretely. “I have to take this, be right back.”
He excuses himself and steps outside, answering the call.
“Hey, Ry” Tom's voice comes through the speaker. There's what sounds like music in the background, maybe a party?
“Um, what's going on?” Ryland asks.
“Oh, yeah, nothing special, just at a friend's place,” There's a slight slur to a couple words. Ryland isn't going to judge him for it. “We're celebrating, some shit, it's whatever.”
This doesn't feel like the call where they plan what's happening next weekend. That's okay though. Ryland can be chill.
He continues, “I just wanted to hear your voice.”
That feels kind of… unexpected. It's not a big deal though, and Tom's clearly a little intoxicated. Ryland would think the same about himself right now, but he hasn't even had two drinks.
“I think it's time to switch to water, Tom.”
He can hear a dull knocking sound through his phone speaker.
“Ah, fuck,” Tom mutters. “Hey, I gotta go, but…”
“Okay, stay safe. Call or text me later. I mean, if you want. I'll see you next week.”
There's another more insistent knocking.
“Thanks. You're so nice. See you then, sweetheart.”
Tom promptly hangs up. Ryland stares at his phone for a moment. That was an accident, surely. A slip of the tongue. His face feels hot, he's probably blushing. He can't stay out here too much longer though, Colt and Jody are waiting for him.
It doesn't take Colt long to notice that Ryland is a little flustered.
“Who was that, hmm?” He asks with a smirk plastered on his face.
Ryland tries to think of a lie, but the stretch of silence caused by that thought process isn't helping.
“A girlfriend?” Colt still looks smug.
“No!”
“A boyfriend then, maybe?” Jody joins in.
“Its not that either,” Ryland bristles. They're ganging up on him. That was the wrong thing to say.
“Just a crush then,” Colt leans in and puts a hand on his head and ruffles his hair. Rude. Ryland bats his hand away.
“Would you fu-dging quit it?” he fusses with his hair, trying and failing to fix it.
He won't be hearing the end of this tonight, probably longer now that the idea has been introduced to his brain. It'll be a fixation at the very least. Thanks a lot Colt.
At least he manages to keep whatever this thing with Tom is a secret still.
The thought sits at the back of Ryland's mind for the most part. A crush? That's something he'd expect of his kids, not himself.
Tom called to actually make plans. Tom doesn't bring up their last call. Maybe he doesn't remember. Ryland feels conflicted about that. He tries not to think about it. Tries not to read into it. It doesn’t have to mean anything. Overthinking will get him nowhere. He could stop this right here. He could call or text back right now. Before meeting in person. If they meet in person it makes this way more real. They could keep talking, keep this strictly at a distance. Or Ryland could just stop altogether. That’s the problem though, he doesn’t want that.