Title: Someday is Today
Chapter: 2/?
Rating: T (just to be safe)
Disclaimer: It's not mine.
"Taylor McKessie?" There is disbelief in his voice and Taylor is shocked beyond belief herself.
"Ryan Evans!" They seem to be having a full-name conversation here. "Wow," she says, leaving over to hug him, "you look great."
"Thanks, so do you." Ryan gives her a smile and for a moment there, all they can do is stand there and smile at each other like idiots.
"So who're you with?"
"What are you doing here?" Their questions overlap and the conversation is a little stilted and awkward and not like it used to be, and Taylor finally says, "I'm here with Gabriella."
"Montez?" Ryan asks.
"Do we know any other Gabriellas?" Taylor asks with her usual slightly condescending tone. It makes Ryan feel strangely at home, back in a time of basketballs and heavy velvet curtains. "Yeah, she's over there, talking to your co-star, Mark. I don't think she's noticed yet."
Ryan pauses before saying, "Mark's not my co-star."
Taylor pauses too before hesitantly saying, "You mean, like he's your partner?" She wonders if Ryan is gay now. Not that there's anything wrong with that, she just wonders if maybe it was her doing. That would suck, if she turned Ryan gay.
"No, no," Ryan is quick to reassure. "I just meant that Mark isn't my co-star because, well, because," he swallows and says swiftly, "I'm not in the play."
"What? Oh," Taylor says hurriedly, not trying to sound too shocked, "so what are you doing here? Just watching?"
"No, um, actually," again with the pausing, "I'm a stagehand."
"Oh, really, that's fantastic," Taylor makes sure that she doesn't sound disappointed or unpleasantly surprised. "What do you do?"
"Oh, I'm a –" Ryan gets cut off.
"Tay! You'll never guess what Mark wrote on my playbill! It says –" Gabriella stops when she hears Taylor clear her throat. "What?"
She looks around to see what Taylor is trying to tell her when suddenly her eyes land on Ryan.
"Ryan! Omigod, it is so good to see you. Wow, how weird is this? First I see Troy yesterday, and now I see you! What are you doing in New York? I thought you went to University of Albuquerque with everyone else." Gabriella's full of questions and she is just so excited.
She gives him a quick hug and asks, "Can you take some time off? Do you have another show? I don't remember seeing you onstage; maybe you had some heavy makeup on, whatever, I don't remember. Anyways, you want to join me and Taylor and do something?"
Ryan laughs and says, "Actually, I wasn't onstage. I work behind the scenes." It gets easier and easier to say every time. "But yeah, that was the last show. I'd love to hang out with you guys."
The three of them smile at each other and they link arms like they used to and walk out the door.
They meet at the airport, and it is so purely coincidental that he almost gasps, because really, what are the odds (three years, and he's still thinking like her...)? He catches sight of her first, and she looks like she did three years ago.
At first he is unsure whether or not he should go up to her. But then he shakes his head and tells himself he's stupid. Of course he should go up to her; you can't ignore that kind of friendship, no matter how long ago it was.
He taps her shoulder and she whirls around and he envelopes her in a hug and she says, "Omigod! What are you doing here?" It's such a stupid question and it's so instinctive that it just falls out of her mouth and she is quick to amend it. "I mean, I know what you're doing here, you're either going some place or coming from some place. Which is it?"
"I'm actually going to New York," he confirms and smiles. "And you?"
"Same. Wow. Are you taking the midnight flight to JFK?" She asks, praying it's a yes. They had parted on good terms at graduation, even if she and some of the others hadn't.
"Yeah, sweet." There's a pause before, "Let's go get some coffee," and she quickly agrees.
"I'm really glad that I bumped into you. It's like fate or something," she chatters. "And it's so weird that we're on the same flight and we didn't plan it or anything. Why are you going to New York anyways?"
She fills in most of the silence and he's kind of surprised to find that this meeting is not awkward at all. Mostly he's surprised to find out that he missed her. He really missed her.
He swallows a mouthful of burning hot liquid with two sugars and three creams before answering. "Um, actually, my grandmother just died."
Her face crumples before saying, "Oh, wow, I'm so sorry," and he's surprised (he's just in a state of shock from this whole encounter) to find that her sorry sounds genuine.
"No, it's fine. I wasn't really close. In fact, I never really talked to her because of the distance. But my mom begged me to come for the funeral, so I am. It's not in the city, the funeral," he clarifies, "but there's not enough room for me at the house, so I'm staying with a friend who does live in the city," he explains, the words coming out of his mouth before he realizes that she never asked for it. "Why are you going?"
She frowns, something he's not expecting. It used to be whenever asked to talk about herself she'd perk up noticeably and a long string of words would fly out of her mouth. "I'm going to see someone I haven't seen in a long time," she finally says.
He doesn't pry because he figures he doesn't know who she's talking about anyways. And she doesn't seem to want to say.
They sit in amiable silence until they hear their flight being called and they smile at each other before leaving.
As they walk towards their terminal she looks up at him and gives him another hug.
"I'm really glad that I bumped into you," she reiterates. "I missed you." He feels a good feeling settle in his stomach, contentment and familiarity, and it feels good that even after all this time, they still have the same friendly camaraderie.
He kisses her, a friendly brush against the temple, and he says with genuine feeling, "I missed you too."
"And so then I realize that it's not wardrobe I've ended up in, it's the stage, and knowing me I end up right in the spotlight!"
"So then what do you do?" Taylor asks eagerly. The three of them have ended up at a small 24 hour diner, satisfying their midnight snack craving.
"Well, you know me, I'm never one to pass up being in the spotlight, and I totally know all of the character's lines and I just recited them. Luckily it was near the beginning of the show so no one really noticed. And it helped that most of the audience was drunk," Ryan adds, smiling.
"So what happened? Is that when you became a famous Broadway star?" Gabriella asks.
Ryan raises an eyebrow. "Gabriella, have you gone stupid? Do I look like a famous Broadway star?"
Gabriella brushes off the comment with a wave of her hand. It shows how easy it is for them to be friends like they used to be. "No, seriously, what happened?"
"Well, I got fired. And finally that was enough for me, so I was like, 'good riddance!' and I moved from Albuquerque and came to New York."
"Wow, you just packed up and left?" Ryan nods and Gabriella continues, "So are you still going to school, Ry?"
"Yeah, I'm actually going to the New School University. I just graduate from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, which I switched to from U of A back home."
It's weird to think of Albuquerque as her home, and even though Taylor's been in New York City for three years, she still does.
Ryan takes a bite of his doughnut and asks, "So what have you two been doing?"
Taylor shrugs and says, "Nothing really. I mean, we're both in school at Columbia."
Ryan smiles at them, "Doing your smart thing."
There's a comfortable silence between the three of them and Ryan's pretty sure it's only because they haven't bothered to go deep enough for it to hurt and Ryan knows he's not going to instigate that conversation.
Gabriella breaks the quiet and says, "I'm glad that we're hanging out. It feels weird that we haven't kept in touch with anybody from high school."
"Yeah, me too. I mean, I had made friends at school and stuff, but it's never felt like it did back in high school, you know? We were like a family," Ryan says.
Taylor feels an impending trip down memory lane coming up and Taylor's not sure she can deal with that sort of drama so she says hastily, "We should get together more often, now that we know that we're all in the city."
That reminds Gabriella of Troy and she perks up and says, "Yeah, hey, we should invite Troy too."
"Why? Isn't he back home, in New Mexico?" Ryan looks confused.
"Remember, I said I saw him yesterday? At Starbucks? It was such a surprise. I told him to call me so we can hang out. We should all get together and really catch up. Did you even know he had moved out here?" It reminds Gabriella that Troy hasn't called yet and she should check her messages when she got home. She had given both her and Taylor's cell phone numbers and their house phone.
"That's so weird, isn't it?" Taylor muses. "I mean, I know people say this a lot, but New York really is such a big city. What were the chances of us meeting two of our former classmates?"
Gabriella flicks her thoughtful eyes to both of her companions and shrugs. "I don't know. But I'm glad we did."
Troy wipes down the counter tiredly and sighs. Just as Troy slips to storage, the bell rings and Troy yells to Quinn, his coworker, "Can you get that?"
Quinn rolls her eyes and says politely to the customer, "Hi, how can I help you?"
The boy sighs and mumbles, "Can I just get a coffee? To go, please." Quinn smiles and nods and goes off to make his order.
The boy taps the counter impatiently, checking his watch every now and then and muttering, "Jenkins is going to kill me."
"Here you go. That'll be 3 dollars and 79 cents," Quinn says, handing the coffee over to him.
There's a momentary pause while the boy's counting out the correct change, despite the fact that he seemed to be in a hurry before.
"Here," he says, dropping quarters in his haste, "sorry," he adds before running out the door.
Troy reappears at the front of the store just as Zeke Baylor walks out.
So we meet another East High-er, if only for a second. I'm pretty sure it's kind of obvious who it was in the airport scene. Who else is left? Don't worry; everyone will be in sooner or later. Review please. )