Then
Ethan took the steps two at a time as he rushed in from recess. He was more than a little grubby from the kickball game, but he figured if he was quiet the librarian wouldn't notice that, or him. He knew once he didn't see Cole outside that his friend would be holed up in there, as he did whenever Anna was away.
They were starting month three of sixth grade and she'd already missed a chunk of it, but today she was due to return.
He walked down the rows of books, peaking through each aisle until he found him, sitting on the floor in one of the corners. Cole looked up and shook his head.
"You can't play the game without at least two dramatic base slides can you?"
"No fun otherwise." Ethan slid down next to him. "Why are you wasting a dry day in here?"
Cole rolled his eyes but said nothing as he finished his spot in the book and marked it. "Hopefully it'll still be dry for the walk to the hotel later. "
"Yeah, mom will pick us up for dinner. I think she's getting used to Phillip taking Anna but wants to keep checking on her or whatever." Ethan shrugged. At first he thought Anna was lucky for all the traveling but now that he'd known her for a year he saw it didn't seem to suit her.
"Maybe next time we'll be able to talk her into asking to stay with one of us."
"Hah!" Ethan slapped a hand over his mouth a second late as Cole groaned.
They heard the thump of heals even over the thickly carpeted floor as Mrs. Stanhope zeroed in on them with a glare.
"Ethan Kelly, Michael Masen, what are you doing in here during a recess period?"
Cole shakily held up a book while Ethan tried his hand at charming. "It's just that I kicked a new home run record in kickball Mrs. Stanhope. That type of news is best delivered in person."
"You're filthy, and the bell will ring any minute to return to class. Get." She shooed them with her arms, under which ducked an eleven year old girl.
"Pardon." Anna said as she skipped down the aisle towards the boys.
Cole groaned again as the seething librarian marched back to her desk. "Now she won't let me sneak in here."
"Serves you right, dry day like this."
Ethan pointed at Cole before swatting the back of Anna's head. "She's right but insane. What, were your ears ringing?"
"Why….were you two talking smack?" She picked up Cole's backpack. "I didn't feel like watching the wrath Papa will have thrown at him for staying an extra week when he wasn't even cast."
"Mary is pissed?" Ethan held the door for them as they made their way, in no particular hurry, to the classrooms.
Anna shrugged. "Everyone has their opinions. So what have I missed?"
"Anything that's going on we've told you on the phone." Cole made a grab for his backpack which was dodged.
"Rotten liars. What do you call this then?" With a flourish she wiped a bright blue paper from her back pocket.
As both boys got a look at it, one grinned while the other shook his head madly.
"No no no no no." Cole said with no panic. Certain it would never happen.
"Awesome." Was Ethan's thought. "I thought you're more a behind the stage type, since when does a talent show appeal?"
"Since now. I think it would be fun with all of us. C'mon Cole, Ethan and I are children of performers, we'll teach you the ways."
"No reason to. Not happening."
"I already have an idea for it." Anna said, not listening.
"So you and Ethan do it. I'll scream my head off in the audience. So much clapping. Sounds great. Is that my science class?" Cole darted in to a room.
"I'll work on that. Good to have you back." Ethan shook Anna's hand with a grin and followed Cole.
Convincing Cole took the full week they had remaining before the sign up cut off. By the end of it he still had nerves, but excitement too. At each practice it got a little easier to be around the other classmates who participated. They seemed a bit more accepting. His being younger or an egg head didn't come into conversation. It made coming out of his shell for the show far more fun.
Their parents were bursting by the December evening they all gathered in the school auditorium. Especially since none knew what the three of them had prepared. Patrick and Nora were still in a state of disbelief that Cole was involved. They let Phillip steer them as close to the front as they could manage. Phillip was silent for once beaming at the empty stage. John joined them not far from curtain up, video camera at the ready. By the time Cecelia had finished making the rounds with the other members of the PTA, it was time.
The five adults clapped at other acts but when their three came on, the cheers could be heard from outside. Cecelia grabbed Nora's hand on one side and Phillips with the other as Ethan Anna and Cole stood in a wide triangle. When Jutebox Hero by Foreigner came on John wolf whistled as Ethan began lip syncing, with Anna and Cole air guitar/drumming behind him. After each chorus they rotated positions, each kid getting a shot to perform. Anna did a dramatic fall to her knees with the mic stand at her part, while Cole, shyness forgotten, finished out the song with his fist in the air.
While the rest of the audience clearly enjoyed, they were a bit more reserved than the five up front that shot up in their chairs screaming with their applause. Nora brushed at tears when Ethan took one of Cole's and one of Anna's hands to complete their bow and make a run for it. Back stage, those three fell to the floor and laughed their heads off while the next act went on.
Now
After clicking the save button Hayley leaned away from her computer, and reached back to cup her neck. The images of their first talent show still swirled in her mind as she drank her water deep. A glance at the time had her wincing. She'd been converting her notes for three hours. There was no denying the result was more of a story than in article form. She'd never been a creative writer, but more analytical and fact driven. The pages and pages before her had a whimsy Hayley didn't know she possessed.
Over the last two weeks she'd gathered several such stories from Cole. When she had asked to know more about what the three had in common and how they shared their time, the stories that followed were what she'd termed "the firsts." The first holidays, the first times they played pirates or wizards, and now the first show that set many more in motion over the years. The most recent meet up he'd started on their separate togetherness. Anna and Ethan took dance lessons growing up, initiated by their parents. That interest had carried to this day. Ethan and Cole's childhood ritual of card games morphed into casino trips once they reached adulthood. Then there was how Anna and Cole would go to every one of Ethan's various sports games, but when he would take two weeks at a summer camp they would partake in "nerdier" adventures, leading up to their yearly renaissance fair pilgrimage. Although Ethan's connections got them into a few Comic Cons, which he too enjoyed. Ultimately, they came together as three in most things.
She'd filled two notebooks already, and in them she was beginning to learn how three very different children could meld their lives in such a way that formed this strong unit as adults. Just now Hayley felt on the edge. Both with the story and with Cole.
It was a lovely thing to be learning about such a vital point in someone's identity, and watch it transform them. In the weeks since they started, Cole seemed to grow lighter as he shared glimpses of their childhood. Though none of it seemed like secrets to Hayley, she wondered if that's how he'd been treating them. He'd described it as a hoarding. He said he hoarded his memories with his best friends, not wanting to share them with just anyone. And then he looked at her in that way. Just for a moment before that half smile would return and he'd be easy with her again. But that moment was always enough to get her back up.
She huffed out a breath as she retwisted her bun. It wasn't because she hadn't felt the same. If she pursued her curiosity in that area it wouldn't be appropriate to continue the story. How would she separate getting to know someone she was seeing and someone she was writing about? How would he? Hayley kicked the bottom of her desk absently. She couldn't recall a time obsessing this much about anything since high school. She was an adult now.
As she had the thought Hayley looked at her phone considering. She was an adult now, she thought again. Adults aired things out, so maybe that was what she needed to do. Just put the personal interest on the table so they could move past it, and forward professionally. Cole was reasonable and dedicated to his work, she had no doubt he'd agree with her that muddling the lines wasn't the road they should go down. And if not, that she could convince him. On a roll of her shoulders she reached for her phone, only to jerk her hand back as it ringed. One look at the readout had her rolling more than her shoulders as she answered, hearing New York.
"It's late." Cole said before she could speak.
"Then why are you out?"
"And she asked if I read minds. I needed to noise to distract me and frankly it didn't work."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"It's my cross to bear but hardly excuses me calling you when it's late."
"It is, but I'm still on night job time."
"Oh good. Well the thing is Hayley, my brain has been running a hamster wheel up there half the night so I figured it was time to bother you."
She was grateful he couldn't see her face as she cast it to heaven. "Do tell."
"First of all I need you to know that like you I started this thinking that my friends and I had a lot to share that just might benefit someone else who has gone through similar. It's a good story to tell."
"Yes it is."
"That's not all that's going on here anymore."
Hayley gave a passing thought to what it would cost her, but answered. "No it isn't."
For a beat neither of them said anything, yet Hayley felt all that she needed to in the near silent breath he let out.
Then she heard a car horn both at her ear and from the window. As she jumped to her feet he cursed.
"I may or may not be outside your building."
"Why didn't you just buzz up?"
"Because it would be rude and forward."
"And calling at 11:27 isn't?"
"It is but I wasn't about to pressure you. Our city just doesn't make for keeping ones presence incognizant."
Shaking her head at both of them Hayley fumbled for her shoes. "I'm coming down."
"Well, if you insist."
She could hear the smile as she disconnected and grabbing her keys, dashed out.
Outside he was leaning against the railing, face content as he watched the still bustling streets. Though the door click couldn't be heard over it, he looked over to Hayley, his smile full and bright. With it she felt the last of her objections float off, and was convinced as his hand reached for hers. While she took it gingerly, she felt more than she ever had.
"I thought we would walk just a few minutes."
Hayley nodded as she looked up at the clear night sky. "It's not cold for once. You haven't been stalking out here long though have you?"
"No, just got here. I did most of my over analyzing at home." One of his fingers traced over her knuckles. "Anna Ethan and I are all single you know."
"I wondered. You never mentioned if they were with anyone. It was one of my questions of course. How dating has worked out."
"Of course. It's one of the few spells we've had where the three of us have been single the same time. We've never had one where we all had someone at the same time so I can't tell you how that would work out, but we have an idea." He turned them down another block. "Anyways, we're all single now, but Ethan and Anna have both had people in their life before that they felt they could share all things with."
"The three of you being the main one?"
Cole nodded. "It's a difference we've had. I've never been in love. And now I know I don't have to be in love to share that part of myself. They did."
"There's nothing wrong with that. If you ask me it makes them more reasonable." Hayley grinned.
"That's the funny part. I'm the reasonable one, but when it comes to this and you, I'm anything but." He shrugged. "My interest in you isn't just because of the story and how you clicked, it's not even what started it."
Surprised, Hayley stopped so she could look at Cole. "It wasn't?"
"Was it for you?"
"No." She admitted.
"For me it's been watching you be miserable at PIN." He grinned at her grimace. "I'm not saying I enjoy seeing you unhappy. But that you keep trying. And you work like crazy to keep what you want going. That place isn't changing you. I haven't met someone that shares that passion for what they do. Now, pair that with the feeling I get from seeing you not only listen but understand…." He shook his head and whistled.
"I suppose for me it was realizing how much I say around you." She flicked the hand she held with her spare one when he hmphed at her. "I know you don't think I do but it's true. I don't seem to make friends easily as an adult, but I have with you. I'm nervous to change that. But I think it did the first time I came to your apartment. Maybe there's no sense in convincing myself it hasn't."
Now Cole stopped and turned her to face him. "If you want to keep things to this project we will. I didn't come here to force you into anything."
"I know Cole. If you hadn't, I was going to."
His face may have stayed neutral but those green eyes didn't. "You were?"
"I was reaching for the phone when you called. I told myself we were going to be adults about it, air it out and move on. But I think I knew, that wasn't how it would work."
As he nodded Cole turned and they started walking back towards Hayley's place. "I'm not keeping you out past midnight before we've had our first date." But he kept her hand in his, still running a finger over her knuckles.
"Here's my thought." She started.
"Tell me."
"I want to write this story and I will. But it's not going anywhere. Even if this doesn't, I'll still write it."
"You will." His tone insistent.
"But if this goes somewhere, it's not how I want to learn everything about them or you. So we'll couch it for now while we date like regular people. If I ask about them it's because I want to get to know you and them, not for the story just now."
"I'm sure that big brain of yours will file it away just the same. But agreed. We put the work stuff aside for now."
Hayley shook their joined hands and as Cole's laugh carried through the April night, she never felt more sure of where she was going.
