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The night that Ryland showed up at his hotel room, crying over his argument with Tom Fucking Ryder was one of the longest of Colt's life. He had been enjoying the company of the lovely Jody Moreno, the camerawoman he’d been romancing, and then Ryland showed up, looking absolutely destroyed. He hoped Jody understood him asking her to leave so he could take care of his twin. If she couldn’t he wouldn’t want to be in a long term relationship with her anyway, he guessed.
Ryland had talked and sobbed for hours. Colt’s major takeaways from this was that a) Ryland was head over heels in love with Tom b) Tom was an absolute idiot. It seemed that Tom had panicked at the thought of Ryland being out of his reach for more than a few hours and tried to get him to quit his job-which he loved-and move in with Tom immediately. He had brought up marriage repeatedly when Ryland was still very hesitant about the subject, mostly due to trauma from their childhood, Colt assumed. When Ryland basically said, “that’s crazy talk right now”, Tom had flipped out and broken up with him. Colt had always considered Tom to be a dumbass, but this level of stupidity was impressive even for him.
Colt did everything he could think of to be supportive. He sat and listened, he offered to beat the shit out of Tom (Ryland begged him not to even still), he rubbed Ryland’s back the way he used to when they were little and Ryland had nightmares and they didn’t want to wake their father with his crying. Eventually, about an hour before dawn, Ryland fell asleep on the couch. Colt didn’t even bother going to sleep himself because he knew he’d have to wake Ry up soon and get him to the airport for his flight back to San Francisco.
**********
After dropping Ryland off at the airport, Colt went back to the hotel. There was absolutely zero way he was safe to do even the mildest of stunts today. On the way, he called his boss, Dan Tucker.
“Seavers, this better be you calling to say you’re dead.” Dan said as soon as he picked up.
“Close enough. I was up all night trying to keep my brother from keeling over of a broken heart. “ Colt replied.
Dan sighed, “That thing he had with Ryder went south, huh? Should have known Ryder would fuck up a good thing like that.”
“I tried to warn Ryland, but he’s almost as stubborn as me, so you know that was a lost cause.” Colt tried to lighten the mood, but he couldn’t even smile at his own joke. “Anyway, we good if I sleep it off today? I think if I actually see Ryder’s face, I will beat him bloody and I think that would be worse for the production than me missing a single day.”
"Yeah, that’s probably for the best. If you want I can take the rest of the stunt team over and rough him up just a little. You know we all love your brother. He’s a tolerable version of you.”
“Ha ha,” Colt pretended to laugh. “I wouldn’t mind that at all, but apparently Ryland still has a soft spot for the bastard and he asked me not to hurt him. I’m going to err on the side of believing that means not letting anyone else hurt him on my behalf either.”
“Alright, it was worth a shot,” Dan said. “See you tomorrow, Seavers.”
“Thanks, Dan. I owe you one.”
"You owe me several actually. But we can settle up later after you get some rest."
**********
The next morning, Colt was ready to face Tom again. His instincts still said that Tom needed to pay for hurting his brother, but his mind had taken over and reminded him that Tom wasn’t worth the jail time. And Ryland would be upset.
Colt decided to seek Tom out as soon as he got to set. Tom wasn’t in his dressing room when he looked, but his assistant said he should be there any minute. Colt was seated on the couch when Tom walked in and Colt had a full view of Tom’s face when he saw he was there. For a couple of seconds, Tom clearly thought he was Ryland. His face had softened and he started toward him saying, “Ry-Colt. What are you doing here?”
Seeing how it affected Tom to see a copy of his brother’s face, Colt decided that he would try and help Tom out here. He was convinced that Tom cared for Ryland and he knew neither of them really wanted to be apart.
“Hey, Tom, sorry to startle you like that. I just wanted to talk about you and my brother for a bit. Clear the air a little.” Colt said as Tom closed the door and sat down at a chair across from him.
“I’m surprised you aren’t here to beat the shit out of me,” Tom said warily.
“If I had seen you yesterday, that might have been what happened. But I gave myself time to think and I realized that Ryland would never forgive me if I murdered the man he loves, no matter how much of an asshole he’s being.” Colt answered.
Tom didn’t seem especially reassured by that answer, but that was the best he was going to get for the moment. “So what is this then? A threat?”
“No, it’s more like an intervention. I am here to try and keep you from making a bad mistake into a worse one. You need to talk to him, Tom.” Colt said more gently than he thought he’d be able to.
Tom took a deep breath, “I don’t know if I can. I don’t know if he wants me to.” He ran a hand through his hair and let out a frustrated sigh. “I know I screwed up. I overreacted and said some really shitty stuff, but I told him to go, and he went. Maybe he’s done with me?”
Colt did not need another lovesick man crying on his shoulder this week, least of all Tom Ryder. He better say what he came here to say and then get out. ‘He didn’t leave because that’s what he wanted to do. He left because he felt he had no choice. He is hopelessly in love with you, Tom. He isn’t done with you by a long shot and I know you’re not done with him either. Please don’t get so into your own head about this that you don’t try and fix it.”
“Why do you care, though? You haven’t liked us being together this whole time.” Tom accused. “I would have thought you’d been cheering for us to break up.”
“I love my brother, Tom. His happiness is worth more to me than any annoyance I might have over him dating you. I’ve rarely seen him as happy and at peace as he’s been with you. And conversely, the only time I’ve ever seen him as sad as he was the other night was when we were told our older brother had died. If he loses you for good, it will break him in a deep way that I don’t know if he can ever fully recover from.” Colt blinked away tears as he thought of his older brother Court and wondered how he would have handled this situation. He stood up and patted Tom on the shoulder as he headed out of the room. “ You can still fix this, Tom. Please try for both of your sakes.”
**********
Ryland had a miserable trip home that turned into an abysmal first couple of days back in San Francisco. He found himself looking for Tom subconsciously everywhere he went. They had spent so much time together over the past couple months that he physically felt that Tom should be there. He had slept most of the plane ride back from New York, so exhausted from staying up crying all night that he barely had time to be anxious about the flight. Now his sleep schedule was seriously screwed up and it was an effort to get anything done.
His first day back, he had headed to the school to scope out his new classroom. As he had suspected it was a different one than what he’d been assigned to before. The layout was similar to his last one and he already had a good idea of where to put his decorations and the supplies he would need for the year. There was a “welcome back” faculty meeting that morning and he was so not ready to face everyone. There was zero chance that he and Tom hadn’t been the topic of so much gossip all summer.
The meeting went about as expected but with one additional reminder that as representatives of the school, the faculty should be careful about what they post on their social media pages, especially if it contains other members of the school staff. The principal looked directly at Ryland as she said this, and he blushed at the reminder of how he and Tom had gotten together at the beginning of summer. Ryland indicated he would like to say something and the principal waved him up to the front of the room.
“Uh, hi everyone. I know you probably saw some stuff about me on social media this summer.” There were a few scattered laughs and someone clapped. “I just wanted to say that the incident where we were out to karaoke and someone posted a video and tagged the location where we were was extremely dangerous. I was much more drunk than I should have been and a person was able to find my location and take me home with him in that state with no one stopping him. I had even told you all several times that night that I was not dating the person you let drag me out of the bar. I guess it was funny because I’m a man or because he was a celebrity? I’d like to think that if the situations were reversed I would have at least tried to keep you all safe.”
The people who had been laughing moments before looked a bit ashamed now. “I wasn’t hurt or anything, but it could have been a much different scenario. I want us to be a better example to our students because this is the kind of behavior we need to discourage in them. They need to know better because that would not have been safe for them any more than it is safe for us. Thank you.”
**********
It was late afternoon of his first full day back in San Francisco. Ryland was going over his student roster for the year, making note of any students he knew who might need extra accommodations for things like homework or tests. He was startled out of his concentration when his phone rang. The display said “Future mother-in-law”, the name Tom had put in there for his mom.
Hesitantly, Ryland accepted the call. “Hello, Ryland speaking.”
“Ryland, darling, so good to hear your voice.” came the warm greeting from Tom’s mother, Charlotte.
“It’s good to hear from you, ma’am.” Ryland responded.
“Ah, I thought I told you to call me Charlotte!” she laughed. “Listen, Ryland, I think you know why I’m calling. Tommy is a mess and I’m worried about you boys. He told me a little about your argument and I think I need to hear it from you too so we can figure out how you two are going to fix it!”
Ryland was so charmed by Tom’s mother that he forgot to be anxious telling her all the details of the rift between himself and Tom. At the end of his side of the story, Charlotte said, “That’s about what I thought. Let me tell you a bit about Tommy’s childhood that might put things into a little perspective for you.”
“Tommy probably didn’t tell you this, but he had a sister he never knew. Her name was Amelia, and she died before he was born. She was stillborn. I was so broken after that and when Tommy was born two and a half years later, I was terrified it would happen again. The doctors never knew why Amelia died, so they didn’t know what to do differently to keep Tommy alive. I was so terrified of every little thing when he was a baby. Spoiled him rotten. And then his father died in a motorcycle accident when Tommy was still a baby.”
Ryland said “I’m so sorry for your losses, Charlotte. That’s so much for you to have had to bear.”
“Thank you dear. I’m not trying to make you feel sad for me though. I’m trying to explain where I went wrong raising my boy. You see I never told him no, and I taught him to be afraid of anything that might hurt him in the slightest. He became a master manipulator at an early age, because he knew if I felt bad about it, he could get away with anything. He learned to avoid risk also. Anyone who didn’t agree with him completely was cut off. He didn’t have a lot of friends when he was young, because he didn’t forgive people who didn’t let him walk all over them.”
Charlotte took a deep breath and then continued. “I created a monster, essentially. He’s gotten better in some ways, but now the level of success he’s had means very few people tell him no again. So when you didn't immediately agree to upend your entire life to suit his desires, he didn’t know how to handle that kind of rejection. He took you rejecting the idea of immediately moving in and marrying him right now as rejection of him and your relationship, and so to protect himself, he pushed you away because it felt safer.”
“So I’m just supposed to let him walk all over me because he was raised without any discipline? That’s not really inspiring me to want to resume our relationship.” Ryland said skeptically.
"No, I’m not trying to excuse his behavior, I’m trying to give context. If you want to stay with him, I suggest you reach out. Show him he didn’t scare you away and then make sure he does the rest. I know he wants to, but I also know he’s afraid that he’s scared you away for good.”
“Thank you Charlotte. That was helpful information. If you don’t mind, I’d like to end the call so I can think about what you’ve said.” Ryland certainly had a lot to think about here.
“Of course, dear. Thank you for listening.”
After the call ended, Ryland thought about how he should reach out to Tom. Of course he wanted to. Tom may have been behaving like an idiot, but he was Ryland’s idiot and he loved him too much to just give up on their relationship. He needed some kind of gesture to show Tom that he was still interested in making this work between them. After thinking about it for a while, Ryland sent a message to Tom’s assistant, Alma, asking her for help. She replied “Oh please, I will do almost anything if it will help get him out of this funk. He’s a nightmare to be around right now.”