Chapter Text
“And what is one thing that plant cells contain that animal cells don’t? Ollie?”
Grace was at the front of his classroom, walking back and forth in front of a sea of empty sixth grade faces.
“Uhhhmm, chloroplasts?” Ollie responded, throwing the small earth shaped beanbag back to his teacher.
“Great! Who can tell me what chloroplasts do? Lacie?” He caught it and threw it on to the girl sitting in the corner.
“Make the plant green!” She shouted and smiled, holding the beanbag up triumphantly.
“And?” Grace prompted. They all looked at him blankly.
“And absorb light for photosynthesis.” A quiet voice came from the seat near him.
“Yes Evie! Well done.”
The bell interrupted him before he could continue explaining to the rest of the class the functions of a chloroplast.
“We’ll get back to that next class! Go to your next lesson quietly please!” The kids weren’t listening anymore, putting their pencil cases into their bags and swinging them onto their backs. They filed out with scattered “Bye Mr G,” “See you later Dr Grace”, ignoring his request for them to leave quietly.
He sat down in his chair, waving and nodding as they left. When the rest had left, Evie snuck up to the desk.
“Uncle Si said to say thank you about the other day.” She said softly, nearly whispering, like she was telling him a secret.
“That’s alright Evie, tell him it was no bother.” Ryland responded, with a smile, in a normal volume.
“Well thank you, I think he’s okay now. He’s just very busy.” She said, nodding but looking quite concerned.
“Are you okay Evie? You have quite a lot going on right now.”
She shrugged and looked at the floor. “’m alright.”
“Alright, you know if you need anything, you can come to me?” He said, trying slightly to catch her gaze.
She nodded. “Thanks Dr Grace.” She turned to leave then thrust her hand into her pocket, “Oh I almost forgot, here.” She took out a piece of paper that had been folded twice and offered it to him.
“Oh! Thank you.” He responded, surprised.
She shrugged again, “You’re welcome. See you later!” She disappeared with a wave to join Ollie who was waiting at the door.
Ryland unfolded the piece of paper, it was lined and had a note written on it in quite neat handwriting -
Ryland
Thank you for the plaster and making sure I was okay. I appreciated it a lot. I’m glad Evie has such a supportive teacher.
Simon
He read it once, then again, feeling the weight in his hand. It was just a scrap of lined paper, but it was folded very carefully. Simon had taken the time to write it and give it to Evie for her to take to school. His mind was reeling- why didn’t he just email him? Or mention it at pick up? Did Evie read it? Did he write Ryland on purpose, as opposed to Dr Grace? He swallowed and folded it back up, sliding it carefully into his top drawer. He was sure it meant nothing.
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Simon wasn’t entirely sure why he’d written ‘Ryland’. He had rewritten the note 5 times, trying to toe the line between casual and genuinely grateful, and ‘Dr. Grace’ didn’t represent that.
His hand was still bandaged up, but it hurt a lot less. He’d changed the dressing twice, with the help of Evie, but they never seemed to get it as neat as Ryland had only a few days earlier.
Simon hadn’t taken a breath since then, organising haphazard cover, working all day every day and pulling every ‘picking up Evie’ favour he had to keep everything together.
Beth had her tonsillectomy on Thursday, and it went well, so she hoped to come back after 2 weeks.
Rena’s surgery had gone a little worse, so she was staying in the hospital for a bit. Telling Evie was hard, and she’d cried into Simon all of Tuesday night and taken Wednesday off of school and spent it with Ava to recover.
Evie loved spending time with Ava at the garage, watching her scan a car with x-ray precision then fix it without a second word. She let her hold wrenches and tires and slide under the car to look at the inner workings, seemingly training her to become a mini Ava. She then stayed the night at Ava’s to make sure she could get an early night, uninterrupted by Simon clattering around at 2am.
Evie returned to school on Thursday and Simon was worried about her all day, checking his phone for an SOS message or a call from the school or Ava.
It didn’t help any more that Thursday was their quiz night, so it was wall to wall at the bar.
Plus, Beth usually ran the quiz and Simon had decided- what with his only hand being pretty useless at the moment- that he would do it.
He stood in front of the laughing, jeering crowd and read out trivial general knowledge questions. He usually enjoyed the quiz, but mostly because of how well Beth did it.
“What is the name of the deepest part of the ocean?” He said loudly into the microphone. Lots of whispering followed, and Simon took the chance to check his phone. No notifications.
Friday had been a bit easier, he dropped Evie at school in the morning- making her slightly late by triple checking that she was okay. She reassured him defiantly, after ensuring that they would go to see Rena at the weekend. He agreed and passed her the note that she could never know he’d taken so much time over.
“Can you give this to Dr. Grace in your class today?” He asked, as nonchalant as he could.
“Sure, what is it?” she replied, mostly disinterested.
“Thank you note.” He said shortly.
“It’s going to be a busy one tonight,” he delivered to the bar staff gathered in front of him, “please look after each other, let me know if anyone’s acting up, don’t hesitate to cut anyone off.” They all nodded in response.
“That should be everything, Beth had her tonsillectomy yesterday and she should be back soon!” A cheer came from the group.
“Anything else? Oh! Almost forgot,” he turned to the black haired girl standing in the corner of the group, “This is Libby. She’s new-ish, just here for a few weeks until Beth comes back. Anyone who’s been around long enough will recognise her as Mark’s sister.” A few knowing looks greeted him. “Be nice to her, she’s great and really doing me a solid. Now make yourselves useful.”
The bar came to life as the staff started moving chairs, cleaning tables and refilling fridges.
“It’s good to see you Libs.” Simon turned to her.
“You too buddy.” She smiled and put her hand on his arm. They waited for a beat.
“How is Mark?”
“He’s good. He‘s okay, all things considered.”
Simon nodded once, lips pressed together.
“Right!” She broke the awkward silence with a clap, “What can I get started on?”
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Grace went over what he planned to say 100 times during his final period, rehearsing how to thank Simon for a thank you note. It seemed pointless, but he wanted to acknowledge the effort he’d gone to. Plus it was a good excuse to talk to him.
He stood outside by the door with the sixth graders that were being picked up, happy with his selection of phrasing and word choice. As the kids filed out he smiled and waved as normal, keeping an extra eye on Evie so she didn’t slip out unnoticed. He found himself caring a little too much, and had to snap himself out of it. He was a grown man thanking another grown man for a thank you note. In a normal way.
As he was shaking the thought out of his head, Evie got up and ran towards a tall blonde woman with a scar down her cheek. She smiled and gave her a hug. Ryland had seen her collecting Evie before, and she seemed nice, but he couldn’t help but feel disappointed. He wasn’t surprised Simon had such a beautiful woman in his life, but for some reason it put a pit in his stomach.
He lifted one hand up to wave, and she waved back, walking towards him.
“Hi, sorry, I’m picking up Evie,” she gestured to the girl who had already attached herself to the woman’s side, “again!”
“Hey, no worries!” Ryland responded, putting his hand out for her to shake,”Sorry I don’t think we’ve met properly, I’m Dr Grace, Evie’s tutor and biology teacher.”
She took his hand with a semi-awkward smile, he noticed that she had oil all over her wrist and jumper, and another scar wrapping around her palm.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Ava, Evie and Simon’s neighbour!”
“Neighbour! Sorry I don’t know why I assumed-” he trailed off uncomfortably.
“That we were together?” She giggled, and Evie joined in. Even though he was being laughed at, this made Grace feel better, warmer.
“Sorry! Sorry.” He laughed too.
“No, don’t worry! No, Simon’s not really interested in me, and I him honestly,” she chuckled softly, “we’re just friends. And neighbours.”
Ryland nodded, trying to conceal his relief. Before he could say anything else, Evie chimed in.
“Uncle Si isn’t dating anyone. Ever.” She said “I think he’s lonely but he says he prefers it just the two of us.” She shrugged.
Grace let out a breathy laugh and looked at Ava. “Might be a bit oversharing there E.” She said, pulling a slight face at Grace. He let out another laugh.
“Have a good weekend Evie. You too Ava.”
“Thank you, you too.” Ava responded, and turned to leave.
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“So! Anyone at all in your life?” Libby asked Simon during a slight lull. She leaned on the bar, getting close to his shoulder secretively.
“Funny.” He replied, with a completely straight face.
"No one at all?” She whined.
Libby was a lot younger than Mark, and a few years younger than Simon. She worked in an estate agency, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by meeting her. She had long black hair, stretched ears and tons of tattoos- ranging from a beautifully done crow on her shoulder to a stick and poke flower on her ankle which she’d shown Simon years ago after a few too many shots.
“No. I don’t have the time.” he responded shortly, wiping down the bar.
“Okay,” she put her hands up in mock defeat, “But can I set you up?”
He stopped wiping and stared at her. “What about ‘I don’t have the time’ don’t you understand?”
“The part where you spend your whole life in a bar but never drink with anyone else.”
“Poetic. I drink with my friends all the time.”
“Do you?”
Simon thought back, trying to remember the last time he drank with a friend not at work or in exchange for a lift.
“Maybe. Who would you set me up with anyway?” he asked skeptically.
“I don’t know. Who are you into?”
This question held more than she anticipated. Libby was queer and spent all of her time with queer people, (when she wasn’t at work) so this question was pretty casual to her. It wasn’t to Simon.
Relationships didn’t really exist in Eden. It had a culture of marriage and reproduction, not dating and love. This didn’t stop teenagers, but it was viewed very differently to what he had learned moving away.
Therefore, being gay didn’t exist for him growing up. Sure, he was aware of the two men who tried to run away together and been publicly stoned and exiled, but that was the extent. He’d never been in a relationship and had only hooked up with girls as a teenager behind closed doors. Those girls had probably been married off very soon after, he shuddered at the thought.
Once he left Eden, he’d had his eyes opened to the possibility of dating and having sex with men, and had experimented. A bit.
Granted, he didn’t have much opportunity while looking after Evie, but he’d been out and around.
But he didn’t label anything. How do you label something that you don’t understand? Or had enough experience with?
Whenever he thought about being gay, all he could picture was his father, talking proudly about the ‘brothers of Eden’ beating a gay man up and how sinful it was to love anyone, especially another man.
He swallowed, avoiding Libby’s gaze, “Anyone. I guess.”
She didn’t react, pulling her phone out to scroll through her contacts.
“I didn’t know that about you.” she said, not looking up.
He cleared his throat and shifted his feet, rewiping the same patch of bar over and over.
“I don’t advertise it.”
“Hmm. Good for you.”