Switchverse: Part V, or, That Time You Couldn't See Me
2way calls them The Hive.
Audrey and Derek have been able to spend hours together in silence, not doing anything, not looking at each other, since before 2way was born, and Theo’s been trying to catch up to them for just as long.
Theo writes, all the time, and he listens to Audrey about her dramatics, and he’s one of the few people who can get Derek to talk.
2way can’t break in on that. He’s never tried, not really, not since he figured it out when he was six or so, but.
The Hive is part of the reason why 2way and Audrey aren’t very close.
--
2way plays drums and draws. He doesn’t - no, he doesn’t show his dad, because Gerard got way too excited when 2way figured out how to draw inside the lines at age four.
But he hides behind his glasses and he plays the drums, a full kit, not just for the school marching band. He’s a freshman this year, which means high school, which means crowds watching if 2way were to march and play at the same time. He would trip. It’s not even a probability; he would trip if he tried.
So, he doesn’t try. He goes to school and doodles landscapes and the profiles of kids in his class and then after school he bikes over to Bob’s house and mostly stays underfoot until Bob shows him a new secret or technically difficult piece.
2way stays at Bob’s house until Jack gets home. She’s a year older than him and certifiably terrifying, so mostly he clears out, but. Sometimes Eliza also arrives with Jack, and she’s a junior but also amazing with anything that has a beat.
So, if Eliza stays for the hour or so before Jack has to turn around and go to her job beating people up, then 2way also stays. Because Jack is much less terrifying if her best friend is there to remind her not to eat the freshman.
Every time 2way talks to Eliza, too, it just turns into a re-working of their master plan, anyway. She probably thinks he’s got a one-track mind, boring boring 2way.
Story of his life.
--
2way’s reading in the kitchen when Audrey flounces past to get a cookie or three. She’s humming tunelessly, but it has a beat. She refuses to sing at all times.
2way asks, “New favorite song?”
“They’re called The Recall Habit, brother mine,” she says merrily, striking a pose. There’s a pause, and then she snickers and informs him, “Your cousin is such a music snob. He doesn’t like anything that’s been released since before Dad and everyone stopped.”
2way nods, head down to the handheld screen, words running together without making sense. He won’t meet her eyes, because they’re dark like their father’s and 2way’s are blue, and it’s just. They don’t match.
--
People have a habit of ignoring 2way, even when he’s sitting in the desk in front of them and they have to stare at the back of his head to find out what the homework is.
Which is how he learns that Claire, a pretty but reasonably down-to-earth girl who has never and will never give 2way the time of day, has a crush on Theo Iero.
“He’s quiet, but - right? The way he talks, like he’s been airlifted in from another century.”
“Don’t you think he’s sort of weird? I mean. That’s weird. And he’s always with those Ways.”
“Yeah, but he’s so intelligent, Jen. I got him to talk about themes, or something, for a while at lunch last week.”
“It’d be like dating an encyclopedia.”
“Encyclopedias are hot.”
“Theo Iero’s hot. Just because you like the way he’s all, still waters run deep, doesn’t mean he won’t think you’re beneath him.”
“Oh. Oh! I remember that! You asked him out in, what, seventh grade, or something.”
“He scoffed at me, Claire. And he’s still hot, and he’s still all… unapproachable.”
Yeah. Claire and Jen. They’re the reason 2way has any idea about the politics of the freshman class. And that he doesn’t fall asleep in history every day.
Sometimes, he wants to turn around and say that there are three Ways at this school. But, it’s fine. People never think 2way and Audrey are related, and it’s not like they talk to each other in school. Or out.
--
Derek talks to 2way only very rarely. But their silences are companionable, like as they grew up they reached an agreement almost on accident. Derek reads, because he’s planning to be a doctor when he grows up but no one’s supposed to know, and 2way draws.
They’re never alone together, because when they’re in the same building Audrey and Derek are always together, and 2way and Derek only see each other at the frequent Way Family Dinners, Which Are WAY Better Than The Bryar-Toro-Iero Dinners.
(2way’s dad painted a banner, which was stolen in the night by Frank, and then stolen back by a tag-team of Gerard and Mikey, and then stolen back and hidden in either Ray’s or Bob’s house, and Alicia’s currently working on getting Jamia to tell her which one. Lyn-Z insists that all of this is pointless, since everyone has everyone else’s house keys and tour shit should’ve been left on the tour.)
But, Derek sends 2way short messages about videos online, or interesting authors, or political-something-or-other. He makes an effort to finds things that suit 2way’s taste, and leaves notes like thought you might find this interesting.
So, yeah, 2way figures that, for all the times Derek seems like he’s ignoring him, they understand each other pretty well.
--
Eliza Toro.
Okay.
About Eliza.
She’s going to be in a band with 2way, once they get their acts together. 2way plays the drums, and Eliza plays the guitar, and Jeremy Stump plays, like, everything, and sings, because his dad’s psychotically driven to keep Jeremy in lessons for anything ever strummed, banged, or otherwise convinced to make noise.
The only problem right now, besides 2way writing lyrics like a ten-year-old, is that their singer and bassist is in a different time zone.
So, Jeremy and Eliza are both juniors, and at the end of the year the three of them will spend the summer on a tour, and if it sucks, they’ll try again after Jeremy and Eliza graduate. If it still sucks, they’ll go off to college, 2way will stay in school for senior year, and they’ll have tried.
Right now, he’s just hoping they have songs by summertime. Other than that, 2way figures that, in a band with two musical geniuses, nothing can go wrong.
And he’s too busy with all of that to have a massive and very secret crush on Eliza that everyone knows about but her.
--
Lyn-Z hears, “I’m going out!” and calls, “Audrey Celsius Way, what did we talk about?”
Her daughter huffs out a put-upon sigh and says in a monotone, “2way do you want to come to the movies.”
“With you and Theo and Derek?”
“Yeah, who else?”
“I’ll just stay here. Um, or if I could get a ride to Bob’s house?”
“Okay, squirt, get your shoes on.”
Lyn-Z smiles, because for being three years apart, her kids get along.