Work Text:
Emily Spier was a smart woman. She was valedictorian in both high school and college and, according to Yelp, the best psychiatrist in the state. So one could say she was good at reading people. She might’ve missed the clues about her son’s sexuality but she prides herself on saying that that was the exception, not the rule. So when the awkwardness is gone and the house feels less stiff, she’s reminded of an encounter with one of his friends about a year ago.
She was picking him up from school when Nick Eisner ran up to the car.
“Hey Mrs. Spier,” he said before fist bumping Simon.
“Hey Nick, how was practice?”
“Great, pretty great. Listen, Bram is too embarrassed to ask, but can you give him a ride home? Garret has a make up test.” he pointed to a tall black kid in the back who waved shyly. Emily agreed.
“Simon.” He smiled at him, slightly flustered, who easily smiled back. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Spier”
“Hi Bram. Just put the address on the GPS and we’re good to go” she passed him her phone
“WAIT,” screamed Simon, opening his door, “Forgot my script on the bleachers. Again. Two minutes, promise” he was already out of the car, sprinting in the direction of the field. Emily chuckled.
“I swear, it’s like the third time. And they only got the script last week.” She said, Bram smiled, and there was something about it that made her curious. “So, i know you’re part of the lunch table squad. But how come I’ve never seen you around the house before?”
Bram blushed, “I actually started sitting there because of Garrett and Nick. I mean, I consider Simon my friend, but we’re not that close, I guess”, He seemed somewhat down about that. Huh.
“Pity. You seem like a nice kid. And Simon said you’re at top of your classes, so I know you would be a good influence on him.” He seemed to blush even more at this.
“He did?”
Emily hummed a response.
“Not to be nosy, but what does your name mean? It’s pretty”
“Oh, It’s short for Abraham. My dad’s a history person-“ he seemed ready to say more when he looked out the window and stopped talking. Emily followed his gaze and saw Simon running back. He stopped by the car, out of breath.
“Got it.” He got in and they drove in silence except for the occasional question about directions and a quick goodbye at Bram’s house, where he thanked her twice and only flushed and nodded at Simon’s “See you tomorrow”
The Bachelor’s night at the Spier’s was uneventful that night, with only the pleasant absence of insensitive jokes by Jack. After they said goodbye to Alice, Emily took her chance and pulled Simon to the side.
“Hey Si.” He hummed in acknowledgment. “Do your friends know? All of them?”
He looked slightly uncomfortable about this. “I mean, how wouldn’t they? The entire school knows now.”
“Oh. And they took it well, I assume.” She paused. “How’s Abraham? I haven’t heard of him for a while.”
Simon furrowed his brows. “What?”
“What what ? How’s Abraham? I like him. He’s a good kid.”
“Who…” he looked confused. “Who are you talking about?”
“Abraham? From your lunch table? Soccer player, friends with Nick, kinda cute?” Simon was just staring at her now, mouth agape. “Bram, Simon.” Nothing. “Did you honestly not know his n-“
“I have to go to my room.”
“What? Si, we were talking!”
“Be right back.” He ran up the stairs, three steps at a time, still baffled. Emily stared at the chair he was just in, confused. What just happened?
_________________________________
Abraham, Abraham, Abraham, Abraham, Abraham, Abraham.
Abraham Greenfeld.
Simon suddenly remembered the “Bram L. Greenfeld” in his Facebook friends. How did he never notice Bram was a nickname? Cute Bram Greenfeld with the soccer calves and the hands and the smile and the warm eyes and the blushing. And the legs and the hair and the amazing English grades who was never around near Hanukkah and who moved here from Savannah a few years ago. Holy fucking shit! Holy! Shit!
He opened his computer and punched in his password, staring at the loading symbol like it held the secrets to the universe. He entered his email and started writing.
FROM:
[email protected]
TO:
[email protected]
SUBJECT:
Holy shit you’re the cutest guy I’ve ever met
Dear Blue,
Okay, so don’t panic. I feel like you might panic but please don’t. I kind of know who you are (for real this time, I’m 93% sure), and believe it or not, it is totally my mom’s fault. I apologize for the grammatical errors I’ll definitely make here but. Tell me I’m right.
1- Most people know you by your nickname
2- You have the most amazing calves
3- You’ve been sitting at my lunch table for ages now and have said about 4 things to me (totally excusable if you call me cute to justify it)
4- You are/were at least a little bit mad at me for thinking you had a crush on Leah (straight shouldn’t be the default, I’m sorry)
And before you ask if I’m disappointed, reread the subject of this email. I’m thrilled, Bram. God, if I’m wrong again this will be so embarrassing.
Love,
Simon.
PS: I’ll tell you how it’s my mom’s fault later
PPS: This doesn’t have to change anything if you don’t want to. I’m dying to be able to hold your hand and actually hear your voice talking the kind of things you write, but if you’re not ready, you’re not ready, and I won’t push.
There. It was done.
_________________________________
Simon couldn’t focus. He was trying to do his math homework to take his mind off Blue while he waited for a response but. God. It’s Bram. Bram Greenfeld. Simon is just too gay for this.
The thing is, Simon might’ve diminished his thoughts about Bram to a minimum to avoid having an actual crush on a straight guy. Or not so straight, apparently (!!!!!!!!!). He was just too cute and smart and Bram for anyone’s good. Once he giggled at something Simon said and the entire table went quiet to hear it. Bram Greenfeld. Giggling. And then blushing about it. Bram blushed a lot, it was downright adorable. I mean, Simon thought he died and went to heaven until Garrett started talking about weird soccer hacks again. The point was that that was not the first time Simon thought about Bram romantically. How could it be? It was Bram . And he was pretty slow and it took him long enough, but now that he thought about it the “93% sure” was climbing higher and higher. He gave up on homework and decided to reread his favorite emails (all of them. He was re reading all of them.) and started noticing things.
All the emails sent after school were hours later on days when Nick (and Bram) had practice. The mid class email he got right on the day Bram got sick. He had to check facebook because he’s a horrible friend but Bram’s birthday was literally on his email address. And now that he thought about it…
The four musketeers
(4 members, 3 online)
Simon: weird question. what’s bram’s full name? (10:49pm)
Simon: i need it for science (10:50pm)
Wonder Woman: … abraham greenfeld? (10:50pm)
Mom Friend: ?????? (10:53pm)
Ronaldo: abrahamham louis greenfeld (10:55pm)
Ronaldo: abraham*
Simon: krefishmdjsnfsndksjenej k thanks (10:55pm)
Mom Friend: is this what i think this is (10:55pm)
Wonder Woman: ? (10:55pm)
Simon was about to write back when his computer notification went off, and then his phone’s. He almost dropped it. It was his Gmail.
FROM: [email protected]
SUBJECT: RE:
Holy shit you’re the cutest guy I’ve ever met
Dear Simon,
I’m not going to lie, I was pretty scared reading your email. If you got it wrong again I would’ve been slightly devastated. But as i read it… And this entire thing too is about to be terribly ungrammatical.
Can I assume you just didn’t find the second note on the shirt then? I advise you to look for it, and for god’s sake use what you find, I feel like we accidentally complicated things with (you guessed it) miscommunication. We’ll talk more after that, I promise. I feel like this one conversation should be between Bram and Simon rather than Blue and Jacques.
Love,
Blue (or Bram, now that you know)
PS: Yes, you were right this time, if you hadn’t noticed
PPS: I was definitely going to ask if you were disappointed it’s me. It just sounded too good to be true that you could actually like me back. I can’t believe I wrote that. I can’t believe I’m hitting send.
Oh. My God. There was a second note? Bram wanted talk to him as Bram. Cute Bram Greenfeld with the knobbly hands and the soccer calves wants to talk to him. Cute Bram Greenfeld likes him. He’s shook. There was a second note!?
Simon woke up from his trance, launching himself from his table to his bed, grabbing the still carefully folded shirt under his pillow, throwing all care out the window as he shook the shirt fervently until another blue-green construction paper fell onto his bed (Bluegreen. Bram Louis Greenfeld. God, he was stupid). He unfolded it, careful once again, and gasped a little upon seeing the first words
“PS. I love the way you smile like you don't realize you're doing it. I love your perpetual bed head. I love the way you hold eye contact a moment longer than you need to. And I love your moon-gray eyes. So if you think I'm not attracted to you, Simon, you're crazy.”
And there in the end, so small that you could tell whoever was writing was hesitant about it - a phone number. Simon inhaled, holding the paper tighter. The next moments were a blur to him, he ignored the messages on his friends group chat, and the multiple interrogation marks on both Leah’s and Abby’s chats, in order to quickly save the phone number on his contacts under a blue heart and open FaceTime to make the call.
The only noises in the room were the dial tone and what could be either his heart or someone drumming in Nora’s room. It felt like hours had passed when the call was finally accepted, and Bram Greenfeld’s cute face showed up smiling bashfully on his phone screen.
“Hi,” Bram whispered
“Hi” Simon smiled. “So.” he started.
“So…”
“It’s you.” The blond couldn’t keep the smile off his face, and at noticing this, neither could Bram.
“It’s me. I know you didn’t but i have to ask… you really didn’t know?”
“No idea.” His smile turned bashful for a moment. “I’m so happy, though. 12/10 turn of events.”
Bram laughed at this. Really laughed, a warm, small laugh with a hint of the toothy grin he sends people when he wants their food. And Elliott forgive him, it was the most beautiful sound Simon had ever heard.
“Me too. You have no idea” he looked at the ceiling and shook his head slightly, still smiling.
“I want to, though. What did you mean by It just sounded too good to be true that i liked you?” he teased. Bram was blushing again and he covered his face with his hands. Simon’s mouth had started to hurt at how much he was smiling.
“Let’s talk about that later. You mentioned something about your mom being the one to blame?”
“Oh, you’re not escaping that easily, Abraham, we’ll come back to this.”
They talked for over a hour before Mrs. Greenfeld got home from work and reminded Bram it was a school night, and then for another 15 minutes where they planned a date and time to meet the next day. Simon was getting ready to sleep when he remembered he had left his mom mid conversation over two hours ago. He jumped down the stairs to find her still awake, working on papers on the living room couch. She looked at him, clearly questioning his earlier behavior.
“I have a date with Bram tomorrow. As in Abraham. As in the cutest and sweetest guy I’ve ever met, from my lunch table. I also might be a little bit in love with him. Or a lot. Don’t freak out.” He blurted out. Emily smiled at him
“You’re smiling a lot.”
“Yeah, well…”
“I’m just glad you get to exhale now.”
“I’m… goodnight, mom.”
“Goodnight, sweetie.”
_________________________________
BONUS
Jack Spier’s mouth hung open the next morning.
“You have a date ? Already ?” he questioned over family breakfast, a tradition they were trying to slowly introduce into their routine in the last few weeks.
“Jack.” Emily warned him.
“No, no, it’s… that’s great! Really. You said he’s a football player? And he’s on your AP class?”
“Soccer, dad.”
“Less great. Still very good. It’s just... I didn’t have time to practice. It’s only been weeks.” He turned to his wife. “Honey, I don’t know how to shovel talk my gay son’s date.”
Simon sighed loudly, trying to hide the still-there relief over him taking it so well. He wouldn’t know what to do if his father didn’t accept him, and knew even less what his mother would do to avenge him.
“Okay, and on that note I’m leaving. Don’t wanna get late to class. C’mon Nor.”
“Don’t wanna get late to AP English first period, where you can cuddle up to your boyf-“ Nora got her jacket thrown on her face. The both of them bickered all the way down the hall.
“Say hi to your boyfriend for me” Emily screamed after them, making Simon groan and Nora cackle out the doorway. Jack waited for their voices to die down before turning to his wife.
“You know this kid?”
“Yes.”
“And what do we think?”
“We think he’s liked Simon for a lot longer than we knew and that he’s friends with both of our kids and Simon’s friends, so we’re inclined to trust him.” Emily said around her coffee. He nodded.
“That’s what I thought we thought.”
“I also just added his mom on Facebook, so…”
“Evil.”
“Hey” she warned, “let me have this. I partially called it a year ago.”
_________________________________
BONUS BONUS (the groupchat)
The four musketeers
(4 members, 3 online)
Wonder Woman: help it’s been a hour anyone got news (00:10am)
Mom Friend: Go to sleep you heathen (00:10am)
Wonder Woman: ur awake?? lol (00:10)
Ronaldo: GLHFKHLGUDJHLUOG GARRETT JUST TEXTED ME (00:11am)
Ronaldo: Redirected. Laugh(l)in: Bram just keysmashed me?? Our Bram. Just keysmashed and when askwd abt it said “soon” and went offline????¿ Qué se passa carajo (00:10am) (00:11am)
Ronaldo: THIS IS RELATED RIGHT? THIS GOTTA BE RELATED. (00:11am)
Mom Friend: Simon you just visualized it you better answer (00:13am)
Simon: … asdfghjkl (00:14am)
Ronaldo: bro
Mom Friend: don’t. (00:14am)
Simon: soon. (00:14am)
Simon Spy-er is offline
Wonder Woman: NO!
Mom Friend: GODDAMNIT (00:15am)