Alex Coleman

ABOUT

Song: “I Know It’s Over” by The Smiths (covered by Jeff Buckley)

Full Name: Alexander James Coleman

Date of Birth: August 2, 1989

Age: 32

Gender: Cismale

Pronouns: He/Him

Birthplace: Parton, New York

Religion: Secular Jewish

Occupation: Luthier at Coleman’s Guitars 

How long has he been in Parton: His entire life

Secret: Alex slept with Sage Carson the night before her wedding, begging her to run away with him to start a new life. And though he thinks he almost got through to her, she marries Brad Donoghue anyway.

HEADCANONS

Location: Coleman’s Guitars

Nervous isn’t exactly a word that fits into his vocabulary, nor is it a word that’s often used to describe him in most situations. So why is Alex nervous now, just like he’s been all day? His time at Coleman’s has been filled with pacing back and forth, asking his clients to repeat themselves over the phone and apologizing for it, repeatedly running a hand through his mess of hair, lots of sighing seemingly out of the blue, and periodically wiping his clammy hands on the legs of his worn jeans. All the while, he can’t help but to think to himself again and again and again - is this a bad idea?

As requested by the buyer, the parlor guitar he’s spent the last few weeks constructing by hand requires a paint job. Something beautiful, floral, and delicate that covers the entirety of the body of the guitar. He knows his way around a paint brush, thanks to his high school art class, but he doesn’t trust himself enough to execute the vision. In fact, there’s only one person he does trust wholeheartedly to get it done and flawlessly. That’s why he calls Sage. She’s the very first person to come to mind, and no one else comes close.  

He manages to distract himself with busywork in the workshop when he hears the chime of the front door opening. Alex pauses, glancing up at the analog clock mounted to the wall. All day, his heart has jolted thinking it might be her entering into the shop despite the predetermined time they established when they first talked - when he reassured her he didn’t know who else to call. But it is time now, and he lets out one last heavy exhale before making his way from the back and into the front showroom. There, he finds the very source of his nerves. “Hey,” Alex says with a polite, cordial smile when he sees Sage. “Thank you so much for coming. You have no idea how much you’re saving my ass by doing this.”

Location: Alex’s parents house 

With his mom and dad’s attempt at a new family tradition, or maybe it’s the rekindling of some Coleman family custom that predates him, Alex has taken on the unofficial role of dishwasher. Not that it bothers him. It’s mindless, mostly quiet, and it allows him a moment to give attention to his sometimes roaming thoughts - imagining it’s the same quiet serenity of a cigarette break, stepping away while dulled voices carry on merrily in the background. 

He finds himself alone in the kitchen now, sleeves pushed up his arms with knuckles and long fingers covered in suds. He hears his mother laugh in her loud, Long Island way, and usually the sound of it brings upon the helpless tug of his lips into an easy smile. Right now, however, he’s too preoccupied by the thought of Sage Carson to entertain distractions from the other room. 

Alex needs to ask her for a favor, though he’s not sure he has the right to ask anything of her anymore. Sure, it starts with said favor, when and how he plans to ask even though he’s not positive he’ll actually go through with it, but then his thoughts spiral towards how they got to this point of awkward tolerance of each other’s existence. Strangers to one another with too much heartache between them to ever foolishly think they can actually call what they have now a “friendship”. And then it turns to this, thinking about what they once had and telling himself it’s nothing more than innocent reflection. He almost believes it too, but then he hears someone coming into the kitchen, glancing over his shoulder to see Maya. “Hey,” Alex says with a sort of smile, turning his focus back to the sink. “You got sent on a wine run, or did you think I needed company?”

I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm Your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm Yes, many loved before us, I know that we are not new In city and in forest they smiled like me and you But now it's come to distances and both of us must try Your eyes are soft with sorrow Hey, that's no way to say goodbye

Location: Dorian’s home

It’s become sort of a habit. Alex drives. He sees a piece of junk discarded on someone’s curb. He calls Dorian and asks if she’s interested. He hauls it into the back of his old truck and brings it to her. This time is no different as he carries the weird little three-legged chair over his shoulder and up to her door, stumbling across it on his way home from Coleman’s. In his eyes, the thing has no real potential, and honestly, he doesn’t blame its previous owner for leaving it out with the garbage. Dorian, on the other hand, would disagree, because of course she would. She is, without a doubt, one of the most eccentric people he’s ever met, but he guesses it takes some unconventional creativity, no matter how odd, to do what she does. 

Sighing, Alex knocks on Dorian’s door as he gently sets the chair down, not too confident it won’t disintegrate right then and there if he drops it with any sort of force. Looking down at the pathetic little thing, he can’t help but to laugh to himself. “Ta da,” He says, amused when the door swings open. “You know, I’m really starting to think this is just an excuse to hang out, because there’s no way in hell you’ve actually got any use for this thing,” Alex adds, teasing as he picks the chair up for her. “Can I come in?”

There was a delicate balance between her and Alex these days – Sage liked to think she was getting a grip on the whole ‘being friends’ with him thing, even if she felt like she was bracing herself to be hit by a freight train train every time they interacted. It was easier if she could prepare for it, better able to dull the ache in her chest if she knew it was headed her way. She busied herself, used casual sex as a distraction – It worked well enough, until he’d be standing in front of her and she’d be drowning in her own emotions all over again. Sage knew they were bound to run into each other tonight, but she prepared for it to be in the typical manner: Passing conversation, uncomfortable tension (mostly from her end, she assumed), and forcing herself to focus on anything but him.

She didn’t expect him to just show up like this, and she can’t help but kick herself for letting something so simple catch her off guard. Sage sees him before he notices her, embarrassingly caught dead in her tracks, container of lemon bars in her hands. His laughter pulls at her heart, hating the way that she knows it’s not for her – And the fact that she’s feeling any way about it at all. “It’s fine,” she answers simply, her eyes lingering on him for a moment too long before she forces her attention to the table of baked goods in front of her. “You just missed her,” Sage clarifies as she sets the rest of the lemon squares on the table. “I can uh – let her know you were looking for her, if you want.” She suggests, looking back at him with an arched brow. It’s strange to think this is where they are now – That eleven years ago they were sneaking behind booths to make out and she was enduring heights for the sake of a private moment on the Ferris wheel. Now, she could hardly talk to him with getting caught up in her own head. “Lemon bar?” Sage suggests, holding one out to him in the hopes that the subject of food will enough to alleviate the tension she feels. 

-

Is it fine? Two decades shared between them, and most days Alex feels like it’s easier to talk to a stranger. Maybe that’s who she is now - a stranger, but who is he kidding? Certainly not himself. This is Sage he’s talking about, someone he loved far longer than he had the right to. Even in this state they’re in now of being friends but not really, those aren’t the sort of memories that go away because they suddenly no longer have the words to say to each other. It’s all deeply embedded in him. The good. The bad. The ugly. Once upon a time, it clung to him like a second skin, but in time he’s learned to neatly box it all away, pulling it from his broken heart and storing it in a corner of his mind. Still, it doesn’t make these run-ins of theirs any less uncomfortable or any easier. They’ve managed to lose their footing along the way, and in trying to find it again, it feels like all of their interactions consist of awkward, uncertain stumbling. It is better than the alternative though, he guesses. They could be fighting like they used to. 

“Nah, it’s okay. I can catch her later,” He says, really, sincerely trying, because contrary to what anyone else might think, he actually does want this to work. In the midst of everything else he’d lost when things started going south between them a lifetime ago, Alex lost his best friend. And sure he can’t have Sage back in the way she once was his. That desire doesn’t linger in him anymore, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t miss having her in his life - though that might be easier said than done. “Sure, yeah. I’ll take one. You made them?” He asks as he reaches for his wallet, his eyes sweeping the table to see what else is up for grabs. “I swear if I eat any more of your friend’s rugelach, my body’s going to start rejecting it.” 

The town festival probably wasn’t the best place to bring a puppy… but when was Lennon ever known for good decisions? Clad in his thunderjacket, she wandered around the grounds with Alien, peeking about before her set with Fatal Attraction started. “Hey, have you seen the bake sale? I want to get there before all the good stuff is gone…” The misery of finding out all that was left was a sad excuse for ‘healthy pastries’ would probably ruin her day. open @voicenotesstarters​​

-

Alex glances over at Lennon, finding ease in her company. Truthfully, Fatal Attraction might’ve been his favorite act to come out of Parton in recent years, and it was their set tonight he looked the most forward to seeing. “My sister made brown sugar walnut rugelach. I can text her and tell her to put you some on the side, unless ya know, you like brownies made with black beans and zucchini. There was plenty of that shit left the last time I checked,” He offered with a teasing smile before turning his attention to the dog standing between them. “So is this the latest addition to the band or what?”

It’d been nearly a year in this tiny town, and the feeling of it being eerily quaint wasn’t lost on her. Ella didn’t know if she was craving bigger and better things, or if she just didn’t know how to act when the world wasn’t flying past her on hyperdrive. “So how does this compare to past years? This is my first Parton Fest.” An attempt at a friendly smile followed, the antithesis of the ‘don’t talk to anyone’ mentality that she’d adopted in New York City. open @voicenotesstarters​

-

“Careful, Eleanor. Someone might mistake you for a local,” Alex jokes lightheartedly as he slips his hands into the pockets of his jacket. Everyone has their reasons for moving somewhere new and starting over, but he couldn’t fathom how someone like her could end up in a place like this. On the other hand, it made sense for him. He was born here, raised here with generations before him established in Parton. But not her, not Eleanor. “Lucky for you, I have decades of Parton Festivals under my belt. Sometimes the acts might be better a previous year, but yeah. This is pretty much sums it up. Are you enjoying yourself? I won’t tell anyone if you are. Your secret is safe with me,” He says with a widening smile.

Location: The Breakneck Broads bake sale 

Having just delivered the steel string, flat-top guitar he’d spent the last two weeks crafting for the auction, the stressful load resting on his shoulders suddenly feels so refreshingly light. It’s finally behind him and out of his hands, just another thing he can finally cross off of his to-do list. As he’s discovered in recent years, it’s a lot different being on this side of this festival. He used to be a snotty nosed kid attending with his family, and then a shit head teenager going with his friends. Now, he’s an adult who has adult business and responsibilities to take care of before finally indulging in all that the festivities have to offer. But that would have to wait for now. In the meantime, he needed to pay Bea a visit. The annual Breakneck Broads bake off. He made the mistake of skipping it one year, and it’s a mistake he’ll be damn sure to never make again. A whole year had nearly passed before he finally stopped hearing the end of it. And so, in the time between needing to get back to Coleman’s and needing to meet up with his girlfriend, Alex decides to pay his favorite roller derby team a visit.

His phone vibrates in his pocket as he approaches the booth, and instinctively, he reaches for it, checking it. For all he knows, the shop could’ve been struck by a meteor, and that’s just another thing he has to deal with before he’s finally off. But of course the shop is fine. It was just his mom sending him a comically and endearingly bad selfie she took with his dad, the text saying something about them heading out to the festival. “Sorry about that,” Alex sighs out a laugh, looking up as he slides his phone back into his pocket - but then he freezes, only for a moment that still feels entirely too long. It’s been months since Sage has been back home, and in that time, they’ve talked, they’ve been cordial, they’ve coexisted. Even then, there’s just something about seeing her. “Sorry,” He shakes his head slightly, running a quick hand through his hair. “I was uh- I was looking for Bea. I figured she’d be here.”