little boy blue

“You wouldn’t understand!” she answered, making a bee-line to the fridge and pulling open both doors. She scanned for something, anything, that could fill her craving for comfort. Finding nothing, she pulled open the freezer and resurfaced with a carton of ice cream. At this point, she turned around, stomping over to get a spoon. “I’m fighting with one of my best friends over something stupid, and I’m right. So I’m not going to apologize, since I’m right, but it still sucks.”

“bet i could.” he was just challenging her now. miles spun his chair back to the view of their fridge as he watched another one of frankie’s meltdowns. everything was checking out with the ice cream now in full view as he placed the palm of his hand on his cheek. “what’s the fight even about anyway? you said it was stupid so i just want to know on what level exactly.”

A text was what it was, a text from an old friend, one that wasn’t meant to be sent. One that was meant for someone else; someone this person had feelings for. Someone that wasn’t Zoe. And that’s what hurt her the most. “Nothing. She’s just some stupid girl I used to know.” She was the first girl I’ve ever loved was more like it. Pushing her phone away from her Zoe picked up the script about to suggest they run the scene again. You can talk to me if you want. Zoe looked around and sunk back into her seat with a sigh. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just want all these feelings to go away.” 

it was clear that their plans had changed now with the sudden tension there was. he didn’t know what made her click away so suddenly which had him questioning what had happened. “were you guys friends?” he leaned back in his chair. as he was going to start again with the lines he paused with her response. “there’s nothing wrong with having feelings for someone. it’s not something you can just shut off.”

though it wasn’t her preferred method of meditation, successfully pulling off parenting 101, if only for this moment, left esme feeling a small sense of pride enough to ground her a little, coupled with this being the most familiar version of her and miles without tension that she could remember for a long time. and they say a baby won’t fix things! “yeah, i guess,” she confirmed, trying to stay centered. while it was nice that miles seemed to share in the disapproval, letting her know that she wasn’t being irrational in her upset, it was also a reminder that she had something to be upset about. “he didn’t really spring anything, so much as i forced it out of him after i saw them kissing.” even saying that much out loud rehashed the pain of seeing it in person, esme’s face contorting as she willed the image away. “no. she tried to. i didn’t have anything to say, but she knew my name, so she must have known that she was a secret. he hasn’t said a word to me, i don’t even think i’m grounded anymore. he yelled at me to get in the house, that’s about it.”h

he could play nice with the dude’s dad, but hearing miles try to confront him just made him roll his eyes. he turned around and walked up to miles. “seriously?” his brows rose, voice a little raised. “you actually think that’s why i came to your house?” a small laugh, with a hint of annoyance, followed just after. “your assumptions are from the truth. i’m suprised you didn’t even try asking your dad why i was there.” @mileshworth​

Zoe sighed looking down at her phone. It had seemed her priorities had changed from the last time she had asked Miles to run lines with her. In this moment the audition she was preparing for were the least of her worries. “How do you get someone out of your head when they won’t go away?” Was all she said.  Her voice was weak as she spoke. Her eyes remained on the screen in front of her as she was unable to lift her eyeline to meet Miles’. Zoe clicked her phone off and forcefully put it face down on the desk and buried her head in her hands. 

miles knew zoe to be this person who always held her head up high so to see her this vulnerable was new. he wasn’t sure what was bothering her but it must have been important if it cut the time of her running her lines. setting his script down, he moved closer to zoe. “i guess it just depends.” he thought for a second before looking back at her again. “there’s no on else here, zo. you can talk to me if you want.”

@mileshworth​

Frankie had no reservations about crying. She never did- it was a healthy expression of very complex emotions, of which she had many. She had, in fact, been crying for about five minutes as she walked into the Hollingsworth house. It made unlocking the door difficult, but it also gave her a new sense of purpose when she walked into the kitchen, ready to pig out on some comfort food.

That was, ready until she found Miles in the kitchen. Which meant that Miles could see her cry. This fact induced a new peal of sobs, and a whined “Don’t look at me! I’m hysterical!”, followed by another sob.

miles was sitting at the kitchen counter with the snack of his own choosing as he picked through his bag. he heard a bit of rustling from the door but didn’t pay too much attention to it. as the footsteps became louder he could only assume it was frankie with the whining he heard behind his back. he spun around completely unamused by her reaction as he have seen about every side of frankie. it just seemed like another day for him. “what happened now, franks?” he said as he popped the fruit snack in his mouth. it shouldn’t have been a serious thing. 

rie had just finished an impromptu therapy session and honestly it had actually felt good. she certainly didn’t know how much she’d need it when she’d been asked to her dad’s house. her session ended early and she had asked her mom to watch the baby again. she then headed over to his place, parking in a safe place. rie locked her car before putting her keys in her purse. she then headed inside through the main entrance, looking all around her. @mileshworth

miles owed her from before when she had covered for him when he needed to skip a class period. he was set on helping her run lines as he said he would. of course there already had to be a problem in the midst of this as he looked up from the script to see her on the phone. “okay don’t tell me you’re already done with this. i mean you made it seem like it was so important and now you’re distracted.” he crossed his arms now. “what gives?”  

“i know.” and she did, whether she was referring to the project at hand or anything else in the world. tired she would always understand. it didn’t take long for the little one to decide she was soothed, esme quietly humming a quick bar from a familiar lullaby until the room was finally silent. frankly, she didn’t expect it - or anything she did - to work, so it was a pleasant surprise to have managed. “i hope you don’t talk to your real wife like that one day,” she teased, though the delivery was still as weary as she felt. she presented herself as stoic as possible as though it would trick her mind into feeling the same state of calm, but they both knew better than that. “no. he didn’t tell me at all. i met her leaving the house one morning.” though met may have been generous, with how little esme offered the stranger. “she kind of looks like my mom, it’s super fucked up.”

“would you stop crying if you were being shaken?” she returned, raising as eyebrow at the attempt. calming down enough for the moment, she composed herself enough to hold her arms back out for the baby before miles lost his mind - or shook her enough to actually cause any damage. while she didn’t think either of them were intentionally poorly parenting, it’s not like they had many upstanding examples to go off of, and they didn’t need a project to know that. she didn’t argue when miles rejected her assessment of the scene. it wasn’t said to guilt miles, but he couldn’t understand how accurate it was. she had been too young to understand at the time, but her memories were plenty vivid of how often her mother cried in tandem with her, her father left to function enough for both parents. the resentment made sense to esme, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. “it doesn’t have a button,” she noted, carefully cradling the baby that finally seemed to be relaxing. “there’s a key, but only Armstrong has it, because it records how many times it’s used to get out of taking care of it instead. she’s okay now. my dad has been dating someone for the past two years.” The final statement was casually dropped into the explanation as though stating it like small talk would make it hurt less to say out loud, which it did not.

esme was caught off guard just as much as she was sure miles was by the onslaught of unexplained emotion, but it was a long time coming with how hard she’d been trying to sweep under the rug the betrayal she was feeling from her father’s newly exposed secret. “it’s not the baby’s fault,” she sniffed, trying to quickly erase the evidence on her face with the heel of her hand once they were emptied of the baby. “she didn’t ask for any of this.” once she could see past the dissipating tears after a few moments, she looked up towards miles and the baby, the latter still audibly unsettled, and the irony of the scene did not escape esme’s notice. “fuck, no wonder my dad hates me, he had to recreate this scene every day,” she sniffed again, recognizing the jarring similarity she held with her own mother in the moment.

“it wasn’t that bad” fiona assured miles. “you’re doing great. we just want to make sure everyone has a clear vision of their character” she continues, giving him a warm smile as she does so. “don’t be too hard on yourself, we’re giving everybody notes during rehearsals.” she finished gathering up her stuff as she listened to him speak once more. “trust me, this is going to go so well! I’m sure of it.”

miles lets out a chuckle feeling like that wasn’t still true. it must have been the nerves still taking over him. “okay i was just exaggerating which is what i tend to do anyway.” he shrugs carelessly.“the good side is that i have my lines down so that seems to be out of the way.”  

she had completely forgotten, it was the unfortunate, albeit honest truth. so wrapped up in her own pity party, she’d resorted back to omitting attendance in a few classes that didn’t serve to distract her from anything family related, and this was certainly one that applied. It truly wasn’t her intention to screw miles over, especially since this was the first she heard that he was the other half of this duo, one more snicker from the universe at her expense. maybe it was the disapproving tone in his voice, one far too reminiscent of the one her father had used with her on the porch a few days ago, or maybe it was just adding one more unexpected addition to her family that she was so ill prepared for, but the overwhelm was too much all at once, esme unabashedly letting her head drop down before crumbling in a fit of tears.

it had already been a trying week to put it simply, not that there was any other way for esme to formulate the events she’d been dealing with since returning from the cabin. she and her dad still hadn’t spoken, but the air was painfully palpable with the words they both still had inside of them, none of which resembled anything near an that they were both too stubborn to accept out loud that they owed one another to begin with. it wasn’t as though much difficulty came with esme resorting back to the cold shoulder she perfected towards the patriarch years ago, but now in this turmoil, it somehow managed to trckle down to her everyday life, incidentally affecting those around her whether they were involved or not – which, since she hadn’t been able to bring herself to speak about what she considered such a drastic transgression on her father’s part to anyone else, nobody was. she was barely even phased by the sudden presence popping into her doorway , the only confusion coming from the tot he had brought along “our what?”

miles: i'm probably going to have to reschedule that training session we were supposed to do.

miles: this baby won't stop crying and esme has like already abandoned this baby. i don't know what to do.