Alex Manes (notamanesman) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-04-23 18:33:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !complete, alex manes, tyler lockwood |
Who: Alex Manes & Tyler Lockwood
What: A Case of Mistaken Identity
When: April 10th
Where: A random coffee shop
Rating: PG
Tyler didn’t need to eat, but grabbing the occassional breakfast from the cafe did help him feel more human. Besides, undead or not, there was nothing quite like a cup of hot coffee.
He hadn’t quite made it to the front counter when he spotted Caleb though. He gave him a nod and a wave as he headed up to the counter, and once he had his coffee in hand he made it back to Caleb’s table. “Hey, man,” he said. “The new haircut looks good.”
Alex had seen Kyle walk in, dressed in a manner that he never would have figured an off-duty doctor would have done. He figured Kyle had grown out of that sort of aesthetic but hey, to each his own. He hadn’t been expecting to run into him so soon after their meeting in the clinic. Half expecting Kyle to just get his drink and go, which had meant he could go back to brooding into his coffee (black, no cream or sugar, steaming hot), but that wasn’t what happened. He would have been lying if he said he wasn’t relieved. The first thing that puzzled him slightly, though, was that Kyle sounded slightly different. His voice was just a little different. The second thing was the greeting.
Haircut?
He lifted his hand to his hair, pushing his fingers through the strands, genuine puzzlement on his face. “Uh- I haven’t had one?” he said, “Besides, I only saw you a couple of days ago. But thanks?”
Tapping his fingers on the table, he turned the ceramic mug. “That offer of a place to stay still on the table?” he asked, after a moment, wondering if he really was just that tired. “I was gonna text you, actually.”
Tyler’s eyebrows came together in confusion. He was pretty sure he would have remembered meeting up with Caleb a few days ago, unless Caleb’s definition of ‘a couple of days’ was two weeks ago. Besides, Tyler was fairly certain that Caleb’s hair had been a lot longer then.
And then he asked his question and Tyler was even more confused. “Uh… I thought you were already moved in,” he said after a moment. At the very least, he’d received his first month’s rent from him. Obviously he hadn’t gone to make sure that Caleb was actually all moved in. Out of all the things he’d been told to be wary of with a new tenant, this was not one of them.
Alex paused, coffee lifted halfway to his lips before he put it down and leaned back in the chair. “Since we only spoke a couple days back about me crashing in your spare room, and-” he cut himself off, the confusion on his face mirrorring Kyle’s. “I didn’t imagine that conversation, right? I’m not on any really strong pain meds anymore, and I’m pretty sure the regular stuff isn’t quite that good.”
He shifted, resisting the urge to fold his arms across his chest even as his brows furrowed. He didn’t think Kyle would recind the offer or anything, and though the guy worked at least four different jobs (but only got paid for one), he’d have at least spent some time at home. To know that Alex wasn’t living there yet, because he hadn’t officially said yes, though that was pretty much the outcome of the conversation. Kyle Valenti could be a force of nature when he wanted to be.
Tyler wasn’t really sure how to break it to Caleb that he probably had imagined that conversation, unless somehow it had been completely wiped from Tyler’s mind. Tyler’s house had plenty of spare rooms - it was a mansion, after all - but why Caleb would need to crash in one when Tyler was giving him his apartment for cheap was beyond him. And he definitely wouldn’t have agreed to that, especially not before talking to his mom first.
“Are you alright, Caleb?” he asked after a minute. And then “exactly what kind of pain meds are you on? You didn’t mention them when you signed the lease.” Not that Caleb had to have mentioned it when he signed the lease.
“Caleb?” Alex asked, frowning again, arms having lifted to fold across his chest before he instead placed them on the table, “Uh- Kyle, are you feeling okay? How long was your shift at the hospital yesterday that you’re calling me the wrong name?” Besides, Kyle had written him a prescription for them, there was no reason why he wouldn’t have known what kind of meds he was on.
Unless something weird had happened and Kyle had been replaced by a pod-person. Which was seeming likely because the more he looked at Kyle the more subtle differences he noticed outside of the clothing and hair-style.
“Kinda feel like I’ve side-stepped into the twilight zone,” he admitted, a little uneasily.
“My name is Tyler,” Tyler said. Where the hell had Kyle come from? He was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, this was part of the OC weirdness. A bit of OC weirdness he couldn’t make any sense of, but it seemed like something the county would pull. “I’m right there with you on the twilight zone feeling though. So you’re telling me that I didn’t rent my apartment to you last month?”
Alex rubbed his hand through his hair and tilted his head, brows furrowing again before he forced them to smooth out and he nodded. “You definitely didn’t rent an apartment to me last month,” he said, wetting his lower lip. “And by that same logic, I’m guessing you’re not a doctor that works in the VA clinics at the weekends?” And, therefore, not Alex’s best friend.
He shifted, then let out a dry chuckle, “This day took a turn for the weird.”
“No, definitely not.” Tyler had always gotten good grades, but that was more because his father would not have accepted less than good grades. He definitely didn’t like school enough to continue on to med school. “I coach football. Sorry to break it to you, but I have the feeling that a lot of your days are going to be taking a turn for the weird.”
Alex rubbed the side of his head, just underneath his left ear and then shook his head, cup lifting to his lips again. “Go away for ten years,” he said, tone somewhat amused, “and literally everything is different when you get back.” His eyes flicked back up to Kyle- no, Tyler, head tilted to the side as he asked, “How weird is ‘weird’?” It was, after all, always better to be prepared.
“Yeah, tell me about it.” Tyler had only been gone for three years for college, but everything had been different when he came back. Or maybe he just hadn’t realized how strange everything was before he left. “Weird is weird. I don’t know if I could even say how weird it was without you thinking I was insane.” He paused. Well, maybe they could. “Let’s just say doppelgangers almost pass as normal here.”
Alex chuckled, “Maybe save the non-doppelganger related ‘how weird’ for the next time we run into each other in a coffee shop,” he suggested. “Because I gotta admit, the doppelganger thing has me curious. Considering I never expected to see a second Kyle walking around,” because Alex had taken to assuming that he and Kyle (and Liz) were older than everyone unless proven wrong, being on the wrong side of twenty-five did that to a person and sometimes Alex felt ancient, “how many other people that look like you guys are there? Or is this one of those… you don’t know until you see them moments?”
“Yeah, deal,” Tyler said. He didn’t even know how to get into the rest of the weirdness. Talking about his hybridism wasn’t something he normally did with strangers, and he figured this guy would start noticing the rest of the weird sooner or later on his own. “I’ve got no idea. As far as I knew, I was the only me around.” Just like he thought that Caleb was the only Caleb around, though now that he got a closer look he realized that Alex was probably a bit older than Caleb. He’d only met him face-to-face the one time, so he hadn’t realized immediately.
Alex chuckled. “Well, you’re definitely not the only you,” though he was sure Kyle was a little older, if that was how this stuff worked. He couldn’t shake his curiosity around just how this worked, the thought that they looked the same - almost identical - and even sounded the same but they were so different. Somewhere so psychologist would be having a field day.
“What a day,” he added a moment later, lifting his coffee to take a sip. He’d thought coming back home would be different, but he hadn’t quite been expecting such a wild ride so soon after arrival. What next?
Tyler couldn’t help but grin a little. If Alex thought this was a lot, he was in for a surprise if he ever started noticing the strange things that happened here. “You don’t know the half of it,” he said. “But I’ll let you enjoy the rest of your coffee.”
“Thanks,” Alex said with a little smile. “It was nice to meet you, though.” Which was the truth, and if Alex knew that there was a fair bit of ‘weird’ that he had to get used to at least he was prepared - at least a little - for what might come next.