2.1
Ryder is not the kind of person who befriends random people over the phone. That has changed, though, he supposes, as he sits down by the side of the payphone, resting his back against the building. Teagan is chattering in his ear about how boring his prom was. "I'm single and all my friends are taken, so I had literally nobody to go with," Teagan is saying. "I mean, you got dumped, but at least you had a few seconds of glorious prom with a date on your arm."

"I'd hardly call it glorious," Ryder says sourly.

Teagan laughs. Ryder has noticed, in the past half hour, that he is the kind of person who laughs a lot. "Our prom was in our high school's gym. You rich kids rented an entire hotel." Ryder can imagine Teagan, whoever he is, shaking his head. "I bet it was glorious."

"I got dumped in the lobby," Ryder reminds him. "I barely got to experience anything."

There's a beat of silence, then Teagan says, "I just shrugged, by the way. I'm sure you got to experience plenty."

Ryder leans forward, curious at once. "What do you look like?"

"Like everybody else," Teagan says, then chuckles a little. "Maybe a bit better than everybody else."

Ryder snorts. "You have confidence in copious amounts."

"Just wrinkled my nose," Teagan says, "at your use of the word copious. This isn't speech and debate, dude. Chill out with the vocab."

Ordinarily, Ryder would've frowned. Now, though, he grins. "Okay, dude. I will."

2.2
This 7/11 seems like a fortuitous place to be. Teagan is good company. Ryder can almost imagine that he's here, beside Ryder. Teagan reminds Ryder a little bit of Dominic. They're both stars that burn so bright it's hard to look at them sometimes. Teagan, Ryder learns, has dreads that go past his shoulders, and green eyes that he himself describes as striking. Ryder has trouble distinguishing fact from Teagan tooting his own horn. After all, it's not likely that they'll ever meet in real life. Ryder could tell Teagan that he's ten feet tall and has claws for fingers. He doesn't, though. He tells Teagan that he's six-foot-two and that his fingers are normal. Teagan asks Ryder about Erica a couple times, but he clams up instantly at the mention of her. Erica has no place here, in this small pocket of happiness that Ryder has created for himself.

2.3
The payphone is demanding. It eats up quarters as fast as Teagan claims to eat pumpkin pie. Ryder loves getting to know him. This doesn't feel like a waste of time. For once, Ryder's mind is not on the future. It's on the present. On this 7/11 and this old crappy payphone and the intriguing boy on the other side. When Teagan starts flirting, Ryder flirts back. It's just a bit of fun, harmless really. It's not like this could lead to anything more than five hours on the phone in the middle of the night. It's not like Ryder wants this to lead to anything more. He's leaving for Yale in the fall, anyways. But he has five hours and he's going to make them count.