( Cole | 004 ) - Blog Posts
loverboymontgomery:
Cole never could’ve imagined this– any of this– when Adam Richards had approached him to be his English tutor freshman year. He’d known who Adam was, of course, because everyone did. It was normal to have a crush on the hot and funny and sweet quarterback, as evidenced by the conversations he had with the cheerleaders, except for the fact that Cole was a boy, too. He’d made peace with it, figured it would pass when Adam graduated and Cole would hear about his engagement to Chrissy Cunningham one day from some nosy mom in the Melvald’s checkout line. That was how things were supposed to be. But then, one night in February after a few hours of studying for an English test, Adam had kissed Cole.
Everything changed that day, and Adam quickly became the subject of all of Cole’s thoughts. They were inseparable for three years, and those were easily the best three years of Cole’s life. In every way, Adam was Cole’s balance: where Cole was shut off and withdrawn, Adam was open and giving, where Cole was book smart, Adam was emotionally intelligent, where Cole was cautious, Adam was trusting. Cole wasn’t religious at all, but he truly believed they were meant to find each other, and he never hesitated to tell Adam as much. So when Adam died in the ‘freak accident’ just before they were going to run away together, Cole’s life halted. Since then, he’d felt like he was a ghost, moving through the motions of life despite being completely detached. He didn’t really care what happened to him, not if it was without Adam. And when Adam came back? It was supposed to be good, and easy, and they were supposed to move on. It was still good, Adam was still Adam, but it was impossible to ignore the reality of the situation: that Adam had died and come back, and there were side effects.
Still, it was worth it to try– to push it to the side for a few hours at least. When Adam offered to plan a date, Cole was elated. When he showed up at Cole’s door with their usual from Benny’s, Cole had wanted to cry. He had longed for this for so long. He’d gathered a few things in a bag of his own– his dusty copy of The Odyssey, a chapstick, his house key, a few rogue pens and highlighters, and at the very bottom of the bag, his flask. Just in case things went South, not that they would, he just didn’t really go anywhere without it these days. Cole left the bag on the floorboards of the passenger seat and climbed into the truck bed with Adam. Like it was the most natural thing in the world, Cole scooted closer to him and nestled into his chest, angling his face to the sky to look at the stars like they’d done dozens of times before. “Mhmm,” he hummed contentedly, smiling at the memory. “We were so worried someone would find us,” he chuckled. “Worth the risk.” All of it was worth the risk– Cole would always choose Adam, always. Cole shoved Adam away jokingly, “In my defense, what the fuck are jumper cables?” He laughed, though, unable to resist Adam with that grin. As they shifted and Adam leaned against Cole, he ran his fingers through the other’s hair gently. Everything about this felt so right, and Cole felt completely at peace. As Adam kissed his cheek, Cole caught his chin and lifted it so their lips met. “I love you,” he responded, feeling pressure building behind his eyelids. Not tonight, surely he could go one night without crying. “Thank you for this,” he said, kissing Adam’s forehead with a smile.
Adam hadn’t known how much his life would change when he asked Cole Montgomery to be his English tutor. He thought they’d become friends maybe, if everything went well. He’d never imagined that they might end up here, together, after so many years. Dating Cole had been a wonderful, amazing surprise that had completely changed the entire trajectory of his life. Without that one kiss in February his sophomore year of high school, Adam would have never become the person he was today. Walden Cole Montgomery had never been part of his plan. But in the end, Adam was so fucking happy and grateful for the years they had had together.
Dying had thrown a massive wrench into the life plans they had made together. Before whatever had happened to Adam during the summer of 1985, he was going to run away with Cole. They’d planned it all out - wait until Cole left for college in California, and then Adam would go with him. He’d turned down offers to play football at three different colleges, something his parents had thought he was insane for, in order to wait an extra year on Cole. And at the time, it had all seemed so worth it. They would get to be happy and themselves together in San Francisco, and that mattered more than being Mr. Quarterback at Purdue or Ball State. The fights with his dad didn’t matter - not if it meant getting to be who he really was. And everything had been going according to plan that summer; everything had been perfect. Until... until whatever had happened to him. Adam wished he could just remember, that he knew why he’d done all of those things and why he had died.
But he probably never would get that closure. And maybe he would just have to learn to live with that.
Right now, he was more concerned about whatever was going on with Cole. There was so much that Adam just didn’t know how to ask or how to talk about. How could he bring up his own death and it’s affect on Cole? How could he ask about the extra drinks he’d seen him having lately and why he felt like he needed them? Adam wanted to understand, he wanted to be there for Cole. But he also wished that things could just be simple, like they used to be. That for five minutes, he could forget about dying and the way it had hurt everyone around him. So, he wrapped an arm around Cole, laughing into his curls at the mention of being scared of getting caught. “I know, I drove down the road with the headlights completely turned off. We’re lucky I didn’t hit a tree,” He murmured. Back then, their biggest fear had been the wrong people finding out. It was almost laughable now. “Spending time with you was always worth the risk,” Adam agreed immediately. “Being alone with you was always the best part of my day.” He had needed that alone time away from the prying eyes of their classmates or families. Chrissy and Beth had known, of course, but they’d needed to hide from everyone else. Getting to drop the act of being straight and just be himself with Cole had always been such a relief.
As Cole shoved him, Adam chuckled, grabbing his wrists and tugging him closer to kiss him once. “You’re hopeless,” He teased, laughing against Cole’s lips, pressing his own more firmly against them again. “How would you jump start your car without me around? What happens if I can’t come help you out? You need to learn some basic mechanics, baby.” As Cole began to play with his hair, Adam sighed, feeling more relaxed than he had the entire time he’d been back. This was perfect. Tonight was perfect. His relationship with Cole Montgomery was perfect, even if there were cracks in it. Nothing was broken that couldn’t be repaired with some glue, some love and attention. As Cole pulled him back in for a gentle kiss, Adam felt his face warm at the softness of him kissing his forehead. “Any time.” Adam replied, pulling Cole closer to him so that Cole was laying back on his chest again. “Are you okay?” He asked him softly, not wanting to break the wordless agreement of keeping things lighter between them, but also needing to know. “You know I’m here for you, right? I always will be.”
Maybe that wasn’t true. Maybe that was a promise Adam couldn’t make Cole, but he wanted it to be true, and that had to count for something, right?
WHO: Adam Richards & @loverboymontgomery
WHAT: What were Richgomery doing during town hall????
WHERE: A backroad of Hawkins, somewhere near Lover’s Lake
Adam had met Cole during his sophomore year, not long after being named starting quarterback. Cole was in his English class - a year ahead of others in his grade, and far better at understanding literature than Adam could ever hope to be. The second he’d seen the snarky brunette who always had something to say in class, Adam had been hooked. For a long time he thought that maybe he just saw the other guy as someone he really, really wanted to be friends with, but eventually, it clicked why he was so obsessed with Cole. And once Adam’s grade began to drop in English because he just didn’t understand why people used metaphors or similes or whatever ( why couldn’t everyone just say exactly what they meant all the time ? ), asking Cole to help him seemed like it would solve two problems for him. Suddenly, he could spend all the time he wanted alone with Cole, getting to know him and liking him more each day, and he could bring up his grade.
It hadn’t taken long before something had shifted between them, and Adam had made the first move. Kissing Cole without knowing how the other felt about him was scary - historically speaking, kissing another boy without asking typically didn’t end well for guys. But, Cole had kissed him back. He had been so kind and sweet and patient while Adam figured out how to tell Chrissy about it all, which had thankfully gone well. Then, Adam and Cole had gotten three beautiful years together in high school, full of them slipping love notes into the other’s locker, hanging out in Adam’s car together after football games, saying I love you for the first time, riding together on the bus to away games, studying together, and even slow dancing together at Prom in one of the empty classrooms. It had been perfect. Every single thing about their relationship in high school had been beautiful, untainted by any of the complicated feelings that existed there now because of Adam’s death and the grief it had caused. So Adam hadn’t been surprised when Cole had sadly admitted to wanting to go back to that - to get to experience how happy they’d been. How simple it had felt. And Adam had decided to rise to the challenge and do his best to plan a night for them where they could feel like that again.
They had each planned plenty of dates for the other in high school, but there was always a trick to it. It had to still feel like a date - not just two friends hanging out - without drawing too much attention to themselves. They weren’t like Chrissy and Jason or Chance and Bev; they couldn’t share a kiss or hold hands across the table. Being openly affectionate in public wouldn’t end well for them, so they’d always had to get creative. Tonight, Adam had ordered them takeout from Benny’s, getting their usual order as well as a milkshake to split. He’d loaded his truck with blankets and pillows, and driven them out to a field on the edge of town. The farmer who owned the land was older, he wouldn’t even notice them parked back here off the main road. After they’d eaten and gotten everything set up, Adam sat back against the pillows, looking up at the stars. “Remember when we did this for the first time?” He asked Cole, leaning closer to him. “The summer after we’d gotten together.” Adam had gotten his truck around then, and had taken Cole out on drives all the time. “Oh, or that time you freaked out and swore a snake had gotten back here, but it was just my jumper cables?” Adam laughed, grinning at Cole. Shuffling closer to Cole, Adam laid down, resting his head on Cole’s shoulder. There had been so much weird tension between them lately, and Adam had felt like he had no idea how to even address it, let alone fix it. But right now, he wasn’t worried about it. He just wanted to enjoy a date with Cole, not caring about bomb or the Doppelganger or the Mindflayer or anything else. Just the two of them, here, together. “I love you,” He said softly, leaning up to kiss Cole’s cheek.
