Niles' solace was work. A busy day of bustling between classes balanced with chores and errands peacefully winds down into a few hours or so of mind-numbing data analysis. After bagging the internship with a lobbying group over the summer, Niles knew his job as a file sorter, with its comforting aesthetic of wooden desks and green banker's lamps and flexible after-school hours, would be a perfect recluse.
"Hey," Niles' boss said, sticking her head through the door. "You already know the drill, you're going to be basically unsupervised, and you can leave as soon as you're done, but today you have a coworker coming. I think you'd be more efficient working in a pair. Alright?"
"Sure. Thank you, Ms. Williams!" Niles replied.
"You can call me Nicki. Holler if you need anything!" And with that she disappeared back into the hallway. Niles smiled at the stack of work waiting for him.
A few dozen tagged files and halfway through Yann Tiersen's 2001 Amelie soundtrack, he heard a knock on the open door. "Hey," he answered without looking up. "Here to help me s- sort..." Niles had turned to see Miles Murphy, like a deer in headlights, in the doorway of the file room.
"H- hey." Niles had less energy for composure as he had had earlier that week. "Fancy seeing you here?"
Miles seemed to gather himself, straightening his posture a bit and lifting his chin. "...Well, I told you I was working to save up for college, right?"
"Right," Niles lightly huffed. "Well, I need all the help I can get! Here I have sorted groups of petitions, demonstrations the organization has been asked to help with, and general lobbying requests. Will you take the top half of the rest and I'll take the bottom?"
"Oh, no, I'm not supposed to be doing the actual sorting. Just shelving and filing different stuff, so the sorters, basically you, don't have to keep getting up and ambling around the room." Niles understood but forgot to nod, so Miles continued. "Well, you see, the rest of the internships were given to college students, especially people in social sciences..." Miles sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm just a high school graduate, so I'm just doing the simple stuff for now. I guess." He seemed to realize he had overexplained and went for the stacks of papers.
"No, no, put those down. I'm just a high school graduate, too, y'know. Literally only one week of polisci classes. I'm sure you'd be more useful - er - helpful while looking at the actual files." Miles stared, a stack of sorted files in manila folders still in his arms. "C'mon. It's less confusing if everyone files what they sort anyway."
"Oh, ok."
Miles set the stack down. "I can teach you how they taught me to sort the files, yeah?" Niles helped Miles with the first few in his stack, and then the boys worked quietly and separately. Niles stayed at his table and chair while Miles had taken to a corner close to the door.
An hour or so later, Niles spoke suddenly. "Sorry if I was acting weird earlier," he said, remembering his lack of expressions earlier. "Classes are a lot to deal with and I'm spent."
"That's okay." Miles put down what he was reading. "You used to get quiet sometimes so I get it. Like, you wouldn't show your emotions on your face as much and would just read or sit silently.... I mean, back when we were friends at Yawnee Valley."
Niles smiled at the memory. "Yeah, that's, uh... that's being nonverbal, is what it's called. Sometimes I really was just thinking to myself, but sometimes I was nonverbal. The simplest way I can explain it is, basically, I get too tired to form words and it takes a whole lot of effort. Even if I have a lot to say." Niles fidgeted with a piece of paper thoughtfully, then paused abruptly. "Sorry if that was too much," he said.
"No, not at all," Miles said, finally looking at Niles. "Thank you for telling me. I know it's important to you."
Niles' expression softened into a smile. "Well, thank you for listening."
"Of course."
And with that, the boys returned to their work.
