Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical.
Summary: Ryan and Sharpay went to a private school, while the others went to East High. Three years after graduation, Kelsi and Ryan are dating at Julliard, and in Boston, Chad's destructive relationship with Taylor has finally ended. Chad goes to New York, and after getting drunk, he calls Kelsi, the only friend he has left. Their relationship will defy their own expectations of love and happiness.
Warnings: This fic is about a relationship between three people, not a triangle. Kelsi and Ryan are already an established relationship, and Chad joins them. This means there will be threesomes. As it is an adult fic, there will also be swearing. There is also heavy mention of an emotionally abusive relationship. If you don't like the warnings, then feel free to not read the story.
Constructive criticism only, please. I will not accept flames.
Read on, oh faithful ones...
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Chapter One
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"I'm bi-sexual."
Kelsi looked at her boyfriend, stunned at what he'd just told her. When Ryan had asked her to sit down and that he had something important to tell her, Kelsi had been wary, but she hadn't thought that his revelation would be something like this.
"Kels? Say something, please," Ryan said softly, his hand reaching out to hold hers.
She stared at their joined hands, opening her mouth a few times, failing to put her feelings into words. Kelsi knew that if she sat at a piano right now, she wouldn't even remember how to perform a C chord.
"I know it's a lot to take in, Kels. I swear I didn't want to hurt you by telling you this, and I'm not going to leave unless you want me to. It doesn't change anything between us," Ryan promised, hoping he sounded as genuine as he felt.
"You just told me that you're bi, Ryan, of course it changes things between us," Kelsi muttered.
"How?" he countered. "It's not like I'm going out night after night looking for a guy to bring home. I just wanted to let you know that I'm sexually attracted to both men and women. I'm not going to cheat on you; I just didn't want this to come up later and make you upset."
Ryan looked so earnest and worried, as if she would throw him out of the apartment or something, and she couldn't hold back the smile threatening to form at the very idea of that.
"Remind me again why I love you?" Kelsi asked with a sigh, squeezing his hand.
"Because I'm talented, I understand your passion for music, and I have a killer smile that you just can't resist," Ryan said, smiling broadly.
"Hmm, you're right," she murmured, moving forward to kiss him gently. "Just promise me that you'll tell me if you're so attracted to a guy that you can't resist him, okay?"
"I doubt that'll happen, Kels. But thanks for being so understanding. I love you, and I didn't want to keep it a secret any longer," Ryan said quietly.
Kelsi nodded briefly, pulling her boyfriend into a tight hug. "I'm glad that you told me, Ryan, it's part of who you are, and I love all of you, not just the part that has sex with me."
Ryan laughed in a mix of amusement and surprise, returning her hug warmly, and so utterly grateful that she hadn't thrown him out on his ass (especially since these were his favourite red jeans).
"Come on, you can make me pancakes for scaring me like that. I thought you were going to say you were quitting Julliard," she muttered, taking his hand and tugging him towards the kitchen.
"Are you kidding? After all of the work it took to get into Julliard, I couldn't quit! Besides, my sister would literally kill me," Ryan said with a shudder. "And then probably wear my skin to get into Julliard herself," he added, wincing at the idea.
"That's gross, and I really hope it's not true. You do realise that you have to introduce me to Sharpay one day, Ryan? You can't avoid her forever," Kelsi said pointedly.
"I can definitely try... My sister's the kind of person who'd wear white to someone else's wedding and demand everyone pay attention to her instead of the bride and groom."
"Uh-huh. She sounds like a blast," she said drily. "Oh, no. Don't think you've distracted me that easily," Kelsi added when he tried to head to their bedroom rather than the kitchen. "Pancakes."
"You're such a slave driver," Ryan sighed dramatically.
"You love me."
He kissed her with a grin. "Of course I do."
...
"GET OUT!"
Chad stepped back a few paces as his girlfriend yelled at him and threw him out of her apartment. Again. Their relationship had been as on and off as any celebrity's, but by the look on Taylor's face, Chad figured that this time it was off and actually (finally) staying that way.
He managed to catch the bag and basketball that were thrown at him in quick succession, but got clipped in the side of the head by the box of basketball trading cards that followed and promptly dropped his first two catches. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the box hadn't broken open, and gathered all of his things quickly, shoving them back into his bag. Chad was thankful that she'd at least let him leave with clothes this time, and pressed the heel of his palm against his pounding head. It came away wet with blood, and Chad groaned at the sight. He hated seeing blood; even in a gory horror film when he knew it was fake, the mere thought of that much blood made him feel queasy.
On further (and very reluctant) inspection, Chad discovered that the cut was only a small one, and was easily fixed with a bandaid. Now, onto bigger problems: where to go now that Taylor had dumped him and kicked him out of the apartment. She'd always been a jealous person, and had slowly picked away at his relationships and friendships with people from both high school and college until Chad had no one else but her. So now, without Taylor, he quite literally had nowhere else to go. His dorm-mate, Art, had his girlfriend over that night (according to a text that he'd received mid-fight but didn't dare answer) and Chad didn't particularly want to be anywhere near his room with the music Art played during sex. Troy had moved in with Gabriella, and after the epic fight that Taylor had instigated between the three of them, Chad doubted he'd ever be able to show his face to his former best-friend (or his fiancée) again.
Heading over to his car, Chad threw his things in the backseat and pulled out of the parking lot. It was a long weekend, but since it was already late on the Friday night, there was little traffic on the roads. Chad had planned on taking Taylor up to New York (the Knicks were playing, and he still had the tickets hidden in his trading card box), but she'd already made plans with someone and she'd told him that, and the fight had begun. It had ended up with a smashed vase and he hadn't even told her about the tickets.
"Ah, fuck it," he muttered to himself.
He'd still go up to New York to watch the Knicks play, and he'd use the spare seat to hold a butt-load of nachos.
...
Kelsi was surprised to see the called ID on her phone, but answered by the third ring anyway. Chad's voice was slurred on the other end, but she decoded him saying something about seeing her name in lights, his credit card had bounced at the hotel, and could she pretty please put him up for the night?
She hadn't seen Chad since high school, back when she used to tutor him in English, Drama, and Music. He'd always said how smart she was, how stupid he felt, and after much debating and arguing comprising their three years of tutoring, he'd actually come out with straight B's. Taylor was much more interested in Chad after that, and after Taylor had finally agreed to go on a date with him, Chad had thanked Kelsi with a kiss on the cheek, her face burning.
So despite the fact that it was two in the morning, and they hadn't spoken in three years, Kelsi found herself driving to the bar to pick Chad up (the bartender had been given the phone and provided the address since Chad had no idea where he was, and with his drunken slur, probably couldn't pronounce the place anyway). Chad waved to her in greeting, his drink sloshing about in the glass, and she frowned at him sternly.
"Don't look like that, Kelsi. It's been a bad day," he groaned.
There was a deep purple bruise forming behind a bandaid on his head, so Kelsi didn't doubt it.
"Can you walk on your own?" she asked, moving towards him.
"'Course I can!" Chad stood up abruptly to prove it, only to stumble over his own feet.
Kelsi hurried to hold him upright, and sighed, turning and awkwardly helping him out of the bar. He had grown even taller than the last time they'd seen each other, put on a lot of muscle from what she could feel, and she was still tiny enough to make the whole trip to the car excessively slow and awkward for the both of them.
When Chad was loaded into the car, Kelsi drove back home slowly, trying not to subject the man to motion sickness on top of everything else. Getting Chad indoors and into her apartment was even more of a challenge, but she managed it in the end. Kelsi was just glad that Ryan was working late and wouldn't be disturbed by a drunk's version of quiet.
Scrounging up a bucket for Chad to throw up in if he needed, Kelsi covered him with a blanket and went to make herself a cup of tea to try and calm down. It was odd to have Chad call her after so long, and even odder to have him in her apartment. But the most disconcerting thing was that Kelsi had no idea when the hell she and Ryan had bought a bucket.
...
Chad woke up with a groan, his head pounding, his mouth tasting awful, and his head really pounding like crazy. He groaned again, rolling up into a sitting position as he tried to work out where he was.
"Ah, you're finally awake. I was getting worried," Kelsi said with a concerned frown, looking into the darkened lounge room.
"Kelsi? What... Where..." he trailed off, the effort of talking too much for him at that moment, and flopped back onto the lounge, his hands covering his eyes tightly.
"You got drunk, called me up, and I dragged your lousy butt back to my place since you had nowhere else to go, and you saw my name in lights or something," she explained.
Chad frowned, trying to recall any of this. "I saw your name on the TV. You composed the music for that new Broadway show," he remembered.
"The King's Fool," Kelsi replied with a nod. "So, do you care to explain how and why you ended up calling me up at one-thirty in the morning for a place to crash? I don't mind having old friends over, but I generally like to know at an hour that's not interrupting my sleep," she said with a grin.
He sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "Taylor broke up with me. She really meant it this time, and after everything that happened between me and Troy, I didn't want to see risk getting a fist to the face after already getting hit with my trading card box," Chad muttered, his fingers feeling the bruise lightly.
"So you drove from Boston up to New York to get drunk in the shittiest bar you could find and call me?" Kelsi asked pointedly.
"No. I had tickets for the Knicks game. I only realised when I got here that they're for the game tonight, not last night, so I decided to go get drunk instead. That's what people do when their possessive control-freak of a girlfriend dumps them, right?"
"No idea, but it does sound like the stereotypical male thing to do after a break up," she said with a shrug. "Need me to get anything for you?"
"A time machine to tell me not to drink as much as I did?" Chad asked weakly, his stomach curdling.
"Sorry, fresh out of time machines. Anything else?"
"Dry toast and a strong coffee."
"Still have it black, one sugar?"
He nodded, surprised that she'd remembered.
"Right, you just sit here and wallow in pity, and I'll fix you up."
"Hey, it's all right, you don't have to," Chad protested, suddenly feeling like he shouldn't be making demands on Kelsi after everything he'd already put her through.
"It's toast and coffee, I think I'll survive the ordeal. You can make me breakfast one day if you really feel that bad about it," she said with a light laugh, leaving before he could protest.
...
"So, is he for me?" Ryan asked Kelsi as she came into the kitchen, a cheeky grin showing over the rim of his coffee mug.
"No, he's not for you," Kelsi said, rolling her eyes. "Chad is an old friend from high school. He's in town for a few days after a bad breakup, and needed somewhere to crash."
"Mm-hmm. I haven't met many of your friends from high school. Why is that?"
"Probably the same reason I haven't met your sister yet," she replied.
"Please, not all of your classmates could have been backstabbing narcissistic divas," Ryan said, rolling his eyes.
Kelsi put two pieces of bread in the toaster and organised Chad's coffee, ignoring his comment for the moment.
"Besides, you can't talk about not meeting high school friends," she added pointedly. "I've met maybe two of your friends from that precious private school you went to."
"I've told you that I never wanted to go to that private school anyway. I would've been fine at a public school, but Sharpay refused to go to the same school as people who didn't know what a Tony Award was," Ryan said, rolling his eyes. He decided to change the topic, a grin flitting across his face as he thought of the play he'd acted in the night before. "So, do you want the long or short version of the gossip from the play last night?"
"How juicy is it?" she asked, grinning.
"Very juicy. Backstage frolicking almost brought the house down. Or the curtain, at least," he said, chuckling.
"Oh, definitely the long story for that. I'll be right back," Kelsi said, kissing him briefly before plating up the browned toast, carrying the plate and coffee mug to the lounge room.
...
Kelsi had left the door open slightly, and the kitchen conversation wafted into the lounge room. Realising that Kelsi lived with someone, Chad felt guilty that he was imposing on her time with his stupid problem. He stood up, planning to leave without making any more of a nuisance of himself than he already had. Kelsi opened the door then, saw that he was standing and told him to sit down. The tone of her voice was reminiscent of her tutoring tone, and Chad sat down quickly.
"From the amount of alcohol you drank, you've probably still got a lot in your system. Have something to eat and drink, and when you're ready, come out to the kitchen, okay?" Kelsi said with a quick smile.
"Thanks, Kelsi. Sorry about all of this," he murmured.
"Fuck, Chad, what did Taylor do to you?" Kelsi asked, frowning as she heard the meek tone of his voice. "Since when do you apologise about anything?"
"I've changed in the last three years, Kelsi," Chad replied with a shrug. "So've you, Little Miss Don't-Swear-In-My-House."
She waved off his comment and left the lounge room again. Chad sighed and ate his dry toast, his eyes closed tightly. He really had changed since he'd least seen Kelsi; he'd gone from a confident (perhaps too confident) guy who knew exactly what he wanted and where he wanted to go, to a complete shell of that person, always looking to his girlfriend for an answer, a suggestion of where to go, what to do, who to see. He'd done everything she told him to do, even forgoing some of his basketball training sessions because Taylor said he was spending too much time on the court instead of with her. And where had it gotten him? Hell, no wonder Troy hated him.
His toast finished and mug empty, Chad stood up, sighing in relief when the room didn't start spinning around him. Heading to the kitchen, Chad walked in on Kelsi and her boyfriend kissing like their lives depended on it, Kelsi sitting up on the kitchen counter with her leg wrapped around the guy's waist. Embarrassed, Chad turned around to leave quickly, and ended up smacking the plate against the doorframe, chipping off a large chunk of ceramic. The plate fell from his grasp and Chad tried to catch it, only to cut his hand on the chipped part of the plate. Blood oozed from his fingers and his vision swam, the plate clattering to the ground, forgotten for the moment.
...
Ryan had described the backstage drama (the lead actress got caught with an understudy under her skirt) sparing no detail as he mimicked her lust-filled screams. He was looking at Kelsi with sparkling eyes and that gorgeous Cheshire-cat smile of his, and she just knew that he was imagining doing something similar with her. She wasn't going to let him go that far - not with Chad in the next room - but Kelsi figured that a kiss wouldn't do any harm.
Riiight... The last time Ryan had 'just kissed' her, they'd ended up naked in the cloakroom of the country club his parents owned.
Ryan had her up on the bench before she could say or do anything, his lips hard against hers as he slid a hand up her thigh. Kelsi responded before she truly thought about it, her leg wrapping around his waist as she kissed him back eagerly, her hands fisting in his hair. He grinned against her lips, his free hand moving to caress her breast. Ryan slipped his tongue into her mouth, flicking against her tongue gently, knowing how it drove her wild. Her free hand clutched his shoulder, her leg tightening around his waist and she fought his tongue with her own, wondering why she'd thought it was a bad idea to have sex with him right then.
A loud smash broke them apart, and Kelsi blinked hazily to see Chad trying to juggle a plate. It fell to the ground, smashing into pieces throughout the kitchen. She saw the blood on his hands and slid out from Ryan's grasp quickly.
"Chad, look at me," she ordered, waiting until he had done so to continue. "Do not move from there, all right? Don't look at your hand, keep your eyes on me, okay?"
Chad nodded, his eyes focused on her with a desperation that she hadn't seen since the great orange-slicing fiasco of 2009.
"Ryan, can you get the vacuum and spare first-aid kit from the laundry please?"
"Right," he murmured, using the kitchen's second entrance to go to the laundry and avoid the shards of glass.
"You'll be fine, Chad. Just don't look down," Kelsi added, glancing down to see blood dripping onto the kitchen floor.
Ryan returned with the vacuum and first-aid kit in a matter of minutes, and cleaned up the mess of ceramic so that Kelsi could walk over to Chad without getting any shards stuck in her feet. She kept her eyes on Chad as she walked over slowly, and when she was close enough, Kelsi opened a wet cloth packet and cleaned up his hands. She dabbed antiseptic on Chad's fingers and wrapped each of the cuts in bandaids, checking to ensure that no blood was seeping out of the sides.
"Okay, I think that's all of the ceramic. Just be careful where you step for a while," Ryan said, setting the vacuum aside. "Hi, I'm Ryan Evans," he said, holding out his hand to shake.
"I'm Chad Danforth."
"Nice to meet you. Is your hand all right?" Ryan asked, looking to it.
"It should be. Not the first time Kelsi's had to do something like this for me," he admitted. "I really don't like blood."
"Well, I tend to like blood more when it's under my skin too. Besides, I'm terrified of spiders, so I won't throw stones," Ryan said, shrugging.
"Really?" Chad asked, surprised.
Even when Troy had found out how much Chad disliked the sight of blood, he'd given him a 'really, dude, it's just blood' look and had ribbed him about it for months.
Ryan nodded with a grin. "So what brings you to New York?"
"Well, my girlfriend dumped me, and I've got tickets to the Knicks that were meant to be an anniversary present," Chad said. "Didn't want them to go to waste."
"Oh, I definitely approve. Are you a baseball fan too?" Ryan asked, grinning.
"Oh, no. You two are going to be talking sports all day now, aren't you?" Kelsi interrupted with a good-natured groan. "Fine, then I'll be in the studio," she said, pressing a kiss to Ryan's cheek, giving Chad a smile and leaving them to ramble sports statistics all day if they wanted. "Ow, fuck!"
"Kels," Ryan said quickly, running out to where she was standing in the small hallway between the kitchen and lounge room.
Chad followed him to see Kelsi leaning against the wall, her knee bent as she tried to survey her foot. Ryan knelt in front of her, looking at her foot with a frown.
"Sorry, Kels, it looks like a piece of the plate's in your foot. I didn't think of cleaning the hallway. Come on, I'll get the tweezers," he murmured, standing and helping her hop to the bathroom.
Chad felt even worse than he had before, and grabbed the vacuum from where it was resting against the kitchen bench to vacuum the hallway before someone else got hurt because of him.
...
"Ow-ow-ow-ow!" Kelsi had her eyes squeezed shut tightly, her fingers curled as she gripped the edge of the bathroom basin.
Ryan murmured soft words of apology, the tweezers slowly pulling out the piece of ceramic in her sole. He might be sorry, but damn it, it felt like Ryan was setting up an excavation site on her foot!
"There, all gone. I think we've got another bottle of antiseptic in here, just sit tight," Ryan said with a smile, kissing her ankle gently.
"Oh, no you don't, mister. We're not doing anything while Chad's out there vacuuming our hallway," Kelsi muttered.
"I wasn't planning on doing anything," Ryan protested, a look of innocence on his face. "But it would be interesting to see if I could make you scream louder than the vacuum cleaner."
"You made me scream loud enough to get the police called on us by neighbours three flights down, I'm fairly sure I can scream louder than a vacuum. But we're not testing that theory right now," she added quickly.
"But we can later, right?" Ryan asked with a grin, applying the antiseptic to her foot gently.
"Only if I can test the same theory on you," she replied, laughing.
"Looking forward to it. Do you want help getting up to the studio?" he asked, helping her to her feet carefully.
Kelsi tested her foot gingerly, but was relieved to feel the sharp stinging pain gone. "I'll be fine. You go have fun talking home runs and goals with Chad. He could use some guy talk, I reckon."
"Sounds good to me. I'll give him the tour after guy talk has been had," Ryan said.
Chad was waiting in the hallway quietly, looking as though he was silently beating himself up for something that hadn't been his fault.
"It's gone now, don't look so glum, Chad," Kelsi said cheerfully. "Ryan's dying to talk your ear off about sports," she added, grinning when Chad brightened up a bit.
"Now, before we get into the serious stuff, I'm going to need a list of your favourite teams."
"That is the serious stuff!" Chad exclaimed, letting Ryan lead him back to the kitchen.
Laughing to herself, Kelsi made her way into the lounge room and headed up the almost-hidden set of stairs to the studio to where her piano waited.
...
End of the first chapter.
Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it.