Author's Note: Spiteful, short, midnight written Rypay drabble. Enjoy. :)
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Happiness
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She draws her life goals in glitter on pink paper.
They're the usual suspects;
1) fame
2) her own fortune and not the hand-me-down from her parents, and of course-
3) the ever important wish that when they return for the twenty year reunion, Troy will have a pot belly and be balding and Gabriella will be a stay at home mother with five brats all underhand.
What Sharpay does not allow for in her planning (for it's not wishing, Sharpay doesn't wish, she gets) is for the Bolton pair to be actually happy.
Her brother does not write down anything at all and calls her an anal retentive when she pulls out the pens and the paper. He's gotten some more backbone since the summer, which is a pity really since Sharpay could've almost said that she held affection for her lap dog of a twin. But now that he's gone and become a "Wildcat" he's no relative of hers and she hisses that to him as they walk into the school arm-in-arm, with big stage smiles, her nails digging into his skin through his silk shirt.
Oh, how she does not forgive.
At one point it gets so bad that Ryan tells her (actually says in a way that shows how he and Sharpay are truly alike), that no matter how many dreams Gabi (gag) and Troy have to give up, no matter who gains weight and who loses hair, no matter how many coupons they may have to cut out, the Boltons (for they will be the Boltons, everyone including Sharpay knows it) will always be in love.
She promptly broke his nose, but it was worth the pure stab of vindictive pleasure he felt. Worth it.
In the end though, in the quiet, undramatic dead of early morning, Sharpay sneaks into his room and curls up on his bed and cries.
He pretends to be asleep, but he can feel her sobbing, hear her and Ryan rolls over and doesn't touch her, no, not this time, but watches her and waits.
When she's finally done, when her face is sticky and puffy and all sorts of horrible, he tells her very quietly that she can be happy too, in love, if she just lets go of all that shit.
Sharpay laughs wetly. "Oh yeah, who with?"
She's completely dismissed Zeke, who's followed her around everywhere and showered her with all the sweet things she secretly loves and Ryan doesn't say anything. He doesn't say anything because he doesn't care for the way Sharpay can dismiss someone who so obviously adores her. Oh, he doesn't care about Zeke either, not really, but if Sharpay can brush aside someone like that who lets themselves show her what they feel, imagine how she could destroy someone who doesn't.
Quietly, very quietly, he just whispers, "You can be."
It's not the answer she wants but she accepts it, accepts it as all she'll get from this strange new brother who's long since cut their umbilical cord.
They lay together in the dark and don't say anymore, though occasionally Ryan will feel the soft, fleeting touch of her silky hair, maybe her hand and he holds his breath like she's omitting a hazardous gas.
He keeps his thoughts to himself, like he always does and that night Sharpay is restless with her own.