Disclaimer: This will contain blood, strong language, homophobic slurs, and violence. If you do not like any of these things, then this one-shot is not for you. I do not own High School Musical nor do I own the characters. Ryan and Sharpay are 17 in this fic, though it's not too important.

Enjoy!

O - O - O - O - O

"I just don't understand, Ryan!" Sharpay sobbed into her hands as her brother shushed her and comforted her. It was always this way, nearly every day Sharpay would come home and cry on Ryan's shoulder.

"Sharpay, Zeke is an idiot for breaking up with you." Ryan rubbed her back lightly as she cried.

Sharpay embraced her brother, who was slightly annoyed at the fact that his sister's tears were staining his shirt. He returned the embrace nonetheless, knowing that she was hurting. Little did Sharpay know, that her brother had been hurting as well.

Flashback

"Hey, faggot." Troy's words rang in Ryan's ears as he was shoved brutally to the ground.

"What do you want, Troy?" Ryan choked out.

Troy didn't answer his question, he simply grasped Ryan by his shirt collar and socked him right in the nose. Ryan's vision blurred and the words that Troy was screaming at him were inaudible. His ears were ringing, and they continued to ring as Troy kicked his ribs. Ryan cried out in pain but he was unable to hear his own screams. It was like when you were underwater and the sound above the water was muffled.

When the ringing in his ears stopped it was because Troy had already walked away. There was nobody there to help Ryan, he just laid there, silently sobbing. He got up and headed home when the pounding in his head stopped and the most of the pain faded. He was thirty minutes late for dinner, and he had to explain to his parents where the bruises and bloody nose came from. He told them that he had tumbled down into the dried up pond area around the corner. It was easy enough to believe since there were rocks where the water had been before the summertime. (The pond wasn't very deep, it was more like a large puddle.)

They had dinner that night with no more questions asked, not that any more was to be explained.

O - O - O - O - O

Still Flashback

The next day when Ryan arrived at school, Sharpay had been at home with the flu that day, there were people gathered around his locker, and the people who weren't gathering around were still gazing directly at him. Ryan slowly made his way to his locker, pushing through the crowd of snickering students. When he reached with his locker, he was met with a horrifying sight.

A picture of him kissing Chad Danforth at Troy Bolton's New Years party.

The students around him were laughing, yelling out words to him such as 'fag' or 'queer'. All Ryan did was cry, but he didn't turn around. If he did, it would be another reason for everyone to taunt him. Everything went in slow motion for Ryan, he felt as if he couldn't see clearly, and he realized that it was from the tears. All he heard was the giggles and yells, he didn't even feel his Kelsi's arms wrapping around his chest, yet his hands still made their way up to grasp her arms. He smiled through his tears at the fact that his best friend didn't think of him as the others did, she still wanted to be his friend. Her arms moved away from him, causing him to frown, but a smile tugged at his lips when he heard her yelling. Everybody went silent and filed away from his locker, and Kelsi returned.

She hugged him goodbye and moved along, and that's when Ryan had realized that the bell had rung. He wiped his tears away and made his way to his classroom.

Sharpay never knew.

Flashback Over

Ryan realized that he had been crying, and Sharpay had seen. Her expression had been a mixture of concern and confusion. Her hands were resting lightly on her brother's trembling shoulders.

"Ryan," She said, tears were forming in her eyes at the sight of his sorrow, "What's wrong?"

He shakily brought his head up to face her, fresh tears streaming down his cheeks, "I..."

He began to sob loudly, burying his head in Sharpay's shoulder. He told her everything, about how Troy beat him up, about his locker. He told her about the names that he was called when she wasn't at school, what people told him. That he was disgusting, that he was a fag, that he didn't deserve to live. He was about to go on until Sharpay shushed him as he had done with her.

"Ryan, I love you no matter what. You know that, don't you?" She whispered as she ran her hand through his messy hair, his hat long forgotten.

"Y-You do?" Ryan faltered.

"Yes, I do." Sharpay clarified, "And those kids, are just dumb. You deserve much better."

Ryan cried harder, happy tears at the fact that his sister accepted him, and he beamed at her. The next day, they would go to school and all would be different. Yes, people would whisper and snicker in the halls when Ryan entered, but he wouldn't care. The only person he needed to survive was his sister, she made sure that she was always there for him from then on. There wasn't anything that could change her perspective on her brother.

It was the power of a sister's love.