"Dude, I'm literally so nervous."
Sam said from the sink of the bathroom he and Ryder were in, peeing before Sectionals. (They were both nervous pee-ers)
Ryder zipped himself up and looked back over his shoulder at the blonde, before flushing.
"You're nervous?"
He asked Sam with a short laugh.
"I saw a video of you guys at Nationals last year, dude. You guys were awesome."
"And plus you've done this before."
He said to Sam, walking over to the sink next to Sam and turning the water on.
"This is the first time I've ever performed in front of any audience, ever."
"Nuh uh!"
Sam objected, looking over at Ryder as he soaped his own hands up.
"You were kinda in Grease, remember?"
"Yeah, but that was different."
Ryder said.
"I was Danny when I was in Grease."
"Ass kickin', Greaser, Danny."
"Now I'm just gonna be Ryder; who kinda feels like he wants to puke because of how nervous he is."
Ryder said with a pathetic laugh and sigh, soaping up and washing up his hands.
Sam finishes washing his hands and dries them, before putting a comforting one of Ryder's shoulder.
"I was the same during my first sectionals, man. You'll be fine."
He tells Ryder.
"When you're out there singing and having the time of your life, you forget all about your nerves, man, I swear."
He says, taking his hand from Ryder's shoulder at patting him on the back.
Ryder takes a minute to take in what Sam said, before grabbing a paper towel and nodding,
"Thank Sam."
"Its no problem bro. Now c'mere, let me take a look at your outfit."
He says to Ryder, pulling him out in front of him and looking him up and down, brushing off some lint, and flattening out certain parts of his clothing.
"A man can't feel confident with his get up all messed up."
He explains to Ryder.
Ryder just kinda stands there, feeling awkward that Sam is running his hands up and down his body, but also thinking its kinda cool that Sam cares enough about him to care that his outfit looks sweet.
Sam flattens out the collar on Ryder's shirt before standing up straight and telling Ryder;
"Now do me."
Ryder just kinda awkwardly stands there for like three seconds, before running his eyes along Sam's shirt and pants, allowing his hands to slowly descend down to swipe some hair of Sam's chest.
He does the same as Sam did, finishing up with straightening and flattening out his collar.
"There."
He tells Sam when he's done.
Sam turns towards the mirror to check himself, smiling- which makes Ryder think he did a good job.
"Nice!"
Sam responds.
"Dude, you're way better at that then Finn or Puck ever was..."
Sam says and with that, Ryder grins.
Ryder knows Sam just meant it as a simple compliment; Finn and Puck were his friends. But to Ryder it was like saying 'You're better and something then two of glee's legends that also used to be my best friends.'
The two hear a dinging from outside the bathroom- which means its time for the performances to start.
"C'mon man, we gotta go!"
Sam says to Ryder, surprising Ryder by taking his hand and leading him out of the bathroom and back to backstage, where the rest of the glee club is, hustling and bustling about as they get ready to go on in 10 minutes.
Sam is still holding Ryder's hand and nobody has really seemed to notice- not even Sam, really.
Ryder see's Brittany stretching on a Ballet bar not far from him and Sam, and he suddenly he's hit with a wave of nervousness.
He has to perform a dance routine with Brittany in front thousands of people.
In like seven minutes.
Ryder lets go of Sam hand, wanting to deal with his total freak out and nervousness by himself. Maybe if he just practices the dance moves like 10 more times before they go on he'll be okay.
Sam looks over at him when Ryder lets his hand go, and he instantly see's the panic and worry in the younger boys face- he's kind of an expert at that actually.
"Bro. Hey."
He says softly, a concerned look on his face as he nudges Ryder in the shoulder.
It takes Ryder a moment to shake himself out of his thoughts and look over at Sam.
He clears his through. "Um... yeah?"
"Dude, Remember what I said, when you're-"
"I know."
Ryder interrupted Sam.
"'When you're out there singing and having the time of your life, you forget all about your nerves', I know. I just literally remembered I have to lift up a person on stage... And i'm just really afraid i'm gonna drop Brittany..."
"I kinda just don't wanna be that guy who ruins sectionals by dropping a girl in the middle or there performance."
Sam starts laughing, and Ryder just sends an annoyed, kind of confused, glare.
"Dude, you have the best arms in the school, and you can do the freakin' worm! If you can do the worm you're not gonna drop Brittany."
"Just do it like you guys have practiced ten thousand billion times and you'll be fine. Trust yourself bro."
And with that the New Directions are being called onto stage, and Ryder grabs Sam's hand again, like his hand is a security blanket.
Sam thinks back to his first sectionals, when he was about Ryder's age. He remembers how nervous he was, and how he didn't know if he could do it if it weren't for those two minutes him and Quinn had behind the curtains, before they started singing.
Sam quickly looked around, seeing that most of his glee club members were out of sight. He had to this now if he was gonna, time was running out.
And It wasn't like he was singing a duet with Ryder, or he thought he maybe kinda loved Ryder, or that he was doing this only to give Ryder confidence; If you wanted to be honest with Sam, he actually kinda... liked Ryder, although he wasn't exactly ready to admit what way yet.
And quickly, while Ryder was looking away, Sam stood up on his tippy toes and kissed Ryder on the cheek.
The glee club members were calling them now, and he knew that there was no time left, they had to get on stage now.
Sam started to pull away... Until he felt the younger boys lips on his...- and there was no way in hell he was pulling back from that.
It was just the lips- Ryder's lower lip getting caught between Sam's at first... and the taste of chap stick on Sam's. And the heat coming off Ryder's bodies as it was pressed against Sam's... And the sweet but tangy breath of one teenage boy from another.
Ryder's fingers softly grazed there way up the side of Sam's warm cheek, the tips teasing in his blonde locks on the way to cup Sam's face passionately.
Sam's hand remained the place he had put when he originally went up to kiss Ryder, awkwardly on Ryder's shoulder; but as they kissed his fingers went to absent-mindlessly massage the material off Ryder's shirt.
And there the two boys were caught, in a mix of hearts thumping, lips meeting and faces flushing- forgetting where they even were, until a loud throat clear from Jake broke them apart.
They quickly stumbled apart, breathing hard as they looked at each other with hot faces, and almost astonishment in there eyes at what had just happened.
Jake cleared his throat again, and Sam and Ryder looked at him.
"Uhm, I'm glad you guys are having a bro bonding moment are whatever, but if you don't get out a stage now you are not performing!"
He whisper shouted, as to the people in the audience couldn't here him.
Sam and Ryder looked at each-other before quickly nodding and running towards the stage.
"Wait, bro."
Ryder quickly stopped Jake.
"Please don't say anything? Okay?"
"Not like I'd want to."
Jake replied, before running up to his spot behind Brittany.
Ryder followed in suit, running up to his spot behind Unique, middle row, Sam on his left side.
He stood there in anticipation, listening as the announcer called
'And up next, New Directions!'
Ryder looked over Sam one last time, nerves coursing through his veins and his heart racing. And Sam looked back, sending a classic Sam smile, and then... winking at Ryder.
Ryder chuckled to himself, a blush spreading on his face, and his thumping the similar way it had before.
And that was it. He was pretty sure he'd never be nervous again.