Scream
Chapter 1: It Happened
Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez. Ever since Christmas Vacation of his junior year in high school, Troy Bolton, golden boy and basketball god had been aware that his peers liked hearing those names together.
It was true enough, Gabriella Montez, the dark-haired, out going brainiac chick, best friend of Chemistry Club President, Taylor McKessie was his girlfriend. They were going out, had been, still were. Yet, the more Troy contemplated this, the more it seemed to become evident that they were not together because they wanted to be, or even because they chose to be. More or less, Troy was discerning that he and Gabriella were going out because they were expected to.
Yes, it was indeed the truth he felt happy when he was around Gabriella, sort of like he could open up like a book and allow her to read him. They had fun singing together, and all of their friends considered it to be the " sweetest thing " when they were seen flirting in the halls. Yes, Gabriella was sweet, funny, charming and pretty… but, Troy retained an inconceivable emptiness. His " perfect " life and " perfect " relationship with his " perfect " girlfriend should have made him the happiest man alive. He wasn't.
Rather, everything was closing in on him. Suffocating him. The expectations all working together to crush him.
He did not love Gabriella. Did. Not. He should. He felt as though he should, like he was expected to, but he didn't. He could not comprehend why, either… or maybe the reason was much clearer than he was letting himself onto.
No matter what, whenever he was with Gabriella, that feeling of expectations crushing him weighing on his chest, constricting his breathing and mercilessly, slowly choking him, two words always found a way into his head, saving him at the last minute from certain doom; Ryan Evans.
Beautiful. Blond. Gay. Sharpay's angelic brother, Ryan Evans. Ryan was a captivating, stunning person. Troy had to admit, Ryan was better looking than him, and trumped Gabriella's appearance ten to one. The blond theater boy had the soft, sweet toned, lilting voice of an angel in heaven as well as the appearance of one. His choreography was enthralling and seductive. It would be a lie to say that Troy was not, as of late, attaining pleasure by use of his right hand when Ryan plagued his thoughts.
No girl had ever made him feel that way. Not even Gabriella, the girl everyone expected him to love.
Watching his girlfriend, Gabriella dance had him applauding out of courtesy and secretly squirming in his seat. Watching Ryan, the gay boy people of his kind were "expected" to hate and want beaten to the brink of death, was another story. Every powerful thrust of Ryan's strong, wide hips, had him sitting straighter, wishing that he could be either in front of him, or behind him while he was owning the stage and grinding his hips into air. His eyes riveted on the curves of Ryan's delicate flesh pressing outward against his always too tight jeans, Troy found himself spreading his legs apart to relieve the tightness his swelling hormones were creating in his pants.
He first became aware of these abnormal, un-jock like feelings for Ryan when he and his friends took up summer jobs at the resort, Lava Springs, founded by the Evans family. Sharpay, the blond male's fraternal twin sister served as his waking nightmare, never leaving him alone. Not even his scarce in supply moments with Gabriella helped. From a distance, he found himself falling for the angel from heaven, Ryan Evans. He remembered the rush of warm feelings he had felt seeing Ryan rehearsing with the Wildcats, then the cold, dark envy when Ryan hugged Gabriella. The only thing he could think of was what a ho his girlfriend was.
He thought after breaking up with Gabriella, and reconciling with her thanks to Ryan's song, "Everyday", these abnormal, un-jock-like, far from "perfect" feelings of his would subside. They did not, just like he did not love his girlfriend. Senior year was now upon them and his feelings for the neglected, abused, beaten and bruised, yet ever beautiful and optimistic male Evans twin only intensified. He wanted Ryan so badly, he couldn't think straight, and that was his problem. He could not think straight, like he was supposed to, "expected" to, because he was not.
He had always been different from other jocks, and for the very first time, he found himself wishing he could live like someone else; Ryan Evans.
Unlike him, Ryan had nothing to hide. The theater boy was open about his flaw, his sin, even at the price of being ridiculed, beaten, and going through every year of high school with no one but his few friends and his sister at his side.
The sympathy, the maddening lust Troy felt toward Ryan could only mean one thing. The solution to his problems with Gabriella had at last found its way out of the dark emptiness to him. He did not, could not love Gabriella, because he was in love… with Ryan Evans.
Right as this conclusion finally clapped down upon him, striking him with the electrifying, blinding intensity of lightning, a sharp scream tore throughout the school. Everyone immediately recognized it as Sharpay's. Troy, his best friend, Chad, and Gabriella whipped around in alarm.
"Sharpay!" Gabriella started.
"Ice Queen? What the heck-?" Chad's brown eyes widened in confusion.
Sharpay choked back a sob, tear after tear streaming down her face, making her heavy make-up run. No student at East High had ever seen her like this and Troy felt a dark, foreboding sense of dread steal over him. Something was terribly, terribly wrong.
His eyes wide, Troy asked in a low, tremulous tone "Sharpay, what-happened?"
"It-It's Ryan!" Sharpay wailed, her voice quaking with grief and fear. "He's-! He's-!" she broke off, sinking to her knees. In an instant, Zeke Baylor, her boyfriend and one of Troy's closest friends was at her side, providing the stability and support she so obviously needed.
No words needed to be said. Gabriella let out a muffled gasp, turning to her boyfriend for comfort. Troy couldn't offer it. The crushing expectations were suffocating him once again, closing over his head in a black wave. He knew in an instant, his world was ending.
In Sharpay's well-manicured hands, she tightly clenched a blood soaked pageboy hat that could belong to only one person, her brother and the love of Troy's life, Ryan Evans.
It happened.
Chapter 2: Alive but Empty
Ow. Oww. Ugh! L-Leg. Arm. Hurt. Hurt. Blood. Pain. Knife. Sharpay! Troy! These words were pounding in the head of Ryan Evans. Letting out a groan, and clenching his teeth, the soft blond adolescent forced himself upright, his thick eyelashes lifting like a veil from over his blue eyes. A dim light was shining through what appeared to be a crack in his prison of blackness. Extending his reach toward the sliver of light, his fingers met cold metal.
"What the heck?!" he wondered aloud. He felt along the sides. More rough, rusted metal. He was in some sort of box. He had no sense of time, no sense of location. All he knew was he had to get out. Sliding his fingers under where light came in, he felt cool wind blow gently against his fingertips. Grunting with exertion, he did what seemed logical and pushed up. Searing pain shot up his arm and leg at the force on them, but his desire to escape, his want of freedom proved stronger than the sensation of pain.
He found the panel he pushed up was some sort of lid and getting weakly to his feet, he could feel the wind on his face. He was dazed, his head was light and pounding and he was slightly nauseous, but he could see, and he was free. Gulping down breaths of air, Ryan's thought process became steadily clearer. He glanced down and determined that he was in a dumpster, somewhere in town, and it was night.
His memories of before he lost consciousness all came back to him at a sickening speed. He recalled arriving at school, Sharpay leaving him for a few minutes and then, being cornered by a gang. They outnumbered him ten to one and with his meek physique, it wasn't much of a challenge to over power him, still, the blond theater boy put up a valiant bout of resistance, which apparently further angered his antagonizers. The leader whipped out a pocketknife and slashed his leg and arm.
"Bastards." He muttered. "That explains the pain. So what did they do after that, knock me out and drop me off in a dumpster?" He climbed out of the metallic trash receptacle, staggering and groaning at the application of weight upon his injured limb. "How long has it been?" he wondered aloud, staring at the orange glow of the street lamps and the far off tiny specks of white stars sprinkling the never ending night sky stretching on forever above him. It was daylight when he had been knocked out of reality.
Wearing a bitter scowl, he delved into his pocket, relieved his cell phone was still there.
"Ha!" Ryan exclaimed triumphantly. "It's lucky for me I'm a queer! The jerks were probably too disgusted to dig in my pants and steal my phone." Fishing the white cell out, he flipped the phone open staring at the digital numbers on the top, left hand corner of the screen. "Nine o' clock." He murmured. "November twenty-first." His blue irises widened, nearly taking up the full span of his eyes. "I-It was November nineteenth when I was last conscious! Oh-Oh my gosh! I've been lying in a dumpster for three days! Everyone must be thinking something horrible's happened to me!!" His heart rate accelerated, and in a moment of damsel-in-distress panic, he began hyperventilating until a brave rush of testosterone rushed into him. Drawing in a deep breath, Ryan scolded, "Get a hold of yourself, Evans! You're alive, you're… mostly uninjured, and you have a cell phone. Call your family that's probably been worried sick about you and let them know you're alright!" Setting his jaw in determination, the blond male took in another steadying breath, and dialed his sister's number. The line rang for a few moments, and he noticed her ring tone had changed form Vanessa Hudgens' "Amazed", to Kelly Clarkson's "Behind These Hazel Eyes".
"In just three days?!" he marveled aloud to himself. "Wow, I'm impressed, Shar!"
At last, his sister finally picked up. "L-Look you!" she snapped, her voice fierce. "If this is your idea of some kind of sick, twisted joke, I'll have you know that-!!"
"Shar?" he gently broke in.
"Ryan?!! Oh my god!!!"
Sharpay broke into a series of sobs, leaving Ryan doing the best he could to console her over the phone. She managed to tell him that when she returned, all she found was a blood soaked hat. Everyone at school was shaken by the discovery and school was canceled for the day. Principal Matsui ordered a police search of the premises, which came up empty-handed. Zeke, Troy, and Gabriella came home with her to try and cheer her up, give her support, and reassure that everything was going to be all right, but Troy did not do anything. He appeared to be just as grief ridden as Sharpay herself, and ended up staying the night in Ryan's room.
Ryan felt his pale, smooth as porcelain face heat up and his heart rate accelerate. Troy Bolton in his room? It couldn't be! He had secretly been pining with love for Troy since freshman year, now, four years later, the perfect jock chose to sleep in his room- while he wasn't in it?!!
The police tried their best to hunt down the people responsible, who Sharpay swore with venom