CHAPTER 13

Ryan pushed the door to his bedroom open and walked through, followed shortly thereafter by one Troy Bolton who closed the door behind him. The two had been seeing each other for about two weeks now and were still very much in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, whatever it was. It was actually a lot like what they had been doing for a majority of the summer, except now there was kissing. A lot of kissing.

They had constantly been stealing away during all times of the day, whether or not they were at the club, relishing the times when they could just be with one another and explore their new relationship. It was a very exhilarating experience, being able to freely and physically express their feelings to one another. Troy enjoyed the quiet moments the most. The ones where he was able to just sit with Ryan, he'd usually throw his arm around the blond's shoulders or pull his body close so that they were pressed up to one another.

Ryan enjoyed the times when there were physically close. He'd always wanted to just hold hands with Troy. That simple act represented so many of his feelings. He loved being able to run his hand up Troy's arm, or tangle in his the blond's hair. He loved resting his head on Troy's shoulder, breathing in the scent that was uniquely Ryan's.

They had been careful to just let on things as usual, that they had made up after their argument and that things were just back to normal. Chad was glad to see that the two were getting along once again, but he didn't press Troy anymore on the matter they had discussed, which suited Troy just fine. He didn't feel like disrupting the peacefulness that his and Ryan's relationship had caused in his life.

He turned around and watched as Ryan plopped himself down gracefully on his king-sized bed. He still couldn't get over how big Ryan's bed was. He loved coming over and hanging out in his room simply for that fact. And it wasn't because anything of a sexual nature ever happened. It was just a soft, warm place where he could wrap himself around his boyfriend and just be.

Troy walked over to where Ryan was sitting and sat down right next to him. Then he lay down right there, his body flush against the blond's. Ryan turned on his side and leaned his head on Troy's chest. "This is nice," he said. "A nice game of golf in the afternoon, and then relaxing with my boy— uh, you." Ryan caught himself right before he slipped up and called Troy his boyfriend. They still hadn't had the time to discuss what exactly they were, and Ryan didn't want to rush anything, not wanting to scare Troy away by defining what they were too soon.

The brunet just smiled, not noticing Ryan's almost slip up, and slid his arm underneath Ryan's body. He enjoyed these moments, too, even though he was a bit less vocal about them. "You know, now that we're dating, you could at least let me win a game of golf every now and then," Troy said, enjoying the slight vibrations against his chest as Ryan laughed.

"You know I couldn't do that," Ryan said. "Relationships are always best built on foundations of honesty and I don't think we could keep it up if I just let you win."

"Ha, ha," Troy said before reaching around him in the pretences of giving the blond a hug. But that just made it all the more easy to begin tickling Ryan, who immediately reacted to Troy's wandering fingers by curling up and kicking his feet.

"Sto-Stop," Ryan said in between short breaths and bursts of laughter. "I-I give. I give."

"Tell me that I'm an amazing golfer and that I could beat you at any time," Troy said, not letting up at all, mostly because he wanted to hear Ryan say it, but also because he liked it when the blond got all flustered like he currently was.

"You're amazing," Ryan said, barely getting it out between breaths. "You could beat me at any time."

"Good," Troy said, stopping the tickling, but still leaving his hands resting on Ryan's stomach. "It wasn't quite what I said, but it'll do." He then leaned down and placed a soft kiss on the blond's lips.

"Mmm," Ryan said. "Keep that up and I'm just about likely to say anything you want me to." He then reached his arms up to wrap them around Troy's neck, just staring into the cool blue eyes of East High's very own basketball star.

Troy just settled his lower body against his boyfriends and rested his remaining weight on his elbows as he stared back at Ryan. These were the times he liked the most, just the two of them. They didn't have to pretend anything was different; they didn't have to think about the fact that a majority of the world thought what they were doing was wrong. They could just be Troy and Ryan.

"Do you think we'll ever tell people about us?" Troy asked, bringing up something he had been thinking about ever since it sunk in the fact that he and Ryan were definitely in a relationship, even if they hadn't actually defined it yet. It became a more important issue to him when he realized that he would be starting his senior year in just a few days. He didn't know what he was going to do around all of his friends if he couldn't be open about certain things in his life. It was something that had been troubling him for awhile, but hadn't brought up with Ryan seeing as how he didn't know how the blond would react to that kind of a conversation.

He knew that Ryan was open about his relationship with Austin, but he didn't know how that all changed with the fact that Troy himself was not out, hell he didn't even know exactly what he wanted to identify himself as. It also didn't help that they weren't actually official, yet. He wouldn't necessarily call himself gay because he had only ever been attracted to one guy. But the fact that he was seeing another guy would mean that he was, for all intents and purposes, in a gay relationship. He had a feeling that Chad would be okay with everything, and he knew that Gabriella would probably throw a party for the two of them, but that didn't mean he knew how anyone else would react to something like this. And coming out in high school was a big freaking deal. There was just so much to consider about it and he didn't really know how to go about doing it.

It probably would have been a completely different story if Troy had been out before he started seeing Ryan, but the fact of the matter was that was not the situation they were currently in. They had a lot to think about and a lot of people to take into consideration before doing anything.

"Well," Ryan started, removing his hands from Troy's neck and moving to sit up, causing his boyfriend to do the same thing, "eventually we will, right? I mean someday."

"Obviously someday," Troy replied. "But I mean, do you think we'll tell our friends now about it. Like, anytime soon? Or are we just going to keep sneaking around like this?"

Ryan was silent for a moment after that, mulling over how he was going to phrase what he had to say. "I don't know," he started. "I mean, Don't you just like being like this. If no one knows we don't have to worry about what they think. We don't have to conform to what other people think about us or anything. We can just be us; we can have this. I like this."

Troy smiled and placed a kiss on Ryan's cheek. "Don't get me wrong," Troy said, hoping Ryan wouldn't get upset with him, "I love these moments, too, but I don't know if I'm ready to be dishonest with everyone just so we can have this. What about that old saying those that mind don't matter and those that matter don't mind? Don't you think that makes any kind of difference?"

"I know," Ryan said. "And I don't really have any explanation for the way I feel, I just—I just don't want things to get too hard and for you to think I'm not worth it."

And with that, Troy finally understood. "Oh, babe," he said, moving in closer to Ryan. "Trust me; that's not going to happen."

"You say that now," Ryan started, not really looking at Troy. "But what about when people start asking questions? When they look at you differently? When they stop talking when you walk into the room? Will you be able to handle it then?"

Troy didn't really have a response for that. He'd never had to deal with anything even remotely resembling that before and he had nothing with which to base his opinions.

"Can we just stay the way we are for a little bit longer?" Ryan asked. "I'm not saying forever, but just for a little while."

Troy sighed. He knew he wasn't going to win this time, and really, he didn't have too much of a problem with the two of them keeping it under wraps for just a little bit. Besides, even though he had only been seeing Ryan for a few weeks, he found that he could very rarely say no to anything the blond asked of him. "Yeah," he said. "For a little bit."

HSM•••HSM

Troy gripped the basketball in both hands preparing to pass it to one of his teammates. It ended up having the desired affect on the person guarding him and Troy watched as Jason moved to the side to block the pass. In the blink of an eye, Troy had changed motions and extended his arms upward to shoot the ball toward the hoop.

Needless to say, the ball went in and Jason swore. "Dammit," he said. "Why do I always fall for that? You'd think that because we've been playing since grade school, I'd be onto you by now."

"I don't know," Troy said. "Sometimes you just can't handle someone this smooth, regardless of how long you've been playing with him. Sometimes, these mad skills just get the best of any opponent and you just find yourself at the mercy of some truly amazing tal—"

The brunet was cut off as the air escaped his lungs due to the basketball that Jason had just shoved in his stomach. "Oh, shut up," he said, walking off the court in Troy's backyard to grab one of the bottles of water that was waiting for them on a table near the porch. "Your ass is grass next time, trust me."

Troy just smirked and followed Jason over to where Chad and Zeke had already taken a seat. "We'll see," he said, grabbing a bottle, twisting off the cap and dumping some of the cool liquid over his head. He then proceeded to shake it out, causing his friends to hold up their hands in attempts to block the rogue water droplets from hitting them. He just laughed.

There were times like these that Troy didn't realize how much he missed until he was with his friends once again. He'd been spending all of his free time with Ryan lately, and had neglected to spend any time with his other friends. Not that he didn't love spending all of his time with Ryan, but this was nice too, in its own way. When Ryan told him that he was going shopping with his sister today and that he'd probably be busy for most of the Saturday, Troy immediately jumped at the opportunity to set up a scrimmage game in his back yard with his friends. It was a particularly hot day, and with only four people, they had all decided to play shirtless, which would have been nice for anyone passing by, but Jason definitely was going to have a nasty sunburn by the time they were done.

The friends sat around for a while, just catching their breath, and drinking their much needed water, until Chad spoke up. "Dudes," he started. "Did you guys here about John Amaechi?"

"John Amaechi?" Jason asked, confusedly. "Who's that?"

"Haven't you been watching Sports Center at all?" Zeke asked, surprised that any one of them didn't know about it. "The story's only been the main talking point for the last few days. And it really didn't help with Tim Hardaway shot his mouth off about it."

"Okay, you obviously have to fill me in because I have no idea what you're all talking about," Jason finally said, which was good, because Troy didn't really get it either. He just sat, waiting for the explanation.

"Okay, well," Chad started, trying to get straight all the information with which he had been bombarded over the last few days. "John Amaechi played college ball for Penn State and then played in the NBA for five years. He's releasing an autobiography next week and in it he admits that he's gay." Chad stopped to make sure that all of his friends were up to speed. He looked over at Zeke to make sure he was getting the story right.

"Okay," Jason said. "I get that, but what's the big deal? He's gay. So what? Tons of people are gay and they don't write books about it."

"Yeah," Chad agreed. "But he's the first pro basketball player to come out. And that's not really what all the news channels have been playing up, it's the fact that Tim Hardaway went off on the whole thing."

"What did he say?" Troy asked, now particularly interested in how this conversation was going. "Was it really bad?"

"It definitely wasn't good," Zeke responded, taking over the storytelling duties from his curly-haired friend. "He basically said that he hated gay people. He doesn't like being around them and that it has no place in sports, this country or the world. The press has been eating him alive for it all, but I don't think he's going to take any of it back."

Troy remained silent at all of this. He hadn't really considered the fact that people out there would hate him because of only one part of his identity. Being gay, or even just liking one guy in particular didn't make up the entirety of his existence, but there were people out there who would completely dismiss him because of that one thing. And it had even more of an impact because it this was all taking place in the realm of professional sports. The one thing he had always dreamed of becoming was a pro basketball player, and to think that there was that kind of hate out there just under the surface scared the crap out of him.

"That's crap," Jason said. "What the hell does Tim Hardaway know about society at all anyway? People like him just piss me off. They're the ones whose opinions have no place in this world."

It was times like this Troy was glad he had the friends he did. It did a lot to reassure him about his place around them, but there was still that lingering feeling. He knew he wouldn't be around these people for the rest of his life. Sooner or later, he'd come across someone that didn't agree with his lifestyle and then what would he do? Maybe Ryan was right just wanting to keep their relationship unknown for a little while. He didn't need everyone else heaping their expectations on top of him while he was still trying to figure out what exactly Ryan meant to him and what their relationship would be like.

Being in this relationship was going to be a lot more work than Troy had initially considered. It wasn't and couldn't be like any other relationship he'd had. But even considering all the challenges he was going to face, he thought he had made a good decision.

"You guys ready for another game?" Zeke asked, putting the cap back on his water bottle and setting it on the table. "I feel like Jason has some revenge he wants to get against a certain star athlete."

"Bring it on," Troy replied, happy for the distraction from his current thoughts. He was by no means done thinking about it, but he would definitely take up his friends on creating a diversion for him.

HSM•••HSM

Ryan and Sharpay exited yet another shop with yet another bag slung around their forearms. Some people thought that shopping for new school clothes would be a fun way to start off the school year, but for the Evans twins it was just as important as getting good grades. They had to have the newest styles and multiple variations of them in order to maintain their air of superiority and, of course, to impress all the new incoming freshman. It was really a mission more than it was an adventure.

"Well," Sharpay said consulting a list in one hand, "I think we've only got a few more stores to hit up before we take off, but you know, then we'll probably have to spend the rest of the day coordinating our outfits for the first week."

"While I'm happy to hear that you think it's almost time to go, because honestly, I don't know how much more room your car has in it, we've already made three trips out there," Ryan started. "I don't know how thrilled I am about spending the rest of my Saturday organizing clothes."

Sharapy looked at her brother with a scandalized look. "Honestly, Ryan, sometimes I don't know who you are and what you did with my brother," she said. "Ever since you started hanging out with Troy Bolton so much you seem to have a distinct lack of interest in all things fashion. And I don't like it."

"Come on, Shar," he said, rolling his eyes. "You know that I'm still committed to helping you wow the pants off every other student at East High, I just have other things I like to do, too."

Sharpay gave her brother a look. Ever since he told her about kissing Troy, she'd been suspicious of all his actions. She always asked more questions than needed and was always doubtful about the explanations he gave. Which was completely warranted, seeing as how he hadn't told her about the latest developments in his and Troy's relationship, but it was still weird, this change in their relationship. It wasn't that Ryan was some mindless drone who always did what Sharpay told him to, but he'd never had any reason to not go along with her, so he hadn't. Now he had a reason, and it was kind of nice to separate himself from his sister and become more of his own person.

"Well, whatever these other things are," Sharpay started, "I hope you realize that blood is thicker than water and we better be walking through the doors of East High on our last first day of school the same way we've done the last three years."

"And what way would that be?" Ryan asked, trying to keep the laughter he felt from coming up. Sometimes, his sister really did take herself entirely too seriously. But it did make for some fun times.

"Strikingly beautiful and awe inspiring," Sharpay said while flipping her platinum blond hair over her shoulder. "You can expect nothing less from an Evans, and you should know that by now."

Ryan had to look away from his sister to keep from doubling over. He loved her, but sometimes … While looking away, however, he spotted someone he hadn't seen in a while, and given the latest developments in his life, didn't really feel like chatting with right now. He tried subtly moving his sister in a different direction once he noticed Austin hadn't yet spotted them, but either he was too slow or his sister put up a bit too much resistance and before he could get them out of the way, he heard a voice calling after them.

"Ryan!" he called. "Sharpay, wait up." After garnering Sharpay's attention, he began walking toward the twins, a grin on his face. "Well, fancy seeing you guys here. But then again, it is almost time for school to start; where else would you be?"

"Austin," Sharpay said, reaching out to shake his hand. "It's so nice to see you. It's been such a long time. What have you been up to? Are you here getting new clothes for school, too?"

Ryan would have let out a sigh if it wouldn't be perceived as rude, but damn his sister. Of all the times she picks to be cordial to other people, she just had to pick this time. All Ryan wanted to do was get out of the mall and see Troy, and now he was stuck dredging up old memories while talking to his ex-boyfriend.

"I've been doing fine," Austin said, responding to Sharpay's question while focused completely on her brother. "A lot of things are changing, though. They actually started after Ryan decided to call it quits between us."

"Austin," Ryan started, not really wanting to bring up issues that were better left in the past, "we don't really need to—"

"It's okay, Ry," Austin said, cutting off his former boyfriend while putting his sneaky skills to work and slipping and arm around him. "We don't need to dwell on the past, especially when we have an exciting future to look forward to."

Ryan didn't really know what Austin was going on about, but it as well as the arm currently around his waist made him feel incredibly uncomfortable. He hadn't really interacted with Austin much after they broke up; they had communicated mainly through text, and then it was only a few messages. This whole meeting was currently throwing him for a loop and he didn't really know how to react. The only thing he was fairly positive about was the fact that if Troy were here, he would probably freak out at seeing Austin's possessive grip on him.

"So, what are you doing here?" Sharpay asked, noticing that her brother was a bit uncomfortable.

"Well, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to add some red to my wardrobe seeing as how I'll be needing more of it next year," Austin said, a big grin on his face that did very little to ease Ryan's feelings of foreboding.

"What are you talking about?" Ryan asked. "Why will you need more red?"

"You twisted my arm, babe," Austin replied, causing Ryan to frown for multiple reasons. "My parents thought it would be a good idea that I transfer to a public school for my last year of high school and I couldn't have agreed with them more. I'll be coming to East High this year! Isn't that exciting?"

Exciting was definitely not the word Ryan would have chosen to describe the situation. Disaster was probably more apt. He was almost positive that Austin's parents would never have made that decision without a lot of prodding from their son, which left Ryan with the question of why Austin would want to do that. And the only answer he could come up with was not something he really wanted to think about at all. He ended up looking over at his sister, trying to gauge her reaction because he didn't really understand how he was actually going to react.

She smiled and Ryan couldn't tell if it was forced or not, and he cursed her acting abilities. "Well, we'll be happy to have you around," she said.

HSM•••HSM

Ryan was able to steal away from his house after a while planning outfits with his sister. Troy had texted him and told him to meet at the park near the high school and Ryan was more than happy to oblige. He hadn't seen his Troy since the night prior, and seeing as how it was almost sundown, it was probably the longest he had been without seeing the brunet since they started dating. And he was itching to get in some quality Troy time.

When he got to the open space of the park near the baseball field, he spotted Troy standing by one of the larger trees. He smiled Troy wave when he finally spotted him and then began jogging over to the brunet. Troy reached out and grabbed Ryan around the waist when he was within range, he then gave a quick glance around to make sure they were alone before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. "How was your day?" he asked Ryan.

"Oh, you know how shopping with Sharpay can be," Ryan said, waving his hands as if that explained everything. "But we did run into Austin at the mall," he finished, hoping Troy wouldn't ask too many questions about it.

"What did he want?" Troy asked. He hadn't heard anything of or from Austin since he found out that Ryan had ended things between the two. It had actually been pretty weird; Ryan didn't talk about him at all. In all honesty, Troy had kind of forgotten about the other blond.

"Oh, not much," Ryan said off-handedly. "He just told me and Shar that he was going to be coming to East High this year. He said his parents wanted him to get a new experience or something like that."

Troy frowned. "Are you okay with all of this?" he asked. "I mean, things between the two of us are different now and are you going to be okay with all of us going to the same school?"

"I'm sure things will be fine," Ryan said, only half believing himself. "I mean, he'll have to eventually accept us, right? Just like everybody else. And if he doesn't like it, he'll just have to deal with it. This is between the two of us and no one else."

Troy had been with him until that last comment. He was suddenly reminded of his conversation earlier with his friends about the gay basketball player. As much as he really wanted their relationship to just be between the two of them, he knew that others would still have their opinions. They would still be affected by what others thought of them. And he wasn't just referring to Austin. What would college recruiters think of his relationship? And even if they didn't care, what about the other players on the team? What about his parents? It was all so much to think about, and all so overwhelming.

Ryan immediately picked up that something was wrong. Although he didn't know exactly what it was, he had a feeling that it had to do with him talking about their relationship becoming official. Maybe Troy had reconsidered what they had talked about earlier. And Ryan couldn't really blame him, they hadn't really talked much about having an official relationship. Troy had never agreed to be Ryan's boyfriend; they were just seeing each other. Hanging out, with kissing on the side.

"Oh," Ryan said, beginning to pull himself from Troy's grasp. "I see. I uh—I don't want to make things any harder on you than they already are."

"What?" Troy said, coming out of his ruminations and feeling Ryan trying to move away. "What are you talking about? Harder than what already is?" He tried to keep Ryan close to him. He knew that things would be hard for them, but he didn't want to give up on anything so quickly, especially not something he thought was going to end up meaning quite a bit to him.

"What you were saying," Ryan said, obviously confused. "I thought you were afraid of going public about, well, whatever we are. I didn't think you wanted to be my boyfriend."

"No," Troy said quickly, hoping to stem Ryan's worries. "That's not what I meant at all. I was just thinking about this conversation me and the guys were having earlier today about this basketball player who came out and I guess the sports world is going nuts about it."

"Oh," Ryan said again, still thinking his suspicions were being confirmed. "Well, I guess it's better we find out about this all now than later when things could have been more serious." After he finished he resumed trying to get out of Troy's arms, still not seeing the difference in the explanation as long as it ended up with the same result.

"Wait," Troy said, gripping Ryan tighter, still trying to get the blond to stop his movements. "What are you talking about? I didn't say anything like that. I was just thinking. I mean, sure, if and when things happen it will probably be more difficult for me and if I don't end up being able to play college ball or pro ball then that's that. It's not something we have to worry about right now."

Ryan was now more confused than he had been since this whole conversation began. "I thought," he started, but then changed tactics. "But you've only ever dreamed about playing professional basketball. I don't want you to have to give all of that up, especially if it's just for me."

"Even if it's just you," Troy repeated, not understanding why Ryan was talking about himself as though he didn't matter. He softly cupped Ryan's chin and brought his face so that they were incredibly close and facing one another. "Ryan, there are some things that are more important than basketball."

"But I thought—" Ryan started, but was cut off before he could get anything else out.

"You think too much," Troy said before leaning in and placing a soft kiss on the blond's lips. When he pulled away he smiled at the dazed look that was on Ryan's face. "Look, I know that we don't really know exactly what we're doing right now, but you need to know that I'm in this. I really like you. And I'm willing to find out exactly what this could be for the both of us. That is, if you're willing to work for it, too."

Ryan smiled and finally leaned in closer to Troy, placing his head on the firm chest in front of him. He hadn't realized how tense the whole situation had made him until it was finally over and he was able to relax.

"Come on," Troy said, nudging the relaxing blond. "Let's sit down. I want to hear all about your shopping adventure with your sister."

Ryan left the warm cocoon of Troy's embrace and sat down with him against the tree, finding a nice spot in between Troy's legs. He soon felt Troy's arms wrap themselves back around him as he settled back and began regaling Troy with his tales of the mall, letting him know about all the good deals they found and all of the cute outfits he got for school.

Troy just chuckled and leaned his forehead against the back of Ryan's. He didn't really pay too much attention to what he was saying, but did make noises at seemingly appropriate pauses. He was more focused at just being with the boy who was beginning to mean a whole hell of a lot to him.

A/N: So, I'm not sure how many of your are familiar with the John Amaechi story, but I did take a few liberties with the actual date of the whole thing so that I could fit it into the story. If you're interested, has some great stories about all of it. There are some pretty good quotes to get from it, if you're into that kind of thing.

But anyway, how was that? A nice progression and a little bump in the road for our two boys … and what's going on with Austin? You heard right, he is coming back into the picture. You'll all just have to wait and see what all of this means. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Please review!