The next morning, I woke up in my room, Troyless. The night before had been an amazing night. The sky was beautiful (and no, we didn't do that. Especially not on the golf course.) and…well, basically it was a good night. I looked around my room trying to remember exactly what it was that I was supposed to do that day, when my phone rang. I sighed and picked it up. "Hello?" I asked it.
"Ryan!!" squealed a particularly happy person on the other side of the phone.
"Yeah," I said.
"You're not dead!" the person said very happily.
"Uh, not that I know of," I said.
"Okay, thank God," she said, sounding relieved.
"Kelsi?" I asked.
"Yeah, why?" she said.
"Okay," I said. "Just checking. Why did you think I was dead?"
"Uh, no reason," Kelsi said. "I gotta go."
"Okay," I said. I hung up. That was unbelievably weird. I got out of bed and stretched, still trying to remember exactly what it was that I was supposed to do that day. It wasn't until after I took a shower and was half dressed that I remembered. Troy had the day off! And we were supposed to get together. I quickly looked at the clock. 9:30am. I had some time to get properly dressed before we were supposed to go out. I wasn't sure what he was going to propose we do, but I figured it would be fun. It took longer than usual for me to get my hair just right, and I only just arrived downstairs in time to meet Troy, who beamed at the sight of me. I can't get over how unbelievably adorable he is being about this entire thing.
"So, what are we doing today?" he asked me. To tell the truth, I hadn't really thought about it that much.
"I don't know," I said. "Let's go somewhere and do something."
"That's really descriptive," Troy replied, laughing.
"You come up with something better," I challenged. He couldn't. "Okay, so who's car are we taking?"
"You have a car?" he asked. I just stared at him.
"Duh?" I said. "How else would I get around?"
"I've never seen you drive before," he said.
"Very perceptive, aren't we, Troy?" I said. "Of course I drive." I led the way around to my garage, showing him my car.
"It's very shiny," Troy remarked.
"Is that all you know about cars?" I asked. "A car is good if it's shiny, and it's bad if it's not?"
"If that was true, that would explain why my truck is a heap of junk," Troy said.
"It's not very shiny," I said. We got into my car, and I started driving towards the first place I could think of, which happened to be the East Albuquerque mall.
"You're taking me shopping?" Troy whined.
"Take it like a man, Troy," I said, although Troy missed the musical reference. "You need some real clothes. And not those pathetic excuses for clothing. Jeans and a tee-shirt? Honestly."
"Well, I do want to look good," Troy said. "But won't people wonder why we're shopping together?"
"Who said anything about shopping?" I asked, winking. Troy gave me a look halfway between utter confusion and horror, and I just laughed, walking into the mall as I did so, with Troy right behind me.
"Okay," he said, after we'd walked around the mall taking in all the glamour that was a Tuesday morning. "So, where do we start?"
"Well, we don't want you to come off too good looking," I said, "or you might out shine me."
"Oh no," Troy joked. "We couldn't have that."
"Shut up," I said. "I guess Abercrombie?"
"That place gives me the creeps," Troy said. "It's always dark and the pictures are in black and white."
"But there's shirtless guys in the pictures," I reminded him.
"I'm in," Troy said immediately. We shopped around in Abercrombie for a while, and Troy ended up with a new pair of jeans (stylish, if I do say so myself) and a couple polo shirts. I headed next door to Hollister. "Hollister? Really?"
"Yeah," I said. He shrugged. I ended up pulling him around to American Eagle, The Gap, and Macy's. He actually ended up with a fair amount of new clothes, and so did I, although not nearly as much.
"These are really nice clothes," Troy said, as we sat down to eat lunch in the food court. "I'm impressed."
"Because you assume that I, like most guys, have no fashion sense or taste?" I asked.
"No, because you picked them out and I actually like them," Troy said. "I'm hungry though." As if by some random stroke of luck, you'll never believe who came along just then. Yeah, it was Chad.
"Hey guys, what's up?" Chad said, sitting down at our table.
"Um, not much, Chad, what's up with you?" I asked.
"Nothing," he said. He looked at me, and my face must have been sporting an odd expression. "What?"
"Uh, curious as to what you're doing at the mall on a Tuesday afternoon," I said.
"She dragged me here," Chad said.
"Taylor?" Troy clarified.
"Taylor," Chad confirmed.
"So, what's wrong with Taylor?" I asked. They had always gotten along so well.
"Nothing!" Chad said. "But I hate shopping."
"Hey, shopping's not all that bad," Troy said. "We had fun."
"Uh-huh," Chad said. "You've got to get me out of here." Before we could speak, Taylor sat down next to him. "Hi, Tay."
"You found them," Taylor said. "I figured they'd be here."
"Okay, now she's a creepy stalker person," I said to Troy, who laughed.
"No tickle fights in the mall," Troy told me, and I fake pouted a little.
"Tickle fights?" Chad asked. "What have you been up to?"
"Tickle fights," Troy said, dead seriously, but also like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Duh," I added for good measure, and Troy finally cracked under the pressure of not laughing and started laughing.
"Uh-huh, sure," Taylor said. "I'm sure that's all you've been up to." Troy looked immediately around us to make sure no one was listening.
"That is all we've been up to," he said. I made a bad attempt to stifle a laugh by turning it into a cough, but it didn't work.
"What did you two do last night?" Taylor asked, now very interested.
"Nothing," I said, quickly, but Troy rolled his eyes.
"Just tell them," he said.
"I don't wanna. They'll tease us," I protested.
"This isn't the seventh grade," Chad said. "No one's going to be 'teasing' anyone else."
"Whatever," I said, digging into the food in front of me. Chad and Taylor both turned expectantly to Troy, who quickly looked around, and then whispered something in Taylor's ear. Taylor's eyes got very wide at first, but then her face fell.
"Is that all? I was hoping it was something a little more interesting than that," she said.
"We're not rushing anything," Troy explained, also eating his food. "Ryan's never done this before."
"And you have?" Taylor asked.
"Well, yeah," Troy said.
"Okay, TMI," Chad and I said at the same time. If "Jinx!" hadn't been out of fashion since 2001, I would have done it.
"So, have you told anyone else yet?" Chad asked us.
"Uh, no," Troy said. "We're – well, I'm – not ready."
"And how does Ryan feel?" Taylor asked. I shrugged.
"Kelsi started telling people Sunday night, and Sharpay's trying to investigate on my personal relations, but other than that I'm just great," I said.
"Kelsi started telling people?" Taylor asked. "That's just not like her."
"I know," I said. "It was just Sharpay and Gabriella as far as I can gather, but I have the feeling other people know too. And then she called me this morning to make sure I was alive. It was weird."
"She probably just had a dream that you died," Chad said. "It happens sometimes. I had a dream once that my parents were aliens and that color-blind dementors were trying to suck out my soul. It was bad."
"I had a dream once," I said, suddenly remembering. "It was about the end of the world. It's dinosaurs. They were roaming the earth and that was what was causing the end of the world. And among all of this, I'm trying to save everyone from the dinosaurs. I'll cut to the chase. And Sharpay, she was there in her swimming suit, and she said, 'I just want to lay out and tan.' I said, 'There's dinosaurs coming.' She said, 'Ah, I just – I just want to get a tan.' I was worrying about saving the world from dinosaurs and she wanted to get a tan." (A/N: Watch Lucas say this on "crazy cast questions" it's hilarious.)
"Did the dinosaurs get her?" Chad asked, a little too enthusiastically. Taylor slapped his arm.
"No," I said. "Jackie and Lea saved her from the Pterodactyls. It was cool." Chad looked disappointed. "Hey, that's my sister. She may be mean sometimes, but it'd still be sad if she died."
"Mm," Troy and Chad said at the same time. Taylor was thinking it, I could tell.
"You can't all hate Sharpay," I said. "Sure, she's mean sometimes, but think about how sad Zeke would be if she wasn't around."
"Yeah, I'm sure it would take so long for him to find someone else to feed his cookies to," Chad said. Taylor slapped his arm again.
"He's right," Taylor said. "We might not like Sharpay, but it's not like everything she does is bad."
"Except for she's after Troy," Chad pointed out.
"I can handle myself," Troy said.
"Yeah, he knows how to swim," Taylor said.
"You're not allowed to quote me," Chad said. "That quote is copyright 2007 Chad Danforth."
"Whatever," Taylor said. "We have to get going soon. Chad needs new pants."
"I do not," Chad protested, but followed his girlfriend away from the table.
"That was eventful," I remarked to Troy, who nodded. "I know you can handle Sharpay, but whenever you're ready to tell her, I'll be right there with you."
"I know," he said. "Thanks, Ry." He smiled, and I smiled back.
When I arrived back at Lava Springs with Troy, there was a loud screech and Sharpay started calling my name. I rolled my eyes and followed the melodious (ha) sound of her voice, which was emanating from a lounge type living room place for the guests. Troy followed me. Sharpay was sitting on one of the couches, and Kelsi was there, too. All the people I didn't want to see in one room. Hooray.
"Ryan, sit down, there's something I need to discuss with you," Sharpay said. I was weirded out, but took a seat anyways. Troy also took a seat in the chair near mine. "Alright, Ryan, who's the father?"
"What?" I asked.
"You heard," Sharpay said. Troy immediately burst into laughter.
"I'm not pregnant! Why does everyone keep saying that?" I said very loudly. "Didn't anyone take Biology?" I looked around the room to realize that no one actually had, because Sharpay never pays attention in class, Kelsi was usually in the music room during that class, and Troy was laughing too hard to form any coherent words. "Jeez." I scowled around the room and curled into a ball in my chair.
"Well, then, at least tell us who you're dating," Kelsi said.
"Since when did the two of you start comparing notes?" I asked. The looked at each other and shrugged. "Who said I was dating anyone?"
"You did," Sharpay said.
"I did?" I asked. "When?"
"Yesterday," Sharpay replied.
"Oh," I said. "I don't remember that."
"So, what you are saying is that you do not have a boyfriend?" Kelsi asked. It took a lot of self control to not glance at Troy, who had stopped laughing in light of the serious conversation.
"Uh…yeah. I don't have a boyfriend," I said. I could tell Troy was being sad, but I still didn't look at him.
"Ryan…" Troy said. Finally, I looked at him. "He is seeing someone." Sharpay and Kelsi turned to look at him. He cleared his throat. "Me." There was an awkward silence, in which the two girls just stared at Troy. Then, Sharpay burst into laughter, and Kelsi looked like she might do the same.
"Yeah, right," Sharpay said through her laughs.
"No, really," Troy said. Kelsi still looked skeptical, and Sharpay was busy laughing.
"Yeah," I said. "It's true."
"Damn," Sharpay said, turning off the laughs. She dug around in her pocket and handed something to Kelsi.
"We're you guys…betting on us?" I asked.
"Kind of," Kelsi said.
"Isn't that kind of plagiarizing Chad?" Troy asked. "He's the one with all the bets."
"He knows already, yes?" Sharpay asked. Troy and I nodded. "So what's the point of dragging him into it?" Troy and I shrugged.
"So who did you say I was dating?" I asked Sharpay, since she evidently lost the bet. "And if you say Chad…" I let the threat hang.
"She said Chad," Kelsi confirmed. I frowned at the thought. As much as we liked to tease Chad about his heterosexuality, threatening it was not something I'd like to do. I'd like to live to my eighteenth birthday, at least.
"I told you it wasn't Chad," I said. "Like seventeen times."
"But why didn't you just tell us before?" Sharpay asked.
"I was…Troy's not…" I began.
"I've never told anyone before," Troy finished for me. He's so adorable.
"Well, this is fabulous! I have to tell everyone," Sharpay said.
"No!" Troy and I said at the same time.
"Come on," Sharpay said.
"No," Kelsi said. "If they don't want to tell people that's their choice. I'm sure it took a lot of guts for Troy is say that anyways." She shot a look at Sharpay, who was sporting an annoyed face. "I have to go and meet Jason." She left through the back door to the room.
"So, Troy, you'll go gay for my brother, but you won't even look at me?" Sharpay said.
"No, that's not–" I began.
"I can't believe you," Sharpay continued. "All that time, wasted. What has he got that I don't?"
"Besides the pretty obvious things?" Troy asked, making Sharpay scowl. "Just asking."
"But, Shar, would you just not tell anyone?" I asked, quickly, because she looked like she was going to slap him. "Please? As a favor? To me? Your only brother?" She scowled some more, her face contorting from side to side as she thought.
"Fine!" she said, finally. "But this has not gone over well with me." She spun around and left without another word.
"That went well," Troy remarked sarcastically.
"You really didn't have to do that," I said.
"I know," he replied. "But I wanted to." Aww.
A/N: So, I just realized that I make more cheesy adorable endings to chapters than the traditional cliffhanger ones, because, as a reader, cliffhangers really, really annoy me, and I'm sure that would annoy anyone else, especially if I was suddenly taken ill and wasn't able to update for a long, long time. Which I'm not planning on, and speaking of which, the next chapter's half done, or maybe all the way done depending on where I split it.
I officially have more people on alert for this story than for Who's Getting Married, which I'm not sure to be happy about or not. Um, but I don't own HSM, or Legally Blonde, or any of the stores, or anything else that I have forgotten that I might have referenced.
PS. You'll note that Kelsi was going to meet Jason. More on that in later chapters. I thought of a good subplot for them. The next chapter sets up more for the prequel, and a possible sequel, that isn't really a sequel, just another story, with background info from this story. And since I started writing that one too, I had to…you know what? It doesn't matter. Eventually all the idea in my head will be online. Oh, and does anyone ever find it weird how Jason is always the one who is the homophobe? Either that or it's Chad? Why does anyone have to be a homophobe? Really.
So…Thanks for reading (especially if you read through this entire note) and please, please, please review, because it makes my room cleaner when you do, and it inspires me to write more. I also somehow get inspiration to write when I stay up until 4am, which I'm sure isn't healthy, but what time do you think I started this story? That's right…5am. I don't understand it. I need to stop babbling.
Anyways, thanks again, and extra thanks for when (not if, when) you review!
Samantha.