A/N: Well…that was quite an extensive wait, and I'm sorry for that. I've been losing my HSM obsession, writing for other things, working on some original ideas, and basically getting caught up in the flurry of life. Sorry for the lame excuse, but at least I have one, eh? Here is the much anticipated chapter 14, like it or not…
The next day at baseball practice, after some intensive stretches and workouts, Troy was becoming decidedly uneasy by the scrupulous glances Ryan kept darting his way. It was clear the other boy wanted to confront him about something…and Troy was pretty sure it was something he didn't want to talk about. His mouth became dry (a regrettable nervous affliction of his), and he was pretty sure he wasn't just sweating from the exercise.
Finally, when the coach dismissed the team after practice, Troy rushed off to the boys' locker room and tried to avoid Ryan Evans at all costs. Lord, he hoped that boy hadn't found out about Troy's little rendezvous with Sharpay. If he had…well, let's just say their friendship, which was already built on unstable ground, would come crashing down like an avalanche.
Troy was doing his best to conceal himself in a corner, but he heard Ryan's voice and listened closely.
"Yeah, man, I just want to have a little talk with him. Where'd he go?"
"I'm not sure. I think he's back there, in the corner. Must have some embarrassing chest hair or something," Troy heard Chad jokingly answer.
He cursed his best bud under his breath. Didn't Chad realize he was hiding on purpose?! Inevitably, however, he heard the light footsteps of Ryan Evans as he traipsed up to the dark corner. Troy gulped as he saw his silhouette in the darkness. If he didn't know any better, this would almost seem like an awkward scene in an old teen movie. A very awkward scene.
He cleared his throat to loosen the tension buzzing in the air. "Hey, Ryan. What's up?"
Ryan shook his head. "Troy, what are you doing back here?"
His voice did not hold its usual perky, melodic sort of tone. Rather, he seemed suddenly extremely serious.
"Uh…getting dressed?" Troy answered pitifully.
Ryan scoffed. "Why so conscientious of your appearance all of a sudden? You used to run around Lava Springs without a shirt on all the time. Come on, dude, why don't you quit hiding in the dark corner? I think it's giving people the wrong impression, if you know what I mean."
Troy nodded and emerged from the darkness, still fully clothed in his baseball practice attire, therefore proving his statement that he was "changing" utterly absurd.
"I need to talk to you, Troy," Ryan said suddenly as the two made their way to one of the benches in the locker room to get dressed.
Uh oh…
"See, I heard…well, saw, actually, about something you did," Ryan continued.
Oh, crud, oh, crud, oh, crud….
Ryan turned and looked Troy straight in the eyes, no hint of mercy to be found. "You kissed my sister."
AWOOGA! AWOOGA! ALERT! ALERT! Suddenly, an alarm went off in Troy's head, and he felt all of the blood drain from his body, rendering him completely immobile. His worst fear had been confirmed.
Ryan opened his mouth, obviously about to question Troy's action, but Troy immediately cut him off and attempted a rapid explanation.
"Look, dude, I can explain! Something was seriously wrong with me, all right? I mean, we were just dancing and she suddenly was moving closer and closer to me and…and I didn't know what else to do! I'm not saying it's your sister's fault," Troy conceded, realizing that brotherly protection was obviously a factor in this. "I'm just saying…ah, man, I don't know what I'm saying. It just happened. But it was really quick, and I left as soon as it happened. I know it was wrong, but I couldn't help it. She just sort of…kissed me! I'm really sorry, dude. I didn't mean to kiss your sister."
Suddenly, something inside of Troy twisted and turned in horrified anguish. Ryan and Gabriella had become close friends over the summer and the past few weeks in dancing rehearsals. If Ryan knew about this whole fiasco…
"Does Gabriella know?" he asked warily, praying that his intuition would be false.
Ryan, who had been listening intently to the explanation, hesitated a moment before shaking his head "no." If Troy was really sincere about his regret, she wouldn't have to know for him to be sorry.
Troy breathed a momentary sigh of relief, but then he realized with terrible certainty that he needed to tell Gabriella himself, anyway.
"Then I'll tell her tomorrow," Troy said softly. "She has a right to know, you know? I shouldn't have kept it from her for this long. I should have told her right after it happened…maybe then, we could have just laughed it off and it wouldn't have seemed like such a big deal. But I have to tell her. I just…God, just let her know I'm sorry, okay? I mean, I'll tell her over and over, but…I don't know if she's going to believe me after this," Troy quickly wiped his eyes which were suddenly full of shameful tears. "Augh, I am such a jerky idiot."
As he put his face in his hands, Ryan just watched in careful observation. So far, he seemed sincere in his apology, much as Ryan had been hoping for a halfhearted sorry and a secret confession of his feelings for Sharpay.
Troy looked back up at Ryan, his eyes red and full of regret. "I'm sorry, Ryan. I'm sorry to Sharpay, and I'm especially sorry to Gabriella. I don't know what was wrong that day…it was almost like Sharpay was trying to get me to kiss her. I know that's no excuse for falling into it, but…I'm serious when I say she kissed me. Not the other way around. But I'm still sorry, man. I wasn't thinking."
Let's see, thought Ryan, he's admitted to the problem, provided an explanation, expressed a very sincere apology, and is now crumbling and breaking down in front of my eyes.
Ryan never thought he'd see Troy Bolton cry. He'd always seemed like that strong, jock figure every guy hated because of his masculine aura and his ability to get any girl he wanted (including Ryan's Gabriella). To see him complete with tears pouring out of his sorrowful eyes was almost pitiful. But, Ryan had to admit, begrudgingly, that in his position, he probably couldn't have come up with a better expression of remorse.
The two sat in relative silence for awhile, nothing but the occasional sound of Troy's choked sobs breaking it. Slowly but surely Ryan nodded, sighing in defeat of his attempt to get some sort of guilty admission out of Troy.
"Okay," he said quietly, his voice suddenly lost in his imminent sorrow at the entire destruction of the potential rebound-love of Gabriella.
Troy shook his head. "'Okay'? Just 'okay'? Aren't you furious? Don't want to punch me in the face or something? Man, don't let me off that easy! It'll only make me feel worse. I did something horrible."
Ryan chuckled hollowly. "Yeah, you did. But I really wasn't angry. I've had my…suspicions of Sharpay's motives for awhile," he admitted sadly. "When I told you Gabriella didn't know, I lied."
Troy's mouth turned to cotton and his eyes went wide with terror. "Does she hate me? Is she ever going to talk to me again?"
Ryan sighed. "She will now. I told her I'd get a confession out of you if there was anything to hide. But you passed the test. At least, for me you did. Don't think you're off the hook, though, man. You'd better be out all night tonight prepping the best apology speech in the world and spending all your life savings on some expensive apology gifts," Ryan warned.
Troy nodded sharply, unbelieving of this new beacon of hope in this otherwise dismal situation.
"Good luck, man," Ryan supported, patting Troy on the shoulder. He started to walk away, leaving the very confused, very grateful jock in his wake, but he turned around suddenly.
"Oh, but one more thing," Ryan commanded, his voice extremely solemn. "You had better take care of Gabriella. She's a special girl. If you ever do anything to hurt her like that again, I won't be so easy on you."
Troy just stared, shell-shocked, bewildered, and lost in a sea of overwhelming information and emotions. He checked his watch quickly and assessed just how much time he was going to need to prepare tonight for his apology date, gift, and speech. He took a deep breath, optimism in his mind, and scurried off to assemble all the necessary ingredients for his admittance of wrongdoing.
HSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSM
The next day, before most people were at school, Ryan and Gabriella met in the auditorium to discuss her future love life. She had been a nervous and lost wreck for the past two days of not knowing what was really going on with Troy and Sharpay. She only trusted one person to give her the news straight up, and that was Ryan. She knew she could count on him to tell her the truth, no matter what. He had a penchant for being brutally honest about everything, and she'd discovered that he didn't lie very well when he tried. So, when she walked in and saw him looking extremely glum on the stage, her heart sank, and she nearly began to cry.
"He loves her, doesn't he?" she squeaked, tears threatening to emerge.
Ryan looked up quickly and saw Gabriella standing there, ready to sob. He gave her a half-grin that didn't quite reach his eyes and shook his head.
"Quite the opposite, actually. He was really sincere in his apology, and he was going to tell you about it today if you hadn't already known," he tried his best to bite back his bitterness. "Looks like you two really were meant for each other."
Thankfully, Gabriella didn't notice the pain in his voice, and her eyes shined from tearful hope. "Really?"
Ryan nodded. "Of course. Why would I lie to you about that?"
She laugh-sobbed and giddily ran to Ryan, squeezing him with all her might. "Oh, thank you so much, Ry. You have no idea how much this means to me. I feel so much better."
Ryan didn't smile, but he held her close anyway, knowing she would think of it only as a friendly gesture, not the act of a desperate man in need of her affections.
As they broke apart, he made another attempt at smiling. "If you go to your locker, I'd make a bet that there's someone there who has a lot of explaining and apologizing to do," he remarked, knowing that Troy had called him last night to make one last apology and get Ryan's approval of his plan. He knew Troy was waiting at her locker with a box of chocolates, flowers, jewelry and a teddy bear, complete with an apology note in its mouth.
"You're so sweet," she said, once again kissing Ryan on the cheek. "I owe you one."
Ryan shrugged, "Nah. Just stay adorable and that'll be enough for me."
She gave him a playful slap on the arm before skipping off of the stage and throwing Ryan a careless "Goodbye!"
He watched her leave and realized with a heavy heart how bittersweet this entire endeavor had been.
HSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSM
About halfway through the day, Ryan and Sharpay were arguing about how to spend the rest of the week's dance rehearsals, since Troy and Gabriella would now be dancing with each other, not them, and the musical was on Friday. Sharpay was in the middle of a hearty rebuke when she saw out of the corner of her eye that Troy and Gabriella were walking, hand-in-hand, down the hallway and talking calmly about something.
Sharpay shot her brother a hard glare and saw that he, too, was watching them, a semi-smirk on his face.
She angrily whispered, "You didn't TELL HER?!"
Ryan, still sneering, said smoothly, "Oh, no, Sis. I told her. I told her EVERYTHING."
His emphasis of "everything" made her realize that he must have spilled the intricacies of her plot, and her mouth shot open as a squeal of protest emitted. Ryan's confident air, however, left Sharpay otherwise speechless.
"Can't wait for rehearsal today, Shar," he snuffed, leaving her to fume.
Angering his sister and foiling her evil plot certainly made Ryan feel better…but a certain emptiness remained inside of him, dying to be filled by something…or, rather, someone.
No, it's still not quite over. One chapter left...then you'll all know which pairing(s) this story really is. Please, if you're still reading and enjoying this, send me a review. And, if you're not enjoying it, let me know why. If it's anything within my control (characterization, grammar, spelling, etc.) I shall attempt to fix it for you. If it has anything to do with the plot/pairings, please share, but I'm afraid it would be a little difficult to change my entire outline for you. But feel free to express yourself in a review. One last chapter to go. Hold on, folks, it'll be here in the coming weeks.