Pairing: Troy x Ryan
A/N: This is Chapter 2 of this story. Hope ya enjoy!
Warning: There would be other unplanned rated stuff happening in this chapters and future chapters as well. Be warned.
Enjoy the story!
"BZZT BZZT BZZT" the 6.30 am alarm rang.
Troy rummaged his hands on the table to turn the damn thing off. Luckily, he did. Troy sat up on the side of his bed and scratched his head before going to the bathroom to have a quick shower before he dressed up for school. After getting ready, he went down to see his dad and mum already eating their breakfast. His dad wished him good morning and offered him a ride to school since they were both headed the in the same direction. Troy politely refused and quickly grabbed a piece of toast after chugging down his glass of Orange juice. He made his way to his truck and began driving to school. Once he parked it, he casually made his way into the hallways of East High where he was greeted by Chad, Zeke and Jason. The four of them joked and laughed as they made their way into the Home room. There, they were then greeted by Gabriella, Taylor and Kelsi who were just discussing about the Spring Musicale.
As they were all having fun and conversing with one another, Troy noticed Sharpay walking in, but strangely, Ryan was not with her. Troy found this very peculiar but his train of thought was disrupted with Gabriella's kiss on his lips. He kissed her back which made Chad say,
"Go get a room love birds, no one wants to see two pubescent lovers smooch here, even though this class is indeed fine with it"
"I could say the same to you Chad, only difference between us is that you do way more than French kissing eh," Troy retorted, which caused Chad and Taylor to blush and the rest to burst out laughing. Amidst all that joy, Troy noticed Ryan walking into the class, looking down, almost as if like he was depressed. However, Kelsi called out his name which made Ryan change that sad-looking face into a bright and cheerful facial expression.
Troy thought that Ryan's sudden change of facial expressions were weird, but as what he said last night, he would not want to bother himself with it, but now part of him want to uncover the mystery behind Ryan Evan's sudden change badly. However, he figured he should leave that alone first and then the bell rang.
Lessons went on as usual until lunch came. Large masses of students rushing down to the cafeteria to have a New York Deli and the Strawberry Parfait for lunch. Truth be told, Troy was looking forward to that meal as he loves parfait, especially strawberry. He bought his food and sat down with the rest of the gang. Everyone was talking and discussing about what was the objectives for the preparation for the musicale later during the free period later. As they were busy conversing, Troy noticed that Sharpay was sitting alone with the new English servant of hers at the table opposite of theirs. Ryan, however, was missing from the table. Troy assumed that Ryan was just going to the men's room, so he continued on enjoying his parfait. When lunch ended, Troy realised that Ryan did not sit at the table at all, but there wasn't any hints or traces of worry on Sharpay's face. At this point, Troy was about to ask Sharpay about Ryan when Ryan suddenly popped up out of nowhere and was headed towards the direction of the latter' twin sister.
'Okay, this is just too damn weird… Why am I even bothered about him?' thought Troy. He then proceeded to head to his class. And, the day went on until the free period. Troy proceeded to the auditorium to begin their practice for the musicale. When he reached the theatre, Gabriella came running to him and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. Mrs. Darbus had already begun to order everyone around and she instructed Troy to go with Ryan to pick up some boxes of old equipment from the storage area.
Ryan's Point of View:
"Ryan, you and Troy go to the storage and get the boxes down here," said Mrs. Darbus.
I gulped at that instruction. I turned around to see Troy already heading towards my direction, instructing me to follow him. I hesitantly followed him from behind, ensuring that the distance between me was just appropriate enough. My heart was beating faster and I am struggling to breathe. This moment of being alone with the Troy Bolton, whom everyone adores and my secret crush, is too hard for me to process. But then again, I can't keep on thinking about him like that. Its wrong. All of my feelings for him are wrong.
"Hey Ryan, need a little help here" said Troy.
I snapped out of my thoughts and drew my attention to Troy who seemed to be having trouble with the heavy boxes of God-knows what. So, I quickly rushed to his side and attempted to lift up one of the boxes myself, but all of a sudden, the moment I lift up the medium-sized box, my forearms were in excruciating pain and I dropped the box, causing a loud thump echoing throughout the room.
Troy looked at Ryan who was groaning in pain, and quickly dropped his box on the floor and rushed to Ryan's side.
"Are you okay? What happened?" asked Troy, sounding really concerned.
"Don't worry, my hands just cramped up the moment I lifted the box up…Its nothing much really, don't worry about me, I'll be fine," said Ryan, reassuring Troy.
Troy just nodded in agreement, but his heart is still telling him that Ryan is hiding something from him. He noticed that Ryan has been gripping his forearms ever since and he is determined to find out what is it that the blonde is hiding. Troy immediately got back to lifting the boxes and told Ryan that he could handle it and proceeded to head back to the auditorium as quickly as possible in order to avoid Mrs. Darbus's wrath. Ryan felt ashamed that he could not be of use. Ryan followed Troy back, looking down the whole time as he felt useless. He was internally cursing himself while maintaining a straight face.
'Why do I just have to get the pains at the wrong timing. URGH…Fuck it all, Goddamn it Ryan, why can't you just stop loving Troy Bolton. He's never going to love you back. Just fucking forget him already'
Troy noticed that Ryan was extremely quiet the whole time they were together. Luckily, they had reached the auditorium where as expected, the both of them were reprimanded for taking too long. After the shelling of words, the two of them just went back to their respective positions to practice. During the whole practice session, Troy could not get Ryan out of his mind. He knows that something is wrong with him but he can't figure out what it is.
'What the fuck is wrong with me? Why am I so bothered by Ryan so much? I should be more worried about Gabriella and myself first rather than him. Jeez'
And so another day of school ended. Everyone dispersed into their own group of friends, but ever since Twinkle Towne, everyone has been mixing around with each other which increased the diversity of everyone's friendship circle. Since Troy was no longer going to be part of East High Basketball team, he and the rest of the seniors need not attend practice anymore, which means that he had free time after school to rest and practice for the Spring Musicale, but they decided to not hold a session today since everyone was exhausted.
Troy walked towards his locker where he was greeted by Gabriella and the gang. As usual, everyone would be talking about their days and all of the gossips, and since they are seniors now, they control the gossips going around school too, mostly by Taylor since she loves it despite being a nerd. Despite him laughing alongside everyone, Troy was still bothered by Ryan but his head shot up when Jason mentioned Ryan's name.
"Yo, any of yall noticed that Ryan has been a quiet guy ever since we won that Championship?" asked Jason.
"Yeah, I kinda noticed that too but meh, maybe he's just bothered by Queen Sharpay," said Zeke, obviously in love with her.
"And I noticed he's been going to the bathroom, bringing a bag and always changing shirts when he came back. Talk about a fashionista!" Kelsi said, obviously attempting to make a joke.
Troy listened on as his friends laughed at Kelsi's remark, but his facial expression was just one that showed concerned and worried. This caught Gabriella's attention, and she quickly made an excuse and pulled Troy aside. Troy, being lost and confused could not say anything.
"Are you okay Troy?" asked Gabby.
"I…Yes, I am…" said Troy
"Are you sure?"
"Yes…Wait, actually no. No, I'm not okay Gabby."
Gabriella gave a concerned look, which prompted Troy to tell her everything that happened at the storage area and also what he felt about the whole situation. Gabriella listened on and realised how serious the situation was. She too began to worry for her friend whom she befriended at Lava Springs during the summer. The both of them decided to go and ask Sharpay, even though it is suicide. So, the both of them went to search for Sharpay, hoping that she is still in school. They roamed around the school hoping to see Sharpay, and for half an hour, they both roamed aimlessly. However, the moment they were about to give up their search, Sharpay emerged from the restroom located near their homeroom.
"Sharpay, hold up," Troy said as he and Gabby ran over to the Ice Queen.
Sharpay stopped and turned around, not looking surprised at all, but more to being amused.
"What do you want?"
"We just wanna know if there is anything wrong with Ryan? He has been acting rather strange lately and it is kinda worrying both me and Troy. We were hoping that you would have a clue about it." asked Gabriella.
Sharpay was silent, trying to think.
"Please Sharpay, he could be in trouble," pleaded Troy.
"Okay, to be honest with my you, Ryan has been acting weird too. But, what troubled me the most was hearing him cry at night. Me being me, I don't sleep as early as 10, like that's not my style. So, I would sometimes try to go into Ryan's room to gossip with him. But lately, he has been sleeping early which doesn't seem normal to me but okay fine whatever. However, there was once or twice I heard him crying the bathroom while softly saying, 'I'm sorry Troy',"
At this point of the story, the couple had dropped their jaws, but they are not willing to interrupt as they still needed to know the rest of the story.
"So, I have been meaning to talk to you Troy because this somehow gives me the impression that the problem has something to do with you. But, before you say anything, I need to let you see this,"
Sharpay unlocked her phone and proceeded to show Troy and Gabriella a picture which put the both of them in shock. The picture was of blood stains on the toilet floor and sink, although it wasn't that obvious, it was clear enough for them to know it is blood. Troy could not say a word because he is still trying to digest all of the new information which he had just been fed by Sharpay.
"Is it possible that…that he self-harms?" asked Gabby, sounding very worried.
Sharpay nodded hesitantly as she too is wondering if her twin brother is in fact harming himself. She looked at Troy again now, with a pleading look.
"Please, help Ryan. If he has been apologising to you so much silently in his bathroom, then please go and find out what he had done wrong to you Troy. You are the only one who can help him now," pleaded Sharpay.
Troy could only say, "Okay".
Troy was shocked beyond reason. He could not stop thinking about Ryan's forearms which he had been holding onto since the incident in the storage room. With that response, Sharpay parted ways with them, while Gabriella and Troy made their way back to Troy's truck. The whole drive back to Gabriella's place was a silent one. When they reached the front yard of Gabby's house, Troy just bid Gabriella goodbye and gave her a kiss on the cheek before driving back home. The moment he reached his garage, he quickly made his way upstairs to his room, ignoring his mother's greeting too. He then laid down in his bed, just staring on the ceiling, as if trying to find a silver lining. He just can't believe what Sharpay had just told him. Only one question kept on running in his mind throughout the whole time since he parted ways with Gabriella,
"What did you do to me to make you hurt yourself as a form of apology? What is it Ryan?"
A/N: I know this chapter does not really have any climatic moments but don't worry, we will get there soon. Now that we know Sharpay knows about Ryan's secret, what would she do? And what would Troy do? Please Review! Thank you!
