Fickle

Old Fiat

Currently Listening: "Breaking Free" by Drew Seeley, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens from the High School Musical soundtrack and "Say OK" and "Loose Your Love" by Vanessa Hudgens from her album V.

Okay! I would've worked on this yesterday, but I was working on a one-shot (check it out, it's called Chances: One In a Million.) and that was rather time consuming.

Also I totally recommend the song "Loose Your Love" by Vanessa Hudgens. It is really cool and I might write a song fic off of it.

Enjoy the chapter!

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Chapter 5: In Which I Spill Corn Chowder

I continued to stand in the middle of the cafeteria, stunned, for several minutes, unable to move or think. It was like the rest of the world had frozen and then the fog had rolled in. My mind was blank. My grip on my lunch tray slackened and my food fell to the floor. The milk bounced along the tiles and I think some of the corn chowder was on my shoes, but I didn't feel it. I was numb.

I could sort of see Chad through my mental mist, sitting at the jock table and glancing over at me apprehensively. It looked like the expression I'd used back in third grade when I told his mom that he had set up at stand in the playground where he revealed the mysteries of sex. I had told his mom because I thought he was pedaling lies. (Don't laugh. My mom managed to keep a lot of things from me for a long time.) I think he got spanked, but I don't really remember. I just remember this anxious, worried feeling spreading over me, as Chad stood, shocked and angry, in front of his mother. But now the looked of nervousness on his face changed to one of satisfaction.

A light turned on in my mind and, slowly and sluggishly, a thought formed.

Chad told.

More followed, each explaining what had happened to… me. And I couldn't deny them because I knew they were true.

I remembered that morning when I opened my locker; my journal and a piece of paper fell out. I had thought nothing of it at the time, assuming I left my journal in there the day before. I had stuck the paper in my pocket for reading later and forgotten about it.

He took your journal when he stayed over a couple nights ago.

He took it so he had proof.

I pulled myself out of my cloudy brain, reached into my pocket and took out the paper.

It was a photocopy of one of my journal entries, the one I'd written after his birthday party before I'd thought about being bi. Pasted on was also a mention of my crush on my first English teacher. I wondered if Chad stuck one in every locker in the school. If so, impressive.

I put the page back in my pocket and looked at my shoes. There was my corn chowder across the top. Lovely.

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I considered marching up the Chad and asking him why he'd done this, but I decided that probably wasn't the best idea. After all, what good would it do? He'd just go "Why shouldn't I have?" which I didn't want to deal with. After helping Gabriella pick up the food I'd dropped, I walked over to the jock table, squelching slightly—the corn chowder had somehow gotten into my shoes. I tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around.

"Hi Chad," I said, forcing myself to smile.

"Hey," he said, a little coldly.

"Can we talk?" I asked and a cheerleaders sitting at a near-by table burst into whispers.

"Yeah," he got up and we walked out of the cafeteria. I could feel the eyes of all the other students on me. I tried to ignore it along with the mutterings.

We walked in silence all the way to my secret hide out. (I won't describe it here. But I hang out there during breaks when I need a bit of silence.) I sat down on one of the benches and Chad leaned against the stair railing.

"You stole my journal, didn't you? And used it to tell everyone." I said, looking him directly in the eye. I tried to keep my expression stony and cold, but I don't know whether or not I succeeded.

"Yeah," he cocked his head to the side in some sort of pretend innocence. Cheeky, very cheeky. And I wasn't in the mood to take any cheekiness at that moment, especially from Chad.

I had sort of hoped he'd say "no" and deny everything, but there he was, nodding. My chest felt tight and no matter how hard I tried to get rid of the feeling, it stayed.

"Why would you tell everyone my secrets, Chad?" I found myself on my feet screaming the question. "We're supposed to be best friends—you know, like "brothers"? What happened to that?"

I know it sounds very girly, but it was the only way I could think of to say it. Most girls I know are a lot better than me at expressing emotions with words. Also, the only other way to say how angry and (as much as I hate the word) hurt I was with his actions was to hit him, and I didn't really feel like hitting Chad at that moment. I almost never feel like hitting anything actually.

Chad stepped forward. We were only two feet apart now. His face was now tense, his jaw set in anger. It was kind of scary. I hadn't seen him this angry since early that summer. (Don't ask.)

"I don't stay friends with guys who use girls as covers," he said, fury pounding through each syllable.

Woah! Where did that come from? What was Chad even talking about?

"What are you talking about?" I asked, trying to make my voice sound as mildly threatening as his, but it's hard to be threatening to someone who's two inches taller than you. Also I was more bewildered than angry with what he said.

"Gabriella," he said, giving me a look like I was the most disgusting thing he'd ever seen. "Or did you forget about her?"

Why was he talking about Gabriella now? Wait… did he think? He couldn't possibly believe I would do that!

"Are you suggesting I used Gabi to make people think I'm not gay?" I asked. I wished there was a shorter way to say that, but I couldn't think of one.

"Yeah!" he said, stepping forward again. We were so close now that I had to tilt my head up to meet his gaze.

"There are so many faults with that!" I said, getting angry again. "The first one being that I feel in love with Gabi the moment I saw her!"

That sounds really lame too, but I only realized that once it was out of my mouth. Chad appeared to think it was pretty weird as well because he rolled his eyes. I continued anyway.

"Second, I told you before that I'm bi! Not gay! There is a difference!" Another roll of the eyes. Jerk. "And third, I would never do anything like that to any girl ever!"

He turned around and started walking down the stairs. About five steps down, he spun around and called back to me.

"A captain is supposed to be not only a leader, but a good example to his team. Do you think using women does that?"

And then he left.

I collapsed on to the bench again. He still didn't believe me. And now he thought I was a bad captain too. With one confession I lost not only a friend, but also a teammate. Now Chad was acting the 'brave knight' by rushing to Gabriella's defense even though Gabriella had actually believed me. And she promised we'd stay friends forever.

Chad promised that too, and look at you two now, said the little voice in my mind.

Stupid brain.

It was then that I realized how gross that corn chowder felt against my feet and socks.

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Sorry not a lot happened in this chapter. A lot will happen in the next one, I promise! There's a father-son argument coming up and you know how fun those are! Not very… But rather dramatic. And Troy also decides to make a rash decision, guess what it is in your review! Or just say anything in it. I don't care.

-OFsI