Summary: Things don't always work out as they should. You live. You learn. But what about love? This is about love working in very strange ways.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is Chad and Troy AU…Troy and Chad. THIS IS NOT EDITED!
Author's Note: This is just a preview of a story I've been working on since 2011! Yes…2011. The thought has been with me since 2006! I have 10 chapters so far but I'm in grad school now!
Chapter Three.
Once at home, Chad decided to live up the summer properly. He would have called up Zeke or Jason or maybe even Taylor but he was, surprisingly, tired. Grabbing an ice cream sandwich from the freezer, Chad kicked off his shoes while flopping on the couch. Channel surfing was an excellent way to de-stress from the day he had.
Just wait until his mom came home.
Again, how did he get into this mess? He was just there to assist in light administrative duties and the occasional helping out with the patients. But that wasn't to be just like relaxing this summer or having his dad around.
"Shit," He cursed aloud.
He hated when his mind would drift over to his father. Kevin Danforth was actually a good father. Chad remembered how, though his dad wasn't the most athletically inclined, would always play a game of one-on-one with him. They weren't close like he was with his mom but he could hang out with him.
The end of March just plain sucked. The conversation was atrocious. Thinking about the sullen look on his mother's face knocked the breath out of him. His father seemed calm about it though whenever he looked at Toni, a flicker would occur behind his eyes. It was the flicker that messed up Chad. From then on he desperately dreamed about the day when his parents would reconnect. The pit of his stomach churned as his mind rationalized that that would never happen. But his heart ached for it.
His mom cried so hard that he felt it wrack throughout his limbs. Shaking his head as if that would loosen the memory, Chad knew he'd rather fight it out with Troy than see his mom that upset ever again.
And anger overtook him again. Why hadn't his father contacted him since the divorce? He knew his mother was keeping him from calling the house but his father had his cell number. Toni couldn't govern his phone at all times. Not with the hours she now worked to keep the house together (as well as keep her mind occupied). Perhaps that was why she wanted him out volunteering. He wouldn't have to worry about the emotional pendulum that swung between anger and sadness. She was correct in that thinking. Not once had he thought of the divorce while he was at the hospital.
Now, he had Troy to think about. He got that this whole thing was awkward and tension-filled but it's not like Chad had set the whole thing up to fuck with Troy. There was no need for his outburst. He could feel the fury steaming up within him again. Yet right beneath that was curiosity.
Was he anorexic or bulimic? Crumpling up the ice cream wrapper, Chad laid down with a plumped pillow beneath his head. If he had to choose, he would personally prefer bulimia. At least he got to eat the food.
How insensitive! Taylor's voice echoed in his head. A wry smile fell upon his lips. Only could her critical, know-it-all voice pop into his head at a time like this. He loved Taylor; she was his oldest and closest friend. She was the most intelligent, kind, and loyal person he knew. Maybe he should call her to talk about this.
And then again, of course, he wouldn't. Though he signed the confidentiality agreement, he was raised right. This was not his secret to tell. Resigned to that fact, he turned his attention back to the television.
The hours passed by and worry began to settle. Chad knew his mother's work schedule. She worked Monday and Thursday until 7pm and Friday and Saturday from 12pm to 12am. He knew she could handle herself just fine but since he was now the only man of the house, he wanted to be sure she was just fine.
The turned of the top locked was a calming influence on his nerves. His mother stepped into the living carrying her purse and a suspiciously obvious plastic take-out bag. Getting off the couch, Chad took the food off his mother's hand before offering his cheek to her peck of affection.
"Hey, Lovey."
"Hey, Mom."
"I'm gonnna go change real quick."
Chad smiled as she rushed upstairs. He set the food down and dug around in the fridge for his mom's favorite juice. Shoving it in the freezer so that it could get extra cold, Chad shook his head. Again, he was doing little things for her.
Ever since his dad officially left the house, Chad instinctively began stepping up, doing odd chores so that his mom would have an easier time at home.
Back down she came, dressed in a t-shirt and sweatpants. She went to the couch, melting into the taupe loveseat that was positioned to the left of the couch.
"How was your day?" Chad briefly smiled. The recent renovation that ended 30 days before the divorce speech occurred was the last proud, happy moment the family had together. He was glad that his mom pushed for the "open concept". He didn't know why but it warmed his heart being able to see her as he took out the food.
"It was pretty good. No one died. I floated for a few in the ER. We had a guy come in today with this terribly infected foot. He had abscesses that needed to be drained."
"Mom! Right before we eat? Seriously stop."
Her laughed rang out. "Sorry, Chad. So, in thanks for helping out, I went to Caribbean Corner."
Oh, he knew. The smells that wafted up to him told him everything; and what they told him were nothing but good things.
"Don't worry about plates. Let's just eat!"
Cracking open the top container the smell of his favorite Jamaican dish, curry shrimp, caused his stomach to cramp with hunger. The container below must contain ox tail. He never had it but his mother swore by it.
"Oh yes! Jamaican beef patties!" He cried out as he pulled out a smaller bag.
Yanking the utensils out of the bottom corner of the bag, Chad went to the living area and placed the food on the large leather ottoman that functioned as a coffee table. With the juice and a Vitamin Water retrieved, the two dug into their food.
Heaven never tasted so good, thought Chad as he shoveled plantains and shrimp into his mouth.
"Geez, didn't know you were starving. Thought you knew how to cook."
"Ha ha ha."
"Are you ever going to tell me how it went?"
Chad shifted back from this food, leaning heavily into the couch. He went about telling his mother about the day's events. When he got to the fight, he began to feel like an idiot. In hindsight there was no reason to fuss with Troy.
Breathing out heavily, the older woman shook her head wearily.
"I'm so sorry to hear that. I wonder how Coach is doing? And his wife? How must she be?"
Chad simply shrugged his shoulders.
"How did Troy look?"
"He looked just fine to me - nothing like this new girl who definitely is too thin for her own good."
"How are you feeling about all this?"
Chad poked at the flaky remnants of his beef patty. "I'm a bit confused. How can he be sick? He's an athlete. He knows how important calories are! How else could he win state?"
"Is that all you're confused about?" The soon to be ex-Mrs. Danforth stared knowingly into her son's eyes.
"I hate admitting it but he's a guy! We just don't do this sort of thing."
"I know that's what you think but anorexia and bulimia in men is on the rise…especially within the athletic community. Thinner equals faster as you know and some people's competitive nature gets extreme." She then sipped her juice.
Thinking about that made the whole situation make some sense. That had to be it. He was a wrestler after all. Don't they need to make weight before competing?
"I guess that makes sense. But how am I going to help out?"
Smiling, Toni said, "By being a friend. I know that sounds too easy or too light-hearted but maybe he needs someone who knows what's going on who's his age. You said he was coming back this school year. He'll need someone at East High that will be there for him."
"You make it sound like we'll be best friends."
"You never know."
The two went on chatting about the little things and then about that patient with leaky feet.
"Perhaps we could watch something before you go to sleep?" Chad cautiously asked.
It hadn't happened for some time but every Monday his mother made it her priority to watch a movie or, once school started up, a T.V. show with him. He never said it out loud but those moments were some of his favorites.
"I think I have it in me to watch a Law and Order: SVU or two before I fall asleep."
Grinning for ear-to-ear, Chad loaded the Netflix DVD into his Xbox 360. They had worked through the seasons up to mid-season 7. Picking up where they left off felt oddly like old times. It was as if his father would pound down the steps asking why they forgot to get him off the phone to come watch.
Looking back, Chad wished he had thought of a way to bottle up those moments and uncork them in times like these – when he felt a tad lonely. Shaking off these feelings of inferiority, Chad enjoyed the police stylings of Finn, Munch, Benson, and Stabler.
The hours flew by with his mother retiring to sleep and Chad following soon after. What a rip off – going to bed early and for what? Before he could answer that question, he had drifted off to sleep.
Over the next few days Chad fell easily into a new routine. Waking up, showering, eating, and leaving happened in rapid succession followed by driving to the hospital.
Once he arrived, he greeted Nurse Jimenez and began lunch prep. Some days he would re-file which would take time since the total cliental was forty-two. Twelve of those clients were coming in fairly frequently or lived here. Others came for strictly outpatient treatment once a month or so. Some times he would clean dishes or run small errands for the doctors. But overall, he would sit around. May it be to watch Mercedes deal with payments or watch Troy ignore him, Chad was guaranteed about an hour and a half of doing not much.
Thankfully as the days fell away so did his first week. It was soon Thursday again, signifying the end of his second week there, and Mercedes was walking Chad through how to check-in and check-out patients. The first client he checked in and out was Claire, an older woman in her late forties who developed anorexia nervosa in her thirties. She never lived here but had therapy session with Dr. Larin.
Checking her in was a snap and checking out was minor. Since the ICD-9 codes were always the same and the hospital was apart of PPO, billing the clients for co-pays wasn't the most difficult task the basketball star was handed.
Waving Claire good-bye, Chad spun his chair around, silently seeking Mercedes' approval.
"I guess you did okay." She smiled. Digging around in the drawer next to the computer station, the young nurse pulled out a text book.
"What's that?" asked Chad.
"Well, since you've been here to help out gives me more time to study."
"Oh, cool. If you need any help, I'm here. I don't know how similar the NCLEX-RN is to the NP exam but I can help."
"Thanks, kid." Mercedes grinned warmly before opening the book and settling into her previous seat.
The minutes began to pour by slowly, dripping drop by drop. Zoning out, Chad had hoped that once he returned to reality it would be quittin' time. Unfortunately for him, it was 2:11pm which meant it was time to visit with Troy during his first free period of the day.
"I'll be back."
"Hope it's more productive," murmured the studying nurse.
The trek to Troy's room was typical. Yet again would he sit in there for roughly ten minutes while the other East High student sat at his computer – sometimes typing, other times watching something or other.
It was also mournful because Troy had this side alone. He had no one to talk to or visit with. Chad wondered if Troy ever went over to talk with the other girls or if he ever came out at all? This was the first time the he found himself wondering about Troy after hours.
Chad knocked on the slightly open door. He assumed Troy was picking up on the schedule he had created since on the other days, this door was shut tight.
"Hey," said Troy.
"Hey." Chad took his usual place on the other bed, laying back to glare at the ceiling.
Things had to change. Either Troy would talk to him or Chad would resign from helping. What was the point of sitting in this room day after day without any exchange of words? Was simple pleasantries too much to ask for?
Sighing, the basketball captain sat up in bed and stared at the other boy. Studying his face, he grasped into the deep recesses of his mind to scrounge up a picture of Troy from before. Settling on his memory of Troy sitting in homeroom with him, Chad began to compare that image with the one sitting in front of him. Had he gained weight?
I, for one, can't tell, Chad thought.
"What the hell are you staring at?"
Whoops. "Just wondering if you'll ever speak to me."
"I spoke to you earlier. What more do you want?"
This was getting to be a bit too much for Chad to handle.
"I get that this is weird and so awkward on every level possible. But you act like I forced this whole thing onto you. You agreed to this arrangement and I want to honor that. I try to talk to you and you ignore me. I sit here to give you some time to open up on your own and you just sit at your computer. I'm done with this whole thing unless you cool out with all this hostility."
"Hm. You're done? Good for you. I'm so glad you have the option to leave this situation. I don't. I do not like being thrown into this."
"You had a chance to speak. If you didn't want this, you should have said something."
Troy growled softly as he closed his laptop, placing it onto the bed. "That's not it."
"Then what is it? Believe it or not, I genuinely want to help."
"And that's it. Why do you want to help me?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Chad replied, "I don't know. I guess because that's the right thing to do."
"No other reasons?"
"No,"
"You don't want to do this because you want to lord something over me? Are you sure you're not doing this as some repayment to my dad? Or do you plan to royally fuck with me?"
"Why would I do something like that? Yes, a part of me wants to do this because of Coach but that's not the whole thing."
Chad had no idea what was happening. Why was Troy getting so angry with him? True, he had yet to really prove that he wasn't going to turn on Troy but shouldn't his consistent arrivals stand for something?
"Then what is? We've gone to the same school since kindergarten and we've never spoken to each. In class the most we say is 'thanks' for passing a paper back – if that! I've been to a few games out of respect for my dad and you and the team have been to a few of my matches out of respect as well. What out of any of that suggests that I could trust you?"
That stymied him.
"Exactly. This is…embarrassing to say the least. I just want to go back to school and act like nothing happened." The heat within Troy's voice was instantly replaced with sorrow.
"I don't mean to make this harder for you but what will you tell people?"
"I had serious metabolic and liver issues."
As the excuse rolled around in Chad's head, he agreed that it was a good one.
"That'll work. If you want to act like we've never met at school, I could do that. But while we're here…can't we try to be civil."
"I would like that but-"
"Don't question this, man. We athletes gotta look out for each other."
Troy remained quiet. He sighed heavily, covering his face in his hands as he leaned solidly against the headboard. Chad watched the former wrestler, waiting anxiously for a response that never came. Troy just sat there.
It was weird to have the conversation diffuse so quickly. Perhaps Chad should look into therapy or being a life coach…or a corrections officer.
"You won't say anything?"
Again – there it was again. That broken voice he heard back in the therapist's office on his first day. That defeated, treaded upon voice scratched at something close to Chad's chest. His eyes furrowed in what he hoped didn't look like pity; he did not pity the wrestler. No matter how badly this situation grated at him, Chad could honestly say he did not look down at Troy. Curiosity may be why he observed but never pity.
"Not a chance." Chad responded.
Feeling a small scraping at his chest, Chad couldn't help but smile warmly at the other teen. It was inexplicable, really. Yet there it was. Perhaps it was because he had opened up to Troy, proving to him that he truly wanted Troy to be successful. Perhaps it was the weight lifting off his shoulders allowing him to take in that first deep breath. Or perhaps it was those moments when, right before he slipped into deep sleep, when the world around him was perfectly quiet, he knew he wanted to help Troy so that voice would never be emitted again.
For the first time Troy smiled.
"American History."
"What?"
"You asked what I was doing on the laptop. I'm working on some things for American History and the other day was a report for English. I'm really trying to get everything done before school in a few weeks."
"Oh. History? I can do that."
"What to do you mean?"
"I love History. I prefer world and ancient history but anything about the past - I'm about it."
"Didn't know that. Well, could you help me with this worksheet? It'll probably be a breeze but I can't pay attention long enough for history work."
The two teens worked quickly as Chad recited all the knowledge he had collected over the years. This particular assignment focused on the Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his reforms. This era was a favorite of Chad when it came to America so the worksheet was a piece of cake.
3:00pm came much quicker than Chad would have liked.
"It is that time again." The dark skinned teen stretched as he got to his feet.
"And for once, I wish you weren't leaving."
"Oh, so hilarious." Waving goodbye, Chad left to retrieve his items from the nurses' station. "Bye. Have a good weekend."
"Aren't you in a good mood?"
"It went well. He got some things off his chest. So, now we're cool…I think."
Mercedes smiled. "Told you he had to warm up. Have a good weekend."
Returning to his car, Chad felt relieved. He had made a breakthrough and now, just maybe, he could work on befriending Troy.