One Year Later
Chad was relaxing on his bed, reading Sports Illustrated. He'd finished his only class of the day ten minutes before, and rushed back to his dorm room to get in some quiet time before his room mate came back.
He heard a dull thumping coming from the hall, increasing in volume, and rolled his eyes. He threw the magazine on his bed and walked to the fridge. Just as he opened it, the front door simultaneously opened.
"Hi Jake", he called, without turning round. "Hi Jakelle."
"Jakelle, I like it." His room mate's girlfriend, Laura, commented as she walked into the room and threw herself down on Chad's bed, picking up Sport Illustrated, frowning at the cover, and throwing it back down again.
Chad's phone rang, and he took it out of his pocket. He looked at the screen, and smiled.
"Dude, what's shaking?"
"Hey, man. How's it going?"
"Not bad. I've just been invaded by Albuquerque's royal couple. My luck is running out, man. One day I'm gonna walk in on these two rampant rabbits at it."
"Chad," the man at the other end of the phone giggled. "Do you know what a rampant rabbit is?"
"Yes, Troy." Chad sighed. "So you see my problem."
"I feel for you."
"Sooo…." Chad said in a high pitch. "Were you calling me back about this weekend?"
"Yeah, I was. I'm sorry dude, I can't make Saturday, I'll still be here in Cali, but I fly back Saturday night so we can hang on Sunday?"
"Sounds cool. We can catch a game or something." Chad grinned to himself.
"I hope you're joking." Troy sighed with a raised voice. "It's my day off."
"By game, I meant… checkers."
"Oh, yeah, okay, so you find us a checkers game to go to on Sunday. I gotta go dude. I'll call you about Sunday."
"Take care. Tell Gab I said hi."
"Will do."
At the other end, Troy put his phone into his gym bag, and jogged back to the court.
"C'mon guys, hoops!" Troy shouted to his team mates, scattered around the court.
-------------------
On Saturday night, Gabriella sat in her car, looking at her watch. She looked at herself in the rear view mirror, tidied her hair slightly, and touched up her lip gloss. She sighed and threw herself back into her seat. She glanced out of the window and smiled. She had spotted Troy, finally arriving from California.
"Baby!" Gabriella opened the door and shouted out to him.
Troy giggled, and sped up his walking. As much as he wanted to run, it was near impossible with his suitcase trailing behind him and his gym bag thrown across his shoulder. Gabriella folded her arms and giggled.
"Speed it up wildcat!"
"A little help?!"
Gabriella rolled her eyes and jogged towards Troy. As she got to him, she made to take his suitcase, but he refused her. Instead, he dropped the gym bag to the floor, stood the suitcase up, and threw his arms around his girlfriend.
"I missed you." Gabriella sighed, almost as if in relief, into Troy's ear.
"I'm back now. And you're gonna have the best birthday ever."
Gabriella felt tingles of excitement in her stomach. Her birthday was in little over a week and she was going crazy with anticipation about what her boyfriend was going to do for her.
In the car on the way back to the couple's apartment they shared, Gabriella tried to focus on the road, but she couldn't help look at Troy, and smile to herself. He'd only been away for two weeks but it felt like a lifetime.
"So how was your trip?"
"It was amazing. I met so many talented players. They taught me a thing or two, that's for sure."
"How's Laurence doing?"
"Much better. He's finally got his footwork down. People like him really benefited from this trip."
"Awesome."
"Hey, I'm meeting Chad tomorrow, you wanna come?" Troy asked, yawning.
"Aw, no. I see him all the time, you guys have your bonding time."
Troy nodded. Gabriella glanced at him, and looked back to the road. When she glanced back about a minute later, he was fast asleep.
----------
Chad buttoned up his jeans and glanced at his clock. Troy was due to pick him up in half an hour. He threw himself down on his bed and sighed. He hadn't seen Troy in over a month and he was looking forward to hanging with his oldest friend.
His mind wandered to the day when Troy told him he wasn't going to college. The day Chad had run off.
Chad sighed as he walked into school Monday morning. He dreaded seeing Troy - he knew questions would arise that he was not prepared or ready to answer.
He rolled his eyes as he turned the corner towards his locker. Of course, his locker was right next to Troy's. His stomach twisted repeatedly and a wave of painful dread and nausea flew through his veins as he saw from the end of the corridor, Troy standing at his locker with a few Wildcats, his back facing Chad.
Chad hoped, although he knew probably in vain, that he could approach his locker, open it, get his books out and leave, without Troy turning round.
He quietly approached his locker, and for a split second thought he had a chance.
"Hey Chad!" Zeke said.
Chad clamped his eyes shut for a second, and opened them up again. He glanced up at Zeke, and proceeded to stare at his locker as he put his combination in.
"Hey." he said quietly.
Troy turned round and looked at his best friend.
"Chad, are you okay?" he asked, quietly.
"Dude, I'm fine." Chad slammed his locker and walked away, not once looking at Troy.
Chad shifted uncomfortably. He wasn't overly keen on reliving those emotions. Still, he was doing great at college without Troy, and Troy was flourishing in basketball. It had all worked out for the best, but still Chad was trying to avoid even thinking about what he felt.
"Chad." Troy accosted Chad outside his class.
"Troy." Chad said, once again staring at the floor.
"Are we okay? I don't want you to be mad. I hope in time you can understand I have to do what's best for me."
Chad sighed and looked up at Troy.
"I know. It's just…" Chad scratched his arm and shrugged his shoulders. "We've been together all the way so far. It will be weird going to college without you."
"I know." Troy nodded and put his hand on Chad's shoulder. "But I'm still gonna be around. We can still hang all the time, dude."
Chad nodded and smiled.
"C'mon." Troy said, putting his arm around Chad's shoulder. "Hoops."
Chad sat up in his bed. He supposed neither of them knew how busy either of them would be. They hardly got to hang anymore. Troy regularly had to go out of state on various "field trips", that combined with Chad's assignments and what not, there was nothing they could do.
Still, they had the odd days. Like today. And just then, Chad stood up, responding to the knock on the door.
"Troy." Chad grinned, trying to keep his not-so-manly excitement at bay.
"Dude!" Troy laughed, and threw his arms around Chad. He patted him on the back and squeezed him slightly.
The two broke their embrace, and stood awkwardly for a few seconds.
"Uh…" Chad started. "You wanna see a movie?"
"Awesome." Troy nodded.
Just as the two left Chad's dorm room, Jake returned, Laura on his arm.
"Hey guys." Chad smiled. "This is my best bud Troy."
"Troy." Laura nodded, removing her arm from Jake's. "We've heard a lot about you." She stood alarmingly close to Troy, who started to feel uncomfortable.
"Uh oh." Troy laughed nervously. Laura giggled flirtatiously, and stroked Troy's face.
"Laura you whore. Leave him alone." Chad rolled his eyes and gave a dirty look to Jake. "c'mon, Troy."
"Nice to meet you." Troy nodded to Jake and Laura, as Chad pulled him away.
They climbed into Chad's car, and buckled up. They started general conversation - about how things are for each of them, what movie to see, about the old days.
At a natural lull in the conversation, Chad hit a red light. He glanced out of the left window.
"I, uh…" Chad cleared his throat and stared hard outside. "I missed you."
Troy smiled to himself, and turned to his friend. His smile grew as he watched Chad fidget and stare out of the window.
"Green." Troy advised.
---------------
The day before Gabriella's birthday, she met Chad for lunch. The two of them had become reasonably closer over the past year, meeting at least once a week.
"So, I'm flying to LA next week for a meeting with the record company." Gabriella said, sipping her milkshake.
"What?! I'm gonna be a lone wildcat." Chad sighed, screwing up a napkin and throwing it on the table dramatically.
"I'm only gonna be gone a few days." Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Anyway Troy's still around."
"Troy is never around."
"Well, anyway, I'm sure you'll survive."
"I guess. Anyway… I got you a present!"
"Oh Chad! You shouldn't have."
"Would have been pretty darn rude if I didn't, though." Chad laughed.
Chad handed Gabriella a bag, with a box in it. Gabriella had a pang of excitement - being a girl, she recognised a shoe box anywhere.
"Can I open it now?"
"Of course."
Gabriella ripped the lid off, and pulled out a beautiful pair of white strappy shoes with pink, jewelled butterfly shaped buckles. Gabriella screamed, mouth wide open with shock.
"Chad! These are beautiful! Wow. How can a man have such great taste?"
"I guess you've trained me well."
"Thank you, Chad." Gabriella leaned over the table to give Chad a hug.
"You're very welcome."
Gabriella smiled to herself. She felt even more excited now for tomorrow, and for what Troy had in store for her.
----------------------
Um, is anyone reading this? I'm really excited about this story and have it all planned out. But I have NO reviews - please, if you read this, review and tell me what you think! I don't know either way because I've received no opinions. Soo… PLEASE REVIEW!
Oh, and if you are a troyella fan, check out my stories "Six Years" and "Caught in the Rain".