Hey you guys! Well… I know you all have opinions on the last chapter. LOL. And if you wanna stop reading, it's all good. Although I suppose you would have already stopped. Anyway, if you don't mind the apparent theme, and you are a Troyella fan, do keep reading because in spite of the last chapter there will be a lot of sweet Troyella moments coming up. Those of you who do continue reading I hope I can do this idea of mine some justice.

I don't mean to go on, but… I won't be updating for… at least a week. Probably. I'm just about to go on holiday (Friday, NYC!) If I am inspired and finish another chapter before I go, I'll post it, but that's unlikely. I'm gonna try and write some on the plane if I can so I should have some good stuff for you when I get back. In the meantime - Enjoy!

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The day finally arrived - Troy's last day with his team mates, before he left for D-League. Today was a big game for the team, and even though Troy was leaving, he still vowed to himself to give it his all.

The team were sat in the locker room, just before the game, and Troy was clasping his hands and staring at the floor. He was trying desperately to forget the confusion haunting his life at the moment. He needed to focus on the game, and he was finding it difficult.

"Last game." Gary sat down next to Troy, making his entire body tense up.

"Hey man."

"How did your girl take the news, then?"

Troy grinned to himself, and tried to hide his blush.

"Uh… yeah she took it well."

"Ha ha, oh I get it."

Troy laughed.

"Yeah, uh… we had a fun night, that night." Troy felt even more tense. "So um, how did Jen take it?"

"Uh… well she was happy for me. But really, she's not taking it all that well. I won't get to see her very much."

"Yeah. That's gotta suck. For the both of you."

"Yeah it does. It's worse for her though. I think she thinks I'm gonna turn into some kind of player, off the court as well as on the court."

"Ah. The paranoia."

"Yup. Anyway, she's bummed that she can't even make it today. Is your girl here?"

"Yup. She's up there with my best friend who skived college."

Gary laughed, and walked off, giving Troy a nod. He took a breath, and followed Gary out of the locker room. He could hear the roar of the crowd already.

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After the game, the team assembled, all together for the last time, in the locker room.

"Listen up, guys." Coach started, silencing the team. "Well played, men. As if they ever had a chance, huh?" A mumble of general agreement came from the team. "Troy, Gary, Tim. We're all sad to say goodbye, but we wish you all the luck in the world. You're about to have the time of your lives, and I hope you will continue to support each other."

The team loudly murmured an agreement and then clapped.

"Wait, you guys. Why don't you head on over to the diner. Rumour has it, someone's throwing a party for you."

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Gabriella pressed her lips against Troy's when he finally got to the diner.

"So proud, baby! That was awesome."

"It was, man." Chad grinned. "Now I know why D-League wanted you."

Troy laughed and put his arms around his friend and girlfriend.

"It's the end of an era." Troy sighed. "Well, maybe not quite. But it's certainly the start of one."

He led them over to where the team were crowded round. Gary turned around to look at Troy.

"Hey, man." He said, smiling at Troy, as well as Gabriella and Chad.

"Oh, hey Gary." Troy cleared his throat, and folded his arms. "This is my best friend Chad. And you've met Gabriella."

"Of course." Gary smiled at her, and took her hand. He softly kissed her knuckle, causing her to giggle.

He turned to Chad and held his hand out. Chad extended his hand and the two shook.

"Good to meet you." Chad smiled and nodded.

"You too. You play basketball, Chad?"

"Yeah, not so much since high school. I play a lot of baseball too."

"Chad and I were co-captain Wildcats in high school." Troy told Gary.

"Maybe you should have been joining D-League too." Gary told Chad.

"Ah, well. I'm the loser who ended up at college." Chad rolled his eyes and laughed. "I think I'm better at baseball anyway. So I'll see where that takes me."

"All the best, man."

"You too. I'll be at your games when I can."

Gary nodded to the three of them, and left to talk to another team member.

"Can't believe this is it." Troy told Gabriella and Chad. "I'm going to D-League!"

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A few weeks later, Troy, Gary and their new team mates jogged off of the court after practise. Troy felt slightly overwhelmed - actually playing in D-League was amazing, he was playing the next level down from NBA. The joy and surrealism of that, mixed with his secret, confusing emotions regarding Gary, were starting to get to Troy and he didn't quite know what to do with himself.

Over the past few weeks, Troy was still avoiding confronting the strange emotions. And in fact, he was avoiding all situations in which these emotions could come to light.

However, today was a different matter. Troy had been avoiding showering, and so far nobody had noticed but it was only a matter of time, and, after joining a new team and meeting lots of new people, Troy certainly didn't want to get a reputation for being unclean.

Troy was first in the shower, and first out. He breathed a sigh of relief when he got back into the locker room, he threw himself down on a bench and ran his fingers through his wet hair. He bolted up straight when he saw Gary walk in.

"I ache like a bitch." Gary sighed with a laugh. He sat down opposite Troy.

"Tough, isn't it." Troy laughed. "They sure work hard here."

Troy looked over at Gary, sitting opposite him in just a towel, and ruffling his wet hair. Troy glanced away, but as his eyes flickered back to Gary, he started to realise there might be no point fighting this compulsive viewing.

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Troy sat at home, alone. Gabriella was at an important meeting with her record company. Troy thought about calling Chad, but with Gary in the forefront of his mind, and his constant struggle to work out his feelings, his curiosity got the better of him.

He went into his and Gabriella's bedroom, and switched on their laptop. He connected to the internet and went to Google.

He didn't really know what to type in. He blushed as he even thought about his feelings. He didn't know what it was, he didn't know how to put it into words, which really didn't help. He thought about what he'd call this if he'd had similar feelings for a woman, instead of a man.

Troy took a huge intake of breath and started typing into the search engine. He felt uncomfortable - this was the first thing he'd done to even start to admit the feelings to himself. Until now, everything he was thinking and feeling stayed locked in his mind.

Troy looked at the words he had typed. "crush on another man". He hit search and scanned the results.

The first few results seemed to be married women talking about their extra-marital crushes. Troy frowned, until he came across Urban Dictionary.

He clicked the link, realising as he did, the need to erase the history afterwards. He shook his head at himself as he read the first definition for the phrase "man crush".

"When a straight man has a "crush" on another man, not sexual but kind of idolizing him."

"Huh." Troy said to himself. He would love to believe this was what he was experiencing. He couldn't help but think that maybe his feelings were… a little more intense than this definition was suggesting. However, the more he read up on this "man crush" phenomenon, the more he was drawn to believe he was merely experiencing some kind of extreme admiration for his team mate. The guy was an awesome basketball player, and as he'd discussed with Gary's girlfriend, he had a great body. That had to be it, just a man crush on Gary. It's not as if he wanted to kiss Gary. Or do anything else of that nature with him. Woah, he said to himself, that's a scary thought.

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Now that Troy had defined himself, and felt like he finally knew what was going on, he relaxed a lot around Gary. He was a lot happier, and everybody around him had noticed.

He didn't even feel the need to try and stop himself from looking at Gary. Sure, he felt the need to be discreet. It was still a little weird that he stared at him all the time, but, to Troy himself, it was no longer scary. So he indulged himself. Loads of guys go through this at some point in their lives. Right?

It was the next week, and Gabriella was at yet another meeting. Troy was at home, watching a game on the TV. Chad was round, and returned from the kitchen with a bag of chips.

"Dude, that's like our fourth bag." Troy burped, and chuckled. "I'm gonna get fat. They'll bounce me round the court."

"C'mon, at least exercising is your job." Chad threw himself down on the couch next to Troy. "Hey. You'll never guess who I saw the other day."

"Who?"

"Sharpay. I'd forgotten just how "fabulous" she really was until I saw her again."

"Ha ha! Seriously?"

"You know when a celebrity walks down the street, they're so preened and glamorous looking, that you know instantly they are famous before you even recognise them."

Troy widened his eyes and frowned. He shook his head.

"Um. No."

"Oh. Well, anyway. It was like that - there she was, strutting along the sidewalk, huge sunglasses, tiny dog, expensive clothes…. And everyone just stopped and stared." Chad nodded, smirking to himself. "Only… she ain't famous. Nobody knew who she was."

Troy smirked too, and shook his head.

"Did you speak to her?"

"Yeah. She's home from Julliard for Christmas break. I asked her how it was going - she was a bit vague. Ryan's back too, I might give him a call. Would be good to see him again."

Troy nodded, but was distracted and deep in thought. Ryan was gay. Really gay, Troy thought to himself, as opposed to the odd man crush. Troy sighed and rolled his eyes at himself, his best friend completely oblivious.

Troy was nudged out of his thoughts by a strange noise coming from the window. He frowned at Chad, and approached the window.

He noticed Gabriella's car outside, and Gabriella getting out, bouncing on the spot like she needed the bathroom.

"It's Gab…" Troy said, slightly suspicious of the strange noise, and the bouncing.

Troy waited at the front door. When Gabriella came in, her excited gaze completely missed Troy, propped up against the wall. Her eyes darted up the stairs.

"Troy!" Gabriella screamed at the top of her voice. "TROY!"

"Hello?!" Troy waved his arms around. Gabriella burst into hysterical laughter, shaking her head at herself. "What the hell is up with you?!" Troy laughed.

"I'm releasing a song! A single! I'm gonna make a video! A VIDEO! I'M RELEASING A SINGLE!"

Troy raised his eyebrows. He widened his eyes and a grin spread across his face. Chad was now standing behind him, grinning at hearing the commotion.

"Baby, that's SO awesome!" Troy wrapped his arms tightly around his girlfriend and pulled her close.

"Congrats." Chad grinned.

"I'm gonna be famous!" Gabriella screamed.

Chad snorted to himself.

"That would be awesome." Chad said, half to himself. "If you became famous before Sharpay."

"Sharpay?" Gabriella giggled.

"Yeah." Troy rolled his eyes. "Chad bumped into her today."

Gabriella grinned to herself, also quite amused by the prospect.

"Things are finally moving for you, so happy for you baby." Troy smiled and held her close.