Troy knew his Mom was right, he had to tell his Dad, but he really wasn't up to it right now. Not after Chad's horrible reaction. He'd tried calling him, no answer, and after a few tries, started to go straight to voicemail.
He sulked for a good few days. Gabriella came home from NY and was worried, Troy wouldn't tell her what was wrong. After a day or two of constant pestering, she finally got him to talk.
"Now." Gabriella told Troy. "Tell me what happened."
"Fine. It's just that Chad didn't take it too well that his best friend likes boys."
"Oh no, baby, I'm so sorry."
"Forget about it. I'll find new friends." Troy coughed. "I'm a celebrity right?"
Gabriella smiled sympathetically and rubbed Troy's arm. He looked down to it and looked back up at Gabriella.
"Gabi?"
"Mmhmm?"
"How are you doing?"
"I'm fine. Thanks."
"You know what I mean."
Gabriella looked down and started to play with her sleeve.
"Holding up."
"It's just…" Troy cleared his throat. "I know we're like… best friends. But I'm wondering if our current set-up is letting you breathe and get over the situation."
Gabriella shrugged, still looking down.
"I'm not ready to be away from you. Can't imagine coming home and… not still having you to cuddle, and look after me…"
"It's difficult. I know."
"You don't, Troy. You don't know how it feels."
"Okay. Maybe I don't. But I know that we can't carry on like this. It's just doing you no good. And me too, I just don't think it's healthy."
"What do you mean?"
"I know it would be easier to carry on. For me, too. But we both need to get on with our separate lives. You deserve to be happy."
"I am happy. When you're here with me."
"You're not happy. C'mon. You deserve someone who can give you their all."
Gabriella looked up, and rolled her eyes. She sniffed as one or two tears fell.
"I guess you're right. I guess… the longer it carries on, the harder it's gonna be."
"Exactly." Troy smiled gently. "So… maybe I should stay at my parents' tonight."
Gabriella widened her eyes and shook her head.
"Please, Troy. Stay with me just one more night. Please?"
Troy looked up, and sighed. He hesitated, but nodded. He pulled Gabriella into a hug.
"What about the press?" Gabriella whispered.
"Crap. I forgot about them." Troy sighed. "We'll figure something out. Maybe I'll move back when we've both had time to move on."
Gabriella nodded.
"C'mon, you." Troy smiled, nudging Gabriella. "Let's go to bed."
Gabriella looked up at Troy, and smiled.
"I wanna remember this night, Troy."
"What exactly did you have in mind?" Troy asked, slightly wary.
"Let's watch a romantic movie. With popcorn." Gabriella stood up. "And champagne."
Troy raised his eyebrows and laughed.
"Champagne, huh?"
"Tonight, Troy… we celebrate what we've had these past few years."
"Okay, okay…"
"Go upstairs and choose a movie."
Ten minutes later, the microwave popcorn was ready and Gabriella brought it, along with champagne and strawberries, up to her and Troy's bedroom.
"Now…" Troy said. "I was gonna choose The Break Up but thought that was a bit insensitive."
"How thoughtful. Especially to tell me about it."
"Anyway…" Troy rolled his eyes. "I couldn't decide. What about What Happens in Vegas?"
"Interesting choice, a movie about a fake relationship."
"Gabs! Fine, you choose one."
Gabriella observed the DVD rack. She ran her finger down the rack, touching each DVD spine as she went on.
"Aw." She cooed. "This one."
She held up Pretty Woman, and Troy shrugged indifferently.
"You're the boss!" He laughed, and looked over to the desk. "Are those strawberries?"
"They might be." She threw her head to the side and smiled at Troy.
"You." He laughed. "You're something else."
Troy felt an old, familiar feeling. A feeling of love, and warmth. Gabriella put the DVD in, and picked up the tray with the popcorn, strawberries and champagne on it. She walked over to the bed, in which Troy had got into.
Gabriella placed the tray on the end of the bed, and climbed in next to Troy, who promptly pulled her into a huge cuddle.
"I love you."
"I know. I love you too, Troy."
-----------------
As the movie came to an end, Gabriella was lay on Troy's now bare chest, dipping a strawberry into her champagne. She looked up at Troy, who looked down to her, and smiled. She lifted the strawberry up to his mouth, and he wrapped his lips around it, and took a bite. He made approving sounds as Gabriella dipped the rest into her glass, and held it back up to Troy. She put the champagne glass on her bedside table, and sat up as Troy once again took the strawberry into his mouth, taking the tips of Gabriella's fingers in with him.
"Troy!" She gasped, with a smile.
Troy took Gabriella's hand in his, and kissed her fingers.
"I'm gonna give you a night to remember." Troy whispered.
Gabriella's chest tightened, as she looked at Troy, confused. Her eyes closed as Troy brought his lips towards hers, stopping just millimetres away.
"This is how much I love you." He pressed his lips against hers.
"Troy." She said, pulling away from the kiss. "You don't have to…"
"I want to." Troy whispered to a confused Gabriella. "This isn't about sexuality, or pleasure, or satisfaction." He smiled, running a hand down her back. "This is about intimacy. And love."
"I love you." Gabriella whimpered in a slight whisper.
Troy pressed his lips to her neck, and ran his hands down to the bottom of the dress she was wearing. He started to massage her thighs, before pulling her dress up and over her head. Troy looked at Gabriella's cleavage heaving out of her bra as she breathed heavily, and smiled to himself.
"Troy, are you gonna be able… to…" Gabriella asked worriedly.
"Yeah." He smiled. "This intimacy… always a turn-on."
Gabriella smiled and nodded, and she let out a moan as Troy's hands travelled her body.
-------------------------------
Troy stood in his parents' kitchen, making the dinner, and couldn't stop grinning to himself. In fact, he'd been the same all day. Even the fact he had moved out of his apartment with Gabriella hadn't stifled his grin. Because he knew he'd had the perfect ending to that era in his life.
Gabriella was pretty much the same, although she did cry when Troy left. She had, when he was leaving, realised that Troy was right - this was for the best. She could live off of last night forever, if she had to.
Troy pulled himself up onto the island in the kitchen, and looked at the oven timer. 6 minutes, and the meal he was preparing for his parents would be ready.
Okay, he thought to himself, maybe it's time to work on losing the stupid grin. His Dad would wonder why he was grinning so stupidly despite the fact he'd broken up with Gabriella, and his Mom would be confused for different reasons. Although he could probably tell her the truth later on.
His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out. Of course, he thought, as he looked at the display.
"Hey Ry." Troy sighed contently.
"Hey…" Ryan grinned to himself. "I take it you called JP."
"Nope. Wrong person. Wrong sex."
"What?"
"I did something, Ry."
"What?"
"I moved out today. I'm back with my parents."
"Oh, good." Ryan said. "So… why so happy?"
"Oh, nothing…." Troy stifled a grin. "We just… we had the perfect last night together."
"Aw, well, that's… what do you mean by perfect?"
"We watched a movie, we had champagne, and... We…" Troy giggled. "We celebrated our relationship. And the intimacy we came to share."
"Oh my god, Troy. Did you have sex with her?"
"No, no." Troy said, unconvincingly. "We made love, Ryan."
"So you had sex."
"It's like I told her. It wasn't about getting pleasure, or being satisfied, or about sexuality. It was me expressing my love for her. We were being intimate and embracing the bond our two souls had formed."
Ryan laughed, inoffensively, and made some kind of approving, sweet noise.
"That was nice of you to do for her."
"C'mon Ryan." Troy sighed. "I wasn't doing her a favour. I wanted to do it and I enjoyed it."
"Really? You did?"
"Ryan…" Troy said slowly and dreamily. "It was the most amazing sex we're ever had. It was the best night of my life."
"Guess I just don't understand."
"Have you ever been in love, Ry?"
"No. I haven't." Ryan sighed.
"That's what love can do to you. I am so in love with her, it didn't matter that her body didn't arouse me. Her soul did and male or female, we had some great sex."
Troy blushed, as he realised where he was. He quickly scanned the kitchen, noticing all doors were closed and, seeing as he wasn't talking too loud, he needn't worry about anyone, especially his Dad, overhearing.
"That's a lovely story, Troy. I'm happy for you."
"Except that… now I've gotta get over her. Stop loving her. Well, to that extent."
"I guess."
Troy heard a noise coming from the next room, and jumped off of the island.
"I gotta go."
"Okay. You know what the next step is, don't you?"
"What?"
"Calling JP."
"Ryan, I need to get over Gabriella and find myself before I go off gallivanting with hot guys."
"Ha ha." Ryan laughed, "Fair enough. Talk to you soon."
"How's it going, Troy?" Troy's Dad asked, walking into the kitchen just as Troy stuffed the phone back into his pocket.
"Not too bad, Dad." He answered, managing to stifle his grin.
"You ready to talk about it?" His Dad carefully asked. "I wanna help."
"Oh…" Troy scratched the back of his neck. "Maybe later, Dad."
"Okay." Jack Bolton shifted himself nervously. "Well, you know where I am."
In the middle of his sentence, Troy's Mom walked into the kitchen.
"Hello, Troy, how's my boy?"
"Lucille, he's a man now. A man living his own life in the world."
"Oh, Dad…" Troy nervously laughed, then breathed a sigh of relief as the oven timer pinged.
He strode over to the oven and turned it off.
"C'mon you guys." Troy said to his parents. "Go and sit down. I've already laid the table."
Troy rolled his eyes as his parents sighed and gave in, and made their way to the dining room. Troy took the lasagne out of the oven.
----------------
"Troy, that was simply amazing."
"Who knew?" Troy's Dad laughed. "I don't remember you being able to cook. Quite the opposite."
Troy shook his head as he put his fork in his mouth, with the last mouthful of his dinner on it.
"Well," Troy said, swallowing. "This one was an original Zeke Baylor recipe."
"Zeke! Good old Zeke. How is he?" Troy's Dad smiled at the memory of his former pupil.
"He's pretty good. As far as I know, anyway."
"Um, Troy, I'm gonna do the dishes, thanks for dinner." His Mom smiled warmly. "Can you help me bring them all to the kitchen?"
"Sure Mom." Troy picked up the remaining plates and followed his Mom to the kitchen.
"Troy." His Mom whispered when they arrived in the kitchen. "The way to a man's heart, is through his stomach."
"Mom?" Troy smiled slightly. "You've got a brilliant career as a fortune cookie waiting for you."
"Troy!"
"Mom, I don't know what you're talking about."
"Your father." Troy's Mom nudged him in the ribs. "I think now's the time. He's full of delicious food and he's happy."
"Mom…" Troy said in a long drawn out whine. "But don't you think it might send the wrong message?"
"In what way?"
"Well… cooking's a little…" Troy glanced at his Mom. "Girly."
"Oh, Troy, stop being silly!" His Mom rolled her eyes. "Go and tell him."
"Mom…." He whined again. She stared at him. "Okay… Okay."
Troy took several deep breaths, before forcing himself into the dining room.
"Dad…"
"Thanks for dinner, Troy."
"You're welcome, Dad." He gave his Father a smile. "I would like to talk to you about something."
"Shoot."
"Well, um…" Troy gulped. "I know you've been wondering why me and Gabriella have split up."
"You guys looked happy enough at that premiere. I saw the photos in your Mom's magazine."
"It was all my fault."
"Why? What did you do?"
"Dad, I…" Troy rolled his eyes at himself. This got no easier no matter how many times he repeated it. "Recently, I've had some… identity issues."
"Identity issues?"
"Yeah. And…" Troy glanced at his Dad, but looked back down at the table. "There's really no easy way to put this so I'll just say it. I'm gay."
"You are what?"
Troy didn't repeat himself. Why? He knew his Father had heard all two words of his confession.
"Troy!" His Dad raised his voice. "What did you say?!"
"I'm gay, Dad." Troy said, with slightly more confidence. "That's why we broke up. And why I'm back here. And if it's difficult for you to accept, then…"
Lucille came in after hearing her husband shouting. She speedily made her way to Troy, who she observed looked slightly queasy, or something. She wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Lucille, I assume you knew about this?"
"Calm down, Jack. This is still Troy. Still your boy."
Jack had a stubborn, pouty look on his face. Lucille left her son and approached her husband.
"I know it's hard to hear, Jack." She whispered in his ear. "But there's nothing you can do about it. There's nothing you could ever have done bout it."
Jack gulped and seemed to have trouble ridding his throat of a lump. He looked slightly up, but not quite at Troy.
"How's Gabriella?"
"She's really… not bad. I told her a few days ago and I've helped her work through it. But it was time for us to move on separately."
"That's good, baby. And good that you've been helping each other." Lucille told her son. "Isn't that nice, Jack?" She kissed her husband on the forehead, and made her way back to the kitchen.
"I just don't know what to say, Troy."
"But you're not gonna throw me out?"
Jack looked up at his son, scared and nervous at the other end of the table.
"Of course not. You'll always be my son."
Jack promptly got up and left the room. Troy was relieved, his Dad wasn't angry. But he didn't feel entirely comfortable with the situation. He walked into the kitchen and put his arms around his Mom's waist.
"Aw, honey. He'll come around. He's probably a little freaked out right now."