Merry Christmas!!! Hope you're all having a good day so far, it's 11am and I've just woken up, six hours after the time I used to when I was a kid... aw. I finished this chapter last night so I thought I'd update it first thing. Enjoy!! x
Troy… didn't know what to think. For a few days now, he'd been thinking about Chad. Well, about the kiss, about Chad not caring, and Chad saying he'd do it again. Troy felt confused, yet again. He had just come to terms with being gay, and now his best friend of something like 16 years, had kissed him. And might have even been flirting with him. And now Troy felt strange. He didn't know what to think, he didn't know how he felt.
He wondered if he should tell Gabriella, on the way to their fourth movie premiere. He decided that he'd work out what was going on for himself, before talking to anyone new about it.
"You okay, baby?" Gabriella asked Troy, putting her hand on his knee.
"Um, yeah. I'm fine. Thanks." He smiled.
"You thinking about JP?" She smiled knowingly, causing Troy to raise his eyebrows.
"Not quite." He smiled at her. "It's… somebody else. But I'll tell you about it when I know for myself what's going on. It's… complicated."
He smiled kindly at Gabriella, as she slowly nodded, frowning. He was then a bit worried when her frown disappeared, her eyes widening and her jaw dropping open.
"Oh my god…." She whispered.
"Gabs…"
"The other day… you guys were.. And New York…"
"Gabs, he's not…"
"You HAVE to tell me what happened." A grinning Gabriella insisted to Troy.
"Oh, look, we're here. What a shame." He shrugged as the car pulled up.
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Troy was so irritated at himself. He wished he could stop thinking about Chad. The dude was his best friend, and not someone he should even be looking at in that way. And why his heart jumped out of his body when he saw Chad's name on his caller ID, he would never know.
"Hello?"
"Hey Troy." Chad said with an audible grin.
"Chad. Hi, man. What's up?"
"Nothing." Chad sighed in a slight sing-song pitch. "Just bored. And lonely."
"Oh, that's cool…" Troy said, trying to think of some more vague, casual things to talk about. "Did you catch the game last night?"
"Yeah…" Chad answered, a little annoyed that Troy didn't seem to be taking his bait. "It was awesome."
"Oh, so," Troy said with a little more enthusiasm, thinking of a question he actually wanted to ask, "Did you get in trouble for missing classes when we were in New York?"
"A little, yeah…" Chad sighed. "But it was definitely worth it."
Great, he'd turned it back round. Troy silently cursed himself.
"Uh, so, great talking to you, but I should go. I have a game later and I should… Yeah. But I'll talk to you soon."
"Okay, Troy, see you soon."
"Later, man."
Troy hung up the phone, and shook his head. He knew Chad. So why couldn't he work him out? Was he flirting? Well, yes, he was. He must've been. But was he just messing about? It was probably the kind of thing Chad would do…
Troy leapt up off of his bed, and went to shoot some hoops in his back yard. He figured he was too confused to do anything else.
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When Troy had finished his game, he left the locker room to see Chad standing just outside.
"Chad! Hi."
"Great game."
"You were here?!" Troy widened his eyes. "Well, I… thanks for coming."
"You're welcome." He grinned. "You wanna go for pizza?"
"Sure." Troy grinned. "How did you even get back here?"
Chad grinned.
"A magician never reveals his secrets."
"Whatever. You're just scared I'll get them to tighten security."
"Yeah, then how would I sneak in to perv on the cheerleaders?"
Troy gave a nervous laugh.
"Yeah… so where do you wanna go for pizza?"
"Saggio's?" Chad suggested. Troy violently shook his head.
"Uh.. No." he looked at Chad, who was asking with his expression. "Me and JP used to go there."
"Ah. Pizza hut then?"
"Sounds safe to me."
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At Pizza Hut, Chad had been the same old Chad. Mixed in with a helping of good new Chad. He was still the best friend Troy knew and loved, but with a healthy dose of flirting thrown in which didn't exactly make Troy uncomfortable, but just quite confused.
Troy was… honest. Especially to himself. He prided himself on that. So, he could admit to himself that Chad was quite an attractive man. But, personally, did he feel attracted to him? No, no, of course not. They were practically brothers. It would be wrong, morally wrong. So he told himself, anyway.
Ringing, at the back of his mind, was something that Chad had said. Something about letting go and just doing what you wanted to do. But it wasn't always that easy. Troy didn't even know what he wanted - yet again. He was getting kind of bored now, of not knowing even himself.
He decided to finally give in - and talk to Gabriella.
"Oh my god!" She screamed, when Troy came to the conclusion of the story. "If you guys got together, it would be so amazing."
"Gabriella…" Troy sighed. "C'mon. I need your help here!"
"Okay, okay, sorry. Well, maybe he enjoyed the experience more than he's letting on. Or maybe he feels liberated by what happened. You know what I think?" Gabriella smiled. "I think you should talk to him. C'mon, you guys have been friends forever. You know you can talk to him."
"I… guess…" Troy shrugged. "But if he's acting so… like he doesn't want me to know what he's thinking, then he's not likely to answer any of my questions."
"Maybe." Gabriella mused, rubbing her chin as she gazed up towards the ceiling.
"What are you thinking?!"
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"Hey Chad!"
"Uh, hey!" Chad stood aside to let Gabriella in, pulling a confused face at the back of her head, wondering why she was here, at his college, in his dorm room.
"How's it going?" she shrugged, picking up some baseball magazine, and flicking through the pages.
"Good…" Chad answered, sitting on his desk chair. "What's up, Gab?"
"I'm not disturbing anything, am I?" Gabriella smiled innocently.
"Not at all! It's just… you've never come to visit me before…"
"I was lonely." She said with a grin. "So anyway, what's going on with you and Troy? You guys have been acting pretty weird recently…"
Chad laughed, nodding to himself. He now knew why she was here.
"Nothing, really. Why?" Chad answered innocently.
"Oh, no, nothing…." She smiled. "I just… I heard a rumour… that you two kissed…"
"Right, yeah, a rumour, huh?"
"And I was wondering how you felt about it all." Gabriella nodded.
"Fine."
"Fine?"
"Fine!"
Gabriella frowned in frustration.
"I also heard a rumour that you may have been flirting with him…"
"Those gossips. You should never listen to rumours, Gabi."
"Chad!" She shouted, unable to take playing the game anymore. "What's going on? Please tell me."
Chad laughed and rolled his eyes.
"I dunno, Gab. I felt like kissing him, so I did. I feel like flirting with him, so I do. Nothing's going on, it's just… I do what I wanna do. It's my new thing, I guess."
"You just suddenly felt like kissing him?"
"Yeah."
Gabriella frowned, studying her brain for her next question.
"You gonna end up feeling like that again?"
"I dunno! That's like asking you if you think you'll end up wanting to eat an orange again. Maybe, maybe not."
"Chad…" Gabriella said slowly, smiling at him.
"To be honest, Gab… I don't know how I feel. It's weird. One minute I like girls, exclusively, the next thing I know, I've kissed a boy and I liked it."
"And did you like the taste of his cherry chapstick?" Gabriella laughed, Chad giving her a small smile.
"It's Troy, you know, it's weird. But our relationship has changed now. Don't get me wrong, we're still close, nothing's changed, like that. But I guess… I no longer see him as my brother. I see him…." Chad glanced up at Gabriella, shyly.
"What?"
"I see him as my hot friend who's actually a really good kisser." Chad widened his eyes, in disbelief of what he had just admitted.
"What are you saying, Chad?" Gabriella asked, confused. This whole gay thing was really starting to confuse her.
"That I know I definitely wanna kiss him again?" He bit him bottom lip and looked at Gabriella, looking slightly helpless.
"Chad, are you starting to think you might be gay too?" Gabriella asked softly, trying to hide the shock in her voice.
"No… I mean, I saw this girl today, wearing this dress, and boy…" Chad dropped his smile, remembering he was in company of a lady. "I'm not gay." He concluded.
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Chad and Troy sat nervously in Troy's bedroom, knowing one of them was going to have to talk at some point soon.
"I know things have been weird recently…" Chad started. "I guess in my whole 'doing what I want' thing, I've not been considering anyone else."
"Oh…" Troy scratched his arm out of nervousness. "Well… It's just a little weird not knowing what's going on."
"Well… I'm definitely not gay, by the way… but flirting with you has been a lot of fun." He grinned. "And… so was kissing you." He mumbled so quietly, Troy barely heard him.
"Right, okay, uh huh…" Troy smiled.
"I guess now that we're getting older…" Chad started to bite his thumb nail. "And we're starting to explore our options… I'm seeing you in a different light."
"In what way?"
Chad shrugged.
"It's not like you're my brother anymore."
"Are you saying you don't feel close to me anymore?"
"No." Chad shook his head, looking at the floor. "I feel just as close to you as before. But not in a brotherly way."
Troy was struggling to understand.
"I don't get what you're trying to get across…"
"I know it's weird, this whole thing's weird, because we've known each other for so long, and seen each other as brothers for so long…"
"Yeah…"
"I don't know what I'm feeling. Except that I know I wanna kiss you again."
Troy was too stunned to reply. He wasn't sure what to think - Chad had never shown signs of being interested in men before, let alone Troy, but Troy wouldn't dare accusing him of being anything less than real again. If Chad wasn't gay, but he wasn't faking it, then what could this possibly mean?
Chad shakily climbed off of where he was sat, at the end of Troy's bed cross legged, and walked over to where Troy was sat, cross legged at the other end. He clenched his eyes shut, and took a deep breath. He cupped Troy's cheeks in his hands, and leaned down.
"So… can I?"
"Wow." Troy managed to squeak out. "Such a gentleman."
Chad assumed this was a yes, and tentatively pressed his lips against Troy's. The nerves he had been feeling swirled around and turned themselves into excitement and what felt like electricity running through his veins.
Troy was feeling absolutely indescribable. He couldn't believe or describe how he felt at that very moment. He had never experienced a kiss like that before - not from Gabriella, not even from JP. He felt so comfortable with Chad, yet it was exciting and new.
The two broke apart, observing each other's huge grins.
"That was…." Troy struggled to find his words.
"Awesome." Chad grinned.
"Weird." Nodding in agreement with Chad also. "Good weird."
"Hey, I, uh… wanna do it again."
"Do it."
The two men kissed once again, less tense this time, but equally as exhilarating. Chad moved his hands from where they were cupping Troy's cheeks, down to his muscular shoulders. He immediately pulled away.
"That was weird." He grinned.
"What?"
"Moving my hands to your shoulders whilst kissing you and… feeling so much muscle."
"I'm just that manly." Troy grinned.
"You know what I mean! I'm used to… women's shoulders. Less bulky and stuff."
"Bulky is better, right?" Troy smiled, gripping Chad's jaw in his hand, gently.
"It's different." He shrugged. "In a good way. Same with the stubble."
"You did make out with Gina in high school though…." Troy grinned.
"Her chin wasn't stubbly, it was more… downy hair."
"Ew."
"Anyway, your lack of boobies is upsetting me though." Chad shrugged.
"Oh… really?" Troy shrugged back. He pulled his shirt up over his head, and climbed to his feet. "Does this not appeal?" he asked, glancing at himself in the mirror slyly.
Obviously, Chad had seen this sight many times. So why did it impress him so much?
"It does. It really does." Chad grinned, partly to himself, sitting himself down on Troy's bed. Troy joined him, laying on his side, next to where Chad was sat.
"Hey, Danforth?"
"Bolton?"
"Stop for a minute… and take time to consider this… it's me. And you. We've just been making out and now you're talking about how my being shirtless appeals to you." He laughed. "It's so weird."
"Yeah it is." Chad grinned.
"What are the chances? Of all three of us guys, in our group in high school, all three of us being gay?"
"I'm not gay!" Chad corrected Troy. "I was turned on by a girl, just yesterday."
"Too much information." Troy shook his head. "So, what, are you saying you're bisexual, or something?"
Chad frowned. He'd never even considered that. He forgot there was something in between straight and gay. He shrugged.
"Maybe. I don't know, Troy." He honestly told him.
"Okay."
"But what I do know is… I wanna kiss you. Again." Chad smiled.
"Then what's stopping you?"
Chad moved around so that he was lay next to the shirtless Troy, his eyes roaming his chest. He placed his hand on Troy's chin, and kissed him once again.
"Oh my god!" Troy mumbled through the kiss.
Just then, Troy's door was opened, neither of them hearing until it was too late. They both looked sheepishly towards his door, to see his mother standing there, raised eyebrows.
"I swear, nothing surprises me anymore…" She drifted off, closing the door and hearing quiet, embarrassed laughter from inside Troy's room.