Ryan was exhausted, he had been on the baseball team for just over a week and his first game was coming up. He felt the pressure build in practice, he felt as though everyone was waiting for him to screw up. All he could think about was the constant need to prove himself, but it was too hard. In his free time he was always practising. Someone would be with him at the batting cages, normally one of the girls as the boys had basketball practice. He hit the ball out of the park most times but he never felt that it was good enough. When he wasn't practising he was with either Gabriella or Taylor trying to get his grades back up. Even though he wasn't exactly stupid, it was too hard most of the time for him to catch up with anything. He tried, but all he could think about was his escape. His escape that Chad held for him. All he had to do was ask for it.

"Ryan you need to sleep." Chad said softly. It was almost midnight and Ryan was still up trying to finish an English paper.

"I need to finish this." Ryan snapped. Chad sighed and got out of bed, ever since Ryan had admitted to not sleeping he had made it a conscious effort not to go to sleep before Ryan, which often meant many days waking up with little sleep. He sat next to Ryan and snatched the paper and pen from his hands and threw it on the bed.

"You need to sleep!" Chad said.

"I... it might be okay for you to not do any work Chad but I need to!"

"You've been working your arse off for the past week!" Chad shouted. "And do you know how many hours sleep you've had this week alone?" Ryan didn't say anything. "Around 20."

"I..."

"I know Ry, you can't sleep. But look I got you some sleeping pills, take one."

"I don't want to Chad." Ryan mumbled.

"Well what do you want?"

"You know exactly what I want Chad!" Ryan shouted. "You're killing me with this three times shit. I need it and you know it."

"You think you need it." Chad corrected. "But you don't."

"I feel so weak." Ryan sighed. "I feel weak for wanting it, and I feel weak without it."

"It will get better. You're doing better."

"No I'm not!" Ryan laughed. "I feel like everything has gone to shit."

"Everything has already gone to shit, Ry. But now you're getting better, everything is looking up."

"How is it?" Ryan sighed.

"Because you've gone two weeks without any. And you're doing really well."

"Then why do I feel so shit?"

"Because you haven't had any, but in a couple of weeks you're going to be back to normal again."

"You mean I'm going to go back to being my parents doormat?"

"No, you're going to be whoever you want to be." Chad smiled. "You don't have to go back home, but I think you should talk to your parents."

"They don't want me." Ryan said softly. "I reckon they've used this drug thing as an excuse for not wanting me."

"Like you used it as a reason to not be wanted by them?" Chad asked.

"Yeah." Ryan sighed.

"We've got what eight nine months of school left and then we're going to college, you can go any where you want to go."

"I don't know where I want to go Chad, I'm so confused."

"Well why don't we go talk to a careers advisor tomorrow. We can see what they think, and then once you've made a decision maybe you can have something to look forward to, like an extra push out of this mess?"

"Yeah. Will you come with me?" Ryan asked.

"Sure." Chad smiled brightly at him. "But we need some sleep."

"Chad, I really don't think I can get to sleep..." Ryan sighed.

"When you were a kid what did you use to do when you couldn't sleep?" Chad asked moving them both into a lying position, he smiled when he felt Ryan lean closer to him.

"I... my mum used to sing to me." Ryan shrugged. "Used to get me to sleep."

"Okay, I'll sing to you."

"It's okay, I'll just count sheep or something." Ryan smiled.

"You can count sheep if my singing doesn't work." Chad smiled he wrapped an arm around Ryan who leaned even closer pressing his head against Chad's shoulder.

Chad softly started to sing an old nursery rhyme his mum used to sing to him. He sung three and a half verses before he noticed Ryan's breathing had evened out and he was sleeping peacefully. Chad wanted to take a photo, Ryan sleeping just seemed so perfect. Not realising what he was doing, Chad quickly flicked the lamp off and settled further into the bed, he pressed a gentle kiss on Ryan's forehead and then went to sleep holding the blond boy protectively in his arms.

The alarm was loud and made Ryan wince as he rang off. He groaned loudly and felt another presence in his bed, he opened one eye and was greeted with the bright green shirt that Chad wore to bed, he blinked wearily and then opened his eyes again. Chad was just as awake as he was and lazily reached over and turned the alarm off. Ryan yawned and Chad looked down at him, they were both uncomfortable and didn't know what to say.

"Did you... erm... did you sleep okay?" Chad asked, he had no idea what Ryan would think about him sleeping in the same bed with him, let alone holding him.

"Yeah, thanks. You didn't have to... last night I mean..."

"If it helped you sleep I would do it again." Chad smiled.

"You're a comfy pillow." Ryan said softly, his head resting on Chad's stomach again. Chad grinned, this was how they had slept last night, and he hoped he would spend tonight sleeping like this too.

"And you're a warm blanket." Chad smiled back.

-x-

Chad drove himself and Ryan to school and they were greeted by everyone in the car park like they were every morning. "Hey guys." Troy grinned, giving Chad a manly hug and then Ryan a normal hug.

"Hey," Ryan smiled as he hugged his sister, it seemed that after everything the two had gotten closer.

"Hey Ryan." Billy grinned. "Can I have a word?"

"Sure." Ryan said.

"In private, it's kind of personal." Billy said.

"It's okay, I'm not going to do anything." Ryan said mainly towards Chad who nodded his head.

"Is everything okay?" Ryan asked.

"I've heard something." Billy said and they sat on the benches, they still had a few minutes before home room.

"What sort of things?" Ryan asked instantly worried.

"Trevor, I'm not sure what but he's going to do something." Billy sighed. "No one's ever dumped him like you did, Ry. He's been bragging to the rest of his little group about doing something to get you back...and I can see how well you're doing now, and I don't want you to go back to him."

"I'm not going to." Ryan promised.

"Be careful, Ry." Billy smiled. "I'll walk you back to your friends before they think something has you know happened."

"Thanks, and thanks for telling me."

"No worries, I just don't want to see you get hurt." Billy smiled softly. Ryan headed back over to Chad who was waiting anxiously for him, they all waved by to Billie with wary eyes.

"So what's going on?" Chad asked, he and Ryan had walked behind their friends. Ryan told him everything that Billy had said and Chad's eyes grew wide with panic and worry. "I'm not gong to let anyone hurt you, and you're not going back to him, ever." Chad said and wrapped an arm around Ryan's shoulder. "Okay. Promise me you wont go back to him, ever."

"Promise."