Chapter Seven

"Ryan! Hey, Ryan!"

Ryan turned from his locker and stared in disbelief as Troy jogged up to him. "Yes?" he said coldly.

"Dude, I've been looking for you all over." Troy gave Ryan one of his goofy-yet-charming grins.

"Why?" Ryan turned back to study his reflection in the mirror in his locker and adjusted his hat so that it sat a little lower on his head.

"To tell you I'm sorry," Troy answered, as if that made any sense.

Ryan shut his locker before facing Troy. "Sorry for what, exactly?"

"For being jealous of how much Chad liked you." Troy scratched his eyebrow. "I mean, it's stupid, right? He's my best friend. I should have been happy that he found someone he was really into, not plotting with his boyfriend's sister to ruin his relationship."

"Wait, what?" Ryan put his hands together and took a calming breath. "Let me get this right. You are saying that you and Shar went all secret agent and arranged to have me overhear Chad dissing me because you were jealous?"

Troy nodded like he was a bobble-head doll. "Exactly. I wanted Chad to stop liking you because I thought that it was a threat to our relationship. Which, like I said, is stupid. Me and Chad are bros and you and him are," Troy paused as if searching for the right word.

"Fuck buddies?" Ryan supplied.

Troy blanched. "Uh, yeah, that." He looked confused and then shook his head. "No, that that, actually. If Chad and you were, um, having sex, it wasn't like that. He is way too into you for it to have been a causal thing. Believe me, I've seen him causal. There was this one time when he and--"

"That's enough," Ryan cut in, holding his hands out to ward off whatever Troy was about to over share.

"Look, the point is that I fucked up and now Chad is suffering for it and I wanted to apologize because it wasn't his fault."

Ryan gave an amused chuckle. "Oh really? Was it you who called male dancers 'prancing little fairies' then? Because I sort of recall that Chad said that. And I don't think you held a gun to his head to make him do it either."

"Yeah, he said that. But how is that any different from you calling jocks brain-dead rejects from the shallow end of the gene pool? Or the time you and your sister photoshopped the faces of the basketball team onto the bodies of gorillas? That was really jacked up and no one manipulated you into doing it. You guys came up with it all on your own."

"I wasn't dating Chad then," Ryan protested.

"So that makes it alright?" Troy snorted. "Look, all I'm saying is that everyone says does insensitive things every now and then. No one is perfect. And, in Chad's defense, he was being played by your sister. Which I know from personal experience is pretty damn hard to avoid."

"What you guys did was really messed up, I won't deny it, but if Chad really cared about me he would have just admitted that we were an item when you guys started giving him crap for hanging out with me. Instead he talked trash about me." Ryan made disgusted sound. "So excuse me if I don't feel sorry for him for being played by Shar."

Troy gave him a hard look. "Chad told me that you were the one who didn't want your relationship getting out. Are you telling me that he should have ignored your wishes and just told everyone that you two were messing around? Something tells me you would have been pissed about that too." Ryan opened his mouth to defend himself but Troy talked right over him. "It seems to me that you were ashamed of him, not the other way round. You didn't want anyone to know that you were together. You didn't want him to tell his friends and you were the one who told him that you weren't sure if you wanted to take things to the next level with him. Which tells me that you were just using him. Of course you jumped all over him for 'dissing' you. It gave you the prefect reason to dump him." Troy shook his head. "You know what, forget it. I'm not sorry. You don't deserve Chad."

Ryan felt rage well up in him and he balled his hands into fists. "Fuck that," he all but spit out. "I am not the villain here. You and Sharpay engineered this whole thing. Yeah, I'll admit that I was hesitant about Chad. But why wouldn't I be? He was straight, for all intents and purposes, up to the point where he decided to stick his tongue down my throat. So sue me if I thought he was going to bolt the second things got serious. I've had more than my fair share of guys deciding that they 'aren't gay after all' and I didn't want to be anyone else's experiment. Don't you dare start harping on me like I'm to blame for what went down. That was all you, Chad and my sister."

He slammed his fist into his locker for emphasis and instantly regretted it. Punching something hard and metal was not as good a way to relieve pent up frustration as the movies made it seem. Ryan shook out his hand and then blew on his knuckles, which was another move he picked up from the big screen. It was pretty damn inadequate as far as pain relieving went.

"You're going to need to ice that," Troy commented. "Come on, this way."

"What?" Ryan blew on his hand again, hoping that it would work better the second time.

Troy laughed. "You hit your hand, not your head, Evans. Don't go acting all confused." When Ryan continued to look at him blankly, Troy sighed. "The locker room has a ton of ice in it. Come with me and I'll make sure your hand feels better in a jiffy."

Ryan eyed him suspiciously. "Why is there ice in the locker room?"

"Because playing sports isn't all fun and games." Troy slipped his hands into his pockets and started walking down the hall. "Sometimes people get hurt." He glanced at Ryan out of the corner of his eye. "Sort of like friendships. Or any relationship, really."

"Is this where you tell me that I have to get back up on the horse or not to let little bumps and bruises keep me out of the game or something equally clichéd?" Ryan asked with a roll of the eyes.

"Don't need to," Troy replied with a grin. "You're doing a fine job of it all by yourself."

Chad looked up from icing his knee at the sound of the door opening. "Sup?" he asked as Troy walked in.

"What did you do to your knee?" Troy asked as he gestured to someone behind him.

"Tweaked it doing a jab step." Chad bent back over his leg, rubbing the Dixie cup of ice around the outside of his knee.

"How'd you do that?"

Chad shrugged and peeled off a thin layer of wax paper to expose more ice. "Dunno. Must have stepped wrong or something. Not that big a deal, but coach wanted me to ice it, so here I am. What about you? Why are you here?"

"Helping me fix my hand."

Chad's head jerked up at the sound of Ryan's voice. He glanced down at Ryan's red, swollen knuckles and then glared at Troy with narrowed eyes. "How'd your hand get hurt?"

Ryan lifted a shoulder. "Hit something I shouldn't have." He gave Troy an expectant look. "Are you going to get me some ice or am I going to be subjected another one of your statue impressions?"

Troy rolled his eyes. "Don't be such a dilhole," he said as he moved across the room to the freezer. He hunted inside it and pulled out another Dixie cup. "Catch."

"How do I use this?" Ryan asked as he caught the cup. He looked so perplexed that Chad couldn't help but laugh. Which was a total stupid thing to do, judging by the pinched expression that swept across Ryan's face. Chad ducked his head again, rubbing the cup harder against his skin in an attempt to make it melt faster.

"Just do what Chad's doing," Troy advised. "Hey, I've got to jet. But think about what I said, okay?"

Ryan made an affirmative noise and then sighed as Troy hurried out of the room. Chad sneaked a look at him out of the corner of his eyes and watched as Ryan started moving the cup back and forth over his knuckles.

"You should have just hit him," Chad commented.

Ryan sniffed. "Who said I was angry with him? I could have punched my locker for a thousand other reasons."

"But you didn't. You did it because Troy, for all he comes off as the world's biggest golden retriever, is a conniving think-for-himselfer."

"Don't hold it in," Ryan said wryly, "tell me what you really think."

"I don't know if you'd noticed or not, but Troy really isn't one of my favorite people right now." Chad picked at the paper still attached to the cup.

"Could that have anything to do with the fact that he schemed with my sister behind your back?"

Chad let out a frustrated sigh. "More like he thinks he can just make up for it with a half assed apology and a stupid aw shucks grin."

Ryan made an amused sound. "Sounds like someone else I know."

"What?" Chad looked at him in confusion.

"I said, it sounds a whole lot like what you tried to do. You know, act like a complete ass and then try and charm your way into my good graces because you didn't mean for me to get hurt."

"I didn't." Chad shook his head. "Whatever. I'm not going to rehash this with you." He stood up. "Nice seeing you and all," he said as he tossed the remnants of his cup into the trash.

"Wait." Ryan set down his cup and crossed the room, catching Chad's upper arm with his cold hand. "Look, we need to talk."

Chad glanced down at Ryan's hand and then up at Ryan's face. "You mind?"

Ryan dropped his arm and took a step back. "Seriously, we need to talk."

"Ryan, I--" Chad dashed a hand through his hair, not how to finish the sentence without sounding like a tool.

"Just listen, then." Ryan moved between Chad and the door and then leaned back against it with crossed his arms over his chest. "You don't have to say anything. Just listen to me talk and when I'm done we can go our separate ways."

"Don't," Chad told him. "Things are over between us. I get it. I'm not saying that I'm all sunshine and flowers or anything like that, but I get it. And I'm sure you're feeling all guilty because Troy probably pinned you to a wall or something and talked to you till you thought it was your fault that he made bad choices. Trust me, he had the same talk with me, so I know how you feel right now. All churned up and wishing you knew a way to get hold of a souped up DeLorean. But you can't. So just let it go."

Ryan shook his head. "That's not what we need to talk about."

"Oh." Chad felt like he had the world fool branded on his forehead. "Yeah? Well, then, just forget I said that."

"Forget that you wanted to go all Back to the Future over our break up?" Ryan gave him a smug look. "Not going to happen."

Chad scowled. "How about we go back to the part were you do the talking and I just listen?"

"Right." Ryan's eyes danced with suppressed mirth. "I wanted to talk to you about the spring musical. I know why you and Taylor auditioned and it didn't work. So just do us all a favor and stop now. Shar seriously went through the roof. She was already pissed about Gabby and me and finding out that there is another pair competing for the role will seriously break something in her. It won't be pretty. So please do the entire world a favor and not show up for call backs."

"You have got to be kidding me."

Ryan shook his head. "No joke."

"Seriously?" Chad gave him a disbelieving look. "Your sister successfully ruins your relationship and you are worried about her getting into a tizzy over having a little honest competition?"

"Chad, you are many things, but Sharpay's competition you are not."

"Then there shouldn't be any problems when Taylor and I do our version of Bop to the Top." Chad scratched the side of his cheek. "Anything else I can help you with?"

"Why are you doing this?" Ryan asked in exasperation. "You don't even like musicals."

"I don't," Chad admitted. "But Tay does."

Ryan straightened up, his body radiating tension. "And it matters what Taylor McKessie likes?"

"Yeah, as it just so happens, it does." Chad narrowed his eyes. "Why? What's it matter to you?"

"I just thought," Ryan trailed off and sighed. "Clearly, I was wrong." He stepped away from the door.

Chad pushed past him and left without saying any of the thoughts that were beating themselves to death against his skull.

Chapter Notes: Dane Cook came up with "think-for-yourselfer" and Back to the Future is an awesome movie that everyone should watch.