Chapter 2: Cluelessness

Chad had no clue how he ended up here. He was sitting in the garden ("Patio, Chad, for real, how can such an uneducated moron even type the street name correctly into the GPS? Gosh…") at the Evans's mansion and somehow their random get-together had turned into a small party.

Zeke was getting cookies out of the oven in the kitchen and feeding them, still hot, to Sharpay ("Double chocolate chip is my favourite!") and Kelsi had dragged a keyboard outside and had started playing music. Gabriella, Taylor, Jason and some others all had fun trying to guess the song or were making up lyrics to Nielsen original songs. Martha was dancing with Ryan and some other people of the Drama Club. Maybe there were some cheerleaders there as well, Chad wasn't certain.

Chad was laying by himself in the grass. Boi, Sharpay's dog, had installed himself next to Chad and seemed to be happy that Chad was petting him.

Chad liked observing all his friends. It was an easy spontaneous night, another Friday in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Chad was feeling really grateful. He'd spend a big part of the past week patching up Jaime from that disastrous date. The thing that had swayed her in the end, was that she'd gotten through the call-backs for the audition for the new play. Sharpay and Ryan finally had seemed to agree that A Midsummer Night's Dream was actually a proper choice.

Smiling, Chad closed his eyes and let the sounds of the party flow through him, enjoying the moment.

"Hey!" Ryan's voice made him jump up, causing Boi to run away. He didn't know how much time had passed, but there were significantly less voices chattering through the garden than he remembered. "Sorry, did I wake you?"

Chad sat up properly as Ryan easily sank through his knees to sit down next to him. "I'm not certain if I was asleep, really." He stretched his arms, a yawn escaping from his throat. "What time is it?"

"Almost half past one," Ryan replied. "Kelsi and Martha just left, they were the last ones. Well, I think Zeke might've gone up with Sharpay to her room, but I'd rather not think about that."

"What, straight sex freaks you out that much?" Chad joked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"No, but straight sex involving my sister does." Chad laughed, he loved how quick on his feet Ryan was.

Suddenly, the words Ryan said earlier were setting in. "Wait, Troy left already?" He was his ride.

"Yeah, a bit after midnight," Ryan replied. "Something about Gabriella's Mom being stuck at the airport?"

"Meaning they have the house to themselves and maybe can itch towards third base," Chad said. He sighed, laid back down and dramatically threw an arm over his eyes. "That douche left me stranded. He was my ride." How the hell was he going to get home?

There was a pause. Then, Ryan said hesitantly: "You know… You can just crash here. If you want to."

Chad shot back upright, looking at Ryan. "You don't mind? I just don't wanna call my Moms and ask them to come get me." Thinking of that, he checked his phone. No missed calls but he did have a text from his Mom asking what time he'd be home. It was from half an hour ago. He didn't have an official curfew on Fridays and Saturdays, but anything past one in the morning means he was pushing his luck. He quickly fired of a text saying he was staying over, torn between hoping she'd already be asleep so she wouldn't be pissed for the hour, and hoping that she'd still see it so she wouldn't worry.

"It's no problem," Ryan said. He got up, offered Chad a hand, and pulled him to his feet.

"Awesome," Chad replied slowly, sleep settling back in. He followed Ryan into the house and up the stairs. "Can I borrow something to sleep in, too?"

"Sure, no problem," Ryan replied as he pushed open the door to his bedroom.

Chad had no clue what he had been expecting to find here. While he'd been here a few times, he hadn't been up to Ryan's room yet. It was spacious, with a walk-in closet and a wall dedicated to awards and trophies. There were Broadway Playbills, both signed and unsigned, framed, hanging above the bed. While everything looked like a theatre nerd lived here, it wasn't overwhelming. Then again, the room was easily thrice the size of Chad's.

Letting Chad stand there in the middle of the room, Ryan had already grabbed a T-shirt and sweatpants for Chad to sleep in. "I hope it fits," Ryan said apologetically.

Chad smiled softly. "I'm sure it's fine." He walked towards the couch as he started unzipping his sweater. He quickly stripped to his boxers and changed into the pyjama pants and T-shirt that Ryan had given him. He turned around, and saw that Ryan had walked back into his closet. The irony of it wasn't escaped on Chad but he decided against saying anything about it. He walked towards Ryan, asking: "Do you need any help with finding sheets and stuff?"

Ryan, who'd just been standing there, turned around, a faint blush on his cheeks. "What? Oh, right. Sheets and pillows." He turned back to one of the racks, looking at it.

Chad smiled, observing him for a second. "You have no idea where you keep your sheets, do you?"

Ryan faced him. "No?" he admitted faintly. "We have a maid. And. Well."

Chad rolled his eyes. "It's fine, dude," he said, saving Ryan out of his struggles. "I'm cool with sharing the bed if you are."

Ryan stumbled, and Chad wasn't certain if it was general clumsiness because of the late hour, or because Chad's remark had taken him of guard. Sometimes, Chad forgot that Ryan was an extremely obvious gay guy and had seen Chad as a typical jock for most of his life. Not a lot of people grew up with two moms and a best friend he'd shared the bed with from since he they were kids up till through puberty.

"Or I can just steal a pillow and sleep on the couch, it's all the same to me."

Ryan shook his head. "No, it's fine. I am gonna go. Change. You just get comfortable." And with that Ryan slipped into the hallway, off to the bathroom Chad assumed. He climbed into the bed on the side where there were the least things on the nightstand, getting comfortable as Ryan had suggested. Chad wouldn't have minded sleeping on the couch, but now that he was laying on the matrass, he really hoped that Ryan wouldn't be uncomfortable or make him move off the couch. He was too sleepy and comfortable at this point.

A few minutes later, Ryan walked back into the room. Chad was laying under the cover on his stomach, the pillow entirely hidden by Chad's bouncy curls. Ryan went to put his hat back in his closet and got into the bed on the other side, the noise making Chad look up.

"Hey," he said sleepily. "I hope I got the right side."

"You're fine,", Ryan replied. He turned off the lights and crawled deep under the covers, laying perfectly still.

Which Chad noticed. After a few minutes – or at least it felt like minutes, but it had already been established earlier that night that Chad's sense of time was way off – he poked Ryan in his side. "Dude, this is your room and your bed. Relax. If you're not comfortable, I'll just sleep on the couch, it really doesn't matter to me."

He was so tired he would fall asleep on the tile bathroom floor at this point, but he wasn't going to say that to Ryan who was already self-conscious. Besides, the bed was extremely comfortable.

Ryan relaxed. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm just not used to this, I guess."

Chad turned to his side. "Never had a guy in your bed before?" He blinked a few times to get his eyes adapted to the darkness so he could see Ryan's face.

Chad knew it was a lame joke, but at least Ryan was smiling. "Never had a guy in my bedroom before, period." Chad made a face. "Or," Ryan continued. "Really no one except family. And Kelsi, maybe, once, to give her a new hat. I'm not sure."

"That's sad," Chad said without thinking.

"Is it?" Ryan shrugged. "It's just what I'm used to, I guess."

"Never had a friend in your room? Even as a kid?"

Ryan closed his eyes, letting out a deep sigh. "It's not like I had a lot of friends growing up."

They've had this conversation before, and Chad knew, except for one year where Ryan was close to this guy Tobias when he was eight, that he never really had any friends. It was always just him and his sister, which explained why the twins were so particularly close. As high school started, he'd gotten to know Kelsi better, but even that had taken until after Troy and Gabriella had claimed their spot in the winter musical. He'd gotten so used to be alone, he'd forgotten how to be with friends.

"I'm sorry," Chad said softly. "I guess I forget sometimes."

"That's not your fault," Ryan said. "You were lucky before, I am lucky and happy now as well. It's all good." He was silent for a moment. "Tell me about it?"

Chad was getting closer to sleep and didn't know exactly what Ryan meant. "Tell you about what?"

"Growing up with friends and sleepovers and. Everything."

"Oh," Chad said. Thinking for a moment. "My favourite sleepover moment was right after we had moved, I think. Stef and Jaime moved in two yours before that in our old place, but we moved someplace bigger later," Chad explained. "So, I must've been eight. Troy was staying over for the night for the first time and we'd built a fort out of a bunch of the unpacked boxes in the living room, set around the television. We used sheets as a ceiling, and we had turned off the sound so Moms would forget we were there and could stay up later. And suddenly, Jaime, still in her pink tutu from ballet class earlier, jumped through the ceiling of our fort. She'd put a chair on top of a coffee table and had jumped over the boxes." Chad smiled at the memory. Jaime had looked like a ghost with the sheet wrapped around her. "Our Moms yelled at her, of course, and then at me for laughing so much. Troy had been laughing when it was just my Mom, but he was so confused when Stef had joined her. Afterwards, when we went to bed, he just looked at me and said: 'Dude, you have two Moms.'"

"I can imagine Troy being confused over that." Ryan's eyes were still closed, he finally looked comfortable.

"He was. But I just replied that yes, I had two Moms and a sister, and couldn't he come live with us because three against one was just unfair."

Ryan laughed softly. "What did he say?"

"He said he would trade his Dad for a day with Stef. He knew my Mom was seeing a cop, and he wanted to ride in a combi with the lights on." Chad was quiet for a moment. That was the only time Troy had ever reacted to the fact that his Mom had been with another woman and not a man, and it had been a perfect reaction in Chad's mind. "After that, Troy never said anything about me having two Moms, and when he noticed that people were using gay as a curse word, he told his Dad. Coach was the one that got the full no-discrimination thing through at junior high and east high school."

"He's a good friend," Ryan said.

"He is. Preoccupied clutter-head sometimes, and completely gets some priorities wrong, but he can be a good friend."

"You're lucky." Chad did not like the way Ryan's voice was. It sounded sad.

"I am. But hey, so are you. You got me, now, after all." Chad hoped the teasing would clear the air a bit, it felt too heavy all of a sudden.

Ryan's voice sounded very far away when he said. "That I do."

And with that, Chad fell asleep, and Ryan probably followed not much after that.

On Tuesday, Ryan and Chad got their report back on the assay assignment they did together. It was good, but now they had to continue building on it for the next assignment. This time, Chad had been decently prepared, and had read the next book. Ryan – jokingly impressed – suggested they should just immediately go someplace and get it finished. So Chad dragged Ryan back to his place. He'd given his keys to Jaime so she could drive herself home and he begged and begged Ryan to let him drive his convertible. Ryan refused each time, smirking just a bit.

They got themselves installed at the kitchen table again, laptops, textbooks and literature open, along with the remarks written on their assignment. Jaime had raided the cookies so Chad had resorted to dunking mini marshmallows in his tea. Such a disappointment.

"I am just saying," Chad repeated, waving around his teaspoon, "That Darbus is getting the point of the story completely wrong. We should focus on the war that was going on, not the love drama nonsense."

"It's not nonsense, and you know that it's the parallels that matter," Ryan repeated as well, staring stubbornly at his laptop screen as he typed away. "And you know Ms. Darbus lives for such drama, so if you wanna get a decent grade just go with it."

"Are you deliberately being so annoying or are you just such a sap?" Chad asked, smirking. "I know you're not that much of a kiss-ass – your sister would've been bitching a lot less then as Summer ended."

"It's both, and just shut up and tell me what to write down," Ryan said without missing a beat.

"What is it, shut up or telling you what to write? I can't do both." Ryan looked up and glared at him. "All right, all right, jeesh, just," Chad fumbled for words, and just took the book and flipped to the page they needed a citation from. "Just write, okay? That night," Chad began dictating as Ryan typed away.

They worked a bit longer before Lena came home. "Hey," she said as she entered the kitchen, walking towards Chad for a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey Mom," he replied. "You remember Ryan?"

Lena smiled and nodded towards the blond boy. "Of, course, hello," she said politely. "Stef should be here with the twins soon," she added as she dropped her purse onto the table.

"Okay," Chad replied. He turned back to Ryan, who was typing away. Lena walked back to the hallway to put her stuff away, and it was only then that Chad piped up. "So you wanna stay for dinner?"

Ryan looked up, taken by surprise. "Euhm, I… I don't know?"

Chad smiled, but didn't respond. They tried to keep working, but right after Lena asked if they could clear the table so she could start on dinner and the two of them had moved all their stuff to the coffee table, Stef had come home with the twins.

Jesus had immediately ran off to Chad and started running around him. Chad sank to his knees and hugged the nine year old boy. Mariana followed and demanded a hug as well.

"Where's Jaime?" Mariana asked.

"Upstairs," Chad replied before whispering conspiringly: "She's hiding all the cookies!"

Mariana gasped and started to run upstairs. Jesus stared at her for a second before deciding that sitting on the couch was a better idea, so he did so and stared at the full coffee table. "What're you doing?" he asked.

Chad sat back in his spot, making it so that Jesus was sitting between him and Ryan. "Well," he replied. "I'm working for school together with Ryan."

Jesus turned his head, looking at Ryan. "Hi. I'm Jesus. I'm eight and I have HDHD."

Ryan looked a bit odd at him. Chad smiled, saying: "It's ADHD, Jesus."

"Right, that." Jesus looked at Ryan for a second. "Why are you wearing a hat inside?"

"Euhm," Ryan muttered unintelligently. "Because I like wearing hats?"

Jesus nodded, deeming the answer acceptable. "At school we're not allowed to wear hats outside. I only wear hats when sporting, or if it's cold, but it's not often cold here. I don't like wearing hats, but sometimes I got the sun in my eyes and then I kick the ball to the wrong person so I kinda have to wear a hat, you know?"

Chad had to hide his smile, not certain if Ryan was confused by the young boys rambling – his ADHD medication was clearly out of his system – or just by the fact that he randomly started speaking to him. "I know," Ryan said, though the look he gave Chad was telling him something else.

Chad decided to get Ryan out of his suffering. "Hey, Jesus," Chad said, gaining his brother's attention. "Maybe you can go help Moms set the table? Tell them Ryan is joining us for dinner."

"Okay!" Jesus replied happily, jumping off of the couch and running towards the kitchen before Ryan could protest.

And that is how, fourty minutes later, Ryan was sitting at the big kitchen table, next to Chad, with the young twins, Jaime, and Chad's two Moms. After listening to the twins interesting topics, Lena turned the conversation to Jaime.

"So, when are call-backs for the play?" she asked.

"No idea," Jaime replied. "Hey, Ryan, when are call-backs?"

"Next week Tuesday and Thursday," he replied automatically, only his eyes betraying the fact he was surprised that he was being addressed at the table at all.

Jaime nodded. When Stef asked if she already knew what to do, Jaime shook her head.

"You know," Ryan spoke up softly. "You really don't have to worry. You're kind of a lock for Titania."

Jaime looked up, eyes wide. "Really?"

Ryan nodded. "Don't tell anyone I said that though. Especially Sharpay."

Jaime smiled, eyes still wide. "No worries," she said. "Okay. So I need a good piece to recite. Okay. Okay." Jaime was more speaking to herself at this point than anything else.

"Just make sure it's actually from the play this time," Ryan added.

Chad grinned. "Yeah, let's not do the Vee Monologues twice in a row, or I'll have to hear Darbus whine about it in homeroom again."

Jaime ducked her head while Lena lowered her fork. "You did not," she said.

"Oops?" Jaime tried to keep the innocent look going, but Stef was full on glaring at her.

"Jaime. You've already gotten in trouble twice for, and I quote, 'exaggerative feminist rants', we can't have you go on doing the Vagina Monologues!"

"It wasn't exaggerative, that teacher is just an asshole." Jaime shot back.

Jesus hit her arm. "You said a bad word," he explained when Jaime looked at him. Mariana nodded, and Chad as well.

"That's not the point here," Stef interrupted the kids. "Jaime, just make sure not to get in trouble because I cannot deal with you getting suspended again."

"Again?" Ryan asked, his curiosity winning over the rapid exchange.

"You remember that false fire alarm going off last year?" Chad asked. Ryan nodded. "Well, Jaime may or may not have pulled it because a teacher may or may not have made a comment about the length of her skirt."

"It was during gym," Mariana added, clearly having heard this story before. "So Jaime made the smoke detector go off so the teacher would stop making fun of the cheerleaders uniform."

"Which is why," Lena said sternly. "We can't have any more suspensions. Got it?"

Jaime rolled her eyes, but nodded, and started asking Mariana questions of her ballet class.

And Ryan sat back, slowly eating his food, wondering how he got there, taking in the insane combined family of Chad.

Few days later Chad was bouncing off the walls during physics class. He needed it to be lunchtime already. After that he had free period – thank you Mrs. Josey for being sick – and that way he could practice in the gym with Troy. They had a big game that evening and he wanted to kick ass!

Class passed slowly, but as soon as the bell rang he ran off towards the cafeteria. The main topic at lunch for Chad, Troy, Zeke and Jason, was the game they had tonight – their first big game of that season – while Ryan, Gabriella and Kelsi discussed the play. While time had seemed to stand still during physics class, it seemed to fly by during lunch, and soon Chad and Troy were playing a one on one game in the gym.

"So," Troy said. "How's it going with Ryan?"

"Good," Chad replied. "He's really excited about this play, something about an additional twist to put on his resume." Chad scored a point. "Besides, Sharpay really didn't want to do this play at first and Ryan got his way, so he's really glad."

Troy nodded, stealing the ball from Chad and running backwards. "Gabi is excited, too," he said. "She'd mostly gotten used to singing, but I guess she wants to expand her horizons or something."

They played a few more minutes in silence. "You and Ryan," Troy started, carefully. "You've gotten really close."

Chad's defences began to rise. Troy was proven to be a jealous prick when it came to his girlfriend – Chad hoped his friends wouldn't expand to that as well. "Yeah." He scored a three-pointer. "So?"

"Nothing," Troy said immediately. "It's just. You know Ryan used to have a crush on you, right?"

"Again, so?" Chad tried to ignore that new piece of information and the way it send his brain immediately into overdrive. "Besides," he said, dribbling the ball between his legs. "I don't see how that makes any difference. Used to, right? We're friends."

"Gabi told me after the summer," Troy said, standing still, not even trying to grab the ball from Chad. "He might still have a crush on you, I wouldn't know."

Chad stopped playing ball and looked up at his best friend. "What are you trying to say here, Bolton?" he asked angrily. "We're friends, hypothetical crushes aren't going to change that."

Troy shrugged, grabbed the ball from Chad and performed a perfect lay-up. "I'm just saying," he said while he threw the ball back to Chad. "That you might actually have a shot at him."

And with that, Troy walked out of the gym, leaving Chad behind by himself, utterly confused, the basketball rolling away, completely forgotten.

Chad wasn't paying attention during History class. He never was, so that wasn't anything special, the teacher was boring as hell and everything was written down in the syllabus anyways, but the reason why he wasn't paying attention was more relevant.

Troy's words had been repeating themselves in his head. Ryan had a crush on him. Or at least used to, according to Troy and Gabriella. And Troy said to Chad that he might have a shot at Ryan.

Chad didn't even know for sure he liked Ryan. Sure, they'd gotten close over the Summer when Troy had ditched him, and Ryan became his rock. Between dance classes and goofing off on the baseball field, Ryan would sneak into the kitchen and just hang out with them during their breaks. And even after school started back up, Chad made it a point to keep hanging out with Ryan by themselves, even though Troy got his act together and they were back in their respective clubs and teams.

He really liked hanging out with Ryan. He was witty and competitive and someone Chad wasn't afraid to talk to. He liked Ryan. But that didn't mean he liked him liked him, right.

Chad slumped into his seat. He knew his relationship with Taylor never worked because there was never a real spark. Taylor was a good enough friend, and because they dated until this Summer they had gotten comfortable talking to one another. But since they'd broken up, they never hung out with just the two of them, and Chad knew he didn't miss it. Taylor was a friend and nothing more.

On the other hand, the thought of not spending alone time with Ryan did make him uncomfortable. Sure, hanging out with the entire gang was fun, but the conversations they'd had with just the two of them had been real and fun and intimate, and Chad didn't want to miss out on that. But that didn't mean he liked Ryan more than a good friend.

Or did it?

Chad hated this feeling of doubt, the uncertainties. He suppressed a groan and tried to sit up straight and pay attention. Maybe it'll make the class go by faster. He wanted this last class of the day just be done so he could go and prep with the team for their game that night.

The class went by slowly, leaving Chad alone to his thoughts, but once it was done, Chad stormed out of the classroom, went to stuff his books in his locker, and then ran off to the locker room. They still had nearly two hours before the game started, but Chad wanted to get his head in the game and more importantly, get rid of Troy's stupid words.

Jason, Zeke and some others were already in the locker room, talking about how to win this game. Troy wasn't there yet, luckily, and Chad joined his friends. The chatter on what strategy to play took a while, and it helped him get his mind off Ryan. He focused on the game and on winning.

Once the team was complete, Coach started them on warm up drills. Not much after that, the other team arrived and some people of that high school started filling the seats in the gym. The opposing team also started warmups and not much later, the game began.

Chad started and played well. By the second half when they were in the lead, he got switched by a new kid. As he sat down on the bench, tugging on the sweater, he scanned the audience for familiar faces. Jaime was on the side line with the cheerleaders, and he knew the rest of his family were on the first row, the twins sitting between Lena and Stef. He found Gabriella and Taylor, and a few rows behind them, on the very last row, he spotted Sharpay and Ryan. They were talking excitedly, yet still keeping an eye on the game. Chad hadn't realised the Evans twins were going to come to the game, though seeing Sharpay jump up as Zeke scored a point, the illusion that Ryan had come for him was scattered. Somehow it bothered him more than it probably should.

They won the game in the last minute, and the team made plans to go celebrate at a burger place not too far away. They were discussing carpooling options as they walked out of the locker room, freshly showered, and were greeted by a bunch of girlfriends from team members and some cheerleaders. Gabriella was the first one to jump out of the crowd and greeted Troy by a hug. "Congratulations, Wildcat!" she said, giggling.

"Great game," Ryan said, a lot of people agreeing.

"You," Sharpay gushed, clinging onto Zeke. "Were amazing, saving the game. A true knight in shining armour!"

Zeke smiled proudly at that, while Chad had to hide his snicker because of Ryan's exaggerated eye-rolling.

"Hey, do you guys wanna join us?" Jason offered. "We're all gonna go get burgers at Ellis."

And like that everyone ended up in too full cars, driving off to Ellis' burgers place. They ended up dragging chairs and tables next to a large corner booth, people sitting on each other's laps (Gabriella and Troy) or sitting almost in each other's neck because of the height of the booth (Jaime and Zeke, though it also might have to do with the fact that Zeke is absurdly tall).

All the cheerleaders and the entire basketball team where present, and a bunch of their friends and significant others. Zeke was retelling how he managed to score the last point, loving how Sharpay was hanging onto his every word. Martha was bouncing on her feet, excited to be a cheerleader, practising some moves with some of Jaime's teammates.

After a lot of fries and more laughter, people started heading home, and by the end it was only the typical friend group left, more or less. Troy and Gabriella were sitting on the far end of a bench, kissing and whispering sickeningly sweet things to each other. Zeke and Sharpay were doing pretty much the same, except there was less talking but more tongue. Jason was trying to listen what Kelsi and Martha were explaining about a three fourth rhythm like a waltz compared to a four fourth rhythm with the regular eight beats songs. He was extremely focussed, which is why he probably didn't notice that Jaime and Sasha, the cheerleading captain, were throwing French fries into the hood of his sweater from their spot on top of the booth, giggling.

Chad got out of the booth as Taylor announced she was heading home, too. After a brief hug, Chad slit back into the booth, elbowing Ryan.

"Hey," he said, for the first time that night paying exclusive attention to Ryan. "I didn't know you were coming to the game. Did you enjoy it?"

"Yeah, Sharpay wanted to show Zeke that she supports him," he replied. "I don't understand why she needs to do that though, I think her tongue is currently doing enough work."

Chad followed Ryan's line of sight it looked like they were playing tonsil hockey with their tongues.

"Ugh," Chad said. He turned back to Ryan. "But did you at least enjoy it? At the very least you could've had fun criticising the cheerleader's routine."

"Hey!" Sasha threw a fry at him in protest, which got stuck in his hair. "Serves you right," she muttered as she continued throwing fries into Jason's hood.

Chad shook his head violently, failing to get the fry out. "Sit still, you goof," Ryan said as he started carefully plucking at his hair. "And it was a fun game, to answer your question. Tense, you guys really kept it to the last second to win."

Retrieving the fry from his hair, Ryan handed it to Chad, who threw it at his sister. "But we did win," Chad said. "And that's what matters, right?"

"Sure," Ryan said. "Go Wildcats!"

Chad elbowed him, thinking for a second, Troy's words from earlier that day still lingering in the back of his mind. "Say, is it true you used to have a crush on me?"

Ryan spat out his diet coke and started coughing violently.

"Hmm, should've waited until you swallowed that," Chad said apologetic. He almost regretted asking, but it had been messing with his head all day. And there was no one paying attention to them, and so far he'd been able to talk to Ryan about anything. He hoped Ryan would just be honest with him.

Once Ryan stopped coughing, he looked up to Chad. "Where the hell did you get that idea?" he asked hoarsely.

"Just rumour going around." Ryan looked at him in disbelieve. "Fine. Troy said something," Chad admitted. "But is it true?"

Ryan looked a bit nervous. "Does it matter? If it's in the past anyways?"

Chad shrugged, slightly glad that they hadn't caught the attention of anyone else. "I guess not," he replied. "I guess I just wonder why you never told me anything."

"Because it is embarrassing," Ryan whined, letting his head fall on the table.

"Why would it be embarrassing? I'm a hot piece of ass!" Chad chose to ignore Jaime's "You wish, Danforth!" in favour of Ryan's chuckle.

"It's just," Ryan said as he got up, still refusing to meet Chad's eyes. "That I didn't want to drive you away. We'd become friends, and I got over it, so I just didn't see why it would matter."

Chad mulled over that thought for a second. He knew Ryan was embarrassed, the fact that he kept his voice quiet being enough of an indicator. "Okay," Chad said in the end, seeing Ryan was getting nervous and he wanted to get him out of his misery. "I guess it didn't matter. Forget I said anything."

"Sure," Ryan said, letting out a sigh of relief. It was silent for a few moments before all of a sudden the booth moved and a thump hit the ground.

"I'm tired," Jaime declared from behind him. "Chad, can we head home, you're my ride, remember."

Chad turned to Ryan. "We cool?"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Sure, don't worry about it. I guess I'll just head home as well. I stole Shar's keys earlier, just in case this would happen."

So both boys got up from the booth, their greetings going unheard by the two couples. Jason turned around to wave them out, causing the fries to spill out of his hood, leaving him confused and Sasha doubled over with laughter.

Chad hugged Ryan goodbye once they reached the car, just to make a point to the blonde boy, before getting into the driver's seat of the beat-up car.

Jaime rolled her eyes as soon as he got in. "What the fuck was that, Chad? Are you trying to ruin it?"

Confused, Chad replied "Ruin what, exactly?"

Jaime looked at him. "You really have no clue?" her face going from angry to wonder. She shook her head. "Why are teenage boys so fucking clueless?"

"If I'd know the answer to that," Chad replied, turning on the engine, "I would've fixed my cluelessness ages ago, sis."

Rolling her eyes, Jaime propped up her feet onto the dashboard. "Just drive, Chad. Just drive."