Part Eleven: Convinced

Silence burned between us. Aware I had already said too much, I turned to leave, “Forget the flower. I’m going.”

But he held his grip on my arm, and pulled me back, catching my lips with his. Before I knew what was happening, I responding, the kiss becoming steadily more passionate and bruising as it progressed. He pulled me against him roughly, and I drove my hands into his hair. It seemed that no matter what, I couldn’t stay away from him.

“Give me another chance?” he murmured.

I sighed, dropping my hands to his shoulders, “I dunno, Chad…”

But his eyes bored into mine unrelentlessly, “Ryan, I would never compare you to your sister. Not now I know you. You’re different. You’re calm while she’s loud; you’re controlled while she bares all. You balance each other.”

I was surprised by how accurately he’d gotten it. That was why Sharpay and I got on so well, because we made up for each other’s shortcomings. But I still shook my head. “But that’s not all…”

“Ryan,” he said seriously. “I will do anything. Why won’t you let me?”

“Why won’t you let me push you away?”

He gave me a cocky smile, leant in to kiss my lips again softly, “Because you don’t want to.” I felt his smile grow wider as my lips melded to his, then pulled back to stare into my eyes. “Over a day broken up. That’s ages in teen years.”

“Mm.”

“And can you please try to get along with Troy?” he asked softly. I narrowed my eyes at him challengingly. “If he does anything out of order, then you can stop, but…be nice?”

I pretended to consider, like I hadn’t already agreed this with Gabriella this morning. “I’ll try,” I said grudgingly.

He smiled again, “Thank you.”

Right on cue, Troy appeared in the doors at the back of the auditorium. I raised a hand to tell him that I was coming. Gabriella had decided that our bonding was to start right away, and so Troy was coming back to the house, even though Sharpay had ballet until half five. I kissed Chad softly once more, “I’ll see you later.”

He turned his head, saw Troy, and turned back to me with accusation in his eyes, “You were already going to give him another chance, weren’t you?”

“Maybe,” was my cheeky response. “Maybe Gabi bet you to it. Maybe your request would have worked anyway.”

Chad laughed, “Maybe.” He kissed me again, “Thank you. See you later.”

*****

The ride home from school was stiflingly quiet, as neither of us were entirely sure what to say. Should we feign tolerance and talk about trivial things, such as favourite bands and good films? Or ought we to act like it was our first meeting? Of course, it was true enough that we didn’t know each other, but it would be weird to act like we’d never met before.

As I led the way into the house, I decided to take it slowly. “You wanna watch a movie?” I said to Troy.

He seemed surprised that I was the one who was breaking the silence barrier. He took a moment to answer, blinking carefully, then he nodded. “Yeah. That would be…cool.”

*****

“How’s it going with Troy?” Gabriella asked, dragging her paintbrush across the backcloth idly. She was knelt on the stage with it spread in front of her, painting the back of it in blue before moving onto other details.

I sighed from up my ladder, where I was still trying to get the damn flowers right. “Awkward. It’s like we’re tiptoeing around each other.” I climbed down, and sat down next to her, taking the other paintbrush and starting to help her out, giving up on the flowers for now. “I mean, it’s not that we aren’t trying. It’s just…not clicking, y’know.”

She nodded, “It might take time. Just keep at it. He really appreciates that you’re trying for him.”

“He better,” I muttered, to her amusement. Then I snapped my fingers. “You should hang out with both of us! You know, act like a buffer!”

Gabriella pursed her lips thoughtfully, “I dunno…”

“Please…?” I begged, trying to make myself look as cute as possible. “It would help so much…”

She rolled her eyes, “Okay, okay. Don’t beg. It’s not becoming.”

There was a sound of a door falling shut, and we turned to see Troy walking up one of the aisles to the stage. He smiled at us as he neared, jogging up the steps. “Hey.”

“Hey,” I greeted.

“Need any help?”

I grinned up at him, “Always. Pick a brush.”

He took the one that Gabriella held over her shoulder for him, and sat down next to me, helping to fill in the blue background on the cloth. After a moment, he glanced at me, “I meant to ask, when’s your audition, again? The one for the play.”

“Next month,” I told him, pleased that he had remembered the audition. Then again, Sharpay probably went on about it to him. It had been too weeks since I had agreed to give Troy a chance. Still, I wasn’t aware he was paying that much attention. Chad didn’t even seem to know I had an audition coming up.

“You reckon you’re ready?” he asked, breaking gaze with me and leaning forward to paint a section.

I chuckled, moving my brush over the cloth, “It doesn’t matter what I think. If Sharpay doesn’t think it’s perfection, then we go into crackdown and I die a slow and painful death. And she never thinks it’s perfection.”

Gabriella laughed, “Drama queen.”

“No Sharpay crackdown experience, no opinion.”

Troy snickered beside me as she rolled her eyes. “Sure…” She moved her brush up to put a blob on the tip of my nose before I could react. “Stop overreacting.”

My jaw dropped. Well, then. If that’s how she was playing it… My hand shot up and she ended up with a blue streak across her cheek. She made a noise of indignation, and lunged for me again, but I ducked and her brush went over my head.

We both froze, staring at each other. Then we turned to look sheepishly up at Troy. His face was set into a mask of disapproval, a paint streak going from under his nose, through his lips and down his chin. I smiled at him sweetly, “Sorry…”

His eyes locked onto mine, “Do you find this in any way amusing?”

“No,” I lied, even as my lips gave a traitorous twitch. “I think it’s awful.”

“Mm,” he concurred. “Why don’t we give you a matching stripe? The blue would match your eyes…”

I held up a finger as he moved his brush slightly towards me, “Don’t you dare, Bolton! Touch me with that and I’ll-”

I leant back as he gave a playful swipe with the brush, so I was bent back over my knees. He grinned, moving forward, “You’ll what?”

“I’ll set my sister on you,” I hissed.

There was a giggle from Gabriella, “That’s a threat!”

But Troy wasn’t phased, and pressed one hand firmly into my upper chest. I writhed as he held me down, crying out as he took his paintbrush to my face with a flourish, putting small dabs everywhere. He stopped for a moment, peering at me, then he put one last swish under my chin, proclaiming: “Perfect!”

“I can’t believe you just did that,” I said slowly, still half in shock.

He grinned at me again, but any response was cut off when someone cleared their throat. We all looked round to see Sharpay standing by the base of the stage. She looked nervous, I noted. “Troy, can I talk to you?”

Troy glanced at me, and I shrugged from the floor to tell him I didn’t know what it was about. He handed Gabriella his paintbrush and stood up, “Yeah. Sure.”