Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Having to wake up every day, knowing he’d be facing some ultimate shit, wasn’t easy. Taking a shower wasn’t easy; getting dressed wasn’t easy, even having breakfast wasn’t easy, because everything reminded him that those things he was about to face weren’t just going to go away.

To begin with, things with Nini were not okay. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good, either. Waking up to his lock screen still being him with Nini wasn’t easy, because it reminded him that they weren’t together; that he’d been an idiot, and that things were not okay yet; and it was difficult.

Ricky wanted to own up to what he had done, and he wanted to make things better; but it wasn’t easy. Nini had made sure he understood that she had been hurt, and that is wouldn’t be simple to regain her heart. Ricky understood her; and he believed in himself that he’d get her back. Therefore, if it meant he’d have to jump through some hoops to do it, he would.

Which brings him to the next thing that made it hard to wake up every day; the fact that maybe, he’d have to, quite literally, jump through some hoops. He had joined that musical for Nini, and he was not going to back away, but that didn’t erase the fact that he was not a theatre person and most of it just felt- ridiculous; the dancing, the acting, the rehearsing… it was weird. Especially when most of his scenes he had to do involved a certain person.

And that certain person is the third thing he’d think about every morning when he showered; EJ. Than damn fuck. Man, if he could put into words how he felt about that boy; he’d be surprised by his own vocabulary bank.

When he thought about EJ, he realized there was no positive thought of him. Every obstacle Ricky could think of, EJ was there. Every room he felt uncomfortable in, EJ was there, too. Every conversation he’d feel irritated at, EJ was there as well. Sometimes Ricky wished he could just delete EJ with the push of a button. He wished he could snap his fingers and it would make that boy turn to dust; because things would be easier if he weren’t there. If Nini hadn’t met him, maybe he’d have it easier trying to get her to forgive him. How frustrating.

Regardless, Ricky still had to wake up every day, shower, get dressed, and have breakfast; doing it with Nini and- EJ- in his mind.

Magic circles felt like the therapy he didn’t want to be at. It was a shame most of the readings and group meetings happened like that; everyone forming a circle. However, he’d have to admit, there were some scenes he quite enjoyed; like the scenes he wasn’t a part of and he’d get to see his friends act, or the ones where Troy and Gabriella interacted; or the ones where Chad didn’t exist; although those were scarce.

“What spell-” EJ half read, half remembered by heart, with fake anger exploding from his words. “-has this elevated-IQ temptress girl cast that suddenly makes you wanna be in a musical?”

“I just did it” Ricky tried to mimic EJ’s level of anger. “Who cares?”

“Who cares?” EJ answered with irony. “How about your most loyal best friend?”

Ricky watched EJ as he said that last line, and even him, an unexperienced theatre person, as he liked to called himself, noticed the struggle that came with that sentence.

“Quiet in here, Mr. Danforth”

“It’s him, Miss Falstaff, not me”

Ricky had to agree his scenes with EJ were the hardest of all. His own irritation caused by the guy being in the same room as him showed through his acting, and he was sure that people could not only see it, but smell it.

“Look, you’re a hoops dude, not a musical singer person” EJ said his line without looking at his script, and half-smiling at Ricky. And he knew, that smile was meant for Ricky, not for Troy.

Ricky was glad Troy had to throw the basketball at EJ with an irritated sigh, as the script read. That part he could do perfectly.

There were the times, when Nini had to rehearse her scenes with Ricky; both of them by themselves, and the rest of the cast stayed to observe, he ensured he was giving Nini a top-level acting. Her passion was adorable and inspiring, even contagious, and it made the whole thing seem less atrocious; almost to the point he believed being in a musical wasn’t that bad. Also, these were the moments he didn’t mind EJ being in the same room as him; as he could feel his boiling rage and jealousy exhaling from his skin.

Some days were good.

There had been a day, when classes were done for the day, and Ricky and Big Red were walking home, Ricky was stopped by Carlos before he could step foot outside of the school.

“Hey, Ricky”

Ricky could tell he had been running, or at least jogging, by the way his breath was agitated. “Hey, Carlos” And honestly, he felt weird, because Carlos and he barely spoke to each other if it weren’t for musical reasons.

“I wanted to talk to you, about your role” Carlos adjusted his glasses. “Can you? Do you have time?”

Ricky turned to look at Big Red, but he simply shrugged; he contemplated it for a second, because that didn’t really seem like an inspiring conversation about to happen. But, well. Sure.

“Sure”

And so, Big Red, Ricky, and Carlos walked back into the school and headed to their usual rehearsing space.

“I’m thinking-” Carlos sat on a stool, put his director cap on, not really, and stared at Ricky with a thoughtful expression. “Troy’s straight hair was an iconic piece in High School Musical”

“Do you want me to straighten my hair?”

“Have you ever?” Carlos looked invested.

“No” Ricky’s eyes widened. “Never”.

“How long do you think your hair would look if you did?”

Before Ricky could answer “I don’t know”, Carlos had already stood up, grabbed a lock from Ricky’s front hair, and pulled it down his forehead. Carlos tilted his head hesitantly, looking doubtful. “I don’t think so”

“But well,” Carlos sat back down. “You could always wear a wig” He smiled at the idea. Ricky, however, raised his eyebrows and smiled in confusion.

“Yeah” Big Red contributed. “That seems like a better idea”

Ricky nervously laughed once more. “I don’t know about that”

“Don’t worry, we haven’t really discussed wardrobe, hair and makeup yet, we’re focusing on the story right now, and of course, the choreography” Carlos announced proudly. “Which is why, I wanted to talk to you about Troy”

“What about Troy?”

“The biggest attribute to his storyline is his desire and attraction to Gabriella, and you’ve captured that perfectly, it almost looks like you’re not acting at all”

Ricky knew damn well he sometimes wasn’t.

“But another big part is how he feels he’s betraying his love for basketball, and his team, and his best friend, Chad”

Dear God.

“And I know you have your- things with him, and you two aren’t the best friends Troy and Chad are, but-”

“EJ and I are not friends at all, and I don’t think we ever will be” Ricky interrupted Carlos before he could say anything else.

“I know that” Carlos nodded. “But, I’m afraid that kind of shows on stage?” He stated with a questioning tone. “And that’s not good”

“Well, I’m sorry, but that guy makes it nearly impossible for me to concentrate”

“Yeah, me too, he’s great, handsome, tall, a great actor-”

“No-” Ricky shut his eyes closed. “That’s not what I mean” He sighed, and he covered his face with his hands for a second. “I mean, you know he’s dating Nini, and I’m trying to mend things with her, but I can’t with him around”

“I get it”

For a second, Ricky had rested in hopes Carlos would give him the great news that in their rendition of the movie Chad and Troy wouldn’t be friends, because nobody needed to see that. Or, even better, Chad didn’t exist at all in this version of the story, because his role in the movie and his presence in the musical, especially with this new actor, had no relevance whatsoever. But that was way too good to be true. In fact, he hated what came out of Carlos’ mouth next.

“We were thinking It would be good for us if you and EJ spent some time together, you know? Get to know each other, like- friends”

“Nope” Ricky didn’t even process it. “Not happening, nope”

“Come on, why don’t you- challenge him to a basketball game?”

“I don’t even play basketball!”

“Well, then force him to speak to you, somewhere he has no escape, like a classroom, or the bathroom”

“I’m not following EJ to the bathroom- again”

“Okay, why don’t you ask him to go on a healing road trip or something?”

“Carlos, nobody does that!”

“I’m running out of options here!” Carlos yelled back.

Ricky couldn’t believe he was having that sort of conversation.

“Look, I’ll do my best to hide my hatred for EJ when we’re doing the musical, but I’m not doing that. Even if we agreed to spend time together, we’d end up beating each other, or worse- talking to each other”

Carlos’ expression perfectly showed he didn’t love the idea; but it also showed a sign of settlement and defeat. “Are you sure?” He pleaded one last time.

“Yep” Ricky replied instantly. He felt like saying something else, or continuing the argument, but he was too disturbed to do so.

Ricky asked Big Red if he would walk him home, and he was surprised to see the look on his friend’s face; like a kid who had witnessed a friend’s parent scold them in front of him; full of awkwardness. Ricky was sorry he had made his friend see that, but he was also embarrassed. Either way, both boys left the room and took off for the day.

If Ricky dared being honest, the days passed almost routinely, and he barely noticed. To be clearer, his determination for regaining Nini’s trust felt like a daily goal; one that if he couldn’t achieve one day, he’d try again the next one; and if then, he couldn’t do it either, he’d try one more time; and he’d continue to try, doing his best in the musical, texting her, encouraging her and telling her she was doing great, buying her lunch some days, bringing her presents some other times; but, if anything, Nini just seemed more irritated by him with the passing days, and EJ looked like he hated him more and more every day.

And like most routines and habits, it came to an end.

Ricky finally stopped trying to impress Nini when she asked him to, one last time. He didn’t think he’d ever forget her words.

“I get it, I get that you’re sorry, and that you’ve accepted that you were an idiot, but you don’t get to come back to me now, not now that I’ve found someone else, someone who cares about me and who isn’t afraid of saying he loves me. Ricky, you don’t get to ruin it for me now, because I was hurt, and you were gone, and you don’t get to come back, and you being all over me these days only makes things worse, so please, just back off and leave me alone”

Ricky had been speechless after that. He wanted to talk back. Maybe there was something else- something he could say to make her change her mind, but he didn’t. After remaining silent after Nini’s words, we turned to look at the people around them; some people passing by and looking at him, wanting to know what was going on; and he didn’t appreciate those looks on their faces; the looks on Big Red and Ashlyn’s faces, the look on Carlos’ face. And he hated the look on his face. EJ. He was wearing a smile; he had won.

The feeling inside Ricky’s stomach was like a punch; an arrow; a gunshot; everything at once. He felt terrible, devastated, embarrassed…

So, he turned around and walked away.

That day he went home and he went to bed. He didn’t do homework; he didn’t run his lines; he didn’t rehearse his dance numbers nor his songs; he didn’t eat, and he didn’t cry. Well, at least he tried not to.

The day after, Ricky told Miss Jenn he was quitting the show.

Going to school without having to work on the musical was weird; liberating, but he had to be honest and say he kind of missed it. He missed it all, actually, the singing, the dancing, the banter he had going on with the theatre kids, the competition with EJ, everything. He missed it all. He also missed Nini, of course, but he was not going to chase her anymore, at least until things calmed down.

He’d go to school to- study, to talk to his friends, skateboard in his free hours, and… that was it. If he crossed paths with Nini, she would act like she hadn’t seen him at all. If he crossed paths with EJ, he’d throw him a deadly stare and occasionally brush his arm firmly against Ricky’s as they walked. And if he was caught staring at the couple, the guy would purposely wrap his arm around Nini; hold her hand, or even kiss her. And Ricky pretended it didn’t hurt.

Nevertheless, the only reassuring thing he had, was that it hurt less every day; although, it’d feel like he was losing his senses, because he no longer pinned for the girl he had once cared for so much.

But well, he was moving on, allegedly.

“Do you want to go skateboarding after school?” Big Red asked when he finished chewing his sandwich.

Ricky was caught staring at the distance. “No” He answered nonchalantly as he let a piece of food fall from his hand and onto his tray, refusing to eat it.

He could feel his friend staring at him, but he wouldn’t look back.

“Play videogames?”

Ricky frowned and shook his head.

“What do you want to do, then?”

Ricky released a heavy sigh, and let his back fall completely, until he rested in a lazy position. “Nothing”

He continued to feel Big Red’s stare. He felt it, progressively becoming more intense, and he was forced to return it when he wouldn’t stop. He waited for his friend to say something, but he just stared.

Ricky didn’t want to say anything, so he raised his eyebrows, questioning his friend.

Big Red answered with a head tilt, and a pair of furrowed eyebrows, returning the question.

Ricky didn’t know what that meant, so he lifted his shoulders in a shrug, and he looked around with his eyes, trying to get Big Red to say anything.

Comically enough, Big Red lifted his arms, and shook some jazz hands.

“What are we doing?” Ricky finally broke.

“You don’t want to talk, so,” Big Red continued to do jazz hands. Ricky stared at him for a moment, waiting for it to stop, but when it didn’t, he took his wrists and pushed them down to the table. “Stop it”

“Come on, man, what’s up? Why are you still mopping around? It’s been two weeks” Big Red took a sip from his milk carton.

Ricky shrugged again.

“Did you fail your exams?” Big Red asked Ricky.

“We haven’t had any exams”

“Are you getting sick?”

“I don’t think so”

“Do you have a stomach ache?” He pointed at his tray full of food.

“No, my stomach if fine” Ricky smiled.

“Does your heart hurt?” Big Red rested his head on his fist.

“Not that much…”

Big Red stared at his friend for a second, analysing him, and out of curiosity, Ricky didn’t stop his train of thought; he actually wanted to know what he’d ask next. Eventually, Big Red began moving his head up and down, apparently having figured it out.

“I know what you have”

“Oh yeah?” Ricky teased him. “And what is that?” He prepared himself for another ridiculous theory. In fact, he had already told his brain to start laughing right away. Ha – ha – ha –

“You miss the musical”

Ha – ha – ha – Oh

“You liked it, the singing, the acting, the dancing, even if you were terrible at that”

Ricky’s instinct was to tell his friend off; to tell him he was wrong and stupid. But the guy was actually pretty smart. He hadn’t considered it until that moment, but the guess had been pretty right on. Maybe he did miss it.

“I think I would miss it, too” Big Red continued eating. “I had never acted or done anything like that before, but since you dragged me into it with you, I’ve discovered, I do like it” He received a playful punch on the shoulder. “And I guess that if I stopped, I would miss it”

Sometimes Ricky couldn’t believe his friend was real.

“So, what would you do if you did stop and you started missing it?” Ricky asked, because he really wanted to know.

Big Red wiped his mouth with his napkin, and gave it a few seconds. His eyes almost popped out of his head and he opened his mouth in excitement. “I know!”

“I would go to the auditorium when there’s no one there, I would take a recorder, play a song, and sing out loud like there’s a giant crowd who loves my singing” Big Reed agreed with himself. “Nobody would actually hear me, and it’d be pretty cool”

Ricky was left thinking as his friend finished his food.

Maybe he was right. Maybe he missed being on the spotlight. Maybe he had been too concentrated on making Nini notice him and making sure EJ knew he was doing it, that he never paid attention to the joy he felt when he was on stage, rehearsing a dance, learning lyrics and playing guitar. Maybe he had been pretending he didn’t like it, because his mind was somewhere else; maybe the joy he used to feel wasn’t only competitive joy.

But now, his mind was nowhere. So, maybe, he could now give it a chance: a real chance, this time.

On a normal school day, when there was no rehearsal, and there were no conferences, no activities; when there was barely any motion in school, Ricky took a speaker, an auxiliary chord, and his phone, all because he couldn’t find an actual recorder, and he walked to the auditorium. The performer inside of him didn’t walk in through the general door to access the rows, he did it from the backdoor.

He didn’t want to act like he was an extra confident, never-had-stage-fright kind of guy, but something about an empty stage felt oddly satisfying.

He took out his phone, and he began going through his playlist, trying to find his song.

However, as he began walking to the stage, and to his surprise, he found out the auditorium wasn’t, in fact, empty. In the darkness, he could see whoever was occupying the room, dancing around the stage with no music on. He didn’t want to stare like a weirdo spying on said person, but it was actually somewhat captivating.

The dancing figure would occasionally stop and begin again, from step one. After a while of staring, he found the choreography to be oddly familiar; and in a split second, when Ricky put together the dance steps and the tall figure moving around, with the slim, yet strong frame, he realized it was EJ; and he would’ve sneaked out and tiptoed his way out the auditorium, if his stupid uncoordinated self hadn’t dropped his phone.

The small, sudden disturbance had made EJ turn around instantly, and Ricky hadn’t had time to run away. He panicked for a second, thinking the guy would possibly run to him and, literally, kick him out; with his legs. But that didn’t happen.

When EJ turned around, Ricky could see a few drops of sweat coming down from his temples, and he looked a little- worn out?

It was a new sight for Ricky, being honest. EJ always looked at the top of his game; always, flawless, completely put together; even when they rehearsed, he always looked perfect.

“What are you doing here?” EJ was breathing heavily, he took a towel from the floor, and used it to wipe away his sweat.

Ricky was still panicking. “I’m sorry, I thought there was no one here”

EJ bent down as he started picking up his stuff and putting it inside his bag. Ricky noticed a faint laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“Why do you want to use the auditorium? It’s not like you need to rehearse for anything”

Ricky held back a little.

“Do you always rehearse extra hours? Do you need it because you have two left feet and the regular schedule isn’t enough?”

EJ laughed again. “Actually, yeah, I do,” He stared at Ricky. “Since someone decided to quit the show two months before the opening day, and his understudy had to step in and save the day”

“Wait, are you mad? I thought you’d be dancing with joy when you realized I had quit”

“Yeah, I love that you quit, but I don’t love this part”

Ricky wouldn’t have felt at home if he wasn’t having an ironic and aggressive conversation with EJ.

“Well, I’m sorry I stepped in, you may proceed” Ricky bowed down and turned around.

“You can stay,” EJ stopped him. “I’m done”

For the first time, Ricky left his semi-hiding spot next to the curtain and joined EJ on stage. He wasn’t trying to start a fight, but this was the only way he knew how to speak to him.

“Are you sure? Your dancing needs a little work”

Ricky waited for a response.

…

…

But there was no response.

“Are you okay? Why are not punching me right now?”

“When have I ever punched you?”

“I know, I just- never mind”

 “I’m just not in the mood of fighting, I’m beat”

“Can’t keep up?” Ricky walked to the edge of the stage to sit down, and he proceeded to turn on his phone and scroll down his song list.

“Woah” EJ walked behind Ricky, and sat next to him. “You really love to push my buttons”

Ricky looked at him, and he stared at the way he put on his shoes and tied them up. Then, he looked away. “I’m sorry-”

Ricky had hated EJ for so long, that it was now the only thing he remembered about him; that he hated him, even if they hadn’t spoken in a while; even if they hadn’t even looked at each other in a while.

“It’s my default” Ricky smiled, and for once, it wasn’t sarcastic nor ironic, it was a simple gesture.

“You’re not sorry, you’re just saying that because you never have anything interesting to day”

Ricky stared. “Now, who’s the one pushing buttons”

“Whatever,” EJ finished tying his shoelaces, and Ricky watched him grab some papers from the side and go through the pages; the stared long enough to see that was the script for the musical.

“Who’s playing Chad?” Ricky couldn’t keep his curiosity to himself.

“Still me,” EJ answered without lifting his gaze from the papers.

“What? You’re doing two parts?”

“Yep”

“What about the scenes when we’re together- I mean, your scenes with Chad?”

EJ looked at Ricky as soon as he said the word “together”, and Ricky was glad he had rectified himself.

“Miss Jenn is using Hugo to play Chad in those parts, which are practically most of them, and that means I won’t be using any of the lines I had already learnt,”

Ricky put on a half-apologetic smirk. “Why don’t you recast the role?”

“That’s what I said, but Carlos doesn’t want to; he doesn’t think a newbie is going to learn everything by the opening date”

“Isn’t that what you’re doing, though? You’re learning a new role”

“Yes, I am, and honestly, it sucks, it sucks a lot, thank you very much”

Ricky was taken aback, and he made some distance between them, acting offended. “Why are you mad at me?  You wanted me gone, you wanted to be Troy, you won”

“Yes, I wanted, e-d, past tense, I wantED to be Troy, but I didn’t want to have to learn a whole new role in the middle of rehearsals”

“Ultimately, you got what you wanted, I’m not on the musical, not anymore”

“So, what? You’re a hero because of it? The only reason you entered the musical was because of Nini, and the only reason you quit the musical was because of Nini, you never cared for the real thing, or Nini, for the matter”

And just like that, the old anger he was getting used to not feeling, was back.

“You can’t say that, you don’t know what happened, you don’t know me, you don’t know anything” Ricky heard his own voice growing louder.

“All I know is that I was very happy with my girlfriend until some idiot came in and ruined everything” EJ replied.

“Am I the idiot?”

“Of course, you idiot”

“You do know she was my girlfriend first, right? I think you were the one who ruined things for me”

“I didn’t know you existed before this year- okay, I knew you existed, but I had no idea you and Nini were a thing, and you know what? Even if I had known, it wouldn’t have mattered, because I didn’t do anything wrong” EJ stared angrily at Ricky. “When I met Nini, you weren’t there, you weren’t together, so I didn’t ruin anything, you did!”

“I didn’t ruin anything, and besides, you were there; you were there when Nini told me she didn’t want me around anymore, she’s with you, you win” Ricky was trying not to get up. “If anything, you’re the one who ruined it for me”

That last sentence earned him an eyeroll from EJ.

“What?” Was all Ricky had to say. He waited patiently until EJ dared to speak again.

“How do you think it felt?” He asked calmly. “To have you here?”

Ricky wasn’t used to having these sorts of conversations with EJ; all they’d done in the past was aggressively stare at each other, biker, constantly showing off in front of the other. He was used to the unspoken competition they had going on; but they never talked about feelings. They never really talked at all; at least not like they were at the moment.

It felt strange, and Ricky somewhat felt like he didn’t want to be there, but he also wanted to know where it was going. He didn’t know if it was the sudden rush of anger he had collected, or the crippling numbness he had been in during  the last weeks, or if he was feeling some sort of empathy for EJ, but he realized it wouldn’t be too bad if he got to listen to EJ’s side of the story for once, so he let him. “What do you mean?”

He watched as EJ contemplated him back, probably debating between opening up to Ricky or not. “Okay,” He adjusted himself so he was sitting face to face with Ricky, and he did the same in response. “Every summer, for as long as I can remember, I’ve been in music camp, but last summer, I wasn’t going, because I wanted to stay here and do nothing for once, but my parents weren’t having it, and they said I should go, so, I did”

Ricky didn’t know where this was going.

“So, I’m there, at camp, and one day, when I’m carrying out a keyboard to the music room, some weirdo runs in front of me, so, I drop the keyboard, they drop a ukulele, and I’m just there- being mad, but the moment I looked up, and this girl starts rambling about a bunch of things I didn’t really hear, saying she was sorry over and over again, showing me her perfect smile and her shiny eyes; I couldn’t believe my own eyes”

Ricky knew what he meant; and the thought made him smile.

“And then we started talking, and hanging out, and- she loves music; like, she loves it, and I do too, but now I think that maybe I’m not as passionate as she is, because when she sings, she looks so inspired, and it feels like she’s radiating magic; she looks untouchable”

And Ricky agreed.

“Nini once told me that she didn’t know why we hadn’t spoken before camp, and honestly I think, and it’s hard to admit, but I’m an idiot some times,”

Ricky agreed with that, too.

“And I was always so caught up in my own stuff I had never fully noticed her before, but when I did- I was so glad I had gone to that camp” EJ took a moment before he continued. “So, I thought, that it was probably meant to be, finding Nini, asking her to be my girlfriend, spending time together, it was almost too good to be true; because everything was perfect, and nothing was going wrong”

Ricky had to look down for a second, because he knew what the next part was; and he was beginning to understand.

“Look, nobody wants to share their girlfriend, okay? When I found out that you and Nini had some unfinished business going on, I felt- threatened, like- suddenly I wasn’t so sure if things were okay anymore; I hate to admit this, but I did feel like I was in a competition the moment you stepped in,”

Ricky nodded in agreement.

“And I hadn’t signed up for a competition” EJ finished.

Ricky had to admit, he saw EJ’s point; it wasn’t fair to him. He felt sorry, and somewhat responsible for it, and he understood.

“Yep” EJ added when Ricky remained silent. Ricky didn’t know if he should say something, or if he should pat his back, showing some empathy, but he knew it would’ve been way too awkward, so, he didn’t. So, instead, he opened his mouth, and he was going to say sorry…

…but EJ’s energy came back to life, and whatever Ricky was going to make worse by speaking, was lost in the continuation of EJ’s monologue.

“And it sucked, it sucked, Ricky-”

Had EJ ever said his name out loud before?

“Because you are like a little mosquito trying to bite me, and I just keep clapping the air trying to capture you, but you get away, and return with a comeback; you don’t give up, and I’m trying to protect what I have with Nini, and you don’t seem to care-”

“I care about her”

“I didn’t say you don’t, I said you don’t care if you hurt anyone else”

“Like you? Are you talking about you?”

EJ nodded vigorously.

“But I’m not trying to hurt you, or anyone else, I’m- I was, trying to make Nini like me again”

“But you’re hurting me on the way, and you’re hurting her too”

“Well,” Ricky knew it was true. “That was never what I intended; I made a stupid mistake, okay? I ruined what Nini and I had, but when I tried to make up for it, she had already found someone else; I was not giving up that easy”

“Okay, I get it” EJ answered.

And then- there was silence. Both boys simply stared at each other, not knowing what to say next.

“So, what do we do?” Ricky asked; because there was nothing else he could say.

EJ and Ricky had never reached an agreement, they hadn’t made peace, nor settled on anything. They screamed at each other, and then they opened up to each other, because that was the next logical thing to do; but nothing had happened. Still, Ricky had walked home that day feeling better. He could feel his numbness fading away, his strength was coming back; he felt refreshed.

Days at school felt different. Nini was still not speaking to him, and he was still not participating in the musical; he stared from the outside of the rehearsals sometimes until someone caught him and he had to flee. The thing that had changed, was EJ. Suddenly, he wasn’t staring at him from the distance with deathly looks; he wasn’t brushing his arm aggressively against Ricky’s to make him stumble as they crossed paths; he wasn’t trying to ruin his day.

Some days, EJ would turn his face so he didn’t have to look at Ricky, but he noticed that it wasn’t just him; he didn’t speak to a lot of people, and Ricky thought that maybe, he didn’t want people to notice how tired he looked. Sometimes, he saw him hanging out with Nini and his friends, but he wasn’t trying to show off like he always did. And on certain days, when Ricky and EJ exchanged glances, EJ would smile; not big, with no teeth; but it was still a smile; and Ricky didn’t think of it as strange.

Maybe the talk they’d had had changed some things after all.

One morning, Ricky’s alarm went off before the usual hour; and he noticed because the day wasn’t as dark when he usually woke up. Out of habit, he still got out of bed. However, when he looked at his phone, he saw that it hadn’t been his alarm; it was a reminder; a reminder he hadn’t remembered to erase. From that day, it was exactly two weeks until the theatre crew put out their rendition of High School Musical. He couldn’t ignore the part of him that wished he could still be a part of it.

That day, he got to school early, because waiting in front of the clock for it to hit the hour seemed pointless; so he grabbed his stuff and left his house.

He had never seen the school at such an early hour. Being a kid that mostly arrived late, he had no idea who the early birds were; and now he got to meet them. Before class started, the most noise and movement he could hear came from the one and only, auditorium. Naturally, he let his feet lead him there. After all, some of his friends were in the musical and he wanted to see how they were doing.

As soon as he entered the room, he felt a rush of happiness and excitement run through his entire body. The room sure looked like chaos, but he loved every sight. It was like everything was happening at once; there were some people dancing; some of them were singing; there was a section of the stage designated to wardrobe; and he could see some cheerleader uniforms, some glitter clothes, which were possibly aimed for Seb and Chuck. In another corner he could see some hair and makeup action going on; the lighting was coming and going; different colours exploding in different places; and he loved everything he saw.

It didn’t take long for people to notice his presence; some were greeting him; some were even hugging him; but mostly everyone just said hello and went back to their activities. When Big Read approached him, Ricky noticed how his outfit was definitely not his his, and he felt very proud for his friend, at how seriously he had taken being part of the musical. “What are you doing here? It’s 7:15”

Ricky shrugged in surprise. “I wanted to show my support, I guess”

Big Red gave him a great smile and punched his shoulder. Ricky returned the gesture.

“Hey”

Ricky heard a voice calling him, and it only took his eyes to redirect to someone else in order for him to know who it was. “Ricky”

Ricky wasn’t used to talking to EJ, regardless of them not being on each other’s grills anymore. Therefore, it felt strange.

“Hi”

“Can I talk to you?”

EJ didn’t look mad; he didn’t look happy, either. In fact, he seemed somewhat nervous. And if he was being honest, he felt nervous, too. Luckily, as soon as he agreed and both boys walked further into the stage, Carlos came running, joining them for the conversation.

Ricky waited for any of them to speak, but neither of them said anything. Carlos and EJ kept looking at each other, trying to signal each other for releasing the first word.

Carlos sighed, clearly defeated. “Okay,” He opened up. “EJ and I want you to take Troy back”

Ricky wasn’t expecting that at all. He wasn’t expecting Carlos to say that, and he wasn’t expecting EJ to nod and agree with him.

“What? You want me back in the show?”

EJ nodded. “Look, you saw me, the other day, when I was rehearsing; I can’t keep up; and, you rehearsed for Troy, you know his lines, the dance moves, all the songs, you know it all” EJ explained without breaking eye contact.

“I know you’re the one who quit, but now we are begging you, please come back, at least just this time, and if you want, after the show, you’ll never have to come back, but please, please, please” Carlos joined his own hands together, begging and pouting.

Ricky was definitely taken by surprise, but thinking about it, coming back to the musical didn’t seem like such a bad thing.

“Uhm” Ricky smiled. “Is Nini going to be okay with this?”

“Yes, totally” Carlos reassured him. “I talked to her, and she agreed”

Ricky smiled again at the response. “Are you gonna be okay?” He turned to look at EJ.

“Yeah” He answered. “Chad is actually pretty cool, too” He gave Ricky a smile; with teeth this time.

Ricky couldn’t afford to lie to himself at such early hour in the morning, so he couldn’t hide his excitement and the pride from showing. “Yeah, okay”

Carlos jumped, letting out a loud “Yes!”, he wrapped his arms around Ricky and hugged him tightly for a few seconds as he repeated “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”. Then, he proceeded to leave for the rest of the activities he had to do, leaving Ricky alone with EJ.

“Thanks- for, helping me, and- coming back” EJ thanked Ricky; a little nervous, and with a little difficulty.

“Thank you- for taking me back” Ricky replied, and showed him a smile, which EJ brightly returned nervously before he placed his hand on Ricky’s shoulder, gave him a light squeeze, and left.

Ricky turned around as well, trying to figure out where to go; because now, this messy room was his business as well; but before he could walk anywhere, he saw one last person approaching him; Nini.

He nervously stepped forward, making the distance between them come to an end. He hadn’t spoken to her since she had cut him off completely, and he was now back in the musical, about to play the lead with her. So, who knew what she was going to say to him?

Nini and Ricky exchanged some quick glances and a couple of awkward smiles.

“So, you’re back” Nini commented with her weird smile still there.

“Yep” Ricky replied, with his weird smile still there.

“Look, I’m sorry about-”

“No, it’s okay” Ricky cut her off. “I deserved it”

Nini stared for a while, probably agreeing, because maybe Ricky had deserved it, indeed. “I feel bad about it, I shouldn’t have yelled at you- in front of everyone”

“Don’t worry about it” Ricky tried to stop her giving him a pity look. “It’s all forgotten”

And no, it wasn’t all forgotten, but it was okay; Ricky guessed. Honestly, it had been a long time since they had broken up, and it had been a while since they had talked, and the time he had without Nini had been, terrible, in the beginning, but he soon realized he could very well live without the girl; and if she didn’t want him that way, well, he’d have to accept it, because he had had his chance, and he let it go; and he had tried to make it better, but there was nothing he could’ve done, so he had to let go. And, actually, after speaking to EJ about the whole thing, he kind of felt bad from having brought such discomfort into their relationship. So, yeah, maybe it was okay.

After that day, Ricky thought about how he had accepted coming back to the musical, and only for the sake of coming back into the show; for getting back into his character, and getting back into the thing he actually did really like. He had missed it; and he couldn’t deny that coming back felt pretty damn good.

Maybe he was a theatre kid, after all.

After Nini ending things with Ricky, EJ stopped being mean to him. In fact, he continued acting kind and supportive around him, and he appreciated not having him as a mortal enemy anymore. Mainly because fighting and competing with EJ all the time had become exhausting; although he couldn’t stop provoking him for the pure joy of seeing him crumble.

But it was different now. EJ and Ricky were not fighting anymore, and he kind of liked it. It turned out that spending time with a person without bickering all the time, actually allows you to meet them and get to know what they’re really like; and EJ was- an asshole, sometimes. He was an extremely conceited person, a bit selfish and completely narcissistic; which came to no surprise to Ricky. However, he was astonished when he found EJ was also really sweet, and sometimes he acted like a foolish child; so it was inevitable if he sometimes came across as a total dumbass.

One week before they presented the musical, Carlos invited every single person who participated in the play to a super-pre-opening party at his place; because he was so proud of everyone, and things couldn’t have turned out better.

“I love you all”

And Ricky never, for one second, thought about a theatre kids party being lame; because he gladly accepted that title for himself now. Ricky loved being a theatre kid. There was no use denying such thing.

Although some people wouldn’t believe him, Ricky hadn’t been to a whole lot of parties; modern-day, teenager kind of parties that is. Ricky had a lot of experience with piñatas, candy and cake, not with random dancing and drinking.

As soon as he stepped into Carlos’ house and saw him taking some bottles out of his cabinets and placing them on the counters; he felt a little nervous.

Furthermore, very out of brand for him; he was early to the party, which is why Carlos had asked Ricky if he could help by setting up the sound system and the karaoke. He hadn’t imagined there’d be karaoke, but when he was untangling and plugging the cables in, he felt foolish; because of course there’d be karaoke.

When the rest of the drama department began showing up, his mood started lighting up due to the brightness and excitement these people carried around. Being honest, he felt very much at home with everyone in the room. It’s not like Ricky felt uncomfortable with his other friends; it’s just that he was aware of the difference between the relationships; with some of his friends he could- skate, and- skate; and with his new friends he could sing, dance, talk about anything he wanted, open up to them, and apparently, sing karaoke, now. Ricky was glad Big Red had also joined the drama department, because if he hadn’t, maybe he wouldn’t have found such peace in the group, and he would’ve never stopped feeling like an outsider.

However, there was still one person he didn’t feel completely confident and at ease around; EJ. And no, he didn’t really hate EJ anymore, and he actually kind of liked him now, but it was still weird sometimes. They had fought for a long time, and it was hard to switch off the snarky default.

There was a moment during the party where Ricky turned to the kitchen, and he saw Carlos talking to Seb. The guy was resting his arm on the counter, trying to look natural and casual; but Ricky had been friends with him for a while, and he knew him enough to know there was nothing natural and casual about his face.

Ricky turned to the other side and lightly bumped his elbow against Gina’s arm, who was sitting on the couch next to him.

“What’s that?” Ricky asked quietly.

Gina stared at Ricky, and she probably caught up on the whispering, as she turned to see where Ricky was pointing at in a discrete way. As soon as she saw the two boys in the kitchen, she smiled widely. “They’ve been flirting a lot these days; it’s so cute, but they’re being so awkward about it”

Ricky turned back to look at them. Almost immediately, Gina left her spot on the couch and walked straight to the boys in the kitchen. Ricky didn’t know what it was about; and he had no idea what she was saying to them. He was secretly hoping she wasn’t mentioning anything about Ricky picking up on their awkward flirting, though. But no, that didn’t happen. Instead, he saw how, after both guys stared at Gina as she spoke, Carlos got suddenly very excited, and Seb nodded at her; all three of them sharing some looks.

Carlos got out of the kitchen, stepping in front of the counters. “Hey, everybody” He called everyone’s attention. “Who’s up for a- little game…” Carlos slowly slid his hand on the counter; he grabbed one of the bottles he had previously put on display, and dragged it back, close to himself. “…singing edition!”

“Oh, yes!” Kourtney yelled. Ashlyn came to the living room, where everyone was sitting down, as she had been answering a text on the other side of the room.

“Everybody has a cup” Carlos went around, giving everyone a red cup. “We put this in the middle,” Carlos placed the bottle on the table. “You’ll be in charge of that” He pointed at Chuck, and then down at the bottle.

“Are we playing bottle?” Kourtney asked with the widest eyes in the room, interrupting Carlos.

“No, there’s no singing in bottle” Carlos stopped her with his hand in the air. “Let me explain,” He continued. “In honour of our musical coming out in one week,”

There was cheer in the middle of that explanation.

“We’ll be playing some high school musical songs, from all three movies, and if one of us doesn’t know the lyrics, your cup gets filled a little bit…”

And Ricky knew from that moment how things might go like for him. He had never drunk, at least not as much to have any sort of repercussion but he knew he was probably about to.

And that’s exactly what ended up happening.

By the end of the game, Carlos asked everyone to chug down what they had in their cups, and Ricky knew it was way too much, because he had never been bothered to learn the lyrics from High School Musical 2 and 3, and he knew it was probably not a good idea; but he saw how everyone else was drinking from their own cups until there was nothing in them, even Nini, and he didn’t want to be the only one who wasn’t.

After a few more rounds, the rest of the party passed quickly, and everything became rather easy. Talking was easy; dancing and singing was easy; thinking wasn’t easy, but that’s not something he needed to do at the moment.

If Ricky wasn’t in that state, he wouldn’t have felt completely comfortable when Gina pushed EJ to sing a duet with him when it was his turn. Throughout the song, Ricky kept singing the words he knew, and watching EJ singing along with him, staring at him and laughing the moment both boys realized they didn’t really know the lyrics to their song.

There hadn’t been a moment where Ricky thought about how much he once despised EJ. It had just been them, the song, and their new- friendship; with EJ’s nice voice, perfect smile and beautiful eyes. But Ricky was too drunk to notice those last few things.

When Ricky went home, he realized he was possibly receiving some lecture for arriving home like that; but when he opened the door and tried to sneak into his own house, he noticed there was no one there.

Late nights in his basement were usual; considering his basement was also his bedroom. Having Big Red inside his bedroom wasn’t unusual; especially having him talk about whatever popped into his head.

“…so, anyway, now that we’re drama kids,” Big Red began. Such statement made Ricky roll his eyes, but not because it bothered him, because it didn’t, not anymore. “I was thinking I should try to do something like, learn to play the guitar, or the piano, although I want to try something bold like the violin, or the sax…”

“Sounds great” Ricky encouraged him. “Do you know how to read music?”

“Not at all, but it can’t be that hard, can it?” Big Red shrugged. “I had never heard you sing or play the guitar before you auditioned for Troy; your musical talents appeared out of nowhere, like when you wake up with a pimple on your face”

“It didn’t appear like a pimple; it was always there”

“Oh, how humble”

Ricky laughed, and he threw a pillow at him. “It’s the truth,”

“Okay, so, how about writing? I’ve been trying to write something, but I just don’t have what it takes, I guess” Big Red continued. “It always looks easy, but it’s definitely not! How can you think of a song that doesn’t already exist? Making up lyrics is hard, and, when I think I’m finally doing it, I realize I’m just doing a parody of When There Was Me and You all over again,”

Ricky burst out laughing when Big Red closed his eyes and began singing.

“Now I know that I’m not hungry yet, ‘cause I just had some tacos, and then the smell of rice, keeps coming through…”

“I don’t think coming up with an original melody is your biggest problem here” Ricky pointed out.

“Okay, Ed Sheeran, show me how it’s done, then”

“All I’m saying is that it’s not that hard to write a song, if you have the right motive; all you need is some inspiration and the rest is easy,”

Big Red stared at his friend for a couple seconds, and he leaned back. “Sounds like you’ve done it before”

“I mean, yeah, a couple times, but that’s-”

Before he could say whatever he was going to, Big Red moved forward and cut his friend off. “You do!” He exclaimed, sounding very excited. “Where are they, and why haven’t I heard them before?”

Ricky stood up and walked to his closet. “It’s not a lot, and usually I don’t finish them,” He opened a drawer, and began looking through his stuff. He grabbed something from there, and when he turned around, Big Red could see a small notebook with a hard, brown cover. Ricky didn’t always have nice notebooks; his school materials were not very well taken care of, and he almost never personalized his stuff; his books never had protective plastic on them, and his supplies never had his name on them, like some people like to have them. However, this notebook looked nice; like it wasn’t even his. Better yet, it was so his; it just was very personal. Big Red was his best friend, he didn’t hesitate showing it to him.

Ricky handed his friend the notebook, allowing Big Red to open it and go through it all freely.

“It’s all new, kind of” Ricky explained as he watched his friend read his notebook. Something about that sight made him feel nervous; since half the stuff in there was very raw; almost secretive. “I never really tried writing anything before this year”

“So, what was your inspiration?” Big Red asked, still going through the pages.

“Well-”

“Oh” His friend cut him off as soon as Ricky began speaking, not giving him the chance to answer, which he was sort of relieved by. “This is an entire song,” Big red turned the notebook around and showed the pages.

Ricky recognized those pages. Indeed, it was one of the only songs he had written and actually finished. He remembered giving it a melody and recording it on his phone as well, but he didn’t mention that part to his friend, because the idea of being asked to sing it was too much at the moment.

“Can I read it?”

Ricky stopped for a second. “Sure” He accepted truthfully.

Big Red looked down and stared at the page. Ricky could see his eyes moving from one side to the other, and he waited for him to have a reaction; a smile, a frown, a tear, something.

There was a moment when Big Red started reading some lines out loud, and Ricky began to feel the same way he felt when he wrote that song; sad, and hopeless.

“…you stopped calling me sweet, you stopped calling at all, and I got tired of fighting for you to stay…”

Ricky was glad Big Red didn’t know the melody to those lyrics.

“…and some nights, I’ll cry so hard, and wonder if you can feel it all the way across town, I hope you can…”

Ricky looked down.

“Is this about-”

“Nini, yeah” Ricky bit his lower lip.

“When did you write this?”

“Right after she ended it, when she asked me to stop trying to get her back”

“I thought you weren’t doing music” Big Red furrowed his eyes. “You were miserable, remember?”

“I remember” Ricky mocked his friend. “I wrote this a few days after it happened, it took me less than an hour, it was just my way of talking to her after she didn’t want to talk to me”

Big Red closed the notebook and put it on Ricky’s bed. “Did you show this to her?”

“No, of course not; I never wanted her to listen to it”

“I mean, it’s a pretty cool song,”

Ricky laughed. “Yeah but I didn’t write it for Nini, it’s just about her” He took the notebook and stood up, walked to the closet and kept it back where he had taken it from.

“Okay, so,” Big Red spoke, slowly dragging his words. “How are you doing in that drama department?”

Ricky turned around, and he looked at his friend for a second. “Okay, I guess” Ricky walked to his chair to sit down. “I mean, she asked me to stay away, and I did, and we talk sometimes, and it’s awkward, and it’s nothing like it was before, but it’s okay”

Big Red raised his eyebrow.

“If you ask me what I feel about it, well, it’s not ideal, and I wouldn’t have chosen this, but we agreed on something, and honestly, I, think she looks happy with EJ, and I need to accept that it’s over” Ricky continued to explain. “Of course, I think I still l-, I care- about her, so-”

Big Red stared at Ricky, even when Ricky was trying to avoid eye contact. Eventually, Ricky lifted his gaze and he was forced to look at his friend. “What?”

“So, what?”

“So, nothing”

“Nothing what?”

“What do you mean?”

“You said ‘so’”

“So?”

“What?”

“So what?”

“What did you mean?”

“With what?”

“With ‘so’”?

“Nothing”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing”

Big Red didn’t add to it. He allowed the silence to fill their conversation. “Okay”

Ricky threw a smile at his friend, followed by him standing up and joining Big Red on his bed. He laid on it, staring at the wall. “Nini and I are done, and I’m not one hundred percent okay with it, but I have to be, and I’m getting there”

“Okay, good”

The rest of the night, Big Red continued to talk, never touching that topic again, Ricky being glad about it. Ricky knew that sometimes he was not the best at expressing his ideas, but he also knew that his friend knew him too well, and he could read him better than anyone.

Before Big Red picked his stuff up to walk home, Ricky felt his phone buzz inside his pocket. When he took his phone out and saw the hour, he got surprised at how late it was, so he invited his friend to stay over instead of going home. Big Red accepted, and almost instantly fell on the couch to make himself a bed.

Ricky then unlocked his phone to see what the buzzing was about. He was surprised to see the name of a person he didn’t really text with that much.

EJ.

He tapped the notification and opened the text.

This made me think of you. That’s what the text read; followed by a photo of a Troy Bolton meme.

“Who are you flirt-texting with?” Big Red asked from the couch.

“Shut up”

The next day, when Ricky and Big Red arrived to school, they were surprised to see the entire school filled with posters about their show. Some of them had their photos of them, and some had the photos of the original cast members; some others simply said “High School Musical: The Musical” in them. He wasn’t sure who had been in charge of the posters, but whoever it was had done a pretty good job.

Ricky was grabbing his books from his locker when he heard someone calling his name. He turned around, and he saw Ashlyn jogging her way to him. Her expression didn’t look like her usual self; she looked distressed and worried.

“Hey, Ash” Ricky greeted her, still gathering some things out of his locker. “Are you okay?” He commented on her visible uncommon expression

“Have you seen EJ?” Ashlyn didn’t say anything else before that; she went straight to her point.

“No, why?” Ricky answered, concerned. He closed his locker door and turned to face Ashlyn completely. “He’s not here?”

“Not yet,” Ashlyn took her phone out. “My aunt says he didn’t come home last night; I’ve been calling him but he never answers,”

Ricky thought about it for a while, and he was going to say something, but decided not to. If he hadn’t dreamt it, he was pretty sure EJ and him had texted the other night; nothing major and nothing important, but they had talked, so the going-missing story didn’t really match up.

“Anyway,” Ashlyn kept looking at her phone, probably trying to call someone. “Can you tell me if you see him?” She turned to look at both Ricky and Big Red, and both of them nodded. “And, also, if you see him, tell him I say he’s an idiot”

“Sure,” Ricky smiled.

“Thanks” Ashlyn smiled back, and proceeded to leave.

Ricky saw how she stopped with a group of people, and he wondered if she was asking for EJ again. Ricky thought that maybe he should’ve said something about the texts EJ and him sent each other; because she really did look worried. Nevertheless, when he talked to EJ the other night, he never mentioned anything outstanding, it had barely been a conversation; he never gave him any reason to think that anything was out of the ordinary, let alone wrong.

In addition, Ashlyn was calling him an idiot, so maybe something had happened between them, and EJ didn’t want to be found by her.

So, Ricky decided not to say anything until he saw EJ in person.

The rest of the day went by very dramatically, if Ricky had to define it. Everyone was excited about the musical; even the people who were not in it. People were asking him about the show, they asked him a lot of things he had no idea how to answer, like if they could bring a plus one, if they’d give a speech before or after the play, or if they’d go to an after party and if they were invited.

However, that wasn’t the weirdest part. During the whole day, Miss Jenn had asked Ricky and the rest of the crew to get out of their classes and get together for trying their costumes on, for fixing them, for doing tests with the lighting and the spotlights, doing soundchecks and other things Ricky was glad he was not in charge of and he simply had to obey.

By third period, none of the teachers were surprised nor impressed by the constant ‘being excused from class’, and they just let the kids out; some of them even acted excited about the musical and let them out with no questions asked. Ricky was sure Carlos hadn’t even bothered showing up to first period.

Throughout the day, Ricky had still not seen EJ, which was weird, and had begun to feel worried. He had imagined EJ would be a sucker for these days; the costume, the hair, the rehearsal, final details… but he wasn’t there. He didn’t want to say it, especially not to Ashlyn, but maybe he was, too, a tad worried about the guy’s whereabouts.

In his final class, which he did not attend to, Ricky took his phone out, and did the least awkward thing he could do. He googled some “Chad Danforth memes”, picked one, and sent it to EJ, typing “This made me think of you”.

Ricky didn’t wait for him to answer before he sent another text. “Are you coming for our final rehearsal later?”

Any other time, Ricky would’ve kept his phone inside his pocket and waited until he got a response, but given the circumstances, he stared at the screen, and he continued staring until he saw a response come through.

Ricky didn’t see any answer appearing on his chat with EJ, and before he could feel embarrassed by sending a stupid meme and not receiving a reply, he began to panic. Maybe something had happened to EJ, and he had acted like a total dumbass during the day. Maybe he should have said something to Ashlyn-

But then, there it was; the reply.

“That’s not even funny”

Which was ironic, because Ricky had himself laughing at the screen.

“Yes, I’ll be there”

Miss Jenn had scheduled a final rehearsal for Ricky and EJ that day after class while the rest of the cast continued setting things into place and fixing up last details. Miss Jenn had asked for them to go through every scene with Troy and Chad with no script, which was fine, because Ricky had it all memorised, and he knew that EJ did, too. He also knew that Miss Jane had been worried about the boys’ dynamic in the beginning, but things were progressing in a better direction, just as their friendship was coming to better terms.

Ricky and Miss Jenn sat at the rehearsing room, waiting for EJ. That man was never late, and it was making Ricky feel like maybe he was becoming the man who always got there early. Eventually, although not very late, the door opened, and EJ walked right through.

Ricky was curious to see what condition EJ found himself in; would he be wearing pyjamas, have bed hair and smell bad? Or would he be dirty, ripped clothes, homeless-looking? However, to his surprise, he looked just right; his normal self; perfect hair, perfect face, perfect clothes; and that time, Ricky wasn’t too drunk to notice it.

“Hey, I know I’m late,” EJ entered the room quickly. The guy had nothing on him; no backpack, no supplies, no script.

“Well, you’re here” Miss Jenn smiled. “Why don’t you get started with the first scenes and I’ll go check on the girls?”

Both EJ and Ricky agreed, and when Miss Jenn left the room, Ricky asked EJ if he was okay; because he wanted to ask other things, like where he had been, or what had happened, but he didn’t want to intrude too much. EJ said he was fine, but he didn’t say a lot more.

They did what they were supposed to do; they did their scenes together, they recited their lines by heart, and everything went well. Miss Jenn had asked them to repeat some scenes because she hadn’t been in the room to watch and she wanted to see how they were doing. EJ and Ricky received nothing but compliments from her; and Ricky had to admit it felt pretty good to know that he was doing a good job; especially with the date so close.

When Miss Jenn told them they could go, neither of them did. Miss Jenn left the boys in the rehearsing room and finished for the day.

Ricky kept a close eye on EJ as the guy kept pacing around with his phone in his hand; he walked over to the piano, put his phone on top of it, and he started playing random notes, which, to Ricky, didn’t really sound like anything.

Ricky walked over to the other side of the piano and rested his arms on it; looking directly at EJ. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

EJ looked up from the keys to Ricky, but he didn’t stop playing. “I’m okay, but I’ve been better”

“Where were you all day? You know Ashlyn was really worried about you,”

This time EJ didn’t bother looking up at Ricky to answer. From his part, it looked like a wrong move from EJ; he had a ‘don’t touch me, don’t look at me, don’t be here’ vibe, but if Ricky had learnt anything about this boy in the last weeks, was that EJ didn’t really know how to act any other way sometimes. He wasn’t trying to be a douche, and Ricky knew not to take it personal, because it wasn’t.

Instead, Ricky left the piano and walked closer to EJ, sitting down on the bench next to him. The bench was small, but so were the boys, so they fit pretty well. Still, EJ scooted over to make room for Ricky. EJ stopped playing, but he still didn’t say a word.

“What are you playing?” Ricky asked.

However, EJ did not respond.

“Are you mad at me?” He knew EJ wasn’t mad; at least not at him, but he wanted to ask something that would make the guy speak.

EJ quickly turned his head to look at him. “What? No,” He exclaimed.

“Then why are you not speaking to me?”

EJ looked back down at the piano. It took him a second to get something out of his mouth, but eventually, he did speak.

“I’m sorry” EJ closed his eyes. “I’m being an ass again, aren’t I?”

Ricky widened his eyes and stared. “Well-”

EJ laughed a little; but Ricky could see a hint of discomfort behind it.

“Did something happen?” Ricky asked. He knew he was probably acting a little obnoxious, but seeing EJ so secretive and distant was rare. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen EJ being quiet, except for those times when he had actually been mad at him for whatever reason in the past. If he thought about it, he didn’t like to see EJ being quiet and reserved. It didn’t feel like himself.

“Ashlyn asked me to tell you that you’re an idiot when I saw you”

EJ let out a muffled laugh.

“I’m just passing on the message”

“I know,”

“Okay, so, why did she say that?” Ricky continued to try.

“Because I am an idiot,” EJ looked at Ricky in the eyes. Ricky couldn’t believe his gorgeous eyes could look so sad and tired; but there they were, and Ricky didn’t like it.

EJ sighed. “It’s nothing- yesterday my parents were arguing with her parents, and I just kept thinking it was so stupid, how my dad was trying to speak over everyone, and my mom would keep talking and she wouldn’t listen to anyone, and my uncle and my aunt were doing the same thing, and I wanted to do something, but Ashlyn asked me not too, because I could only make things worse, but I didn’t think clearly and I-”

EJ stopped, he tried to focus his sight on a certain spot, but it looked like he couldn’t even think.

“I know it sounds dumb, but, my parents never do that; they never fight, I mean; sometimes they argue with my aunt and my uncle, but when they leave, they talk to each other about it, and we all laugh about it, together, but they never fight with each other, and seeing it made me feel terrible,”

Ricky didn’t think it was dumb at all.

“I stepped in, I was trying to defend my mom, but then they asked me to stay out of it, and then, Ashlyn stepped in, and they told her to stay out of it, so, I defended Ashlyn, and they asked me to stop, and Ashlyn asked me to leave it, and I got mad, she got mad, my parents got mad, and I felt terrible, so I just left-”

Ricky looked at him, waiting to see if EJ would add anything else to his ramble; however, he didn’t. “Where were you all morning?”

EJ stared back and smiled. “I was here, in the library”

“What?” Ricky asked surprised. “Everyone was looking for you, how is it that no one saw you?”

“Maybe nobody thought I could be in the library,” They laughed. “Anyway, I don’t even know what I’m saying. My family never fights, I didn’t know how to react”

Ricky felt the nonsense and the unbalance in EJ’s story, but he understood, because he had been there before; and not just once.

“Don’t worry about it” Ricky reassured him. “Look, I may know a thing or two about that” He began. “Sometimes my parents fight too, I mean, when my mom’s home, sometimes they fight”

“What do you do?”

“Well, I- don’t do anything” Ricky knew that EJ was unimpressed and that he had been waiting for a more helpful advice. “But sometimes I wish I did; I wish I could step into my parents’ relationship and do whatever it takes to fix it, but I never do, because I don’t think I can do anything”

Both of them were silent, and Ricky hated that he couldn’t say anything to make EJ feel better. He stared at him; thinking about what his friend might be feeling at the moment. He had been so taken aback he felt like leaving his house for the night and not taking any of his morning classes; so, he thought of something he could say. “But you know, my parents fight all the time, that’s why I never say anything, but you could,”

EJ turned to face Ricky again. “And what do I say?”

“Well, if I were you, I’d say exactly what I’m thinking, so they know what I mean”

“That’s my biggest problem, I can never say what I mean” EJ’s voice jumped. “I’m not very good with words; I’d probably end up saying exactly what I said to you, or something even dumber”

“But you can try,” Ricky suggested, although he knew it wasn’t very helpful. “Oh, I know”

“What?”

“You can do one of those improvising exercises we used to do in the beginning; just say whatever”

“You mean,” EJ started to explain. “Like when you threw a basketball at my face and busted my lip open?” He recalled.

“Yeah,” Ricky responded apologetically, which earned him a genuine smile from EJ. “But that’s not going to happen, I don’t think you’re punching your parents in the face, and besides, that’s the whole point of the activity, isn’t it? Just say whatever pops into your head, and if it sounds weird, you can tweak it”

EJ considered it for a second. “So, I should pretend you’re my dad”

Ricky widened his eyes, a little shocked about what that sounded like. “Mhm”

EJ laughed for a second, but he did it as he let go of the piano’s bench and stood up, only to sit back down with his legs open so he could be in front of Ricky and he could face him when he spoke. Ricky was surprised that he was actually going to do it, but he was also hoping to see where it would go.

“Okay-” EJ sighed and prepared himself. “dad”

Ricky was trying not to laugh.

“I don’t think that you should fight my mom- and my uncle- and my aunt, because I don’t like it-” EJ stopped, but Ricky encouraged him to continue. “I think you should all treat each other with respect, and keep yourself from saying stuff that can hurt me or mom, or Ash”

EJ stopped completely, and he stared at Ricky.

“Yeah- I think- that’s good, but- is that all you have to say?”

EJ sighed again and he rolled his eyes. “I guess- I don’t know, this is hard”

“Just do it,” Ricky tried to help him. “Just tell me everything you would want to say to your dad if you knew things were going to turn out okay in the end; no repercussions, no fighting, no beating, nothing”

EJ nodded to himself, and prepared himself once more.

“Dad” Ricky was still trying not to laugh. “Dad,” EJ said one more time, and Ricky could tell he was trying to feel looser and more relaxed. “I love you”

Ricky knew those words weren’t meant for him, but hearing them still made him feel uneasy.

“I love our family, and- honestly, when I saw you fighting last night, I felt like you were ruining what we have-”

Ricky nodded, encouraging EJ, and asking him to go on.

“When you fight, it makes me feel like I’m a child- a child who is powerless, and stupid, and too young to have an opinion. You’re supposed to be the adult here, and I don’t wanna feel like I’m the only one who wants this family to thrive; I don’t want to wake up one day knowing that I’m doing all the work that you should be doing. I don’t ever want to feel the same way I did yesterday. I’m- sorry-” EJ said that bit with difficulty. “-that I left last night without saying anything, and that I acted like a drama queen, although, you know I kind of am, but I don’t want us to start splitting up. I want you to be the bigger person and to promise me you’ll never make me feel like that again”

Ricky heard those words, and he knew they weren’t perfectly poetic, but he felt them going through his gut; and staying. He could understand some of the things EJ was feeling, and he thought it was very brave of EJ to open up about this now, instead of letting the situation grow and become more difficult until there was no way out.

Somehow, he didn’t want EJ to go through some of the things that he had.

“So?” EJ broke him off his thoughts.

“That was great” Ricky cleared his throat. “You should tell him that”

“Okay, great” EJ smiled widely. “Now, did you record that? Because I can’t remember half the things I just said”

Knowing he was heading into a very busy and crazy week, he decided to shower at night so he could have more time in the morning to arrive early and help with the preparation for the musical. As he was drying his hair with his towel, he picked up his phone from the bed, which had just buzzed.

He unlocked his phone and saw he had a text from EJ.

“It’s all good now. Thank you for today, you really are great. I’ll fill you in tomorrow”

And then, Ricky went to bed with one big smile on his face. It was good to know he had helped EJ manage his family drama once in for all. Even if he hadn’t been able to do the same with his own family; and he didn’t know if he ever would.

Carlos had given everyone clear instructions for the night; go to bed early, drink a lot of water, eat well and enough, do a facemask, listen to the whole High School Musical soundtrack, do voice warm ups, and have good dreams. Ricky didn’t know if he had completed the full list, but he felt fresher than ever when he woke up, so he guessed it had been good enough.

The musical was scheduled to begin at seven in the evening, but Miss Jenn had asked everyone to be there hours earlier. Everyone who was involved had permission to miss the classes of the day for the opening night; which ended up being a lot more people than he had imagined. When Ricky arrived at the auditorium for the final rehearsal, he realized he hadn’t met the electricity crew, nor the orchestra. Ricky had had no idea their budget covered such areas, considering the actors and dancers had done most of the stage designing and the props. He remembered all those times he stayed extra hours with his friends painting trees and hanging pieces of the scenery with ropes into the air.

As soon as he arrived, he began to prepare. They had already done their final complete rehearsal a day before, with everyone involved, costume changes, lighting, music, sound effects, everything. Ricky knew what to do. The first thing he did was get changed into his first Troy costume; which was a nice white shirt, a pair of jeans and a black jacket; although they looked nothing like the original Troy Bolton clothes since they were “too outdated”, and Ricky couldn’t agree more. It’s not like he cared that much about clothes, but he really did not enjoy those 2000’s loose jeans. And, the best part was; Carlos had come to the decision that keeping Ricky’s natural curly hair was better than giving him a wig. Ricky was so thankful.

When he got to see everyone else’s costumes, he was surprised with the work the people in charge of the clothes had done. For starters, EJ looked ridiculous, but in a cute, nice way. They had managed to give him four shirts with witty phrases, like the ones Chad was famous for. And, Nini- she looked- beautiful. She was really going to be the star of the show.

Before the show started, Miss Jenn gathered all her actors together. She gave a small speech about how proud and excited she was. She also said something that Ricky had believed was very inspiring and uplifting; that she believed in every single one of them, and that she knew they could make their dreams come true, whatever they were, because they had helped her make hers come true.

“…know that today you are part of something very special, and whether you decide to stay in the drama department or leave after tonight, I will forever be thankful to you for pouring your hearts, your souls and your talent into this production. I want everyone to get out there, and make this the best musical anyone has ever seen!”

Miss Jenn asked them to hold hands, just like they had done during their first reading. This time, Ricky and EJ grabbed each other’s hands without any hesitation; Ricky could even feel the strength in EJ’s hold, and he wasn’t sure if he had ever felt something as reassuring and comforting.

Minutes before the opening, Miss Jenn had one last announcement to make. She said she’d probably get some backlash for exceeding their budget, but she had everything under control. She had been looking forward to the dinner they had planned for after the opening, but she had also planned something else. Ricky thought she had been kidding when she mentioned she had organized a weekend trip to a theme park as a wild celebration for their effort.

For a split second, Ricky considered all the things he would’ve missed out on if he had definitely quit the show. Now he was glad he hadn’t done such a thing.

The presentation of their show happened as great as he and anyone else could’ve expected. Ricky never forgot one of his lines, or anyone, for that matter. He didn’t forget any lyrics, and he was very pleased with himself for having remembered every single detail.

Ricky found it hilarious how he’d sometimes bump into EJ in the middle of a wardrobe change and he’d get to read how he went from the outrageous “I come with my own background music” to the matchless “Worship Waffles”. Ricky wouldn’t stop himself from laughing every time he saw EJ; and EJ would never not laugh back with him.

The moment Nini and he sang Breaking Free, he felt the rush of the full experience he had lived in the past months reflected in the cheering of the crowd. Ricky had just accepted he could totally get used to that sound.

When they reached the end of the show and they went backstage, Ricky was so filled with adrenaline and excitement he didn’t even hesitate wrapping himself in a dramatically tight hug around EJ; who didn’t seem to mind either. Ricky hugged the rest of the crew as well, except for a few people.

“Dude, I feel like I can go to the moon now” Big Red has commented, mirroring Ricky’s excitement.

“I know,” Ricky answered, just as excited. “Me too”

When it came to cleaning up the stage and dismantling the scenery, Ricky had hoped he could’ve found his way out of it, but he knew it was only fair; like washing the dishes after eating.

At one moment, he saw from the other side of the stage, far away, Nini approaching EJ, who was also helping carrying the instruments back into the music room. Ricky couldn’t see what they were saying to each other, nor he was good at reading lips, so the only thing he saw was Nini taking EJ’s hand and asking him a question; which lead to the both of them walking backstage, out of everyone’s sight. Ricky had to take a moment to ask himself if he was okay with that; and the answer wasn’t very clear, but it was closer to a yes than it had ever been. It was time to move on. It was time to let her go. It was time to accept the things as they were.

The only thing left was waiting for Nini to get out of his head; and, how was he going to do that? He didn’t know. But he knew it was going to happen sooner or later.

He didn’t like to think about it as settling for not getting who he wanted; it was about realizing he deserved something better than chasing someone who doesn’t want to be caught.

Before Ricky could decide if he wanted to stay in the drama department or not, he still had to go through one more thing; one more thing before his High School Musical experience was over: Miss Jenn’s promised trip.

Ricky had never been had experience like that; traveling without his parents to another city, even if the trip in the bus was no longer than an hour and his dad kept texting him. He assumed some of the other kids had never had an experience like that either.

They met at the school early in the morning, and they waited for a bus to come pick them up.

Ricky and Big Red walked side by side to the bus so they could sit together on the way there. However, nobody could spend the whole ride sitting down; people were standing up, switching places, and of course, singing; which Ricky had gladly been a part of. He had never heard the singing in a bus sound so good.

In the middle of the ride, Ricky looked back to see EJ sitting by himself. He wondered if Nini had gone to the bathroom, or she was momentarily speaking to someone else; but as he scanned the room, he realized that they had never sat together at all. He was very curious as to know what was going on, but he also didn’t want to sound like a gossip, so he let it go.

When they arrived at their Airbnb, they had already selected how they were going to share the rooms. Bid Reg had made a joke about how no one was going to sleep any way, but before anyone could take it the wrong way, he corrected himself by explaining how they were going to spend all day and night in the theme park.

“The park closes at 9” Someone mentioned.

Before they left, the group took a few minutes to settle, rest and get ready. They had planned to spend the complete day at the park, so they wanted to make sure they wouldn’t forget anything, or, the opposite; take too much stuff they’d have to carry around.

EJ, Big Red, Chuck and Ricky were sharing a room together. Their room was in the roof part of the house, which was way cooler than the rest of the rooms because it had access to the terrace, and it also had its own bathroom, which meant they wouldn’t have to run across the living room to hit the loo or take a shower whenever they wanted to. Ricky felt comfortable and confident around the group, but he didn’t love the idea of showing himself off dripping wet with a towel being the only thing covering him.

The room, however, only had two beds, but Ricky was glad to see a couple of sofas as well and a big hammock on the outside of the room; that way, they wouldn’t find themselves in awkward bed-sharing situations. Nevertheless, Ricky could see Big Red and Chuck fighting over said hammock from the window of their room. Eventually, he saw how Big Red won their little fight, which still meant nothing because Chuck laid on top of Big Red either way, and they continued to argue.

Ricky himself decided to rest for a second on one of the beds. Actually, as soon as he fell on the bed, he wondered if he’d have enough time to close his eyes for a couple seconds. Scratch that, he was going to take a nap and trust someone would wake him up instead of leaving without him.

He didn’t know if he was actually falling in and out of sleep, or if time was moving way too slow, or way too fast, but a voice directed at his name dragged him out of his dreamless sleep. He opened his right eye, and he could see EJ also laying down on the bed next to Ricky’s. EJ had said something to him, but he wasn’t sure what it was because he hadn’t heard him correctly; so, he replied with an inspiring “hmm?”

EJ laughed. “I asked if you were tired”

“Oh” Ricky laughed as well. “No, I’m just waiting here”

EJ sighed, and Ricky saw how he shifted around the bed; adjusting the pillows under him. “Can I ask you a question?” EJ asked, looking at the ceiling, but he turned to look at Ricky when he said, “Although I don’t know how out of line it might be”

“What is it?”

“You can totally not answer and tell me I’m not allowed to ask that”

“Just ask me”

EJ breathed heavily. “Okay” He waited a couple seconds before he let it out.

“Why did you and Nini break up?”

Ricky had heard the question loud and clear, but he wasn’t sure he had. Had EJ really asked that? It didn’t really bother him- but, did he really want to know that?

“Am I stepping out of line?” EJ asked cautiously.

Yes? No?

“Uhm” Ricky wondered. “I don’t know, but if you wanna know-”

EJ had an apologetic look on his face; but there was something else going on in there as well. The guy nodded, and Ricky didn’t know why he’d want to know why Nini and he had broken up, but he had never asked him, and maybe there wasn’t a good reason for it; he just felt curious.

“Well, I guess there’s two sides of that story” Ricky looked at the ceiling and he told it. “Nini’s side is that I was a jerk and she wouldn’t put up with me”

“And your side?” EJ asked.

“Uhm, that I was a jerk and she wouldn’t put up with me?”

“Okay, what’s the long version of that story? Because I already knew that”

Ricky had realized that it would take a lot of vulnerability from his part to tell the complete thing to EJ, and even though they had shared some vulnerable moments with each other already, this was nothing like anything they’d talked about yet.

However, maybe it’d be good if he told him; so he could understand a little better the way he acted in the beginning of the year.

“She wrote a song- for me,” Ricky was already feeling awkward. Talking to EJ about how his girlfriend used to be his girlfriend wasn’t just weird- it was freaky, in a way. “Where she said that she loved me; it was the first time either of us had said it, and that’s basically the whole problem, I didn’t say it back, I freaked out, and then I said I wanted to take a break during the summer, but when we came back, you know…”

EJ was looking at Ricky the whole time; Ricky knew, even when he wasn’t looking back.

“But, I already knew that” EJ added.

“So, why do you ask?” Ricky got up and sat on the edge of his bed.

The truth is, Ricky knew what EJ wanted to hear. He wanted to know why he hadn’t said I love you back, and why he had asked for a break. He just hoped he wouldn’t ask for it out loud, so he wouldn’t have to explain it out loud.

But it didn’t matter what he was hoping for, because that was the first thing that came out of EJ’s mouth.

Ricky was debating between answering and not doing it, but he came up with a third option. “Why are you asking me?” Which was probably the first thing he should’ve said.

EJ looked surprised by Ricky turning the tables around; but maybe he understood that it was fair to ask. The guy sighed and sat down in the same position Ricky had just done.

“Yesterday, at the end of the show,” EJ prepared himself to say it. “Nini took me backstage,”

Ricky was really hoping EJ wouldn’t describe a hot make out session or anything of that sort.

“And she broke up with me”

Ricky’s eyes widened. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t what to think. He did know that if EJ had come to him with this news a while back, he would’ve wasted no time in running out of the room and go to Nini; but it didn’t really feel appealing anymore. Suddenly, he realized he cared more about what EJ was going through, than what Nini’s reasons had been. So, he didn’t run out, and he stayed with EJ.

“Why? What happened?”

“I did something really stupid, a while ago, and I actually thought I could get away with it, so I never came clean, but all this time, she knew”

“What did you do?”

“I- took her phone, and I went through it”

“Woah-”

“I know, man, I know it was wrong and completely idiotic, however, the point is- she told me she was waiting until the show ended, because she didn’t want to make things weird” EJ stared at Ricky for a second before he continued. “Anyway, she said I didn’t know how to own up to the things that I do, and that I am more concerned about protecting my ass than admitting that I’m wrong and say I’m- sorry”

Ricky, of course, knew about the phone situation, but he had assumed EJ had apologized, and that Nini had accepted it and they had moved on. But now he knew that he never did it? What was the point of that stupid song EJ wrote and posted in his SoundCloud account? Which, by the way, he didn’t follow, he just checked occasionally.

“I’m asking you what happened between you two, because she said I was just like you” EJ stated.

Ricky felt that like a bomb; and not because it was painful, but because it was unexpected. “She said that?”

“Yeah, she said ‘You’re just like Ricky’”

“Oh” Ricky managed to say. Then, Ricky started to go around a few ideas that were connecting themselves into his brain. His thought process felt a little heavy at the moment. EJ simply nodded slowly.

“What do you think that means?” Ricky asked, even though he was starting to get the picture.

“Well, I know she’s talking about how I couldn’t say I was sorry, and I guess she didn’t want to deal with a person who can’t say it, like she doesn’t wanna deal with a person who can’t say I Love You”

Ricky stared. EJ stared back, realizing he had sounded a bit harsh. “That sounded bad, that’s not what I-”

“I know, but it’s kind of true” Ricky knew what EJ was trying to say, and he knew what Nini meant. It all seemed a little ironic, too. “I would’ve done the same thing if I were her; Nini is a great girl, and she deserves a nice guy”

“I know you’re insulting me by saying I’m not a nice guy, but somehow it’s okay, because I get it, and because you’re also telling yourself you’re not a nice guy”

EJ threw Ricky one of those smiles that took the context out of every conversation. Suddenly, he felt uplifted by seeing the combination of such a bright smile with those unbelievable eyes. Ricky felt it pull his own lips upward as well.

EJ didn’t ask anything else again, and Ricky didn’t push anything else either into their talk.

Big Red and Chuck entered the room to grab their stuff. As Chuck put his phone inside his pocket and Big Red tied a bum bag around his pants, they told their friends they’d be heading downstairs to say they were ready and to see if the rest of the group was ready to leave. EJ and Ricky decided to go with them as they both secretly wanted a change in their sad confessionary.

The four of them left their room and went to join everyone else.

Ricky had only been in a theme park a few other times in his life, but he had never had as much fun as he had that day. He wasn’t a precise lover of the wild rides that twist people around in seven different ways, but he had agreed to go on every single one of them, because as long as the day had light, they could be up in a rollercoaster defying basic rules of gravity. Nonetheless, that wasn’t a real excuse, since they were still up in the sky when the sun came down. Ricky had never gone on a ride during the night; and he had to say it was a whole other thing. There’s not a lot one can see when it’s dark, which makes the sensations a lot more prominent; the air gets colder, and the wind picks up, so when they were up there in a box that brought them up and down with an extreme speed, sometimes it really did feel like they were dying; but then the ride would stop and they’d remember they were fine.

There was a time when the rollercoaster seats moved slowly, heading to the top of the rail as it prepared for a quick, cold fall. Every second built on the pressure and the tension, so it felt very natural when EJ grabbed his hand and squeezed it hard. Ricky’s instinct was to squeeze back, as if the act secured him better from falling down to the ground.

Certainly, when the ride ended, they let go of each other and they never spoke of it.

At one point during their walk, Ricky had a wild thought of walking to Nini and asking her to hang out with EJ and him, in hopes of fixing their peculiar situation, as friends, but he imagined that was not something she needed at the moment. What she probably needed was time to get away from the boys and be with her friends and with herself at the moment. Maybe later, he could try to ease things between the three of them.

The ride to the theme park had been pretty lively and animated; everyone was talking, laughing, singing, even dancing, which was the source of a lot of falls from time to time, which led to more laughing. On the other hand, the ride back was completely opposite. Not everyone was awake; and the people who were, were either staring at their phones with the screen light at the lowest they could be, or sharing a whispery, weary chat.

Ricky turned to the seat next to him, where Big Red was fast asleep with his headphones on and his jacket used as a pillow; then, he looked back at EJ’s seat, and when he saw that he was still sitting alone, and he was not asleep, Ricky stood up, carefully trying not to wake his friend up, and proceeded to sit next to EJ.

When they were packing to return home, Ricky couldn’t shake off an odd feeling of nostalgia taking over him. This trip meant his experience as a drama kid was over; at least until another production came to town, but still, he wasn’t sure if he’d audition for that one. Things were very uncertain at the moment.

Ricky hadn’t noticed his friend Chuck wasn’t in the room, until he entered the room.

“Guys, Carlos asked me to tell you to go to his room”

“What for?” Big Red asked, taking a bite from his breakfast that he was not eating on a table.

“Oh, no” Chuck closed his backpack. “Just them” He pointed at EJ and Ricky his two fingers of the same hand.

The two boys shared a look, but they didn’t waste any time and instantly left the room. They walked downstairs, bumping into everyone trying to get their stuff ready. When Carlos caught sight of them through the hall, he quickly waved at them and sked them to get inside his room. Shortly after they entered, Carlos moved quickly to close the door behind them. Ricky stared as he even locked the door with the push of a button, and he was afraid for a second.

“Okay, sit”

Carlos sat down on the bed, and was followed by the other two boys, who sat on the edge on the bed in front of him.

“I want to ask for your help,” Carlos sighed. “But let me explain before you say yes, because you can say no if you want to”

Ricky wanted to be concerned, but the expression in Carlos’ face didn’t show any signs of worry or fear; it showed eagerness and a little bit of… hope?

“Okay” EJ answered, obviously very confused, but intrigued at the same time.

“I want to do something special for Seb,”

Ricky knew there was something going on between those two, but he wasn’t updated in their relationship status, so whatever Carlos was about to say was definitely going to be news for them.

“I’ve been-” Carlos began to explain something. He twisted his torso to look back to his bed, where he had a few papers gathered. He grabbed them and he started organizing them in place. “-thinking of a few things to do to show him how much I care about him, and everything he’s going through with his family and- the school, and everything”

Ricky knew what Carlos meant with ‘everything he’s going through’ since he knew, personally, a few dumbasses who liked to make fun of Carlos and Seb for being gay, which Ricky thought was terribly stupid and ancient, but still he knew it was real and sometimes it happened. It was nice to know that Carlos cared so much about him and that he was always willing to help.

“Anyway, I want to direct a new production, as a gift for him” Carlos explained. “It’s a story I wrote myself, and it’s centred around a guy who has a hard time accepting himself, but has an even harder time accepting he’ll never have the guy he wants if he doesn’t get over himself and step up; it’s mainly a romance story”

Ricky had a disturbing thought for a second. Carlos was willing to go through the trouble of producing and entire new show, deal with the writing, the dancing, the singing, the acting, the lighting, the effects, and everything else that was involved, all over again, only to show the guy he liked that he cared? What did that say about him as a boyfriend? No wonder why Nini had broken up with him and EJ. They looked like a couple of smartasses compared to this man.

Ricky knew EJ had had the same thought when he turned to look at him quickly, before he brought his attention back to Carlos.

“I already talked about this with Miss Jenn, and she already approved the whole thing”

“That’s amazing” EJ smiled, and Ricky agreed.

“Yeah, I know” Carlos exclaimed very excitedly. “It’s going to be amazing,” His smile got bigger.

“Miss Jenn wanted to open auditions right away so we could get started, but I told her I didn’t want anyone auditioning for the lead roles, because I-” Carlos began to slow down. “I want to ask you if you would like to take the lead in my play”

Ricky was completely taken by surprise. He hadn’t imagined Carlos was going to ask them that; he was actually starting to believe Carlos wanted to act in it himself or something, but this changed things.

“Hear me out, I saw you guys during our show and I think you are unbelievably talented actors and singers, and I actually love the chemistry the two of you had during the show, and I know that you’d be perfect for it, besides, you are my friends, and there’s honestly no one else I’d trust with this; there’s no one else I’d want for my characters”

Ricky hadn’t felt so flattered in a while.

“So, I’m asking you, if you would like to help me with this” Carlos gave each of the boys a set of papers; which Ricky discovered were copies of the script of Carlos’ play. “Or at least think about it”

Ricky read the front page, which had the title of the of the play, and Ricky actually thought it was pretty cool. A little cheesy, but it was cool. “Rushing Rivers”. He opened the script, read a few of the lines and the directions, but he closed it quickly as he heard EJ speak first.

“Are you sure you want us to do it?” EJ pointed at Ricky, and back at him, a few times.

“Absolutely” Carlos nodded with a bright smile on his face.

“Well,” EJ began. “I’m honoured”

Ricky knew EJ would be honoured; of course he would. When in the world would that narcissistic child deny the opportunity of having the lead in a show?

“I’m on board, if Ricky is too” He turned to look at Ricky.

Ricky caught on the staring, and he quickly felt Carlos’ eyes on him as well. For a second, Ricky had been so distracted with the beautiful gesture Carlos had planned for Seb, that he hadn’t stopped to consider what it involved. If Ricky accepted, he would have his cherished drama club back; and the idea really excited him; his time in the show had barely any point of comparison with any other thing he did in his life. Additionally, the story sounded good, and really inspiring, from what he had heard, and it wasn’t only the act of being part of something progressive and meaningful; it was also the contribution to a really good cause. Carlos had always been more than nice to him; and Seb was one of the best people he knew; it’d be pretty great to help them out.

But there was that one thing, which Ricky wasn’t sure if EJ had considered at all, because it seemed like he had already accepted when he heard the word “lead”, which in EJ’s mind probably sounded like “spotlight, fame, gold, attention”…

…he’d be EJ’s boyfriend.

Well, EJ’s character’s boyfriend. And not only that, he’d have to act as his boyfriend. And it’s not like the idea completely grossed him out, or anything like that. He simply believed it was part of strange and unknown territory for the both of them.

But, then again, it was just a play, and it was for a really good cause, and EJ really wanted to be in the spotlight, and Carlos was really excited about it, and he really wanted to get back into acting, and he really liked spending time with EJ, and… it didn’t sound like a bad idea after giving it some thought.

“Sure, we’ll do it”

Carlos jumped off his seat and hugged both boys, screaming in their ears and thanking them a million times.