Connor's POV
"So, I couldn't sleep last night, and I just realised something." Zoe said, with wide eyes.
"What?" Joe asked, as Tyler sat up quickly and sneezed. "Bless you."
"Thank you." He muttered, rubbing his nose. "Anyway, what's up?"
"I haven't gone bowling in like five years, so I'm not so sure if I can actually still bowl." She muttered.
"Dude." Caspar stared at her.
"Yeah, I know. Not such a good idea. But I've got to leave in an hour, so it's probably too late to change plans." She sighed
"How do you know for sure that you can't bowl anymore, though?" Tyler asked.
"Because I kind of never could..?" She trailed off, quietly.
"Oh, lordy." Joe sighed. "Well, good luck, then. You're doomed."
"Wow, thanks. You're such a great brother. But seriously, what am I supposed to do?" She asked, urgently.
"I don't know. I'm not a bowling teacher." Tyler shrugged. "Looks like you're just going to have to show him how much you fail at bowling."
"No, wait. This could be a good thing." I started, as they all turned to look at me.
"In what universe could this possibly be a good thing?" Joe asked.
"If you can't bowl, deliberately fail. Don't try your best, because he'll realise you're trying but know that you suck anyway." I explained.
"Gee, thanks." She rolled her eyes.
"So, what you do is, you fail a lot, but don't make it too obvious. And he'll see that you need help and wrap his arms around you and show you how to place your hands on the ball and hold you from behind and then you'll turn around and you'll make eye contact-"
"Woah. I get the point." She laughed. "Besides, what other choice do I have?"
"You don't." I shrugged. "So you go with my idea."
She sighed. "Okay. I will "deliberately fail" and see how it goes. But if it goes downhill, I'm blaming it all on you."
"Yeah, okay, fair enough. But trust me, it'll work." I nodded.
"Okay, well, I need to get changed and stuff, so if you guys could all leave..." She gestured towards the door.
Caspar rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine."
The four of us stood up and filed out of the door slowly.
"Are you going straight to your date after you get ready?" I asked, before I shut the door.
"Yeah, probably. I'll see you guys after, yeah?" She smiled.
"Okay, have fun." I waved, closing the door.
I turned around to face the others, who were waiting for me.
"What do you guys want to do now?" Tyler asked.
"I might go back to my room. I'm still really tired." I yawned. "You guys can hang out without me."
"Oh, okay. See you later, then." Joe nodded.
"See you guys." I grinned, walking down the corridor towards my room.
After reaching my door, I unlocked it and walked inside. I flopped onto my bed, letting out a long sigh. I felt myself drift slowly to sleep and before long, I was snoring away.
---
I was finally woken up five hours later, when my phone vibrated, and my ringtone echoed through my room.
After rubbing my eyes and letting out a loud grunt, I took my phone out of my pocket and looked at the caller ID.
Unknown Number
"Who..?" I whispered to myself.
My phone continued ringing, and after a few more annoying rings, I realised that whoever was calling was not going to give up. Hesitantly, I answered it and raised my phone to my ear.
"Hello?" I asked, cautiously.
"Hey, it's Troye." He answered.
"Um... Hi?" I furrowed my eyebrows together, confused.
"Hi." He repeated.
"How do you have my number?" I asked, quickly.
"I got it from the student office." He replied.
"That's a little creepy, don't you think?" I sat up and leaned against my headboard.
"No, wait. That does sound creepy. I mean, I got it from the student office because they gave it to me for the tutoring thing." He explained.
"Oh, okay." I said, simply.
"Yeah." I imagined him nodding on the other end of the line.
"So... Can I help you?" I asked, awkwardly.
"Oh yeah, right. When are you free for our next tutoring session?" He asked.
"I'm free on Monday after school." I shrugged. At least we were having a civil conversation without me wanting to rip his head off. Yet.
"Yeah, that sounds good." He replied.
"Okay, so Monday after school it is." I confirmed, rubbing my nose.
"Okay, cool." He answered.
"Wait." I said, suddenly.
"What?" He cleared his throat.
"Are you in your room?" I asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Couldn't you have just walked over and asked me in person?" I frowned.
"I couldn't be bothered." He laughed.
"Oh. One more thing." I started.
He hummed in response.
"When we have our tutoring session, could you not be such an ass?" I raised my eyebrows, fully aware he couldn't see me.
He chuckled. "Yeah, okay."
"Wait, actually? I thought you wouldn't agree." I scoffed.
"I'm not that bad." He argued.
"That's debatable." I shrugged.
I heard him sigh quietly, bringing a slight smile to my face.
"Actually, could you just not be an ass ever? Just tone it down a bit." I rolled my eyes. "Not everyone actually likes arrogant people, you know."
"I actually like being an ass, and I'm sure a few other guys at our school would agree, if you know what I mean." He pointed out.
"Well, not me." I stated.
"Yeah, I kind of got that. So I'll be nice just to you. Deal?" He proposed.
My eyes widened. I didn't know how sincere he was being, but even so, it made me feel a little bit special.
"And I know you're probably thinking that I'm just saying that, but I will actually be decently nice to you." He said, as if he read my mind.
"Okay, deal." I grinned, glad he couldn't see how happy I was. "Thanks, I guess."
"Okay, now that that's sorted, let's talk about the important things in life." There was a bit of rustling on the other end of the line.
"Like..?" I answered, and surprisingly, I wasn't in a rush to hang up the phone.
"Have you heard Alessia's new single?" He exclaimed a little too loudly.
I winced slightly, holding my phone away from my ear. "Of course. Who do you think I am?"
"I don't know. Come to think of it, I don't actually know much about you, apart from the fact that you're a really good photographer." He complimented me.
I blushed, remembering back to our little conversation behind the cafe. "Thanks. Anyway, back to Alessia. What do you think of the single?"
"Um, it's amazing." He gushed. "The lyrics are probably some of the best lyrics she's ever written, and she writes amazing lyrics. But you already knew that."
"I completely agree." It was at this moment that I felt myself relax into the conversation. "Do you think she's got an album coming out soon? She keeps hinting at some more new music on her Twitter but I don't know what it all means."
"I actually messaged her about it on Twitter, and I wasn't expecting her to reply but she just sent me a smiley face." He told me. "So I'm assuming that means yes."
I let out a loud shriek. "She replied to you?"
"Yeah. I kind of freaked out a bit." He laughed.
"I would, too. I went completely berserk when she replied to my tweet." I said, quickly.
"She did? What, when?" He asked, excitedly.
I chuckled at his interest. "You remember when I was really loud in my room and you told me to shut up?"
He burst out in laughter and it was like music to my ears. "Of course. We sent the whole floor into a frenzy."
"Yeah, right. Anyway, that was when she replied to my tweet. I thought you'd have seen it." I explained.
"I should've. I don't know why I didn't." I could almost hear him frowning.
"Okay, well. It happened and I'm still not over it." I grinned like an idiot.
There wasn't an answer, and I frowned. I was about to ask him if he was still there, when his laugh echoed, not only through the phone, but also through the wall separating us.
"Um, what are you laughing at?" I asked, carefully.
"Nothing, just laughing at how ridiculous we are. Two boys literally sitting a metre away from each other, yet we're talking to each other on the phone, fangirling over our favourite artist. Who would've thought?" He said, through laughs.
I was about to argue with him and tell him it wasn't like that.
But it was exactly like that.
So I just laughed and agreed. "That's true. You know, I can almost tolerate you when you're like this."
"Like what?"
"Like the Troye I talked to next to the cherry blossom lake." I said, shyly.
I heard him swallow quietly. "Well, you'd better tolerate me, because this is the Troye you'll be getting from now on. But only you, remember?"
I bit my lip to stop myself from smiling. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
We stayed like that for a while, chatting on the phone about anything and everything. Surprisingly, I actually liked talking to him, as if we'd been friends for a long time. If he was being serious, I had a feeling this wouldn't be the last time something like this happened. By the end of the call, we'd started talking about extraterrestrial life. With anyone else, it would've been random and weird, but somehow with Troye, I felt completely at ease.
It didn't feel like very long later, when I found myself yawning. I lowered my phone to look at the time, and my eyes widened to the size of golf balls.
"Fucking hell." I said, putting my phone next to my ear again.
"What?" He asked, concerned.
"It's nearly 1 a.m." I told him.
"Wait, seriously?" He paused, and I assumed he was also checking the time. "It is. Gosh, it doesn't even feel like we've been talking that long."
"We've been talking for five hours. I didn't even know my phone had that long of a battery life. I haven't even eaten dinner. Or lunch, for that matter." I yawned again.
"Neither. But I'm not hungry."
"Wait, how much is this call going to cost you?" I raised my eyebrows.
"Oh, I've got free minutes for the month. I think they give me like 200 free minutes." He explained.
I gasped quietly. "You do realise that you still have to pay for 100 minutes, right?"
"Yeah." He said, simply.
"I'll pay for it, if you want." I offered.
"No, no. Don't worry about it. I've got it." He replied.
"Are you sure? It's going to cost quite a bit." I argued.
"Connor, it's fine."
"But it's only the fifth of March." I sighed. "I've just wasted all your free calls."
"It's fine." He repeated. "I wouldn't have wanted to use them on anyone else."
Ten minutes later, my phone beeped, telling me it was time to charge it. We said our temporary goodbyes and hung up.
And that night, I went to sleep with a huge smile on my face.
~~~
*this could be the start of something new, it feels so right to be here with you oohhhh*
thank you to all of you who recommended fanfics for me yesterday - i've got heaps in my library that i'm really excited to read now :)
also i also mentioned that i would be recommending some stories for you guys every time i update so here it is: (i'll usually just recommend one or two but since this is my first time doing it i just wanted to recommend some of my long time favourites)
"the average & the oddity" by creative-mishaps
- most of you have probably already read this but that was most likely the tronnor version. Ella's rewriting the fanfic with original characters which I'm so excited for but also trying to brace myself for what I know is going to happen cri but it's amazing you should go read it :)
"Introverts" by -spooky
- I think this was one of the first tronnor fics I read and I still reread it to this day... It's so so so good and honestly I might just go read it again now tbh brb :)
"Tronnor: Troye&Connor" by jackielo311
- Okayokayokayokay this was just a huge emotional rollercoaster but I loved it so much. This was also one of the first tronnor fics I read and it was just asdfghjkl also Jackie is really sweet :) (also this fanfic has got some triggering topics in it so if you're affected by self-harm, anorexia, etc. just know that there's always someone you can talk to and know that I love you and stay safe xx)
okay this a/n ended up being quite long but anywayyy
- see you guys next chapter -