C O N N O R
Troye told me about what he would be doing during Social Studies, and when I entered the class with Kian, I couldn't help but be nervous for him. Nobody else, aside from the teacher of course, knew what he was planning to do, so when everyone had calmed down and the teacher stood up to explain that Troye, "the new kid", was going to ask something very important and that nobody'd leave class until he got the answer, pretty much everyone looked confused.
"Yo, Connor, do you know what's going on?" Kian whispered, leaning sideways.
"Yeah, I just hope he doesn't break down in front of everyone..." I answered the boy next to me, feeling concerned. It wasn't a light subject, and the wound was still fresh. I don't think I'd be able to do what he was about to do. What I'd just said resulted into Kian furrowing his brows and looking at me, clearly anticipating an explanation. I didn't answer though, as the boy in question entered the room.
He didn't walk in alone though, there were people with him. He entered with an entourage of five people walking behind and besides him. I recognised two of them , Kayla and Kerri, as we had spent sunday together. I smiled at him, but he didn't even smile back at me, though I could see him scanning the crowd and focusing his eyes on me a bit longer than on the others.- though that may have just been wishful thinking. He looked nervous, and it was obvious that everyone else in class saw that too. Some of them started laughing, while other shifted in their seats- a tad uncomfortable that this new kid had a whole team of people standing with him and was about to ask something very important. The one ting I saw in everyone though, was questions. Because honestly, what important thing could he even ask? Now, I knew what it was, but nobody else had and idea. Well, except for the one person that tweeted out the lyrics.
Mrs Lovell didn't seem to want to waste any time, as she immediatley greeted everyone in Troye's presence. To say he looked unconfortable was an understatement, and the one thing I wanted to do most now, was to run up to him and to ki- no, hug him, tell him that it would be alright and he'd be done within a matter of seconds.
"So, class, I'll let Troye have the word now." She walked back to her chair, and crossed her arm, waiting for the kid in front of class to talk. A girl with blonde hair was standing besides one of the tables in front of the classroom, and Troye, as no one was sitting there, sat down on the table, his feet resting on the chair. Others followed suit, with the blonde girl still standing next to Troye, and Kayla and Kerri sitting down next to him. The other two, of who i had no idea who they were, went to pick up two chairs and sit with them.
Kian was nudging me with his elbow, clearly demanding attention. But I didn't give him any, as the nervous Australian had started to speak. His whole posture became a bit more relaxed and confident, though his shoulders were still tense and he was searching with his eyes, looking for whomever could be the one who would be confessing soon.
"So, you probably don't know this about me, but when I first came here and the first thing I said I liked to do was sing, I really meant it. But, before I'm going to ask you what I'm going to ask, I want to ask you something else. Something about trust and respect. I want to know for sure, that nobody will talk about this with anyone. Well, no. That's not true. I don't mind you telling anyone about this, but I want to make clear that I don't like people invading my privacy, and I have strict policies against that. Emma," he pointed towards the blonde girl next to him, "my manager, is the one helping me with that. I'm about to tell you guys something I- I didn't want to- to tell you." He swallowed and looked down, breaking his gaze with the now silent room of students. Well, silent, there were some whispering amongst themselves in confusion, but most were silent, gaping at the boy. I mean, I guess the words 'I have a manager', are pretty impressive. I myself couldn't help but be impressed with that.
"You don't need to know all the background story of this, but basically, it started two weeks ago, Caspar read something from a notebook I carry with myself. Last week, thursday, . Basically, it was tweeted by someone in this class, with me tagged, and because I have a relatively- now, this may sound weird to you,- fanbase, it spread like a wildfire, and because those lyrics weren't supposed to get outed, I want to kindly ask the person that tweeted those, to walk here tell us." The class was silent for a couple seconds then, but exploded into utter chaos afterwards. People started shouting, started asking questions and were already judging the person that tweeted the lyrics as well as Troye, because 'how can he just demand such he thing. He's pathetic, he doesn't really have a fanbase. It's probably just an experiment for class we don't know about.' Those were some of the things I heard.
I wanted to go over to him, to cuddle up with him and to comfort him. It was what one of his friends was doing now. Kayla, I believe. However, I couldn't. I wasn't my place to do so. Especially since we were just friends, and I had only known the guy for just over two weeks. And that wasn't really the time you knew someone before you got the to privilege to comfort them in situations like this. But I couldn't tear my eyes away from the beautiful boy, who sat there in silence, clearly suffering.
Kian seemed to have to have other plans though, as he turned to me, wide eyed.
"You knew this?" He exclaimed, surprise being the only emotion on his face. I nodded, sealing my lips in the proces, while turning my seat just so I could look at him better.
"Yeah, but like, it's his privacy, and I respect that. I just really hope that whoever did this will speak up, fans of his have literally been going crazy about this," I replied.
"But like, do you know how big his 'fanbase'," he used his fingers to air quote the word, "is? And honestly, what is he even talking about? I mean, yeah, he likes to sing and I get those lines were lyrics, but it isn't like he produced music, right? He doesn't have an album or something like that?" Kian rambled, and I couldn't help but try and hide the small smile forcing it's way onto my lips.
"No, he doesn't. But his 'fanbase'," I used my fingers to at the word as well, "Is pretty big. The boy has over 1.5 million subscribers on his youtube account. But I don't feel like he wants people to know that, you know?" Kian's eyes went big at the mention of the amount of subscribers. I knew that feeling. That had been me too. I couldn't even picture that many people in a room together. Sure, I could picture a thousand, ten thousand maybe, but more than that? No. It was insane.
"He what?!"
"I know. It's crazy, but like I said, I don't think he wants people to know." We were whispering by now, though I wasn't sure why. Everyone was still talking, some shouting, but all of them confused and asking if that one person could please just, I quote, "Walk the fuck up to Mellet and tell him they did it."
It went on like that for at least fifteen more minutes, and it only died down when one of the girls that had been silent for the whole time stood up from her chair, gave Troye a hug, and opened her mouth. She had brown hair, and didn't seem to be a lot older than us. I wondered who she was and why she was here.
"Listen up! We literally have all day for this. If you want to, we could be sitting here until next week. We just want you to tell who tweeted out those lyrics, as they're- as you may or may not have noticed- clearly breaking Troye. This is a big thing, and aren't really in the ideal position to handle this at the moment. All I'm asking is for that one person to stand up now. Yes, we'll be mad at you, but honestly, if you don't tell us and, I don't know, we have to interrogate all of you one by one to get to know who posted those lyrics- and let me tell you, we will-, we'll be a lot more angry at you than if you confess to us now."
It went silent after that, and Troye tugged on her sleeve to make her ist down. I couldn't hear what exactly he was saying, as we sat relatively far to the back of the room, but the girl nodded and they all went silent again. Nobody dared to say a word. It was so silent you could hear a needle dropping to the floor. Nobody dared to move. The girl sounded stern, and though she may not look any older than we did, the sight of her making Troye more comfortable and delivering such a speech, made me have respect for her. The sight of the six people in front of the room sitting there with slightly annoyed faces, confidence and a bit vulnerability, was powerful. I gazed around the room, looking for whoever was more uncomfortable than the others. Looking for that one person who didn't dare to stand up.
The silence was only broken when, after a couple minutes, someone scraped their chair back. Everyones heads turned to him immediately. Though I had suspected Caspar for some reason, I hadn't expected one of his friends to be the one that did it. I had no idea who I had suspected, but I guess Caspar was one of them. I just didn't expect for Adam to stand up, mutter "sorry." and walk towards the group in front of class. You could feel the tension in the room. Troye looked both relieved, angry, and sad, and I never thought it was possible to see those emotions in one, but here he was, showing exactly that.
They left all together, and that's when all hell broke loose. Mrs Lovell, who everyone was sure of knew more of what was happening, was attacked with questions. I didn't pay attention to it. I already knew what was happening. I knew about Troye. I knew, and all I wanted for him now was to feel at ease here. To not worry about all this. For him to just live his life how he wants and to have fun. To live his life to the fullest and not have to deal with major problems like this.
It was later that day- or should I say night?- at around 10 pm that I heard from him again. He called me and told me all about why Adam had done so, and what the principals consequences for the boy were. He told me that Adam had been jealous for some reason, and that Caspar had been his partner in crime in all this. He told me that he was relieved this was now hopefully over. He told me that he would one time explain everything to everyone, but that now just wasn't the right time. He told me he felt extremely bad for being so vague. And I listened. I listened and reassured him. I told him that it was his own damn business, and that he should only tell when he felt like telling. And I also did something else. Something Troye couldn't possibly ever know about. I realised I was falling hard for the blue eyes Australian on the other side of my phone. I realised that all I wanted to do was to kiss him. And I got scared.
HI. Long time no see. I'm sorry. Yesterday, I tried writing this chapter but my laptop kept buffering 😒 I hope I made it up for you with it being 2k+ words (:
I WOKE UP AND CHECKED MY PHONE AND THE FIRST THING I SAW WAS TROYES TWEET AND I FREAKED OUT AND I'M SO JEALOUS OF THE PEOPLE THAT WERE AT HIS CONCERT LAST NIGHT. HONESTLY THOUGH, HE SOUNDS LIKE AN ABSOLUTE ANGEL AND I AM SO HYPED THAT HE PERFORMED SWIMMING POOLS EVEN THOUGH I WASN'T THERE AND DON'T EVEN LIVE IN THE USA. LIKE AAAARGHHH OMG.
Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter and don't think it's too bad. ILY. Really guys, your comments/votes/reads make my day.