Application - C&C
[PLAYER]
NAME/NICK: Eggo
JOURNAL: 1st_eggokage
IM: shotamadness OR showyouhowiswing (AIM)
E-MAIL: onnaranmaplatypus77@gmail.com
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Chad Danforth
FANDOM: High School Musical. Yeah, you heard me.
CHRONOLOGY: Post-HSM3
BACKGROUND: [[I apologize in advance for the teal deer. This fandom makes me talk too much. Also, I don't know what your word count is for the third person, so I am profusely sorry if it's too short.]]
Ever since he was a kid, Chad Danforth practically lived and breathed sports. Now he's one of the stars of East High's basketball team. But not the shiniest star. Because that is Troy Bolton. Chad and Troy have been bestest friends since forever. And totally have a bromance going on. MORE ON CHAD'S CONFUSED SEXUALITY LATER. ANYWAY. Chad tends to take a backseat to his BFF for the majority of the first movie, appearing only to play basketball and have fluffy hair and be a supporting-character-type-guy and make quips about his loathing for The Phantom of the Opera. So all we really know can be summed up thusly:
One: Chad + Troy = :D. Two: Chad is made of background character and basketball. Three: CHAD DOES NOT LIKE MUSICALS. This will change.
BUT THEN. Then the second movie happens. And we discover many more things about Mr. Chad Danforth. One of them is that he secretly wishes he was a cheerleader. JUST WATCH "WHAT TIME IS IT" AGAIN. YOU KNOW IT TO BE TRUE. Also he is the Grand Master of the Cockblock. There are a lot of things that keep Troy and his One True Disney Love Gabriella from making out in this movie, Chad just happens to be the most frequent. And Chad is apparently dating Gabriella's best friend Taylor, so he needs a summer job so he can buy a car and take her out. Or so he says. Take a drink every time Chad awkwardly fakes heterosexuality. It's fun!
Then things move to the Lava Springs Country Club, where Troy and the rest of the East High Wildcats have miraculously managed to score summer jobs. Little do they know that they only have these jobs because Sharpay Evans - resident queen of the Drama Club, little rich girl, and SUPERBITCH EXTRAORDINARE - wants in Troy's pants. Except she didn't know that what seems to be a significant fraction of the student body would be accompanying him and proceeds to throw a fit. But we don't care about her, because this is about the cool characters. ♥
So the Wildcats are all excited about their jobs, until they realize that their boss answers directly to Sharpay. And that he's a stuffy, slightly neurotic guy in a really boring suit that won't let them slack off. Chad gets all annoyed at this development and wants to quit, so Troy sings at him until he relents. And there are strange dance moves and kitchen-floor blowjobs. Just. Watch. Then there are some scenes that Chad is vaguely in but don't concern him much or have any bearing on his character, so we'll ignore them.
Anyway. Mr. Fulton - the neurotic boss - informs them that they'll be caddying for the Evans family that day. We do not learn anything about Chad, but we do learn that the Evans parents are absolutely adorable. Due to Sharpay being a manipulative bitch, and the fact that he is kind of an jerk, Troy ends up playing with them, leaving Chad and Ryan to caddy. Then Troy has fancy dinner with the Evanses and some influential college type people as Sharpay begins manipulating him into her little sparkly web of evil. Troy ends up hanging out with the University of Albuquerque basketball team - the Red Hawks - and being a really terrible selfish person, mostly to Chad. Naturally, this is not a good thing, especially when Troy turns down Chad and the Wildcats, who he promised he'd play in the staff baseball game with, to go play basketball with the Red Hawks. Chad looks like he's about to cry, poor thing. There goes that bromance again. Side note: High School Musical runs entirely on its very own brand of Musical Logic, which is convoluted enough without Kenny Ortega screwing with it. More information here, courtesy of Ryan-mun.
BUT IT'S OKAY, because there is still the staff baseball game to participate in! Gabriella has invited Ryan (who is sad because his sister is a bitchy bitch and has decided that getting some Troy action is more important than family loyalty) to play in the game too! Now, Ryan is a drama geek with absolutely fabulous fashion sense, so the Wildcats probably figure that pwning him will be easy. So somehow they decide that if Ryan's team wins, the Wildcats will participate in the talent show. IT DIDN'T MAKE A LOT OF SENSE IN CONTEXT EITHER.
And thus we come to one of the most amazing scenes in all of movie musical history: "I Don't Dance". This is an amazingly innuendo-filled duet between Chad and Ryan, with lots of meaningful eye contact and...more bizarre dance moves. Which is to be expected, as Kenny Ortega fans will notice that most of them are stolen from Newsies. Also, it ends with Ryan trying to slide home and ending up with his face really really close to Chad's crotch. Hmmm. Ryan's team loses, but Chad somehow agrees to do the show anyway. Then they inexplicably switch clothes between scenes - I am not making this up - and go out to lunch.
BUT THEIR HAPPINESS IS FLEETING because Queen Bitchface Sharpay has discovered that the Wildcats are "planning to ruin her talent show" or some such bullshit and bans them. Chad breaks up with Troy: "We've been like brothers since preschool! If I don't know who you are right now, then who does?!" It is extremely tragic and heartbreaking. More plot happens, there is a cute scene in which Ryan and Chad are totally holding hands during rehearsal, Gabi breaks up with Troy so that he is now boyfriend- and girlfriend-less, et cetera. Troy sings the most wonderfully emo song ever, complete with picking up sand and dropping it.
Plot plot plot, Troy tells Shar he won't do the show with her and she flips out, Ryan tricks him into learning a new song, Troy makes up with the Wildcats and gets back together with Gabi. Chad and Troy are bros again and Chad introduces him to his new boyfriend Ryan. Then there is the talent show which is extremely silly and breaks every rule of theater and RYAN WINS THE STAR DAZZLE AWARD, HURRAY. Chad's shirt in the next scene says "He Did It." ♥ Then there's a finale but no one cares.
Then it's back to school for senior year and movie 3! Kicks off with a bizarre song - hey, didn't your team sing during the big championship basketball game? It also features the first of the many instances of Troy's reality-bending powers, and must be seen to be believed. Also, there is not enough Chad and for some reason Ryan is in the mascot suit. Despite his complete lack of any school spirit whatsoever. We theorize that he caught it from Chad. Yes, school spirit is an STD, what are you talking about.
There are signups for the musical! And everyone says "heck no, forget that" but Kelsi, pianist extraordinaire/Ryan's fag hag/secretly lesbian for Gabi signs them up. They are cross with her, but Kelsi is so cute that she is forgiven. And Ryan is basically in charge of the whole production! Which they are going to write about their senior year! Hurray! Ms. Darbus, crazy drama teacher woman, reveals that Troy, both Evanses and Kelsi are up for Julliard scholarships. Troy is like WTF because he and Chad have been planning to go to U of A their whole lives and be mad basketball stars together. Ryan needs to be convinced that this scholarship thing is a Good Idea, which, of course, means singing! There is very little Chad in this number but it's extremely awesome, so it needs to be included.
Troy convinces Chad to ask Taylor to the prom. Protip: do not ask girls to prom holding your basketball. Taylor shoots him down and tells him that he needs class, try again. He does so, extremely awkwardly, and gets totally shot down until Troy quiets down the entire cafeteria so Chad can ask. This is kind of a bitchy thing to do, as Chad looks VERY VERY UNCOMFORTABLE with the prospect of asking Taylor to prom in the first place most likely because she is a GIRL. Taylor, when did you get so mean. Also: it totally looks like Chad is asking Troy to prom for a nanosecond.
This scene morphs into the prom number where it is apparent that Chad is panicking and Troy needs to never ever hip thrust again. That is better left for Ryan. There's some plot stuff involving Troy and Gabriella that no one cares about before another song which is only of note because Chad apparently cannot dress himself and Ryan laughs at his pain.
After that number, there is one in a junkyard. The Boys Are Back features secret handshakes, fighting junkyard car monsters, backup dancer ninjas and tiny!Troy and tiny!Chad. In short, more bromance than you can shake a PVC pipe katana at. That is the last good bit of movie for a long while because there's about thirty seconds of Troyella angst. Well, there's a little scene where the Danforths and the Boltons are together to eat dinner and celebrate Chad and Troy's bromance or something and Chad "comforts" Troy (plus he shows supreme stupidity) when Gabriella is like "I can't do this anymore." More Troyella, more nonsensical plot, more Troyella... This movie could also be entitled "Everyone Gets Shafted Except Troyella". After the delicious focus on the rest of the cast in HSM2, all this sudden glurge is even worse. And the plot of HSM3 makes even less sense than the first two movies, I'm doing what I can here.
But other than that, the next good thing is the spring musical. Chad dances with a basketball. Troy and Gabriella come back. Hurrah.
Then everyone sings that song from the first movie. Troy suddenly announces that he is going to UC Berkeley what the FUCK. Chad is understandably HEARTBROKEN and runs offstage. Troy is concerned and guilty and follows him to the gym, where Chad is demonstrating another staple of the franchise, known as being-emo-affects-your-ability-to-shoot-hoops syndrome. Please, don't ask. Bromance ensues, Troy and Chad work things out ahahaha *shot* and head back onstage. Then we cut to graduation and a completely fourth-wall raping finale. Yay. School's out, Chad's off to his dream school in the fall-
And suddenly he's in this crazy lab with no idea what's going on. Thanks, Iron Jackass.
PERSONALITY:
Like I said in the summary of the first movie, Chad starts out being decidedly supporting cast. He is there to be the requisite best friend and minority dude with fluffly hair. Sexy fluffly hair. We know he doesn't like musicals because his mom keeps a picture of Michael Crawford in her fridge, wtf. We also know that by the end of the movie, he is apparently interested in Taylor McKessie, Gabi's BFF, but this is sort of just Disney hooking up the two black kids. Way to buck the system there, guys.
As he gets more of a role in the story, Chad grows a personality. Yay! He's snarky, definitely a class clown, but he's not stupid. Chad's world more or less revolves around basketball, baseball, track and field, et cetera - but mostly basketball. Chad is also kind of a jerk sometimes. Especially in the first movie. But he's really a good guy at heart. He honestly cares about his friends - even if he sort of screws things up by accident a lot of the time. Unlike most of the Wildcats, Chad is the one most opposed to being in musicals. Because he doesn't dance of his mom's aforementioned Michael Crawford thing which is not really a valid reason. It's honestly probably because he just wants to STICK TO THE STATUS QUO so he can keep being one of the cool kids. Chad also has a lot of awkward moments where it seems like he's doing something heterosexual just to seem normal. I could psychoanalyze Chad all day but it would be kind of gay and you don't want to hear it.
CLASS: Hero.
SUPERHERO NAME: Freethrow. It was going to be Swish but Troy would mock him. Maybe it will still be Swish if Ryan-mun gets her way idk.
ALTER EGO: Uh. Chad Danforth. :\
POWER: WHAT POWERS, YOU ASK? HOW 'BOUT THE POWER OF FLIGHT. THAT DO ANYTHING FOR YA? THAT'S LEVITATION, HOLMES. Actually, it's not flight, it's gravity powers. So he can fly, but he can make other things/people fly too. Nothing too heavy, though, or at least not until he gets used to his powers.
Oh, and cockblock skills and spontaneous singing. Those are canon. He works as a complement to Ryan's powers - as a musical character, Chad can heighten the HAY YOU START SINGING thing. But he doesn't dance, what are you talking about.
COMMUNITY POST SAMPLE: ...Okay, what the hell. I don't think I'm in Albuquerque anymore. Where is everybody? Troy? Zeke? Taylor?
Man, this sucks. I'm gonna miss practice. Troy, if you're there, can you tell your dad I'm in another dimension and not to bitch me out when I get back?
...On the other hand?
This is so friggin' cool.
THIRD PERSON:
Chad heaved a frustrated sigh as yet another shot went wild and completely missed the basket. His head was decidedly out of the game today. He'd come to terms with the whole "best friend leaving me for Berkeley" thing. That was fine. It was the "why does Evans going to New York bother me so much" problem that was currently gnawing at his stomach.
Okay, yes, he had an idea. But he and Evans - Ryan, he mentally corrected himself - were friends, right? Yeah. Friends. And Chad was cool with that. Hey, the guy was fun to hang around with and he had a wicked fastball, that made him aces in Chad's book.
And he really did feel like a total jerk for being weird about this. But last time he'd mentioned Ryan around her, Taylor had cocked an eyebrow and stared at him for a moment, and he really didn't want her getting suspicious. Not that there was anything to be suspicious of, anyway. Because really, there wasn't. Chad just liked hanging out with him, that was all.
But maybe he shouldn't. If people were going to think he and Ryan were- If Troy thought-
Maybe he should just consider this a blessing. He should be happy for Ryan, because he was getting what he wanted, and he should be happy for himself, because the rumors would stop.
Maybe if he told himself that long enough, he'd believe it.
NAME/NICK: Eggo
JOURNAL: 1st_eggokage
IM: shotamadness OR showyouhowiswing (AIM)
E-MAIL: onnaranmaplatypus77@gmail.com
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Chad Danforth
FANDOM: High School Musical. Yeah, you heard me.
CHRONOLOGY: Post-HSM3
BACKGROUND: [[I apologize in advance for the teal deer. This fandom makes me talk too much. Also, I don't know what your word count is for the third person, so I am profusely sorry if it's too short.]]
Ever since he was a kid, Chad Danforth practically lived and breathed sports. Now he's one of the stars of East High's basketball team. But not the shiniest star. Because that is Troy Bolton. Chad and Troy have been bestest friends since forever. And totally have a bromance going on. MORE ON CHAD'S CONFUSED SEXUALITY LATER. ANYWAY. Chad tends to take a backseat to his BFF for the majority of the first movie, appearing only to play basketball and have fluffy hair and be a supporting-character-type-guy and make quips about his loathing for The Phantom of the Opera. So all we really know can be summed up thusly:
One: Chad + Troy = :D. Two: Chad is made of background character and basketball. Three: CHAD DOES NOT LIKE MUSICALS. This will change.
BUT THEN. Then the second movie happens. And we discover many more things about Mr. Chad Danforth. One of them is that he secretly wishes he was a cheerleader. JUST WATCH "WHAT TIME IS IT" AGAIN. YOU KNOW IT TO BE TRUE. Also he is the Grand Master of the Cockblock. There are a lot of things that keep Troy and his One True Disney Love Gabriella from making out in this movie, Chad just happens to be the most frequent. And Chad is apparently dating Gabriella's best friend Taylor, so he needs a summer job so he can buy a car and take her out. Or so he says. Take a drink every time Chad awkwardly fakes heterosexuality. It's fun!
Then things move to the Lava Springs Country Club, where Troy and the rest of the East High Wildcats have miraculously managed to score summer jobs. Little do they know that they only have these jobs because Sharpay Evans - resident queen of the Drama Club, little rich girl, and SUPERBITCH EXTRAORDINARE - wants in Troy's pants. Except she didn't know that what seems to be a significant fraction of the student body would be accompanying him and proceeds to throw a fit. But we don't care about her, because this is about the cool characters. ♥
So the Wildcats are all excited about their jobs, until they realize that their boss answers directly to Sharpay. And that he's a stuffy, slightly neurotic guy in a really boring suit that won't let them slack off. Chad gets all annoyed at this development and wants to quit, so Troy sings at him until he relents. And there are strange dance moves and kitchen-floor blowjobs. Just. Watch. Then there are some scenes that Chad is vaguely in but don't concern him much or have any bearing on his character, so we'll ignore them.
Anyway. Mr. Fulton - the neurotic boss - informs them that they'll be caddying for the Evans family that day. We do not learn anything about Chad, but we do learn that the Evans parents are absolutely adorable. Due to Sharpay being a manipulative bitch, and the fact that he is kind of an jerk, Troy ends up playing with them, leaving Chad and Ryan to caddy. Then Troy has fancy dinner with the Evanses and some influential college type people as Sharpay begins manipulating him into her little sparkly web of evil. Troy ends up hanging out with the University of Albuquerque basketball team - the Red Hawks - and being a really terrible selfish person, mostly to Chad. Naturally, this is not a good thing, especially when Troy turns down Chad and the Wildcats, who he promised he'd play in the staff baseball game with, to go play basketball with the Red Hawks. Chad looks like he's about to cry, poor thing. There goes that bromance again. Side note: High School Musical runs entirely on its very own brand of Musical Logic, which is convoluted enough without Kenny Ortega screwing with it. More information here, courtesy of Ryan-mun.
BUT IT'S OKAY, because there is still the staff baseball game to participate in! Gabriella has invited Ryan (who is sad because his sister is a bitchy bitch and has decided that getting some Troy action is more important than family loyalty) to play in the game too! Now, Ryan is a drama geek with absolutely fabulous fashion sense, so the Wildcats probably figure that pwning him will be easy. So somehow they decide that if Ryan's team wins, the Wildcats will participate in the talent show. IT DIDN'T MAKE A LOT OF SENSE IN CONTEXT EITHER.
And thus we come to one of the most amazing scenes in all of movie musical history: "I Don't Dance". This is an amazingly innuendo-filled duet between Chad and Ryan, with lots of meaningful eye contact and...more bizarre dance moves. Which is to be expected, as Kenny Ortega fans will notice that most of them are stolen from Newsies. Also, it ends with Ryan trying to slide home and ending up with his face really really close to Chad's crotch. Hmmm. Ryan's team loses, but Chad somehow agrees to do the show anyway. Then they inexplicably switch clothes between scenes - I am not making this up - and go out to lunch.
BUT THEIR HAPPINESS IS FLEETING because Queen Bitchface Sharpay has discovered that the Wildcats are "planning to ruin her talent show" or some such bullshit and bans them. Chad breaks up with Troy: "We've been like brothers since preschool! If I don't know who you are right now, then who does?!" It is extremely tragic and heartbreaking. More plot happens, there is a cute scene in which Ryan and Chad are totally holding hands during rehearsal, Gabi breaks up with Troy so that he is now boyfriend- and girlfriend-less, et cetera. Troy sings the most wonderfully emo song ever, complete with picking up sand and dropping it.
Plot plot plot, Troy tells Shar he won't do the show with her and she flips out, Ryan tricks him into learning a new song, Troy makes up with the Wildcats and gets back together with Gabi. Chad and Troy are bros again and Chad introduces him to his new boyfriend Ryan. Then there is the talent show which is extremely silly and breaks every rule of theater and RYAN WINS THE STAR DAZZLE AWARD, HURRAY. Chad's shirt in the next scene says "He Did It." ♥ Then there's a finale but no one cares.
Then it's back to school for senior year and movie 3! Kicks off with a bizarre song - hey, didn't your team sing during the big championship basketball game? It also features the first of the many instances of Troy's reality-bending powers, and must be seen to be believed. Also, there is not enough Chad and for some reason Ryan is in the mascot suit. Despite his complete lack of any school spirit whatsoever. We theorize that he caught it from Chad. Yes, school spirit is an STD, what are you talking about.
There are signups for the musical! And everyone says "heck no, forget that" but Kelsi, pianist extraordinaire/Ryan's fag hag/secretly lesbian for Gabi signs them up. They are cross with her, but Kelsi is so cute that she is forgiven. And Ryan is basically in charge of the whole production! Which they are going to write about their senior year! Hurray! Ms. Darbus, crazy drama teacher woman, reveals that Troy, both Evanses and Kelsi are up for Julliard scholarships. Troy is like WTF because he and Chad have been planning to go to U of A their whole lives and be mad basketball stars together. Ryan needs to be convinced that this scholarship thing is a Good Idea, which, of course, means singing! There is very little Chad in this number but it's extremely awesome, so it needs to be included.
Troy convinces Chad to ask Taylor to the prom. Protip: do not ask girls to prom holding your basketball. Taylor shoots him down and tells him that he needs class, try again. He does so, extremely awkwardly, and gets totally shot down until Troy quiets down the entire cafeteria so Chad can ask. This is kind of a bitchy thing to do, as Chad looks VERY VERY UNCOMFORTABLE with the prospect of asking Taylor to prom in the first place most likely because she is a GIRL. Taylor, when did you get so mean. Also: it totally looks like Chad is asking Troy to prom for a nanosecond.
This scene morphs into the prom number where it is apparent that Chad is panicking and Troy needs to never ever hip thrust again. That is better left for Ryan. There's some plot stuff involving Troy and Gabriella that no one cares about before another song which is only of note because Chad apparently cannot dress himself and Ryan laughs at his pain.
After that number, there is one in a junkyard. The Boys Are Back features secret handshakes, fighting junkyard car monsters, backup dancer ninjas and tiny!Troy and tiny!Chad. In short, more bromance than you can shake a PVC pipe katana at. That is the last good bit of movie for a long while because there's about thirty seconds of Troyella angst. Well, there's a little scene where the Danforths and the Boltons are together to eat dinner and celebrate Chad and Troy's bromance or something and Chad "comforts" Troy (plus he shows supreme stupidity) when Gabriella is like "I can't do this anymore." More Troyella, more nonsensical plot, more Troyella... This movie could also be entitled "Everyone Gets Shafted Except Troyella". After the delicious focus on the rest of the cast in HSM2, all this sudden glurge is even worse. And the plot of HSM3 makes even less sense than the first two movies, I'm doing what I can here.
But other than that, the next good thing is the spring musical. Chad dances with a basketball. Troy and Gabriella come back. Hurrah.
Then everyone sings that song from the first movie. Troy suddenly announces that he is going to UC Berkeley what the FUCK. Chad is understandably HEARTBROKEN and runs offstage. Troy is concerned and guilty and follows him to the gym, where Chad is demonstrating another staple of the franchise, known as being-emo-affects-your-ability-to-shoot-hoops syndrome. Please, don't ask. Bromance ensues, Troy and Chad work things out ahahaha *shot* and head back onstage. Then we cut to graduation and a completely fourth-wall raping finale. Yay. School's out, Chad's off to his dream school in the fall-
And suddenly he's in this crazy lab with no idea what's going on. Thanks, Iron Jackass.
PERSONALITY:
Like I said in the summary of the first movie, Chad starts out being decidedly supporting cast. He is there to be the requisite best friend and minority dude with fluffly hair. Sexy fluffly hair. We know he doesn't like musicals because his mom keeps a picture of Michael Crawford in her fridge, wtf. We also know that by the end of the movie, he is apparently interested in Taylor McKessie, Gabi's BFF, but this is sort of just Disney hooking up the two black kids. Way to buck the system there, guys.
As he gets more of a role in the story, Chad grows a personality. Yay! He's snarky, definitely a class clown, but he's not stupid. Chad's world more or less revolves around basketball, baseball, track and field, et cetera - but mostly basketball. Chad is also kind of a jerk sometimes. Especially in the first movie. But he's really a good guy at heart. He honestly cares about his friends - even if he sort of screws things up by accident a lot of the time. Unlike most of the Wildcats, Chad is the one most opposed to being in musicals. Because he doesn't dance of his mom's aforementioned Michael Crawford thing which is not really a valid reason. It's honestly probably because he just wants to STICK TO THE STATUS QUO so he can keep being one of the cool kids. Chad also has a lot of awkward moments where it seems like he's doing something heterosexual just to seem normal. I could psychoanalyze Chad all day but it would be kind of gay and you don't want to hear it.
CLASS: Hero.
SUPERHERO NAME: Freethrow. It was going to be Swish but Troy would mock him. Maybe it will still be Swish if Ryan-mun gets her way idk.
ALTER EGO: Uh. Chad Danforth. :\
POWER: WHAT POWERS, YOU ASK? HOW 'BOUT THE POWER OF FLIGHT. THAT DO ANYTHING FOR YA? THAT'S LEVITATION, HOLMES. Actually, it's not flight, it's gravity powers. So he can fly, but he can make other things/people fly too. Nothing too heavy, though, or at least not until he gets used to his powers.
Oh, and cockblock skills and spontaneous singing. Those are canon. He works as a complement to Ryan's powers - as a musical character, Chad can heighten the HAY YOU START SINGING thing. But he doesn't dance, what are you talking about.
COMMUNITY POST SAMPLE: ...Okay, what the hell. I don't think I'm in Albuquerque anymore. Where is everybody? Troy? Zeke? Taylor?
Man, this sucks. I'm gonna miss practice. Troy, if you're there, can you tell your dad I'm in another dimension and not to bitch me out when I get back?
...On the other hand?
This is so friggin' cool.
THIRD PERSON:
Chad heaved a frustrated sigh as yet another shot went wild and completely missed the basket. His head was decidedly out of the game today. He'd come to terms with the whole "best friend leaving me for Berkeley" thing. That was fine. It was the "why does Evans going to New York bother me so much" problem that was currently gnawing at his stomach.
Okay, yes, he had an idea. But he and Evans - Ryan, he mentally corrected himself - were friends, right? Yeah. Friends. And Chad was cool with that. Hey, the guy was fun to hang around with and he had a wicked fastball, that made him aces in Chad's book.
And he really did feel like a total jerk for being weird about this. But last time he'd mentioned Ryan around her, Taylor had cocked an eyebrow and stared at him for a moment, and he really didn't want her getting suspicious. Not that there was anything to be suspicious of, anyway. Because really, there wasn't. Chad just liked hanging out with him, that was all.
But maybe he shouldn't. If people were going to think he and Ryan were- If Troy thought-
Maybe he should just consider this a blessing. He should be happy for Ryan, because he was getting what he wanted, and he should be happy for himself, because the rumors would stop.
Maybe if he told himself that long enough, he'd believe it.