The things we love completely, we are fated to destroy... - My First Challenge Post!!!

Spice


            “When you asked me if I wanted to go to a birthday party with you, you sort of left out the part that it was for some old guy!” Despite the way his voice raised at the end, Chad wasn’t too worried about it. The only people here who’d be insulted by his words probably wouldn’t hear him even if he put his mouth to one of their ears and did his best impression of one of Sharpay’s shrieks… And that was saying something. As for everyone else well, they looked like they probably agreed with him. All the men had looks of How did I let my wife talk me into this? plastered to their dazed faces.

“Chad!”

Chad couldn’t help the slight grin that formed on his face at Ryan’s affronted look and said grin only grew wider as the blonde boy glanced around wildly, presumably to make sure no one important had overheard his date’s less-than-complimentary observation of the day’s man of honor. He didn’t see what the big deal was. After all, the Evans family was presumably the most influential one at the party – which even Chad found impressive considering the lavish decorations and general, obvious displays of wealth everywhere – so he doubted anyone would dare say anything to the sole male heir to the Evans fortune. “Hey chill man, don’t worry. Everyone here knows I’m right. Besides, they’re not going to saying anything with you around.”

“They might not, but Sharpay will!” came the sharp reply.

Okay, so he hadn’t been checking to make sure others hadn’t heard, only Sharpay. “I doubt it. She ran off dragging Zeke with her as soon as the guy in the funny suit announced that they were offering Shih-Tzu massages in the lounge.” Which had, in all honesty, been rather amusing to watch. Sharpay had managed to stay ahead of Zeke despite her insanely high heels, keep a firm grip on his wrist to keep him from getting lost in the crowd of other females deciding a massage might be nice, and still somehow seem dignified about the entire thing. Of course, the fact that he had overheard her saying that she simply had to be first and something about not risking the masseuse getting tired and being unable to give her the attention that she deserved had only added to it. That girl was a piece of work. He didn’t envy Zeke his position at all.

“You mean shiatsu. Shih-Tzu is a breed of dog.” It was a good thing Ryan looked cute when he was exasperated, otherwise Chad would probably have gotten frustrated with the frequency the drama king seemed to use that look. Like probably within the first week of dating him. They were on week seven. And four days. And five hours. He wasn’t sure how many minutes because at the time he’d been distracted by Ryan and his tongue, which had happened to be down his throat.

“Whatever.” He shrugged off-handedly. Shih-Tzu, shiatsu, tomato, tomahto. It was all the same. Who offered massages at birthday parties anyway? Especially when the birthday “boy” was turning… He wasn’t sure how old Ryan had said he was, but he looked to be well into his eighties. Maybe older. “So how do you even know this guy anyway? Family friend of something?”

Ryan’s blue eyes met his with something Chad could only guess to be confusion in them. “Of course not.”

Well that made plenty of sense. “Then… why did you have to come?”

Fortunately, Ryan seemed to catch on at that, his face lighting up with understanding. “Oh, the Evans are always invited to his birthday party. He was some old colleague of my grandfather’s or something. It’s just a courtesy that we come every year.”

“Are you aware of how rich you sounded just then?” Chad wondered out loud. Because it was amazing really, how normal Ryan had finally started acting around the Wildcats but how insanely rich he still could seem when out in public. Especially if the public they were surrounded by was made of people more wealthy than Chad could ever dream of being.

Ryan gave him another look, as if he wasn’t quite sure how he was supposed to take that.

Chad couldn’t help but laugh. Offering Ryan his arm, he asked, “Come on, rich boy. I’m hungry, but as your escort, you can’t expect me to be seen braving this crowd alone, can you?” Honestly, he just didn’t feel like fielding the questions that would be asked if he ventured anywhere on his own. The Evans were, it seemed, incapable of subtlety, therefore everyone had known when they arrived at the party. As if that in itself hadn’t drawn enough attention, that fact that not one but both of the twins had brought dates would have. Black dates. Black male dates, which was fine for Sharpay, but apparently the older generation weren’t as aware of Ryan’s flamboyance as most of their high school was. He didn’t mind being open about their relationship here – hell, these people would probably die before going anywhere where he’d see them again – but that didn’t mean he wanted to play ten rounds of twenty questions. “I hear rich people can be very defensive of their dessert platters.”

That put a bright smile on Ryan’s face and even managed to draw a laugh from him. The blonde quickly looped his arm through Chad’s and brushed a quick kiss across his lips. “Very well, escort.” His tone was playful. “I decree that we make our way to the dessert table with all haste.”

With that, both boys practically skipped over to the abnormally large table of sweets and pastries, giggling, leaving the old stuck-ups around to wonder what had invaded their party.

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             “When you asked me if I wanted to go to a birthday party with you, you sort of left out the part that it was for some old guy!”

If time hadn’t taught her how to better control herself, Mrs. Evans would have laughed at Chad’s comment. As it was, the look on her son’s face as he realized how loud Chad was being caused her to chuckle quietly. The boy was right, of course; the whole party was filled with people far older than she wanted to imagine herself ever being.

She watched as they continued back and forth, taking in every expression that flickered across her Ducky’s face. To someone who didn’t know him as she did, it would be easy to think that he was upset with his date’s lack of tact, but she knew that the truth was that he agreed and was simply trying hard not to be obvious about it. He was her little actor, after all.

Finally though, it seemed Chad’s good natured banter worked its way past Ryan’s best attempts at being proper, for when Chad playfully offered him his arm, her son took it with a laugh and even went so far to reward the darker boy with a kiss. They both skipped off in the direction of the dessert table after that, giggling madly and causing quite a stir amongst many of the older guests in attendance.

Mrs. Evans smiled despite herself. While the sight of her son skipping through the party with Chad on his arm wasn’t quite the dignified behavior she hoped for from her son, it also pleased her to no end to see him so happy and actually enjoying himself. It was worth it, she reflected.

Both she and her husband – though mostly her husband if she was honest – had been concerned as to how well things would go at Sidney Lafette’s birthday party. It was a rather important affair, and while they didn’t know the man all that well, that didn’t change the fact that they were expected to come. Nor did it change the fact that they were, as a result, scrutinized closely by the other families closest to theirs in wealth, and neither she nor her husband had been sure of how everyone would react to their children’s dates.

Not that there had ever been a question of Chad and Zeke accompanying Ryan and Sharpay. Sharpay had been planning Zeke’s outfit for this party since they had started dating and as she had told her father very firmly, that she simply was not going dateless to a party. And when Ryan had started dating Chad… Well they couldn’t very well allow Sharpay to bring Zeke and not let Ryan bring Chad. So between Sharpay and Ryan, they had made sure he would have something… appropriate to wear. Even Mrs. Evans had to admit, the young man managed to clean up very well. His hair had been pulled back so that it wasn’t in its normal fluffy afro and he was in a pair of nice fitting black trousers that she thought looked like a pair Ryan owned and a dark red silk shirt that worked very well with his darker skin tone. With all the little things Sharpay and Ryan had added seemingly last minute – his necklace and some other jewelry – he managed to look like he had been attending such parties since he was little and not that he had worked as a bus boy at Lava Springs over the summer.

Yes, she was rather pleased. Ryan was happy, she could see it in his eyes as Chad offered him a slice of cheesecake. Her son took a small bite, nodded to show his obvious approval before offering the other boy some of what he had.

So what if they caused a stir? With a majority of the parties guests being over the age of sixty, she mused, it could use a bit of spice.