underneath the lights || hsmtmts

there's no way to hold it in || ej x carlos

{author's note: this here is for an ao3 request! the title is from this is me from camp rock. don't ask why this was the first thing i thought of because i really don't know either}

—

ej caswell was not straight.

sure- it had taken him a good while to come to terms with this, and maybe nini's moms (who he has since apologized to for hurting their daughter) had sort of helped him feel more comfortable in his newfound sexuality, but he was sure of the fact that at the very least... he's not straight.

maybe his dad was taking his sweet time coming around to yet another potential disruption in his master plan for ej's life, but he didn't make it a big deal. thank goodness for that, because his duke acceptance letter should be arriving in the mail soon and hopefully that will be able to be the "big deal" of this new month instead. cash caswell always has to have something going on to make a big deal about. duke would probably be a very good distraction from ej's other forms of self discovery.

duke was coming up, and carlos rodriguez had his own intense plans for his life. not the same ones, carlos's plan was more new york less north carolina, but he gets the intensity part. wanting something so badly and working so hard to get it... that was carlos to a t. and truly that was ej as well. even if ej's wanting to go to duke was perhaps more external passions sinking into his own than a matter of it initially being his idea like carlos had with broadway... it was still a nice feeling to have someone to talk to.

they had not been fast friends, but carlos has been hanging around the outside of the theatre group for some time before he stepped into the spotlight of sorts to choreograph their production of hsm. the whole incident during tech rehearsal where carlos stepped in to read gabriella and ej did troy's part where he over emoted... yeah that there was more than a little embarrassing. but nonetheless, he's trying. he's trying his best to be a friend to carlos...

even if he's part of the reason ej knows that he's not straight.

carlos was easy to catch feelings for in some ways, and a challenge in others. he could be standoffish, but so passionate about dance and about theatre. even when carlos was a bit bossy, ej could definitely admire his work ethic. ej can dance fairly well, though dancing with a basketball is definitely a new development, and so working with the choreographer, and having carlos actually praise some of his work... that was a pretty nice moment. carlos caring so much about things being done right meant that ej felt all the better when he was complimented on his performance.

after they got through winter break and carlos and gina had helped put together that music video for the new instagram... ej was more than a little impressed by their creativity. even if they had to do the whole thing full out twice since miss jenn forgot to turn the camera on for their first run. watching carlos actually dance as a performance was pretty neat. he's seeing himself getting more and more intrigued by the choreographer.

—

by the time the winter holidays grow nearer, carlos invites everyone to a party, not themed around the christmas season but simply winter, which ej appreciates, he and his cousin didn't exactly celebrate christmas.

carlos clearly hasn't had friends over very much, and it's obvious by the way his mom seems so overly excited about greeting each and every guest. she gives ej some sort of compliment in spanish that carlos refuses to translate for him, leaving him almost wishing that he had taken spanish instead of chinese for school. or even that he just knew some spanish at all...

come to think of it the only other language he really knows is hebrew. that's useful for temple obviously, but ej doesn't practice the language much outside of religiously these days. he and ashlyn used to speak it together at school when they were younger, most other students unable to understand them, but that has long since faded away.