Australian | Tronnor au

•6•

"Connor! Wait up!" Connor heard. He stopped and turned around. Jogging to catch up was his brother. "Why do you keep forgetting me at the end of the day?"

"Sorry. I'll try not to do it again." Connor apologised. They walked to Connors car in silence.

"Okay, what's distracting you? You are not being the Connor I know right now." Brandon broke the silence 5 minutes into the car journey. Connor sighed; he knew someone was going to say something eventually.

"It's nothing Brandon."

"Is it that new kid, Troye?" Brandon persisted. "Loads of people have been talking about him. You have a crush on him, right?"

"Okay, okay. Yes, I have a crush on Troye." Connor admitted. "But don't. Tell. Anyone."

He had to put up with the 15-year-old's constant teasing and questions until they got home.

When they arrived home, Connor raced upstairs to his room, ignoring his mother's questions which she asked every day after school. He slammed the door behind him as he entered the room, immediately sitting cross-legged on the floor. He would start doing his homework but he had more important things to do; namely planning a date to take Troye on. Grabbing a notebook and a pen lying on the floor, he started to brainstorm and write down his ideas. His family were all worried when he didn't even leave his room for dinner. Brandon informed them about Troye.

Around the time Connor was date-planning, Troye was doing homework, or at least trying to. He was both excited and nervous about interacting with Connor more. Is he going to interact with me at school? Troye asked himself, Or is he going to pretend I don't exist? What's the date going to be like?

By the time his mother had called up the stairs that dinner was ready, his science homework hadn't been started, despite it being the piece of homework Troye had decided to tackle. His distractedness became clear when he failed to engage in the various conversations his family were having- an unusual occurrence.

"Troye honey, are you okay? You're being quieter than usual. You're not unhappy, are you?" His mother, Laurelle, fretted. Despite the fact that he was sometimes anti-social, her second oldest child was rarely quiet at the dinner table.

Troye chuckled at her questions. "No, the opposite. I think I'm happier than I've ever been before!" The whole family leaned forward a bit.

"Why? Have you found a boyfriend already?" Sage asked on behalf of the family.

"No, I don't have a boyfriend. Well, not really." Troye admitted. "But that isn't the point. Can't I just be happy? Geez." He muttered the last word.

"No." Tyde piped up. Everyone looked at him.

"What?"

"No. You can't 'just be' happy. You're not that type of person, there has to be a reason."

"I hate you Tyde. Remember that." Troye said, staring straight into his little brothers eyes, as he ate the last bite of steak. Instead of going back to his room, he decided to start up a conversation with everyone about work and school. Unfortunately, the topic of Troyes happiness came back up, though this time being addressed as Connor, since Sage was talking about her friend, Izzi, who happened to be the little sister of Kian and had told her friends what was going on with the popular high schoolers.

Fed up, Troye sighed and pushed back his chair. He left the room to go back upstairs.

On Thursday, Troye walked to his usual lunch table with a big grin plastered across his face. Ben gave him a strange look.