A Touch of Courage (Troyler AU)

Chapter 48: The Reason

"The female doesn't want a rich man or a handsome man or even a poet, she wants a man who understands her eyes if she gets sad, and points to his chest and says 'Here is your home country.' "

- Nizar Qabbani

Troye's POV

Zoella slid into the chair next to Troye's, her bag thwunking onto the floor, but Troye didn't even look up from his laptop.

He'd been sitting in the study hall since the last bell, prepping for an upcoming presentation. He'd successfully dragged himself through the day, avoiding everyone and trying to keep his ears and eyes closed to everything around him.

"Hey," Zoe said.

"Hey."

And that was it. She didn't ask how things were going. She didn't ask him anything.

Troye couldn't seem to push any questions out of his throat either, and they just sat there in a cloud of weird while he pretended to type on his computer and Zoe pulled out a novel they were reading in class.

"Sjarca?" Zoe asked after a few minutes.

"What?" Troye glanced over at her to find her peering at his computer screen, where he had indeed typed sjarca. And also friknish and twirg.

"Oh."

He hit the delete button, the clacking echoing between the acoustic-paneled walls.

"Trying to multitask?" Zoe asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Something like that."

Zoe made a hmm noise and went back to her book, but she couldn't have read more than a few sentences before she smacked it shut and dropped it into her lap.

"So, I need to ask you something."

Zoe didn't turn to face him, just stared ahead and twisted her fingers together.

"Okay." Troye said slowly, trying to squash his apprehension. "What is it?"

She blinked at the floor, filling her lungs with several deep breaths before releasing them.

"I'm playing a show at The Blind Goat. Next Friday night."

"The Blind-really?" It was a pretty well known music venue. Troye had had no idea that she was into performing. "That's-that's amazing, congratulations."

Zoe grinned and nodded happily. "Yeah. They're having this young artist series where a couple of musicians play every night for the next few months. I sent them a couple of my demos and – I don't know, I guess they liked it."

"That's incredible, Zoe. I...didn't even know you were into music."

Zoe waved the guilty comment away with a smile. "It's not really something I advertise."

Zoe's smile dimmed and faded into a nervous expression, crimson spilling into her cheeks.

"Listen, I know it might not really be your scene and you don't have to...but...I was hoping you would come?"

"Me?"

Troye couldn't keep the surprise out of his voice as he blinked at her. "You want me to come?"

Zoe nodded, fidgeting with her hair as her blush deepened. "You don't have to, of course, but...yeah."