Masterpiece (Tronnor)

Chapter 7

Troye woke up earlier than usual the morning after his unexpected conversation with Tyler, and found himself sprawled over the familiar couch with his belongings strewn around him. The boxes from the takeaway Tyler and Troye had eaten for dinner were still stacked on the kitchen counter, as well as the countless unwashed wine glassses and beer bottles. This indicated to Troye that Tyler had not yet gotten up, as he usually immediately tidied up to satify his neat-freak personality.

Wanting to get out before he had to take his mind back to what he had heard the previous night, he quickly shoved his few items of clothing and laptop into his worn out black backpack which he took everywhere, and scrawled a quick note to Tyler - something about having to go to the studio urgently.

Once out and onto the busy street in front of Tyler's large apartment building, Troye called an Uber to take him to his AirBNB - the same one he had stayed in on his previous trip. During the wait and drive, he tried as hard as possible to be productive, playing draft tracks for the album from his phone and writing down any ideas he had, one of the first things Alex had taught him to do, but somehow couldn't. He knew what was happening - it was the same thing that had happened when his mum told him she was depressed over a year earlier, and when Steele had gotten sick while he was in Thailand, and so many other occasions in his life. His mind would constantly linger, think about what he could have done differently even if he truly knew it couldn't have changed the end result one bit. In this case, he wondered whether had he not gone home, had he stayed in LA just a little longer, could he have built up the courage tell Connor all he felt, and find out if the feelings were mutual.

The house looked exactly the same when Troye arrived there, still boring, basic, but a place to stay which was all he needed. He hardly knew what he was doing as he threw his bag onto the couch and made his way into the small bathroom at the end of the hall, leaning heavily on the vanity and looking at his tired face in the mirror.

"Connie got himself laid!!" Tyler's words seemed to echo inside his head, along with the countless times Emma had told him to act before it was too late, to take the risk. He went from anger at himself to anger at Connor within a matter of minutes, and was a confused wreck as he attempted to wash his face and think straight. 'I go for two weeks. Two fucking weeks and I lose my chance."" He thought to himself.

Ten minutes later, after attempting to eat a bowl of instant noodles and drink some water and failing,  Troye found himself walking speedily down the street towards Connor's flat, a stroll they often took together during Troye's last time in LA. He had no clue what he was doing, let alone what he wanted to say when he saw Connor. The front yard of Connor's place was perfectly groomed as usual, with nearly every possible colour of flower in full bloom (Troye suspected Connor only grew these and put so much effort into them for the photos, but anyway)  When he reached the large wooden door, he took in his breath and paused. 'Keep calm Troye. It's not like you were dating him. He didn't do anything wrong.' Knock. Knock. Pause. Footsteps. Open.

"Troye!" Connor said cheerily once he realised who it was, "I was hoping we'd catch up today, how was Aus? Come in!"

"It was good, how are you?" Troye replied somewhat awkwardly, silently realising that all the comfortability he had built up with Connor had suddenly come crashing down.

"So," Troye mumbled when Connor emerged from the kitchen carrying two steaming cups of coffee a few minutes later. "I saw Ty last night."

"Cool. How is he?" Connor asked, obviously confused as to Troye's statement.

"Good. He said..,"

"... yes?" Connor prompted.

"That you got a boyfriend or... or something one night I don't know I was just wondering I know it's none of my fucking business just... yeah." Troye blurted, sounding almost like one of Connors outros.

Following this, both boys were silent for what felt like an eternity before Connor simply said, "What?"

"I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have asked I just... I just care about you and want to know how you're doing."

"Well, now that you asked, I'm doing good, which has nothing to do with whether i got laid or not and yes, i know that's what you meant. Anyway, it was just Tyler exaggerating as he does. He took me to a gay club with Korey a few days back and I guess I made out with this guy I met, but we were drunk and it didn't mean anything and it's not what Tyler said."

Troye thought about this for a few seconds. "Really? He seemed pretty sure about it. Positive, even."

By this time Troye was fuming, and it was taking all his power not to start yelling at Connor, asking him how he didn't see what was going on between them, how it was obvious.

"Okay, Troye. I get that you've known Tyler longer than me and I get that you probably trust him more, but the truth is I don't have to explain myself to you. Friends are meant to support each other. So what if I got laid? I'm telling you I didn't which is true but if you don't want to believe me I couldn't care less." Connor said all in one breath.

"Oh so now I am the asshole for wanting to know that you had your first gay experience?! I thought we were good enough friends for you to tell me this after it happened but I guess I was wrong." Troye was basically shouting at this point.

"Oh my God what the fuck is wrong with you?! From now on I'm going to have to tell you about every little detail in my life?! Last time I checked you're not my boyfriend or anything." the older boy got to the point where his anger completely took over his words. He wasn't thinking straight, but none of them were.

"You know what, I think it would be the best if I didn't even hear from you at all for a while now." Troye's eyes were already cloudy from the tears he tried to hide, unsuccessfully.

He ran out of the house, smashing the door behind him. He started to make his way down the road that led to his apartment, not even bothered to call a cab. He needed the fresh air, because that was the only thing that kept him from collapsing into a sobbing mess.

A/N
Hope you liked the new chapter, sorry it took a while! Thank you so so much for 3k reads, it means so much to us and we really hope you're enjoying reading it as much as we're enjoying writing it
Xx A, I & T