Tronnor in Anaheim

Chapter Two

Troye

"Troye!" Korey squealed, purposefully overdramatic, grinning at me over Tyler's shoulder. I caught his eye and smiled back before pulling out of Tyler's embrace. 

"Troye, how are you?! How was your flight?" Tyler asked. 

"Good and good. I just got out of the shower." 

"We can tell." Korey lifted a lock of my unruly hair and pretended to examine it for a minute before he abandoned his serious expression and wrapped me into a one-armed hug. I gestured them into my hotel room, stepping to the side to avoid their trail of heavy luggage.

"Connor!" I heard Tyler exclaim as I locked the door, turning to face my now-crowded room. Tyler gave Connor a hug and kissed him on the cheek, then turned to yank their suitcases into a small corner between the bed and the wall.

"Hey, how are you guys? Troye said they couldn't give you a room?"

"We got here three hours before check-in time, cause Tyler's water wasn't working in his apartment this morning, so we left early, and guess how long it takes him to get ready?"

"Three hours," Connor laughed from the table.

"Shut up!" Tyler whined. "It doesn't take me that long. And all this doesn't just happen." He ran a hand down his chest. "You should know that best of all, daddy." 

I couldn't help myself. I wrinkled my nose in bemusement. For some reason, Tyler's flirting didn't crack me up like it normally would.

"We've only been here two minutes and Troye's already disgusted with you," Korey pointed out, and I quickly smoothed my expression out, although not before Tyler looked up at me.

"I know, I'm horrible," he sighed, taking a seat next to Korey on the bed. "Hey, our messages," he said, leaning back to stare at my open computer screen.

"Yeah, I was editing before you texted me."

"Editing your new video?" Connor said. "I want to see it! Is it the T R X Y E announcement?"

I was nodding my head before he even finished his sentence. "I'm so excited, dude, you don't even know." The smile that flashed across my lips was partly related to the great company I found myself among and partly my EP. Not only were all of them avid supporters of the secret project I had been working on for a year, but oftentimes they were my biggest cheerleaders. Tyler had known first- I skyped him on my birthday to deliever the exciting news: I had just signed a record deal! It had been a long time coming, but now the deed was finally done. I was contractually obliged to record 5 songs for an EP set to release in 2014.

Over the next few months, I tried my hand at songwriting. I had written songs before, of course, like my yearly zeitegeists, or The Fault In Our Stars. It was infinitely harder to write knowing potentially millions would listen to my songs and judge them; I found myself searching for inspiration in movies and books, pop culture and celebrities, outside influences that had inspired my successful songs in the past. As September, October, and November passed with crumpled paper after crumpled paper tossed in the rubbish pile, I started to despair over my EP.

It was on a flight to Capitol Records in LA that I finished my first song. The rest seemed to flow in quick succession, after I escaped my writer's block- one, two, five, seventeen songs in just the month of December. It was much simpler to write when I focused on my own experiences. One of the first times I hung out with Connor I had showed him a few rough drafts of songs I was working on.

We were lounging in Tyler's living room, my laptop on my stomach. Tyler had run to the store to get more liquor. It was chilly outside, and Connor was wrapped in a sweater and blanket, clutching my notebook in his hand.