If you asked anyone, they would tell you college is indisputably one of the most stressful yet amazingly joyful times in life. College is filled with term papers due two weeks too early, three AM fire alarms, impossible final exams, and parties. Parties everywhere. Parties in dirty frat houses where you said yes to gasoline flavored alcohol just to tell your classmates the next day that you had one hell of a night. Dinner parties where you celebrate birthday after birthday at restaurant after restaurant. Parties in your dorm room where you shushed the drunken giggles of your friends as soon as you heard the rounding RA so you wouldn't get written up.

But in between the stress of classes and the blur of party nights, there was a lull that, arguably, could be considered greater than everything else. That was Troy's opinion, anyway. It was a Sunday afternoon and Gabriella had dragged Troy to the library for company and maybe in the hope that he would actually do some studying for once. But Gabriella was so wrong. So wrong! Troy did study. He studied all the time – it just might not be what she wanted him to study. If there was a quiz next Wednesday about how many facial expressions Gabriella makes when she's trying to understand a concept, Troy would ace it. If there was an eight page paper due tomorrow about whether or not Gabriella is 100% the most adorable creature he has ever laid eyes on, Troy would turn it in early. He would turn it in now. Because he already knew – the answer was yes. If there was a math class about the angle of Gabriella's collarbone, the length of her neck, or the perfect curve of her waist Troy would 4.0 it. Because Troy studies. He studies all the time.

Troy was studying right now.

With its big stained glass windows, winding marble staircase, and silent reading room rules, Gabriella chose the most intimidating library on campus. But the silence it was kind of better in a way, Troy decided. The silence made it that much easier for him to concentrate on his current analysis. There was a beam of sunlight filtering through the stained glass windows and onto Gabriella's hair, and the light was doing this funny thing. The sunlight was illuminating Gabriella's head from the back, making her hair shine so much Troy could see little flecks of red and gold in it. She must have felt him grinning at her because just as Troy was about to reach out and brush a stray strand of hair off the edge of her textbook, Gabriella's head shot up.

He was doing it again, watching her. She shouldn't have expected anything less, really. He had been doing it for as long as she had known him. Nevertheless, she asked.

"What are you doing?" Gabriella whispered.

The corners of Troy's lips began to lift until he forced them into a neutral position again. "Nothing. Studying," he answered, hardly keeping his voice down.

"Your book isn't even open," she whispered back, pointing at the closed textbook to his left.

Troy moved the book in front of him and opened it to a random page. "I was reviewing what I knew by memory."

He gave her a cheeky smile and just as she was about to respond, a loud, obnoxious throat was cleared from the table across the room. It was their cue to be quiet. Gabriella's eyes quickly flicked back down to her notes on the table and carried on like nothing happened.

Gabriella didn't really like when Troy stared at her like that – it made her feel uneasy. Maybe because sometimes, when she stared at him and the shadows on his face were cast just right they made him seem ten years older. It wasn't a bad thing, looking at a ten-year-older Troy; it was actually a wonderful, magical thing. Those face shadows made Gabriella think about the future, Troy's future, and how she knew she would be there to witness it. Ten years from now Troy would be thirty-one, she would be thirty-one. They would be thirty-one. And they would be together. It was a little scary at times – those face shadows, the future. But scary in an incredible way, a way that made Gabriella simultaneously freak out and burst with happiness.

She took a quick glance back up at Troy; he was still staring, but this time she didn't interrupt him. His eyes roamed every inch of her skin that he could see; from her fingers that were fiddling with her pencil absentmindedly, to her shoulders where she knew that one strap of her dress had fallen down her arm, and back to her face where they remained, staring unabashedly. He smiled. Gabriella wasn't being a silly, lovesick girl when she thought that when Troy looked at her the love in his eyes was almost tangible. It was just fact.

Troy shut his book, "You wanna go back?" He asked, this time actually whispering.

Without letting her eyes leave his, Gabriella nodded, closing her book and stowing it away in her bag. They pushed their chairs away from the table in unison, meeting half way and connecting hands. Together they walked down the flight of marble stairs and out the front door into the fresh air and warm sunlight of the early spring afternoon.

Do you know why the quiet lull of college days is the greatest? Because it gives you time to think, to look across whatever table you're sitting at and evaluate what you see. Without the distraction of an insanely hard midterm hanging over your head, without a bottle of tequila that was surely the reason you told everyone you loved them at that one house party. And what's across from you at that table, if it's what you love, what you chose to study, well it's probably going to be a part of your life forever.


AN: Hey, don't worry, I'm still writing Closer, I just really, really needed a break. This is going to be relatively short, just five drabble length chapters corresponding with each sense. Hope you enjoyed this mindless fluff. :)