A/N: I'd love to take credit for this idea, but I can't, my best friend came up with it in French class, but the ending and the writing is all mine! It was originally meant to be a oneshot but I changed it into a two-shot so look out for the next chapter.

Enjoy.

He couldn't.

Not now, not ever.

But as he stared at the charcoal tresses falling over the girls golden shoulders he knew he already had, whether he liked it or not.

Troy Bolton was not the kind of person that would notice plain, straight A+ girls, but something about a certain plain, straight A+ girl somehow managed to not only capture his eye but also his heart. The first time he realized the he was falling for her was during Spanish class—a class he only took to get closer to her.

He was staring transfixed at the back of her head, taking notes on all the little things she did that caused his stomach to perform continuous flips inside of him; like how she pushed her hair over her shoulder whenever it fell over her face or eyes, or like how whenever she was thinking hard she either chew on the end of her pencil or on her bottom lip, or whenever someone decided to be funny and her giggle would stand out from everyone else to his ears. He even took down things she liked and disliked, her habits, hobbies and the list went on.

At one point all his friend's teased him about his little crush on the new girl and called him a stalker, but that all changed when they realized just how much he actually loved the girl aka his best friend.

He closed his eyes and tried to push all thoughts of her aside. He knew he couldn't go on living like this; he had to tell her but he really did NOT want to ruin the close friendship they shared; if he lost her, then he lost everything.

He raised his head, expecting to see the back of her head again, but was shocked when his eyes came into contact with her soft mocha ones. Her lips stretched into a smile as they both stared at one another, no words needed to express how they were feeling; but there was something called a teacher in the room, who thought it would be best to interrupt the moment. Troy looked down at his pencil which he tapped impatiently against the wood of his desk.

The bell rang eons later and Troy had shot out of his seat and out of the door before the teacher could even say "class dismissed".

As he walked to his next class, Troy decided that he was going to tell her exactly how he felt about her that very same day, no matter what.

He stood by his truck in front of her house, his hands buried deep within the pockets of his jeans. He was way, way, beyond nervous.

He could feel his heart thumping erratically against his ribs and even though it was like twenty-something degrees, he found himself sweating, especially his armpits and his palms. Without hesitation and several deep breaths Troy made his way to the Montez's back yard and climbed up the large tree, he had become so familiar with, that led to Gabriella Montez's balcony. He landed with a soft thump on the tiled floor and brushed dirt off his jeans; he had to at least look presentable. Without making much noise he tiptoed towards the French glass doors and tried peering through the thin curtains.

He could barely see anything so he tried the door and it opened.

As soon as he stepped into the semi-dark room, his nostrils were instantly overwhelmed by the familiar smell of cinnamon, vanilla and with a hint strawberries; her scent. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply remembering how she always smelled like those whenever the two were near. He could vividly remember the times he would just pull her into his arms and bury his face into her unruly hair and stay that way until she would pull away.

"Troy?"

Troy jumped at the sound of the angelic voice whispering his name. He felt his cheeks heat up as he had been caught day-dreaming by the same person he had been day dreaming about. Troy looked up to find Gabriella lying on her stomach, on her bed, with a book nestling on her pillow. His eyes traveled from her purple cotton pajama bottoms printed with tiny panda bears, past the light tank top, and the dark curls tumbling down her shoulders, all the way up to the dark chocolate eyes staring quizzically up at him.

"H-hi" he tried lamely. With a small smile, Gabriella closed the book and sat up with her legs dangling off the edge of the bed. She patted the empty space next to her when she saw the nervous boy by her balcony door make no attempt to approach her. It took Troy a little longer than usual to understand what she meant but when he did; he awkwardly shuffled across the floor with a bright red face and waterfalls running down his body.

"So, what's up Wildcat?"

Troy played with his fingers nervously and just shrugged "not much I guess."

Gabriella took one of his hands in hers and interlocked their fingers and turned to face him. "What's wrong?" Troy opened his mouth to speak but shut it quickly, shook his head and dropped his eyes to his feet. The female brunette tentatively pushed his hair out of his face and stroked the side of his face, forcing him to meet her concerned eyes, "Wildcat, you're scaring me." She murmured desperately.

"I don't mean to." He admitted, taking his hand out of hers and wrapping it around her petite body; he pulled her close and buried his face into her sweet smelling locks. They stayed like that for some time, both tense and awkward.

"Ella…"

Gabriella looked up as her name left Troy's lips. She stayed silent, waiting for him to continue; but all he did was shake his head and pull away from her. Troy buried his face in his hands and began mentally cursing himself for chickening out.

"Are you okay?"

Troy raised his head and just stared at her, a thousand questions running through his head, but the brightest one was should he kiss her. He looked down to her lips. Should he?

He ran his moist tongue over his parched lips and swallowed loudly.

He couldn't. He shook his head and turned away missing the look of hurt and disappointment that crossed Gabriella's features. She had absolutely no idea what came over her in that second; one minute she felt rejected and the next she felt a sudden burst of want and grabbed Troy's face and pressed her lips flush against him. She could feel his shock, his confusion but her mind barely took note of it as heat flushed through her beginning from their joined lips. Sure she'd kissed several guys before this and had even been seconds away from losing her virginity during some high school party where she'd drunk too much but none of that compared to the fire she felt in her stomach at the contact. He kissed her back, with the same force, tangling his fingers in the hairs the tumbled down her back.

Then he pulled back for air, and she was crushed.

"I'm s-sorry." She muttered really meaning it. Without waiting for a response she ran to the bathroom, red faced and heart racing. She slammed the door shut behind her locked it and leaned her weight against it, her legs unable to hold her up she sunk to the ground and rested her forehead on her knees.

Back in her room Troy was unable to move. He sat on her bed in the same position, unblinking. He wasn't sure exactly what had happened in the last few minutes; one minute he was trying to tell Gabriella how he felt about her and the next thing he knew she was kissing him, or at least he thought so. He was at loss for words as he finally collected his wits and followed Gabriella to the bathroom.

"Ella…" he called but his only response was silence. He sighed and ran his fingers through his tousled hair. "El, talk to me."

More silence.

"Please tell me you don't regret…what just happened, because I sure as hell don't." He sighed once more and dropped to the floor of the door and leaned against the wood. "What I'm trying to say is ever since that day, at the ski lodge, with that book in your hand when the spotlight landed on you and you had that scared look in your eyes, and the amber flecks in them when the light shone on them and the way your voice made me forget about everything around me. Then when we were outside and the fireworks went off I wanted to kiss you so bad but then you turned away and I thought it wasn't what you wanted," he paused and waited for some sort of reaction from her but none came so he continued, "then after the game I was gonna kiss you but then Chad showed up with the ball and I got so mad I wanted to punch him, and I had so many other chances to show…to tell you how I felt, but I didn't wanna lose our friendship, so I stayed silent. Truth is I don't wanna be just your best friend Troy Bolton, I wanna be more, so much more."

The loud intake of breath from the other side fully convinced him that she was there and listening.

"I know most people would say what I feel isn't love but I know it is, I've never felt this way about anyone, I love you Gabriella." He admitted bravely. After a long few minutes, with no sound from both teens, Troy glanced warily at his watch and stood up. "I-um. I'll see you in school?" he asked hopefully, hoping she would walk out and face him and return his feelings; nothing

He sighed, "good night Gabriella".