Hey guys, if anyone reads my stuff consistently, I bet you'll be like why are you putting up another story without finishing the others. Well I wrote this all within the past few hours and really liked it, I'm not planning to have this last long, a few chapters maybe. Hope you all like it. Please review and thanks for reading.
"Have you still not asked her out?" Chad Danforth asked as he leant against the counter on the guest side and sat on a bar stool.
Troy Bolton looked over at the ice skating rink which was on the ground floor of the huge dome shaped building. All of the food huts and shops relating to ice skating rested slightly above the ground floor, unlike a shopping mall, providing an overview of the entire rink.
Troy pouted a little, "Nope. We went out once at the end of summer just before her Freshman year and she comes up for food sometimes so we talk but she's here more than I am," He shrugged.
"She's good," Chad nodded as he watched her.
"Yeah, she's sick," Troy agreed. Troy's blue eyes followed the toned figure dressed in a tight pair of leggings and a zip up fleece doing spins, jumps and gliding across the ice.
"So good, does she compete?" Chad asked Troy, turning back around.
Troy shrugged, "I dunno," His attention turning back to his best friend.
Brown and blue eyes shot to the thud they heard from the rink. They saw the girl who was the topic of conversation on the floor on her side.
/
"Ugh!" Gabriella Montez grumbled, rolling onto her back taking a deep breath.
"Babe!" She heard a male voice shout.
Gabriella's head looked up and saw the male who she had been dating for the past three months standing at the side of the rink at the bottom of the bleachers, shaking a bag which she guess contained food.
Gabriella stood, brushing off her arms and legs as she skated over, "Hey," She greeted crossing her arms to rest on top of the side surrounding the rink.
"Hey hottie," He grinned, leaning down to press a kiss to her lips.
Gabriella smiled up at him, "Is this for me?" She gestured toward the bag.
"Of course, I've got to keep my little champion full," Her boyfriend, Adam grinned charmingly.
Gabriella laughed, "My coach would kill me if she saw me eating this," She said once she looked into the bag as saw a greasy cheese burger and fries.
"It's good she's not here then," Adam smiled cheekily and stamped his feet a little, "I hired some skates, any chance you can let me on the ice?"
Gabriella bit down on her bottom lip, "I dunno, I'm not really allowed anyone else on," She said apprehensively.
Adam's eyebrows rose, "They can't make one exception?" He asked, leaning down to kiss her cheek before making his way to her ear.
Gabriella moved away quickly, spinning away from him, "Ok, fine. Come on, I'll help you," She skated over to the opening and pushed the gate so he could walk onto the ice.
He gripped her hands as he tentatively stepped out onto the ice, looking down at his feet.
Gabriella couldn't help but giggle as she pulled him along, "Ok, now just glide, take a step and push," She instructed.
Adam attempted to push off and glide across the smooth surface but he was wobbly so Gabriella let go of his hands, instructing him to watch as she manoeuvred simply around the rink quickly.
/
"That's that dude Adam right? He's on the football team or something?" Chad asked, frowning.
"Yeah I think, I saw him at the sport masquerade ball just before summer," Troy nodded.
"I'm pretty sure when I was looking for a spare room at the party last weekend, the one when you bailed on me," Chad gave him a look which Troy chuckled at, "I swear he was fucking some other chick."
Troy's brows rose, "Shit."
"I mean them two could have just met and been on a couple of dates this week?" Chad asked meekly.
"Nah man, he's been coming here for months."
"Then yeah. Shit," Chad nodded.
Troy looked back down at the rink, seeing Gabriella skate backwards a little quicker than Adam was skating forwards as he tried to catch her. She was laughing as she took off her fleece which left her in a leotard which went beneath her leggings.
/
"Fuck. I wish I could skate quicker right now," Adam groaned, licking his lips and eyeing up her body before she quickly turned and skated away, showing him the openness of the back before she did a twist in the air and landing it perfectly.
"Gabriella!" Another loud voice shouted from the side.
Gabriella ducked her head, holding in a groan as she slowed and spun around to face her coach.
"What do you think you're doing letting him on here?" Cathy shouted.
Gabriella sighed, gesturing for Adam to get off the ice, "I never get to see him so he came here and wanted to try it out."
"He's not allowed during your private time," Cathy told her, "You know that."
Gabriella shook her head as skated off as Cathy strapped on some boots before walking down onto the ice to start the coaching part of the session.
/
"She's so hot," Troy mumbled, raking his eyes from her toned yet muscled legs, up to her behind which was a little on the large side and perfectly perky. His eyes continued up her bare back to her dainty shoulders and thick, black hair scooped into a ponytail.
"Yeah," Chad scoffed as an agreement.
Troy got beckoned over by a customer and he set to work on an order, not noticing Gabriella who had skated over angrily to the side, stepping off and throwing her boots off to the side, not bothering to find some of her street shows. She jogged up the steps and pushed the door open which led to the reception and another swing door which led to the food booths.
Gabriella saw Troy walking on an order but she walked over and placed herself on the stool slightly away from Chad who she did not know.
Troy and Chad made eye connect as he placed the customer the food and sorted out the money. Chad nodded his head over to Gabriella who rested her head against the counter.
Troy walked over, placing his hands on the edge of the counter, "Hey, you alright?" He asked casually, tilting his head to the side subconsciously.
Gabriella looked up and pouted her full lips, "No. My coach is driving me crazy."
"Get a new one?" He offered meekly.
Gabriella let out a small giggle, "It's not that simple. Coaches are a lot of money and my mom thinks Cathy is the best."
"It's your life," Troy shrugged.
Gabriella pretended to cry and she let her arm slip over the counter and one hand to rest her face on, "It's so hard."
Troy's eyes shot to Chad's as he noticed Gabriella's small hand was extremely close to his male gentile region.
"You're telling me," He mumbled, looking down at the couple of centimetres separating them.
Gabriella leant her elbow on the side to rest her head using the hand that was slung across the counter, "How are you anyway? I haven't spoken to you for a while."
"Maybe because of that guy who keeps getting you in trouble?" Troy asked with a smirk.
Gabriella shrugged, "I don't think it'll last long. He's fucked some other girl apparently,"
Troy frowned, "Who told you that?"
"My friend, she saw him wrapped around this other chick, kissing her neck and shit when they were looking for a room," Gabriella screwed up her face, "Not the first time either. He kissed some other girl like two months back at a party we went to together."
"That sucks. Why are you still with him?" Troy shook his head.
Gabriella licked her lips, "I don't know. I've been trying to think of a way to confront him but I don't know," She shrugged.
Troy gave her a half smile, "Jerk to mess with the Queen of this place."
Gabriella let out a giggle, "You are definitely here more than me."
"Gotta make a living. You want anything?"
"Just a water please. How's college going?" Gabriella asked.
Troy shrugged, grabbing a water from the fridge and placing it in front of her, "Good. My grades are pretty good even though that jackass tried to get me to go to a party the night before a test worth 60%," He gestured over to Chad.
"You're friends?" Gabriella asked quickly.
"Yeah, I'm Chad," He introduced, holding out his hand.
"Gabriella, nice to meet you," She shook his head, "I feel so rude, I've practically ignored you."
"Don't sweat it, you looked a little stressed out," Chad said politely.
"He's not usually this nice so lap it up while you can," Troy advised with a wink.
Gabriella grinned, "How did the test go?"
Troy nodded with a downturned smile, "Pretty decent I think."
Gabriella smiled softly, "Good. My grades are so bad. I spend all of my time here so I don't know if I'll pass the year. My dad left when I made skating a priority, he thought me and my mom were crazy and said my grades would suffer and he was right," He murmured, not realising she was telling the two guys so much.
"What it is with you and knowing all these jerks?" Troy teased.
A small laugh escaped Gabriella's lips, "So you're a jerk too?" She grinned cheekily.
Troy gave her a playful look, "After all these times you've come here stressed out and I've helped you, and you called me a jerk."
Gabriella licked her plump lips, looking up into Troy's eyes, "There are many ways to de-stress, I can go elsewhere and get help."
Troy tilted his head giving her a warning look, "Behave," He smirked a little as Gabriella scrunched her nose briefly, "But sure, go elsewhere if you don't like my services."
Gabriella brought her hand up to cover her smiling face, moving it a little so Troy could read her lips, "I've only gotten to test out your services a couple of times so I can make an accurate judgement yet," She whispered.
Troy leaned onto the counter a little more, "Then chat away," He smirked, bringing the conversation back to a platonic place.
Gabriella narrowed her eyes jokingly as he flipped off the playful conversation before turning to Chad, "Does he always turn down every girl he meets or is it just me?"
Chad shrugged, looking over at Troy with a grin, "I'm pretty sure he's a girl deep down."
Gabriella giggled, looking over at Troy who just shook his head with a smile gracing his lips and went to serve a customer.
Chad shuffled over to sit next to Gabriella, "He's turned you down?" He enquired with an interest.
Gabriella tilted her head, "He doesn't tell you a lot does he?"
Chad's brows shot up, "I thought we told each other a lot," After he earned a look from a smirking Gabriella, "No? I'm wrong?" He asked.
Gabriella shrugged, "What's he told you about me?"
Chad let out a deep breath, "That you're hot and you went just before college started for you," He said with a questioning tone, "Oh, and that you talk whenever you come up here."
Gabriella saw Troy give her a warning glance, slightly tuned into the conversation even though he was serving somebody with a long list of orders.
"So he says the last time he took me out was before my freshman year? Which was just over a year ago?" She questioned herself, "Yeah I started in August, we're in November now."
Chad nodded, "Yeah."
"And when I come to get food or drink that we just talk then?"
"Yeah."
"I think you need to grill your buddy. He's missing out some details. Ask him if he remembers that he was the one who told me to agree to my first date with Adam, after like a million dates with him, numerous kisses and an insane few days before he told me to agree," Gabriella said, all the time looking over at Troy seriously.
Gabriella looked at Chad who had his mouth dropped open and his brows raised, "Yeah, I'm going back to the ice. Nice meeting you," Gabriella smiled as put down some money for the water before walking away back down to the ice rink.
"Excuse me Miss, you need to pay," A receptionist shouted just as Gabriella was about to enter the second swing door.
"It's my private time, I'm Gabriella, Cathy's my coach," Gabriella explained and the receptionist enter a couple of things on the computer.
"Oh of course, sorry Miss Montez."
Gabriella smiled before entering and walking down to her skates, putting them back on. She placed her speaker on the edge before stepping onto the ice, she pressed play and skating into position. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
/
"Why didn't you tell me that you'd taken her on a few dates, dude?" Chad asked curiously.
Troy shook his head, "There's nothing to tell," He said shortly.
"You kissed!" Chad exclaimed.
"I'm 21, not 15. Kissing doesn't mean a lot now," Troy shrugged.
"Yes it does! You don't kiss someone you don't find attraction," Chad pointed out.
Troy ran a hand through his hair, "I've already said she's hot."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Chad asked, getting back to his first pointed.
Troy rubbed the back of his neck, "I dunno."
"What happened? Give me the deets," Chad asked, picking at his fries that Troy had passed him.
Troy watched as Gabriella bent her back backwards, spinning around quickly then slowly come out of it, "We chatted whenever she came for lunch, she needed a lift home one night and I finished work here like half an hour after she was done training so she carried on skating until I finished and locked up. I drove her to her dorm and her roommate had locked her out by accident so we went back to my dorm while she tried to call her and Liam was out for some reason so she ended up staying. She went early because of practice and I had work a little later so when she came for food, I asked her out on a date."
"I can't believe all this happened and I had no clue!" Chad exclaimed, "When did the kissing come into it?" He asked.
"After the second date, I took her for dinner and then we went to the beach and took a walk, kissed her and then when I dropped her off, I kissed her again and then the next few dates, it kinda became more frequent and I remember one weekend Liam was going to visit his girlfriend in San Diego so I took Gabriella out for just dessert at this pancake place and asked if she wanted to come back to mine. We did a little foreplay but before anything else could happen, Liam came in he had an argument or something with his girlfriend they broke up so he came back early," Troy informed, "Happy you know now?"
Chad's eyebrows hadn't lowered once since Troy began speaking, "So why is she now dating Adam?"
Troy rubbed his chin, "She asked we were doing and I just said we were having fun and keeping everything chilled. She emphasised then that we had just spent the weekend together… away-"
"You went on a weekend away together?" Chad asked, the most shocked he had been in the entire conversation.
Troy let out a breath, "Yeah, we went up to San Fran for a weekend and did tourist shit and fucked like rabbits for two nights," He chuckled, keeping his voice down. Quickly shaking his head, "I guess she didn't like that I said we were just having fun so she mentioned a few guys who had asked her out on a date recently and I told her to say yes to one and here we are. We didn't go through an awkward stage, yeah she stopped coming to see me for a couple of weeks but we started to talk again when she was hungry."
Chad moved his tongue around in his mouth before replying, "Wow."
Troy nodded, looking over at Gabriella who was practicing a position which she would need to perfect to though herself up high into the air to make the twist.
"That's insane. I can't believe you went on a weekend away," Chad shook his head in disbelief.
Troy nodded and pulled his cell phone out of his bag under the counter of the hut and opened it up to load the photos of that weekend. He slid his cell to Chad, telling him if he wanted to see more just to slide across.
"These are pretty intimate," Chad commented, showing the blue eyed man in front of him the one he was referring to.
Troy looked at his cell as saw himself standing behind Gabriella wearing a t-shirt and his arms seemingly went around her waist as he grinned and squinted into the sun, his head ducked and knees bent a little so his chin was against the side of her head. Gabriella wore an equally as large smile and the same squint wearing a strappy dress.
"I think that was the Saturday, we got there like Friday afternoon and made our way back Sunday night," Troy informed.
Chad shook his afro, "I can't believe you're ok with her dating Adam and watching him kiss her."
"Of course I'm not ok with it. I hate that she's datin' some other dude and he's sleeping with girls behind her back," Troy frowned, shaking his head briefly.
"Why don't you offer to help her out with school work? The classic tutor and student situation. That always works," Chad grinned.
"Man, you are original," Troy rolled his eyes.
"Do you have any better ideas?" Chad asked with raised brows.
Troy reluctantly shook his head.
"Is she always like that with you?" Chad asked, referring to the flirty turn Troy's and Gabriella's conversation had taken.
Troy nodded, "Pretty much."
"You go home with blue balls?"
Troy chuckled then smirked, "You have no idea some days. I just wanna pull her over the counter and pull the shutter down and just have her."
Chad chuckled, raising his hand for a fist bump, "My man."
Troy laughed but bumped fists anyway.
"I'm gonna take off. Taking Taylor on our weekly date night, tonight," He rolled his eyes, "Something to ensure we see each other enough apparently."
Troy made a face, "Or just a way to get you to be romantic every now and then," He smirked.
"Whatever man," Chad rolled his eyes jokingly before jumping off the stool, "Keep the change bro."
"Thanks man," He said, collecting the money and Chad walked out.
Troy's eyes returned to the ice rink after sorting through the money and noticing Gabriella and all of her stuff was replaced by a crowd of varying ages, none of which as graceful, quick or elegant as the figure skating by Gabriella Montez.
/
At 9pm, just over two hours since he had noticed Gabriella had been gone, he was sent home by a college guy who was doing the reminder of the shift, just a mere two hours left. Troy chatted with his friend for a couple of moments before taking off. He slipped his bag over his shoulders to rest on his back and spun his car keys around in his fingers. He dug out his cell phone to respond to various texts he had received throughout the day.
Troy looked up into the dark to location his car, just a few lights lighting up the few cars left on the parking lot. He noticed a figure leaning against the driver's side, her bags at her feet.
He shook his head a little, wondering why she was standing against his truck, "Hey hitchhiker, get lost, I ain't taking anyone anywhere," Troy shouted with a grin.
Gabriella looked up with a smile, she straightened a little as Troy got closer and finally came to stand in front of her, "Not even me back to your dorm?"
"Not even then," He smirked.
Gabriella smiled, keeping her lips together, "What does a girl have to do to get into your bed Mr Bolton?"
Troy raised his brows once, "You should know, you've been there," He looked down as he picked up her hands and began to play with her fingers.
"When I was pissed yes, when I got locked out and when Liam walked in on us, like three times. The key to Troy Bolton's bed is being locked out, vulnerable and drunk and dessert."
"Got it in one go," Troy teased with a wink.
Gabriella smiled, letting him continue to play with her fingers.
"You've stayed more than that. When we've just been hanging out and you've fell asleep or when we've had insane sex, the majority of the time uninterrupted," He lifted one side of his mouth into a half smile.
Gabriella let out a half giggle and half snort, "True."
Troy lifted his eyes to meet hers, "What are you doing out here anyway?"
Gabriella licked her lips quickly, "Waiting for you."
"Why?" Troy asked.
"To ask for a ride," She smiled cheekily, "Pretty please."
"I was actually just going to run by mine quick then I'm going out to meet some people," Troy informed.
"Some people? Or are you going on a date and don't want to tell me?" Gabriella asked with a tilt of her head.
Troy dropped her hands, "That's got nothing to do with you now."
Gabriella looked at him, her lips plump as she pursed them together, "Ok, I'll call Adam."
Troy nodded, "That's probably best."
Gabriella nodded once, pulling her bags one by one onto her shoulders, her cell phone pressed to her ear, already calling the guy she was dating, "Hey… yeah everything is fine. Can you please come and pick me up?... Ok, thanks, bye," She hung up the phone and continued to walk toward the door.
"Gabriella!" Troy shouted.
Gabriella stopped and turned around as Troy walked over to her, "I'm not going on a date. Chad text to see if I wanted to meet up with some basketball guys and some people from back home who are here visiting and just to go to a few clubs and a few bars."
"You didn't need to tell me that. Like you said, I have no right to know," Gabriella shrugged.
Troy licked his lips, swallowing, "It would be good to see you out tonight."
"What?" She asked frowning.
"I'd really like it if I saw you out… tonight," Troy said, indirectly asking to see her tonight.
Gabriella gave him a small smile before lightly shaking her head, "If you get locked out or get crazy drunk or have dessert than you know where I am."
Troy gave her a sad smile but nodded anyway, "Are they the key things to get into Gabriella Montez's bed too?" He asked, bringing a lighter air to the conversation.
Gabriella shook her head slowly, "No. All you do to get into my bed is be Troy Bolton."
Troy frowned sadly, his smile slipping off his face, "Gabriella…" He breathed.
Gabriella smiled up at him a little, "It's ok." She nodded.
The noise of a done up, new car roared into the parking lot and Gabriella looked around the side of Troy as Troy turned his head to see Adam rolling up in his car.
"Whats up Bolton," Adam greeted.
Troy nodded, greeting him as Gabriella passed him without saying another word. Troy faced the wall again, taking a deep breath before spinning around and giving them a wave as they took off. Troy headed back to his truck, climbing in this time and heading off.
/
"You alright man, you look a little tense tonight?" Liam asked as they sat in a bar, having one more drink before heading to the clubs. Just the two of them sitting opposite each other as the other grabbed one more drink.
Troy nodded, "This girl just got under my skin that's all."
"What girl?" Liam asked.
In some ways Troy told more personal things to Liam as he was kind of forced to as he did walk in on an awful lot of things but Chad would always be his best friend and if something major happened in his life, Chad would be the first of his friends to know about it.
"Just some chick, she told me that all I have to do is be me to get into her bed," Troy told him.
"Wow, sounded like an open invitation that buddy," Liam said.
"She's been dating someone for a couple of months now though," Troy shrugged.
Liam narrowed his eyes a little, "Then loosen up, drink more and enjoy yourself. Half of these guys have come to visit you and Chad so enjoy," He encouraged.
"You're right," Troy said. He knew he was being quiet and he felt all of his muscles tense throughout the night. He should show that he appreciated his friends coming to visit. He rolled his shoulders and took a few breaths.
They quickly moved onto a club, Liam encouraged this as he felt that once Troy was drinking and dancing he would loosen up and enjoy himself. Of course once he had a couple more drinks and danced with his friends, Liam was right, Troy was laughing and spinning around Sharpay as she laughed also. Her boyfriend, Zeke coming to grab her waist so Troy started to dance with Liam and Chad, their arms around each other's shoulders as they jumped.
Troy laughed as Chad fell to the floor, subsequently bumping into a women's leg who gave him a dirty look and Taylor narrowed her eyes at her. Troy looked up, to see Sharpay and Zeke attached at the mouth which he quickly looked away from. His eyes suddenly settled on a woman he didn't think he would be seeing tonight.
"Fuck," Troy muttered before raising his eyebrows at the girl, giving her a what-the-hell hand gesture.
Gabriella raised one shoulder in a shrug, licking over her bottom lip.
Troy tilted his head back and headed for the bar to get another drink without informing anyone.
"Erm vodka coke please," Troy said as she leant against the bar and was lucky enough to get served quickly. Finally a bit of luck.
"Hey," A feminine voice said as she squeezed into the space between him and the guy next to him.
Troy briefly shut his eyes because he knew that would she had displayed during her figure skating practice would be beautifully displayed once again, "Hi," He husked.
Gabriella pushed her lips together, waiting for him to look at her and when he did, she waited for him to run his eyes over her body. She wanted to impress him as she got ready for the night out she spontaneously suggested to her friends. They helped her out, thinking she just wanted to look extra nice even though Adam wasn't tagging along. Girl's night.
Troy's blue eyes took in her large curls making up her thick, long hair, her make-up done a little more than usual but not as done up as many girls in the club and the dress. The damn dress. She wore a long sleeved dress which dipped rather deeply into her chest and a short hem, a couple of inches below her butt and finally to show off her toned legs she wore black caged heels.
"You look… fuck," Troy leant closer to her, pushing her hair away from her ear, holding it away with the back of his hand, "You're making me hard just looking at you because I know that's the same dress you wore when we went out to that fancy restaurant in San Fran and let's just say we were up a lot that night," He pulled back to read her reaction.
She feigned innocence, "Really? I didn't know, must have forgotten."
"You did not forget," Troy shook his head, grinning.
Gabriella let a giggled slip out.
"What do you want to drink?"
Gabriella pouted, "A beer."
Troy narrowed his eyes at her and she smiled innocently at him, "I know your game, Montez," He leaned on the bar again for a couple of minutes, "Yo, can I have a beer please?"
"Sure," The bartender said.
Troy handed him the money and passed her the beer.
"Thank you."
"What made you change your mind?" Troy asked as they moved away from the bar to stand near the wall.
"To keep an eye on you," She joked.
Troy shook his head with a smile, "Does Adam know you're here, keeping an eye on me?"
Gabriella shook her head, "He has no right to know."
Troy frowned but didn't push the matter, "Well I'm glad you're here. I couldn't stop thinking about you at the couple of bars we went."
"I haven't been able to stop thinking about you for months," Gabriella said, sipping her beer.
Troy leaned against the wall and brought her with him, placing her between his legs, "You can't keep saying stuff like that because then it makes me say the stuff I did at the bar."
"And that's a bad thing?" She questioned.
"Yes, you have a boyfriend."
"I don't, we were dating, never official," Gabriella said firmly.
"Ok," Troy shrugged, sniffing, looking down at his glass.
Gabriella licked her bottom lip, "How good was San Francisco?"
Troy continued to look down, feeling her eyes boring into his forehead, "Amazing."
"Thank you for organising it and surprising me. It was so sweet when I had that crappy week and extremely crappy Friday to see you outside my dorm ready for when I got back from class and then you told me I needed to pack a weekend bag and you'd booked a hotel for two nights to get away from LA," Gabriella recalled, smiling.
Troy smiled back, lifting his head, "I was pretty darn proud of that idea."
Gabriella grinned, "It was the best, thank you."
"No problem," Troy felt her step closer, resting her free hand on his chest in a slight ball.
"Even the drive up there was fun, despite it being 6 hours."
Troy chuckled, "We only got lost once too," He added.
Gabriella giggled, sliding her hand to rest on his shoulder, "I've missed you," She said seriously.
"I've spoken to you at least once a week, normally more," Troy said, his hands moving to wrap around her and lay on the small of his glass, including his half drank glass.
"I know. But I mean going on dates with you, doing this with you," She frowned a little.
Troy closed his eyes and sighed, "Gabriella."
"Don't say it," She said quickly.
Troy looked at her sadly, shaking his head, "You remember that guy, he was like 70 maybe, who asked us, in San Fran when we were on one of them tours, how long we'd been together for and we told him we had just been on a few dates, nothing official?"
"Yeah, I remember. Why are you telling me this?" She asked, sipping from her bottle.
"Because you went somewhere, I don't remember where, but he was digging into me into why I haven't made you my girlfriend and he told me that his wife of forty years looked at him the way you looked at me. He told me that he would have said we've been together for a few years. I told him, we only met when we were 18/19 and remember we both were 20 when we went San Fran and he couldn't believe it," Troy told her with a half-smile at the end.
Gabriella gave half a laugh, "Is it just me who looks at you like that?"
Troy shook his head, "No. He told me, I look at you the exact same way princess," He told her and she seemed to relax more into his arms, "But he did tell me off for grabbing your ass in public and you were right to hit me. He said a couple of people on the tour who were older said we looked good together and really happy and extremely couple-like."
Gabriella bit her bottom lip, "I'm glad he agrees with my abuse of you every time you touch my ass," She teased.
Troy grinned, "It's worth it," He winked.
Gabriella smiled back, running her fingers through the back of his hair at the nape of his back, "So who is this group you were meeting that were so important you couldn't give me a ride home after I waited an hour for you."
Troy tilted his head to the side in disbelief, "Gabriella!" He shook his head, "You silly girl," He huffed.
Gabriella stuck her tongue out, standing up straight, "Let's go."
Troy straightened and led her through the crowds of people, leading her to his group of friends who were all seemingly taking a drink break from dancing.
"Troy! Where'd ya go?" Liam shouted.
Troy looked down at Gabriella who had come to stand beside him.
"Oh!" Liam's brows were raised, "Nice to see you again, this time clothed," Liam joked.
Gabriella laughed a little, "Slightly," He smiled, "But you too."
"Gabriella! Hey!" Chad greeted.
Gabriella waved excitedly at him.
Troy wrapped his arm around her shoulders, kissing her temple, "What do I introduce you as?" He asked, looking down into her eyes as they connected.
Gabriella shrugged, "I dunno. Your bit of fun?"
Troy gave her an unimpressed look, "If I look at you like a man does after forty years of marriage then you are more than that, ok?" He said firmly.
Gabrielle simply nodded.
Troy shook his head, "Guys this is Gabriella and Gab these are my friends, some from back home and some from college.
"I just get introduced as Gabriella?" She asked, tilting her head up at him.
Troy rubbed his eyes, "Yes because I can't explain you," He sighed angrily before Sharpay and Taylor started to speak to her and Troy sat at the booth in Sharpay's old space.
"That's the girl you were talking about earlier at the bar?" Liam asked, nudging his arm.
"Yeah."
"Dude, take her up on the offer!"
"She's dating someone."
"Whose fault is that?" Chad asked.
"Mine, I know," Troy said through gritted teeth.
Troy looked away from his friends and over at Gabriella who was giggling with Taylor and Sharpay, both of them, especially Sharpay dwarfing Gabriella, her tiny height evident. He smiled a little at the three girls getting along but most just watching Gabriella laughing made him smile at least he knew in that moment she was happy. He just wished he could turn back time and stop the words, which made her accept Adam's date, from coming out of his mouth.
She waited hours to see him