"Why are you even dating him?"

"Stop," I roll my eyes at Madison as I grabbed my phone back from her, "Cole is nice, okay?"

She laughed a bit. "If you say so. He's just so... I don't even know. I just don't understand why you're with him. Do you guys have anything in common other than the fact that you're both attracted to each other? I don't really get it. But I mean... if you like him, you like him..."

Of course I have things in common with him. He is my boyfriend after all. It's been a good month with him. "Mads, what's the deal?"

"Nothing, nothing," she puts her hands up in defeat almost, "I just know if my boyfriend sent me a text that said, hey hot stuff, can't hang out, guys wanna play basketball, I'll call you later, I wouldn't be too happy."

"Whatever, he loves playing basketball, so why not? We didn't have any set plans like a movie at a theater at a certain time or anything like that."

Madison rolled her eyes and gave up. "Whatever if you wanna have someone just to have someone, be my guest..."

That's not what I'm doing here. Cole... he's great. He's nice. He treats me well, he's good looking. I mean, why not? Why not date him? Isn't that what high school's all about? Dating? Meeting new people? It's summer. Well, end of summer. We start school in a week. And I have had the best summer hanging out with him, getting to know him. Now, I'm his girlfriend and we're a month in and things are good with us.

I get what she's saying, though.

Maybe I could do better but just thinking about that is obnoxious. Like, who do I think I am? Maybe I do just like the company. But what's wrong with that?

A high school boyfriend is just that... company.

Are Cole and I going to last forever and get married? Who even knows. We're having fun. And even though he doesn't give me intense butterflies or anything like that, he's good to me, I like him and that's that. I'm gonna give this a chance. Maybe it could become something great.

"Oooh, new neighbors!"

"What?" I look up and realize Madison is now looking out my window, "they're here?"

I quickly go over to the window and see them unloading their big u-haul. Carefully taking out boxes and stacking them off to the side. They're finally here. After weeks of knowing they were coming, they're here. They're right next door.

And I don't really know what to do right now.

"Gabriella!" I hear my mom yell from downstairs, "come down here! The Boltons are here!"

Madison quickly looks over at me. "Boltons? They're back?"

I just nod and quickly go downstairs with Madison following behind me. My mom and dad are already out the door about to greet them. My brother is emerging from the kitchen, a bag of chips in his hand, walking right past me to greet them as well. But I stop for a moment. I stop and turn to Madison, my best friend, the one person who can talk to me through any stressful situation.

And she knows this is stressful.

"You look fine," she says with a small smile, "it'll be fine. I promise."

"I feel so awkward," I confess to her, "I knew they were coming back and I didn't think much of it, but now... now I feel nervous and I don't know what to do or what to say. How to act. I'm freaking out a little, Mads. It's been three years. Three loooong years."

Madison grabs me by the shoulders and looks me right in the eye. "It's been three years. Everything will be fine. The kiss won't even come up."

Obviously it won't come up. We haven't talked in years because of it. "Mads, we haven't talked in three years. I ruined our friendship. I ruined everything we had and I don't know how to approach it. Just act like it never even happened?"

"Sure," she shrugs, "maybe he'll do the same. You let him know it was a mistake, so whatever. It shouldn't be an issue."

"But it is," I tell her, "or maybe I'm just over thinking it and the reason we didn't stay in touch was because we were states away."

"Exactly," she says, but I don't even think she believes it.

That's definitely not the reason we didn't stay in touch. I ruined everything between us.

I took a deep breath and then stood there for a moment. Madison took her hands off my shoulders and gave me a small push in the right direction and stood back, waiting inside my house while I went to greet my old new neighbors back into their old home, their old neighborhood.

The minute I stepped outside, though, I stopped.

There he was.

Troy Alexander Bolton.

My best friend from ages 4 to 14. My neighbor. The person I played with, napped with, ate with, cried with, got sick with... everything you could imagine. We were inseparable. At school, we were glued at the hip. And then we came home and we would have snacks, play outside, go into his tree house and make secrets, make pacts, watch movies, do homework, do everything together. He was my first real friend. And I loved every single minute I spent with him.

"Gabriella," my mom waved to me upon seeing me, "come here!"

Shit. Fuck.

I quickly went over there and Lucille Bolton greeted me right away, hugging me and telling me how beautiful I've gotten yet I still looked the absolute same. Blah blah blah. Jack Bolton said hi as well, giving me a hug. And it was really nice to see them.

And then Troy smiled at me. That smile I've always loved. And haven't seen for three years. I couldn't take it.

"Hey stranger," he says as he gives me a hug, "long time no see."

"I know," is pretty much all I said, "welcome back."

This isn't the same Troy Bolton I knew. Physically, anyway. I mean, he still has the same piercing blue eyes that won't ever go away. But he no longer has braces. He no longer has an awkward haircut that he had to have in 8th grade because he moved and the barber messed up.

Troy Bolton grew up and he is fucking HOT.

And I mean... HOT.

Puberty did him well and I cannot believe how attractive he is. No, I can. I can believe it. He's always been so cute. But oh my gosh, I can't stop staring and it's probably freaking him out to be honest. So I stop. And listen to what our parents are talking about.

"Theresa and I have an anniversary party to go to tonight, but tomorrow, come over," my dad tells them, "we'll grill steaks, watch the game. Like old times."

"Yes!" my mom agrees, hanging onto my dad, "just like old times."

They agree of course and then they all decide five would be good and I'm just standing here going crazy in my head thinking about how nerve wracking it'll be for me and I'm not sure why. Oh maybe because I had the biggest crush on Troy the last year of our friendship to the point where I thought I was in love with him. But I was 14, what did I know? Nothing, probably. And I still don't. I'm only 17 years old.

Lucille grabbed onto Troy's arm and Jack's and gave us Montez' a smile. "Oh, it feels so good to be back. We're missed you guys and our home so much."

"And we've missed you," my mom tells her.

Then they offer to help them finish unloading and I probably should have too, but I'm not strong and I'd probably just be in the way so I just stand here while they go over to the u-haul and immediately start unloading some boxes.

And Troy stood here as well.

"Man, it's been a while," he says, shoving his hands in his pockets and letting out a small laugh.

"Yeah, it has," I agree, "three years."

"Which isn't that long, but it felt really long," he nods, "I mean, look at us. We both don't have braces. Do you still wear that Mickey Mouse sweater?"

I couldn't help, but laugh. It felt... nice. I suddenly didn't feel too awkward to be around him. "Hey, it was cool. And so comfortable. But sadly, I spilled paint all over it and had to throw it out. A few months ago actually. SO I've been on the hunt for one ever since."

He laughed as well, "I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure it was hard."

There is some distance here, of course. How could there no be after three years?

And it sucks because his friendship was everything to me and I cried so hard the day he told me they were moving. I couldn't help it. And I couldn't believe it. I think I may have gone overboard and may have told his parents that I hated them and they were ruining my life and if they were to move, I was going to die of boredom and depression. Ha. But I was being an emotional, over dramatic 8th grader who just wanted her best friend by her side.

When I say best friend, I mean BEST friend.

He was pretty much my only friend until I got to middle school and I met Madison and Blair. We both made tons of friends, but in the end, it was me and him and he was always at the top of my life. He was my best friend until death do us part, pretty much.

Or until I kissed him.

We didn't talk for three years. Three whole years.

Because the night before he left, I kissed him and I ruined everything we had. The friendship. In one split second, I ruined it.

I told him it was a mistake and the bolted out of there. The look on his face... the feelings were reciprocated and I panicked and just ran. I don't even know what I was thinking. Was he sending me some kind of signal that he was interested? Hardly. But something about that night, something about us sitting there talking about how he was moving... it just happened. I just kissed him. And it was the worst thing I could have done. I ruined it. It wasn't okay. We didn't talk. We didn't call. We didn't even write. Everything got ruined because I thought I was in love with my best friend and had the biggest crush on him.

"It's good to see you," Troy tells me.

And for some strange reason, I felt butterflies when he told me that.

It's good to see me.

God, it was good to see him, too. He was so, so beautiful. I couldn't get over it. "It's good to see you, too. How was Seattle?"

"Seattle was good," he nods, "made some great friends, but California's home so I'm happy."

'Well, I'm sure everyone's happy you're home."

And by everyone, I don't just mean his friends. I mean the people at school who will for sure crowd him the minute he steps foot into school. The girls. They're all gonna want him even though they didn't want him in middle school, but that's none of my business, I guess. It's all good.

He gives me a smile and then looks over at our parents, moving boxes. "I should probably go help them."

"Yeah," I nod, "go ahead."

I turned around to walk back to my house, but I heard him call my name.

So I stopped and turned to him. '"Yeah?"

"Really, it's good to see you."

He smiled and then was off to help his parents. And I stood there like a fucking idiot, just staring off not really knowing what to do or what to say. How to even react to that. All these feelings are coming back and I hate it. I hate them so much.

Just like that, though, Troy Bolton is back in my heart.

But to be honest, he never really left.