Hamburgers. This word may mean everything to you, or it may mean nothing. It mostly means nothing to vegetarians, but to most Americans, hamburgers are life. They might not be the reason you get out of bed, but hey, it's something.

You never know what you might owe to hamburgers.

Troy clapped his one of his best friends, Zeke on the back before rubbing his hands together.

"What do we have here?" he said excitedly, before peeking over the tall man's shoulder.

The tall, dark man turned around before saying, "Troy, it's a barbecue. What do you think we have?"

Troy shrugged.

"I dunno man, I've been to some pretty bizarre barbecues," he said seriously.

The rap music was blasting on that hot, August day in Alberqerque. Another one of his best friends—Chad—was having a barbecue that night, and although he loved the thought of free food and beer, he almost wished he was home, just relaxing from all the basketball he had been playing.

This resulted in his on and off again bad mood.

He wondered around, scanning over the faces of every attendant to the barbecue, smiling at some, wincing at others. Tucking his hands into his pockets, he ventured into the back of the yard, sitting himself on a stump of a tree that had been cut down previous years.

Troy smiled bitterly at the memory of that tree. The one that he and Chad had so fondly climbed for half their lives. The one that he stood under when he got his first kiss. The one that he had been broken up under.

With the thought of being bitter, he turned his head and saw Gabriella Montez. Her hair was in two braided ponytails, and she was smiling brightly at her best friend, Taylor McKessie. He rolled his eyes at this, and turned away.

Don't get him wrong. Gabriella Montez was once his everything. His best friend, his girlfriend, the one person that he could go to when everything was wrong. The person that he loved to make smile, and the person that he could kiss and know that everything would be okay at the end of the day. Most of all, she was the girl that he was going to propose to. Propose.

The world lingered in his head as he jumped off the tree stump, as if it burned him.

And then she had dumped him.

At this very tree.

He looked at it, like it was the tree's fault.

"Stupid tree," he mumbled to himself.

It served it right to be cut down.

And then Troy blinked.

And then he realized what he had been doing. Reminiscing past memories… and then blaming a tree.

He shook his head before realizing he'd really like to go home. But he had no food yet, and he quickly grasped that was the only reason he was here, so he decided there must have been something around worthwhile to keep him entertained.

With that thought engraved in his mind, Troy began looking around.

Where the hell was Chad? He was the one who invited Troy to this stupid together, and he wasn't even here to talk to Troy? He made a mental note in his head to kick him later for inviting him to something so lame and then ditching him.

He eyes lingered over to the white benches out front, where he saw Taylor and Chad kissing.

He blinked again.

Where the fuck did that come from? Wasn't she just next to Gabriella? When were they even going out? Had he been this occupied with basketball that he hadn't seen this coming? When was the last time he even talked to half these people? He shifted uncomfortably, realizing he probably looked stupid for being alone at a barbecue, where everyone was catching up with each other. He looked down and realized that he was also standing alone… in the middle of the backyard. He groaned once, before turning around and rubbing his hands over his eyes.

He stared at Gabriella again, amazed by the simple beauty that she held so thoughtfully. The way she held herself. The way her hair shined in the sun, and the way her tan skin glowed.

Then someone shoved him.

"What the hell, man? You—" he stopped.

This guy was totally wasted.

The guy smiled sloppily at Troy, his floppy hair all over the place.

"Dude, that's one hot chick." He said, pointing to Taylor.

"Uh, yeah." He said, raising his eyebrows.

"I'd so tap tha—"

"She has a boyfriend," he interrupted.

The guy sputtered.

"Well."

"… Yup."

"So that one's your girlfriend?" he drawled out.

"Nope."

"Huh."

"What?"

He was starting to get annoyed by this dumb fuck.

"She's pretty."

"Yeah, she is,"

"So you're going out with her."

"No…?"

"Alright."

"Yeah."

Troy wanted to slap this guy in the face.

"So…" he said again, drawing out the 'o' obxiously.

"She's your girlfriend."

"Ah, damn, you caught me!" Troy said, rolling his eyes, tired with the guy's interrogations.

"Knew it man," the guy said before momentarily looking him in the eye.

"Props to you." The seriousness in the guys eyes made Troy chuckle and he gave him a nod before scurrying off to hit on Taylor.

He was such a good friend to Chad. If it weren't for the burgers and Chad, he would have booked the place.

Troy turned around again, prepared to fend off any other drunks. All he wanted was his damn burger.

"Hey, Troy!"

He spun around, ready to just tell whoever it was to fuck off, because frankly, he was already having a bad day.

But there she was in her full glory. Except this time, she had taken the braids out of her hair, leaving the wavy locks behind, spilling over her white dress.

"Gabriella," he said slowly, "… um. Hey."

She smiled lazily at him before dragging her hand to link with his, and she sat down with him.

The sun was beginning to set, and he frowned slightly at the cliché moment.

"How've you been?"

"Oh, you know… pretty busy with the team… um, you should come to a game sometime."

He wanted to kick himself.

"Definitely," she said, excited.

"I've been thinking about coming to one all season, but you know… with Sharpay and all."

He nodded.

Sharpay Evans and Zeke Baylor—the guy, if you had forgotten, who was cooking the hamburgers—had been going out since High School. Like Troy, Zeke had wanted to propose to Sharpay, but soon decided that it was too soon (mind you, it had been six years) and chickened out.

Sharpay, who had thought his odd behavior had to do something with her, constantly prodded him to tell her what's wrong.

And Zeke, being a coward, broke off things before she found out because he thought she'd hate him.

Which resulted in two broken messes in his life that everybody had to take their turn to clean up.

It wasn't like a weekly chore, but honestly, Troy was tired of Zeke telling him that he missed Sharpay.

And the only thing that he asked himself everyday was, why the hell did they get back together?

Sharpay would obviously be thrilled if Zeke had started over and proposed to her again, so why didn't they just… do it?

And just like that, Chad popped out of no where, grinning at Troy excitedly.

"Hey man, how many burgers do you want?"

Troy looked at him, stumped.

"One…?" he said slowly, "unless they're the size of oreos, then yeah, I'd like one."

Chad backed off like he was offended and cracked a smile, before looking at the two that were sitting on the bench and raising his eyebrows.

"Alright, man. Just asking."

He came back a few seconds later, with a befuddled Troy still sitting there. Chad pushed the hamburger towards Troy as if he was a dog and Troy took it happily. This was the reason he was here. He shoved it into his mouth thankfully, ignoring the burning in his mouth from the fresh off the grill meat.

Then Troy frowned as he realized that he had yet to answer Gabriella's statement. He looked over at her before rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Uh, yeah…"

"It's been a while since I've talked to you. I miss you… and us, you know," she said softly.

"I miss us too."

She eyed his hamburger, and he couldn't tell if she found the item insulting or if she wanted some of it.

"So, that looks like some good meat there."

He furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yeah." He said again.

"You can get one… you know… over there," he said before promptly pointing his finger in the general direction of Zeke.

"Yeah, it's fine," she said sighing.

He gave her a blank look before mentally sighing to himself and pushing his plate towards Gabriella.

"Want it?"

She took it happily before ripping off a side and throwing it into her mouth.

"You sure you don't want some?"

"Nah, I'm not that hungry anyway," he lied.

He gazed at her underneath his eyelashes before catching her eye.

Truth to be told, Troy had barely dated anyone after Gabriella. He had a few drunken messes and a few flings, but really, he didn't love anyone as much as he loved her. No one made him feel what she did, and he still clung onto the hope that one day, they would be able to get back to what they had years ago.

She blew her bangs out of her eyes and looked into his eyes.

"Do you ever wonder?"

He licked his lips.

"Sometimes,"

"It was the best thing that ever happened to me," he continued, "and honestly, I don't regret anything that happened. We might not talk as much as we did before, but moments like this make it worthwhile."

He didn't dare look into her eyes as he swallowed and looked into the distance, avoiding the hole that was being burned into the side of his face.

He briefly wondered if what he said was too cheesy, or if she'd just sit up and walk away.

With that, he wanted to kick himself again.

But instead of doing that, she simply reached out to take his hand.

Her smaller one in his felt right, more now then ever. He turned to her and gave her a small smile before looking out at the sun setting again.

Everything felt so weird and foreign, but yet, it felt so right.

And as he felt her head lean into his shoulder, he almost let out a sigh of relief that some things can end up right.

When he watched the last of the sun hide over the mounds of earth that were in eyesight, he felt Gabriella shift closer to him, absorbing any body heat that he had.

Troy turned his head to the side and scanned over the features of her face that hadn't changed at all during the years of growing up.

And then he did something that he might regretted in ten years, but the moment was worth it.

He kissed her.

And if he was correct, she kissed back.

The warmth spread to their intertwined finger tips, and as he placed his hand on the table to lean into her more securely, he felt something else instead.

And then they parted, leaving him confused, he realized that he had flipped the plate, and the hamburger was now lying on Gabriella's lap.

Troy groaned.

He knew he should have stayed home.

But Gabriella, being the unpredictable person she is, laughed it off before pressing another sweet kiss to his cheek and standing up to brush any leftover pieces of meat off her dress.

And then she kissed him again.

A bright light flashed and he widened his eyes as he saw Chad and Taylor with a camera, smiling brilliantly at the two.

"Called it!" Chad said happily, reaching his hand out to Taylor's.

"Five bucks."

They ran away giddily and Gabriella scoffed, choking on her own laughter.

And to his surprise, he did the same thing. He wasn't sure if he liked the fact that Chad had gotten their moment on camera, but as he looked up at the girl looking down at him, he realized that in time, it was going to be the reminder of that time in their lives when everything in it's path went back to where it was supposed to belong.

Troy smiled cheekily to himself.

Maybe he shouldn't have stayed home after all.

And maybe he should have given hamburgers more credit for what they were worth.

Chapter End Notes

So yeah… this is really random oneshot, and I was really bored, and I was randomly eating a hamburger and thinking of this. So I hope some parts made you smile, and some parts made you want to go, "Awww!" like I did. It's honestly not the best, but this is the result of boredom and avoiding a 70 question test. And like I said, it's honestly not the best, and I haven't spent a lot of time editing it. I know that's pretty bad, but I'm so busy. For my 'Hold Your Heavy Heart Up High' readers, I'm working on writing the next chapter!

So I hoped you guys all enjoyed it! Thank you so much for the support you guys have shown so far.

Review?

xcomfortable