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----------halfway between anything----------

"You love him."

That was all that needed to be said.

Chad sighed, never giving a specific answer, but they both knew the answer anyway. She moved across the room and sat in his lap. She leant back into him, resting the back of her head against his chest and he wrapped his arms around her.

"You too?"

"Me too."

They sat in pure silence, Sharpay counting Chad's breaths, he counting hers. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and gently took Chad's hands in hers.

"Why him?" She turned her head to look him in the eye, and he looked back at her, plain confusion in his eyes.

"You spend so much time with someone, you're bound to feel something more after a while."

"That didn't happen with him though." She commented, almost sadly.

"He didn't need someone, or something more. He has Gabriella." The tone he inflicted with her name was enough to set Sharpay off into a bout of snide, cruel laughter. He joined her, if only for a few seconds, but it was a few seconds of real connection between them.

"He's never going to want you."

"Likewise."

"I might want you."

"Likewise."

"But I have Zeke."

"I have Taylor. We both have people."

"Partners."

"We both have partners. Maybe it's time to change the seating chart." Sharpay scoffed and slid her fingers in and out of Chad's rhythmically.

"That was so pathetically cheesy, I almost fell for it. Almost. You're not such a bad guy, Chad, except for your despicable taste in men."

"You make no sense."

"I didn't say I had good choice in men. Troy may be hot, there's no two ways about it, but he's also cocky, arrogant, and cares more about basketball than breathing. He can be worse than you sometimes, and you're the one who takes your goddamn basketball everywhere with you. Where is that orange thing anyway?" Chad raised a hand and waved it lazily towards the piano.

"Under there." His hand came back towards Sharpay's, but he moved it to her (fake) blonde hair, and began to run his fingers through it gently.

"I was serious before. About maybe wanting you."

"Me too."

"I'll always want him more."

"Me too."

"I wish he'd want me."

"Doesn't everybody?"

"I guess. I remember when I used to stand a chance with him. Then she came."

"I hate to admit this, but I warned Troy off you. He liked you, and I told him you were dangerous. So he went to Gabriella."

"So it was all in vain."

"As much as it pains me to say, yes it was."

"Do you ever wish you didn't feel the way you did?"

"Every single day." Sharpay sighed heavily and Chad held her closer.

"You understand me more than anyone else, even Ryan, and yet we're hardly even real friends."

"I think we can consider each other friends." Sharpay shook her head, and Chad's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"I don't have friends. I have followers. I have enemies. I have lovers…occasionally. I don't have friends."

"Then what am I?"

"You're in the middle. You're halfway between enemy and lover."

"Wouldn't that be friend?"

"You're in my world now Chad, and friends don't exist here."

"Okay, say I was in your world. What would Troy be?"

"Troy would be the same as you are to me, except Troy may be slightly closer to the lover end of the line." Chad shot her a look and she smirked it off. "The sexual tension is there." He nodded slowly and unsurely, and she giggled subconsciously. They sat once again in silence, both unsure of what to say. They'd dug pretty far into each other's emotional feelings; neither was sure if the other was comfortable with going further. Thoughts and images, flashed through Sharpay's mind, thoughts and images reminding her of why she would never be with Troy. They had come pretty close to being a couple several times, but then vacations, friends and parents always seemed to get in the way. Every time Sharpay would be crushed, but not as crushed as she was now that Troy had supposedly found his soul mate, and it wasn't her.

"Do you want him to love you?"

"I want him to accept me."

"Oh."

It wasn't that simple of a question, but Sharpay was only interested in giving simple answers. She was sick. Sick and tired, of being played around by Troy freaking Bolton, hottie super-bomb extraordinaire. Thinking about it, he wasn't really all that good-looking anyway. It was the thought of being with the most popular boy in school that was appealing. That was Sharpay's opinion anyway. It was the only way she could forgive herself for submitting to the mainstream. After all, everyone loved Troy. No one loved him more than her of course, except Chad. Maybe. Chad would admit to a small minority (well, Sharpay) that he was in love with Troy, but that was as much as he would say. It was pretty clear that Chad was infatuated with Troy, but it could never really be clear how far Chad's feelings were running. It could never be clear unless he came out of the closet. Everything Sharpay knew about Chad's feelings, she had got from studying Chad's body language when interacting with Troy. It had taken hard work, and intense observation, but Sharpay had finally managed to come to a fairly simple conclusion.

"You love him."

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I am surprisingly quite proud of this. It takes a lot for me to actually be proud of what I've written, and this is something that's basically completely new to me.

I normally only write Troypay and Chadpay, but I wanted to do something different, so after reading and re-reading many of StarVitamin's great Chad/Troy fics, I wanted to experiment with the pairing. Of course, I had to slip in the slight Troypay and Chadpay (and Troyella – where the hell did that come from?) as I don't think I quite have the confidence to write entirely slash fics yet. Maybe some day.

Enough of my ranting…In and out!