Two months before
"Jimmy did you use my camera again?!" I yelled to the stairs, this was typical Jimmy he would use my camera for one of his video games videos and just not return it to its original place, I just hated not to find the stuff on the place I put it before, humanity needs to understand it's not right to borrow stuff and just leave them at a random place. He walked over to the stairs with a frying pan in his hands; I think I could smell bacon, his brown hair was all over the place and his green eyes were looking back at me with such a fun sparkle, Jimmy was the typical guy next door, sweet, funny, tall, muscular but not too much and he always thought about other people's feelings.
"Yes, It's on the gaming room, next to my Xbox" He said and walked away again, I rolled my eyes at him and went to the gaming room to get it, he was just so freaking messy I couldn't stand it; I got my camera and quickly went back to my library to record. I wanted to do my book blog before I had to go to the studio. I put my camera on the right place in front of my book shelves and got the book I was about to talk about.
"So hello everyone today I have a book review for you" I threw the book in the air and caught it with my hands showing it to the camera "I'm gonna be talking about Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout. So to start off I'm gonna tell you this is a 6 book series and it's freaking amazing" I made a close up on the book "This really awesome and cool book is about a girl who is also a blogger and she just moves into this town and goes next door to ask for some directions, what she doesn't know is that her next door neighbors are freaking ALIENS!"
There was a knock on the door.
"Ugh!" I exclaimed freaking frustrated, I just had to give up I didn't have the time for booktuber stuff at the moment. Karma looked inside the room.
"Oh you were recording? I'm sorry, Tommy is on the phone" She smiled at me like she didn't just interrupt me in the middle of something important and I wouldn't be mad about it, I decided to let it go because my producer was on the phone. I sighed in frustration and turned off my camera I would have to do that some other time. Karma was giving me that weird smile that always made me want to slap her. Karma was not the typical girl next door, she was the total opposite, she was weird and a complete snob, her long black curls were wrapped up in a bun and her face was covered in makeup even though she hasn't been out of the house all day. She was also pretty proud about her Korean features.
"Fine" I told her as I just dropped the book on a couch and walked downstairs to pick up the freaking phone interrupting my 'me' time. "Hello?"
"Hey Doll" The smooth and deep voice said at the other end of the line, the anger just left my body immediately and I smiled, Karma was staring at me.
"Hey Tommy" I said and bit my nail. I was always nervous when I talked to him.
"I'm guessing you're not on your way here yet because I just called to your house" He said I could sense the smile on his face.
"No shit Sherlock" I sat on a near chair and rolled my eyes.
"Don't roll your eyes at me young lady" he chuckled "Gabs, Darius is not on a good mood you better be here soon"
"Ok I was trying to record some videos but I'll be on my way now" I brushed my black hair off my shoulder and stood up "I'll see you in ten" He chuckled again.
"Ok then doll, see you then" He hung up the phone and I did the same. I looked at Karma who was still staring at me with a stupid smile on her face.
"What?" I asked her as I walked into the kitchen and grabbed an apple, of course she followed me because she had to follow me and make my life miserable.
"You know exactly what! When are you planning on telling Tommy you love him with the passion of ten suns" She really had to go there.
"I don't love Tommy, Karma" I said. I grabbed my bag that was on top of the counter and kissed Jimmy's cheek.
"Just like you didn't love Evan last year and ended up dating him for 9 months" He said, I groaned were these people ever going to leave me alone.
"Shut up James" I said "On my defense I did loved him it's not my fault that he lives in Canada" I drank some orange juice and grabbed my car keys. Karma just kept following me around.
"Remember we're celebrating Taylor and Chad's joined sort of bachelor party tonight" She said, how I could ever forget, she doesn't talk about anything else, except of course her own wedding that will take place next year, that was Karma planning things so precisely and taking care of every single detail ever, she will never plan my wedding she would just drive me insane.
"I know, I know" I replied and tried to run away from her.
"It's a club thing so don't forget to dress like a slut" She waved at me from the front door while I jumped inside my car just shaking my head, I will move out of this house soon! That was just too much. I drove away and ate my apple on the process, last time I went to the studio without having breakfast Tommy didn't speak to me for a week and that's just a lot because well…he's my producer. I parked next to Tyler's truck, I swear he didn't want to let go of the piece of junk, when your car just stops in the middle of nowhere for NO reason or maybe for every reason possible then it's time to get rid of the thing, his truck has done both!
I walked inside the G-Records building and greeted the lovely receptionist, she always had a new flower on her desk everyday and it was funny because it was always a single flower every time, I thought it was peculiar and cute. I walked into the studio D where we had most of our sessions and greeted the guys from the band, Tyler our main guitarist was doing some riffs inside the recording cabin, he had his hair hidden inside a beanie and his blue eyes landed on me for half a second, Jessie and Tommy were discussing music on the far corner, Jessie was running a hand through her long blonde hair and batting her eyelashes like crazy, that made me feel strange, Willie our bass player was just messing around with Jason, the drums player.
"Alright let's do this" I said then everybody noticed me. Jessie ran to her keyboard with a huge smile on her face, I took a deep breath and grabbed my guitar. "I knew I left it here yesterday"
"Actually you left it at the kitchen I had to bring it here" Tommy said crossing his arms over his chest and just looking at me with an arrogant smile on his face.
"Well it's just my practice guitar, if it was one of my signed guitars then I would be freaking out" I shrugged my shoulders as I walked inside the recording cabin; Tommy sat in his usual chair and spoke into the microphone.
"No voice for now let's start with let's get serious and Tyler try to keep your solo clean please" Tommy scolded Tyler who just shrugged and rolled his eyes, they didn't really get along but he would have to suck it because Tommy was the best in the biz.
Jason counted and we started to play the song, we were just finishing recording this album and I was really excited to hear our second full album, our band The sweet thing did really great with the first one and we were just taking stuff to the next level, we already had a spot at the American Music Awards and I was so freaking excited to perform there, every important person in this business was going to be there and also the thing was televised worldwide so it was a great promotion for us. We worked hard on that song the entire morning until it was almost lunch time, I was starving, the only thing I had for breakfast was a sip of orange juice and an apple, simply not enough for me.
"Five minutes guys" Tommy said. Tyler and Willie groaned.
"I'm so hungry I could be in the hunger games" Tyler said, he scratched the back of his head.
"Oh my Gosh no! Don't do book references" I said as I put my guitar to the side. Tommy pulled me to his lap and rolled his eyes. My stomach chose that time to make a horrible sound.
"Someone is also hungry" Tommy laughed. I felt the heat rushing to my cheeks; I just looked away, stupid stomach!
"I could maybe use a sandwich or a burger or something" I shrugged like it wasn't a big deal, trust me it was.
"Let's have lunch break" He looked at his phone "It's almost lunch time anyways I don't think Darius would be mad for taking it a few minutes earlier.
"Yay" Jessie said and she laughed, she did this really weird noise with her nose and covered her mouth with her hands making us all laugh.
"I'll pay little McDonalds a visit" Jason said and Jessie and the rest agreed except for Tommy of course. My phone started to ring and I instantly picked it up without looking at the ID.
"Hello?" Tommy was rubbing my leg with his fingers, which was a huge distraction for me.
"Hey there" A sweet yet relaxed voice greeted me. It was Troy! I could recognize his voice anywhere.
"Oh hey, handsome. What's up?" I stood up from Tommy's lap and faced the door.
"Can we meet for lunch, I need to talk to someone" he sounded a little sad and I wondered why.
"Why? What's wrong?" I was worried now; Troy was a really cheerful guy, not the type to get easily sad so this was really strange.
"Let's just meet up, I'll text you the place ok" I sighed but nodded even though he couldn't see me.
"Sure then" I said "I'm on my break now"
"Great" He then hung up, it didn't take him long to text me the place he wanted us to meet, and it was close to the studio.
"I'll see you guys after lunch then" I kissed Tommy's cheek and walked outside with only my keys in my hand. I could easily walk to the place but I didn't want to be late so I just drove there, he was already waiting for me, he was sitting on a table next to the window and his stare seemed lost, I took a second to study him, his brown hair wasn't usually combed to look like it was messy and his blue eyes seemed sad. I sat in front of him and gave him one of my best smiles. "What is going on stranger?"
"Haven't see you a while right?" He smiled a little and I mentally high fived myself. "It's just…"
"I know its basketball season, you and your boy mates have to practice hard for the games" I giggled and just shook my head.
"This is going to be our year" He chuckled "again" He added.
Troy played professional basketball, but never ask me to which team, because I don't even know, I go to most of his games and always support him but I will never learn the freaking name. Chad, his long time best friend, was also on the team.
"I bet it will" I smiled. "So are you up to club party tonight?" His smile faded away and he looked down at his hands.
"I don't know about that" He looked upset. Oh no.
"What happened?" I reached for one of his hand over the table and squeezed it.
"Let's order food first" He said and that's what we did, I had a giant burger and he just ate a salad, this was really wrong. I took a bite and nearly moaned, I think I actually did a little because I looked up and Troy was staring at me kinda amused.
"What?" I said with my mouth full of food, he chuckled and then his face went dead serious.
"Sharpay broke up with me" He said. Oh my God! He didn't just say that. What?!
"Are you kidding me?!" I almost spit out my food.
"She called me this morning" He dropped his fork surprisingly mad all of a sudden "She broke up with me over the phone Gabs! She didn't even give me a good reason but I'm guessing is this new photographer she's been working with" he groaned.
"Ok let's calm down" I said "It could be anything else, a girl could have a million reasons to break up with a guy" he shook his head.
"Funny thing is I kinda saw this coming, all the late night photo shoots, all this work with the same photographer, there had to be something there" he grabbed his fork again and took his anger out on the salad.
"I'm sure it's not your lettuce's fault" He managed to give me a small smile "but you're still going tonight…right?"
"I don't know. She'll be there" He said.
"Oh come on Bolton! You sound like a girl!" I scolded him "It's your best friend's sort of kind of bachelor party, you can't miss it."
"I don't know Gabs" he played with his food like he used to when we were kids; it was a habit he had whenever he didn't agree with something.
"Troy I don't think Chad would forgive you if you miss it and besides I'll be there" I smiled "we'll have fun, have a lot of cool drinks with weird names and you'll forget she's even in the room, it'll be awesome"
"What a peculiar way to put it" he laughed "but if you put it like that then I'll be there"
"Great" I took another bite of my burger happy with myself. Everything was going to be ok, at least for that night.
…
Later that night Karma, Jimmy and I were trying get inside the freaking car, of course Karma had to pick a really weird dress to get everyone's attention but she didn't even imagine how she would get it inside the stupid car and Jimmy was now suffering the consequences. I was wearing a simple one shoulder red dress; she could've done the same but no! She really had to take it to the next level. When she was finally inside the car Jimmy looked at me breathing heavily.
"Don't look at me, I tried to talk her out of it but you know the woman" I said as I jumped into the back seat. Jimmy drove to this really packed club that Karma's cousin owned, I gotta say he was doing really good; the place had a huge line.
"I hope we're on the list because I'm not getting in that line" I said.
"Relax" Karma waved it off "We'll be fine"
"Sure" Jimmy just sighed.
We walked to the entrance of the place, and thanks God we WERE on the list, we walked inside the dark club and went to the VIP section on the second floor, everybody else was already there and had a round of drinks, and I also noticed Troy and Sharpay were sitting very far away from each other. Taylor and Chad were staring at each other looking really in love, I was so happy for them. They met through me and Troy, Troy and I were neighbors back in Albuquerque, he knew Chad since kindergarten and I met Taylor in high school, when we moved to L.A. for college Taylor went into politics and Troy and Chad got a basketball deal, so when we finally got together to hang out the sparks between Chaylor, how we liked to call them, just flew by. Taylor said she loved his afro and he said he was in love with her dark chocolate skin tone.
Three years later he asked her to marry him.
Taylor used to tell me to date Troy so that way we could have double dates and joined weddings but Troy and I didn't have that type of relationship, we were best friends almost siblings but that was it. I greeted everyone and went to sit next to Troy; he looked at me and lifted his glass.
"To the most awkward moment in my entire life" he said making me laugh, the guy was so cute sometimes.
"I'm here so don't worry" I said. I grabbed the vodka bottle and made a shot for myself. "For you" I said lifting my glass before drinking the whole thing. I felt the liquid burning down my throat but I was used to it, so I took another shot. Suddenly Happy by Pharrel Williams sounded through the speakers; I grabbed Troy's hand and stood up. "Come on let's dance"
"Oh no" He said Trying to sit back down. I pulled him harder.
"You are going to dance with me" I said and he finally gave up.
"Are you drunk already?" He asked me with a smile.
"Maybe" I said, we walked past the happy couple and I pointed a finger at Chad "You're next dude" I said, he laughed and nodded.
"Bring it on girl" He said and kissed Taylor's cheek.
Troy and I walked to the dance floor and danced the entire song with a lot of energy, I could finally see him cheering up and going back to his old self. We only took a break to order a couple of martinis. I danced all night long with everybody, I even got Sharpay to dance to Justin Timberlake who she deeply dislikes but I truly love. We did like four rounds of shots and then moved to the margaritas and to the daiquiris right after and I totally freaked out when the DJ played one of my songs!
I don't remember the moment I knew I was drunk, but oh hell I was drunk and Troy was following my steps. I didn't remember who the designated driver was but you just don't give a damn when you're that happy. I was nearly taking the cute bartender home in my pocket.
"I want one more" I said above the music. The bartender seemed to be thinking about it. "Come on cutie one more"
"No that's enough" Troy grabbed my hands and tried to pull me away from the bar.
"No! I want one more" I said again, this guy was gonna get punched in the middle of the dance floor.
"You're already drunk Gabs come on" He pulled me again and then. Take you down by Chris Brown was on and I just knew I had to dance that song, Troy knew it. "Come on dance with me" Ooh a slow jam with Troy that could be interesting.
We walked to the center of the dance floor, a few couples were there dancing really close and we imitated them, my hips were moving along with Troy and I could feel him breathing in my neck as we danced, I turned around so we would be face to face and then the song instantly changed and now it was sex room by Ludacris and Trey Songz, oh it was on! I wrapped my arms around his neck and I saw Sharpay staring at us from the second floor, I decided it was time to show her what she was missing, I pulled him closer by his shirt and danced with him like I would do with any guy I would wanna take home. Troy's cold nose was rubbing my neck and shoulder.
"You smell good" He said. I giggled and I don't even know why because it wasn't a joke, it wasn't funny; I just buried my face into his chest in response. He kissed my neck softly making me moan, God I don't know what we were doing anymore but don't let it stop. I looked up at the second floor and Sharpay was gone, I smiled and mentally high fived myself again. The song was over before we knew it and he grabbed my hand to drag me up the stairs. Sharpay didn't look very pleased.
Well that's what you get for dumping my best friend with no reason at all.
Troy sat down and pulled me into his lap, I giggled again when he buried his face on my neck, I knew I had a stupid smile on my lips, everybody was staring at me, I shrugged and grabbed the bottle of vodka.
"No, leave that" Troy said and he put the bottle down, he looked at me with his intense blue eyes I was feeling dizzy now.
"I'm not feeling very good" I whispered. He nodded and then pushed me off his lap and stood up, he didn't let go of my hand and pulled me in direction to the happy couple. They were all over each other.
"I'm taking Gabriella home" Troy told them and he did a crazy handshake with Chad, Taylor gave me a hug and I laughed. "As you can see she's had enough" Chad was the one to hug me then.
"I hope you have a great life together" I said "Have a lot of babies and unicorns so I can babysit them" Chad laughed.
"You can have some babies on your own don't you think" Chad told me.
"Oh no…I'm not baby material" I replied "I can look after them for an hour or two but I cannot have them"
"Ok then let's have some baby talk later ok" Taylor gave Troy a look and he just chuckled and pulled me out of the club.
"I really love this place, we should do this more often" I told him, we didn't hang out as much as we should of.
"Sure" Was his response, he was trying to get a cab, and still hold my hand.
"I have the feeling I will feel awful tomorrow" I laughed because deep down I knew it was true.
"I'm sure you will" he said.
"And Tommy is not going to be happy about it" I frowned I didn't want Tommy to be mad at me again. "I want a hot dog"
"I'll give you one later" He managed to find a taxi and he made me get inside. He talked to the driver and just sat back and faced me.
"Why do I get the feeling that you're kind of ignoring me" I whispered.
"Because I kind of am" he smiled and looked at me, or should I say at my lips, he was really staring at my lips like he wanted to kiss me, maybe he wanted to kiss me but why would he want that? It was just me.
"Troy?"
"Hmmm?" his eyes didn't move. I decided to be bold and close the gap between us and touch his lips with mine, it was soft at first but soon we were grabbing on to each other, breathless, his lips hungrily devoured mine, I could taste the alcohol in his tongue and a moan escaped my throat without my permission. Troy suddenly pulled away and stared at me with his bright blue eyes filled with this lust I didn't know he had and somehow I was feeling the same way. "Are you sure?" He asked me. I wasn't sure at all but my brain wasn't working and my head was nodding like crazy. He caressed my cheek and pecked my lips again before turning to the taxi driver and speaking to him again.
It was on.
…
Do you know that feeling where your eyes are popping out of your face, you're also being stabbed right in the head with a million knifes and a samurai sword and everything you ate for the last three months suddenly hated your stomach? Yes that was me in that moment, I was declaring war to the sunlight and I was contemplating becoming a freaking vampire. I tried to move but that just made my stomach feel worse besides it was like something was holding me down, I couldn't get up so I opened my eyes.
The room was completely dark thanks God, but I could still tell it wasn't my bedroom, I looked around and started to panic, this wasn't my house, I looked down to find a tanned arm wrapped around my waist. Oh my God! What did I get myself into? I turned around to face the person whose arm was almost choking me. Oh my God!
I yelled and jumped on the bed falling to the ground, that woke him up and he just looked around waiting to see a freaking ninja infiltrating in his house. I grabbed one of the white sheets and took it down with me; this was bad, this was wrong on every level possible.
"Oh my God!" I yelled. This wasn't happening, I was dreaming, I HAD to be dreaming. Troy looked at me with his intense blue eyes wide open.
"Gabs?" his sweet and innocent voice just broke my heart.
"No! No! No!" I said as I wrapped the sheet around myself and searched for my clothes, this wasn't happening. Maybe If I repeat that to myself often it will be true. "This did not happen" He took a peek under his sheet and just closed his eyes really hard and sighed.
"Gabs" He started again.
"I said no Troy!" Where was my freaking bra? "We're not doing this" I looked under the bed…nothing.
"Gabriella" he said, looks like he found his boxers and he was walking towards me, lucky bastard, I wish I found my stupid underwear, it wasn't the time to play hide and seek with me. Troy put his hands on my shoulders and shook me a little, he made me turn around so I would face him, and I just closed my eyes. "It's ok" he rubbed my arms "its fine just calm down"
I slowly opened my eyes again and looked up at him, he seemed calmed and determined, I took a deep breath before I had another panic attack, and he smiled.
"Really?" My voice sounded so weak and I hated the sound of it.
"Yeah, we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but it's fine, stop panicking" He kissed my forehead and I finally sighed kinda relieved. He wasn't mad or anything. "I'll help you get your clothes" he had a small arrogant smile on his face so I punched his arm playfully.
When my clothes stopped playing around he gave me some privacy so I could get dressed and take a moment to put my thoughts on the right place, I was so confused about last night's events, there were stuff that I could remember and stuff I couldn't, I'm never going to drink again! Never again in my life! I walked down the stairs of Troy's house and found him fighting with his coffee machine; I swear the guy could never use that thing.
"How about some Starbucks on our way to my place" I suggested, he sighed and smiled at me.
"Let me get dressed" he said and ran up the stairs again.
