Gabriella smiled as she looked out of her kitchen window. It was raining outside and the dark clouds hovered in the sky letting the thick shower of rain fall quickly. Gabriella finished loading the dishwasher and closed it, walking back into her family room where she was recently sitting on the couch and enjoying the fire as she read a book. She sat down once again and sighed heavily when she heard the doorbell ring. She stood up again, setting her book down on the coffee table and walked toward the front door. When she opened the wooden door a blast of cold air and the scent of mud and water floated toward her. She rolled her eyes when she saw her neighbor, Troy Bolton, standing on her front porch.
"What do you want?" Gabriella asked.
"My mom made me come over here because she knew your mom was away on business and she didn't want you here alone." He explained dully.
"I'm seventeen. I don't need protection from a rain storm." Gabriella said as she started to close the door.
Troy put his hand out to stop the door and pushed it open again as he stepped inside.
"Well, Montez, I'm not going to be nagged for the rest of the night by my mom, so get over it." He said quickly.
"You can't just walk in here." Gabriella spat.
"I just did."
"Whatever." Gabriella said as she shook her head and walked toward the family room.
Gabriella and Troy never got along. Troy wasn't nice anymore. He changed since junior year of high school and wasn't the same Troy everyone knew, but only a few people knew why and Gabriella had a pretty good idea. Now people were afraid of Troy Bolton. Chad and the basketball team were the only people that Troy was the same around, they were apparently the only ones that understood him and that he tolerated. If you weren't one of those people, you automatically got in the way and Gabriella Montez did just that.
Gabriella angrily sat back down on her couch and eyed Troy as he walked into the family room.
"You can sit by the fire. I don't want you getting the couch wet." Gabriella said as she picked her book up once again.
"Fine with me." Troy mumbled.
He sat down on the floor and leaned against the recliner that was to the side of the couch. He sighed as he examined his wet T-shirt and looked into the fire with an annoyed expression on his face. He sighed again and Gabriella ignored him as she tried to finish the end of the truth about forever. She flipped the page and read on as a few tears came to her eyes. She was always the type that cried during romantic parts in books or movies. It was just the way she was. Her mom always said it was because she longed for something like that to happen to her, that she waited for the perfect guy and for the perfect moment that was filled with love and she knew it was true every time her mom mentioned it. She looked up from her book when she heard Troy sigh again and she angrily closed her book, keeping her index finger between the pages to keep her spot.
"Can you stop?" Gabriella asked.
"Stop what?" He asked her.
"Your sighing." She said.
"Is it bugging you?"
"Yes."
"Then no."
"You're so immature." Gabriella said quietly as she opened her book again.
Troy snorted at her comment and shook his head. A few minutes passed and Gabriella was reading the last sentence of her book. She smiled as she closed it and set it gently on the table as she leaned back into the couch. She twisted her body to the side and propped her feet up on the couch pillows and looked up at the ceiling. She could feel eyes on her and she quickly turned her head to look at Troy. He slowly glanced away and looked back at the fire in an attempt to pretend that he wasn't just looking at her.
Gabriella closed her eyes and inhaled deeply as she listened to the rain.
"How can you sit in the silence?" Troy asked her.
"It's not silent." She pointed out without opening her eyes.
"Yes it is."
"Well, you're constantly sighing and it's raining, so to me it's not silent." Gabriella said quickly.
"Well, before I got here and before it started to rain it's completely silent, right?" Troy asked.
"I don't know, I guess." Gabriella sighed.
"How can you just sit here in silence?" Troy asked.
"I usually listen to music or something. I do things to keep my mind off of being alone in the house." She answered.
"That explains the dancing around in your room." Troy said with a nod.
Gabriella quickly sat up as her eyes widened.
"What?" She asked.
"When I'm leaving my house I always see you dancing around in your room." Troy explained.
"You're lying." Gabriella said quickly.
"No, I'm really not."
"You can't see through my windows from your house." She replied.
"Yes, I can. It's hard to not look, definitely when you're dancing around in your underwear."
Gabriella gasped loudly and her eyes widened even more.
"You pervert!" She exclaimed.
"You're the one who leaves the blinds open for free viewing access into your room." Troy said with a small laugh.
"Arggh! I hate you!" She said quickly.
"The feeling's mutual." He said as he rolled his eyes.
Gabriella angrily leaned back into her couch and crossed her arms across her chest. She eyed Troy as he poked the fire with the poker and watched as he moved the ashes around to give himself something to do. Troy stood up after he got bored with is recent activity and started to walk toward the hallway.
"What are you doing?" Gabriella asked.
"Going to the bathroom. Do you have a problem with that?" Troy asked.
"No." Gabriella said dully.
Troy left the room and Gabriella shook her head thinking that her evening was being ruined by her annoying neighbor. Troy came in and he was holding a Cosmo girl! magazine and was laughing quietly as he read a page.
"So, I found this page with a sticky note attached to it that said read to Taylor and I couldn't help but read it." Troy said.
Gabriella turned to look behind the couch where he was currently at and her eyes widened as she stood up. She walked over to him and tried to pull the magazine away from him, but he held it away from her and started to read a paragraph out loud.
"I couldn't believe it when he came up to me. He was so cute and when he sat down and used one of those corny pick up lines I couldn't help but laugh and now every time I see him I think of that day when I was about to cancel my get together with friends. Thank goodness I didn't because we've been dating ever since." Troy read in a girly voice.
"Troy, give it to me." Gabriella demanded.
"I remember when I first saw him…" Troy started.
Gabriella snatched the magazine away from him and hit him against his arm with it.
"You're an idiot!" She said quickly as she tried to straighten the magazine out.
"And you're a hopeless romantic. Pathetic really." Troy said with a laugh.
"Shut up." Gabriella said quickly as she threw the magazine on the couch.
"So who's the unlucky guy in your life today?" Troy asked her.
Gabriella gave him a look and he nodded slowly.
"Oh, it must have slipped my mind." Troy said with a laugh. "If I remember correctly you were dumped. Wasn't it at homecoming or something?" Troy said as he tried to look like he had actually forgotten about it.
"Prom." Gabriella whispered as she looked at him.
"That's it." Troy said with a nod. "In front of pretty much the entire school."
Gabriella became teary eyed as she thought about that horrible night. The memories came flooding back, but she wasn't about to let Troy bring her down, not even if she had to sink just as low as he did.
"Well, let's not forget about your relationship shipwreck." Gabriella spat.
Troy's smile and laugh faded and an angry expression formed on his face.
"Don't go there." Troy said as his eyes squinted into a glare.
"What was her name?" Gabriella said slowly. "Oh yeah, Jennifer. Sweet girl wasn't she? Let's see, what exactly happened? She left you right? For a college guy by the name of Bradford. Smarter, nicer, and if I say so myself, handsomer. You just couldn't live up to her needs and she left you. But who could blame her?" Gabriella asked.
"You don't know anything," Troy said quickly. "So shut up."
"No, Troy! I'm the first to give you a taste of your own medicine! You can't go around treating people like crap just because crap happened to you. It gets you nowhere and it definitely doesn't help you move on. So suck it up and stop taking it out on other people because news flash, Troy, I'm not afraid of you and no matter what you do you can never make it happen." Gabriella shouted as her
Troy looked at her angrily and before she could do anything more he pushed her up against the wall and kissed her with more passion than she ever felt before. He pulled away from her and looked her in her eyes. She didn't say anything as she looked into his eyes and she breathed heavily as he leaned toward her ear.
"Are you afraid of me now?" He asked her, his breath against her neck made her shiver and his grip on her waist became tighter as she answered him.
"Never." She said.
And with that Troy Bolton smiled a smile only meant for her and kissed her back the way he always wanted to kiss her and surprisingly she kissed him back as well deepening the kiss as she put her arms around his neck.
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unknownbyhim22