A/N: So here's the last of my new oneshots. I guess it would be a strong T for the implications of mature themes, but there's nothing close to explicit at all. Um, well, not much else. It's obviously AU, but most of the stories here are anyway. Obviously Troy and Chad are a little more edgy here than they are in the real HSM, but that's implied. Well, Enjoy! R&R! Thanks! –Mac
Disclaimer: I don't own HSM.
In My Dreams
Her lips pressed urgently against his, her hands crawling along his skin. He buried his hands in her hair and pulled her to him. They weren't close enough, couldn't get close enough.
His lips found her neck, and pressed against her pulse, which was beating rapidly. The breathy sighs she was emitting against his ear were going to undo him. His hands moved to the hem of her shirt and began to pull it upward—
Troy jerked straight up in his bed. He was drenched in sweat and oddly tangled in his sheets—though that was probably the least of his problems. He fell back against his pillows, a deep, frustrated groan sounding in his throat. His hands came up to rub his closed eyes—an action meant to cleanse him of the racy images and calm his rapidly beating heart. He rolled his head to the side to glance at his bedside table clock. He groaned again.
One thing Troy was sure of, he couldn't take much more of these middle of the night fantasies his mind kept producing. He was losing sleep over things that had no chance of happening—but that's what happens when a person has those kinds of feelings for their best friend.
- - - -
When Troy came into school the next morning, he was exhausted. After jerking awake from the dream, he hadn't been able to get back to sleep. He had been afraid to in case further sleep brought more images of bare skin and fiery kisses. He shuddered at just the thought of what it would fell like in reality. That train of thought had to be halted as he walked down the school hallway. He couldn't risk having those thoughts when he saw her in person.
Troy reached his locker and began to spin in his combination. As he pulled his locker open, Chad skidded to a stop next to him. Chad, as always, had a basketball in hand and was tossing it back and forth between his hands as he greeted his friend.
"Hey Troy, man—you look like hell." Chad replied, bluntly.
"Thanks." Troy rolled his eyes, knowing that tact had never been one of Chad's high points. "I didn't get much sleep last night."
"Or the night before, or the night before that." Chad continued where Troy left off. "The dreams again, I would imagine."
"Yeah." Troy nodded, as he grabbed a couple of things he needed from his locker and shoved them into his bag. He swung his bag over his shoulder and slammed his locker shut. Chad tossed him the basketball as they began to walk down the hallway toward their homeroom class. "But I don't know how to make them stop."
Chad raised an eyebrow, "I think you know exactly how to make them stop."
"It's not going to happen."
"Well, this is what happens when you make a friend out of a girl you're attracted to." Chad stated, putting his hands out to receive the ball. Troy tossed it to him, as they came up to where Gabriella and Taylor's lockers were. "Like Taylor, mmhmm, we couldn't possibly be just friends with the chemistry between us."
Troy rolled his eyes, "Got any real advice?"
"Get laid." Chad responded, "If not by your dream girl than by any of the numerous willing candidates."
"Thanks." Troy called sarcastically.
With that Chad walked over to where Gabriella and Taylor stood. Chad slipped an arm around Taylor's shoulders and started to guide her down the hall. Gabriella glanced at Taylor and Chad walking away and then in the opposite direction down the hall at Troy. She smiled brightly and waved. Troy waved back, before starting toward her. He joined Gabriella at her locker as she collected her books and notebooks from her locker.
"Hey Gabby." Troy greeted.
"Troy." Gabriella reciprocated. "How are you this morning?"
"Tired?" Troy shrugged, leaning against the locker next to hers.
"Ready for the math test?" Gabriella asked as she closed her locker.
"Which will make you more angry, if I lie and say I am or if I truthfully tell you I didn't study?" Troy cringed away from Gabriella as she flipped around to scold him.
"Troy, I can't believe—"
"Hey Troy!" A couple of cheerleaders chorused as they passed by, waggling their fingers in a flirtatious wave.
Troy gave a short nod in response. There had been a time when girls like that enthused him, but that was back before Gabriella Montez arrived at East High, back before all of Troy's charms and perfected moves had failed to earn him a date with the beauty, back before he had decided that being her best friend was better than nothing, and back before his dreams were plagued with her presence. Troy was no longer interested in the façade of a relationship those kinds of girls offered. He wanted something more than that—and Gabriella had been a major motivation in that.
Gabriella crinkled her nose, shouldered her bag and started down the hall. Troy had to take a few quick strides to catch up with her. She turned her eyes to him as she said, "Those girls like you."
"Everybody likes me." Troy groaned, then his eyes widened, "I didn't mean for that to sound so conceited."
"I know what you meant."
"It's just, everybody expects me to be this suave ladies man." Troy stated.
"You used to be." Gabriella responded.
Troy shrugged, "I'm over it. Tired of the stereotype I guess."
"A few months ago you would have been all over girls like that. What changed?" Gabriella asked.
"I don't know. It just changed." Troy answered, and then changed the subject—because any longer on that topic and he might just let something slip. "Come on, before we're late and Darbus has a hissy fit."
- - - -
He fell back onto the bed. A moment later she was crawling over him. A smile formed on his lips as her body met his. She kissed him quickly, before moving her lips down to press feather light kisses along his jaw line and neck. Her hands wandered down his chest until they found the edge of his shirt. They slipped under the cloth and left a trail of fire in their wake. His hands clutched at her waist as he fought to control his breathing.
Then her hands began to pull at his shirt, clumsily and somewhat impatiently. He sat up slightly to allow her to pull his shirt over his head. She tossed it absentmindedly over her shoulder before leaning back down to kiss him again.
She began to trail kisses down his neck, his chest—her body sliding down his to kiss his stomach. Her hands began to fiddle with his belt buckle. "Troy." She moaned, "Troy."
"Troy!" Gabriella whispered sharply.
Troy lifted his head and shook his shoulders to get her to stop poking him. She sighed, "It's about time. I know it's just a study hall but come on, at least stay conscious."
"Sorry." Troy mumbled, pushing his hair out of his face and rubbing his face. His body was still warm with excitement from the images, and his heart felt like it was thundering straight out of his chest. He slowly became aware of where he was—the library, study hall, sitting right next to Gabriella while he fantasized about doing deliciously forbidden things to her. "How long have I been asleep?"
"Nearly twenty minutes, more if you count in how long I've been trying to wake you up." Gabriella commented, her attention on the open notebook in front of her. It registered that it was probably the English paper they had been assigned that afternoon and wasn't due for over a week, as she furiously scribbled away.
"Sorry." Troy repeated sheepishly. He was then suddenly aware of how close she was. He stood abruptly and Gabriella looked up at him, frowning. He offered the first explanation that came to mind, "I think I'm going to look for something to read."
"Troy Bolton, reading, for your own personal pleasure?" Gabriella smiled and cocked an eyebrow. "I never thought I'd see the day."
Troy tried to focus on what she said without showing any reaction to the double meaning the words 'your own personal pleasure' held only in his mind. "I was thinking magazine rack."
"I should have known." Gabriella shook her head, a small smile still dancing across her lips as he walked away.
Once Troy was safely on the other side of one of the rows of books and out of Gabriella's sight, he let out a strangled sigh. With his dream still fresh in his mind, he couldn't spend much more time near her than he had without pouncing on her and kissing her senseless—something he was pretty sure she wouldn't appreciate. He couldn't take much more of these dreams. They were becoming dangerous. If he was going to be falling asleep in class where a majority of the time he was in close proximity to Gabriella, he would run the risk of doing something he would regret.
It had been so much easier when he could live with dating a different girl every week. He didn't worry about making the wrong move or being rejected. Those girls would fall at his feet for a chance to date him. It was Gabriella's rejection of him that changed all that. She was different, a challenge. A challenge he had failed—repeatedly. Yet, instead of continuing a losing battle, he became her friend and started to change. But apparently the sexual tension had overcome him and manifested itself into these dreams. They were difficult to fight and he knew that eventually he would need to do something about them.
- - - -
They stumbled through his bedroom door, kissing heatedly. The door was slammed shut behind them, and a second later he picked her up and pressed her against the door. Her legs wrapped tightly around his waist, pulling him in closer to her. She wound her hands into his hair holding his lips to her hers. She rolled her hips slightly, and he groaned against her lips.
"Bed." She murmured as his lips came down to kiss her neck and his hands attempted to unbutton her shirt.
He shook his head, "Too far."
She grinned in that sexy way of hers, eyes half lidded, "It's two, three feet away."
"Still."
He lifted his head to meet her eyes, before kissing her deeply. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. The kiss was slower than before and had much more feeling behind it. The intensity was amazing. When the need for air became too much, they broke apart.
She let out a breathy sigh and continued to stare into his eyes, "I love you."
"I love you too."
Troy jerked awake once again, very aware of the little development that had occurred. His body shook with the emotion that lingered as the dream faded. He felt the sudden need to see her. He threw off his covers and moved around his room trying to not make a lot of noise as he searched for clothes. Once he was suitable, he pulled on a jacket and snuck out of his house.
As he walked the distance to Gabriella's house, he knew what he was doing was terribly stupid but he couldn't stop himself. His brain was telling him it was the middle of the night, she was going to be asleep, she would kick him out, he would get in trouble; but another part of his body was pounding out its message and it was stronger.
It didn't take him long to reach her house. Trying not to make too much noise, he slipped into her backyard and headed for the tree. He had completed this route so many times, it was natural to him. He climbed the tree easily, even in the dark. Once on the balcony, he took a deep breath and went for it.
- - - -
Gabriella woke to the sound of her cell phone ringing. It was the ring tone preprogrammed to Troy's phone number—so she couldn't very well ignore it. She didn't have to move much to grab her phone off her bedside table. She flipped it open and put it up to her ear.
"Is something wrong, Troy?" Gabriella asked, immediately foregoing a greeting.
"Not exactly." Troy responded, "I'm on your balcony, can you let me in?"
Gabriella sat up and turned on her lamp. It shone enough light to show her a silhouette of Troy's figure on her balcony. She scrambled to the door and slid it open for him. They hung up simultaneously and Troy stepped inside her room. She tried to close the door without making too much noise—the last thing she wanted was to wake up her mother. Once her door was closed, she turned to Troy.
"Why are you here?" She asked, it would have been rude from anyone else, but coming from her it was just concern.
"I needed to talk to you." Troy answered honestly.
Gabriella tilted her head to the side, "About what? Is it a girl? Do you need advice? Were you out tonight? It's a school night you know."
"No." Troy shook his head. "About us, you and me."
"What about us?"
"Remember when you first moved to Albuquerque? How I was puling out all the stops to try and get you to go out with me?" Troy began.
"Of course."
"You always turned me down and that changed me. I was full of myself back then, I will admit. I thought I could have anything I wanted, whenever I wanted. Your rejection showed me I wasn't the perfect playboy everyone made me out to be. But that's not the point." Troy paused, "The point is I wanted you back then and I thought I had gotten over it, but lately I've been dreaming about you."
"I don't understand."
"All I know is you love me in my dreams. In my dreams, your kiss is intoxicating. In my dreams, your body fits against mine as if they were made for each other. In my dreams, you can't keep your hands off me anymore than I can off you. And most importantly, in my dreams, I am crazy about you." With each admission, Troy had taken a step closer to her, until he was right in front of her. "The only problem is, well, that last one isn't exactly limited to just my dreams."
Gabriella stared up at him with wide eyes, "What do you mean?"
"I love you Gabby, every second of everyday—awake or asleep." Troy finished.
"Troy—"
"I just thought it was about time I got around to telling you that."
Gabriella smiled, "At two in the morning?"
"I couldn't sleep." Troy shrugged, "I couldn't wait."
"Dreaming of me?"
"Dreaming of you." Troy nodded. "Always of you."
"You know." Gabriella began, taking a single step closer to Troy and leaving only a foot of distance between them. "You're the star of all my dreams too."
"Really?"
"I've always had feelings for you Troy, I just didn't want to be the girl that got dumped after a couple weeks." Gabriella explained, "But you're right, you are different. Still, there isn't a part of you I don't love."
Troy smiled and then without further hesitation he took her in his arms and kissed her. When he pulled back he chuckled lightly, "That was much better than in my dreams."