(A/N Okay… I decided that I could make one more chapter for this story, tell me what yah think kay?)
I was having the worst luck ever, the plane sent my luggage to Copenhagen… where ever that was and my dad forgot to pick me up, and I only had enough cab money to take me half way home. So far no one said 'Welcome back Sharpay!' or 'How was Hollywood?' My cell phone was dead and I suddenly felt like flying back to Hollywood. I mean though I do appreciate living in a suburb of no-where-ville, but Holly wood was so much… I don't know, more alive. When I was there I interned for a film maker who was a visionary… even if no one else saw his vision, he was stubborn, rude and demanding. But those were the best two months of my life, it was like I could live, no strings attached, except for one really annoying string that I wanted to lose but I also never wanted to let go. Yep, Troy Bolton.
It kind of ended in a big flop with Troy, we just stopped hanging out. And we pretended that things never changed. I stopped pretending first, with a message in his year book that Gabriella had to push him to read. Gabriella… the perfect girl for anyone… especially for him. She was the girl no one could hate, even me. She was nice, extremely nice, and all she ever did was nice. But that was the most infuriating thing! She did nothing but be nice! All the time! She said 'nice job' to everything, the closest thing she ever said an insult was 'well… it is a really interesting idea, and I love how you put it together, it seems nice!' She was talking about a math problem that Chad got wrong. He got all excited thinking it was his best work yet until I had to come over and explain that that was Gabriella speak for 'you messed up'.
I was her friend, and I still have no intensions of not being her friend, but sometimes I just want to ask her 'Do you hate anything? Do you even remotely try to have an opinion on anything? Have you ever felt anything except pure joy towards something?' but even if I did, it wouldn't do any good, she was Paula Abdul and I was and obscure mix of Simon Cowell and Idina Menzel (She was in Rent and in the Broadway production of Wicked the musical, therefore making her my hero) . That was the way it was, and it wouldn't change. We were complete opposites, but we both wanted Troy. Scratch that, Gabriella wanted Troy, how could I blame her? Troy is the best friend any one could ask for. But I actually needed him, to at least be my friend. But at the same time, I needed to get over him. There was no Troy-patch, I couldn't make a slow, careful recovery. I had to cut myself off from all the false hopes that we would ever be friends again. But they were still there. Great, now I sound like a country song! Second time this summer… typical.
Anyways, I had to walk home, five and a half miles, in heels. Not that bad if you think about it… okay, it kind of is. I was bored out of my wits, and my feet hurt too. About two miles into the walk, I heard a familiar sound, something bouncing on the pavement. Oh, please no. Please let it not be the one thing that I didn't want to see at that moment. It was. Troy was out shooting hoops, alone. It would have been so much easier if Chad was with him, but no. He was alone.
I was pretty much trapped. I didn't want to talk to him! Not now! Not after what I wrote him in his year book! I basically spelled out the fact that we weren't friends! And I couldn't go any other way. Curse one way streets. He wasn't exactly at his cutest, he was wearing a loose grey shirt and red basket ball shorts, and he didn't change by any means, the same shaggy hair style that I'd seen and admired day after day last year, and the same one that went perfectly with Gabriella's dark hair… great now I get to think about how she's with Troy and I'm not! Oh joy. Snap out of it! I'm like ten yards away from Troy and all I can think about is him and Gabriella!? Okay… the clock was ticking and I needed something to say, fast. Maybe he wouldn't notice me, okay, like that's gonna happen. I knew Troy for 12 years, and I knew that he would want to talk to me. This sucked, especially since I couldn't not talk to Troy, something in my head just wouldn't pass up the opportunity.
"Sharpay? Is that you?" Troy asked. Oh crap! My mind went into overdrive, apparently so much that I forgot to stop walking… smooth, I know. The heel of my shoe got caught in the gap between the grass and pavement, taking me down backwards onto the sidewalk. "Are you okay?" He asked, running over to me, I sat up and touched the back of my head, no bump but I was having a throbbing head ache. Troy put his hand out for me, I took it. I knew this was a mistake, because now, there was like some kind of force field surrounding me, stopping me from escaping, and I was so close too.
"Hi." I said, unable to think of anything else… or really anything else that didn't make me look like an idiot.
"Hi." He said with a soft laugh. Ha-ha, I fell and embarrassed myself and all I could say was 'hi'. Sounds funny to me too… NOT!
We were standing like, two inches apart, I couldn't take it, if I was going to leave, I had to do it now. "Look I-"
"About what you said…" Troy started. He had obviously thought this over too.
"What about what I said?" I asked. I didn't mean to but I asked. My mind went back into overdrive… really it never left so it was more like way-overdrive.
"Um…" Troy started. His face flushed red. He Sighed. "Why? I mean, sure we haven't talked in a while-"
"We were over." I said honestly. "And you knew it. I just… spoke up first." I said. I sounded like we were a broken up couple, which we kind of were, only in a different way.
"Listen, I know things were bad, but I never, ever wanted to lose you as a friend." He said, and there cam those words no one wanted to hear 'as a friend'. I never wanted to lose him as a friend either, I just wanted to be something… different than I friend. And as soon as that caught a hold of me, we weren't friends, a life changing, heartbreaking, devastating secret had formed, officially changing our relationship forever. I always envied Troy and Gabriella's relationship, they 'broke free' from expectation of other people. Troy and I… we never cared about other people. We were conflicted within ourselves. At least now he knew what he was breaking free of. He had the upper hand, he already broke out of our little tangled, complicated, awkward friendship, I didn't, I was still stuck with the mess I made by falling for my best friend.
"I'm sorry." I said, what else was there to say? It was all my fault in the long run.
"Huh?" He asked.
"I'm sorry I messed up everything… I'm sorry this all happened, look, I get it, we were never friends, you don't owe it to me to pretend." I said, and started to walk away.
"No! Wait…" Troy started. I stopped and turned around, I really didn't see that one coming. "It wasn't entirely your fault." He said.
"Oh yeah? Well then who's fault was it that this all happened?" I asked.
Troy took a few slow-almost cautious- steps towards me. "It was mine." He said. "I was the one who ditched you, I was the one who let people think you were so icy, and I was the one who…" He stopped. "I…" He tried again, I crossed my arms, I didn't know what he was trying to say. "I was the one who fell for you." He finally said. Whoa! Okay! That was NOT what I expected. I bet if Troy didn't start talking again then someone could have donated me to a wax museum. "Look… I'm sorry, but seriously Sharpay! You're… you! Bossy, dramatic, sarcastic, intelligent you! And I'm just me… the basket ball guy! The best friend." He said.
Okay let me just ask now… DID ANY ONE SEE THIS COMING!?!?!?!? Sorry about that… but seriously! I'm talking to myself again… SPEAK YOU IDIOT SPEAK!
"And I'm just the girl next door who left for Hollywood and didn't want to come back… until now." I said. And then there it was, our kiss. It wasn't my first kiss, but it might as well have been, it felt so, I don't know- like I just connected us, like I was floating over the empty space between us that I tried so hard to create, and I landed in his arms. (A/N Oh the cheese!)
"But… Gabriella?" I asked, if that counted as a question, he got the message though.
Troy smiled sheepishly. "It was over, almost before it started. I had a crush on someone else."
I blushed. "Oh really? It was Taylor wasn't it!?" I asked, playing along (A/N AW! Their first cutely annoying couple joke!)
"Nah… Taylor is nice, but not half as Sharpay-ish as you." He said.
"ME? Sharpay-ish!? Oh please!" I joked. Troy smiled. "But really… I don't want to hurt her." I said.
"We broke up a week after you left." He said. "It doesn't matter, we're cool."
"She sends me a zillion 'We miss you beary much' teddy bear E-cards and she forgets to mention that?" I asked.
Troy laughed. "She knew it… all along I guess… she though I should be the one to tell you." He said.
I smiled, like I said, she was nice… in an infuriating way. "So… how was your summer?" He asked.
He smiled back. "It's getting better."
