A/N: Hey guys! I'm so sorry I haven't updated anything all week! If you are upset, please promptly direct your complaints to Charter, who randomly decided to upgrade their service, leaving my area without internet for a week. I was pissed. As it turns out, I'm pretty dependent on my computer.
Troy had waited until six fifteen, but now he could no longer wait anymore. She had said call her "immediately after six." If he did want to make plans with her tonight, he decided he better swallow his macho pride and call her soon. It was strange experiencing such feelings of eagerness and apprehension towards a potential date with Sharpay Evans. He'd known the girl throughout school, and it definitely felt surreal to be sitting on his old bed in his parents' house, holding the phone while working up the courage to call her.
He finally pressed send on the new addition to his contacts, listening to the dial with growing anticipation.
"Hello?" a shaky voice picked up the phone.
"Sharpay?" Troy replied, "It's Troy. Uh, Bolton." He winced. Of course she knew which Troy he was, how many Troys could she possibly know?
"Troy!" her voice immediately rose in cheer, to his relief, "Thank God you called, I really need to get out tonight."
"Oh, good." Troy mustered. She was making this surprisingly easy for him, "I was thinking I could take you out for dinner or something, and then we could play it by ear."
"Sure." Sharpay agreed, "Where should we meet?"
"I thought I'd pick you up?" Troy replied.
"No!" Sharpay said vehemently, shocking Troy.
"I'm not that bad of a driver." He joked lamely, trying to lighten the mood for his own benefit.
"Sorry." She quickly retaliated, "I, um, I don't really live in the nicest place right now… I'd be embarrassed."
"Oh!" Troy said, "Look, I understand completely. I wouldn't care at all about where you live, but if you really would feel more comfortable driving yourself, that's fine."
"Thanks." She said softly.
Troy gave her the name of the restaurant and they planned to meet there at seven thirty. Troy hung up, shaking his head. She was different than he remembered her, that was for sure. The Sharpay he'd gone to high school with would never have been self conscious about something like the place where she lived. In high school she had been utterly confident that she was perhaps the most talented artist in all of New Mexico, if not the United States, and that as far as looks went, she was God's gift to men. Anything else would have been mere trivia, with which she wouldn't have wasted her time worrying over. But evidently, that was no longer the case. He didn't know if that was to be taken as good or bad, or either for that matter.
But the strangest thing about Sharpay had to do with Troy himself. It was the fact that he hadn't been able to go to sleep last night, unable to stop thinking about her and the way she had looked and laughed and touched him at the party. He'd thought about her all day as well, bugging his parents, who wanted to spend time with him before he left, by being extremely distant while talking, and often drifting into daydreams. These daydreams had all been centered on her, trying to imagine scenarios to explain who she was now, attempting to decipher her mysteriousness that had intrigued him so much. He thought constantly throughout the day about what had lay underneath her cocktail dress and had enjoyed mentally undressing her countless times, particularly while in the shower. And he'd tried to envision what their date would be like tonight, something that was nearly impossible for him. If she didn't drink nearly as much as they both had last night, he didn't know if she would still be as easy going and laugh as much, or if she would be very serious; if she would still be identical to the girl he'd grown up with, or if she would now be a complete stranger.
Troy left his parents' house at seven, not wanting to risk being late.
"I'm leaving!" Troy shouted as he was heading for the door on his way out. Both of his parents rushed eagerly into the room, not willing to pass up a chance to interrogate their only son on one of the seldom times he was actually at home.
"Wait where are you going?" his mother asked, stepping towards him challengingly, "I was going to cook all your favorites tonight!"
"Sorry Mom, I've got a date." Troy said, holding up his hands in defense.
"Will you back here afterwards or does this mean you'll go straight back to your hotel tonight?" she was clearly disappointed in missing out on an ounce of quality time with her son.
"Back to the hotel room tonight." Troy said.
"Who is this young lady whose so important your neglecting the woman who gave you the gift of life?" she asked.
Troy looked at his dad to answer the question even though he had not been the one to ask it, "I'm going out with Sharpay Evans."
"Sharpay Evans?!" Jack Bolton exclaimed. He chuckled a little, insignificant memories suddenly being called to his attention, withdrawn from the depths of his mind. "East High's former reigning drama queen?"
"That's the one." Troy said, "We met up at the party last night, and actually had an amazing time together."
"Does she still look, you know, like she did back then?" Jack asked his son, speaking as if they were in on a private discussion, unreadable to his wife.
"Jack!" she slapped him lightly on the chest, "You're talking about a little girl!"
"She's not a little girl anymore, she's Troy's age!" he protested.
"Yeah, she's pretty damn good looking." Troy agreed.
"Troy! Don't say damn." His mother instructed.
Troy rolled his eyes, smiling at her, "Sorry Mom." He mumbled. He said his goodbyes to his parents, having to leave most of their questions unanswered in order to ensure he made it to the restaurant before Sharpay.
Troy got to the restaurant, and waited patiently on the inside for Sharpay to arrive. She walked in approximately fifteen minutes later, looking so stunning Troy's jaw hung open slightly. She was wearing a short sleeved white blouse with a high-waisted black pencil skirt, and tall black stilettos. Troy had not been a fan of the look until he saw it on her, but once he did, he loved it. It was especially alluring to Troy, because her outfit conveyed that of a woman and not of a girl, firmly drawing the line of distinction between the person Troy had known so well in the past, and the one he had only just met.
"You look amazing." Troy said. He stepped in towards her and kissed her cheek. Her skin was soft, and he let his lips linger there for just a moment longer than what might have been considered appropriate for a greeting.
When he withdrew his head, he saw that she had closed her eyes during their brief contact, and she now opened them, locking them with his own. Her eyes looked bloodshot.
"You look really tired." Troy commented. He instantly regretted saying it, wondering if it would register as an insult with her. "But beautiful!" he added, hoping to cancel out any bad connotations with his observation, "Just sleepy is all."
"I am." Sharpay said.
"Not enough sleep after the party last night, huh? I was really tired too, but I took a nap this afternoon."
"Yeah, I got home late." Sharpay said, a simple reply to a simple question.
Troy gave his name to the concierge, and they were taken back to their reserved table.
"A waiter will be with you shortly." The concierge said before leaving.
"Which car in the parking lot was yours?" Sharpay asked as soon as they were alone.
"Why?" Troy asked. It was an odd question to start a first date with, he thought.
"There were a lot of really nice cars outside this place." She said, "I want to know which one you could drive me around in."
"Porsche." Troy said, "But I'm sure none of those cars compare to the infamous Sharpay Evans pink convertible. Do you still drive that around?"
"No." Sharpay said. "I'm not seventeen anymore. I sold it." She shrugged.
"Someone actually wanted to buy a pink car with gaint SE initials on it?" Troy asked, chuckling.
"Oh. No we had it painted." Sharpay explained.
"We?" he asked.
"My parents. And me." Sharpay said.
"Ah." Troy nodded, "So what do you do now? I can't believe we never covered any of the basics last night."
"We probably did and just can't remember. I drank a little too much." Sharpay replied.
"Oh. Uh, so what do you do for a living now?" he repeated the question she had neglected to answer the first time.
"For a living? Like my job?" she asked him. He nodded, uncontrolably arching an eyebrow at her. He thought that these were standard questions for a first date or for catching up on an old companion. In his case, it was both, and he'd deemed them appropriate to stimulate conversation. But the way Sharpay responded to each question made it seem like it was an interigation segment, and that anything she said he might use to incriminate her with later. It was making both of them uncomfortable, and he hoped it was just a temporary attitude that came as part of her nature when in an unfamilar situation.
"I... uh, I'm a drama teacher." Sharpay said.
"Oh, very cool. Where?"
"Where what?" Sharpay asked, before realization dawned on her face, "Oh! You mean where do I teach? Where I work. Oh, um, East High?"
"Really?" Troy asked. He tried to speak gently to her, to calm what he supposed was nerves. "That's so cool. Wait..." Troy looked off for a second, in thought. "Do you see my dad?" he asked.
"Your dad?" Sharpay looked in shock, and a wave of understanding hit her hard, "Oh, right. He works there."
"Yeah." Troy said, "I told him I was going on a date with you, and he was asking a lot of questions about you..." Troy trailed off. Sharpay was staring down at the table, a glassy look in her eyes.
"I'm currently unemployed. I got fired from my last job. I didn't want to admit that, I thought it'd make me look like a loser." Sharpay looked up at Troy, "I'm sorry."
Troy reached out and placed a hand on hers, "Hey." he said gently. She looked on the verge of tears, a reaction Troy didn't understand. He guessed that was why she was acting so uptight towards his simple questions, but he didn't understand why they bothered her so much. Again, Troy thought of highschool Sharpay, who definitely might have lied about something like that, but only if there was something benneficial for her to gain, not merely due to self consciousness.
"It's okay." Troy said softly, "You don't have to lie about anything." he added softly, "And there's no need to want to impress me. I'm just Troy the basketball boy, remember? A lowly neanderthall, too low to even bask in the light of the dignified and talented, like you." he joked. She giggled a little and looked up to meet his eye.
"Don't take pity on me too soon Bolton, okay? I'm still kind of a bitch." she said, smiling.
"Good to hear." Troy said, laughing.
Fortunately for Troy, from that point as the night progressed her original self awareness melted away, emerging from it, a girl both confident and clever, almost an alter ego to the person he'd talked to for the first few minutes. They laughed and carried out consistent conversation throughout the course of dinner, continuing to talk long after the waiter had cleared their plates away and handed Troy the bill. They eventually became aware of frequent glances coming from the waiters, pointed ones, meant to inform them that they had long overstayed their welcome. Still, it was with great reluctance that Troy stood up from the resturant table, ending his dinner conversation with Sharpay.
"Do you need to go home now, or can we hang out a little more?" Troy asked her, both of them stepping out into the cold night air, a suprise compared to the much warmer evening they'd experienced when they entered the resturant.
"How about I go home with you?" Sharpay asked, eyeing Troy mischeviously, as she did a little hop spin dance against the exterior of the brick wall.
Troy raised his eyebrows, "Really?" he asked.
"Well, normally I wouldn't, but you're only in town for a week. We have to progress a lot sooner." Sharpay reasoned.
"I can't argue with your logic." Troy said, "I'll lead the way." He pressed the automatic unlock button on his car remote, a loud beeping noise breaking through the night air.
"I'll see you there." Sharpay said. She turned and walked away from him, and he saw her get into a black SUV. He turned the keys in his own ignition, his heart speeding up in perfect time with the starting engine of the car.
A/N: Okay there's chapter two. I just want to explain a few things:
This is going to be a dark story, as afore mentioned. However, Troy is currently in a state of blissfull ignorance in regards to Sharpay's odd behavior. I decided it made sense to let the story's mood be in synch with Troy. Also, I have greatly planned out the character's conversation, so that all of it will make sense throughout the story, and just wanted to let you guys know that nothing said by Troy or Sharpay was dialogue created without great thought process before hand. If anything seemed odd or unnatural, then it probably was intended to be.
Please review! Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed on the last chapter, they were all so very very sweet. :) xoxo.