AN: Hi, I just want to say thank you to all those who reviewed, or alerted or favorited. I hope you enjoy this chapter. And of course, thank you so much to allllll my wonderful betas, it is so appreciated!
Disclaimer: I don't own HSM.
In May, a month before graduation, Troy broke up with his long time girlfriend, Breanna. The break up was sudden, and just as suddenly, there was a phone call.* Troy had called Gabriella and said he just wanted to hang out sometime, just him and Gabriella. The call itself was surprising, but not all together unbelievable. Troy and Gabriella ran in similar circles through high school. They went to the same parties, had occasional and unremarkable conversations; sometimes they even sat at the same lunch table. It was generally impossible for the two to avoid the other, seeing as their best friends Chad and Taylor had been dating on and off since freshman year. Though the day that Gabriella and Troy finally hung out was something different all together.
They didn't find a time that worked for both of them until after graduation. So the following Wednesday evening, Gabriella met Troy at his house. His mom was in the yard, watering the grass and the few flowers that adorned the porch. While she waited for Troy, Lucille and Gabriella spoke briefly about her university choice and how it felt to be out of school. The squeaking and gentle closing of the screen door alerted them of Troy exiting the house. He said goodbye to his mom and motioned for Gabriella to follow. Once they reached Gabriella's car Troy pulled her into him fully, embracing her in a quick hug before speaking.
"Hey." His voice was soothing and his hands slid up and down her arms as he spoke.
"Hi," Gabriella replied, somewhat surprised and struggled to keep her blush to a minimum. Her arms crossed in front of her chest – he had never done anything like this before.
Troy leaned back against the passenger side door of her car, "Give me your keys," he said simply.
Gabriella made no move to hand them over. "What? No way." If her arms weren't already crossed, they surely would have been after he made that request.
"Come on, let me drive, you don't even know where we're going. Plus, I think it's weird when girls drive guys around."
Gabriella sighed and dropped her purse from her shoulder into the crook of her elbow, and rummaged around for her keys. "You are insured, right? For other people's cars?" She dangled her keys out in front of her for him to grab.
"'Course I am, El." With a smile and a click of her automatic lock, Troy opened her door and walked around the front to the drivers seat. He turned to her as he buckled in, "Away we go. You ready?"
"It's not exactly a journey to the moon, Troy."
He turned the key in the ignition and slid in a random CD from the overhead compartment. "You're right, it's not." And with that, they were off.
The car ride was uneventful; any awkward silences were avoided by the sounds of Arcade Fire filtering through the car speakers. Gabriella noticed that at red lights Troy tapped the beat of whatever song was playing on the steering wheel, and Troy noticed that when he would brake Gabriella's right foot would press down against the floorboards, miming his own. Twenty minutes after leaving the Bolton residence they found themselves at the local mall.
"Yeah, this definitely isn't the moon," Gabriella said as she unbuckled and grabbed her purse from the back seat.
Troy shrugged and met her on the other side of the car. "Want to look around anyway? We've got nothing better to do."
He didn't wait for an answer, instead he walked towards the entrance and Gabriella simply followed. They wandered the mall, Gabriella stopping at a few stores to admire their window displays before Troy dragged her in. She wasn't really sure what to call what they were doing that Wednesday evening. The word date had never been explicitly said, but there were signs - he did open up her door when they first got in the car. And when they stopped at Jamba Juice and Gabriella reached for her wallet, Troy slid the worker his debit card and simply said "Together." Even if it wasn't a date, Gabriella knew the warmth she felt beginning to curl in her stomach when Troy lead her by the small of her back up the escalator was not something that typically happened with someone who was just a friend. They didn't end up making out against the walls near a bathroom, but Gabriella had a feeling whatever they were doing hadn't been just a casual hangout.
A few hours passed, and both Troy and Gabriella had bought nothing, with the exception of Troy's small Yankee Candle that he picked up as his mother requested.
"You want to go somewhere else now?" Troy asked.
Gabriella turned to their left; they were standing in front of the Abercrombie and Fitch. They could hear the techno music blasting inside and smell the cologne that was more than likely smothering the stores occupants, a couple of whom must have been part of East High's class of 2008. There couldn't have been a more appropriate store to make Gabriella want to leave.
"I'd love to." And with that, the two made their way back to Gabriella's car.
They drove around aimlessly for a while, neither Troy nor Gabriella was hungry so dinner was quickly ruled out, and being two semi-broke teenagers there weren't many options for dinner anyway.
Gabriella pressed the FM radio button on her car's audio consul, switching from station to station, never settling on one. She played with the window button, rolling it down, then up over and over again. Troy meanwhile, kept driving; they were now somewhere in Albuquerque's industrial district by the looks of the many large grey warehouses and Gabriella sighed.
"Troy, we're wasting gas, let's just go back."
He glanced at her face through his mirrored aviators he had put on as the sun was setting and laughed a slow, low chuckle. "Are you always this uptight Gabriella?"
She sputtered, "I'm not uptight, Troy!"
"Yeah, you kind of are."
"No! I'm not! You're not the one who has to pay for the gas you're burning away, not to mention the amount of pollution this is probably creating for the world…"
"Which I'm sure is massive," he joked, the sarcasm painfully obvious.
"Whatever," Gabriella rushed her words, hoping the urgency of her voice would make the request seem more necessary. "Look, I'm not uptight, but I am getting cramped in here so can we please just go somewhere?"
Troy took off his glasses, the sun had set enough so it was hidden behind the mountains. "Yeah, sorry, do you want to go back to my place?"
Gabriella released a breath, "Yes please."
Forty-five minutes later Troy parked Gabriella's car back where she had given him the keys all those hours ago. His mom was no longer in the garden, the porch light was on and the front door left open, only the screen door protecting the house from the insects. Together they walked up the few stairs leading to the porch and through the front door.
"Mom! Dad!" Troy called out. "They're here somewhere, their cars haven't moved all day," he said to Gabriella who was following closely behind him.
"Hey Troy," Jack Bolton said as he immerged from the kitchen with a plate of cookies and a glass of milk, "Mom wanted me to remind you to ke-", he stopped himself when he saw Troy's visitor. "Oh, hello."
Gabriella moved from behind Troy and gave a slight wave, "Hi, Mr. Bolton."
Jack smiled, "Oh, hi Gabriella! I bet you never thought you'd see me again after P.E. this last semester did you?"
Gabriella laughed a little, "Haha, I don't know, Mr. Bolton, you never can be sure."
"Please, call me Jack, after all, you're out of school now, right?"
Gabriella nodded, about to elaborate when she was interrupted.
Troy spoke up, his patience wearing thin, "Okay, Dad, well we'll be downstairs watching a movie if you need me. Tell mom her candle is on the kitchen counter, please."
"Will do. There are some cookies left in the kitchen if you two want some, Lucille just made them," he wiggled his plate of cookies towards the teens in an attempt to waft the smell.
Troy nodded his head and walked past his dad and into the kitchen, Gabriella followed. "Thanks, Dad."
"Yep," and he continued his way to the stairs. Halfway up them his head popped from over the banister, "Keep the rec room door open, and Gabriella needs to leave by two o'clock, okay?"
"Sure thing, Dad," Troy responded without bothering to look up as he gathered a plate of cookies and two glasses of milk.
"Goodnight son, goodnight Gabriella."
There was a chorus of goodnights and then silence until they heard the bedroom door upstairs close.
Troy handed her the plate of cookies and one glass of milk, "Sorry about that. I know it's weird seeing a teacher outside of school."
Gabriella shook her head no, "Don't worry about it, it wasn't bad at all."
Troy nodded, "Good. Come on, we're going down to the basement." He opened the door in the hall directly across from the kitchen and led her down the stairs into a large, fully carpeted rec room. There was a leather sectional sofa on one side facing a large screen and projector for movies, in the other was a pool table and a sparsely filled bookshelf. Troy plopped down on the couch, pulling the ottoman over to use as a table and sat his drink down on it.
"Gabi, come here," he coaxed.
She followed his request and placed to cookies next to his milk before sitting down next to him. Their hips grazed each other at first, but Gabriella moved to separate them and shifted so she was sitting crisscross facing him.
"So," he said, picking up a cookie and the two remotes for the television, "do you want to watch a movie?"
"Yeah, sure."
Troy bit into his cookie and switched on a movie, it was one of those magician movies from 2006, but she couldn't remember which. They were sitting for less than thirty minutes, until Gabriella started to fidget again. This time she moved a pillow at first, adjusting it behind her back, then on her side, then under her feet on the ottoman where they were resting.
Troy paused the movie, "You don't want to watch it, do you?"
She gave him a guilty smile, "Not really…I don't know what's gotten into me…I just can't sit still."
"Do you want to go outside? We can lay out in my backyard," Troy suggested.
Gabriella nodded her head vigorously, "That sounds wonderful!"
Once outside Troy fell down onto the grass next to the basketball court, and Gabriella followed suit.
"This is lovely, thank you Troy."
He laughed, "What do you mean, thank you? We're just outside. But I am glad it's so easy to make you happy." He let his arms fall straight out at his sides, "I love it out here…I'm really going to miss it."
"Really?" Gabriella asked in vague disbelief, "it doesn't make you remember all the times where your dad pushed you too hard?"
Troy continued to stare at the sky, "My dad did what he thought was best, and it was, I mean look where it got me…a full ride to a well known university…I can hardly complain."
Gabriella nodded.
"But that's not really why I love it out here, anyway. I love it out here because it reminds me of when everything was simpler. Chad and I used to play out here until it was almost pitch black. Not just basketball either. We would play cops and robbers, and jump on the trampoline," he laughed. "Actually, one time I was doing a flip on the trampoline and almost landed on my neck," he gestured to the trampoline-less lawn. "My mom got rid of it after that…but out here we could just be kids, you know?"
Gabriella scooted closer to him, letting her head lay on his outstretched arm to stare up at the sky with him, "Yeah," she whispered. They both paused for a beat, maybe because she had moved closer to him without being asked and her torso was currently huddled tightly against Troy's, or maybe because there was just nothing else to say. Gabriella softly laughed, "I always feel like I need to whisper when I'm looking at the stars. Have you ever seen a picture of a star up close?"
Troy shook his head no.
"They're amazing. They glow these crazy colors - they're beautiful, and they look so soft, the exact opposite of what you would expect from a place as inhospitable as the universe."
Troy looked down at Gabriella with her head resting on his bicep, shadows cast on her cheeks from the moonlight hitting her eyelashes. She looked incredibly peaceful, and all day she had said these things. These things that appeared so casual to her, but to him felt like profoundly thoughtful observations. There was no word to describe her other than perfect. He was kicking himself inwardly, then. How could he have passed someone clearly so wonderful in the hall without a second thought for four years? He didn't know the answer to his question, so instead he let his arm bend at the elbow and rested his hand on her hair.
They both were quiet then, merely enjoying each other's presence and the beauty of the stars above them.
"It's pretty crazy, huh?" he asked while drumming his fingers against her curls as if trying to gain the courage to play with her hair properly.
"What's crazy?"
"That we aren't awkward at all. I was preparing myself, you know. Ever since I called you the first time to suggest this thing, this get together, or whatever. I had thought it was going to be awkward. That I'd make terrible jokes and you wouldn't laugh so then I'd make more and…well in my mind by the end of the night I pictured you wanting to kill yourself." He paused to comprehend what just escaped his mouth. "Not that I want you to kill yourself, because I don't. At all. Ever." He paused again, "Don't kill yourself, please."
Gabriella giggled, rolling onto her side so her face was only inches away from his neck, "That little monologue was probably the only awkward moment tonight, huh?"
Troy dragged a hand down his face, "Yep, I think so. Way to go me." He waved his finger in the air like a flag.
She giggled once more, then rolled to lie on her back again, still using Troy's bicep as a pillow, "so, what do you think it means? That we're so comfortable with each other…that we have been from the get go, really."
Troy shifted so that he was lying on his side looking down at Gabriella, his hand still lying on top of her hair. "I don't know, that we should have been friends from the beginning? Why weren't we friends from the beginning?"
Gabriella laughed, though this time it was a sad laugh, a regretful laugh. "I don't know either. Maybe status quo, maybe our own stubbornness. Maybe we just never got around to it. It is a shame, though, isn't it?"
"No, not really," Troy licked his lips, "I mean we've got now, right? We've got the summer. You're going to Harvard next year, I'm going to Boston U with Chad, we can be friends now, right?"
He smiled down at her, his blue eyes sparkling and Gabriella was powerless to say no. She reached up and placed her hand on his shoulder. She let it slide down his arm, enjoying the stark difference between the cool cotton of his green t-shirt and the smooth warmth of his skin. Her hand slid down his arm feeling the contours of his elbow, his forearm, until finally her fingers danced over his knuckles before enclosing his hand in hers. In retrospect, if ever asked why she did that, Gabriella wouldn't be able to give a definite answer. It could have been a way to comfort him, because she knew in the end it would be impossible for them to really be friends. Or it could have been because there was, and always had been, a certain force drawing her to touch him. Even in school, when she walked by him in the halls her hands itched to be able to grasp his like they were now.
"Yeah, Troy, we can be friends now," she said quietly with a small smile.
Troy looked down at her and tilted his head to the right. Had she really just done that? Was he really holding her hand? He laced their fingers. Now he was holding her hand for sure. What was happening? When he called her those several weeks ago he really had no intention of kissing her on the first date, if this was a date. Is a date. But looking down at her, ebony curls fanned out on the green grass of his backyard smiling up at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes he knew he had to. His tongue darted out once more to wet his lips as he leaned down and his eyes locked on hers. She made no move to stop him, but millimeters away from Gabriella's lips Troy spoke for a final time, "I'm glad we can be friends, El," and then his lips crashed into hers. His fingers that had once been drumming against her curls now dug into her hair with relief as soon as he felt her kiss back. The kiss itself wasn't long; it was slow and probing, yet it had an urgency Gabriella was surprised to find inside herself. It was Troy who pulled away first, but it was only inches before he came back down to peck her lips quickly, though it was mostly his smile pressed against her parted lips. He rolled back over, but pulled her with him, tucked tightly in his side. Gabriella snuggled closer, the air around them getting a little chilly but she refused to move. There were no words spoken after the kiss, instead they continued to watch the sky, comforted merely by each other's presence until they both drifted off to sleep.
Around sunrise Gabriella awoke in the dewy grass of Troy's backyard. She checked her phone, 5:19 AM, and luckily no missed calls from her mother. She sat up, much to the dismay of Troy, who grumbled sleepily before his own eyes fluttered open and back closed again, not really seeing. Gabriella smiled and bent down to kiss his cheek. She lingered there, inhaling the smell of his laundry detergent and the wet grass below him before she grabbed her purse and left the Bolton's house about twenty times happier than she came.
AN: Review, please. :)