I Never Knew
By mini princess93
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Ch. 3


"So, um, how was your date?" Troy asked the following Monday, his eyes steadily trained on the beige toned keyboard in front of him.

"It was alright." I answered vaguely.

I watched his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed. "Do you think you guys are going to go out again?" He shot me a split second glance before reverting his gaze to his computer screen again.

"No, probably not." I shrugged. Kevin did say 'This was fun, we should do it again,' at the end of our date but we both knew that he was just saying it to be polite. We hadn't talked since, not that I was expecting differently.

"Really?" This time, Troy fully turned to face me. His brows were raised so far that they disappeared behind his too-long bangs. "I thought you were in love with him."

"I was in love with who I thought he was. Very different story." I corrected him, shaking my head all while feeling incredibly stupid for all that wasted time.

"Was it that bad?"

"No." I disagreed. "It was okay but not something I really want to experience again."

"Really." He repeated. "So is it gonna be awkward here or something?" He added in a lower undertone.

I hadn't really thought about that. "I hope not. It's not like it was a disaster or anything but..." I trailed off, unsure of how far I could go without over sharing. "We just didn't click the same way that I thought we would." I finished.

There was a moment of an uncomfortable silence in which I reflected how different sharing personal details with guys than it was with girls. Maybe I should have thought about the fact that I was sharing a three hour shift with Troy before I opened my big mouth.

"So have you seen that new Adam Sandler movie?" Quick as a flash, Troy changed the subject. Thank goodness. And he sounded far more upbeat than he had just minutes before. Must have been a good movie.


Today was not going to be a good day and I already knew that. My alarm didn't go off and as a result, I didn't wake up until about fifteen minutes before I had to leave. After taking the quickest shower known to man, I threw on the first piece of clothing I could get my hands on which happened to be a dress that I didn't even know I owned. Well it was easier to put on than jeans so I didn't question it. I zoomed around my room, cramming various books and worksheets into my bag and in record time, I was out the door only three minutes later than when I would usually leave. It wasn't until I had actually walked into East High did I realize what I was wearing.

"Gabs, you look hot!" Sharpay squealed, the second I pushed through the glass doors.

"What are you talking abou-" I choked on my words as I looked down for the first time and saw exactly what I had picked up this morning. It was a navy blue dress that Sharpay had (accidentally?) left behind during our fashion excursion on Saturday. The sleeveless dress had a tight bodice in an eyelet material while the rest of the dress fell loosely to several inches above my knees. It wasn't particularly revealing but to me, I felt naked.

"Taylor." I tugged on my friend's arm. "Do you have something I can borrow for the rest of the day?"

Before Taylor had a chance to respond, Sharpay cut in. "Don't even think about it. You look amazing. It's not like you have anything to feel self conscious about." She told me honestly.

I sighed and rolled my eyes at her. Just then, a guy walked by, eyeing me without even trying to hid it. "Hey," He drawled, making it last much longer than entirely necessary. I shot a look at Sharpay who simply shrugged like this was nothing out of the ordinary. Then there was a slight noise of impact then an "ouch, what the fuck man?" before I turned to see the same guy, rubbing his arm and being subjected to a murderous glare courtesy of Troy. When had he gotten there?

I caught his eye briefly when I sent him a questioning stare and immediately, his eyes were cast downwards at the floor sheepishly with a faint blush tinting his cheeks. Huh? And somehow, I'd only been a school for less than five minutes and already things were...strange. Apparently, not only had I woken up late but also in this Twilight Zone-esque alternate universe?

And then the bell rang. Finally, something normal. We were making our way to homeroom with Sharpay grabbed my arm and linked it closely with hers.

"What was that?" She asked, whispering loudly. Even with her 'extra precautions', I was still pretty sure that everyone could hear her.

"What was what?"

"That!" She pointed a shiny pink fingernail at the place where I had been standing minutes before. I looked in the general direction of where she was pointing and the incredulous expression upon her face. After repeating this action a few more times, I was still feeling completely lost.

"I can honestly tell you that I have no idea what you're talking about." I said blankly to her. Was she on some kind of heavy medication?

"That thing with you and Troy!" She all but shouted, nearing hysteria. Overdramatics were her specialty. As one of her best friends, I would know.

"Shar, there was no 'thing' with me and Troy." I protested. Once again, I would know.

"He defended you. And then got all embarrassed when you caught him." She pointed out like I would know the significance of such events.

"Ohhh-kay? He's my friend. Friends defend each other."

Sharpay just nodded in that really annoying way that conveyed that she didn't believe me one bit. "Did Chad?"

"No. Troy just...got there first." I shrugged. It wasn't a big deal or anything.

"Mmm-hm. And what was Troy defending you from?" What is with all the Spanish Inquisition? It's like she's trying to force me to some point. A very very sharp point that is better left avoided.

"That guy!" Obviously, I wanted to add.

"And what was that guy doing?"

I hesitated. He actually hadn't been doing much of anything, now that I thought about it. "He was," I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of not answering at all but now that I opened my mouth, I found that the words weren't really coming to me. "Looking at me funny."

"So he was being over protective of you." Sharpay was giving me this all-knowing look that was kind of scaring me.

"Yes. Like a...brother."

"Or a boyfriend." She suggested with an evil grin on her face.

"Sharpay!" I gasped, pulling my arm from her grasp. "That's ridiculous."

She merely smirked her glossy lips. "Yeah, sure sweetie. Whatever you say."


If I had to describe lunch in one word, it would be awkward. You would think so too considering it was just Troy and I. And I didn't even have a chance to avoid it. Due to my late start this morning, there was no time for me to pack a lunch so of course I had to buy my lunch so when I walked over to the table, everyone was there. But within minutes, everybody excused themselves for one reason or another. Sharpay, Ryan and Kelsi all had some theater rehearsal, Taylor was tutoring Chad (which meant they had probably found an empty corridor to make out in), Zeke wasn't in school and Jason just...never showed up. Unusual, what with Jason's obvious affinity with food. So that left Troy and I sitting by ourselves in a normally bustling table.

It was so uncomfortable. Being together at work was one thing since we always had something else to focus on but during lunch, sitting in silence was so much worse.

"So...uhm." He coughed uncomfortably and I offered him my water bottle to which he declined. "You know that, uh, new place opening downtown?"

"Yeah, I think so." I thought about it for a second. "Nourish or something, right?"

"That's it." He sounded energized by my cooperation. "I actually heard it's pretty good."

"Really?"

"Yeah," His tongue darted out from his mouth to wet his lips. "we should go sometime."

"We should! Like, all together. It should be really fun."

"A group thing?" He said flatly, looking a little taken aback as I nodded affirmatively. "Yeah, that sounds great." Although this time, his tone was a little less enthused. He took a bite of his sandwich and furrowed his brow pensively.

I grinned at him. A good idea from Bolton, who would have thought it possible?


And apparently, my bad day received a bite from a radioactive spider because my crappy day somehow mutated into a sucky week. On Wednesday, I got a detention because my father just learned how to text and decided to test it out on his daughter. When I happened to be in a class with the crazy Ms. Cell-itary Confinement Darbus.

Thanks Dad.

Then, during gym on Thursday, an over zealous Dodgeball participant bowled me over in such a way that my ankle was in excruciating pain.

Good job asshole.

Consequently, I missed the rest of the day of school to go have it checked out since apparently, our very qualified school nurse could not accurately diagnose my injury. Missing school sounds good in theory but for me, it's not. I like school and because of that, I was always put in the most advanced classes. The kind of classes that you need to be at every single day or else you're going to get seriously lost. So missing school just gave me even more work. As if I didn't have enough already.

The good news was, Taylor had a free period after gym so she was able to drive me to the doctor's office and wait with me a for a little bit while the doctor gave me x-rays and conducted various other examinations.

So, as it turns out, I only sprained my ankle. I skipped half a day of school and with no broken limbs. Fantastic. But I still did get the Ace bandage and crutches so it wasn't a complete and total fail.

Sharpay ended up giving me a ride home (she ended having to pick up some Prozac for her mother or something?) so when I got home, I went straight to my room to elevate my leg and maybe get a head start on my missed assignments. I threw my crutches to the side, whipped off my jacket and nearly had a heart attack.

So that was a bit of an exaggeration but I did jump as best as I could in my condition. It was Troy. You heard me right.

Troy Bolton was sitting in my room.

I blinked several times to test if this was some kind of mirage or hologram. Although, I guess a hologram wouldn't actually disappear if I blinked unless it had some really complex trigger system but basically what I'm trying to say is that, I had a hard time believing that Troy was sitting there, all innocent-like. I had to say, he looked mighty out of place among the girly furniture my mother picked out; he himself was perched on an overstuffed, pink and white striped arm chair.

"Hi." He said casually, completely oblivious to my bewilderment.

"Hello." I said cautiously, hobbling over to my desk to use the desk chair for support. "Not to sound rude or anything, but what are you doing here?"

"Your mom let me in." He pointed uselessly at the doorway, supposedly in the vague direction of my mother. I stared at it for a few seconds, as if it could give me the confirmation that I needed. Believe it or not, it didn't.

"That wasn't exactly my question but I guess that's good to know too. I mean, what are you doing here? In my room." I added in case he needed the extra clarification.

"Oh. Well," He stood up and shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his well-worn jeans. "I wanted to make sure you were okay. Tay told me about what happened."

"Well, I'm fine. As you can see. It's just a sprain." I assured him, sticking out my leg as a solid piece of evidence. He stared at it then up at me before shaking himself out of his reverie.

"I see that. Um, I should probably get going." He grabbed his red and white Wildcat letterman jacket from off the back of my chair and began to walk out of my bedroom. But something had been bugging me since Sharpay had brought it up and I just had to know.

"Troy," I stopped him, the words leaving my mouth before I even realized. "You know the other day when I was wearing that...ill-advised dress? Why did you punch that kid?"

He got this look of concentration on his face, presumably trying to dig up that recent memory. "Oh that. He was...just looking at you weird. I didn't like it." He shrugged modestly. "I didn't actually hurt him that bad if that's what you're worried about."

"No, of course not. So your actions were simply justified by the fact that you were being over protective." I concluded.

"Yeah."

"Like a brother?"

He hesitated. "Yeah, sure."

"That's the same thing Sharpay said! I don't get it. What's that supposed to mean." I spun the chair around and sat down on the desk chair then stamped my good foot like an impatient child.

He sighed heavily, like the weight of the world was resting on his heavy shoulders as he ran a tired hand through his shiny bronze hair. "Maybe, I don't want to be like your brother." He gave me this long meaningful look, boring into me. And somehow I couldn't find the will to look away.

So I stared at him, I'm sure the confusion was evident on my face. My mind flashed back to the conversation I had with Sharpay about his identical topic and the other option she had given me and a realization came washing over me. He was being 'boyfriend protective'. She was more astute than I gave her credit for most of the time. It was silly since Troy wasn't actually my boyfriend but I could make that small leap and assume that he had 'boyfriend-ly feelings' toward me.

"Oh." I said simply. That was really all that I could manage with my mind reeling, shocked by this new information.

He chuckled in a forced and not-funny manner. He knew that I knew. "Now you get it?" He asked wryly.

I merely nodded. Wow, this was a lot to process. How had he- when had- what was... So many questions, so little time. Unconsciously, I glared at Troy. Here he was, this fountain of information but he had never spilled a drop for...God knows how long. "Wait," I started getting annoyed. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He was evidently surprised by my reaction. I was anything but predictable, thank you very much. "Excuse me?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" I repeated loudly. "You totally would have left here tonight without saying a word if I hadn't asked you." I shouted accusingly at him. He was so ready to just leave and to think, I almost let him!

"I thought you knew! Everyone else did. I didn't think I was that subtle."

"Haven't you figured out by now that I'm terrible with social clues? You idiot!" I shot daggers from my eyes at Troy. He made me feel really really stupid for not realizing it sooner and that was not a feeling to which I was accustomed to. I was finding that I hated this feeling. And I hated Troy right now for making me feel this way.

He looked utterly nonplussed. "This is, hands down, the fucking weirdest conversation I've ever had. And I grew up with Chad. That is really saying something."

"Don't try and change the subject." I snapped icily. From a strictly objective point of view, this was pretty bizarre. However, that wasn't exactly first thing on my list of priorities. "You're still the idiot who apparently is emotionally incapable of vocalizing a simple sentence such as...oh I don't know. 'I like you?' Or you couldn't find the balls to ask me out? Is that it?" All my frustration from this week had reached a boiling point at, what was quite possibly, the most inconvenient time.

"I tried!" He protested, eyes wide and earnest.

"When?" I scoffed, rolling my eyes. I would have picked up on it. Yes, my dating senses were a little warped but I couldn't be that slow, could I?

"The other day, when we were eating lunch together"

I blinked at him, trying to mentally flip through our shared moments. "Oh God, that whole thing about Nourish?" Troy nodded emphatically. "That has probably got to be the worst ask-out I've ever heard. I'm actually feeling almost insulted."

"Okay, well now that we've established that you're apparently immune to the 'Bolton charm' how-" He began through his gritted teeth but I cut him off before he could get too far.

"Which brings me next to my next point. Bolton charm? Is that some kind figment of your imagination?" Oh boy, I was really on a roll now.

"Thanks, you're really stroking my ego here." Troy said sarcastically, giving me this sardonic look that I thoroughly wanted to smack off his face. And I almost did but with great self restraint, which I obviously possessed, I refrained.

"Why should I? God, how have you ever had a girlfriend?" I asked incredulously. If this is how he treated the girls he wanted to date, I was kind of scared to think of what they had to go through to get him to admit anything. This was one tightly wound guy.

He groaned, falling back into my girly pink chair as his heavy head fell into his hands. "Yes, this is the conversation I've always wanted to have with the girl I love." He deadpanned dryly. His words were sarcastic but...I'm pretty sure he meant most of it.

I stopped thinking for just a second. "Love?"

He froze like he just realized what he had let slip out. "Dammit," He cursed under his breath. "...maybe?" Pause. "Fine, yes, love! Now can we please not talk about this?"

"Well too bad Buster. Deal with it. We wouldn't even be having this conversation if you had just said something earlier." I crossed my arms over my chest and reverted back to thinking about signals Troy may or may not have given out. My eyes widened as I came to another conclusion. "That's why you didn't want me to go out with Kevin."

"Yes." He admitted dully.

"All that work," I marveled "all that work just because you thought he and I were going to hit it off, get married and have little intellectual babies." I theorized, maliciously trying to provoke Troy. My eyes narrowed into thin slits but I felt a small sense of triumph as he visibly flinched. Ha, I was right.

"This is painful but, yes." Troy muttered.

"Do you know what would have been a lot less effort? Just asking me out yourself!"

"So on top of being scared out of my fucking mind that you're probably going to reject me, I have to listen to you rip on me for not saying anything sooner? Do you realize how ridiculous this is?" Troy finally exploded, looking at me, his normally perfect features crumpling in frustration.

"Of course I know how ridiculous this is. And it's all your fault." Admittedly, I was just being a bitch now but I was kind of pissed at him so I was coping the one way I knew how.

"Fine Gabriella!" He stood up suddenly, throwing his arms out to the side like he was opening himself up for target practice. "Fine. I promise that the next time that I discover that I have feelings for you, you'll be the first to know."

"That's all I ask."

"Fuck this," He muttered. Then a look of slow clarity came dawned on him like he realized what had happened, or more specifically, what hadn't happened. "So, are you rejecting me?" I had never seen Troy look so nervous. His eyes were shifting all over my face and he was twisting his hands in front of him; an obvious sign of distress.

"I didn't say that." I answered automatically.

"Okay." He paused, breathing heavily. "We've figured out how I feel about you, how do you feel about me?" He asked softly.

I blinked owlishly. How did I feel? "I don't know." I replied uncertainly, bringing one leg to sit underneath me.

He took a step closer. "Do you like me?" Even he knew it was too soon to even consider the other 'L' word.

"I don't know."

He took another step. Oh shit, he was really close. I gulped at his proximity and looked up into his face. His aquamarine eyes were peering down at me solemnly, full of...what was that? Hope? Love? Either way, I couldn't decipher it. "Do you want to be with me?" His voice was still quiet but had taken a new husky quality to it. It sounded pretty sexy, if I do say so myself.

"I don-"

"Don't know. Yeah, I got it." He rubbed his hand against the back of his neck, exhaustion illustrated with every move he made. "Just, let me know when you do."

I nodded without a word as he silently made his way out my door but I don't even know if he saw it. And now I was confused and slightly annoyed, and the cherry on top was that I felt horrible for treating Troy so badly when he hadn't really done anything that warranted such behavior. If he still loved me after all the crap I put him through, then his extreme tolerance for my hissy fits and mood swings was definitely going in the 'pro' column.

I flopped backwards onto my bed. I had a lot to think about. I pretty much didn't sleep that night. My mind stayed awake for hours just pouring over the details of Troy's and mine relationship. It was far more complicated than I ever could have thought. We had a bipolar relationship as it was but then you factor in male hormones and the whole thing goes screwy. Why did he have to go and do something as stupid as fall for me?


All of Friday, I didn't talk to him but rather studied him. To find things about him that bothered me or endeared him to me. I had to make a subjective decision and it was only fair that I had all the data to back me up. Yes he talked a lot, but he was actually kind of interesting and funny most of the time. Cheesy as hell but he had good entertainment value. The basic reasons I had for disliking several of Troy's qualities were that they were the opposite of Kevin's but it was becoming increasingly obvious that the anti-Kevin might just be exactly what I needed.

I still thought he was stupid to not make the first move but think about it, I had chosen to dress up for Kevin for three weeks (it makes me sound less pathetic when I don't mention the countless months I spent pining after him) when I could have just asked him out myself. Who knows? Maybe he would have said yes and I could have figured out that he wasn't the right guy for me a long time ago so I couldn't logically hold that against Troy for too long because in reality, I was no better than him.

But that wasn't important anymore. And the more I looked at Troy, the more I could see that he really deserved a chance. And God, he was really quite attractive, wasn't he? I never really noticed before since I had been *cough* distracted but now that I was seeing clearly, he was beyond attractive. He was drop dead gorgeous. And he liked me.

As I watched him laugh and joke with our friends from afar after school, I came to an objective decision. I could do this. It could wreck our friendship if it didn't work out but it would have already been affected by our weirdly aggressive conversation from the night before and I had a feeling that it could only get better from here.

I marched over to him and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. He whipped around, the laughter dying on his lips as he saw who disrupted them. I could see anticipation written all over his flawless features, maybe even a little fear.

"This is a tutorial: how to make the first move." With that, I cupped his jaw in my delicate hands and smashed my lips to his to which he responded almost immediately. His strong arms wrapped around my torso as he pulled me closer. Vaguely, I registered the whoops and hollers coming from our friends but I ignored them. After a lengthy kiss, I pulled away while still keeping our hands in place. "Then I would say:" I bit my lip nervously. I already knew the outcome of this situation but somehow, it didn't make it any less nerve-wracking. "I like you, Troy Bolton. I hope you like me too." I whispered to his beaming face, smiling cheekily.

He laughed out loud before swiftly leaning in and capturing my lips again. "As if you even had to ask."

The End


A/N: It's done. I'm legitimately in shock. For a while, I honestly thought this would never end due to my obvious lack of discipline. But here it is. Wow. I know their conversation in the middle part is a little long and excessive but it just kept coming out and I was kind of having fun with it. So I kept it. I hope you don't mind. And again, point out any technical errors if you find them.

I totally meant to have this up earlier today but through a small series of events, I wasn't able to. As in, my parents came home about two hours earlier than expected so I couldn't get this chapter up (and couldn't go to the pool today either. I have a mild sunglasses tan that I would really like to get rid of. Sad.) But here it is.