here's another update! my next update will be for my story RP. i've actually got another idea for a story but i want to finish RP before i start writing anything else and THEN there's always my sequel to RP if i want to write one. well enjoy...R&R? they make my day x3

"If I don't say this now I will surely break
As I'm leaving the one I want to take
Forgive the urgency but hurry up and wait
My heart has started to separate
Oh, oh,
Be my baby
Ohhhhh
Oh, oh
Be my baby
I'll look after you"

--Look After You, The Fray

Gabriella knocked twice instead of barging right in like she was accustomed to. Truthfully, she was afraid of what she might find on the other side of the door. She heard the floorboards creak on the other side of the wooden door which were followed by a series of coughs.

"What do you want?" A voice called from inside without even opening the door. The voice was not the voice Gabriella had grown to love. Instead it was completely unfamiliar and scary to her.

"Troy, it's Gabi," She let out a breath she didn't know she had been keeping inside.

Troy cursed quietly, rearranging the inside of the Cricker trying to hide any evidence of smoke which he found impossible. His eyes and throat burned like a raging fire. Quickly, he threw the cigarette box out of the Cricker's window, hoping that somehow Gabriella had not seen it. Opening the door only slightly so he could see that it was indeed Gabriella, he glared. "What do you want?"

She winced at his tone and stared at her sixteen-year-old best friend. This was not the Troy she knew. His eyes were blood shot, his hair messy and greasy looking. Pushing the door opened, she stepped inside. Gabriella knew that no matter how different he looked and was acting he was still the same Troy and Troy would never ever hurt her.

"What are you doing?" He demanded but Gabriella's eyes were focused on looking for the source of the smoke that she could smell.

"I think the question is, what are you doing," She snapped back and Troy sighed.

"I can explain."

"No Troy, you can't," She said and quit searching, sitting down on the hard floor of the Cricker. "You promised you'd stop this last week," she muttered softly, shaking her head.

"I um…"

"Where are they?" Gabriella asked angrily.

"Gabs calm down."

"No! I asked you a question now answer." But Troy remained silent. Lowering her voice to barely a whisper she said, "You're better than this."

Troy sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "No I'm not."

Gabriella huffed and left the Cricker. If he wasn't going to talk to her than there was no point for her to stay. As she left she lingered around the outside, searching for something she was sure she'd find. First, she let her eyes scan over the yard around the Cricker. Her eyes lit up when she finally had success. Scooping the box of cigarettes in her hand, she turned to leave the Bolton's yard, hoping to dispose of them so Troy wouldn't be able to have them.

"Hey Gabriella!" Jack Bolton called as he approached her from the backyard patio. Panicking, she clutched the box in her hands she was holding behind her back, her face becoming paler and she became nervous. Jack Bolton, having known Gabriella almost her whole life immediately noticed how odd she was acting.

She didn't notice that Troy had left the Cricker and was standing beside her, his face full of fear as he saw the situation that she was in. "Um hey..Jack," she said uneasily. Troy's eyes were as wide as saucers as Jack examined the two teenagers more thoroughly.

"What are you two up to?" He asked with a laugh, unserious.

Gabriella cleared her throat, looking for some way out of this but as she looked at Troy, she knew he had no ideas. She gasped at her stupidity as she dropped the box that was smuggled between her hands. Not going unnoticed by Jack, his eyes widened at the sight then quickly retrieved it from the ground.

"What's this?" He asked, surprise evident in his tone.

Bracing herself, Gabriella closed her eyes before opening them once again slowly. She averted her attention to Troy, looking to see if he had the intentions of telling the truth but she could tell by the way his eyes stayed glued to the ground that he was going to let Gabriella take the fall. Jack Bolton was waiting for an answer from Gabriella not knowing that he wouldn't find one there.

"They're they- they're not mine," Gabriella stuttered then bit her lip after realizing what she had implied. If they weren't hers they could only be one other persons…

"I…I-," Troy began speaking while Jack's eyes shot daggers at his son. His words were of an emotion that Gabriella didn't recognize in Troy's voice. "I hate you," he mumbled to Gabriella. The words stung like icicles on bare skin in the middle of a blizzard, crashing down and cutting through her. Then, she was numb and cold.

Troy felt hopeless and lost. It had been three days since he had last spoken to Gabriella. It had been three days since he had told he hated her. He knew that he could never hate Gabriella. He couldn't get over how stupid he felt for even listening to Chase, an older boy on his basketball team, when he told him that smoking helped calm the nerves. It had the opposite effect on Troy and even after Gabriella had told him not to do it two weeks before, he continued to do it until she caught him in the Cricker. He would do anything to take it back. Trying to call Gabriella several times, he didn't get any answer. Her voice mail recording he was beginning to memorize word for word. At the moment, he wasn't sure if he could face her. After the look he saw on her face after saying he hated her, he felt ashamed.

Contemplating whether or not he should knock on the Montez household's front door, he decided against it after seeing that all the lights were off. Most likely they were already sleeping. Before turning to leave for his house, Troy received his last strand of hope for apologizing to Gabriella when he saw a dim light coming from her window, most likely the small desk lamp that sat beside her bed. Troy smiled to himself when he reached the balcony, always finding the door unlocked. He slipped into the room quietly.

Before he even called out her name, Troy heard her even breaths from where she lay in her bed, a novel still open against her arm as she slept soundly. First, he picked up the book she had been reading and made sure to mark what page she was on because he knew how aggravating she found it when she lost the page she was on. He cleared her bed of her school books gently so he wouldn't wake her then carefully pulled the blanket to her shoulders hearing Gabriella sigh and stir while doing so. But she never woke.

Troy sat down in her computer chair, watching her sleep for a few minutes. He knew he couldn't apologize to her tonight. Swiftly, he tucked a strand of loose curly hair behind her ear before kneeling down beside her bed. As he watched his best friend he became more shocked that he could have even told her he hated her. The way he felt for Gabriella was the farthest thing from hatred. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before rising to his feet and leaning towards her ear. "I didn't mean it Brie…" Troy paused but then realized she wasn't going to say anything back. "I'm sorry."

Troy looked around the Wildcat's huddle filled with faces that were all expecting answers from him. He couldn't clear his mind though. His mind was a bulletin board tacked with thousands of different thoughts and he couldn't focus on the end of the game that he had to win so that he could enjoy his Friday night. Before he could even comprehend what he was doing, his eyes left the huddle and began searching the crowded bleachers in East High's gymnasium. Then, he saw her face. She gave him a reassuring smile and that was all it took. He smiled to himself in disbelief, not understanding how she had this effect on him sometimes. Just looking at Gabriella gave him the clarity that he needed.

"I'll be fine!" Gabriella said pushing Troy towards Chad, Jason, Zeke and other boys on his basketball team. "You can't look after me all night," She said while waving towards Taylor and Kelsi who were hanging out in the Evan's kitchen. "Go have fun, you deserve it," She told him with a smile. All the wildcats were at a party at the Evan's house, celebrating another victory. Before he could even protest, she left him in the middle of the living room which was crowded with wasted teens to meet up with her other best friends.

An hour and a half passed and Gabriella wasn't drinking. She never drank and high school parties weren't her favorite use of spare time. She kept stealing quick glances at Troy only to find him chatting the head cheerleader, Lauren Mendell. Gabriella knew that they were just talking but it still managed to give her that sick feeling in her gut everything she saw him talking to her. Basically, the reason for that was because Gabriella looked at Lauren and saw everything that she wasn't.

"Gabs, you ok?" Her friend Taylor asked as she studied her pale face.

"Yeah I just need something to drink."

"You do?" Taylor asked with concern and surprise at the same time. She and Kelsi shared a nervous glance, obviously worried about their friend. Before they could press the subject any further, a strong arm wrapped itself around Taylor, and then Chad's face appeared by her shoulder, his wild hair sticking out in all different places.

"Hey Chad," Gabriella said while taking tiny sips out of her red cup of spiked soda.

"Yo, did you catch the last part of the game?!" Chad's eyes lit up like a small child's would. "Troy was like whoa WHOA and faked and then whoa and swish and then whoa!" Chad rambled and Taylor rolled her eyes, knowing well that her boyfriend had already had perhaps one too many to drink. Gabriella laughed at the small exchange from the couple and sighed. Someday, she hoped to have someone like that.

Suddenly, she felt a light tap on her shoulder. "Gabi?"

"Justin!" Gabriella smiled and hugged her old friend tightly, the friendly hug not going unnoticed by Troy who was watching from across the room.

"So it is you. I was talking to some of the guys over there and they didn't think you'd come to something like this," He told her and Gabriella looked around to see what 'guys' he was talking about. Sure enough, she saw five guys watching her and Justin smiling. Self consciously, Gabriella smoothed out her loose fitting tank top over her skinny jeans.

"Well I'm here."

"Yea…so I was wondering if you wanted to dance?" He said while motioning towards the dance floor. She looked over Justin quickly, liking how the black tee shirt he was wearing brought out his incredible hazel eyes.

She smiled uneasily. "Yea sure," Gabriella replied, taking his hand and leading him to the dance floor.

A few songs had passed and she could now feel his warm breath on her neck and his arm wrapping tighter around her waist. Gabriella felt something moist on her neck and after a few moments, she realized it was a pair of lips. She moved out of his reach, uncomfortable with the situation. "Um I need another drink," She told Justin.

"I'll get it," He said suggestively.

"No really, it's fine, allow me."

Another hour had passed and Gabriella lost count of how much she had to drink. Troy was nowhere to be found, most likely off somewhere with Lauren. Just thinking about it made her feel sick as if she didn't feel sick enough already. What she really wanted was to be home in bed, curled up in her blankets reading a good book. Overall, she just didn't like parties.

"Gabi, is that you?" Troy asked from behind the breakfast bar in the kitchen, looking down at Gabriella who was sitting on the floor, leaning against the refrigerator.

"TROY!" Gabriella said giddily and tried to stand up, only to fall back down again which caused her to laugh.

"Wow, Gabs are you drunk?" Troy asked in bewilderment. He never thought he'd see the day when his best friend finally let go of some of her inhibitions and lived a little.

She hiccupped and giggled. "If I told you I was then would you…" She trailed off as she noticed how Troy's hair was slightly messy and another button on his shirt was undone unlike it was earlier. "Someone had some fun didn't they?"

"Yeah maybe a little too much fun," He mumbled, hoisting his friend into his arms.

"Wait, no I want to stay!" Gabriella pouted like a child.

"Oh well."

After putting up a small fight as Troy buckled Gabriella into the passenger seat, she fell asleep. Troy knew she'd regret drinking tomorrow. The ride back to her house seemed relatively quick and Troy couldn't think of how he could get her back into the house without her getting caught. There was no way he could get in without going through the front door. With Gabriella being completely drunk, he couldn't possibly get her to climb the tree that reached up to her balcony. He turned off the car after pulling into the driveway to try to think it through. Hearing Gabriella stir, Troy turned to face her.

"Hmm…Troy?"

"Shh, go back to sleep," Troy murmured and waited until she closed her eyes and drifted back into slumber. He carried her carefully to her bedroom bridal style while staying quiet so her parents wouldn't realize that their only daughter was getting in so late. "Gabs?" Troy shook her shoulders lightly after placing her on her bed. "Are you going to sleep in those clothes or…?" He didn't know if the situation could get any more awkward for him. She wasn't waking up anyway. "I think you'll be fine," He whispered practically to himself. Troy tucked Gabriella in and made sure to leave a small wastebasket near her bedside, just incase. Before leaving he sat on the edge of her bed watching her, thinking he had to make sure she was ok. He sighed and stood up.

"Troy," Gabriella called for him as he hovered over her.

"What's wrong?"

"Can you…stay with me tonight?"

Troy tensed up and then exhaled, trying to calm himself. He wanted to stay but he knew he couldn't. Moving a strand of hair from her face, he gave a disappointed smile, "Sorry Brie, but I have early Saturday morning practice."

She nodded but he wasn't sure if she actually understood. "Night," Troy said softly, leaning down and placing a kiss on her warm forehead.

Gabriella felt a smile form on her face as she barely remained awake. The moment seemed almost too familiar to her but she couldn't place where it had occurred before. Maybe once in a dream or maybe it was just a déjà vu type thing. Around her, she could feel the covers being brought up higher past her shoulders then heard the sound of his footsteps leaving her. It was the sound that she hated the most.