Chapter three: Of Cell Phones and Lingerie
Warning: This chapter has some dark subject matter and sexual content
I'm not a medical doctor. Don't assume Gabriella's behavior is typical of someone with her condition. Her behavior is based on personal observations and research.
Gabriella was not having a good morning. First of all things were definitely not going good with Ryan. Phase two of her plan was just not going to happen. Around 7:00 AM she tried to sneak into Ryan's room to surprise him in her most skimpy lingerie. Unfortunately, Taylor was already there. Taylor was lying on Ryan's chest with his arms around her. This was not good.
At breakfast Gabriella asked why they were sharing a room when the couch in the living room was a convertible. Neither one answered her. Later on Ryan said he forgot. For some reason she didn't believe him.
Taylor was all over Ryan at breakfast. They were holding hands and touching the entire time. Taylor even grabbed a strawberry off of Ryan's plate. Gabriella didn't remember them being this close in high school. Maybe the happy pills aka her anti depressants kept her from seeing this back then. Although it may be because Taylor was with Chad and Ryan was following Sharpay as her own personal servant.
The second thing that annoyed Gabriella was she wasn't going with Ryan and Taylor to the spa. Ryan said it was because he was unable to change the reservation on short notice. Gabriella knew it was because Taylor couldn't stand being with her for more than a few minutes at a time.
Gabriella had no idea why her ex BFF hated her now. Gabriella couldn't understand why Taylor was so upset about her not calling her back after the Chad Sharpay hook up. Was this the only reason why she lost her best friend? Gabriella did not know.
The third thing that really irritated her was the fact she was spending the morning with her mother instead of with Ryan. Usually she loved spending time with her mom, but not at the moment. Her mom was going to ask too many questions that she did not want to answer such as "Are you taking your medication?" "Are you still seeing Dr. Robinson? She is one of the best psychiatrists in the area." "Are you still friends with that Mercedes girl? I really don't like her."
Every time Gabriella's mom asked one of these questions, Gabriella would change the subject without answering. Gabriella didn't want to have their mother/daughter time turned into a big fight. Unfortunately, it happened anyway. Four hours into shopping Gabriella's mom asked the wrong question.
"Are you seeing anybody new?" Gabriella's mom asked as they were walking through the junior section at Macy's.
"Why should I. This is just a break." Gabriella said as she picked up a black lace blouse from the sales rack.
"Gabriella I don't think it is." Gabriella's mother said in a very quiet voice.
What Gabriella's mom didn't tell her was she knew for a fact that this was not a break. Maria spent an hour on the phone with Troy's mom yesterday. Lucy was ranting about the fact that Troy is now engaged to that Kim girl and they have a two-year-old child together. Lucy always argued that the relationship between Kim and Troy was just lust. Maria knew better. Especially after the letter she mysteriously received early this morning.
This is why Maria was trying to prepare her daughter for when she found out her ex boyfriend was completely in love with someone else and had a kid. In Maria's mine, the only good thing about the situation was Troy broke up with Gabriella before he got back with Kim. Maria knew you couldn't fight true love.
"Troy loves me. Why else would he go to Berkeley just to be near me?"
"The Drama program and a full ride scholarship," Maria said so low that her daughter couldn't hear.
"I'm sure Troy loves you in a way, but did you ever consider the possibility that he could love somebody else?" Maria said as she put one arm around her daughter.
"Are you talking about Kim?" Gabriella noticed her mom almost go pale when she said the name.
"You know about Kim?" Maria said in a near whisper.
"Only what Taylor told me. Apparently Kim is this great first love that Troy had before he met me. I don't believe that. If there was someone before me Troy would have told me. The rumor mill would have said something on the subject."
"Gabriella the rumor mill doesn't know everything. You know I went to college with Troy's mom right. We have been friends for a really long time and she told me about Troy's former girlfriend. Troy did date Kim in high school. Lucy didn't like her because she was two years older than Troy. She somehow managed to convince Kim to leave."
What Maria didn't tell Gabriella was according to the letter that she received this morning; her so-called friend manipulated Kim into leaving. The letter also explained how Lucy used her daughter Gabriella to keep Troy from his former girlfriend. If Maria ever saw Lucy again in person, she was going to punch the woman in the face.
"If she left without a fight, that mean she doesn't love him. I have nothing to worry about." Gabriella said in complete denial.
"You are not taking your medication, are you?" The question came out of nowhere in Gabriella's mind.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Gabriella couldn't see the connection.
"You are being irrational about the entire breakup. You have been avoiding your friends for weeks. According to one of your suite mates, during midterms you went through something that resembled one of your manic stages. You've been bouncing between extremely happy and bitterly depressed four weeks now. I just don't want a repeat of what happened last time."
"What does it matter? I'm an adult now. I was depressed before because we're moving around all the time. It's hard when you have to lose your friends every few months. Now that there's some normalcy in my life I'm fine. I don't need the medication." Gabriella notice her mom's body go completely rigid at that statement.
"Gabriella your deluding yourself if you think your issues are just normal depression. You're bipolar Gabriella. Before you were diagnosed you used to lock yourself up in your room for days. You're fighting with Taylor right now for no reason. Don't you see something is seriously wrong?"
"I am fighting with Taylor right now because she is a self-righteous bitch. I'm perfectly fine." Gabriella said in her defense as she let go of her mom.
"That's what your aunt Natalie said before she jumped off a bridge three years ago."
"I am not Natalie. She was really sick. I'm not her."
"I hope not." Maria said in a barely audible whisper.
"I have to go mom. I am supposed to meet Ryan for lunch in 30 minutes." It was a lie, but Gabriella couldn't spend any more time with her mother today.
"That's fine. I'll pick you up at the hotel around seven tomorrow so you can help with everything." Maria said as Gabriella went to make her purchase.
Taylor was having a good morning. She was happy she only had to spend a few minutes with Gabriella this morning. She was also happy because she kept Gabriella from playing her game with Ryan. Gabriella could not even start the flirting routine because Taylor made sure that she was the only one touching Ryan this morning.
Taylor tried not to think about kissing Ryan last night. Taylor also tried not to think about how good it felt to wake up with him this morning. She definitely didn't think about the fact that she was holding Ryan's hand under the table all through breakfast. She briefly wondered if she was in denial like her now former boyfriend was when he started having feelings for Sharpay.
The spa was fabulous and very relaxing. The fact that Ryan said no when Gabriella asked to join them made it even better. Taylor was sure she could not relax with Gabriella at the spa.
The best part was that Ryan arranged to stay with her almost the entire time. She had no idea how he managed to pull that off. Ryan was probably the only person she felt comfortable with seeing her covered with green mud and wearing a towel.
She was currently in the chocolate body wrap. Whoever came up with the idea for chocolate beauty treatment should be rewarded greatly.
"I bet you taste good." Ryan said from beside her. For some reason the very naughty thought of Ryan running his tongue across her naked body entered her mind
"If you're a good boyfriend she may let you find out tonight. I believe your time is almost up." Sharon the spa worker said as she prepared for Taylor to leave.
"He is not my…" Taylor almost corrected her, but just couldn't do it for some reason. Taylor actually like the idea of someone thinking Ryan was her boyfriend.
"So what's next?" Taylor asked Ryan and Sharon.
"This is your last treatment here." Sharon said to Taylor.
"I thought we were spending the whole day here? " Taylor asked Ryan in surprise.
"Only in the morning, we have something else to do this afternoon. We will be doing the traditional post breakup makeover. You haven't had your yet. Even my sister completely changed her look after the Zeke break up."
"Zeke cheated on your sister by sleeping with some trashy whore for months because Sharpay wouldn't put out. She needed the makeover. My boyfriend just fell in love with someone else."
"He also made out with her a lot before he actually broke up with you and accidentally made an almost sex tape that ended up on You Tube." Taylor almost told Ryan that Gabriella posted that taped to the Internet, but she didn't want to kill the relaxing mood of the day.
"I think that's worse." Sharon said from behind her."
"Actually I don't think it is. Ryan your sister was extremely drunk and possibly stone because somebody spiked her drink when that tape was accidentally made. We both know that if Zeke had a half-naked Sharpay on top of him like that, your sister would not have fallen asleep alone that night. At least my ex boyfriend respects me as a human being to actually tell me that he fell in love with someone else." Taylor said to everyone in the room
"Was this before or after you saw video footage of Chad kissing my sister?"
"After, although you can stop the snide comments. If you remember correctly, you were the one who told everybody that Chad and Sharpay were already dating. You're brilliant lie gave Chad the idea to "pretend" to date your sister to keep Penelope from groping him. Unfortunately, for us all your sister is a method actor and decided that making out with my boyfriend was the best way to fool Penelope."
"This is another reason why you need the post breakup makeover."
"Find you win. You can't argue with an Evans can you?" Taylor said in acquiescence.
"We always get what we want one way or another."
"I know. So are we doing makeup today or are we gonna start on shopping?"
"I thought we start with the salon, then a little shopping before dinner tonight."
"I am completely at your disposal for the rest of the day as soon as I get out of the chocolate wrap."
For lunch they went to a little cafe that served the best sandwiches. She was currently eating a Mediterranean with Pesto, eggplant, and feta cheese. Unfortunately, the FMG crash the lunch. Ryan being the good person he was Invited Gabriella to join them. If Gabriella tried to put her hand on Ryan's thigh one more time Taylor was going to throw a glass of ice water on her.
"How was shopping with your mother this morning?" Taylor asked Gabriella trying to make polite conversation. For the sake of Ryan, she was going to try to avoid the arguments of yesterday. If things get really bad, she could always send snide text messages to Sharpay. Taylor wondered how things were going with Chad's mom.
"It was okay. We went to Macy's. I got this adorable new top at half price. This afternoon I am going to the New Salon for the traditional post breakup makeover." Taylor tried to keep herself from laughing.
"It's only a post break up makeover when you accept that the relationship is completely over. I don't think you're quite there yet Gabriella. You still believe that you and Troy will get back together. Troy's moved on. He doesn't love you anymore." The words came out much crueler than Taylor intended. She really just wanted Gabriella to let go. Instead, Gabriella ended up running from the table again.
They spent the next 30 minutes trying to talk a crying Gabriella out of the bathroom. The only thing that worked was the promise of chocolate chili cheesecake and letting Gabriella come with them this afternoon.
Taylor didn't remember Gabriella's moods being this sporadic. One minute she's happy, the next she's crying. At least she is not throwing things at the moment. Taylor was starting to get a little scared.
Going to the salon along with Gabriella wasn't so bad. They were getting completely different things done, so she didn't see Gabriella once during the afternoon. Taylor decided to get extensions and Gabriella was currently in another room getting highlights.
After Ryan had his roots touched up, he was sitting next to Taylor talking about his classes for next semester. Taylor didn't know if she could take a class schedule that was so physically demanding. Although Taylor did have to admit that all that dancing has done wonderful things for Ryan's body. Not that she was looking at his body this afternoon when he was lying practically naked on the massage table. Now Taylor McKessie would never do such a thing to a friend even though she was not having very just friend feelings.
Ryan absolutely hated going to the salon with Sharpay. At least he hated being with the high school version of his sister. She always made him go anyway. Things were different with Taylor. They spent most of the afternoon talking about all sorts of things that including the various schools that Taylor was looking at for next year.
After being kicked out of the last part of the makeover, he was now sitting in the waiting room reading a three-month-old issue of People magazine. Then he saw Taylor for the first time. He couldn't breathe.
He always thought she was beautiful. When he first saw her as a freshman he had a crush on her. Because of the stupid status quo he did not even bother talking to her until junior year. By that time, she was already with Chad, the supposed dumb jock. It turn out Chad's stupid jock act was the greatest performance in East High history considering Chad had an IQ of over 140.
Eventually Ryan gave up on his crush on Taylor and started dating Kelsey. He really did love Kelsey. Now that Kelsey was gone and Taylor was free maybe there was a chance.
Looking at Taylor now, she looked absolutely beautiful. He was completely speechless. She went with long layered extensions. It was a very different from her normal look. However, he loved it.
"I take it by your lack of speech that you like the new look. I thought about going with something more natural, but I don't have the energy right now. I always wanted to have really long hair."
"You look wonderful." Ryan said as he walked over to her and attempted to kiss her on the cheek. He accidentally moved a little too much and kissed her on the lips again. It really was an accident.
As Gabriella watched Taylor and Ryan interact with each other at lunch and at the salon she realized she didn't have a chance. Even if they could not see what was going on, it was obvious to her. The moment that completely pushed her out of denial was when she saw them kiss at the salon. He tried to play it off as an accident, Gabriella knew better. You don't accidentally kissed somebody like that.
As they walked into a high fashion boutique Gabriella realize that her last chance of getting back with Troy was vanishing quickly. Gabriella felt like crying in the middle of the store. Once she was safely inside the dressing room Gabriella called Mercedes in a crying panic.
"This isn't working. I think he actually likes Taylor." Gabriella told her friend in hysterics.
"If a hot girl comes on to any guy who is heterosexual, he is going to be attracted to her. It is just lust Gabriella. You have nothing to worry about. The plan will work." Mercedes said to reassure Gabriella.
"I don't know if I want to do this anymore." Gabriella admitted in a near whisper.
"So you're just going to give up?" Mercedes said in anger.
"I don't know," Gabriella said as she ended the call.
Taylor now noticed a distinct difference in Gabriella's behavior after the salon. She was quiet. Taylor was sure Gabriella was crying in the dressing room at the last store. Maybe Gabriella was starting to accept that Troy was not coming back. She almost felt sorry for Gabriella until she received a call from the boy in question.
One of Troy's teammates at Berkeley is dating one of Gabriellas sorority sisters at Stanford. Madison the sorority sister overheard a very interesting conversation between Gabriella and her roommate Mercedes. Mercedes convinced Gabriella that the only way to get Troy back was to make Troy jealous. Apparently, Gabriella decided that Ryan was the best candidate to do this. The twist was Mercedes actually has a crush on Troy and was trying to breakup Troy and Gabriella all along. Troy's teammate called him about 20 minutes ago to tell him everything going on.
"You're telling me that your ex girlfriend is purposely hitting on Ryan to make you jealous. Is she crazy, delusional, or just desperate?" Taylor didn't know whether to be mad at Gabriella or worried about her irrational behavior. High school Gabriella would never do something like this.
"I'm not sure. I'm personally going with crazy. I've tried to tell her several times that a romantic relationship between us wouldn't work. She just doesn't get it. I'm starting to wonder if something's wrong with her."
"You mean other than her being evil. It may help if you told her that you are engaged to someone else. Kim already changed her last name."
"I could make out in front of her with Kim and I don't think she would get it at this point. I'm starting to wonder if this goes beyond normal post breakup denial. Now I'm worried about Mercedes manipulating her. Mercedes reminds me of Penelope too much for my comfort. It's even possible that Mercedes convinced her to post the file to the Internet."
"Even though you guys are not together anymore I know you still care about her. If you didn't, you would not be protecting her from the wrath of Sharpay. At least you broke up with her before you got with Kim again." Taylor said with just a little bit of bitterness.
"I was in love with Kim the entire time I was with Gabriella. Maybe that's worse than cheating on her physically. Hey I got to go. Kim is upstairs waiting and Alex is with Grandfather Kim. I'll call you tomorrow."
"Because you'll be too busy with Kim tonight?"
"One can hope." That was the last thing Taylor heard before she ended the call.
Ryan was expecting shopping with Gabriella and Taylor to be 10 times worse than shopping with Sharpay. He was expecting them to fight at every store and get into a tug of war over a top. This little fantasy didn't make sense because they don't even wear the same size. As he discovered last night when he accidentally graze Taylor's breast she is more endowed then Gabriella. He was expecting absolute chaos, but that didn't happen.
After the salon, Gabriella just got really quiet. She really did not try on anything at the first store. At the second store Taylor actually had to push Gabriella inside the dressing room with something to try on.
By the time they walked into Lady Alexandria's custom lingerie Ryan didn't know what to expect. He was happy that Chad called him. Sharpay told Chad all about this little fiasco. Ryan spent the next half hour talking to Chad.
"You are with my ex girlfriend and Gabriella at a lingerie store? I think that is a new type of torture." Chad said as he laughed into the phone. "How does it feel to have two beautiful girls throwing themselves at you?"
"First of all Gabriella is the only one throwing herself at me and she stopped a couple of hours ago. Taylor is just a friend."
"As somebody who used that line for months I can honestly say that I do not believe you."
"We are not you and Sharpay."
"Yet you do denial just like your sister. Do you really think Taylor packed condoms and lingerie to pick up some stranger? Taylor doesn't do casual. It took two months before she even kissed me. It was another nine months before we did anything beyond that. We did not even talk about having sex until we were together for almost a year. We never got there because I was not ready."
"What do you mean?" Ryan really did not understand what Chad was saying.
"No wonder Kim got so frustrated with us." Ryan heard Chad say under his breath "You slept in the same bed as Taylor last night. She kissed you last night. You kissed her this afternoon."
"It was an accident." Ryan could hear Chad laughing on the other end of the line.
"Do you know how many times I accidentally kissed your sister when I was still dating Taylor? If you go online right now, you probably can find a video of one of those times. There's no such thing as accidental kissing. That's what you tell yourself when you're too afraid to admit you're falling in love with the last person you expected to."
"I'm not in love with Taylor. We are just friends. What are you implying?"
"It looks like denial is a genetic Evans family trait. We have to do this the hard way. Taylor purposely came to New York to lose her virginity to you." Ryan didn't say a word for at least a good minute.
"There's no way Taylor came here just to have sex with me." Ryan said as the shock finally wore off.
"If that is what you need to believe. Now since Jason is too young to do the overprotective brother thing, I will fill in for him. If you hurt my ex girlfriend or force her to do anything she's not ready for I will do things to you that your father threatened me with. This includes but not limited to suffocation by latex and castration."
"I understand perfectly well. What I want to know is who is going to beat you up for hurting Taylor when you cheated on her with my sister?"
"So far, the self flagellation has been working well. If you want, I will let you take a free shot when you come down for Christmas."
"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer. I got to go Gabriella is coming out."
Ryan dropped his phone in shock when he saw Gabriella come out of the dressing room wearing a black and red scrap of material that barely covered her important parts. Maybe Ryan spoke too soon when he said Gabriella stopped throwing herself at him.
By the time they enter the lingerie store Gabriella decided that she was going to give it one more try with Ryan. She wasn't going to do subtle this time. She would go for the direct approach. If this didn't work she would pack her bags and go to her mom's house for the rest of the holiday.
After putting on the most skimpy outfit in the entire store she walked up to Ryan and kissed him. When he pushed her away within seconds she knew that Ryan like Taylor as more than a friend. His words just confirmed it.
"Gabriella I just don't see you as more than a friend."
"I figure that out already." Gabriella said in a whisper. "It's okay. I already know that you have feelings for Taylor. "
"Taylor's just a friend." Ryan said to her.
"That lie won't work on me. When I tried to kiss you, Ryan you pushed me away. When you and Taylor 'accidentally' kissed this afternoon it lasted for 93 seconds. I'm pretty sure your hand went to her backside."
"She is just a friend." She started laughing at that.
"If that is what you need to tell yourself, go ahead. I'm going back to the hotel. I'll be gone by morning. Have fun with Taylor tonight. I'm going to spend the rest of the holiday at my mom's house." Gabriella said as she walked back into the dressing room.
Taylor was starting to pick up that nasty habit of eavesdropping on other people's conversations. She heard everything Ryan said to Chad. Taylor found it deeply ironic that her ex boyfriend understood her better now that they were no longer dating. Although in all honesty, they probably had a closer relationship now. They actually talk to each other, instead of just making out a lot.
She also heard Gabriella throw herself at Ryan. She was this close to pulling Gabriella off of him and telling Ryan all about her plan to use him to get back with Troy. By the time she had the door open, she saw Ryan pushed Gabriella away. From a crack in the door she watched the entire scene. Although Ryan didn't pick up on it, Taylor saw Gabriella leaving in tears. Part of her wanted to go to Gabriella.
"Is everything okay?" Taylor asked as she walked out and hugged Ryan. Taylor forgot that she was wearing a white lace article of merchandise.
"Everything's fine. Gabriella is not feeling well. She's going to go back to the hotel and we can go on to dinner. We'll leave as soon as you put back on your normal clothes." That's when Taylor realized that she was hugging Ryan dressed in a white lace negligee.
"Oh my god I forgot I was wearing this. I'm sorry." Taylor said as she ran back into the dressing room.
"It's okay. Although because you wore it out here I think that means you need to buy it."
"Yes but who would I wear it for?" Taylor was almost positive she heard Ryan say "me". Maybe that was just wishful thinking on her part.
At dinner, Ryan couldn't stop thinking about his conversation with Chad and the incident with Gabriella. There was no way Taylor was planning on sleeping with him. However, he thought back to what Gabriella said. He didn't push Taylor away. It was really an accidental kiss, why did it last so long? On the way back to the hotel, Ryan decided ask Taylor directly.
"Why did you kiss me?" That triggered Taylor's dear in headlights reaction.
"I - I mean – it was –I mean it was an accident." Her stammering told him more than her actual words.
"If I remember correctly when Chad used the same line on you a couple months ago, you responded to him by paraphrasing an Eminem song. I believe your exact words were 'What you slip, fell, and landed on her lips? There is no such thing as accidentally kissing someone.'"
"You use the same excuse this afternoon."
"I've never been known for thinking things through. Besides I am an Evans. We have a tendency to deny what's going on in front of us until it's too late. Denial is our default coping mechanism for life. If we pretend it's not happening, then we don't have to deal with it."
"That explains why your sister chased Troy around even though he was already in love with someone else and she was already falling for Chad. So tell me Ryan what's going on between me and you."
He didn't respond to her verbally. Instead his mouth was on hers. This kiss was different from there two accidental kisses. The pretense was gone. He could feel her respond to his kiss. It never felt like this with Kelsey. He was unable to describe what he was feeling right now. When they finally broke apart for air several minutes later, he let out a breathy whisper.
"Does this explain what's going on between you and me?"
"Perfectly," Taylor responded before kissing him once more. Due to the in prompted make out session in the back of the cab, Ryan ended up leaving a very generous tip.
When they made it back to the hotel room Ryan had Taylor pinned up against the front door kissing her again.
"One last question," Ryan mumbled against her neck
"What?" Taylor said in a near moan as his hands kept touching her.
"The stuff I found in your bag yesterday was for me. You were not planning to hook up with a stranger, were you?"
"I want to be with you." That was all he needed to know before he began to remove her blouse.
Gabriella was currently in her bedroom with a pillow over her head. For a four star hotel the walls were very thin. Or maybe Taylor was just really loud. She really didn't want to listen to Taylor loseing her virginity next door.
Gabriella made the mistake of opening the door when she heard Ryan and Taylor come in. On the bright side, she got a great video that she sent to Chad and Sharpay.
With Gabriella will never know is that Mr. Evans was the one who open the file when he was at the golf range with Chad and Sharpay. This resulted in Mr. Evans breaking Sharpay's cell phone by accidentally throwing it in the nearby lake."
Just when Gabriella was about to go out and throw something at the very loud lovebirds, she heard her phone rang. She thought it could have been Sharpay or Chad calling to yell at her about the video file. Instead, it was the last person she expected to ever hear from again.
"Hello Gabriella, it is Lucille. Troy's mom."
A/N: I have three family members with bipolar disorder. Not one of them behaves in the same way. Although bipolar disorder is usually diagnosed in young adults, it can be diagnosed as a teenager or child. One of my family member started showing symptoms at age 15.