4. I've got it all under control.

"Ella, have I told you how confusing it is when you call the dog over by you but then I think that you're actually calling me?" Troy asked lightly as he entered his living room, carrying two plates filled with macaroni and cheese.

Gabriella smiled up at him, and it was when he saw the smile on her face that he was reminded of the reason why he actually planned that night.

Troy Junior perked his head up from the floor. He was busy lying in his dog bed, contently chewing on his dog bone that Gabriella insisted on giving him. Gabriella leaned over the couches edge and patted Troy Junior on the head.

"I'm sorry baby. You know that I'm trying to train him to answer to the name TJ. He's just not picking up the concept of answering me back." Gabriella wrapped her arms around Troy when he sat down, gently pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"I know," Troy said before giving Gabriella her plate of food. "He's really come a long way, hasn't he?"

Gabriella beamed with pride. "Yup. I have to admit that I'm a little surprised that you're actually participating in the training though."

Troy settled his arm around Gabriella's shoulders while he rested his plate of food in his lap. "Well it seems TJ is too. I don't think he likes it when I keep you all to myself." Troy chuckled as he remembered numerous times where Gabriella and he just wanted to be alone, but then Troy Junior intervened by jumping in the middle.

Gabriella looked at Troy with a smile he knew all too well. He smirked as he carefully ran his knuckles across her cheek. "I have a surprise for you, but I'll need your help, and maybe Chad's with setting it up."

"I'm very intrigued now," Troy said with amusement at how excited Gabriella sounded. "What's the big surprise?"

Troy had no clue that Gabriella would present him with a surprise since he had his own surprise of his own. He was going to ask her to move in with him. It only made sense that they move in together because they spent most of their time at his apartment anyways. Besides, they had Troy Junior to take care of and they couldn't bring him to Gabriella's place, and so Troy's apartment would have to be okay for the couple for the time being to live in.

"I bought a new TV!" Gabriella paused, waiting for Troy's reaction which never came, and so she started to ramble. "It's a plasma fifty inch TV which will go perfectly in my new entertainment center. It's so much bigger than my TV now, and when I went into Best Buy yesterday the saleslady was so nice, and now I have a new TV. You'll love it Troy."

If he wasn't about to ask her to move in with him then he would have been thrilled. He was a guy who loved electronics. Since he started taking over his father's business he found that playing games with Chad seemed to take stress away, and it helped if they had a good TV to use. Gabriella was providing an excellent TV, but now Troy just saw it as an inconvenience. If the TV was set up then that meant she was getting even cozier in her apartment, and if she got cozier then she wouldn't want to leave.

Troy couldn't think of a reason for Gabriella wanting to move in with him if he helped her set up her new TV.

"Troy?" Gabriella asked with worry.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Yeah?"

"You zoned out. So what do you think? Can you help set it up tomorrow?"

Troy gritted his teeth and forced a smile. "Yeah El. Of course I can help. I'll even provide lunch for us. We'll have a picnic in your living room."

Gabriella smiled gleefully. "Thank you so much, but you can't forget that we have to get ready for your brother's birthday party. We have to leave around four so that way we can get to the party by seven."

Troy shut his eyes in annoyance. "I totally forgot about that. I can't believe Dylan is going to be nineteen. Did we get him a gift? You know I hate just giving money and gift cards."

Gabriella finished chewing the food in her mouth. "We got him a couple of shirts, a pair of nice sunglasses, and two tickets to a basketball game that consists of his favorite team playing."

"Good," Troy murmured as he thought of what Gabriella said. He was so thankful that she was around to remember things like this. He felt guilty for forgetting about his brother's birthday. Although they were eight years apart, Troy and Dylan were close and not getting him a gift would have upset Troy more.

Gabriella leaned in so that her mouth was right by Troy's ear. "Also, after all the adults leave and we're alone with Dylan, you can give him the pack of beer that I put in your closet earlier this week," Gabriella whispered while nibbling lightly on Troy's earlobe.

Troy grinned. "Dylan loves you already, and now you're tempting him with beer? My parents would kill me if they found out that we're giving him alcohol."

"So you think it's a bad idea? I mean, he's not exactly innocent and your parents know that, but—"

"I think it's perfect." Troy cut Gabriella off with a kiss. "Thank you so much for taking care of this."

Gabriella smiled while turning back to her food. "No problem. Dylan's like a brother to me too, and so it's only natural that I would pick out a birthday gift."

"You spoil me too much," Troy said cheekily, all thoughts of his plan failing being pushed to the back of his mind.

"Well now we just have to make sure that you're on time tomorrow to set up my TV and then we can spend a nice romantic lunch together," Gabriella said.

Troy hadn't woken up the next morning because Gabriella accidentally kicked him. He hadn't woken up because the alarm went off at a ridiculous hour. And he most certainly hadn't woken up because Gabriella surprised him with a morning blowjob. Instead, he was wide awake because of Troy Junior's constant licking of the face.

Troy knew that this day wasn't going to be a good one. Instead of packing and spending a calm day with Gabriella, he was going to be helping her settle into her apartment even more. His plan of slowly drawing her out of her home did not work, and now he was supposed to act okay with the situation. Of course, telling her about his feelings and unsaid plan was out of the picture. There was just no way that he could tell her that he wanted her to move in without her freaking out on him about buying something as big as a TV. Especially for what she paid for the TV, she would not want to move now.

After being woken up Troy went through his usual morning routine for the day. He ate a light breakfast, went to the gym, and then showered. He opted to just wear baggy blue jeans and a t-shirt from college, knowing that he could always change in the car that was taking him to his brother's birthday party up North. That was one of the perks that came with being wealthy in the city; Gabriella and he no longer had to worry about driving themselves when traveling longer distances than normal. Instead, they could hire a driver and car since the Boltons had a car service on call at all hours of the day.

But just as Troy was about to leave for Gabriella's, he noticed that something didn't smell right in his apartment. He looked around for Troy Junior, but he was nowhere to be seen. Troy had a funny feeling in his stomach which always sent alarms going off in his head. It wasn't until Troy located Troy Junior in his bedroom that he knew why the apartment smelled funny.

Troy Junior had decided that Troy's bed was his new bathroom.

And so when Troy had finally been able to leave his house after putting all of his bed blankets in the laundry he knew he was already forty minutes late. When he knocked lightly on Gabriella's door and opened it without much effort he knew that she wouldn't be happy. She hated when people weren't on time. It was one of her biggest pet peeves.

"Ella, I'm here now," Troy called out as he located the TV box in the middle of her living room.

Gabriella came strolling down the hallway, wearing nothing but a towel that reached only her mid-thigh. Her hair was down in wet natural curls, and her eyes read danger.

She didn't comment on how late he was though. Troy could only hope that she saw how tired he was. After all, he only received five hours of sleep compared to his usual eight, and he prayed that maybe she would take pity on him.

"The stuff's in the living room already. Everything you need should be there." Gabriella looked Troy over and he gave her a weak smile.

It was bad enough that he didn't want to be at her place setting up the stupid TV, but now he knew that she was annoyed with him for being late, and he didn't blame her. If she was forty minutes late without a phone call then he would be a little upset too.

"I tried to call from the cab but it seems as if my phone decided to die on me. I have to charge it here," Troy explained with a little edge to his voice. He was already getting defensive as if Gabriella had yelled at him, but she hadn't.

"You know you're welcome to anything here. That includes using my electricity," Gabriella matched his tone. She couldn't help that she felt a little annoyed. The day before Troy went on and on about how perfect their afternoon would be, but then he was forty minutes late, and he knew that was her biggest pet peeve.

"I'll just get started then." He then added under his breath, "I want to get this over with."

"Did you say something?" Gabriella called to him as she made her way to her kitchen. "Did you want anything to drink?"

"Water would be good, thanks," he called back to her before settling himself down on the floor, next to the project that would cause more frustration in his life.

It was supposed to be a simple project. The instructions were supposed to tell him step-by-step directions on how to receive signal so that Gabriella could view more than just two channels, but Troy was starting to believe that God really hated him that day.

After nearly two hours of cursing, poking, probing, and kicking of the stupid TV Troy was convinced it just wasn't possible. Although, he wasn't about to tell Gabriella that. He didn't want her to think that he was a complete idiot who couldn't read an easy manual.

"How's it coming?" Gabriella asked.

Troy turned his head to glance at her. She was wearing a sexy blue dress that wrapped around her body and curves. "I've got it all under control," Troy said through closed teeth, trying not to get so worked up again.

Gabriella sensed Troy's bitterness again and sighed. "Troy, just give it a rest. We have to leave in ten minutes or else we're going to be late."

"Ella, just let me work on this. I swear I'll get it working."

Troy turned completely around again, not paying attention to Gabriella. It was obvious that his word was final on the matter. He continued to poke at a wire while he grunted the next sentence, "Your pet peeve about being late is kind of pointless for tonight since Dylan won't even notice if we're they're or not."

Gabriella crossed her arms. "Troy, I know that once you set your mind to an idea then you like to finish it, but I'm getting in that car when it arrives whether you're with me or not. I get that you're upset, but please do not tell me that you have it all under control when you obviously don't. We can just wait until Chad can help you later this week."

Troy slammed the screwdriver he was holding down on the ground, making Gabriella flinch unexpectedly. He sat up fully, looking at her again with narrowed eyes. "You don't get why I'm upset. Hell, I don't even know why I'm this upset." He stood up and wiped his hands off on his jeans. "But I do know that I hate this TV. It's pointless and there's no valid reason why you bought it."

He walked past her as if everything was normal and headed into her kitchen to clean up his empty water glass. Gabriella was hot on his trail, her mouth open in shock.

"I bought it because of you Troy! You're always saying how you hate your TV at home because it's too small, but then you never have time to go to the store to buy another one. I was thinking that maybe…" Gabriella trailed off and shook her head, changing her next sentence completely, "You know what? I don't need to explain myself to you. It's not as if this TV will affect you that much anyways. It's not like you'll have to look at it every day because we live together or anything."

"Is that what you want?" Troy demanded, taking a step closer to her. "You want to live together?"

Gabriella nearly pulled out her hair from frustration at how dense Troy could be when it came to things like living together. "Yes! Of course I want to live with you! I thought you were going to ask me to move in after you bought Troy Junior and that was why I have been giving you hints, but apparently I am just a fool when it comes to you!"

Troy softened his posture, his lips curling slightly in a small smile. "You're not a fool Ella."

"Well then what am I? I bought a fucking TV that I don't want. I got it for you, thinking that if we did move in together, then we could share it. I wouldn't have to listen to you complain anymore," Gabriella admitted quietly. "I basically have all my clothes at your place, I know all of your neighbors, and sometimes my mail is even delivered to your apartment. So why am I not officially living with you?"

Troy closed the distance between them and cupped her face with his two hands. He pressed a kiss to her lips before smiling. "We're not living together because I am a very stupid boyfriend sometimes."

"You're not stupid…You can be clueless sometimes, but you're never stupid," Gabriella scolded lightly, bringing her own hands up to rest over Troy's.

"I want you to live with me. I've wanted to say that for a while but then I was afraid of what you'd say, and things have been so good for us, and I didn't want to rock the boat," Troy confessed with a chuckle. "And I know Troy Junior wants you to move in."

"He's a dog Troy. I don't think he really cares who lives with him as long as he's fed and played with," Gabriella teased.

"I wasn't talking about our dog. I was talking about my Troy Junior," he cheekily said before pressing his lips to hers once more. He silenced her chiding and embarrassed giggles by molding his body to hers and entering his tongue into her mouth.

Troy felt Gabriella sink into the kiss, her body relaxing against his, the smile on both of their faces making it somewhat difficult to kiss, however, they were saved by Troy's phone going off, letting them know that the car was downstairs and ready to go.

"Will you move in with me Ella?" Troy asked, panting slightly.

Gabriella smiled up at him, nodding her head eagerly. "Yes. Of course."

"Good. Now come on. We don't want to be late," Troy said while taking her by the hand to lead her to the door.

"I think we can be late just this once," Gabriella said, making Troy freeze in his step. "We still have to talk about this TV."

Troy sighed while rolling his eyes playfully. "As you move into my apartment I promise to ask Chad for help. He's a lot better with technology than me."

"That's all I ask," Gabriella said sweetly. She touched Troy's cheek lightly. "And please, next time, don't tell me that you have everything under control when you obviously don't. I don't like it when we're annoyed with each other."

"That makes two of us. In fact, I think we should kiss to make everything better." Troy drew her in again.

"Troy," Gabriella slapped his chest carelessly, "the car is downstairs waiting."

He nuzzled his nose in her clean hair. "You're the one who said we could be late. I'm just choosing to hold you to your word."

Gabriella laughed as he hoisted her up so that she was sitting on her counter.

"Troy Bolton, what am I going to do with you?"

"Love me Ella. That's all I'm asking you to do." Troy looked intently at Gabriella, all teasing gone from his blue eyes. "Love me for everything I'm going to say wrong in the future, and everything I've said in the past that never came out right."

"Always."

There was no hesitation within Gabriella while Troy held her.