All right goes to disney!
Chapter 4:
"We're all going out for dinner tonight! Everyone be ready in an hour!" Taylor's voice echoed down the hallway.
Gabriella glanced up to the sound of the voice and smiled slightly at Taylor's attempt to get everyone's attention. It was about five o'clock in the evening and it seemed like everyone was already unpacked and settled in. Gabriella had set her laptop up so she could do business in another city. She had emailed her assistant back and forth to make sure she had everything handled over in New York since she couldn't be there to make sure everything was fine. She trusted Danielle with her business however since they had been friends since college and . There was another knock at the door and she prayed that it wasn't Troy. "Come in," she said as she closed her laptop.
Chad peeked in before walking in. "Hey Gabs, I didn't really get a chance to talk to you." He walked over and hugged her before taking a seat on her bed.
"Hey Chad, I've missed you," a part of her felt bad for cutting him out of her life, but she hoped he'd understand. "Look Chad, I'm sorry for cutting you off, it's just…you know how Noah is," Gabriella said.
Chad put his hands up as if he was telling her to stop. "It's okay, I know. Taylor told me. I'm not mad at you, I've just missed you too," he said. A smile appeared on his face and that helped Gabriella relax a little. She was just glad that no one was mad at her in this house.
She and Troy had been friends since they were in high school. Even though Chad was a popular guy and Gabriella wasn't popular, he still hung around with everyone. They had a lot of classes together and would spend time studying together. It also helped that Chad was secretly in love with Taylor back in high school, but didn't have the guts to ask her out. He would always ask Gabriella advice about her, and when Gabriella would give it to him, he'd always back out at the last minute. They didn't spend much time together out of school since he had basketball and she always had an afterschool activity to do, but once they graduated, they vowed to remain friends.
"How are you? How's basketball? You guys won the other day right?" Gabriella didn't really keep up with basketball since she had no interest, but remembered when she talked to Taylor and how happy she was.
"Yeah we did, it's amazing. We have to go back to practice next week and then we have the finals," Chad said. "It's nerve racking, but with Troy leading the team, I'm sure we can pull through."
"Troy. He's a character isn't he? He's really living up to the bachelor name," she said.
Chad let out a small laugh before shaking his head. "He does. I won't be surprise if he brings home a girl tonight."
Gabriella rolled her eyes and turned away from Chad. "That's so gross, I don't understand how girls can put themselves out like that for him, and I don't know why he's okay with sleeping around," she said.
"He's a guy and he's a celebrity athlete. Any girl wouldn't pass up that opportunity," Chad said as he shrugged his shoulders. Chad stood up from the bed and stretched, "Anyways, I have to get ready, as should you. See you in an hour Gabs," he began walking towards the door. He stopped before he left. "And Gabs? Glad to have you back even if it's only for a week," he said with a smile and left.
Opening her closet, she looked for something to wear. She had an outfit for every occasion, but since they were going out tonight, she grabbed a nice white blouse with a high waist skirt. With that outfit, she grabbed her black pumps and curled her hair. After she finished getting dressed, she put on her necklace and bracelets that went with the outfit. She picked up the ring from the desk and stared at the engagement ring for a bit before slipping it on her finger.
This time instead of knocking, someone walked into her room. "Hey can you help me with this," Troy asked.
"Have you ever heard of knocking?" she asked as she walked over and helped him with his tie. She wasn't aware of how close they were standing together, but once she did, she quickly did his tie and backed off. "There," she said and turned back around to pretend like she was still getting ready. They were too close to each other for her own comfort. The last time she was ever this close to a guy was when she was with Noah.
"Hey Gabi?"
Gabi? She's never had that name before. She turned around and crossed her arm. "What?" she asked. She couldn't lie, he looked damn good when he was dressed up in nice clothing.
"You look good," he flashed a grin that made her stomach jump. Troy left the room, closing the door behind him. Gabriella exhaled and shook her head before fixing her hair in the mirror. She needed to learn to lock the door.
Dinner went by as quick as a breeze. Everyone spent their time catching up with one another and talked about what was going on in their lives at the moment. Sharpay had a lot of questions for Gabriella about her job back in New York. Gabriella was reluctant to answer the questions, as she didn't want to talk about it, but did her best to answer Sharpay. They had reservations in downtown Los Angeles and once they were done, the group pondered on what to do. "Well, we can always go to the club," Sharpay suggested.
"That actually sounds like a fantastic idea," Troy piped up and grinned.
Taylor rolled her eyes at Troy, "You know you want to go just so you can find a girl to bring home." The others laughed, except for Gabriella who didn't find his playboy ways funny one bit.
"I actually think I'm going to head back to the room, I'm a little jetlagged and need some sleep," Gabriella said.
"I'll head back with you," Taylor said as she turned to Chad, "you can go out if you want. I trust you," she said and smiled.
Chad kissed Taylor on the lips and grinned. "And that's why I love you," she said. The group split ways while Taylor and Gabriella took a taxi back to the beach house.
"I don't get why you guys let Troy act like that," Gabriella blurted.
Taylor laughed and looked at her best friend, "you learn to get use to it after a while," she said.
"Well I don't like it, I think that's completely inappropriate and disgusting," she said.
Her friend looked at her and raised her eyebrow slightly. It was weird how Gabriella continued to talk about Troy like she cared about the guy. She understood that what Troy does sometimes was wrong, but she never went as far as calling the guy disgusting. She wasn't sure if there was something going on between Gabriella and Troy, but as far as she knew, Gabriella hated the guy. Deciding to change the subject, she brought up her fiancé. "So how has Noah been?" she asked. The two of them never really talked about Noah. Taylor never liked Noah from the first moment she met him, and Noah never really liked Taylor either.
"I don't even know, I don't spend time with him at all anymore. It's more like; I go home and go straight to bed so I can avoid talking to him. Sometimes he'll be home before me and then I'm screwed, but other than that I barely talk to him. When we went to dinner; the time I told him I was coming here, was our longest conversation in a while," she said. Gabriella missed the old times when she and Noah would stay up late talking to each other about everything. It was when he didn't have the executive job position. Noah would always wait for her to come home late and he'd make her food before the two of them sit on the couch drinking wine and eating their food. Life was a lot easier then than it was now. She wished she could turn back time and wished Noah never got that position.
Taylor put her arm around her friend when she could tell that she was truly upset about what happened to Noah. "I'm sorry it's like this now, I wish there was a way for you to get out of this relationship," she said. Gabriella shrugged and kept her composure. She wasn't going to let Noah have the satisfaction of her being upset.
"The relationship is completely done, I don't know why he doesn't see that. He sees me as someone who's completely in love with him when I'm not anymore. He thinks I'll bend to his needs when he asks me to. I know he has control over my job, but I just want to scream sometimes. We haven't even slept together in the longest time, since I avoid him, but he's such a workaholic that he doesn't even care," she said.
"On the bright side, you don't have to sleep with him often," she tried to cheer her friend up who shook her head and she heard her sigh.
Gabriella laughed at her friend's comment. "I guess so," she sighed as she looked at her hand. The diamond on the ring was shining as she moved her hand around. "It's a beautiful ring, but it's not for me."
"Let me see it again," Taylor took her hand and looked at the ring. It was a breathtaking ring that looked amazing on her hand. "It's beautiful."
"It was his mother's ring," she said calmly. "She insisted that he'd give it to me and so when he proposed, I was blown away by the ring," she looked at Taylor before looking at the ring. "His parents love me, and I love them too…it's just I'm not in love with him."
"I'm just glad I'm here with all of you," she said as the car arrived at the house a little bit later. She paid the taxi fare and headed up towards the house. The house was dark and quiet, which Gabriella was a little glad for. "I'm going to head up to bed, I'll see you in the morning," she kissed her friend on the cheek and headed up to her room. After she changed out of her clothes, she got into her pajamas and slid into bed. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep since she was completely exhausted.
The sleep was broken by the sound of footsteps all over the house a few hours later. Gabriella rolled over to look at the time and groaned when it was two in the morning. She heard a girl giggle before shutting a door. Gabriella attempted to fall back asleep, but couldn't when someone opened her bedroom door. She sat up and saw a half naked blonde girl standing at her door. All she had on was a large t-shirt and she was surprised to see Gabriella.
"Oh! Sorry, I thought this was the bathroom," she said, her face flushed when she saw Gabriella. She walked back out and closed the door. Gabriella rolled her eyes and turned around, trying to fall asleep once again.
"Sorry about that Gabi," Troy opened the door as he spoke. "I should have directed her to the bathroom."
Gabriella made a mental note to lock the door from now on. She turned around to look at Troy and when she noticed he didn't have a shirt on, her stomach jumped. He had a nice body to go with his nice face. She did her best to turn her eyes away as she responded to him. "Yeah you should have. I don't want your little groupies coming in my room in the middle of the night," she pulled the covers over her head.
"They're not groupies, I didn't mean to sleep with her but one thing led to another and here we are," the smirk appeared across his face. Everyone knew that was a lie, even Troy himself known it was a lie.
Gabriella rolled her eyes, "whatever," she said as she rolled over, attempting to go back to sleep. She also hoped that Troy got the hint to leave her alone and get out of her room.
"What's your problem?" he asked, his voice a little defensive. She hadn't heard Troy talk like that before, so it caught her off guard. She rolled back around so she was facing him again. She sat up slightly so she was leaning against the back frame of the bed.
"Nothing, I'm trying to get some sleep and here you are, talking to me," she said.
Troy crossed his arm as he leaned against the doorframe. He looked at her before looking at bed. The clothes she had been wearing earlier to dinner were spread all over the bed. "Ever since we got here, you've been acting cold towards me. As far as I know, you and I never met before, so you have no reason to hate me before you get to know me," he said.
"I never said I hated you." She rolled back around before throwing the sheets over her head.
Troy smirked at her as he moved away from the doorframe. "Well you sure as hell look like it," he said.
"Troy I'm tired. Get out of my room so I can get some decent sleep. And it would help if you and your girl keep it down next door," she said. She heard the door close and she lifted the covers to see if he was still standing there, but he wasn't thankfully. She sighed and closed her eyes, trying to fall asleep for the last time of the night.
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