Disclaimer: If you own High School Musical say "AYE!"........... -crickets chirping-............. alrightie then. Oh, but Tom owns Myspace! which is only briefly mentioned in this chapter anyway but I still think Tom deserves his rightful creds. Plus maybe I just like Tom and want to write his name. TOM TOM TOM. Okay I'm done lol.
PLEASE READ THIS NOTE; if you remember the very beginning of chapter one, then you remember that everything from the end of that point up until the end of last chapter has been a flashback. The beginning of this chapter picks up from pretty much where reality ended and the flashback started. But at the first -|-|-|- thing, it returns to the flashback. I hope that wasn't too confusing...
Lights Off
Chapter Six: Just Another Manic Monday
After that day, just last Sunday, when I kissed Troy like that in the middle of McDonalds, I went home thinking to my dumb ol' self that everything could be okay from that point on because he didn't push me away so I took that, thinking he wasn't mad at me anymore. Forget the missed phone calls, the snapping at me on the phone when I finally got a hold of him through his mom, and when he was trying to shoo me off before I grabbed him and brought his face down to mine. I forgot pretty much everything bad that had happened from Saturday morning to that moment on Sunday afternoon because when he circled his arms around me and kissed me back, it was like we were picking up from where we left off on Friday night from that one last gentle kiss he gave me before falling asleep with me against him, even though I was only doing it to give that group of idiots watching us something to talk about.
But now when it's Friday again, as I sit here in my stupid math class thinking back on that moment, I can't help but wonder if behind that reason, there was another reason entirely (subconsciously, of course) for doing what I did. For kissing Troy at his work and then later again in my room...maybe that time was for more than just "fun". Though had I realized it on the day it happened, maybe he wouldn't of gone back to ignoring my phone calls again and avoiding me in public which pretty much triggered that fight we had in front of everyone in the cafeteria Monday.
I think it's pretty safe to say that I definitely make the Top 10 Biggest Idiots In the World list, or I probably would if such a thing existed.
I don't even care anymore that he was being a total jerk during lunch on Monday when that fight took place. At the time I really didn't think I would be able to forgive him for a long time after what he said and it also didn't seem like he cared. But now all I really want is for everything to be fine again.
I leaned back against my chair with my arms folded, and glanced across the room at Troy who was staring out the window. Usually, he's sitting either next to, behind, or in front of me. But where he is right now it's pretty obvious he only took that seat today to get as far away from me as possible, and I can't tell you how much that sucks and hurts. But maybe I deserve it for being so stupid and opening my loud mouth to him on Sunday, when he called me at around 8:00 when his shift was over and I told him to come over.
Whether I deserve it or not, I don't want to go even another second dealing with him giving me the silent treatment. I hate it. I hate him not even doing so little as looking at me more than I hate cheap knock offs of my favorite designer brands. It bothers me more than when Ryan does his jazz squares, and I can't stand it even more than the color orange.
I need Troy Bolton. I really do need him, in more ways than he or anyone else could probably imagine.
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"Okay Jerry, I refilled the napkin container, put toys in the bags for the kids meals, wiped all the tables more than once, washed as many dishes as I could, swept, and did it all over again just as you asked," Troy reported back to his employer, who never seemed to leave the fast food joint. Didn't he have some other place to be or some other thing to do than stand there and take full advantage of his capabilities to push teenagers around? It didn't really seem like it.
"And have you cleaned both restrooms?"
"Yes," Troy said, shuddering as he remembered earlier in the day when some little girl had thrown her shoe at him in the women's restroom. He didn't know why in middle school he and his guy friends had always wanted to sneak into the girl's bathrooms at school to see what girls did in there when they walked in in groups of five or something at once. It never made any sense. But now that he was forced in there at the one in McDonalds to clean everything against his will, he realized that was three years of wasted wondering he'd never get back.
"Alright then....you're free to go." Jerry said slowly, finally granting him the permission he'd been yearning for all day. He nodded and gave his thanks before turning to leave, but just as he was about to shoot out of the restaraunt like speed racer, his boss had something more to say.
"And Bolton?"
Troy turned at the sound of Jerry's voice calling after him.
"No more making out with or visits from girlfriends while you're on the clock."
Troy nodded, not bothering to mention that Sharpay wasn't his girlfriend. He should've figured Jerry would bring that up eventually.
"I mean it, don't let it happen again." Jerry warned. Troy nodded again in understanding and apologized and thanked him before finally leaving the restaurant, pulling his cell phone out before he even made it to his car. He was surprised and maybe even a little disappointed when the only missed calls he found were from Chad and his other friend and basketball teammate Eric, but he quickly dialed Sharpay's number anyway.
She answered on the second ring.
"Hey sexy," she greeted him, probably having looked at the caller ID. Troy could hear the smile in her voice, and he couldn't help but smile a little to himself as well.
"Hey," he responded, "what are you up to?"
"Myspace. Did you just get off work?"
"Yeah, I'm on my way home." Troy told her while he put his car in drive and pulled out of the McDonalds parking lot.
"Home?" she sounded like she didn't know the meaning of the word. "No. Come over, loser."
"It's a school night and I still have yet to do my homework..." Troy said.
"What homework?" Sharpay asked him, and he could imagine her rolling her eyes right beforehand, so he knew she didn't really care, but he still told her anyways.
"The homework Mr. Carlson gave us for math."
"...............................Oh, that." Sharpay said, sounding uninterested. She wasn't one with homework always being first on her mind.
"I'm guessing you haven't done it either?" Troy assumed.
"Nope, all the more reason for you to come over so we can together."
"Well...okay," Troy said. "Just let me go home so I can grab my backpack and change out of this retarded McDonalds shirt."
Sharpay giggled on the other end of the line. "I'll be waiting."
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"Took you long enough," Sharpay said to Troy by way of greeting fifteen minutes later when she pulled the front door open around thirty seconds after he knocked. She leaned against the door frame and smiled up at him, her arms casually crossed over her chest. He gave her his most innocent smile.
"Well at least I'm here," he told her, and she shrugged.
"Whatever. Come on," she said, pushing the door open more so he could step inside. He turned to her then after doing so.
"So, where are we doing this?" he asked, meaning their homework, while hoisting his backpack onto one shoulder. "Living room or yours?"
"My room." Sharpay said, closing the door and walking away, obviously expecting him to follow as she exceeded the stairs up to the second floor and entered her bedroom.
"I looked over the page Mr. Carlson wants us to do," Troy told Sharpay upon walking into the room, distractedly taking off his backpack as he talked, so he didn't notice her walk behind him quickly and quietly close and lock the door. He could be kind of oblivious sometimes.
"It's not that much, only around twenty problems but some have different parts to them," he explained to her as she stood back in front of him and he unzipped his backpack to pull out his text book.
"So to make us finish faster," Troy continued, "I think-"
he stopped after those two words when Sharpay suddenly grabbed his backpack right when he was reaching into it, and tossed it carelessly somewhere off to her right. It landed on the carpet with a soft thud from all the books it contained inside. Troy looked over at it in wonder before turning back to her, waiting for an explanation.
"Stop talking," she commanded in a soft but sure voice, placing her hand on his chest and slowly trailing it down the front of his t-shirt. He smirked, realizing what her real motive for him coming over was.
"You just used the homework thing as an excuse to get me over here," he observed, telling her what she already knew. She smiled up at him sweetly, her brown eyes twinkling beneath her lashes.
"Woops," Sharpay shrugged innocently, looking him dead in the eye, challenging and teasing him as if to say "you caught me. So what are you gonna do to me now?"
Troy continued to smirk at her while he tossed his shaggy hair out of his eyes, forgetting all about the homework and their math teacher and his discarded backpack as she grabbed onto him by taking two fistfuls of his shirt and stood up on her toes to reach his face, giving him a slow, sweet kiss.
Instantly responding to the kiss, unlike earlier in McDonalds when it took a minute, Troy reached behind him and swatted at the light switch to turn it off. It took him a little while of groping around at nothing before finally finding it and filling the room with darkness minus the little bit of moonlight flowing in from the window.
Keeping her eyes screwed shut and her mouth on his, Sharpay continued to hold onto Troy's shirt as she started walking backwards until she reached her bed, taking him with her. The bed was a little high for her to simply fall back on so she parted faces with her best friend (now with benefits?) only for a second so she could hoist herself up. He was quick to join her when she did and laid down, slightly parting her legs to give him room to crawl up and be comfortably on top of her. He had no problem finding her mouth again with his, even in the non-lit room.
In addition to another infamous instant tongue-plunging war with them, it didn't take long for the hands to come into play as they grabbed onto each other pretty much anywhere they could. Sharpay, for one, tried hard not to pass out when she felt him sneak his warm, strong right hand up her top and began rubbing loving, generous circles on the smooth flesh of her flat stomach.
To hell with it when she'd told him yesterday he was "just okay" at all of this... and he would have to be stupid if he'd believed her, because anyone else who knew what it was like would probably agree that he was just about every good adjective you could come up with when it came to intimacy, and she would never admit that she felt a strong sense of pride knowing she was the only one who really did know what it was like... every part of him.
The only one. Me. Just me.
This thought made her smile and part with his lips, trailing her kisses down to his neck, a part of his body she actually hadn't really explored much yet. Her hand flew to the side of his face as she did so, resting her palm on his cheek while locking her other arm around him tightly, holding him to her, wanting to do this forever. Troy reached up and pulled his shirt off a little while later, allowing her the ability to hungrily place warm, moist kisses all over his bare chest, leaving behind a tingling sensation after she pulled away from each spot on his torso. He drank in the feeling of her butterfly-like soft lips all over his skin, realizing that this wasn't just about being able to keep himself off of her like he'd thought it to be in the first place, mostly because the thought of anyone else doing this with and to him didn't sound as appealing as it being Sharpay.
He really did seem to actually be falling for her.
And it wasn't until they were both half naked that he realized the irresponsibility of their actions sure to come within the next few seconds.
"Um, you sure about this?" he asked her warily, hoisting himself up on his arms in a type of push up position, looking down at her. She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Uh...about what?" she asked, the impatience in her voice palpable.
"Going any further," Troy clarified. Her forehead wrinkled in confusion.
"Yes I'm sure..." she said, "it's not like it's the first time or anything..."
"Which is exactly why I'm asking," he told her, "I mean... I don't even have a condom ready this time... and twice in one weekend, Shar... we might be moving kinda fast."
Sharpay smiled. Silly Troy. Silly, silly Troy.
"You can never move fun too fast.............unless of course you're on a roller coaster or something."
Troy sat up quickly, feeling as though he's just been hit by a bus and had the wind knocked out of him like in Scary Movie 3 when that lady backed her car up and hit her nephew and the kid went flying.
"..And that's all you consider this?" he asked her, flabbergasted, "fun?"
Sharpay blinked, thinking he'd already known that but now it seemed like confirming it would be a wrong answer to him or something. But she slowly answered ".................................................yeaaahhh......................................................." anyways.
Troy slapped a hand over his face. "I should've known!" he exclaimed, climbing off her and off the bed and began frantically searching the floor for his jeans and t-shirt since all he was wearing was his boxers. Sharpay sat up, confusion and fear that she'd just started another problem being the only two emotions running through her.
"What are you doing?" she asked him, wishing that he would just stop what he was doing and get back in the bed with her so they could continue what they were doing.
"I'm not really in the mood for funanymore," Troy snapped, throwing his shirt on before crossing the room to turn on the light so he could find his jeans. Sharpay watched him, sitting there helplessly looking worried and hot as ever in her undergarments, and Troy knew that if he looked at her he would be too tempted to strip her of what little pieces of clothing left she wore so he made sure to make a special effort to keep his eyes off of her.
"Troy, stop it. Just- what are you-"
"You tell me, Sharpay." Troy said, jamming a leg through his pants after finding them somewhere on the floor. "What am I? What are we anymore?"
"You're my..." Sharpay started. "We're best friends...."
Troy shook his head to himself at what she said.
Wow.
"Best friends that just happen to fuck, right? I'm guessing that's why you randomly kissed me at work today, too? Because that's just something best friends do."
Sharpay felt her face twist into some feeling that she couldn't even comprehend. "That was because of those idiot guys......... I thought you kinda knew that........."
Troy felt his face heat up with both frustration and embarrassment. Damn had he had it all wrong today. All wrong.
"Of course," he mumbled, putting on his left sneaker at the foot of her bed. How could he be such an idiot? Thinking she actually might've liked him- yeah freaking right. What the hell was he thinking?
"Okay can we just skip to the part where you tell me what the heck I did wrong this time?" Sharpay asked him, growing sick and tired of his roller coaster ride of emotions and short tempers with her lately. One minute he's yelling at her. The next he's ignoring her. Then he doesn't mind kissing her. And then he's mad again.
"First you're mad about me apparently acting like nothing happened on Friday or whatever your problem with me was... and now that I'm just trying to relive it to have some fun, you're still not happy. So I'm... I'm just tired of this, Troy! I don't even know what to do anymore! I-"
"Maybe I don't just want fun," Troy interrupted her, his voice so low she wasn't even sure if she heard him right, "maybe I want to be serious here."
His back was facing to her so he didn't see the stunned expression that took over facial features then that seemed to scream "ONE MORE TIME!?", he could only imagine it.
"What?" Sharpay whisper-asked, almost causing Troy to roll his eyes to himself. Yeah. Now did she get it?
"Troy... you and me... we're not..." she trailed off. But Troy didn't need for her to continue, it was one of those situations where the after-silence could speak for itself. He slipped his other sneaker on and stood up.
"I know," he said, crossing the room and picking up his backpack on the floor. He reached for the door knob that he hadn't noticed until now that it was locked.
"Guess I was stupid for thinking otherwise for a minute there."
Sharpay bit her bottom lip as she nervously played with her fingers. She hadn't moved an inch from her upright position on the bed.
"I'm sorry," she told him quietly, avoiding eye contact and not knowing what else to say. Right now she just really needed to think for a minute, but since obviously he wasn't going to give her that, she had no choice but to let him go for the night.
"Me too." Troy said flatly before pulling the door open and walking out.
Sharpay continued to sit there for a while after he left. She knew that, had this been an opposite situation, much like on Friday when she'd pretended to storm out of his room, he'd chase after her. But she didn't. After trying her hardest to contact him for over half the weekend, she was just letting him go...for now, anyways. But even with the implied realization she'd just come to when he told her he "wanted to be serious", she knew it wasn't the end. She knew that tomorrow at school she would probably try and talk to him again the moment she saw him. But for now, all she could do was sit there as he probably got further and further away.
And finally, after what seemed like hours but in reality was probably only minutes, she looked up at the sound of her door being pushed open again and locked eyes with the confused looking face of her brother.
"Was Troy just here?" Ryan wanted to know. "I thought I heard a car pull out."
Sharpay turned and flopped down on her stomach on the bed and answered "get out" before burying her face in one of her pillows.
Ryan stared at her from his place in the doorway for a minute, used to her telling him to get out of her room because she always said that to him whenever he went in there, so the reason why she was saying it this time isn't what was confusing him, it was the fact that when he came in she was just sitting there in her bra and underwear.
"Is that what you usually wear to bed?" he asked her, "or were you and Troy attempting to play strip poker?"
"Get out!" Sharpay snapped in response, raising her head from the pillow for only a second to scream her command at him before slamming her face back into it.
"Okay, I'm used to you hating me in your room Shar, but if something happened-"
"Go away, Ryan!" Sharpay exclaimed, her voice loud enough so she didn't have to raise her face from the pillow this time. One more word from him and she swore she would chop his head off. She knew she was probably being too hard on him, but she was Sharpay Evans and she didn't care who her victims were whenever she was in a crap mood.
Ryan was silent for a minute.
"Fine," he gave in finally. "But you know I'm right across the hall if you need anything."
He waited for her to say something, but when she didn't and continued to lay there with her face in her arms on her pillow, he stepped out of the room, gently closing the door behind him.
Sharpay slowly lifted her head from it's position when she heard Ryan leave and stared at a loose string on the corner of the fluffy pillow. She then started playing with it, gently tugging at and twirling it around, deep in thought. Why did Ryan always have to be so nice even when she acted like a bitch to him? She appreciated having a caring brother like him, but it made it a lot harder to be annoyed with him when even after screaming at him to leave her room he was still there to offer his support with anything.
Stupid Ryan, she thought, why does that jerk always have to be so nice?
And Troy....oh god, Troy... what was she supposed to do about him now, knowing that he may have actual..... feelings for her or whatever he wanted to call it?
Sharpay pulled at the string tighter, the concept of Troy actually liking her like that felt weird to even think about as she envisioned her future with him for a split second. She couldn't imagine going on any actual dates with him. Or introducing him as "my boyfriend" to new people they would meet later on. Or saying "I love you" but really meaning "I'm in love with you" to him and vise versa. Or being one of those couples that got separated for college but somehow made it work. Or marrying him. Or buying a house probably with help from her parents like they were with Tad and Steph. Or having a psychic baby with him, also like Tad and Steph.
She could however imagine kissing him, hugging him for long, romantic periods of time, making out with him, sharing a bed with him, spending practically everyday with him, telling him and thinking about how hot he was often; even having sex with him- most of the stuff actual couples do, because they'd already done all that. But it had honestly all just been for fun with her, and she had honestly and mistakenly thought that's how it was for him too. None of it was serious and she hadn't and still didn't really think of him as boyfriend material for her or that she could even be girlfriend material for him. It would just be too.......................................weird, to actually be in a committed relationship with him. Especially if they would ever break up. How would they be able to go back to being friends? It was already kind of like that though, in the situation they were in now. And she realized now that they did seem to act like boyfriend and girlfriend enough... but she also realized that "significant other" was much more than just a title, it actually meant something, because that title was pretty much all that was separating them from being more than just friends with benefits.
A title... and the lack of actually having a crush on him or anything of that sort. Because she didn't.... she didn't feel anything towards him in any ways more than friendship besides physical attraction and wanting now to... basically use him for things of sexual nature because that was just it- it was fun, and she was curious. Where in any of that had Troy apparently deciding he actually wanted her in more ways than that?
When did he become interested in wanting to be serious, and what was keeping her from feeling the same way?
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"Maybe you just have some irresistible charm that he doesn't."
"I'm flattered that you'd think that, Steph," Sharpay said sarcastically into the phone, "but I don't think that's it."
"Well obviously if he felt the spark when he screwed you and you didn't, there's something you have that he doesn't."
"I just don't see him being my.... boyfriend." Sharpay said, frowning to herself as she pet Boi to sleep in her lap as she sat up against the headboard of her bed. It was after ten thirty and she'd been on the phone with her sister for over an hour explaining everything that had happened today and discussing it after a first hour of trying to figure this out on her own even though she had school tomorrow. So far, she still wasn't having any luck figuring out what she was going to do about Troy and his "feelings".
"But he could see you as a girlfriend it looks like, so whatever you're doing, stop it." Steph scolded on the other end of the line.
"Can I help it that I'm fun, sexy, and perfect?" Sharpay joked lightly and her sister scoffed.
"So is he! I'm sorry to say Shar but you must be pretty freaking insane to want to be rejecting this guy. Have you seen him? I mean, if I weren't getting married next weekend-"
"Okay you creepy pedophile, you can shut up about that now. What are you like fifty years older than him? You don't see me raving about Tad!" Sharpay gasped, over exaggerating the number of years apart Troy and Steph were but fifty years or six years, it was still creepy for the simple fact that this was Troy and her older sister they were talking about here.
"Wrong! The first day you met Tad you were all over him!"Steph reminded her, causing Sharpay to roll her eyes to herself.
"I was not!" she exclaimed, and then remembered how the first time she'd met Tad (the first time Steph brought him home to meet her family) when Sharpay was 12 and he and her sister were 19 she'd been waiting on him hand and foot, asking him if there was anything she could do for him every five minutes, giggling and smiling at every little thing he said, blushing when he called her a "cute kid" and making Ryan and Troy help her make him lunch and refusing to let the housekeepers do it since she wanted to impress him.
"Okay, maybe a little, but that was then and this is now. Plus I'm younger than Tad and I was just a little kid. But you are six years older than Troy."
"Please, seventy year old grannies would agree that he's hot.........or in their way of speaking, they'd call him a "real looker" or something."
"Can we get back to the point? What am I supposed to do?!" Sharpay asked impatiently, wondering why she even went to her sister for advice anyway. It's not like she'd been much help yesterday, after all.
Steph was silent a moment before answering something much more deep than Sharpay would've ever imagined to come from her mouth.
"Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely. Trust your heart and let fate decide."
Luckily it only took Sharpay a second to realize those weren't even her words.
"That'd be some great advice.........if you didn't totally just rip off The Land Before Time and Tarzan!"
She'd grown up with Disney movies. She could recognize quotes from them anywhere.
"Okay you got me, I just watched those with Ryder two weeks ago. It stuck, you know?"
"Whatever," Sharpay muttered, "anyways, thanks for listening Steph.......... I guess. I think I'm gonna go to bed now."
"Wait! So what are you going to do about Troy?"
"I don't know! Really, what should I do?"
".......................Listen to your heart before you tell him goodbye!" Steph blurted every so "wisely."
"Than in the mean time I'll say goodbye to you, Cascada... DHT... Roxette... whatever!" Sharpay said before hanging up. More ripping off of the love quotes.
Yes, she really did hang up on her siblings all too often.
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Monday morning started off like it usually did for Sharpay- battling with the alarm clock snooze button for ten extra minutes past the time she set it for (5:30) before getting up, taking an hour and a half to get ready, grabbing a bagel for breakfast, and doing her homework last minute at the kitchen table. She was pretty sure she got at least half the problems wrong since she rushed through it just so she could call it done, but she also didn't really give a crap. She was only half focusing anyway, partly because she hated math, had always hated math, and always would hate math, and partly because her mind kept veering off track from the homework to a certain blue eyed boy she could once upon a time call her best friend in the world but now didn't even know what was going on about it.
She passed her father in the hallway while on her way back upstairs to brush her teeth, said goodbye to him since he was leaving for work, and continued on her way. After brushing her teeth, she went to her room, threw her phone and make up bag into her purse, saw Ryan already pulling out of the driveway in his own car to school once back downstairs, and then proceeded to leave herself.
Yep, it was the typical weekday morning routine for her, until she got to school anyway- when she would usually meet Troy by his locker, or he would meet her at hers. Neither one happened this time.
"Hey Sharpay," someone greeted her from the left when she was stopped at her locker. She looked over and saw that it was Kelsi, whose locker was just a couple down from hers. (A/N: As seen in HSM2! :D)
"How was your weekend?" she asked her while dialing in the combo to her locker. Sharpay shrugged even though the other girls eyes were focused elsewhere. The two of them were kind of sort of friends. After all, she was dating her brother and they did run around in the same group, but they weren't super close.
"Exhausting, to say the least." Sharpay answered, and before Kelsi could question her further, she quickly asked "how was yours?"
"Good. The bonfire wasn't really as exciting as everyone thought it would be though," Kelsi replied, "so you didn't exactly miss out much on Friday. What did you and Troy do?"
Oh, we did plenty,Sharpay thought, but answered "oh you know- just watched a movie, talked, hung out. It was pretty low key."
"Did you guys have fun?"
Very, very much.
"Yeah, I think he had a nice birthday." Sharpay replied uncertainly, recalling how according to him "their opinions of each other in the sack were the same", and he'd said that after she'd lied and told him he was "just okay". So she really didn't know if he'd had a nice birthday or not, but she was pretty sure the weekend following that sucked for him. She knew it sure did for her....... minus the ten minutes they'd spent all over each other yesterday before he ran out on her.
"Well that's good." Kelsi said, "it's cute that he just wanted to spend it with you."
"He told you?" Sharpay asked. She already knew that what Kelsi said was true since he'd told her himself on Friday, but she wasn't aware that other people knew that.
"I could tell," Kelsi shrugged, closing her locker door after collecting the proper books she needed. "Trust me, we all could."
God, can everyone read him like an open book but me? Sharpay thought, thinking about how when Ryan had assumed that Troy just wanted to be with her on Friday she hadn't been fully convinced (until he confirmed it himself) and also not realizing how Troy actually liked her liked her. She'd always thought she could read him pretty well, but lately, not so much it seemed. Did that make her a bad friend?
"Oh."
The two of them stood there awkwardly for a little while after that, just kind of looking at each other waiting for the other to say something since it would probably be inappropriate for one of them to just walk away for no reason.
"So where's Ryan?" Kelsi asked her finally. Her locker was in between his and Sharpays and he was nowhere in sight.
"I'm not sure, I saw him leaving this morning a couple minutes before me."
"Oh, well, I'll see him in first then." Kelsi nodded in understanding, and then as if on cue the bell rang, signalling that class began in five minutes.
"See you later." Sharpay gave Kelsi her parting message and walked away off to her own first period class.
When she reached her classroom, naturally the first thing her eyes sought out for was Troy, when she then came to realize that she'd beat him there. She took her usual front row seat and waited for the rest of her peers and Ms. Darbus to join her.
Troy entered the room seconds after she sat down, wearing his East High basketball team jacket and looking adorable as ever. Red was a really good color on him. Heck, every color looked really good on him. Sharpay looked over at him, brushing her bangs out of her face with her hand after primping her hair, suddenly feeling very self conscious especially when his eyes locked on hers. She gave him a small nervous smile as some form of a peace offering, but that only caused him to look away and instead of sitting down in the seat behind her like where he usually sat, she watched with a frown as he went over and plopped down in a chair in the third row near the window, pretending not to notice that she was still looking directly at him with a displeased frown on her face.
So this is where the public ignoring-of-me starts, Sharpay thought, turning back around and staring down at her desk in dismay. She should have figured he wouldn't of sat behind her like always today instead of keeping little hope that he would've. Who was she trying to kid.
Fine, if that's how he wants to play it.......................................................................................................................................I don't care.
She spent the next couple of minutes trying to thoroughly convince herself of this, but when she finally surrendered to her longing urge to turn around again and glance briefly over at him and saw him tapping his pencil on his desk while looking at the clock, she bit her lip, knowing she shouldn't even be bothering with trying to not care that he was going to be like this and accept the fact that she was going to care no matter what.
She planted her elbows on the desk in front of her, rubbing the sides of her head with her palms, wondering how she was going to make it through the day since school hadn't even started yet and she was already having problems thinking straight.
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Sharpay slumped ungracefully into the cafeteria at lunch time without her usual catwalk type strut in play, which led her to not get as many attentive looks from googly eyed guys and hateful girls as usual. But she didn't care, she didn't care when people did look at her and she now cared very much less that they weren't. She hardly even noticed, anyway. She didn't care about anything really, like the fact that she heard someone that sounded a lot like Ryan calling after her from somewhere behind, or when Jackie came running up with Lea and Emma to inform her of the days nasty lunch special.
She was actually just about to tell them to "go buy whatever the hell they wanted as long as they went away because there was hardly a point in eating after all since all the food at this school did was either make you fat, give you food poisoning, scar you for life, or all of the above," but when she opened her mouth to snap all of this at them, she spotted Troy sitting down at the lunch table they always sat at where Chad was also already gathering with Taylor and Kelsi. Jason and Martha weren't there yet, but all that really mattered at the moment to Sharpay was the fact that Troy was there. She'd actually expected him to not sit there since he had to be well aware of the fact that she was still going to even if he was ignoring her and not only had he refused to look at her through all of first period, he'd ran out afterwards before she could catch up with him and in third period math which was the next class they had together after first he'd also seated himself as far away from her as possible by the window again. Lunch came right after third, which was now, and since he'd been avoiding her all morning she hadn't thought lunch hour to be an exception, but apparently it was.
Ryan approached her from behind.
"Did you not hear me? I kept calling you. People were starting to stare. Have you seen Kelsi yet?" he asked, wondering of his girlfriends whereabouts.
"Yes, she's over there and where were you this morning instead of at the lockers?" Sharpay asked him while still keeping her eyes trained on Troy.
"Oh I had to go to the library for-"
"That's nice Ryan. Let's go sit down," his sister interrupted him, grabbing his arm to tug him over to the table. He frowned but let her guide him anyways, followed by the Sharpettes who still didn't know what to get Sharpay for her lunch yet.
"Hi guys." Sharpay greeted the crew when they reached them, letting go of her brothers arm. Chad as he always did gave a nod of acknowledgement and like expected scooted over instantly figuring she'd want to be by Troy, unaware of the fact that his friend didn't want him to make room in between them for her and oblivious to the quick glare he shot at the side of his face upon doing so.
Taylor, much like Troy was doing, pretended not to notice she was there, but said hello to Ryan, Lea, Emma, and Jackie instead. (Though Troy didn't speak at all.)
"What's up, Troy?" Ryan asked Troy carefully, noticing how he barely even looked up and seemed very interested in his food.
"Good, you?" Troy responded across the table to Ryan, trying to look distracted by taking a long sip from his water so he had an excuse not to look at Sharpay whose gaze was fixed right on him (and he was well aware of that) as she cautiously sat down next to him.
Ryan just nodded back in silent confusion, seeing as his response made no sense at all. Taylor stared at Troy, wondering what was up with him right now. He seemed pretty out of it and it only took a few seconds for every other person at the table to be staring at him in wonder.
"What? Can a guy not drink water in peace?" Troy asked shakily after gulping down half his bottle of water as he wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve, still not looking once at Sharpay, which was kind of hard since she was right next to him burning holes into his skull but he managed...kind of...barely.
"Are you okay, dude?" Chad asked him.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Troy asked, taking a fierce bite of his sandwich. "I'm fine," he answered, his mouth full of food as he glanced past Sharpay over at Chad, shrugged and went back to his own food. It wasn't hard to convince him.
The group sat in silence for a while, most of them staring at Troy, or if they weren't, at Sharpay, finally seeming to have realized that the tension was being caused because of them. They could just tell by the way she stared at him almost expectantly with a pained, disbelieving look in her eyes and he pretended not to notice. (Keyword: pretended. Everyone knew, and he knew that they knew, that he knew very well that she was looking at him like that.)
Kelsi glanced back and forth between the two of them, wondering, much like everyone else, what was up, and she was about to attempt to ask that question like Ryan had already but Sharpay spoke before she could.
"Really, Troy?"
He tore open his bag of potato chips. "What?"
Sharpays forehead wrinkled, her already brown eyes darkening to a more intense shade. "You're really going to sit there and ask me what? Stop doing this!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Troy muttered, grabbing his half empty bottle of water again, and she glared at him hard, caring less that the people around them were watching in bewilderment.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Sharpay spat, "you've been ignoring me all morning, just because you feel insulted that I was just having fun yesterday. Well I'm sorry that you misinterpreted my actions, but get rid of all this damn pride of yours and freaking talk to me!"
Ryan, Kelsi, Emma, Taylor, Lea, Jackie, and even Chads eyes went wide at Sharpay's words and her tone of voice. It's not like they had never heard her talk like that in that tone to someone before, but to Troy? Something was seriously up! What the heck had happened with them?
Troy took another large bite of his sandwich and didn't bother responding to any of that.
"Troy!" Sharpay said sternly. He gave a sharp and short intake of breath but continued on eating his food and keeping his eyes off her.
"What?" he snapped back, and she clenched her jaw tightly before opening her mouth and letting out her exclamation.
"Grow some balls and fucking look at me!"
He snapped his eyes to her finally, staring her down with an intimidating, cruel look in his eyes. Sharpay sank back, she never would've been able to imagine him looking so...mean. Especially not at her of all people.
And if the look in his eyes wasn't mean and shocking enough (to everyone), than his words certainly were.
"I think you can already confirm to everyone here from seeing with your own two eyes the night you told me to fuck you that I already have balls."
Chad, who had learned from all the movies that often times when people hear something utterly shocking when they're in the middle of drinking something, they spit it out all over the place, thought it would only be proper to follow what show characters do, so he picked up his soda since he hadn't been drinking when Troy said what he just said, filled his mouth with it, and spit it out to the side quickly. Luckily it didn't get on anyone.
In addition to her face flushing beat red, Sharpay's eyes nearly bulged out of her sockets at Troy's harshly put sentence and she was too much in disbelief that he would actually say that with all their friends around to notice Chad's stupid action. Pretty much everyone at the table was.
"Hey," Jason said, approaching the table with his food and Martha by his side, and upon noticing the looks on everyones faces, worriedly asked "uh oh. What'd we miss?"
Everyone was still too busy with their jaws hanging open to answer his question.
Everyone but Sharpay that is, who suddenly shot up from the table, her face still red as a tomato.
"Witnessing the ending of a friendship," she told Jason, turning on her heel and storming away.
A/N: This chapter was extremely hard to write. By far the hardest yet. Also probably the most dramatic, well nearing the end there kind of. HOLY CRAP.
And you know Sharpay, famous for her dramatic exits, yes?
The "F" word seems to be used a lot in here and I'm not sure how OK you guys are with that. I really do feel bad about all the language, but it makes things far more intense, I say. I know what you're thinking- "wow you're such a bad author that you have to use curse words to make your stories good." yeah well I guess in some cases I do and I'm really sorry for that. So, do you think I should move the rating up to M because of the language? Or keep it at T? The only problem I'd have with doing that though is that it'd be possible to lose readers or not gain them along the way that are uncomfortable reading sex scenes on here that would see the rating and assume it being because of that when it's really just because of the language only. (cuz let's face it, when we see M rated stories we automatically think: sex.) so yeah. Idk, what do you guys think I should do? :/
thanks for reading (and reviewing like I know you're about too ;D ;D ) xx
-Serena/HeSaidSheSaidx