Tumbling Etceteras
Chapter Seven
Within seconds of climbing out of Mrs. Bolton's Lexus and shutting the door behind him, a massive smirk stretched across Chad's face. "Not that I didn't appreciate the ride, Hoops, but where's Gabster?"
The question was hardly surprising: Troy had known that Chad was cooking up some sort of sly remark the moment that he had first seen him that morning. Rolling his eyes, he shrugged. "She had early orientation: her shift started an hour before ours..."
"Ohhh," Chad taunted. His lips wrinkled deviously. "That's right: because she's a life-guard and not a waitress..." The other two boys snorted at Chad's implication.
"It's gonna be a hard summer, dude," Zeke mocked; Chad's mischief appeared to have spread to him and Jason too. "In more ways than one!" he added, catching his double-entendre and reaching behind him to exchange high-fives with the other sniggering boys.
Turning on his heel, Troy gave them the finger over his shoulder. "You are all so very funny."
His grumbled response did nothing to abate their mischief and Chad continued with his teasing. "How long do you think it'll take before he drags Gabriella off to fool around in the locker rooms?"
Jason and Zeke stopped in their tracks and looked at each other before shrugging. "A week?" Jason suggested.
"Pffft, try a day..."
There was the faintest hint of a blush on Troy's cheeks as he glanced at his friends over his shoulder. "You guys do realise that Gabriella will be mortified if she hears you talking like that?"
"Oh come on, she must know that we know."
Now Troy was just confused. "That you know what?"
Chad spun his ever-prized basketball on his finger with a smirk. "That we know your pussy kiss-but-don't tell thing is precisely that...we've been friends for years, dude. Don't think it actually flies..."
Eyebrows knitted together in confusion, Troy snatched the ball from his friend's hands and bounced it up and down a few times.
Oblivious to his friend's embarrassment, Chad carried on. "We know you two are at it, dude. But don't sweat it, we won't let on..."
Troy glanced back up at his best friend out of the corner of his eye. "The funny thing is," he started bashfully, coughing and scratching the back of his neck before he made his final admission. "We seriously aren't..."
The boys shared a semi-disbelieving look. There was no doubting the embarrassed sincerity of his tone. "Ohhh," Chad toned. His voice was partly mocking but mainly shocked. "Wow."
Again Troy rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, as if any of you can talk. You haven't even asked Taylor out on a proper date yet," he accused gruffly.
"Okay but that's entirely different: me having the hots for Taylor is almost as terrifying as Zeke wanting the Ice Queen. They're not as..." he struggled over the word, "fluffy as Gabriella. Taylor could probably kill me and like it look like an accident if I go about it the wrong way."
"Whatever, dude," Troy sighed.
He made a move to step through the gate leading to the complex. "Wait up, Hoops!" Chad called, grabbing onto his arm. "So you haven't got laid, that's totally cool. I mean, you've fooled around, right?" Avoiding his friends' searching gaze, Troy really didn't have to say a word. "Second base at least?" More silence. "First base?" Troy coughed and shrugged off his friend's grip. "Oh dude, that is tragic."
"We make out, alright?" Troy admitted slightly aggressively. "And sort of first base..."
"There is no kind of here, dude," Zeke snorted.
Turning around, his arms folded grumpily over his chest, Troy glared at the others. "You know, and I'll let you in on this secret since you're all so tragically single," he mocked their terminology. "When exactly do Gabi and I get chance to fool around? My bedroom is on the ground floor for Pete's sake." He enumerated the list on his fingers. "Two: both our parents have an open door policy..."
"What about when Gabriella's Mom is away?"
Troy shrugged. "Have you met my genius, teacher's pet girlfriend? When her Mom tells her not to have me over, she doesn't."
"Ouch," Chad muttered under his breath.
"Oh and here's the other fact: I don't want to scare Gabriella off. She's shy and new at all this stuff." He scuffed his shoes on the chalky ground. "And, you know, I really like her so I kind of don't want to freak her out or be that boyfriend."
Jason winced. "It really is gonna be a hard summer, man...."
A loud sigh seeped past Troy's lips. "Tell me about it. Now can we go or do you all want to be late for our first day at work?"
"Whatever, dude," Chad shouted as he cheekily stole the basketball back from Troy and began dribbling it through the gate.
Troy, Jason and Zeke followed suit. As the sound of splashing grew louder, Troy turned away from his banal conversation with them and had to bite back a groan as he caught sight of his girlfriend standing on top of a rocky platform and surveying the swimmers. The distance gifted him with the opportunity to take her in properly, without risking her catching him; not that he would have been able to stop himself anyway. He wondered how anybody could make what was essentially a block-colour expanse of Lycra look so good. It clung to every inch of her developing curves, cradling her modest cleavage and exposing it to his hungry glare. Troy's eyes travelled downwards and he could only gulp at the tanned stretch of leg that she managed to impossibly hide underneath jeans and dainty skirts on a day-to-day basis. Feeling a prickling heat rise up the column of his spine and trickle down his front, Troy only hoped that she wouldn't turn around and prize him with a gift of her perfectly rounded backside.
His eyes were only torn from her form by a swift slap to the back of his head. Still somewhat dazed, he couldn't even chastise Chad with a glare.
Groaning, he shook out his limbs in a bid to vanquish the tension and arousal seeping through his pores. "It's gonna be a long summer."
Six hours and countless dirty plates later, Troy Bolton practically skipped through the French doors of the dining room and onto the poolside terrace. Upon noting his girlfriend still sitting rather primly in her lifeguard's chair, he pouted: their shift had officially finished five minutes ago and he had expected to be able to leave straight away. Nonetheless, he swaggered over to her with a proud smile on his face, a single-stemmed carnation clutched smugly behind his back.
"Hey beautiful," he charmed softly from behind, causing Gabriella to jump unexpectedly.
She spun around with a bright smile on her face; one that sparkled that bit brighter when Troy presented her with the lavender flower. "Don't you know all of the right tricks?" she mused with a giggle as she lifted it to her nose and inhaled deeply. "Mhmmm," she breathed out with a sigh. "Smells just like the roast beef dinner chef had on as the special today." Gabriella knew full well that her boyfriend had swiped the item from one of the dining tables.
A soft chuckle escaped Troy's mouth and he cocked an eyebrow at her. "Just don't tell Fulton. I don't know how many strikes theft on your first day are worth..."
Gabriella's tawny eyes darkened stormily. "I can't believe he gave me a strike," she pouted. "I don't think that's ever happened to me before." Her baby-voice might have been intended to sound joking but Troy could tell that it really bothered her.
"Awww, babe. It's nothing. And one strike will look angelic compared to what the guys and I will have against our names by the end of summer. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time: he definitely wanted to make an example of someone on the first day."
Smiling at his comforting words, Gabriella sighed in acceptance. "I suppose. It still sucks though." She giggled softly. "I feel like such a rebel."
Troy gulped, for what felt like the millionth time that day. There was something about the mischievous twinkle in her eye that suddenly made it all the more difficult for him to ignore the fact that he could detect every curve of her body under her swimsuit. "Steady on there, Montez," he joked huskily. His eyes dropped all too instinctively from her face to the swell of her breasts and he had to purposefully direct his gaze across at the other side of the pool in order to avoid meeting her - probably knowing- eye.
His feeble attempts came all too late: Gabriella had already caught his line of sight. In fact, she wasn't sure she'd ever noticed him regard her so intensely in all the time that they'd been dating. It made Taylor's comments from the other week hit her even harder. Deep down Gabriella knew that she was attractive, and she would have had to be stupid not to know that her boyfriend was attracted to her. He told her almost every day how gorgeous he thought she was and Troy's hands had been known to wander on the odd occasion. Yet she was still insecure and growing into her changing body. It made wandering around in a swimsuit in front of her classmates somewhat daunting. It was a big change from wearing comfortable jeans and knee-length skirts. Her insecurity was exacerbated by the fact that there were more than a few holidaying teenage boys loitering by the pool. She wasn't used to being sized up by strangers.
Knowing that Troy was having trouble keeping his gaze at a gentlemanly level both made her feel more conscious and made a relatively buried part of her psyche feel proud. She couldn't deny subconsciously standing a little bit more poised or adding that extra little bit of strut to her walk when she knew he was nearby.
Of course, anything made watching Sharpay scowl at the lack of attention Troy was paying to her worthwhile.
After a couple of seconds of comfortable but charged silence, Gabriella stepped forward and leaned her cheek into his shoulder. Both of their bodies shivered at the unintentionally brazen contact between his arm and the side of her chest. "It's not fair that we've spent six hours here today and have barely seen each other," Gabriella sulked gently.
Troy looked down at her and returned her pout before lifting an arm to wrap around her shoulder. "I know, right? But we'll definitely get some overlapping lunch breaks; and I can always bribe one of the guys to swap with me if not."
"Excellent." With a grin, Gabriella placed a gentle kiss against his T-shirt clad bicep. "What shift are you doing tomorrow?"
"Afternoon and evening – it'll be a long one. You?"
"I'm doing a twelve-six, which is rubbish 'cos it means we'll probably barely meet up tomorrow. I should tell Fulton to fix our shifts better," she wondered somewhat defiantly.
Troy snorted and nudged her shoulder with his. "We are feeling rebellious, aren't we? What happened to the girl that almost cried at the weekend because she banged her elbow?" he taunted softly.
Mouth agape, Gabriella took a step away from her boyfriend and glared at him with her hands on her hips. "Banged my elbow? You literally forced me to try a death-defying move on your board of terror and I fell over and scraped my elbow! It bled and everything!" Troy's face was still blank of emotion. Gabriella lifted her elbow up, squinting at the slight scab before pointing at it energetically. "Look! I'm scarred for life!" she protested with a giggle.
Leaning down so that his face was mere inches away from the scratch, Troy nodded solemnly. "Oh yes, I see: terrible, absolutely terrible. They might have to amputate."
Gabriella was in the perfect position to swoop down with one hand and swat him across the back of his head.
Troy glanced up cockily for a moment before leaning in and placing a soft kiss against the reddened skin of her elbow. "Better?" he asked mockingly.
"I don't know," Gabriella sighed over dramatically and had to wrinkle her nose when the comment simply prompted Troy to place numerous wet kisses against it. "Yes, it's better! It's better!" she shrieked at the ticklish sensation before gently pushing his head away.
Straightening up, Troy beamed over at her. "I keep telling you that my kisses are magical! Now you have proof!" He ignored her rolled eyes. "Anyway, as fun as this is, why are you still working? Shift ended like ten minutes ago..."
Gabriella groaned. "Sharpay." The name traipsed disdainfully from her tongue. "She had a special request for Javier: hopefully they'll be back any second now." Her brows furrowed in contemplation. "If I say something will you promise not to think I'm some sort of psycho-paranoid-psycho?" Troy's lips bunched at her turn of phrase but he nodded none the less. "The thing is, I'm sure she overheard me telling Taylor that we were planning to go to the movies straight after work and then suddenly she comes along and snatches my replacement away the second that the clock turns six...I swear she did it on purpose..."
"Who knows, babe: it's Sharpay. I wouldn't let her bother you though. So what if we leave here half an hour later than intended? We have all evening."
Smiling, Gabriella nodded enthusiastically. "I can't wait." Her grin curved further upwards. "Yay!" she squeaked, grasping Troy's hand again. "Javier's back! We can go, we can go, we can go!"
Laughing out loud, Troy squeezed her tiny palm in his. "Somebody really is excited about our date!"
Gabriella peered up at him cheekily. "Only because you promised me ice-cream to make up for my mortal wound..."
Naturally Troy was never one to deny his girlfriend anything. After purchasing her two scoops of ice-cream with toffee-sauce and sprinkles, the couple had settled down to watch Paranormal Activity, Troy's choice, of course. At the time choosing a scary film had seemed like a good idea: he was hardly averse to his girlfriend's need to snuggle into him and clutch his hand; the look of trepidation on her face during the movie was always so adorable.
His plan had been flawed; he really shouldn't have been so blind to the possibility. The problem was that the cute little whimpering noises she made whenever something scary happened on screen sounded less endearing that evening and more arousing. Since he had first seen Gabriella that morning, Troy seemed unable to look past the screen of lust that now seemed to tinge everything she said and did. His skin itched with the knowledge of just how much he wanted her.
Troy gripped her hand firmly as the sauntered down her street and up the driveway. He grinned proudly as she reached forward to test the door-handle. "I bet your Mom'll be proud that I've managed to get you home half an hour before curfew.
Gabriella giggled as she fished around in her handbag for her keys. "Or she'll know that you purposefully make sure there's time for you to come in and pilfer a few brownies!" She avoided his aghast glare and pushed the front door open, frowning when the lights were off and there seemed to be no sign of life. "Well this is very unusual," she mused. "Mom did say she was going for dinner after work but it's like eleven."
Stepping through the door behind her, Troy smiled wryly. "It's a bit tragic when your parents are out later than you are, isn't it?"
A chuckle bounced passed Gabriella's lips as she hung her coat up. "You'd have thought she'd be here to make sure you brought me back on time. You know what she's like," she added with an eye-roll. Moving through to the living room, Gabriella shrugged off her cardigan and slumped down onto the sofa, holding her hand out to Troy to take. "Want to keep me company until she gets back?" she asked with a pleading pout.
Troy smiled tightly; the slither of want uncurled in the pit of his stomach again. "Do you think your Mom'll mind?" he asked, wondering how obvious his need for an escape was.
Spine tingling at the desperate huskiness of his voice, and the glowing depth of his sapphire eyes, Gabriella felt suddenly brazen. "If she walks in and finds you ravishing me on the sofa, you mean?" she prodded cheekily.
Troy blushed a flattering shade of red and a strangled half-groan, half-sigh clawed its way down his throat.
Gabriella's giggle broke through the intensity of the moment. "You're actually blushing!" she teased. At Troy's pout, she leaned forwards and tugged on his hand, bringing him to sit next to her.
"And you're actually a tease," he mumbled jokingly. As much as he was a teenage boy whose hormones tended to get the better of him, a lot, he loved the fact that his and Gabriella's relationship was based on their friendship rather than lust and the usual teen drama. Her shyness and silliness were what he adored most about her.
Stroking his hair as he buried his face into her shoulder, Gabriella's shoulders shook with silent laughter. "Poor baby..."
"Sometimes I wonder whether you torture me on purpose or whether you're actually just..." He paused as he tried to find a way of articulating his statement without offending her.
Gabriella wiggled her shoulder and prompted her boyfriend to look up at her. "I'm hardly torturing you," she remarked dryly. Catching the look in his eyes she immediately realised the falsity of her statement.
Troy chuckled slightly nervously. His eyes fell to a spot on the carpet as he denied that part of brain telling him to bite his tongue and instead replied. The honesty painted his cheeks a dark shade of pink. "Maybe it just becomes torture when I've had to watch you wandering around in a swimsuit all day."
Gabriella's hands stilled their tender caressing of his shaggy hair at his admission. "Oh," she muttered shyly, her voice coming out in a much higher pitch than she had anticipated. "It's not exactly the sexiest swimming costume in the world," she added, a hint of self-consciousness seeping into her voice.
Groaning, Troy buried his head back into her shoulder with a chuckle. "And now the image in my head is even hotter than it was." He nuzzled his nose again her skin to try and mellow the tension in the room and ensure that his girlfriend wasn't feeling too uncomfortable. Troy looked up a moment or two later when Gabriella still hadn't said anything. "Hey," he cooed softly, his hand stroking the side of your face. "Are you okay?" he asked, noting the slightly faraway expression on her face.
Gabriella nodded slowly. "Yeah." She smiled softly as she tried to articulate what she was feeling. "This feels different...new..." she mumbled, embarrassment infusing her cheeks with colour and she leaned into the warmth of his hand.
"Good new?" Troy asked, gulping as he registered the proximity of their faces.
Their eyes met and Gabriella nodded shyly. "I mean, well, yeah. Not that..."
Troy cut her off with a smile. "I know..."
"But..."
"You're gorgeous," Troy admitted nervously; the words carried a different weight than they ever had before. He couldn't suppress the smile that tickled his lips as she blushed even more and there really wasn't anything else for him to do but lean forwards and let their lips meet, softly at first and then with a tender pressure that was strangely new. As her mouth parted to let his probing tongue sneak through her lips, his hand clasped the back of her head more firmly and their heads aligned even more to allow their kisses to plunge to an unexplored depth. He was sure that she whimpered as his other hand slowly, gently rubbed circles on her side. His fingers burned at her skin when they accidentally brushed against the strip of skin that became exposed as her vest rode up slightly. Encouraged by her grip on his shoulders, Troy's hand slowly moved upwards, his thumb brushing tentatively against the side of her breast. He practically felt the goose-bumps that puckered over her skin in response.
Pulling back a fraction, Troy's gaze drifted upwards to seek permission from his girlfriend's eyes. She nodded almost imperceptibly and he leaned down to timidly reconnect their lips, his hand hesitantly moving over her breast as he squeezed the mound of flesh in his hand. Barely a second later, the sound of keys jangling and the door opening hastened them apart guiltily. Gabriella giggled softly at the look of terror on her boyfriend's face and she interlaced their fingers, sticking her tongue out at him.
"You aren't funny, Montez," he grumbled with a mischievous scowl.
Gabriella leaned across to swiftly kiss him on the cheek sympathetically. "Come on, you. Let's go and see if there are some brownies after all. I know that's the only reason you're still here really."
He chuckled, standing up and pulling her to her feet. Gabriella smiled at him warmly, a blush still circling her cheeks; the sight alone was enough to make his heart beat that little bit faster.
A/N: Sorry about the delay in getting this up. Hope you're still reading and enjoying! As usual, thank you so much for the feedback; you're all wonderful :-)
