I looked down at my phone. It was 12:30. 12 fucking 30. What the heck.

So I put my phone in my purse and grab my keys out of there, "I should probably go."

Troy immediately sits up and looks a bit confused. But it's 12:30. Does he think I'm going to stay here until 3 and talk to him? Or is he waiting til it's later so he can take me inside and hook up with me? Or am I jumping to conclusions thinking he's actually into me? I am, huh?

But then again, why would he invite me over to hang out? I don't know. It was all so weird to me.

It was weird that I actually was having a good time. That I was actually having a conversation with him that I was enjoying. We were talking about things that I never thought we would talk about. And it was refreshing. It was nice. It was cool seeing him in this light even if he's bullshitting. But it doesn't seem it. He's a nice guy. Sure, I thought he was annoying and he might still be, but he's nice. Troy Bolton is nice. And he's easy to talk to.

I should get going, though. It's late. And though I don't have a curfew, I'm sure my parents wouldn't appreciate me coming home at 2 AM.

"Okay," he finally gets up so I do to, "I'll walk you out."

"You don't have to do that," I tell him since I'm terrified he might try to kiss me. But I shouldn't assume things. I know I shouldn't. Because well, would I be disappointed if it doesn't happen? I don't think so. I don't know. "I'm fine."

But he doesn't listen. He grabs all the trash off the table, walks over to the trash cans on the side of his house, throws them in there and then turns to me as if he's asking me if I'm coming or what.

Oh yeah. I look around making sure I'm not leaving anything behind and then I walk over to him.

He opens the side gate and he lets me out first and then he follows me and walks me straight to my car. I don't expect him to open the car door which he doesn't, which is good. I don't want it to be a moment. We kind of just stand there and I don't really know what to say or do.

"Thanks for hanging out with me," he tells me as he shoves his hands in his pocket.

"Thanks for the food," I tell him like an idiot since he paid.

He smiles at me, takes one hand out of his pocket and runs his hand through his hair, which is long enough to do that, but not long enough to fall over his eyes or forehead which is my favorite kind of hair. God, he has such good hair. And beautiful eyes. And amazing cheekbones. Just... everything. Everything. He is so hot, it's not fair. It's really not. And I have NO idea what business I have being in his presence.

And then I kind of just turn around and head to the drivers seat of my car, not really saying anything else because I don't know what to say.

I get in and he's just standing there, watching me leave, which makes me smile.

And then I'm off. I drive off and I can see him walking back inside his house, through the back.

What a weird, crazy, cool night...

Then Sunday rolls around, and it gets even crazier.

I came to my cousin's game, sans Brooks since she had to babysit her cousin last minute, and before the game even started, Troy told me he wanted to talk to me after the game, which is something no one wants to hear. BUT we're not anything so it couldn't be that bad right? Only people in relationships freak out when someone tells them that. So I'm sure it's nothing major. I mean, we're barely friends. It can't be anything bad.

The game ends. They win 2-1, with Daniel scoring the first goal. So cool.

And as my aunt is walking away from me since I told her I was leaving, Troy comes up behind me, grabbing my waist a bit.

I turn around, freaked out a bit but I try to hide it. Shit. He scared me, even though I knew he wanted to talk. I ended up parking next to him in the parking lot, though, so I thought I'd wait for him over there so my aunt wouldn't ask any questions.

"Sorry," he laughs, catching on that he caught me off guard, "um, what are you doing? You leaving?"

"Well, the game is over..."

He laughs again and throws his soccer bag over his shoulder as we start walking towards the parking lot. His hair is pushed up and to the side due to the sweat probably and it's the hottest thing, ever. He should always do his hair like that. Of course, it would require sweat and.. gross. No. I don't know what the heck I'm even thinking. I'm weird. And annoying.

We then step foot on the parking lot ground and he turns to me, "you wanna get some lunch or something?"

"Is that what you had to tell me?" I ask, hoping it was. Because lunch sounds good and also, it would be a lot better than hearing him say something along the lines, like, don't tell anyone we hung out. Blah blah blah. Which crossed my mind for a second, I'm not going to lie.

"Yeah," he smiles at me, looking a bit embarrassed which is so cute.

I'm in. I'm hungry. And something inside of me is just feeling him lately and I don't know. It might be the dumbest decision ever, but I don't even care at this moment. "Okay, sure, I'm hungry."

He grabs his keys from his bag and unlocks his car, "good. I'll meet you there? Where do you wanna go? I'm down for anything."

Hmm. What am I in the mood for? Not Mexican. Not burgers. "You like sushi?"

"I love sushi," he walks a few feet ahead and opens the trunk of his car and shoves his soccer bag in there, "my favorite place is Hane Sushi, but if you have a favorite place, we can go there. It doesn't matter."

Ugh I LOVE Hane Sushi. But I don't want to make a big deal about it because well, that's weird. "No, yeah, I've been there. It's good. We can go there."

He closes his trunk and then turns to me with a smile, "okay, cool, I'll see you there then."

I nod and then walk around his car and go to my car which is right next to his, coincidentally. I get in, take a deep breath, and pray to God that this isn't going to be the worst decision of my life. I know it's just lunch. But it's lunch with Troy Bolton. Troy freaking Bolton. Who's the most popular guy in school!

And 10 minutes later, we're walking through the door of the place, and asking for a table for two.

Troy changed out of his uniform. Well, he still has the shorts, but he put on another shirt and took off his cleats and switched them for sports sandals.

But honestly, anything he wears is good. He can seriously wear rainbow sandals and I'll probably still find him attractive.

The hostess took us to our table, gave us our menu, and within a minute, the waitress came and asked what we wanted to drink. And even though Troy told her first, I swear I wasn't copying him. I always get the iced green tea here. It's SO good. Apparently... since he asked for one, too. So.

"What's your favorite roll?" Troy asked as he opened the menu.

"Rainbow, usually. Or the kitchen sink," I didn't even bother to open my menu.

He closed his, too, I think once he realized I was pretty much ready to order whenever the waitress came back. I don't waste time here. Plus, I'm so hungry that I want her to put in the food right away. I think he picked up on it, too, because he then pushed the menus to the side to give her the hint.

And before we knew it, she came back with our drinks and we told her we were ready to order.

Troy got this roll I never even heard of. But he said it's really good. I got mine and then he order some sushi tempura and some sesame chicken for an appetizer, which is so good here. It's the best.

"I'm really hungry," he tells me as the waitress walks away, "I probably could order a couple more rolls."

"Why don't you then?"

He looks at me as if I seriously asked him that. "Because we'd be here for hours."

Hey, after the other night and realizing talking to him is actually pretty nice, I don't think I'd mind. But I do have a birthday dinner to go to tonight so I can't afford to be here for hours. But I'm not gonna tell him that, that's lame. "Well, they give a lot of sesame chicken so I think you'll be fine."

"Yeah, yeah," he nods before taking a sip of his iced green tea, "so, what'd you think of the game?"

The game. Ahhh yes. It was such a good game. "Those guys were undefeated last season. I didn't think... I mean, you guys played really good."

He laughed because he knew what I was going to say. I didn't think they'd win. The other team... well, their team lost 5-2 to them last year. And they didn't change anything so I thought it was going to be the same. But they ended up winning. And I think it's because Daniel's team DID change something. They got Troy. And it's crazy, but seriously, one guy makes the different. He's such a team player, and it wasn't something I expected.

Sure, I'd seen some of his high school games and I remember is him being fouled as the result of not passing it. And everyone yelling at him for being a ball hog. Which is why I thought he wouldn't mesh well.

But nope. He's a team player. And I think Daniel's team has really benefited from having Troy.

"Hey, our team's pretty good," he smiles at me as he reaches for his drink yet again.

"No, yeah, yeah, definitely," I know he's not mad about it, but I feel a little bit bad about it now. I basically said I thought they would lose. "It's just, numbers don't lie. But, yeah, definitely, you guys are really good."

"Thanks," he laughs, "no, yeah, we were a bit nervous about it. I didn't play them with my old club team but I heard they were really good."

I nod. Yes, they were. And they won last year, so you just have it in your mind that they're going to win again. Especially since one of their best players is injured. But I guess Troy easily replaced him. He's probably better, to be honest. "Well, I'm sure you guys will be the ones undefeated this season."

It's true. I really mean it. The way they're playing, how could they not be?

"We'll see," he shrugs, "how's your weekend going?"

Um. Fuck. How do I answer this? If I say good, he's going to think it's because this moment right here. And Friday. But if I say okay, I don't want to be mean. Like, how do I possibly answer this question? Should I just say, it's fine? Is that okay? "Oh, it's good."

"That's good, what have you done?"

"I went shopping yesterday, had a family BBQ, just hung out really. And later, I have a birthday dinner to go to."

"Tessa's?" he asks and I'm a little surprised he knows this. How does he know my friends? But before I could even ask how he knows, he answers, "I saw on Facebook it was her birthday and I know you guys are friends, so figured."

Again, how does he know who I'm friends with? This is all SO strange to me. "Yeah, Tessa."

He smiles and again, takes a drink of his iced green tea, which reminds me to drink mine. "That sounds fun, where at?"

"Island Prime," I get excited just thinking about it. They have the BEST steak. But then I realized I haven't asked how his weekend's going and that's rude of me, probably, so I should. "What about you, how's your weekend?"

"Great," he says right away, pushing his drink away, "great. Got to sleep in until 1 yesterday, won my game today, and now... I'm here."

Okay. I don't know whether to blush or not. Whether to feel happy about it. Was he telling me it was great because he slept until 1, won and he's hanging out with me? Or is he just explaining to me what he did this weekend since I explained, too? Gah. I hate not knowing. I NEED to know. But I guess by the way he's smiling at me, I can kinda assume what he meant.

But I don't want to get my hopes up. I don't even know if I like this. I mean, he's incredibly hot and it's easy to talk to him, but how in the world is this going to go anywhere? He's the most popular guy in school. I'm not popular... I'm just there.

I think he meant it's great because he's here with me and that makes my stomach have major butterflies. Ugh. I can't take it.

"Did you cut your hair?" he changes the subject before I could say anything.

"What?" I grab the end of my hair and look at it. I did. I did cut my hair. But barely anything. Like, 2 inches. Brooke didn't even notice yesterday. What the fuck is going on? No. There's no way he noticed that I cut my hair. How would he?! "Oh, um, yeah, I did. Yesterday."

"Yeah," he nods, like he's proud of himself for noticing or something, "it looks a bit shorter. I like it."

Again, butterflies in my stomach. I can't take it. Why. Why is he being like this. Maybe it's all an act. Maybe he's secretly finding out all this information to use on me to get me to like him or something. "Thanks."

But right now, I didn't even care. I looked into his blue eyes and just melted away.

Not literally, but ugh. He's so hot.