So I realize that technically this is late, because technically it's 2 hours into Thursday where I am, but hopefully you will forgive me as I lost track of my life for a few hours because none of my professors believe in holiday breaks anymore, so I have been bombarded with tons of work. 3 papers, 3 online quizzes, 1 online exam, and 2 project/presentations later and maybe I'll finally have time to eat Turkey with my family.

So with that said, I hope everything who celebrates Thanksgiving has a happy one and enjoys that time with their family, because I for one am very thankful to be home for 6 days despite my work overload. Grammatical errors are unavoidable because I'm human and on that note I must climb into my bed and hope that when I wake my inbox is filled with reviews! (:

First Bad Habit

Previously

"I would ask you why you did that," Troy started. "But I don't even think you know why."

Gabriella sighed, opening up her eyes to make contact with his. "I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not."

"I don't think you need to be sorry."

xx

"Keep your hands off my sister!" Drew snapped, testing Troy by stepping toward him.

Troy wasn't about to back off and stepped closer to Drew as well. "What are you going to do if I don't?"

"You want to find out?"

"Can we stop this please?" Gabriella asked, stepping in between the two; hand on her brother's arm as she faced him, her back to Troy. "There is nothing going on!"

xx

"Don't worry about it," he assured her, shaking his head. "You good?"

"Uhm, yeah sure."

"Sweet, I'll uhh, I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

Feeling a bit rejected, Gabriella nodded and watched him jog off to handle business. It was then that it finally hit Gabriella. What the hell was she doing?

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.
-Judy Garland

Chapter 7

Gabriella sighed, straightening up her shirt and looking down at her jeans as she stood in front of the door marked 6B. She wouldn't say the small, 8 floor apartment building she'd gone to was in a bad side of town, but rather a place she didn't live, didn't want to live, and had never actually been to before. She was out of her element, but curiousity always got the best of her and it seemed especially serious these days. After all, it had made her sneak into the school counselors office to find where Troy Bolton lived.

And now she was standing in front of it, knocking on his door.

She heard the sound of voices and footsteps from behind the door seconds before it opened, revealing Troy himself, red eyes and all."

"Gabriella? What the…what the fuck are you doing here?" He asked as she snuck a glance inside, catching the 4 or 5 people sitting on his couch smoking right before he stepped out and closed the door behind himself.

"I uh…"

"Are you crazy?"

"No I just….I don't know what I was thinking. This was stupid." She turned to walk away, but Troy gripped her arm.

"You came all the way here, went through all that trouble just to turn around and leave?"

"I just…didn't know you had company."

Gabriella bit her lip as Troy eyed her suspiciously. "We both know that's not what this is about. I may be a little high right now…"

"You guys weren't smoking cigarettes this time…" she stated, finally connecting with his red eyes.

He licked his lips as he looked back at her, suddenly caring what she thought. "No, but…"

She shrugged, holding her hands out. "You don't have to explain anything to me. I should go, I'm sorry for this."

Gabriella turned and made her way to the elevator, mentally kicking herself in the head for this plan to surprise Troy at his place. She'd just wanted to talk and she'd imagined that when she got here it would be his mom or dad opening the door to some nice suburban home. She thought that he wouldn't be all bad, just some sort of front he was putting up to everyone at school, but it didn't seem like that was going to happen.

Back at his apartment door down the hall, Troy made the split second decision to dash down the hall just as the elevator reached his floor and slipped inside the elevator with her before the doors could close. "Gabriella…"

"Troy! What are you doing? Just go home, I'm sorry I ever came here."

Troy ignored her, hitting the emergency stop button and then turning around to face her, arms falling on the back wall on the elevator, caging Gabriella in and making her back hit the wall as she looked up at him. "I…"

"I know what you think you saw and it may not be something you want to get involved with, but I warned you. I have much more of a past than you know and it's pretty fucked up."

Gabriella swallowed, opening her mouth as she kept her eyes on his. "My life's not perfect either. It's probably not as fucked up, but I've got skeletons in my closet too."

"This is serious…"

"I know. And I'm serious. I'm not stupid. I know that there's probably weed and alcohol and a bunch of other illegal drugs in there, Troy, but that doesn't matter to me. Whatever you're involved in, it doesn't matter…"

"It does…"

"Not to me! Look, I can't tell you why or how it even happened, but there's something about you that I just…I can't let it go, nor do I want to. Like you said, there's more to you, there's a whole story and a side I don't know, but it's not all bad…"

"You don't know that," he cut her off. "You don't know everything about me," he stated fiercly.

She nodded, a bit intimidated by the sudden fire in his eyes. But she wasn't backing off now. "You're right, but you don't know everything about me either. I understand. There's thing you can't tell me and things I probably will never understand about you, but I'm not running away. I'm not scared to know you. It's actually the opposite; I'm scared to not know you."

Troy's eyes scanned down along her body, feeling a snarl attempting to erupt, but stopped when he focused back on her face again. She was staring at him with this look. Yet she was honest, it wasn't a look of fear, it was more like a look of fascination. And he wanted her. God, all of the curiousness and the persistence from her and he wanted her bad.

So he trailed his hands from the wall of the elevator down her shoulders and then to her torso, stopping momentarily to trace the outline of her hip. He gripped her next, pulling her toward him with force just seconds before angrily covering her lips with his own, receiving no fight from her.

He wanted her and so he was going to have her.