Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical.
All In The Family
Chapter Five - Consequence Free, Who Would You Choose?
Sharpay swallowed nervously as she pulled into the driveway of Jack and Lucille Bolton's home. With a shaky hand, she slowly turned the key to shut her boyfriend's car off, and pulled it out of the slot with a deep sigh. At the moment, really, she'd rather be anywhere but here right now. How she was going to face the outraged mess (which was obvious from their short phone conversation) that was Justin, she really didn't know. All she could really do was hope for the best...which probably wouldn't come anyway, since she'd ended the call on a not-so-happy to hear from him, less than pleasant note.
As various thoughts jumping all over the place in her mind ranging from Justin, to Troy, to Gabriella even, to Jack, Lucy, and back to Troy and Justin, swarmed her thoughts, she still remained seated in the car, not willing to move...even though she knew she would have too soon, since a certain brunette I-seriously-almost-shared-a-kiss-with man would probably be back any minute, and it would be just too awkward to face him again right now.
That's when suddenly, as if on cue, there was a knock on her window, vanishing her thoughts and causing her to jump startled. She quickly turned to see who it was, and her heart rate sped up from already fast with anticipation and nerves to unusually fast and rapid as she tried to decide whether or not to roll down the window when she realized who it was. (Not that it was a big totally unexpected surprise or anything.)
"I...didn't mean to scare you, sorry." Troy apologized quickly when she finally decided Oh, to hell with it and rolled it down.
"You're fine. You just kind of startled me." Sharpay mumbled, as if she hadn't just seen him less than 20 minutes ago.
"Sorry," he said again and paused before adding "...so why are you just sitting here?"
"..Well, you know how on the phone I told Justin that I was avoiding him?"
"..Sure." Troy said, although he didn't recall, since back at the park he'd been too busy cursing the inventor of cell phones at the time she'd been chatting to pay that much attention to every word really.
"Well I wasn't exactly done yet. But I guess I should head inside now..." she said reluctantly, glancing up at the lit house and not bothering to move, even though she kind of wanted to get away from him right now, but seemed frozen in place. That's when a heavy silence fell over them.
"Listen, Sharpay/Troy," they both simultaneously said suddenly after several long, awkward moments. They looked at each other and each couldn't help but chuckle at the unisonous speaking from them.
"Um...you go first." said Sharpay.
"Well, I just wanted...to say... that I-"
"Ah, look who decided to limp on back to where he came from!" A new voice suddenly greeted them. Sharpay froze, and she felt the chills crawl up her spine, but she was relaxed and relieved when she forced herself to look out the windsheild and saw who it was, and that it was not Justin.
"Chad," Troy sighed, sounding both frustrated and relieved at once.
"Where've you been, man? I've been trying to ring ya for the last couple of hours, and nothing," the afro-headed man said, approaching them at the car.
"I didn't take it with me to the park, but can we talk about this later?"
"Why? What's the- oh, hello, Sharpay." Chad smiled kindly, finally seeing that she was in the car. "Everyone's wondering where you've been too."
"So I've heard."
"I must say, Troy, you're family's quite alright but it's been sort of weird hanging around them we're you're not here." Chad said, turning back to Troy.
"I didn't think anyone would notice."
"You're kidding, right? After that little showdown earlier, you and your cousin are all anyone's been talking about. It's like being right back in Hollywood again."
"Speaking of Hollywood, where's the big bad Hollywood bi-" Troy said, and then, remembering that Sharpay was there, quickly changed it to "-I mean, Gabriella?" Not like he wanted her to be his top thought right now or priority anyway- not that she really was, he was just curious.
"Don't know. I honestly almost forgot she was even here." Chad shrugged. "Twenty bucks says she's pacing angrily around your guy's room, impatiently awaiting your return."
"If she's so anti social, why is she here?" Sharpay suddenly asked. "Better yet, why is she famous? It must be hard for anyone to get an interview with her."
"Interviews- yes. Paparazzi- no." Troy told her. "She loves having her picture taken, so unless you come to her with a camera, she'll hardly acknowledge you...or she'll...dislike you. And by you, I mean anyone."
"That explains so much." Sharpay said. It was obvious to her that Gabriella, for some reason, was already less than fond of her.
"But wasn't she the one who was all enthusiastic about coming to meet your family?!" Chad recalled, scrunching up his nose in confusion.
"Yes!" Troy scoffed, remembering Gabriella's exact words to his parents on the phone;
"I don't know what silly excuse Troy has come up with far, but I can assure you we'll be there. Looking forward to next Saturday! :)"
-insert overly cheerful annoying makes-us-all-want-to-bash-our-heads-in-with-something-hard-like-a-large-iron-or-cinder-block giggle here-
"She's freaking bi-polar, I tell you!" He exclaimed, and Sharpay remained silent, confused as to why Troy would talk about the woman he was (supposedly) in love with and getting married to like that.
"Well, either she was just faking it on the phone for some reason, or maybe she really was looking forward to this weird reunion but all that changed and she became all 'screw the world' when she discovered that Sharpay, the woman you used to have the serious hots for was-"
"DUDE!" Troy exclaimed horrifically, cutting him off even though it was too late. Sharpay's eyebrows shot up, and her eyeballs widened to the size of flying saucers as the only three words that could ever really be thought of in a time like this shot through her brain:
What. The. Hell?!
"What?" Chad asked obliviously with a large brown eyed blink, and Troy shot him the old evil-eyed I hate you, and, have you completey forgotten that there's a third party member within hearing range, who just so happens to fucking BE "Sharpay, the woman I used to have the serious hots for", you freaking retarded douchebag!? look.
"Oh!" Chad said, finally seeming to get it and actually remember that she was there! He glanced quickly at a dumbfounded Sharpay, and spoke again, though his short sentence was sputtered.
"I-I did say used to?"
"Motherf- gaah!" Troy said , throwing his arms in the air. How the fuck could Chad just blow his lifelong freakin' secret like that?!!!! He didn't think he could be that much of a total idiot!
Refusing to even shoot one last glance at Sharpay, not even to see her reaction, he quickly squeeked an embarassed "Later," at her and shuffled away from there faster than a wild tiger chasing after it's prey.
"Yeah...I uh...better go...I hafta um...go and...cook the...sheep...antler." Chad said to Sharpay a few seconds after Troy was gone. She was still too shocked from his just seconds ago revelation about Troy to notice just how beyond strange his excuse to get away as well before she started questioning him sounded. So she simply swallowed hard and nodded numbly, and he quickly ran off, leaving her alone, abandoned, and one hell of a lot shocked and confused in the car.
"Sharpay, the woman you used to have the serious hots for..."
"Sharpay, the woman you used to have the serious hots for..."
Sharpay Evans, the woman Troy Bolton used to have the serious hots for...
That one, just barely eleven word sentence was on a constant repeat in her mind, as if her thoughts were a broken record player, or a scratched CD. That one sentence left her with so many questions...so many goddamned questions, feelings...emotions. She just wasn't sure if it was right that flattery, being pleased, and even freaking happiness all seemed to be a part of them.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
"...Gabi?" Troy asked slowly, peeking hesitantly into the darkened room. "You in there?" He pushed open the door further. "Gabriella?" He flipped on the lightswitch and stepped inside.
"Where the hell have you been?!" a very pissed off voice answered him. There on the bed sat Gabriella Montez, dressed in a short black nightgown. She had her arms and legs crossed, and she obviously looked very furious and both frightening and sexy at the same time. There was no denying that she was a physically attractive person, even to Troy, who still preferred and seemed like he always would prefer Sharpay to her anyway.
"Why are you in your nightgown already...h-honey? It's only a little after nine..." he almost choked on the word 'honey'.
"I'm asking the questions here, Troy. Now where were you? I swear if you were with that...fake blonde, trashy little homewrecker who everyone kept on wondering about-"
"Don't even start with that, Gabriella! She didn't do anything. We didn't do anything!" Troy insisted, and it really wasn't a lie...they didn't do anything...but they might have, had it not been for Justin and his phone call. But he knew it was best to leave that part out.
"Oh you didn't, huh? So why is your face all red, hm? Why do you look so guilty?"
Wow, was it that easy to confuse guilt with anger and embarassment?
"It's hot outside, and I was running. That's why my face is red." Troy quickly lied. "I needed to blow off some steam."
"So where was Shar-pay the whole time you were 'running'?"
"How the hell would I know?! What's your fucking problem with her anyway?!" Troy asked snappily, getting defensive now.
"Are you kidding me!" Gabriella scoffed, shooting up from her seated position on the bed.
"She's a bitch,"
Na, that's you.
"She's annoying,"
Also you.
"We've already established the homewrecker thing,"
I'm fucking still "with" you, aren't I?!?!!...well, kind of.
"And I bet even at her age, she doesn't even know the difference between a diffuser and a hair dryer!"
What the hell?!! Random, much?
"What the heck is a diffuser?!"
"See? Her stupidity is starting to rub off on you already!" Gabriella accused.
"Gabriella, I never knew what a diffuser was! Oh hell, why are we even discussing this?!" Troy asked, throwing his hands up in the air much like he had just minutes ago when he was outside with Chad and Sharpay. This conversation had just turned pointless.
"A diffuser is an attatchment to a hair dryer that spreads the air out more and helps reduce the frizz, Troy! It's kind of obvious!" The latina exclaimed.
Gosh, why didn't she just say "Wow Troy, you're such a freaking idiot. How the hell could you NOT know that?!" Troy thought, because that's kind of the way she said it.
"Obvious?! Not really!" Troy shot back in disbelief that she would even consider that obvious.
"Yes, really!"
"But, I- oh, just forget it! You can't hate a person based on their knowledge of hair appliances- or lack thereof."
"That's beside the point."
"It's right on the point."
"Forget it Troy, you're pissing me off!" Gabriella practically shouted before storming over to the connected washroom. She grabbed the door handle and yanked it open with a violent swing "And you can tell that stupid bimbo that if she tries anything, I will have no problems calling my body guard down here to kick her ass so hard, she'll be sent flying all the way back to wherever her pimp is!"
"I'll be sure to deliver the message!" Troy hissed back at her sarcastically with an eye roll.
"Actually, you know what? Scratch that, I'll be more than happy to do it myself!"
She disappeared inside the bathroom and slammed the door so hard, Troy could almost hear the vibrations, before he could get another word in.
Chad just moved up even higher on his "hit list" (a/n: not really killing anyone!), for two reasons- one, for his little announcement down in the driveway with Sharpay, and two- for "suggesting" that he marry the most high-tempered, jealous, overreacting snob in the world!
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
"Oh! Sharpay, back so soon?"
"Soon?" Sharpay raised an eyebrow. "From what I've heard, it almost seems like if I'd been gone any longer, everyone would have been hanging up 'Missing' posters by now."
"Well I guess when you're a fifty-something year old host whose running around like crazy trying to please and make sure everyone's comfortable, the time just drags on." Lucille said with a tired smile, the corners of her eyes wrinkling. Sharpay tried to smile back, but she just couldn't bring herself to for some reason. After she'd finally hauled herself out of the car, she'd only gotten as far as the front porch before deciding that she still didn't feel like facing or talking to Justin or anyone really and had plopped down on the wooden porch swing.
She assumed that everyone else was already inside by now since up until her maybe, possibly, who really knows for sure(?) sometime-in-the-far-away-future mother-in-law came outside just now she'd been the only one out here and hadn't been discovered yet.
"So when did you get back?" The older woman asked, lowering herself onto the swing as well.
"Recently. I'm gonna go with around twenty minutes ago."
"Hasn't Justin tried calling?"
"Probably," Sharpay shrugged. "I shut my phone off," she said, leaving out the part about him calling once already back at the park. She wondered if he'd tried calling her since then...
"So how is everything?" Lucille asked, not asking why she'd shut her phone off.
"Fine, why do you ask? I talked to you just a little more than a few hours ago..." the blonde said, crossing her legs and staring out into the dark, warm night.
"Because you've been sitting out here all alone for probably all of the twenty minutes that you've been back from wherever you were, you took off earlier without really telling anybody, and you shut your phone off." the Bolton mother/aunt/grandmother/mother-in-law to the other people her children were married to, explained.
"I guess with everything that happened earlier at the game, I couldn't take just standing around wondering if Troy was alright, so I had to go. He was the one gone a lot longer than I was."
"Did you find him?"
"Yes, he was still at the park. But he's back, too. I don't know if you saw him already?"
"I did." Lucille told her, "Only for a second or two. He ran by the kitchen, also around twenty minutes ago, and disappeared upstairs. It seemed like he was running away from something...then Chad came in just a few seconds after he did, and looked all guilty about something." She shook her head. "Kept on mumbling something about himself being an 'idiot'."
Sharpay didn't reply. She knew the reason for what that had to be, and she wasn't sure if she should talk to Lucille about it or not. But for a woman in her mid fifties, she still seemed to be very observant and knowing.
"You wouldn't happen to know anything about it, Sharpay, would you?" Lucille asked, giving her a pointed look. Avoiding her eyes, the rather silent younger woman kept her eyes glued to the still night air.
"I don't know." She mumbled.
"Sharpay. What happened between you and Troy?"
A long silence followed Lucy's question, and just when she was positive that Sharpay would not respond, she did.
"Nothing." She said finally. "Nothing...happened...between us..." she said carefully, because nothing did...
"It's just..." she swallowed, "being with him...just us...at the park, it kind of reminded me of being a kid, or a pre-teen again."
"Well, of course. You haven't seen him in a long time and you were good friends back in the day, right?"
"That's the thing." Sharpay frowned. "It was 'back in the day'. We're not anymore. I mean, we are. We weren't before today. It's been so long, and that's what bothers me."
Lucille was quiet, and Sharpay took that as a sign to continue on.
"I've always cared about Troy, I missed him a lot, but I just don't think he knew how much I cared for him."
"Why did you loose contact?" Lucy questioned.
"I don't know. Everyone just kind of split off into their own directions." She shrugged.
"Then one day, I'm watching TV, and this commercial comes on. He's in it," Sharpay said, remembering the first day she ever realized what had happened to Troy after graduation ended way back when. "I was...shocked, to say the least. He was an actor, and I knew nothing about it. I guess those must've been his early days in the business. It was weird that I had been so clueless about it. And when I told Justin, he already seemed to know- probably from talking to you and Jack. But he'd never told me, and I'm still not sure why."
"Were you angry?"
"No...not exactly. I guess I was still just too surprised to really be all that angry that he didn't tell me firsthand." She paused. "But ever since college really, I've been wondering when and if I'd ever see your son again...I know what you're thinking- why didn't I just call you for a phone number of his or something? I guess I was just too nervous. He turned out to be some bigtime Hollywood guy, and everytime I ever brought him up around Justin anyway, he started acting all weird and annoyed, even. And I've always known that the two of them had a hard time tolerating each other, so I didn't want Justin mad at me if I told him I wanted to get back in touch with Troy again."
"You don't need his permission to talk to someone. If he doesn't like Troy, that's their problem. You didn't have to feel like you shouldn't talk to someone just because Justin disapproves. If I'd ever done that, Troy would've been up for adoption. But I never let their fights influence how much I cared about them both."
"...You're right. I should've just called you up and asked you myself for his number. But I guess that doesn't matter much anymore. Justin see's that were talking again and I know he doesn't like it. But when he told me we were invited to a reunion with your family, of course I wasn't about to say no. I mean, I was looking forward to seeing everyone again for old time's sake...but, you, Jack....and Troy...are the first three people I thought of the minute I heard about it."
"Well...honey, you're here now. But you're all by yourself out here. So what's the matter?"
"Well," Sharpay sighed, "I guess when I invisioned being here and seeing particularly Troy again, I would see him the way I almost always used to see him...as a really great friend, and nothing but."
"You said almost always...was there a time that you didn't see him as just a really good friend?" Lucille asked her. Sharpay took a while to reply to that one.
"....Um...well...from like, third grade to the end of seventh I guess it was...I'd always had kind of a crush on both him and Justin, but I just couldn't decide which one I liked in that way more."
"By kind of, you mean?..."
"I mean I was going practically insane wondering when the hell one of them was going to ask me out. I mean that I was really really into the both of them! I never thought it could be possible to like two people the same amount and so much at one time!"
"So what made you finally choose Justin?
"I didn'tchoose him. He chose me. I couldn't bring myself to choose between Justin and Troy, which is why I waited and waited for one of them to choose if they liked me like that or not. Justin just happened to be the one to ask me to be his girlfriend, and I'd always figured that whichever one asked me if he ever did, that I would say 'yes' and then having him as a boyfriend would help me to get over the one that didn't ask me."
"When did you stop liking Troy in more than a friendship way, Sharpay?"
"It took a few months. But I eventually did, fortunatley. I didn't want to still like him when I was with Justin. It just made me feel kind of guilty. From that day on I found myself falling harder and harder for Justin day by day, while at the same time loosing more and more interest in Troy, and eventually, I did, but I still cared so much about him- I still do. I saw him as my best friend. But when I told him that at the park, he seemed so surprised by it. That's why I don't think he knows how much I cared for him."
"So, what do you feel, right now?"
"Right n-now?"
"Yes. Shar, let's say we lived in a perfect world where you could choose very easily between my son and my nephew. Consequence free, who would you choose to be with?"
A heavy silence fell over the two women, Sharpay, trying to make her descision. Two descisions actually- who would she choose in this perfect world? And should she tell Lucille her choice? She knew she would have to be careful, so as to not give her the impression that she was trying to insult Troy or Justin since she knew that Lucille loved the both of them very, very much.
But she could still tell her, right? Who else could she tell right now? She had to tell her.
"Lucy..." Sharpay said, and took a long pause before making her final descision. And it was one thing to admit it out loud to Lucy, but another that at the same time, she was also actually admitting it to herself;
"I think I might be falling for your son all over again."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Meanwhile...
"Troy? You better open this freaking door right now!" A still fired up Justin shouted through the thick wood as he pounded on the door. It was pulled open several seconds later.
"Can I help you?!" An exhausted Troy Bolton snapped. "I had one hell of a long day, and all I want to do right now is get some fucking rest. My stubborn fiance' is making me sleep on the floor, and I've just about had enough of you. So you better make it quick, or if you feel like fighting me again, well then I'm sorry but you'll just have to wait for me to kick your ass tomorrow. Now what do you want?"
"I'm not interested in your marriage problems, and I also don't give a rat's ass about how tired you are. I just want you to know that whatever you were doing with my girlfriend tonight, do it again, and I'll either kill you or send you into a coma. You got that?"
"Oh I'm so scared, I'm shaking." Troy spat sarcastically. "Now good night! And by that I mean, I hope you shit your pants tonight when you're sleeping." He said and tried to close the door, but Justin caught it with his hand before he could.
"I fucking mean it, Troy. I swear to god if you even did so much as touched her while you were out hiding from the rest of us at that stupid park and I find out about it, -and you better fucking believe that I will find out-, that I will make sure to poison any kind of food item you let into your piehole throughout the rest of the course of this stupid reunion. Capiche?"
Troy kept dead silent as he just stared at Justin, swallowed hard, and gave a quick half nod. Okay, so maybe now he felt a bit threatened.
"Glad we're clear on that." Justin smirked. "Now where the hell is she?!"
"I don't know! I haven't seen her since she pulled into the freaking driveway! Now, goodnight!" Troy said, shoving the door shut quickly before Justin could stop it from closingagain.
The older cousin staggered backward a few steps and blinked in confusion.
Driveway, huh? Guess I'd better head outside...
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Back to the previous scene with Sharpay and Lucy/Lucille...
"Alright. So you'd choose Troy-"
"But he's engaged, Lucy! And I'm not exactly single either- and what's going to happen to us after the reunion's over?"
"Well, we're not there yet. There's still six days left and who said I might not want to extend it?" Lucille smiled. "I just want to know one thing..."
"Alright...?"
"How come you're suddenly falling for Troy? It's only been one day. He must've done something to make you feel this way."
This little question caused Sharpay to look down at her hands that were folded in her lap, and bite her lip nervously.
"Well?" Lucille asked, meaning "are you going to say or aren't you?"
"Luce, you kow how just a few minutes ago you asked me what happened between Troy and I at the park, and I told you nothing?" Sharpay recalled.
"Of course." Lucille smiled. "I also didn't believe you."
"Well, nothing actually did happen. But I'm like, positive that something was about to..."
Lucille opened her mouth to say something, but Sharpay continued before she could ask "what".
"I almost kissed him, Lucy. Troy and I- we almost kissed, and we were so close." She sighed. "But then my phone rang right at that moment...and it was Justin basically just demanding to know where I was. That's also why I shut my phone off afterwards. I didn't want to deal with him in case he called again."
"What lead you to the...almost-kiss?"
"I don't know...I was talking to him about Justin, actually...and how it seemed like our relationship was going nowhere." She hesitated about what she was going to say next. She didn't know if it would be an overshare or not, but than she remembered that Lucille was older and mature and she wouldn't laugh or scoff or something if she told her.
"I mean...we um...haven't even had...you know...sex... inawhile?" she said it awkwardly, the last part quickly, and in a lower voice than they'd been speaking in even though no one else was around. "Like at least five or six months."
"You didn't tell Troy that part, did you?" Lucille asked, holding her breath.
"WHAT? Of course not! This is woman to woman talk, now, Lucy. Just between the two of us, okay?" Sharpay said eagerly.
"Alright, alright. Just making sure!" She answered with a chuckle. It was silent for a while before Sharpay spoke up again.
"Can I tell you something else? And this is what really confused me...but also made me feel really good at the same time?"
"You can tell me anything, Sharpay. You're like a daughter to me...and I mean that in the not actually daughter type kind of way because that'd be awkward since because of you know...Troy and Justin."
"Okay, well...when I first got back half an hour-ish ago, I was sitting in the car in the driveway...and Troy and Chad were standing outside the car. We were talking about Gabriella, and-"
Before she could finish what she was trying to tell her, the front door swung open and out stepped no one other than Justin Bolton. Sharpay felt a hard lump rise in her throat, as she still didn't want to be near him yet, and he showed up at the worst possible moment ever- right when she was in the middle of spilling her guts out to Lucy about something Chad said about Troy...about her, to top it all of! She was seriously getting sick of him interrupting all her moments!
The 28 year old must've seen Lucille first, because he didn't even look at Sharpay, and Lucille was sitting on the side of the porch swing nearest the front door anyway.
"Aunt Lucy? Hey, what are you doing out here? Have you seen Shar-"
That's when he looked up and noticed her then. "-Pay! Why are you out here!?"
"Why are you out here?" Sharpay challenged.
"Looking for you!" Justin answered before turning his attention back to his aunt. "Mind if I steal her away for the night? We have a few things to discuss."
"Well, actually, she was just about to-"
"I didn't think you'd mind. Thanks, aunt Luce." Justin interrupted before sending a hardened look at Sharpay. "Let's go, Sharpay" he said in a cold, flat voice.
"I don't think so, Justin. I was just perfectly fine out here with Lucille until you came and interrupted us."
"Perfectly fine?! Why is it that you're so damn fine all the time now?! First you were 'doing just fine' on the phone not talking to me at all, now your 'perfectly fine' out here? What the hell is this?" he demanded, almost forgetting that his aunt was there.
"I just dont think I need to be discussing anything with you right now. So, if you don't mind?..." She said, trying to shoo him away.
"You know what? Fine! Continue being this stubborn little bitch that you've been all day. But once you decide to quit pretending like you're all independent and shit, come and fucking talk to me about it!" He turned around to go back into the house, but stopped and quickly added something before stomping back inside;
"I hope if you were whoring out on the jackass earlier, you were thinking of me the whole time, bitch."
A/N: HARSH! Maybe now Lucille will realize how big of a total dick her 'perfect, everyone loves him' nephew is! *glaresatjustin*
Hm...you think I'm making his character TOO mean? :/
Yes?Good.MUAHAHAHAHAHAA. The more rude he is, the more sweet Troy will seem, and maybe then Sharpay will just like him even more. ;)
Sorry there wasn't much Troypay stuff in this chapter, but there was plenty of talk about Troy from Sharpay that I think ya'll like?
and haha. The thing with the "difference between a diffuser and a hair dryer"- my friend brought that up the other day. We were talking about this one girl that acts all stuck up and my friend was like "Why does she think everyone loves her? She's so rude and she's not even THAT great looking. I bet she doesn't even know the difference between a diffuser and a hair dryer!" and I just gave her this complete "what the heck?" look. So yeah, I had to add that random moment in here somewhere ;P
ReViEw iTt??;P thanks!!
-Serena/HeSaidSheSaidx
