"Gabriella, do you wanna go bowling today?" Troy wanted to know the next morning after both him and Gabriella were awake.

"That sounds like fun," Gabriella responded.

"Yeah, I thought it did, too. So how did you sleep last night, then? You didn't get scared anymore, did you?"

Gabriella shook her head. "No. I slept fine."

"That's good to hear." As he spoke, Troy walked over to the closet that was in his room and grabbed some shorts and a t-shirt from it. "I'm gonna go get a quick shower, alright?"

"Okay. I'll wait here for you."

"Would you like a kiss before I leave the room?"

"Yes, please," Gabriella giggled.

Troy walked over to his bed, where Gabriella was still lying. Bending down, he pressed a gentle, sweet kiss onto her lips.

Gabriella returned the affection with a smile.


That afternoon, Troy and Gabriella entered the bowling alley. After doing that, they went to the counter inside of it, got some bowling shoes and bowling balls, then picked a lane to bowl in. Unfortunately, as soon as they did all that, Chad walked into the building.

Maybe he won't see us, Troy told himself. Hopefully not. Because for a best friend, he sure can be really annoying at times, especially when he ruins my moments with Gabriella.

"Hey, Troy!" Chad greeted, rushing up to his friend.

Troy held in a groan. "Hey, Chad."

"So, did Gabriella drag you here, too? That's what Taylor did to me. She made me promise to meet her here, though I see she's not here yet. Anyway, since you and Gabriella are bowling, maybe Taylor and I could play against you? What do you think?"

Troy hesitated for a moment. On the way to the bowling alley, him and Gabriella had been talking about how they wanted to just relax by themselves without any interruptions. But, on the other hand, he knew Gabriella was friends with Taylor.

"Hello? Troy?"

"No, Gabriella and I were looking forward to a little alone time. Maybe we can all go bowling a different day. But for now, we're on a date-not a double date-a date."

Chad rolled his eyes. "Fine."


"It looks like you're winning," Gabriella observed when her and Troy were halfway done their bowling game.

"I'm not going too hard on you, am I?" Troy checked.

Gabriella shook her head. "No; not at all, Wildcat."

Troy wrapped his arms around Gabriella's waist. "You know, you're a really good girlfriend, and I lo-"

At that moment, Chad ran up to where Troy and Gabriella were standing. "Do you know where the vending machine is in this place? I need some M&M candy; I'm starving."

"It's right over there along that wall," Troy replied, trying to keep the annoyance he was feeling out of his voice.

"Okay."


Troy and Gabriella sat at the bowling alley, finishing up a snack of a soft pretzel they had split between the two of them. Chad and Taylor had just left.

"Why does Chad seem to show up everywhere we go?" Troy said.

Gabriella shrugged. "I don't know. I think he likes interrupting our dates and stuff. Though it's annoying that he shows up at the very most inconvenient time-when you're about to tell me something I think is important."

"Yeah. Well I guess I could tell you now."

"Go ahead," Gabriella smiled.

"Alright. I lo-"

"Troy! I think I left my basketball in here!" Chad exclaimed, rushing into the bowling alley. "Can you help me look for it? Did you see it at all? Please say 'yes' to either one of those!"

"I don't remember even seeing you come in here with it." Troy sounded angry-not just annoyed-angry.

"What's wrong, dude?"

"You don't know how long I've been trying to tell Gabriella something very important to both me and her. You don't know how much she needs to know what I have to say. You just don't know and I doubt you ever will!" Troy yelled.

"Yeah, you're probably gonna tell her something stupid-like 'I love you.'"

"Chad, that's not a stupid thing to say."

"It is when that's all you care about."

Troy didn't answer.

"You're not even gonna say that's not all you care about? You mean-you care about Gabriella that much? I have a girlfriend, too, and I'm not so crazy about her that I'm mean to my best friend."

"There's a difference between the relationship of Gabriella and I and you and Taylor."

"No there isn't! We both go on dates, we both never kissed-"

"I've kissed Gabriella before! She lives at my house now! You think that I just ignore her every second of the day? Of course I've kissed her! Several times! Over the summer, a few times this school year, all the time at my place...seriously!"

"Have you done 'it' yet?"

"Chad, it's none of your business."

"You did do 'it' then-if you won't tell me! Oh, when your son's born, name him after me. Please?"

"What son? What baby even? Chad, you're making no sense! Gabriella and I are not going to be parents! And what about you? When Taylor has your son, name him Troy-after me." The last two lines were spoken sarcastically.

"No!"

"Now please, I'm trying to be alone with Gabriella. So get your stupid basketball and leave us alone!" Troy turned angrily away from his friend and back to Gabriella. Kissing her cheek, he murmured, "I'm sorry for the interruption, sweetheart."

"Can we leave?" Gabriella requested. "I don't feel much like bowling anymore."

"Sure. Let's just return our balls and shoes, then we can get out of here. I know, Chad was embarrassing, wasn't he? I apologize you had to put up with that. Let's just go back to my house and find something to do there-something that doesn't include him."

"Why is Chad you best friend?"

"Sometimes I ask myself that, too. And I never know the answer."


Troy and Gabriella were sitting down in Troy's living room talking. Troy's parents were out, so they didn't need to worry about anyone hearing what they were saying.

"So, I hope Chad didn't ruin your day too much," Troy told Gabriella.

"He didn't. Well, he did ruin it-but just a little bit, and right now I feel like we're making up for the wasted time. We should've just had our date at home to begin with."

"Well we didn't know Chad was gonna show up at the bowling alley."

"That's true."

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Troy stood up and lifted Gabriella into his arms. He then carried her upstairs, where he placed her on his bed and started tickling her as he placed several kisses onto her face.

Gabriella giggled. "Wildcat, what's all this about?"

"I just wanted to make you laugh," Troy answered, continuing to tickle his girlfriend.

Gabriella leaned up and quickly kissed Troy's lips. "You're crazy."

Troy stopped what he was doing and sat down on his bed, then helped Gabriella into a sitting position. Putting one of his arms around her, he said, "You know, I'm having a lot of fun with you. I'm glad you're here."

Gabriella smiled and blushed slightly.

"Am I embarrassing you?"

Gabriella shook her head no. "I'm still not used to all these nice things you say about me."

"Well you're gonna be hearing them for a very long time-probably for the rest of your life. So you might wanna try to get used to it. Well, you don't have to if you don't want to. You're cute when you blush. Actually, you're cute all the time."

Gabriella's face turned a deeper shade of red than it had been before. Wanting desperately to hide it, she buried it in Troy's shoulder.

"Aw, are you being shy? Look at me."

Gabriella lifted her head and looked up into Troy's eyes.

Troy cupped Gabriella's chin in one of his hands and rested the other on her cheek. After that, he allowed his lips to press gently against her small nose.

Gabriella blushed-again.

Troy smiled and cuddled his girlfriend close to him. "Gabriella, I lo-"

"Troy, we're home!" came the voice of Troy's mother from downstairs.

"Mom," Troy groaned to himself. If it wasn't some sort of noise, it was Chad. If it wasn't Chad, it was his parents. Troy was beginning to feel like he would never get to tell Gabriella how he felt. And how in the world was he going to ask her to marry him when the time came?


Just to let you all know, I have a poll on my page about this story if you wanna vote in it.