Gabriella's first instinct was to slam the door in Troy's face. He must have known that would happen as he put his hand out to stop the door closing.
"Gabs, please," he pleaded. She'd always been a sucker for his puppy dog eyes.
"Fine," she sighed, opening the door all the way.
"Hey No…oh, hey Troy," Taylor started to call then realized she was greeting the wrong person. "What are you doing here?"
"I need to talk to Gabi." His normally bright blue eyes turned a shade of grey, showing the seriousness of his visit.
"Come in here," Gabriella said, gesturing through the doors into the dining room. She grabbed place mats and cutlery and started setting the table. "Make yourself useful."
He started copying her actions. "I came here to talk about Kayla."
"She's really nice, I like her."
"I know." He smiled briefly before his face hardened again. "Look, Gabriella, don't become friends with her."
"What the hell are you talking about Bolton?" she was shocked at his statement.
"She likes you but I don't want you guys to be friends." She couldn't believe he was actually being serious.
"Why exactly is that?" she asked, her voice dangerously low.
He ignored her tone and went on, "Because if you guys get too close, she'll find out stuff she shouldn't. Stuff about you and about me and that can't happen."
"So let me get this straight," Gabriella said icily. "You come into the house I am staying at uninvited, demand that I don't become friends with your girlfriend who I actually happen to LIKE, because you're afraid she'll find out about your past, namely ME?" Her volume rose at the end until she was shouting at him.
"What is your problem Bolton? The whole world doesn't revolve around you and your pathetic existence! You are so self-centered! I can't believe I wasted all this time on you!" She yelled in disgust.
Troy had the decency to look shamefaced. "Actually, I was hoping it would keep me from falling in love with you again," he said quietly.
"Oh believe me, that won't be a problem. I don't want to see you ever again. Get the hell out of this house." Her voice was back to being icy as she pushed him out of the room, down the hall and out the front door, before finally allowing herself the satisfaction of slamming it in his face.
"ARGH!!!!" she screamed, attracting the attention of all of the McKessie's, who came running.
"What is it, what's wrong?" Mrs. McKessie was concerned about Gabriella as she slumped against the door and slowly dropped until she was sitting on the floor.
"What happened?" Taylor asked softly.
"He thinks he can control who I'm friends with. And he said that he didn't want to fall in love with me again. Tay, I'm so confused. He wants me to not be friends with Kayla but she's nice and I really like her. Why do I still love him?" Tears started streaming down her face, making her eye make up run as she hunched her shoulders over. "How can I keep loving him?"
Taylor simply got down on the floor next to her best friend and put her arms around her.
"It'll get easier, I promise. Honey, do you want me to call Noah and cancel?"
Gabriella shook her head.
"Okay, do you want Shar and Ryan to come over for dinner too? And Chad and the rest?"
She shook her head again. "Too many people, maybe just Shar, Ry and Chad."
"Okay sweetie." Taylor got up from the floor and held her hand out to Gabriella. "Up you get. I'll go call them, you go wash your face okay? I'll see you in a few minutes."
Gabriella started up the stairs as Taylor pulled out her cell phone. She heard the beginning of the conversation with Sharpay.
"Hey Shar?---You wanna come over for dinner?---Troy was just here---Just being his usual asshole self---Yeah bring Ryan too---Okay see you in a few.---Love you too."
Gabriella continued up the stairs, ignoring the doorbell ringing and the sound of Taylor calling Chad. She washed her face and reapplied some of her make up before walking back down the stairs to see Noah standing in the entry to the McKessie home.
"Hey," he smiled up at her.
"Hey," she replied. "You ready for some of Mrs. McKessie's cooking?"
"Always," Noah grinned. "And I even brought my books so just in case I can't change your mind and you still want to study, I'll be ready."
"How exactly were you planning on changing my mind?" she asked, walking closer to him until they were touching.
"Well," he put his arms around her. "I have my ways. I can sing, dance, juggle or play the trombone."
Gabriella laughed. Noah was so different to Troy. All the jokes, the laughing, it all came so much easier with him. And he was gorgeous, even she had to admit that.
"Hey Noah, dinner's almost ready. Gabs, you wanna finish setting the table?" Taylor came into the hallway.
"Hey are you okay?" when Taylor walked out, Noah lowered his head to Gabriella's. "You look sad."
"Yeah I'm fine." She smiled up at him to prove it to both of them. "Come on, you can help," she laughed, pulling him into the dining room.
Dinner was about to be served when Chad and the Evans' rang the doorbell then walked into the house.
"Kitchen!" Taylor called down the hallway and a few moments later the three walked in.
Taylor immediately ran to Chad to give him a hug, while Sharpay and Ryan both went to hug Gabriella. As she did, Sharpay whispered in her ear "Don't bother with him. You deserve so much better than that. Don't settle for someone who will treat you badly."
During dinner that night, Gabriella almost forgot why she had been upset at all. She laughed more than she had in a long time with Noah beside her. She'd been right; he was different to most guys. She was taken in by his sweet personality and his off beat sense of humor and conversation had flowed between them easily as they almost ignored their other friends and were completely oblivious to the pointed looks shared between them.
After dinner she managed to bribe Noah into studying by using brownies while the others watched a movie. But the entire time she could have sworn he was looking at her. Not all the time, but sneaking in glances as she explained bonding in organic chemistry.
Finally, after about twenty minutes of ignoring his stares, she sat up and turned to him.
"Why do you keep doing that?" she tried to keep her tone light and not accusatory.
"Doing what?" He avoided her eyes. "I am completely and totally focused on chemistry and nothing else."
She had to laugh at his pretend innocence. "You keep looking at me… It's a little weird Noah."
He blushed slightly. "Sorry. It's just…you look really pretty and it's really cute when you're concentrating."
Gabriella blushed at his words. "Oh. Um, thanks Noah." She smiled at him.
"Not a problem. Hey I don't suppose you wanna have dinner or you know, just do something? I mean, just us two, not with all of those guys around." He smiled the same shy and self conscious smile that she had seen when their teacher was asking her to tutor him and she couldn't help smiling back.
"I would love to. But you really need to focus on this or Mrs. Capri will kill us both," she laughed at the end.
As he bent his head over the books and papers spread over the table Gabriella couldn't help smiling. He was really cute, funny and sweet and he had just asked her out! It would be perfect in helping her get over Troy, not that she didn't mind going out with him.
A couple miles away from the McKessie house, Troy Bolton was lying on his back on the floor of his bedroom, tossing a basketball into the air and catching it. He hadn't meant to tell her that. He knew he would come off as an asshole to the rest of their friends but he knew he needed to talk to her. He needed to explain himself to her.
He glanced at the alarm clock beside his bed and realized it was 9:30 at night. He figured she would be alone now, that he could call her and talk to her without a huge drama with everyone else. He reached for his cell and keyed in her number before taking a deep breath and pushing talk.
The phone rang. And rang. And rang. Was she ignoring it because it was him?
"Hey this is Gabi, leave a message after the beep and have a great day!"
He smiled at the upbeat message and the wish at the end.
"Uh…hey Gabs. Please call me back, I need to explain some stuff. I'm so sorry."
Troy sighed. He needed to talk to someone who would get everything he said. But he couldn't talk to Kayla, she couldn't know what was happening.
He pushed redial on his cell phone.
"Hey Gabs, please just call me back. I really need to talk to you. To someone who knows me. I'm so sorry. I have pretty much ruined everything and I really am sorry. With all my heart. Please call me."
What if she's with him?
He had seen the way she had looked at Noah in the hallway. And the way she and Sharpay had giggled as they walked away from him. He shouldn't get mad at anyone about that. He and Gabriella were long over, she had every right to look at boys or gossip with her friends about them. He had no right to object to her living her life.
It was past 10 at night by the time Noah left Gabriella. By this time, the Evans' had gone and Taylor had said a very long and public goodbye in the hallway to Chad before going up to bed.
"You should go or else my surrogate mom will come to kick you out." Gabriella tried to keep her face serious, but couldn't help giggling at the idea of single-mom Mrs. McKessie trying to throw Noah out of her house.
"I should go or my parents will ground me and I won't be able to take you on a date on Friday night." Noah looked smug as he smiled down at her.
"Well I don't think I could handle that so you'd better let me go and get my beauty sleep," she grimaced. "If you keep me up much longer I'll look like crap tomorrow at school."
"Trust me, you do NOT need any beauty sleep. In fact, maybe you should do the rest of the girls at East High a favor and not sleep at all."
"I feel like there's a compliment in there somewhere but I don't know where," she giggled at the serious expression on his normally happy face, then at his gasp of horror and shocked expression.
"What I trying to say, and failing miserably it seems, is that you are beautiful. You don't need anything else." He kissed her softly on the cheek then held his cheek next to hers. "Goodnight Bella. Sweet dreams."
Gabriella shut the door on him, locked it, and then ran squealing up the stairs. She knocked once on Taylor's door before running in and jumping on her friend in her bed.
"He's so cute! And he called me beautiful! Tay, he asked me on a date! He likes me, he really likes me!" The Latina girl bounced on the bed before flopping down beside Taylor.
"Okay yes, he likes you. And as much as I love you, if you don't get out of my room and let me sleep, I'm going to hit you." Taylor opened one eye and said.
Gabriella giggled slightly before whispering goodnight to her friend and getting off the bed.
"And turn your phone off of put it on silent. It's been going off for ages. Night."
As Gabriella walked next door to her room she wondered who would have been calling her, since anyone who would, had been at the house for dinner. She picked it up and looked at the display.
15 missed calls
7 new voicemail messages
8 new text messages
It has to be mom she thought, going into her inbox. There was one text message from her mother, the rest from Troy Bolton, each asking her to call him. All of the missed calls were from him, as were the voicemails.
Shortly after listening to the voice messages, her phone started vibrating in her hand. Troy's name came up on the screen. She held it, wondering what to do. Just before it went to voicemail, she pushed talk.
"Hello?"
"Gabs, what have you been doing? I've been calling you all night"
Don't call me Gabs. I've been hanging out with my friends Troy. Or are you not gonna let me do that either?" She couldn't help using an icy tone.
"I'm sorry." He sounded like he really meant it. "I need to explain everything to you."
"Go for it."
I'm really sorry this took so long, I got massive writers block halfway through the chapter. But good thing is I got a few ideas for future chapters.
Please review and I will give you a cookie (but not really)
Love and God bless xxx
