Disclaimer; We don't own High School Musical, but we're borrowing the awesome characters for this story…. Is that okay?
No Sleep Tonight
Chapter 9.
For a few days, Sharpay walked around, hugging her secret. She didn't know how to get around this pregnancy. She knew it was Troy's baby, but she was married to Zeke. And she couldn't just tell Zeke it was his, because that would hurt Troy too much. She loved Troy, but she couldn't just break it off with Zeke, they had two kids for God's sake!
She didn't know what to do, and she had been avoiding Troy since they parted ways in front of the motel that morning. He had tried calling her to set something up tonight, since it was Friday again, but she'd brushed him off, telling him she wasn't up to it, and that Zeke was home again.
Troy thought it was okay. Gabriella had also wanted to have a family night, or whatever, but he had been ready to blow her off if Sharpay had wanted to get together. But she hadn't, so here he was, eating Gabriella's homemade meals, instead of ordering pizza with Sharpay in the motel.
"It's yum, mom." Juna said, skipping the last of her mashed potatoes, added with carrots, peas and onions into her mouth.
"I'm glad you like it, Juna." Gabriella said, taking a sip of her cold water, while she shot Troy a saying look.
He looked into his plate, not knowing what he had done. She had been acting really weird for the last couple of days. She had barely spoken to him, and when she did, her voice was weird, and she had a hurt look on her face all the time, while it looked like she was ready to blow up too. He had no idea what he had done to tick her off, but he knew the outburst or whatever it was, was coming tonight.
"I like it too." Troy smiled, "It's… mashed?"
"You know, dad," Juna said, shooting him a cute smile, "That's the whole point of mashed potatoes." She giggled and turned to Gabriella, "Can I go to Alice's place now?"
"Sure," Gabriella smiled, "Remember to pack your toothbrush!"
"Okay, mom!" Juna smiled, skipping out of the kitchen to get her stuff.
"What!?" Troy exclaimed, as he watched his daughter leave, "I thought we were having a family night!? And she's sleeping out! What happened!?"
"You and I … are having a family night." Gabriella said, her voice firm.
"O-kay…" Troy gulped, not really liking where this was going. If Gabriella had gotten Juna out of the house for the night, he was in for some torture. This was exactly like that time when he accidentally bumped their new car.
"Yes," Gabriella confirmed, "That's very, very okay, Troy."
--
"Okay, you two have fun now." Sharpay smiled, turning off the light to their living room. Bridget and Benjamin were watching a movie together. They'd finally agreed and settled for an old Disney classic, Finding Nemo. (A/N – remember, we're in the future here, so Finding Nemo would be rather old and classic ;p)
"We will, mom." Bridget assured her, "And you and dad too."
"Sure we will." Sharpay smiled, "Just go to bed when the movie is done, okay? Dad said he had something important to talk to me about, so please don't interrupt us?"
"We won't." Benjamin promised her.
"Great." Sharpay said, and shot them one last smile before she went outside and closed the door behind her. She was kinda nervous about this ´talk´ Zeke wanted to have with her. What could it be about? He was… really weird, when he asked her.
Did he know about the pregnancy? Had he figured it out and was mad that she hadn't told him?
She made her way into their bedroom, where Zeke was zapping through the channels on their little TV. She hurried into their joined bathroom, and slipping out of her fine, working clothes, and into some sweatpants and loose top. She pulled her hair into a messy bun and so on, wanting to feel casual, because she had a feeling that she was in for a long night.
When she was done, she came into the bedroom again, to find Zeke turning off the TV. He threw the remote on the bed next to him, and padded the spot beside him, to get Sharpay to take a seat. She did so, getting more nervous as to why he was acting this way.
"Are they having fun?" Zeke questioned, taking her hand firmly into his own.
Sharpay nodded, "Yes, yes… They're watching Finding Nemo. They promised not to disturb us, so… you can talk about whatever it was that you wanted to speak about?"
"I… I talked to Gabriella the other night." Zeke begun, "And she said Troy is acting weird… Very weird. More so than usual, that is…" he let out a chuckle, and so did Sharpay, "And yeah… she let on that… she kinda got the feeling he was cheating on her."
"Oh…" Sharpay said, not really knowing what to reply to that.
Zeke looked up at her, "With you."
"Oh…" Sharpay just repeated. She didn't even want to deny it. Zeke would see right through her. She didn't know what to say though, so she looked into her lap, and fiddled with a loose hem on her top.
"Is… is that true?" Zeke asked, even though he had already gotten his answer when she didn't deny him. The Sharpay he knew wouldn't have let a lie slip right there, she would have started yelling, because it wasn't true.
Sharpay looked up, tears in her eyes, "Yes…" she whimpered, and before she knew it, Zeke had slapped her across the cheek, sending her tears to fall freely. She placed both her hands on her left cheek, as she continued to cry.
"Why!?" Zeke asked, as he got tears in his eyes too, "Why? Don't you love me? Don't you love me at all?"
"I love you…" Sharpay said, "But I… I don't know why."
Zeke stood up and started phasing back and forth on the floor in front of her, while she clutched her stinging cheek. "I realize I haven't been the best husband or father or whatever, but that still doesn't give you the right to cheat on me!" Zeke yelled.
"I'm sorry…" Sharpay whispered, "But I… I don't know how it happened, it just did. And I didn't want it to, I just met him one morning on the train and then it just… happened. But I wanted it to stop, for so long. I felt so guilty. I didn't want it to end like this, I wanted to break things off and have a real family with you, Ben and Bee. But I couldn't, I wasn't strong enough."
"You do realize how much Gabriella is hurting, right!?" Zeke asked her, his voice hard, "She's heartbroken. She is going to speak to Troy tonight too. And if he's man enough he'll admit it. But she wont forgive him, because she's been there for him all along, not like I haven't been there for you."
Sharpay looked up at Zeke, hope in her eyes, "You… you're ready to forgive me?" she questioned.
"Yes." Zeke said, sitting down next to her again, "I'm ready to forgive you, Sharpay. Because I haven't been good to you. I can be with you, and we can live happily ever after, if you can break it off with Troy. If you can sit here and tell me that you don't love him."
--
"So, Troy, I need to speak to you." Gabriella said, as she made her way into the living room, with a glass of red wine in her hand. She took a seat next to Troy on the couch, and looked at him.
"Yeah, I kinda figured that, since you got rid of our daughter." Troy mumbled, turning to look at her too, "So what is? What is so important to speak to me about? I had work tonight you know."
"Yeah," Gabriella chuckled slightly, "Work." She mused to herself, that if work really meant work, then her name wasn't Gabriella Bolton. Work probably meant Sharpay, she was sure of it, "You've been doing a lot of that lately, haven't you?"
"Well, I'm busy." Troy simply replied.
"Troy," Gabriella quickly said, not wanting to beat around the bush. There was no use. It was killing her on the inside not to know if her husband really was cheating on her, or if she had accused him for something he didn't do, "I'm gonna come right out and ask you this, okay? So please don't yell or get mad at me."
"I wont…" Troy said, "What is it, Gabriella?"
"Promise to tell me the truth?
"Of course," Troy said, "Of course. I always tell you the truth, don't I?"
Gabriella wrinkled her nose at that one. She believed he hadn't told her the truth for awhile now. But maybe he had. She was about to find out. She took a deep breath, and asked him the question that would change her life completely, "Are you… are you having an affair?"
Troy's head shot up, and his blue eyes were wide. To Gabriella this was a clear sign that she had hit something right. He was… He was really cheating on her. How could her do that? Didn't he love her at all? Was she just a wife, nothing more?
She immediately felt the tears in her eyes, and she couldn't stop them from falling. She didn't care if she looked pathetic, or if she was about to embarrass herself in front of her "husband", because this hurt her like nothing had ever done before. It hurt more than when she gave birth to Juna.
Troy was her first boyfriend. The only guy she had ever had sex with, and the only guy she had ever loved. He was the person she trusted most in the entire world, and he went on hurting her like this? How could he? Didn't their marriage mean anything at all? They had a daughter for Christ's sake!
She placed her wine on the table beside her, before her fingers began shaking so much, that it would make the wine slop around. She wiped her eyes hurriedly and grabbed the pillow next to her, slapping it at Troy, who was totally unprepared.
"Why!?" she yelled, standing up from her seat, slapping the pillow at Troy repeatedly, while he was holding his arms over his head, trying to protect himself. "Why?!" she continued, "How could you do this to me, Troy? What did I do wrong!? What?"
"Gabriella, chill!" Troy yelled, finally able to take the pillow from her, and stop the slaps that kept coming, "Calm down, Gabriella…" he said, his voice soft.
"How could you do this to me?" Gabriella questioned, sitting down next to him, hugging the pillow. She looked up at him, black traces down her cheeks because of her mascara. And the tears were still falling.
"I'm sorry…" Troy said, "It just…"
"With who?" Gabriella then asked, wanting to know, "Who was it, Troy? Who helped you hurt me like this?"
"That's… not important."
"Oh, I know who it is." Gabriella said, more to herself than to Troy, "It's Sharpay, I know it."
Troy chose not to answer, because he knew his silence was enough to let her know she was right. She threw the pillow at the floor and reached for her cell phone, quickly finding Sharpay's number in there. Troy didn't know what she was doing, he just watched her, questions floating in his blue pools.
"Bitch!" Gabriella screamed, when the phone was picked up, "Do you enjoy screwing with other people's lives!? What did your own husband say!? Does he even know you're fucking my husband! No one is a bigger bitch than you Sharpay! You're just as you were in high school!" and then she slammed her phone shut, and made her way up the stairs.
Troy decided to follow her, to see what exactly she planned on doing. They ended in their bedroom, where Gabriella was pulling out a sports bag. And then she opened the closet, and started throwing clothes into it.
"What are you doing!?" Troy questioned.
"Packing." Gabriella simply replied, now throwing underwear into the bag too.
"No, Gabriella, don't be ridiculous." Troy said, "We can work this out. Don't go anywhere."
"Oh," Gabriella said, as she stopped in the middle of her phase and looked at him, "I'm not going anywhere." She continued, as she held out a pair of his boxers, "You are."
--
Sharpay was starring at Zeke, not knowing how to reply to his request. She loved Troy, so if she told Zeke she didn't, then she'd be lying. And she didn't want to lie. She wanted to be honest. She was pulled out of trance by her cell ringing, and she quickly picked it up, not checking who was calling. She didn't even get to say a word before Gabriella's angry voice came through:
"Bitch!" Gabriella screamed, and you could clearly hear she had been crying, "Do you enjoy screwing with other people's lives!? What did your own husband say!? Does he even know you're fucking my husband! No one is a bigger bitch than you Sharpay! You're just as you were in high school!"
And then she hung up.
Sharpay placed her phone on the bed, sighing loudly. She turned to Zeke, "I guess she knows now."
Zeke nodded, he figured that much. "You still haven't answered my question, Sharpay." He said, "Do you love him?"
Sharpay chose not to answer, she told him what she should have told him a long time ago instead, "I'm pregnant, Zeke."
It took a second or two for Zeke to let that information sink in. She was pregnant? But who was the father…? He swallowed, "Pregnant you say?"
"Yes."
"Sharpay…" Zeke said, lifting her head towards him, using his index finger, "I love you… And we can make this work. If you want to?"
"I don't know what I want." Sharpay replied, because that was the truth.
"Figure it out then," Zeke simply said, before he pulled her lips to his, meeting her in a heated kiss.
Dun-dun-duhn… Oh, sorry, couldn't help it ;o So, this was this chapter. We hope you enjoyed it. It didn't take so long to write, when we just got started, then it was like.. an hour, maybe and hour and a half. Next chapter should be up soon. And actually, this story is finished in a few chapters too. Anyway, leave us a review, please? They mean the world to us!
Toodles, Noukka and Stessa,
Peace out!
