If anyone was having trouble with Chap 6, it's now working! As are other "page cannot be displayed" errors as far as I can see! Please keep reviewing guys, if you haven't reviewed, please drop in and let me know what you think!

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Chad shook his head at himself as he left the bathroom and made his way towards his car. He was so confused, more confused than he'd ever been in his life. He had absolutely no idea what to do and what was next for him. Either way, he got in his car and made his way towards Gabriella's house.

"Hey!" Gabriella smiled as she opened the door to Chad.

"Hi Gab." Chad smiled slightly and followed her in.

"So," Gabriella said as she led Chad into her room. "How come you're not hanging out with-" She tried not to choke on her words - "With… Sharpay?"

"She, um…" Chad scanned his brain for a suitable answer, but then gave up. "I need a bit of time away from her."

"Did you guys fall out?"

"Uhm…" Chad didn't even know. "I'm not sure. I guess you could say that. We're not seeing eye to eye on… certain matters."

"You wanna talk about it?"

"Maybe later." Chad smiled at her. He would feel kind of weird telling her what was going on between him and Sharpay. Plus, he was slightly worried that she may think he was some kind of horny, desperate for sex kinda guy.

Chad didn't really learn anything that day. Not a whole lot of tutoring went on, the pair of them chatted most of the evening away. Finally, at just gone 8pm, Gabriella brought up Sharpay again.

"I mean, you and Sharpay… you're perfect together." Gabriella didn't mean what she said. Sharpay was better suited to someone like Troy. But Gabriella wanted to see what Chad said in response and she also hoped to find out why they fell out.

"Do you think so?" Chad asked casually. "I think we're quite an unusual pairing."

"I guess…" Gabriella searched her brain for something else to say. Chad glanced at her.

"We, uh…" Chad looked away. He thought about how to best put what had happened. "We had a disagreement of sorts. About stuff, like…. Sex."

"Oh…" Gabriella nodded and looked at her feet. She thought to herself that she didn't know they were having sex. Not that she'd thought about it.

"Not that we're having.. It." Chad might have even read Gabriella's mind with that one. "and it's not that I'm…. impatient, but she doesn't feel ready. Which would be fine, except she always almost makes me think she's gonna do it. Then she leaves me all… prepared and doesn't follow through. It just gets to me. I don't know what she wants from me - because she doesn't know what she wants herself. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah." Gabriella nodded. "That must be hard. It's a bit mean to lead you on."

Silence followed. They could both feel the tension in the air. The sexual tension. Though they never spoke; both were thinking the same thing - if anything happened right now, it would seem like a direct result of the prior conversation. And neither wanted that. Gabriella didn't want to look like she was taking advantage. Chad didn't want it to look like he was desperate for sex.

"So, um…" Gabriella decided to change the subject. "Has Troy ever had a stable girlfriend? I would hazard a guess at…no?"

Chad laughed.

"Not since 6th grade."

"Oh, okay, I see."

"He's not been bothering you has he? Or… saying things?"

"I just find him creepy."

"He can be an asshole sometimes."

Gabriella laughed. She didn't like talking about Troy - she didn't like him but he was Chad's best friend. She felt guilty saying bad things. He must have some good in him, she thought, for Chad to like him so much.

--

At school the next day, Chad avoided Sharpay. He didn't want to have any conversation that was inevitably going to happen at some point. He knew he couldn't avoid her forever, but…

Sharpay turned the corner and saw Chad frowning into his locker. She hesitantly approached him.

"Hey." She said quietly. "How's it going?"

"Good." Chad didn't look away from the inside of his locker. He had absolutely no clue what to say to Sharpay.

"Um… we should talk." Sharpay uttered the words that made Chad cringe. He finally turned and looked at her.

"I guess we should."

"Chad… I don't mean to lead you on. But I get caught up in the heat of the moment…"

"I know, Shar. But it's just… draining. Maybe we should…."

Sharpay looked up into his eyes.

"Take a break?"

"Maybe it would be best."

Sharpay smiled slightly and nodded. She looked at the ground and walked off towards her first class.

--

"Hey Gab." Chad had made his way to class via Gabriella's locker, quite possibly the longest route he could have cared to taken.

"Hey Chad. How's everything?"

"I just had a talk with Shar."

"Oh." Gabriella nodded. "How did that go?"

"We decided to take a break."

"Oh…" Gabriella tried not to sound as pleased as she felt.

"It's fine… I think it was coming for a while, really."

--

That weekend, Chad was at a loss. He had no girlfriend to hang out with. He wanted to see Gabriella but he didn't want to go round to hers. He didn't want her to think he was trying to replace Sharpay. He picked up his phone and made a few calls.

"You wanna hang out?"

--

By 4pm that Saturday, there was around ten wildcats sat in a big, round booth at the diner. There was Chad, Troy, Ryan, Gabriella, Taylor, Kelsi, Zeke, Jason, Martha and Sharpay. Chad wasn't happy that someone had invited Sharpay. But he reasoned that she was part of the gang so it was fair enough.

Chad was sat at one end with Gabriella. Sharpay was sat towards the other side next to Troy. On the other side of Gabriella was Taylor, who was giggling at something Gabriella was whispering in her ear. Chad felt uneasy as he looked around and saw Taylor looking at him.

"Here, you guys." Ryan grinned, as he put down 3 plates of fries on the table and a pitcher of pepsi. Kelsi was close behind with onion rings and some mini burgers.

"How good of you." Troy said as he grabbed a handful of fries. Chad rolled his eyes and smiled at Gabriella.

He couldn't help looking at Sharpay for a little while, though. Much to his vague annoyance, she didn't look very down. She was laughing and joking with Troy, which annoyed him even more. He tried to put her at the back of his mind.

"Hey, Gab," he smiled to the brunette sitting beside him. "Shall we go and choose some songs on the jukebox?"

"Sure."

Twenty minutes later, the two of them hadn't returned.

"Hey," Taylor said, confused. "Where are Chad and Gabriella?"

"Oh yeah!" Ryan nodded. "They never came back after choosing a song." He leaned round the corner to look at the jukebox. "They aren't there."

"Looks like Chad's getting lucky!" Troy jeered, with Zeke laughing and making other man noises. Taylor looked at Sharpay. She looked less than impressed.

"Shut up, you guys." Taylor demanded, and Troy and Zeke obeyed. Troy let out a snort of laughter, making Zeke spit pepsi all over the table.

"You guys are so gross." Sharpay stormed away from the table heading towards the bathroom.

"You guys." Taylor sighed. "Do you have no respect for Sharpay's feelings?"

The guys didn't want to reply with no, but it was the truth. They were teenage boys. They had no respect or sympathy, it was in their blood.

About five minutes later, Taylor had convinced the boys to behave a bit more sensibly. Sharpay came strutting back to the table, and put herself down next to Troy. She linked her arm in his, and wiggled herself close to his body.

--

"Sorry Chad." Gabriella whimpered from inside her bathroom.

"It's okay Gabs. How do you feel?" Chad called through the door.

"Really bad. In fact…"

Gabriella was cut off by an influx of vomit entering her mouth, and falling into the toilet. Chad screwed up his face in both disgust and sympathy. He heard Gabriella cough and splutter, followed by quiet sobbing.

"Gabs…"

"I hate throwing up."

"Do you feel better? Or is there more coming?"

He got no reply but the sounds coming from inside told him his answer.

--

Troy was a bit confused to why his best friend's girlfriend was cuddling up to him. But he went along with it anyway.

"What flavor shake, Shar?" Ryan asked his sister.

"Me and Troy will have strawberry."

Troy looked at her. He smiled as she looked back. He looked at Zeke and shrugged his shoulders.

"Actually." Sharpay whispered to Troy, placing her forefinger and thumb on the button of his jeans. "Let's get out of here."

Troy just nodded, as she took his hand and walked him out towards his car.

--

Gabriella finally emerged from the bathroom, and smiled at Chad.

"I'm really sorry, Chad." She said, breathing a confusingly minty breeze into his face.

"It's okay, Gab! It can't have been that bad, smells like your vomit is minty fresh!" He grinned at her and she rolled her eyes and giggled.

"Oh, as if I was gonna come out here with vomit breath. I brushed my teeth, Chad."

Chad nodded, still grinning.

"C'mon, you need to lie down and rest."

"I'm okay now."

"But you're still ill. I'll go get you some water."

"Thanks Chad."

Chad returned a few minutes later and placed a glass of water on Gabriella's bedside table.

"Gab, make sure you drink that. Or you'll get dehydrated. But only sips!"

"Thanks Mom."

"Oh hush. Just get some rest."

"Will you stay with me?"

"Of course." Chad smiled and stroked Gabriella's hair.