Gabriella was nervous. No, that was an understatement, she was beyond nervous to the point where she was ready to throw up her insides all over the stage in front of thousands, maybe even millions of viewers that tuned in to watch the LA Lakers play. Gabriella hands were sweating, she was breathing loud and hard, her eyes were staring intently in front of her as she tried to think of other things than performing. But then that just led to Troy and their date tonight, and that made her even more nervous. What if she messed up today and then Troy didn't want to do anything tonight?
Gabriella was lightly tapping her foot as she had a half an hour until she had to sing the National Anthem and shake hands with the team even though she knew everyone on it already through Ryan. And then there was Ryan, Gabriella heard through Zeke that Ryan has been slowly getting angrier with Troy. One hour he would be glaring, the next he would be chucking the basketball at him, then the next day when things should be a little bit more calmer since he had time to cool off, he would be making shitty comments to him about his game, but Gabriella was extremely relieved when Zeke told her that Troy wasn't taking it personally.
"Hey." Two hands snuck behind her and rested on her waist to give her a hug from behind.
Gabriella smiled as Troy unwrapped his hands and she turned around. They were the only ones in the stadium as they weren't letting people in for another 15 minutes and Gabriella just got done with a sound check.
"Hey." Gabriella said. "You ready for the game?"
"Yeah. You ready to sing?" Troy asked with his own happy smile. Truth was, he just couldn't stop thinking about their date tonight.
Gabriella took a deep breath as she looked around. Why was this so hard, but then she already knew the answer to that. The last time she performed for someone on TV live, was a year ago. "I think." Gabriella said.
"What's wrong?" Troy asked as he sat down on the edge of the mini stage set up for the singers.
"It's just…nothing really. Just nerves." Gabriella said as she sat down by him.
"Okay, so to take your mind off of your 'supposed' nerves…" Gabriella rolled her eyes playfully with a smile as Troy used air quotes. "Pick a color, any color." Troy said and Gabriella looked at him curiously.
Gabriella didn't know what he was up to since for the past couple of days since she said yes to the date, he had been asking her weird questions. Like, what was her favorite country, or if she had a sweet tooth even though he already knew that.
"Um…red I guess." Gabriella said biting her bottom lip lightly as she tried to figure out what these questions meant.
Troy's hand mysteriously slowly crept sideways as it interlaced with Gabriella's hand. Gabriella looked down at the warm soft body part connecting with her own and looked back up to meet Troy's eyes.
"Red's a good color." Troy said as they just looked at each other. "Um…so what song are you singing during halftime for the performance?" Troy asked curiously.
Gabriella looked at him with an appreciated smile on her face. "You're always asking about my music. Why is that?" Gabriella asked.
Troy shrugged as his thumb ran over her knuckles. "It's a big part of who you are, it's important to you, so it's important to me." Troy said.
Gabriella nodded her head, "It's an old song that I recorded four years ago, but never put on my album or released." Gabriella said.
"Oh? Why is that?" Troy asked truly interested that he was learning new things about Gabriella everyday.
"Um…it's a long story." Gabriella said thinking back to her teenage life and how wild she really was and then just going away to college and leaving her mother turned everything around, while two years later she met Matt and recorded this song. "Well, this actually is my very first song that I recorded." Gabriella said as if it was a secret hoping they would change the subject so Troy wouldn't ask for her to go into detail. She just wasn't ready to talk about it yet.
Troy noticed how Gabriella slightly tensed up as he knew now that she wasn't just blowing him off with an answer, she truly was frightened by her past. Troy looked at her with sincerity. "I understand." Gabriella smiled at Troy gratefully. Troy now understood that her past was a very sensitive issue with her, but yet he still had a strong urge to find out her mysterious past which had nothing to do with him. "I'm sure that it'll be great." Troy said with encouragement as the tense air slowly drifted away.
"I hope so, and if not then…I'm screwed for my career." Gabriella joked.
"You're gonna do good. Great actually, you'll make everyone else look like…non singers." Troy said not really knowing what he was saying as Gabriella giggled at how Troy was trying to compliment her. Gabriella played with her fingers as she wore nothing on them since she gave Ryan his basketball ring back and sighed. "No but seriously, you're gonna do great. Just don't forget the words." Troy said as he stood up seeing that it was time for him to go change in the locker rooms.
Gabriella looked up at the standing Troy and saw that he was offering her his hand which she took and he helped her up. "Thank you." Gabriella said giving Troy a smile. "So as much as I would love just standing here with you, I think you have to go get ready for the game." Gabriella said.
Troy looked from the locker room entrance to Gabriella and wished that they had more time together even though they would have some later that night. "Yeah…" Troy said trailing off.
"So I'll see you on the court Bolton, and don't lose." Gabriella said with a smile as she leaned up and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Troy smiled at her affectionately. "I don't plan too." Troy said cockily as his mouth inched closer to Gabriella's. "Haven't you learned by now Montez, I always win." Troy mumbled as his lips covered Gabriella's and they shared a sweet, simple kiss together.
"Troy Boy, get your ass over here now! The coach is looking for you!" Chad's voice echoed through the stadium as Gabriella and Troy pulled away from each other smiling as they saw Chad standing by the locker room entrance smiling at the two.
"Coming!" Troy called back as he backed away from Gabriella. "I'll see you later Brie, and remember, just don't forget the words!" Troy joked as Chad rolled his eyes at the two in front of him.
Gabriella smiled at Troy's now retreating back who was walking alongside Chad to the locker room. The last words Gabriella heard were, "You two make me sick." Which was undoubtfully Chad's voice as Troy replied with a shrug and, "Then don't look."
"Dude, you're playing one hell of a game today." Zeke commented Troy as they jogged off the court after the half time buzzard went off and the LA Lakers were up by 15 against Philadelphia 76ers. Zeke and Troy went to get their bottles of water as Chad caught up with them.
Troy couldn't take his goofy grin off his face as each time he made a basket his eyes always glanced over to where Tay, Shar, Kels, and Brie were sitting. His eyes always seemed to connect with hers and his face would light up as he saw Gabriella illuminating with cheers and yells of encouragement as his mind knew that she was cheering for him.
Troy shrugged, "Not any different than before." Troy said modestly.
"Zeke, you only know Troy here is stepping up his game because of a certain brunette in the stands." Chad joked as Troy could feel the blood creep up to his face a little.
"Could this brunette's name start with a Gabri and end with an ella?" Zeke continued with the joke as Troy put his water bottle down and narrowed his eyes at his two friends a little.
"She's been to games before." Troy defended himself.
"Yeah, but has she ever cheered for you directly?" Chad asked as he patted Troy on the back and the half time show started.
Gabriella came out onto the mini stage and the crowd went wild. By now Jason, Zeke, Chad, and Troy were all standing by each other and they looked around in amazement as the stadium was filled with yelling and cheering, almost as much of a response they get when they make a basket and win a game.
Chad nudged Troy in the side as an announcer was asking Gabriella a question on the stage, "I bet you some of the people came here to see Gabi perform instead of watching us play."
Troy nodded as the announcer left the stage and Gabriella started explaining what song she was to be singing. Troy's eyes stayed on Gabriella as he took in how nervous she was before she went on in front of the crowd to how laid back she looked right now when she was actually in the center of the attention. Troy eyes never left Gabriella as Jason, Zeke, and Chad stood around him talking about whatever came to their minds until the song started.
Gabriella smiled for everyone when she was on the stage. So far she hadn't messed anything up and she wasn't planning on doing it anytime soon. She looked out into everyone and her eyes landed on Troy's for a second as she saw him smiling at her. "This song is called Rush and it was the very first song that I ever recorded, just never released it. I hope you guys like it." Gabriella said with a smile and the song started. Everyone in the stadium stayed quiet so that they wouldn't miss what Gabriella was doing.
Into your head Into your life Can you feel it Don't let nobody tell you that Pulling you in Can you feel it Don't let nobody tell you that It takes you to another place Can you feel it Don't let nobody tell you Don't let nobody tell you that Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Into your mind
Out of your soul
Race through your veins
You can't escape
You can't escape
Into your dreams
Out of the dark
Sunlight again
You can't explain
You can't explain
Can you feel it
Rushing through your hair
Rushing through your head
Can you feel it
Can you feel it
Your life is over
Be every color that you are
Into the rush now
You don't have to know how
Know it all before you try
Spinning you round
Lifting your feet
Right off the ground
You can't believe
It's happening now
Can you feel it
Rushing through your hair
Rushing through your head
Can you feel it
Can you feel it
Your life is over
Be every color that you are
Into the rush now
You don't have to know how
Know it all before you try
Imagine everything you can
All the colors start to blend
Your system overloads again
Can you feel it
Don't let nobody tell you that
Your life is over
Be every color that you are
Into the rush now
You don't have to know how
Know it all before you try
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Don't let nobody tell you
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Your life is over
Be every color that you are
Give into the rush now
You don't have to know how
Know it all before you try
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Troy studied Gabriella's body language as if that would tell him what this song was really about. Of course he believed her when she told him that she would tell him about her past when she was ready, but what events took place in her past? He was so curious now and this song just made him even more curious. What did she mean by rushing to your head? The colors blending? But even though it was as confusing as hell for Troy, he still erupted into applause knowing that he trusted her and she would tell him when the time was right.
Gabriella finished her song and looked out into the crowd as she was proud of herself for singing this. After all, she had just recently began thinking about this song as each day she more and more thought of her past. She didn't know why all of a sudden she wanted to openly spread this song around the world, she just did it. Gabriella thanked the large group of fans that came to watch the game and she could've sworn that she heard Troy the loudest out of everyone, but that was impossible, right?
"I am officially admitting that I am jealous of you Gabs." Shar said as the four girls stood on the basketball court waiting for everyone to clear out and their boyfriends plus Troy since Gabriella and Troy weren't officially going out yet meet them after they got done taking a shower.
Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Shar, what the hell are you talking about?" Gabriella asked with a small laugh.
Kelsi rolled her eyes this time. "Don't be blind Gabs. Everyone wants to be you now. You are drop dead gorgeous, used to model and still could if you really wanted too, and you can sing." Kelsi said while the other two girls nodded.
Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm a real peach." Gabriella said sarcastically as her mind wouldn't let her forget the fact that she was far from perfect if you included her past.
Taylor sensed that Gabriella didn't want them saying she was perfect even though Gabriella didn't come right out and say that, "Hey, what about you Kels. When do we get to flip our TV's on and see that our great friend just saved a hopeless person by doing a never before done surgery?" Taylor asked dramatically.
Gabriella shared a quick smile with Taylor as Kelsi started to blush a little. "Well…" The girls talked a little bit longer as they shared short stories about the events that have happened to them in the past couple of days as they were all too busy to hang out.
The boys walked out and came over by the girls as Chad wrapped his arms around Taylor from behind and rested his chin on her shoulder as Jason kissed Kelsi on the cheek and kept his arm around her waist as Kelsi was pulled into his side a little bit more, while Zeke kissed Shar on the mouth and Shar told Zeke he had a good game and Troy and Gabriella just looked at each other, not really knowing what to do.
Sure they had kissed before, and some might consider they had a small make out session before, but not in front of people or their friends. Troy stood by Gabriella and they both were looking at each other. Gabriella offered him a smile as she said, "You had a really good game."
Troy smiled back thankful Gabriella was trying to keep it at a limited awkwardness as she could. "Thanks. And you sang beautifully." Troy said.
Gabriella looked around as she saw that Shar just playfully smacked Jason on the arm for something he was laughing at and she smiled even more at how her friends were acting as she turned back to Troy. "So…I have to leave right now because I have a meeting at the studio, but I can't wait for tonight." Gabriella said.
Troy nodded. "That's cool. So I'll see you later then Brie." Troy said not knowing if he should kiss her on the lips, cheek, or just give her a hug. He decided to play it safe as he wrapped his arms around her and engulfed her into a sweet hug and Gabriella responded by wrapping her arms around him protectively.
Gabriella whispered into Troy's ear as they stayed hugging each other longer than normal. "My favorite part of the game was watching you sweat." Gabriella then kissed his shocked face.
Before Troy could say anything Zeke's voice interrupted the two. "Who knew Troy Bolton gave hugs?" Zeke called out jokingly as the guys all laughed and the two pulled back.
"Bye Brie." Troy said one last time and kissed her cheek as Gabriella smiled and said to the others that she had to go.
"Aww, did I disturb your moment?" Zeke asked as he chuckled a little.
Troy narrowed his eyes playfully as the seven young adults made their way off the court. "Shut the fuck up man." Troy chuckled with Chad and Jason.
Gabriella sat close to the head of the table next to Matt as some of the other people Matt had to go through sat around filling the twenty person table talking about her recordings, albums, songs, and everything else she needed to do to promote and get things going for her next album.
Gabriella looked over at the clock hanging on the wall, the meeting started thirty minutes late as one of business people had a family emergency, and now it was 6:45. Gabriella tapped her foot quietly as she knew that she had to leave to get home around 7 if she was lucky and then get ready. Even though she was still wearing what she was wearing when she sang at the game, which looked nice on her, she wanted to wear something else for Troy, and being late for him was just not an option.
Matt looked at Gabriella and saw that she was tapping her nails on the table impatiently as she chewed on the inside of her mouth. "Gabi, are you okay?" Matt whispered so that no one saw or heard him.
Gabriella looked at him. "I have somewhere to be, I thought this wasn't going to last long?" Gabriella asked.
"It wasn't supposed too." Matt said in his own impatient voice as he too had somewhere to be. "I'll try to move it along." Matt looked at the white haired man standing in the front of the room in front of everyone as he was explaining something Matt and Gabriella weren't really paying attention too since they had secretaries there to take notes for them. "Um…excuse me Jeff for just a sec." Matt said. "Can we kind of wrap this up a bit, Miss Montez has somewhere to be and I'm pretty sure she doesn't really care what photo shoots she has to do, just type something up and send it to us and we'll take a look at it later, won't we Gabs?" Matt asked turning to her asking for her to just go along with it.
Gabriella sat up straighter in her chair and nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm confident enough to let you guys decide what I should do. I trust you." Gabriella said.
"Alright." Jeff said suspiciously as he looked around the room. "Does anyone else have any matters that we have to talk about?" Jeff asked as Gabriella and Matt looked around the room to see if anyone spoke up.
A woman around her mid thirties spoke up. "Yes, there are quiet a few rumors going around about you and a Mr. Troy Bolton from the Lakers." The woman Deb said. "We just need to know what your intentions are with him?" Gabriella and Matt looked around as the other business people continued to talk and throw questions out which others ended up answering for themselves as they talked like Gabriella and Matt weren't in the room. Gabriella sunk lower in her seat like a five year old not wanting to be wherever their parents dragged them. Gabriella looked over at the clock and saw that it was 6:50 and let a small groan escape as she knew that she wasn't leaving for quite a while now.
"So Miss Montez, what do you think about the Bolton issue?" Deb asked.
Gabriella looked around at the awaiting faces and then at Matt who looked just as confused at her. "Um…I think…maybe…it's my business, no one else's besides Bolton's himself." Gabriella said as the business people looked around at each other and laughed.
"That's good. We'll just tell the press that." They all laughed like it was some joke that Matt and Gabriella had no idea about. Yup, there was no way that they were going to be finished anytime soon.
Troy had gotten home and changed into dark blue jeans with a nice dress shirt. He had prepared the meal as he used Gabriella's answers as a kind of guide. She liked Italian food so he made lasagna, she liked red, so he got red roses, and for dessert he got ice cream with French fries.
Troy sat on the couch with the dinner all set up going from cold to freezing. He knew that girls were sometimes late because they were busy getting ready, but half an hour late was just…frustrating. Plus, he had tried calling Gabriella to make sure everything was okay when she was 15 minutes late, but she didn't answer her home phone or cell phone. Troy picked up his phone and dialed the now unforgettable number and again got her voicemail on her cell phone. "Hey Gabriella…It's Troy again." Troy said for the umpteenth time that night as this was the first time he called her by her full name. "Are you okay because it's not like you to be…" Troy trailed off a little as he looked down at his watch. "40 minutes late? Well just give me a call if you get this and let me know what's up and so important that you forgot about our date." Troy said and hung up.
He knew that message sounded a little harsh, but she didn't even bother to call. But then again, what if something really did come up and it was a family emergency and he had just left the worst possible message on her phone ever. Troy's eyes went wide as he exclaimed. "Shit!" What if her mom or someone went into some kind of coma and Gabriella was busy with that, of course he wouldn't be mad, if anything Gabriella should be mad at him for leaving that jack ass of a message.
Gabriella finally reached her house as she sped into the driveway. She was now 55 minutes late and she now cursed everyone at the meeting besides Matt. She had two options, go in and change and then risk going over to Troy's to have him reject her or just run over to his house and then again risk having him reject her. Gabriella looked outside as it was pouring out now and down at her baby doll black dress, (Pic in profile.) She was going to make a run for it. Gabriella opened her car door and ran as fast as she could over to Troy's house considering she had black heels on. Gabriella ran up his long walk way and knocked on the door as she was now soaked since you couldn't even see five feet in front of you with the rain coming down so hard, but she was thankful that she was at least under Troy's porch being blocked from the rain, that is unless Troy told her to leave.
Gabriella waited a minute and Troy then answered. He had a straight face on, one that Gabriella couldn't read yet hoping to God that she would at least get a chance to be able to read the face that was occupying Troy's face at the moment.
"Gabriella?!" Troy exclaimed completely surprised to see her on his doorstep nonetheless with the storm taking place. "What the hell are you doing here?!"
Gabriella was taken back by his question as the thought of him hating her now crossed through her mind. "Oh my God, I am so sorry Troy. I am really sorry, I did not mean for this to happen. You probably hate me right now and wish for me to leave you alone, so I'll just go." Gabriella said in a sorrowful tone.
She turned around and was about to walk out into the rain again, but froze in her spot as Troy spoke up. "Brie…you can't go back out there. Come on in." Troy said as he stepped aside and let Gabriella in.
"Troy, I am so sorry. The meeting started late and then the stupid idiotic 'business' people kept talking about what we had to do and then the subject of you and I came up and it just took off from there and then the rain happened and I tried my best getting here without going into a ditch, and then I ruined everything, I am so sorry." Gabriella said.
Troy smiled down softly at Gabriella as she stood before him rambling while all the bitter thoughts of her exited his mind as he couldn't stay mad at her for some other people's mistakes.
"And then I wanted to call, but my cell was dead and if I wanted to use the business phone then we would've had to take a break and then that would've taken longer than necessary." Gabriella continued as Troy moved closer to her and she stopped talking once Troy was less than a foot away from her.
He put his hands around her upper arms and rubbed up and down as Gabriella shivered slightly from the rain on her body. "What are you doing?" Gabriella asked softly surprised that Troy would be this forward with her after she basically ruining their night.
"I'm warming you up Brie. You look cold." Troy said as Gabriella sighed into his touch.
"I'm really sor--" Gabriella was cut off.
"If you apologize again then you can just start walking home right now." Troy said. "I forgive you." Troy said as he kissed her forehead lightly.
"Troy, I ruined our night together. You shouldn't forgive me this easily." Gabriella said as Troy's hands continued to rub up and down her arms and his mouth made it's way down from her forehead and down the side of her face to her jaw line.
"Too bad…because I forgive you." Troy said finally as he pressed a kiss to Gabriella's lips.
"Thank you." Gabriella breathed out. "I promise I won't ever be late again." Gabriella said.
"You don't have to promise that, it was for your job, your career, your music. Of course you are gonna have to endure some type of punishment." Troy said and Gabriella frowned.
"I knew it. I knew it. You forgiving me that easily was too good to be true." Gabriella said with a pout.
"You're punishment is you won't get a chance to try my famous lasagna while we just skip to our dessert." Troy said taking Gabriella's hand in his and interlacing their fingers together as they walked into his kitchen.
As they were walking past the dining room Gabriella saw that there were red roses set up in the middle of the table. "You bought flowers." Gabriella said in a sad tone as they continued their walk to the kitchen and Troy gave Gabriella's hand a slight squeeze.
"And for dessert, our famous French fries with ice cream." Troy said proudly as Gabriella laughed lightly.
Troy was leaning against the counter with two bowls set out as Gabriella came up to him and put her two hands on either side of him. She leaned up and said, "I love it." Gabriella pressed her soft lips to Troy's mouth and smiled as Troy tried to continue the kiss as she pulled back. "Let's eat. I'm starved."
"As you wish Brie." Troy said happily as he got everything ready with help from Gabriella, steeling light soft kisses here and there. Maybe this night won't turn out as bad as the two of them thought?
Author's Note- Song is called, Rush by Aly and Aj. Um...hope you guys likes this chapter. Tell me what you think by reviewing please. You guys have been awesome with that. Here's a preview.
"I'm gonna miss you."
"I could say the same thing, but I'll get to see you on TV."
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"Whoa, Gabi, you're on TV again!" Shar exclaimed.
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"Dude, you gotta get in here, you're on TV again!" Jason announced.