n0t3: I know! I'm such a bad person! I haven't been posting on this story for more than a week. But I'm here now. And I totally LUV this chapter. So I hope you enjoy it too! Don't forget to review after!

p.s. You'll find that the chapter title below, is different than the one in the chapter bar, that's because I couldn't fit the real title, the one below into that bar. But it's still basically the same thing.

-----------------------------------------------

Chapter Ten- Popularity You Had, Spoken Behind Your Back You Had Not
"Come on, Gabs. You have to go to work today," Sam said, dragging the blankets off me, causing me to fall on to the hard carpet.

"Ow! What the chocolate?!" I said loudly.
a/n: You're probably like huh? Why chocolate. So, lemme explain. The first kind of "what the" is what the fcuk...then it's what the fudge, fudge is chocolate, which makes it "What the chocolate". Get it? Anyways, back to the story...

"You need to get to work, Gabs."

"I don't wanna go to work," I mumbled.

"You went yesterday, you'll live through today."

"But---"

"You've delt with him once, you could deal with him again. And anyways, you two were high school sweethearts. You should know his soft spots. Now get your butt into the shower," Sam said dragging me to the bathroom.

"You got fifteen minutes! I'll give you a lift to work!" Sam yelled after she closed the door, leaving me half dead in the washroom.

Great.

Fifteen minutes.

Half an hour later, we were both in the car, and Sam was driving.

"We're going across the street when you get off work, so Sharpay, Taylor, and I will see you then. Bye!" Sam said, as I slammed the door.

Sam sped off to work, and I entered to go to work.

Once again, silence filled the room.

This was so starting to piss me off.

Someone had left something on my desk.

I could also feel everyone's eyes on me.

I lifted my head up from my desk, and glared at everyone.

Everyone went back to what they were doing, or at least pretended to.

I picked up the note and read it.

I'm sorry! Forgive me? Please???

-Troy-

In your dreams, Bolton.

I crumpled the note, and tossed it into the wastebasket.

I saw Chad from the corner of my eye, with a raised eyebrow.

I ignored him.

At around two, Sharpay had called.

"Hey girl!"

"Hey, Shar." I said doodling on some notebook of mine.

"Did he try to talk to you?" Sharpay asked.

"He left a note on my desk," I told her.

"Ooooo, what'd it say?" she asked.

"Something about forgiveness, and that he was sorry, or something like that," I said, like it was nothing.

"Anything else?"

"Um, I don't think so. Why?" I asked her.

"Just checking."

I chuckled.

Sharpay.

Never changes.

I saw some one stand at my closed office door, I turned my chair, and saw Troy there.

"Troy's here again," I told her.

Troy slipped a note through the bottom of the door.

"...With another note, hold on. Lemme get it," I said, putting the phone on my desk, then walking over to the door, then picking it up back to my desk.

Troy stood there.

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

He pointed at the note I was holding, as I picked the phone back up.

"Got it," I said.

"Okay, now read it," Sharpay instructed.

I'm sorry! Let me explain! Meet me at Starbucks?

Oh, I get why he was still there.

He was waiting for an answer.

Well I'm not giving him an answer.

Hmph.

I crumpled the letter with my right hand, holding the phone with my left.

Then tossed it in the trash, then spun around on my chair, so I wasn't facing the door, but facing the wall.

"What does it say?" Sharpay asked, unpatiently.

Oh yeah.

I hadn't read it out loud.

"He wrote, 'I'm sorry. Let me explain. Meet me at Starbucks?'"

"He sure has guts," Sharpay huffed.

"I know!"

"Are you gonna go?" Sharpay asked.

"Are you nuts?! Duh, I'm not gonna go. What's there to explain? Oh, I just wanted to tell everyone your secrets, so you could be embaressed and never show your face around here ever again?" I scoffed.

Sharpay chuckled.

"Well see you in an hour or so!" Sharpay said before we hung up.

At four fifty, I was taking the elevator down to the lobby to wait for Sharpay, Taylor, and Sam.

"Gabs!"

I let out a long breath.

Troy.

Again.

"What do you want?" I asked, not turning around.

"I want you to let me explain," Troy said, rushing in front of me.

I crossed my arms over my chest, "Well I don't want to let you explain," I said, then going around him.

Troy pulled me back to my original spot, "Look, I didn't mean to say those things."

"Yeah. And see, I didn't mean to tell you all those thing either," I shot back.

"Come on, Gabs. Why won't you forgive me?" Troy whined.

"Because. Now that you've told the world, everyone's talking behind me back," I gritted, starting to walk away.

"But I didn't cause them to talk behind your back."

Wrong answer, Bolton.

I stopped in my tracks.

"And anyways, it's not that bad, having people talk behind your back."

Double wrong, Bolton.

I walked up to him with a glare, "You know what? You don't know how it feels to have people talk behind your back because no one has. It's always been Troy's popular, he wouldn't do anything bad, or since Troy's so popular, he could turn the whole school against me. Well newsflash, Troy, we're in the real world now, where popularity is not a divider. So people say what they want to say, whether you, as their boss, hear them or not."

People were starting to gather around us.

And Chad was coming towards us, to stop us from arguing.

Troy just stood there like an idiot.

"What's going on here?" Sharpay asked loudly, shoving through people, to get to the middle.

"Gabs. Stop." I heard Chad said to me in a low whisper.

But I couldn't stop, "Even in high school, sure, you were Mr. Popularity, and I was your girlfriend, and I was parshally popular, but that still didn't make people stop talking behind my back about how I didn't deserve you. No one has talked behind YOUR back, so you don't know how it feels. Me. People have ALWAYS talked behind my back, so I know how it feels. Basically, you don't deserve a speak in this. So shut up."

Silence hung in the air for several seconds.

I began to breathe normally, and Troy began to retrieve his sense of speak.

He opened his mouth.

"Shut up."

Everyone stared at Sharpay.

"Gabriella's right. You don't have a speak in this, cause you've never been spoken behind your back because you were popular," Sharpay said with a glare.

"But you were popular too, Sharpay," Troy got out.

"Yeah. But I knew people talked behind my back, I just chose to ignore it. I know how it feels, it hurts. A lot. Especially when it comes out of the mouth of a best friend." Sharpay snapped, before pulling me out of the building.

"You do something wrong again to her, and I will punch you in the face. And you can ask Chad how it feels," Taylor threatened, before following us with Sam.

"Not good," I heard Chad whisper.