A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and I'll try to make this one longer. Enjoy.
Summary: Troy-selfish, emotionless, cold, mysterious, arrogant, dark, every girls dream, gorgeous, bad boy, and King of EHS. Gabriella-shy, timid, new, quiet, smart, innocent, small, beautiful, secretive, caring, sweet. When these two very different people meet, it could only lead to one thing. HATE, or perhaps LOVE (Unspoken attraction).
Chapter 10 – Welcome to my life
Do you ever feel like breaking down?
Do you ever feel out of place?
Like somehow you just don't belong
And no one understands you
Do you ever want to run away?
Do you lock yourself in your room?
With the radio on turned up so loud
That no one hears you screaming
No you don't know what it's like
When nothing feels alright
You don't know what it's like
To be like me
To be hurt, to feel lost to be left out in the dark
To be kicked, when you're down
And feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down,
And no one understands you
No you don't know what it's like
WELCOME TO MY LIFE!
***
Never once in his life had Troy Bolton ever felt his palms sweat and his brain turn to mush whilst talking to a girl.
Never.
And here he was, his muscles tense, his hands soaked and his brain unable to conjure any words that actually made sense in the English language, standing before the prettiest brunette girl he had ever laid eyes on.
Gabriella just stood there, arms locked at her sides and her mechanical smile slowly fading as she felt her cheeks begin to sting from smiling for so long, just watching Troy; watching and waiting.
"What is it?" Troy looked up at her as she spoke his face crimson all the way to the roots of his hair; he shook his head hoping it would help clear his thoughts and inhaled deeply only to let his breath out in the seven word question he had been meaning to ask her ever since he saw her on the track running like her life depended on it.
"Do you want a ride with me?" Troy kept his eyes on her face watching as her expression turned from concern to shock and confusion in the time span of a second. He had breathed the words so fast he was almost certain she hadn't heard them and he would have repeated them if he hadn't the evident change of her expression. But underneath that shock and confusion there was something else, something he couldn't quite put his finger on and it was bothering him whether he liked it or not. A long agonizing minute later she still didn't respond and Troy was definitely not a very patient person. "Do you?" this time he spoke with a lot more confidence and pride, his voice demanding and controlled. He almost smiled; he was back in control. He made a rule in head that he would never stutter or sweat in front of a girl like he just had.
Saying something is easy but actually putting it into action isn't "a piece of cake".
"Excuse me?" she suddenly looked and sounded angry. Definitely a bad sign. Automatically Troy felt his palms begin to secrete salty liquid; sweat. Oh shit.
"Wasn't it you," she continued fixing Troy with a vigilant stare "that was complaining just a few minutes ago about how Chad was yelling at you for giving me ride?" her voice rose at the end and at the same time her face turned a dark scarlet; embarrassment and a whole lot of anger.
Troy smiled; she's cute when she's mad, he thought. "That was his car. This time it's my car. Come on, it's late and anything could happen?" not wanting to seem like he sounded desperate, he hastily added "besides, would you rather walk home after running like four miles, with muscles that could give way any second, under the this crazy heat or would you rather let me drive you home in a cool, air conditioned car? The choice is yours." He stood there watching her for a minute before letting out the fakest of a all sighs and turned around slowly waiting for her to stop him but she didn't move, so he shrugged and dug his hands in his sweats pockets feeling inconsiderably foolish and embarrassed and began walking away praying vehemently under his breath that she would stop him and take up his offer.
A couple of steps later: Silence.
Another couple of steps: More silence.
Three more steps later: Even quieter silence.
Ten steps later: G*d! Will this girl ever stop being such a stubborn…?
And finally, a dozen steps later, she yelled his name, nearly tripping over her feet as she tried to catch up with him. At first, Troy ignored her but when she finally caught up with him and panted "yes", he stopped and turned to her trying and failing all attempts to hide his signature smirk. He jerked his head towards the school's exit and she followed him half-heartedly her central incisors digging holes into her soft bottom lip. She climbed into the passenger seat of Troy's truck as the large "hunk of dying metal" roared to life after a couple of attempts at starting it, which was followed by a series of unintelligible insults flowing freely out of Troy's mouth.
Not a word was spoken during the long drive to the Montez house, mainly because:
Troy was trying to control himself and not turn on Gabriella and do all the things that were playing around in his mind (which surprisingly was just kissing and nothing more) so instead he focused on the road ahead not looking in her direction once.
Gabriella was having similar problems as well. Also the fact that she was sitting in Troy Bolton's car—East High's superstar, King, god, ruler, hottie, you name it—with him driving her home out of what she hoped was pity but was starting to believe otherwise.
The rusty old truck finally stopped in front of Gabriella's house trembling dangerously as though it would collapse any second. As Gabriella reached for her backpack, a disturbing thought struck her. What if?
Troy interrupted her thoughts, "you look a little pale, Montez." He commented. She blushed and snatched her bag up ducking her head and trying to clear her face of the red color that seemed to love terrorizing her whenever Troy was mentioned. She finally looked at him,
"Do you want to come in for a drink?" she almost shrieked with joy when the question came out smoothly, no stammering or faltering. Perfect. But all the same she shoved her right hand behind her back and crossed her fingers tightly.
Troy did a double take. His mouth fell open and his emotions flowed, one after the other; surprised, admiration, fear, vulnerability, more surprise, lust, anger, confusion, joy, wariness and of course shock. He noticed the way Gabriella's eyes changed as he revealed his emotions to her for the first time and hastily covered it all up. Within a second his blue eyes were back to being the cold and unfathomable eyes known as Troy Bolton's.
He turned away at the same time flicking his dark chestnut bangs out the cerulean oceans and nodded; a nod which was everything but hesitant.
And that was how Gabriella Montez found herself leaning against the countertop in her kitchen as she thought of the best way to offer Troy a drink while he was in the bathroom.
"'Do you want something to drink?'" She rehearsed only to shake her head, "No. Err… 'Troy, do you want a drink?'"
"I'll have water, please and thank you." A voice from the doorway cut her off. She whirled around; Troy stood in the in the doorway. He had had changed his sweats for jeans and ruffled his hair giving him the "just out of bed" look, he leant against the wooden doorframe his legs crossed, hands shoved deep in his pockets, eyes watching her and wearing, once again, his signature Bolton smirk, the same one that made the women swoon; even Gabriella. She fumbled in the refrigerator. She pulled out a small bottle of water and tossed it at him. Since she wasn't very good when it came to ball sports, her aim was bad and she ended up throwing the bottle quite far from where Troy actually stood but since Troy was a superstar at them he caught it lithely; no shock there. He unscrewed the cap and took a long drink before striding close to where Gabriella stood.
"Hey, um I kind of needed help with my algebra homework and I was wondering if you could help me since you're such a math geek?" he asked in a teasing voice. Gabriella pretended to look offended, "I am not a math geek" she said shocked at how easily the words flowed out of her mouth. "I just love it."
"Whatever" he said, his smile not faded, "geek." He added under his breath.
Gabriella rolled her eyes at him and pushed off the countertop, "since I'm such a nice person, I'll help you." She led him out of the kitchen and into the living room. She turned to face him only to take multiple steps back as she realized how close they were; she bent her head not want him to see the red tint on her cheeks and looked at him through her thick lashes. He froze as he inspected her closely, fuck, she is so cute. He commented, running his eyes over her. Feeling his blue eyes trailing over her slender figure, Gabriella suddenly felt uncomfortable and tried to pass the discomfort by staring at the fluffy cream carpet and caught her lip in between her teeth. He thinks I'm ugly! I am. But I don't care, right? Wrong.
Feeling a burst of courage Gabriella raised her head to ask Troy a question only to have it get caught in her throat when she noticed the goofy smile on his face "you look cute standing there like that." He said genuinely and quickly exited through the front door and headed to his truck. Gabriella's mouth was the size of the open part of a bucket,
"He's crazy. I think he's on crack. He doesn't mean it. His head is messed up; really, really messed up. He doesn't mean any of it." Gabriella muttered to herself over and over again, when Troy was out of earshot. She leaned against the opposite wall and tried regulate her breathing which had spiraled out of control at Troy's comment.
A half hour later, the duo were lounging on the carpet in the living room, surrounded by books, various assortments of junk food and a near empty box of margarita pizza and a bowl of chocolate covered strawberries (both of them had realized while ordering pizza that they both loved this fruity sweetness), with Gabriella explaining simultaneous equations—for the third time—to Troy.
"Now do you understand?" she asked for the third time. Without hesitating, Troy nodded and reached over her for a slice of pizza only to have her slap his hand and he recoiled. Troy looked up at her, confused and ready to protest. "Not until answer questions one to, err, seven." Troy pouted, his lapis lazuli eyes shone through his chestnut bangs, relaxed yet alert and watchful. Gabriella felt the urge to reach up and push his hair out of his eyes and maybe just maybe he would let her run her fingers through his silky hair. Stay cool, Gabs,she warned herself. She nearly beamed as he grumpily grabbed a pencil, forcefully wrenched his math book open and began working on the equations. Gabriella watched him carefully, taking note of just the little actions he did when working, like how he would chew on the end of his pencil or start doodling nonsense when he was thinking, or the way he would look up at the ceiling at difficult questions and the way his eyes would light up and he would smile whenever he was sure he'd found the correct answer. Every time Troy did one of these simple movements Gabriella would feel her heart soar. After knowing him for just a few weeks, these feelings seemed quite sudden, and Gabriella was starting to believe that, that was how a serious crush started but she couldn't have a crush on Troy, sure almost every girl did but she believed she was different from all the others and she refused to crush on Troy even if it was way out of her control. No matter how hard she tried not to, she had already started liking East High's bad boy and player.
"Done!" Troy sighed in relief as he hastily pushed his math book to a thoughtful Gabriella and snatched the pizza box before she could stop him. She nearly giggled at his eagerness but she took his book and began looking through his answers. As Troy munched on his slice of pizza he watched Gabriella closely smiling at how she would play with her hair and smile, her upper lip between her teeth as she corrected his work. She's very different from the others, Troy thought not even bothering to tear his eyes away from her. Yeah, unlike the others, she's real and caring and just plain beautiful no matter what she wore.
Gabriella looked up and blushed when she noticed he had been staring at her for a while, "I um finished marking, and you got five right."
Silence.
Neither of them realized that they had been inching closer to the other and by now their knees were almost touching. Troy's eyes darted between her lips and her eyes begging for permission. She didn't move and he slowly started to lean forward. Gabriella was experiencing several different emotions, she wanted Troy to kiss her yet she didn't want him to kiss her because he was player. First it would start off with an innocent kiss then something more then next she would find herself broken and alone while Troy moved on to his next girl. Her mind was telling her to turn away but her body was refusing to answer and in less than a second she would be experiencing her first kiss and with none other than Troy Bolton. Don't do it, Gabriella! A voice in her head warned but she didn't listen. By now she could feel his warm breath spilling onto her lips as her eyelids fluttered and shut. This was it.
Their lips just barely touched when Troy's cell phone began beeping loudly. They both jumped apart as Troy searched around frantically for his cell phone. He finally found it and pulled the device out of his book bag. He looked at the screen and swore; swearing at the same time grabbing his things and stuffing them into his bag. Gabriella hadn't moved she just sat there watching him, startled, embarrassed and shaken.
"Are you okay?" she managed after a few moments. He didn't reply and just continued gathering his things. He rushed to the front door with Gabriella following closely behind. "Troy? Are you okay?" she repeated as he tore out of the door. He stopped and turned, "y-yeah" he stammered, "I'm sorry. I have to go but err thanks for all your help and all and I, um really a-appreciate it." His words were so rushed they barely made any sense. As he looked up, understanding washed over Gabriella when she noticed the fear in his eyes. She had never seen fear like that before and she herself felt scared; scared for Troy.
"Good luck." She whispered quietly to him, unsure of whether he heard her. He said nothing as he climbed into his truck and drove out of the Montez's driveway just as Ms. Montez was stepping out of her car. She watched the old truck disappear around the street before climbing up the steps to the front door where her daughter stood, unmoving.
"Who was that?" the older Montez asked without a "hello".
Gabriella snapped out of her trance and looked at her mother, "Oh, um a err friend." She managed to say.
"A guy friend?"
"Yeah." Gabriella replied unsurely, playing with her fingers.
"Uh huh." Something about the way her mother spoke made Gabriella certain that their conversation was far from over and the two quietly entered the silent house.
***
Gabriella had finished cleaning up her and Troy's mess in the living room after a long lecture from her mother about cleanliness and was now in her room, reading.
Just as she had suspected, about thirty minutes later Maria Montez knocked on her only daughter's bedroom door. Gabriella sighed and let the book she was reading drop onto the floor as she called her mother in. Maria walked in and took a seat on Gabriella's bed and turned to face her, "so tell me more about this 'guy friend' of yours." Gabriella blushed and buried her face in her pillow.
"There isn't anything to tell." She said her voice muffled.
"Of course there is, honey."
"A friend and nothing else." A friend? Psh, since when is Troy Bolton a friend? She thought.
"Okay." Maria paused and carefully watched her daughter. She had noticed a change in her lately, but had taken it as just "the teenage behavior" but now she was sure it had to do with this "guy friend" guy. "So what's his name?" she asked simply.
"Troy Bolton." The way Gabriella spoke his name made Maria believe that Gabriella thought of him as something other than a "friend".
"Hmm, so is there anything I need to know about him?"
Gabriella shook her head blushing like an idiot. She really did not want to discuss Troy with her mom. "There isn't much to say about him. Um, he's captain of the basketball team at school, he's in my homeroom, we have a few classes together and I think I have a little crush on him." She blurted. Maria let out a sound between a high pitched squeal and a cough.
"So you do like him!" she sounded like a teenage girl finally meeting her favorite rock band, "mija, he could be your first boyfriend!"
Gabriella sat up and brought her legs underneath her, "he isn't the 'boyfriend' type." She sighed, "and I don't think he likes me in that way" Maria smiled at Gabriella's exasperated expression; she leaned forward and gently stroked her daughter's knee.
"You never know. He might feel a lot stronger about you than you do about him." Gabriella snorted at her mother's words, "yeah in what world?" she muttered sarcastically, completely ignoring the small bubble of hope growing within her body.
"Come on, bedtime." Maria said, hitting her daughter's knee playfully as she got off the bed.
"Mom, I'm sixteen not six!" Gabriella grumbled putting on her famous pout as she pulled at the sheets.
"Sixteen or sixty, you're still my little girl." She said tucking Gabriella in and placing a kiss her daughter's forehead and she left the room but not before turning the light off.
Gabriella lay in the dark and stared at the ceiling, "I like Troy Bolton and I nearly had my first kiss with him. Wow." And she closed her eyes.