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11.
"So what is it about Gabi that you like, Troy?" Sharpay asked as she swayed sexily down the corridor and stopped before him.
He met her gaze and paused from answering.
"What's your problem, Shar?" He asked.
"Remember us, Troy? The people you used to hang out with? The girl you used to sleep with?" She added, making him close his eyes in regret.
"We broke up. Ages ago." He reminded her with a brow lift.
"Chad feels the same. None of us know why you're spending time with that little virgin girl." She challenged.
"Is that all that matters, Shar? That she's a virgin?" He asked with a creased face, wondering why she was being so outwardly bitchy when Gabi didn't deserve it. He had more important things to worry about and none of them seemed to even click onto that fact.
She shrugged. "I'm just saying, we used to be good together."
"No, we didn't. Well, maybe it was good for you, but it certainly wasn't for me." He ground out, and then shifted to move from their confrontation.
"You were panting my name, Troy." Sharpay reminded him with her own arched brow, turning on one foot to face his back. "When you got your rocks off, I heard it all."
Gabi froze; her arms clung around her books, her previously happy face frozen at the words echoing down the corridor.
He'd slept with Sharpay? Oh my god, it was her?
Gabi's gasp was audible in the silence that lulled in the corridor and all eyes were on the previous basketball captain for his comeback.
He turned his eyes to Gabi after closing them and opening them again, hearing her gasp and feeling it all the way into his belly.
She didn't need to know that! God, but she didn't need to know…
He held her gaze, read the emotions flitting across her eyes in succession- shock, fear; hurt…that was the hardest to watch.
She looked between him and Sharpay, trying to fathom it, trying to make sense of it all and something didn't compute, he could tell because her shoulders hunched over and her head dropped and she walked, very quickly, away from them all.
He turned to Sharpay and glared at her for a few seconds, just willing his rage down.
"You ever feel like speaking to me again, you know what? Don't bother." He said curtly, brushing past her to stride after Gabi, meeting Taylor's gaze until she looked down in submission.
"Hey, buddy…" Chad called, following up behind Taylor, seeing Troy's angry look.
"Just back off, Chad…" Troy warned intent on finding Gabi.
"What the…?" Chad asked as Troy fumed past him.
"Don't you dare…" Troy called softly as he grabbed Gabi around the waist and stopped her entry into the girl's restroom.
She resisted his hold and froze, staring at the restroom door, hearing only his breath against her hair and feeling only the wanting in the pit of her stomach, exactly what she didn't want to feel.
"You slept with her?" She asked, her voice broken, giving away her tears that he couldn't see because she was still facing away from him.
"Yeah, I did. Is that a crime?" He asked roughly, and then winced at his abrasiveness.
"I would liked to have known…" She said, letting a sob escape, inadvertently bringing her breast against his hand as she convulsed with it.
"Why? So you could do this?" He begged. "I didn't want you to feel like you do right now, Gabi…" He placed his head into her hair, against her back and sighed out. "Please understand…"
She sobbed into her hands and he felt her pain, feeling an overwhelming relief when she turned and hugged him around the waist, burrowing into his arms where he held her tightly, stroking her back and murmuring soothing words.
When she finally lifted her face, it was painted with her uncertainty.
"Was she the one, the one you told me about?" She checked.
He pressed his lips in at one side. "She's the only one." He answered easily.
She looked down and considered this, her small mouth opening and closing as she tried to find words.
"I knew this would happen, Gabi, god, I never wanted you to feel like she was superior." He sighed, bending to hug her.
He whispered into ear. "If only you knew how much more you mean to me."
"She was your first?" She ventured; curiosity over riding her hurt.
He nodded, flipping his hair back.
"Was she…" She wondered how to phrase it, glancing up at him to finish her sentence.
"Does it matter? I'm with you now." He assured, kissing her hair.
"I just feel like everyone's ahead of me, like I'm the last to know…" She described, bringing her hands up to wipe her tears as he cradled her.
"I care about you so much, Gabi. I never said 'I love you before'. That means more to me than sleeping with Sharpay." He said honestly, scooching down to her level to meet her timid gaze.
"Really?" She asked, her left bow lifting hopefully.
"Really." He confirmed
"I was the first." She stated, thinking this through.
"You were." He smiled, standing tall again and holding her tight.
"Bell went ages ago." She murmured into his chest.
"Another detention." He sighed.
"I'm sorry."
"Hey, you are more important to me than anyone else, Gabi." He vouched seriously.
"Not more important than Ellie…" She said as she pulled away and tugged him to class, leaving him with a doe eyed look.
"You're my first, too, Troy." She kissed his cheek before slipping into Geography and leaving him alone to face his own class.
0-0-0-0-0
"She is pretty." Gabi commented as they walked home, hand in hand.
He leaned over and kissed her hair. "Stop it."
"I'm just saying…" She defended.
"She's not a nice person." He clenched his teeth, stopping himself from saying more.
Gabi looked at him while she thought. "She has a nice figure." She offered next.
He laughed and lifted her hand to his chest to bring her close. "Would you stop?"
"You don't have to pretend." She said.
"I'm not." He sighed. "I don't need to. I don't miss her at all."
"We're so different…" Gabi wondered, thinking of her own dark, curly locks and curvier figure compared to Sharpay's straight blonde hair and slim body.
"Exactly!" He agreed quickly. "Finally!"
"Why me?" She wondered naturally and then he looked down at the small girl, reading her insecurity very clearly on her face.
"Why not?" He threw back with a grin that curled her toes.
"Because." She shrugged gently.
"See, there's no reason not to like you." He tipped over toward her, murmuring in her ear. "Or love you."
"My dad." She launched.
"Oh, please." He rolled his eyes.
"It's true. People think I'm a goody two shoes." She arced back.
"Hey, they don't know you." He arched his brow teasingly.
She felt the effect of his look deep inside and smiled back.
"They think I'm a stupid virgin, goody two shoes." She repeated.
"They can go to hell." He remarked, scooping his arms around her sideways.
"Time for hormone city…" He warned as they approached Ellie's school.
"Hey…" She hit him playfully in the arm.
"Oops, female alert." He grinned.
"Is it okay to walk me home after, I have to study tonight?" She asked.
"Oh, I suppose I can manage that…" He leaned down to kiss her.
0-0-0-0-0-0
"You broke Amelia's heart." Ellie accused as she spread butter on bread and watched her pan of spaghetti while Troy worked on the sauce.
"I did?" He frowned back, looking to his sister.
She had pulled her hair out of her face into a ponytail and she had washed off her make up and he noticed how young she seemed. It hurt him to think of what she had to go through with worrying about them both and now he wondered if he was doing the right thing in protecting them from the world.
"Yeah, when she saw you holding hands with Gabi she kinda looked gutted." She explained.
"Oh." He lifted a brow. "Sorry?" He offered cautiously.
"She doesn't like me anyway; she's just your biggest fan." She shrugged.
"Am I doing the right thing, Ellie?" He asked suddenly. "I might be fucking us up and not even knowing it…"
"Don't say that, Troy." She argued back, meeting his gaze, their eyes mirroring each others'.
"It's true. I have to think about what's best for us and how do I know that this is?" He asked.
"Because we're together. And we know they'll break us up when you go to College." Her large eyes showed her fear and she moved to hug him around the waist. "You're my brother."
"I know…" He sighed, hugging her back.
"We lost them, Troy. No-one else can possibly get that. It's just us, now."
"They could look after you, Ellie. No more worrying, no more watching money and babysitting. We would have a family." He hedged.
"It's not the same!" She shouted, pulling away. "It will never be the same without them!"
"Don't you think I know that?" He shouted back, feeling the pain burn in his chest. "I know exactly how much it hurts Ellie; you don't have the monopoly on that! But I never asked for this! I never asked for this PRESSURE and responsibility!"
"Then why don't you just leave, Troy? If I'm such a burden, just leave me!" She screamed back, sobbing now between her words.
"I can't cope anymore, Ellie…" He beseeched, his own tears trailing down his cheeks. "I just don't know what to do anymore…"
Ellie paused as she watched him and was shocked at seeing him cry. At the funeral he'd held her hand and kept his face down, his hair hiding his eyes. After the funeral he'd hidden in his room with his music on until Nathan had left and then he'd been busy with paperwork all the time.
She struggled to comprehend how that felt for him and had buried herself in her own grief, presuming he was okay.
And he wasn't. But he couldn't fall apart because without him, she would surely fall apart, too.
She walked forward and without fully understanding everything and she grabbed her brother for a hug, letting him cry as he clutched her, just as she did the same and they shared their loss, then.
For the first time since that horrible day, they shared their overwhelming loss and began to build bridges.
Together.