I hope you guys like
this chapter.
I wrote this in like…record 45 minutes, so it may
be rushed, but school's been a little suffocating. Don't hate
me:)
High School Musical is not mine. We have established that.
--
The clinking of the silverware against the plates echoed throughout the silent room. Gabriella chewed angrily at her piece of chicken, her face passive, her jaw set and her eyes intent on Troy.
Troy squirmed under her intense gaze, aware of the tension in the room.
"What lovely…," he looked down at what he was forking, "…vegetables you've prepared," he complimented nervously. He purposefully took another bite, gulping the salad down quickly.
"Yes, a combination of lettuce and sauce," bit Gabriella sarcastically, "I'm sure you've never had that before."
Johnny looked at his fiancé, feeling a little sorry for the basketball player. He had been relieved to see Troy at the door when he opened it that evening. He trusted Troy not to do anything with Gabriella. "Gabi…" he started.
She serenely ignored him, choosing to focus on cutting her chicken instead. She stabbed at her meat as if it were Troy's head, furiously piercing it with her fork and knife, cutting it into miniscule pieces with her repressed rage. The two men in the room looked on in fear, neither knowing what had put her in that temperament. They pitied the innocent piece of meat on her plate. She looked up and smiled a sickly sweet smile, oozing with malice. The devil himself would have been proud.
The occupants of the room fell into another lapse of strained silence, with the occasional sounds of chewing and cutting. The three began to eat from their respective plates.
Finally, the awkward stillness was interrupted.
"Pass the pepper please," choked out Troy. He had been trying to eat his chicken plain because he was afraid he would set Gabriella off. It was as if she was like box dynamite, ready to be lit and explode.
The pepper sat unmoving in front of Gabriella. She looked up, panned her head around, cocked her head at Troy, then feigned obliviousness and returned to attacking her food with even more force than before.
Troy cleared his throat.
Gabriella lifted her head, intentionally taking eons to chew her food and swallow.
"Did you want something?" she finally snapped.
Troy wondered what he had done to be on the receiving end of her wrath. It was rather obvious her anger was aimed at him. Last he had seen her was on the night they went for drinks, and that had ended well. In his opinion, at least.
"Um…the pepper?"
She ignored him again. This time, Johnny reached forward from his position beside Gabriella and passed the pepper shaker across the table. He nodded at Troy briefly.
Troy nodded back thankfully. He proceeded to sprinkle his chicken with the brown powdery substance, before setting the shaker down onto the table.
He watched Gabriella as he did so.
"Did I..uh…do something?" he asked nervously, looking between Gabriella and Johnny. "Say something?" He made a face at Johnny, who seemed just at lost as he was.
Gabriella slowly forced her head up, looking Troy in the eye. "No," she ground out through clenched teeth. "Nothing at all."
"Is something wrong Gabriella?"
"No."
"Are you sure?" asked Troy.
"No."
Troy leaned back in his chair, setting his fork down. He bit back a smile. "Are you going to say anything other than no?"
She paused, annoyed that he found this amusing. That fact only served to infuriate her more. She took a deep breath. "No," she said, forcing her voice to steady.
"Is it that time of the month?" joked Johnny, attempting to ease the tension. It did the opposite. Gabriella glared at him, her eyes flashing in cold fury.
"No," she said slowly.
"Okay," replied Johnny quickly, sensing that he had done wrong. Troy lifted his hands in mock surrender, a smile teasing his lips. That smile died once Gabriella turned to glare daggers at him as well.
"Okay," he supplied immediately, his hands falling back to his fork and knife.
Gabriella watched as Johnny and Troy began picking at their food incessantly, occasionally sending discreet looks to each other that said, what the hell? Amazing how she had thought there would be awkwardness between them. In her opinion, they had bonded fairly well fairly quickly.
Had she not been so beside herself with anger, she would have noted that this would have been a perfect dinner. But a perfect dinner was the farthest thing from her mind.
"So Troy, the Knicks are doing good this season," commented Johnny pleasantly, attempting to strike up conversation.
"Yeah, it's much different than playing in college."
"Harder?"
"Much."
Both men looked to see if Gabriella would join in, but she merely trained her eyes on the pepper shaker in front of Troy.
"Do you want it?" he asked, gesturing to the object she was scrutinizing.
"Nope."
He looked at her weirdly. "Okay then…"
Johnny chose that moment to break in. "Who's you're next opponent?"
"Dallas Mavs. They're going to kick my ass," he said lightly.
She returned her eyes to her food, but spoke up. "Not if I kick it first," she said coldly
Troy narrowed his eyes. He had had about enough. "To what do I owe this pleasure? Obviously you're mad at me."
Gabriella shrugged nonchalantly.
"Why are you so pissed off? Was it that night?"
This caught Johnny's attention, and he gave an inquisitive look to Gabriella. She shrugged again. "We just had a walk," she explained.
"Until midnight?" he asked. Suddenly, there was newfound tension between Johnny and Troy.
"A long walk," she answered. "Won't happen again."
That seemed to placate Johnny, who returned to eating, although he was still slightly suspicious.
"So, Johnny," she addressed specifically, ignoring Troy's presence and his question, "did you read the People magazine lying on the dresser?"
He paused, his fork midway between his mouth and the plate. "Um….yes?" he asked tentatively, praying that that was the answer she was looking for.
"Mm," she made a thoughtful noise, and looked over at Troy, who had taken to staring at her. "Mmmm," she repeated, looking pointedly at him.
"I found this," she paused, "funny article."
"Funny you say?"
"I did," she affirmed, "would you like to see it?"
Johnny began to shake his head, but changed it quickly, and rather clumsily, into a nod seeing Gabriella's expression.
She pulled out the magazine that was lying in her lap and showed Johnny, keeping the content out of view from Troy, who had cocked his head in confusion.
"Troy Bolton and mystery blonde girl," he read. He turned to Troy.
"What?" Troy asked, perplexed.
"Troy Bolton and mystery blonde girl," repeated Gabriella, slapping the open magazine on the table with force.
Troy picked it up, never taking his eyes off Gabriella. He looked at the book in his hands, taking in the picture, and then turning to the article to scan.
Gabriella took the time to regard his expression. His face was passive—revealing nothing. Damn.
Honestly, Gabriella didn't know why she was so upset. It wasn't jealously, she told herself. She had no right to that, she knew. But it sure seemed like it. She furrowed her brows, her forehead creasing while she thought. What had made her explode like that?
She just remembered reading the title of the story. Then her hands had lost all strength, her legs as well. She had stumbled and staggered her way back to her bed and fell onto it again, this time, not because she had been elated. The magazine had dropped onto the ground, lying open on that offending page.
At first, it had been inexplicable sadness…and then suddenly, it had just molded into fury and anger. Why? She didn't really know.
She had then stood up, picked up the magazine in a rush, and stormed out of the room—a dark cloud hovering above her head. The fact that Troy had just entered, in all his freaking Troy glory, only served to anger her more.
She snapped out of her thoughts and took a sip of her wine, eyeing him coolly.
He looked up. "This is why you've been acting like this all night?" he asked.
That had not been her expected, nor desired, reaction. Gabriella gaped at him.
Troy almost chuckled, purely out of the fact that she had acted so childishly and spitefully over the matter. "Why would you even care?" he queried.
"I don't," she immediately snapped back.
"Really," he said slowly, his tone clearly indicating that he didn't believe her.
Johnny tried to speak up. "Um—" But Gabriella cut him off.
"Really. What? You don't believe me?" She raised her voice, challenging him.
"Nope," Troy answered honestly.
"Um—" Johnny tried, failing miserably.
"Troy Bolton, you can do all you bloody want and I wouldn't give a damn," she bit back.
"Then why, may I ask, were you acting like a 3 year old all night?" he reasoned, his voice rising louder.
"I was not," she retorted, slamming her fork down. It bounced off her plate loudly, reflecting the climax of the argument.
All three parties stopped. Troy and Gabriella glared at each other, while Johnny looked on, unaware of their past.
Troy was the first to soften his gaze. He spoke softly. "Gabriella—"
"What?" she snapped. "Wipe that stupid smile off your face!"
"Oh god Gabriella," he laughed. "Do you even have a reason to be so mad?"
She felt the blood rush to her face. "Well.." She racked her brain. Suddenly, the answer popped up. "You lied to me," she accused.
"I did?" he asked.
"Yes, you said there was nobody!" Her voice was victorious—like she was winning the argument.
His ocean blue eyes penetrated her chocolate ones, their gazes locking together. "There is nobody," he half whispered, pleading her to believe him.
"Right." She looked emphatically at the page sprayed open by from the magazine. "Who's that then? Sharpay?"
Troy rolled his eyes. "Like I still know her."
Johnny looked curiously between the two. "You knew each other?"
"Yes," answered Troy.
Gabriella looked quickly at Johnny. "Not well." She turned back to Troy and looked at him skeptically. "I don't believe you."
He stared directly at her, and from his eyes, Gabriella could tell he wasn't lying to her. "She's my sister-in-law."
"But your brother's…"
"He's very young to be engaged," he admitted, "but he is."
"But—" she stuttered. Sister-in-law? Oh no. Crap. Oh crap. She had gotten it all wrong.
"There's nobody Gabriella," he reiterated. He paused, torn between whether to tell her or not. He decided to. "There's been nobody since…" he trailed off, although Gabriella got the point.
Since her.
She felt her walls crumble around her. Should she feel happy? Sad? She was engaged. He had hurt her. She had moved on. He…He didn't have the right to say something like that to her! He didn't have the right to mess with her like that anymore.
What could she say? He was obviously waiting for a response—
Beside her, the phone rang. "I'll get it," declared Gabriella, jumping up at the chance to exit the room. She hurried out to pick up the phone.
When she returned, she found Troy and Johnny quietly finishing off their plates. She sat back down gingerly.
"Who was it?" asked Johnny.
"My mother," she replied, her eyes towards Troy.
"Oh," nodded Johnny.
"Yeah.."
The silence returned to consume them. Dinner had been a disaster. An utter disaster, and it had been all her fault.
Gabriella eventually made a move to clear the table. She stacked her plate on top of Johnny's and reached for Troy's. Just as she put her hand around the edge, he placed his large hands beside hers around the plate, brushing her skin lightly. "Are we good?" he asked, afraid of the answer.
He knew he shouldn't have said what he said. Gabriella deserved to be happy. Troy had broken her heart. He didn't know why he had said it. He just…couldn't resist.
She looked up at him, deciding at that moment to ignore the previous comment, and smiled. It wasn't worth it to lose what they had so difficultly gained over the past weeks. "No," she said, "we're very good." She grinned and tugged at the plate.
"Oh sorry," he flustered, releasing his grip. He realized he had been nearly crushing the plate with his grip in anticipation..
Johnny looked on.
"I'm sorry for acting like how I did…"
"It's alright. I wouldn't lie to you Gabr—Gabi. Eve—" He cut off. He couldn't say ever—because he had lied to her before. He was in the process of lying to her. He was lying about his feelings.
She nodded, accepting the nickname and the explanation without even registering that she was. "So we're good."
"Very good," he mimicked. "Very good." He turned to Johnny, tearing his gaze away from the lovely brunette girl. "So…I brought you a few tickets for the…"
Gabriella picked up the plates and glided out of the room quietly, shaking her head, bemused. The two men burst out in laughter behind her.
Maybe dinner hadn't been that much of a disaster. Hey? It could have been worse.
--
So that was my version of a furious Gabriella, throwing a silent tantrum:) we've all done that before I'm sure.
REVIEWS?! COMMENTS?! They would make me terrible happy.
