Alright this is really hard. I'm trying to figure out a way to keep the suspense of this story going but you guys already know most of the story don't you? Now the last chapter didn't have any flashbacks because they were talking about the past. So I'm gonna make everything in this chapter up as I go along. I love to hear suggestions too, on what else you guys think the story might need. And this is only what, chapter eleven? I don't wanna end this in two more chapters, you know? So how are all your stories going? Very well, I hope. ^^ I'm also watching a True Jackson VP marathon on the N right now. I feel like the next time I write an HSM fanfic Keke Palmer should be in it. I have no idea why. XD Ok what else do I have to say? Oh, yeah my sonfics. I'm on a minor writer's block for that so that's why it hasn't been updated in a few days. A few days or a week? Yeah something like that. I think I might actually read them and hope it gives me more ideas or something. There's bound to be at least one of my ideas I like. XDDD Ok, now last order of business in the reall long author's note up here is to say thanks for the reviews so far. So thanks to digigirl02, Always-Here-Imani, and ChaylorTwilightQueen10. So, onto the story!


Gabriella sighed as she stared up at the ceiling in her bedroom. It was now late at night and even with Troy sleeping beside her (dressed decently, of course) she still couldn't help but feel distracted. Stella had already left the house and when Taylor came back she wanted to be alone. Gabriella could have sworn the girl had plans but with the way she was in the guest room the whole night, they were canceled. Don't get her wrong, Gabriella tried talking to Taylor, but it didn't end with answers. Gabriella knew something was wrong but she didn't know what to do to help. Gabriella snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Troy stir next to her. She turned to face him.

"Gabs how come you're not sleeping?" he yawned. "It's past midnight already."

"I'm just doing a lot of thinking." Gabriella admitted. "I'm worried about Taylor. And the house is kind of empty without Stella around."

"She's your cousin. I pass messages from her to you and back all the time." Troy replied.

"And I'm glad you two get along, really. But that doesn't help me with Taylor." Gabriella said. "She didn't say two words to me since she got back. She didn't even say where she was today or anything. All I know was that she was supposed to have dinner with Brian and his family tonight. But she never left when she came back."

Troy blinked. "Taylor has a boyfriend? Who's not Chad?"

"Yeah." Gabriella nodded. "Didn't I mention it to you?"

"If you did then I don't remember. Do you know how much Chad thinks about her?" he replied.

"If I knew he did then I would have figured out a way to get them together. But you never told me and Taylor was always so ticked at Chad about senior year." Gabriella explained.

"Just because of the breakup?" Troy asked. "Chad hasn't been the same since."

"I was talking with Taylor the other night while we were eating dinner." Gabriella stated. "She said that Chad hasn't been himself since before then. And she was going to find out why, but she never mentioned anything."

"And people told us we had problems." he muttered.

"Huh?" Gabriella quirked an eyebrow.

"Nothing." Troy lied.

Gabriella sighed. "I just want my best friend to be happy. I'm happy with you, Sharpay's overjoyed with Zeke, and Ryan...well, we never know what he thinks relationship wise but we know he'll be overjoyed when he finally opens that hat store."

"He should give it up. It's not gonna happen." Troy said.

"Way to support a co-worker." she stated.

"I'm just saying." Troy shrugged.

"Troy what are we going to do? She's so thrilled with Brian but I really think that if she still has feelings for Chad and he has them then they need to get together." she said.

"But what about Chad and that kid he's got?" he asked.

"I don't even know. I'm just hoping that he comes clean and tells us and Taylor what happened soon." Gabriella replied, not knowing it already happened earlier.

"I'll see if I can talk to Chad tomorrow." Troy offered. "I'll get him to come by the community theater so we can fix it up some more. Maybe when we're done we can have a theater warming party. We'll have dancing, karaoke and everything."

Gabriella giggled. Troy always knew how to lift her spirits. She could go for a good party soon. "And I'll see if I can talk to Taylor in the morning." she added. "She can't stay in the guest bedroom forever, especially when she has to be back at her job in August."

"So how about we get some more sleep until then." Troy suggested. "We can take care of everything in the morning."

"Ok." Gabriella yawned in agreement. "Good-night Troy."

"Night Gabs." Troy replied. They briefly kissed, covered themselves in the blankets again, and then fell to sleep.

~HSM~HSM~HSM~

Well Troy and Gabriella's plan didn't go as well as they planned. By the time Gabriella went to check in on Taylor the guest room was empty. And when Troy tried calling Chad there was no answer. Troy and Gabriella tried calling each other to see what was going on, but both were at a loss of ideas. It wasn't like they even knew where their friends went. But even as Gabriella continued searching her house to see if there was a room she missed, she found Taylor's cell phone. Now Gabriella knew it was wrong to read private messages and everything. But she wasn't really going to; it was a matter of seeing how many calls Taylor missed. There was a total of twenty missed calls, most of which were from Brian. Gabriella could tell the guy cares about Taylor, but why wouldn't Taylor talk to him?

What neither Troy or Gabriella knew was that Chad and Taylor had gone to meet each other. Taylor was at the park waiting for Chad. They sent a few text messages back and forth to each other before deciding that they had to do something. Luckily it was a school day and the park was fairly empty, so the two could have some peace and quiet to talk in.

It was now ten a.m. and Taylor was looking around for Chad. She didn't even know what to say to him. So what if she had some feelings for the guy? She was still loyal to Brian and he was a perfectly good guy. She knew she'd have to choose but she wasn't sure if she could bring herself to do so. Maybe she was better off just being single. It had its advantages after all; like she'd really need a guy to be happy. Oh who was she kidding? As much as she wasn't into it before high school, Taylor felt comfortable in a relationship. With Brian she was with a guy on the same intellectual level as her who was kind, friendly, and good company. And then there was Chad, who was practically her opposite in every way but they just worked together. Taylor kept telling herself that the answer was to stop talking to Chad. That the kiss they had was an accident that was never supposed to happen. But on the other hand, she didn't know how long she could go without him now that they spent time together and were actually seeing eye to eye. Taylor moaned and pushed some bangs out of her face. This was not the vacation she was hoping for.

Chad on the other hand was on his way to the park. He dropped Dill off at a school, since he had missed it yesterday, so it's just be him and Taylor. That's how he wanted it to be. But he was still freaking out about it. If he knew she had a boyfriend then he would have never even touched her. Chad didn't even know how he should feel about that. Should he be happy that she met someone, or depressed that it wasn't him she was seeing? Chad didn't even know what they were going to talk about but he knew they needed it. He knew he still had feelings for Taylor but he couldn't admit them to her now, not if her relationship was going so well. So the least he could do was see the guy and make sure he was right for her, right? Or hear about him. Yeah, something like that. He finally parked in the parking lot and headed into the park to find Taylor. After walking for a bit he spotted her sitting on a bench. Chad took a deep breath and went over to her.

"Hey Taylor." he greeted.

Taylor picked her head up and looked at Chad. "Hey." she replied softly.

Chad sat down next to her. There was a moment of silence until he spoke up again. "We need to talk don't we?"

"Yeah. We do." Taylor nodded. "I should have mentioned that I had a boyfriend."

"And it probably would have been easier if I said from the start that I never had anyone else." Chad added.

Ok this was getting awkward. They both already knew that. What else was there to say?

"I just don't want there to be any drama in the middle of all this." Taylor said. "I don't want you and Brian jumping down each other's throats or having one of you watch me every five minutes."

"Brian's the guy huh?" he guessed.

"He's a good guy, Chad." Taylor replied. "He and I work at the same university. And he trusts me. And I feel bad that I cheated on him."

"How can you say you cheated on him? It was one kiss." Chad said.

"One that would have gone a lot further if we didn't stop when we did." she corrected. "I feel guilty about it. I don't feel bad about kissing you but I do feel bad that I kissed someone behind Brian's back. And I know he wouldn't do that with me so why should I do it with him?"

"How long have you known him?" Chad asked.

"A couple of weeks tops, I suppose." she assumed.

"So you're just assuming that he wouldn't do a bunch of bad stuff to you in a short amount of time." he replied.

"Don't put words in my mouth." Taylor said. "I trust him and he trusts me. There has to be that in a relationship for it to work at all."

"Ok so what else do you know about him?" he asked.

"What's with all of these questions anyway?" Taylor replied.

"I just want to make sure he's good enough for you. That he's right for you." Chad confessed. "I wasn't right for you, I get it. That's why we fought. That's why we broke up. But I wanna know that's he's good enough for you."

"This is a change." she observed. "I haven't seen you this insistent since graduation."

"What are you talking about?" Chad quirked an eyebrow.

"You changed since that school shooting." Taylor informed him. "You don't seem as energetic as you used to. You seem to look at everything differently."

"I think getting shot anywhere on the body can do that to a person." Chad said. "And maybe I did change."

"Care to expand?" she asked.

Chad intertwined his fingers with each other. He placed his hands on his lap and leaned forward; he and Taylor had barely looked at each other since they started talking. "I figured out something after that shooting." he spoke. "I know that getting shot can change a person even if the damage isn't permanent. But when someone does get shot and it isn't fatal there's a reason for it. And I don't think it's just because it signifies a person's time to go. Obviously something was wrong with me before that day. And I was given a second chance. And I found out what it was. I found out that there's more to life than just a love life or sports or whatever. Sometimes there's people who need you more than you need any one thing or one person. Some people are more important than others. I knew who was most important to me back then. But things changed. So were the people that I was supposed to care about.

"I ran into a friend from college about a year after we graduated." he continued. "He was working at some place that was gonna close down or something. I don't know, it was some kind of apartment complex for all I know. And there were a lot of people in there who had to relocate. There was an area in there I guess for kids with no families. Dill was one of those kids. I just went by for a few days to help out or whatever. And then somehow Dylan and I got talking and we hit it off. And that's when I realized why nothing happened to me. Most of the other kids there were able to get some kind of home. Dill was one of the last ones. And I just wonder if I wasn't there, what would have happened to him. That's why I changed. I can't look at life like some kind of a joke anymore. I have to know what's important."

"So you're just starting to take things more seriously then." Taylor noted. "That's good. But it doesn't mean you have to leave the person you used to be behind."

"I don't follow." he shook his head.

"Everyone has flaws Chad. Your flaws were that you were selfish, egotistical, arrogant, stubborn, and clueless." Taylor replied. "But you were also funny, strong, athletic, sweet, fun, and brave. So you just matured a little more. But that doesn't mean you have to leave everything else about you behind. Last I checked, you were never a serious person."

"I guess with everything that happened between college and now I have a reason to think otherwise." Chad stated.

"Trust me, you don't have to change as much as you think you did. And I wouldn't be saying that if it didn't mean something." she replied.

"I really appreciate that Tay. It means a lot that you're telling me all this." Chad said. "But that doesn't mean I still can't be protective. I wanna make sure you're ok."

"I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself." Taylor replied. "But I don't want to turn my back on Brian anymore. I'm with him right now and I want to stick to that."

"I just hope you're not giving up our friendship because of that. Dylan would probably be upset if you did." he joked.

Taylor giggled. "He the only one?"

"I think I'll just leave that to your imagination." Chad teased.

Taylor smiled and shook her head. "You're a good guy too, Chad. Don't forget it."

"As long as you're around, I won't." he promised with a smile. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. Then he realized what he did and back away a little. "Sorry, I didn't mean..."

Taylor put a finger to his lips and cut him off. "Don't apologize." she grinned. "It's fine, really." She didn't want to admit it, but she felt comfortable. When Taylor was with Brian, she just felt happy and relaxed. It was different with Chad. She felt completely protected. She felt like she had nothing to hide. But that didn't mean Taylor could have any relationships romantically with Chad. She was with Brian and she was sticking to that until the time would come for a possible breakup.

Wait a second...Brian! "I should probably go now." she realized, standing up. "I have to let Brian know why I didn't see him last night."

"Then I shouldn't stand in your way." Chad said. "Just let me know if he tries anything funny with you."

"Trust me with the way you are, you'll be the first or the second to know." she replied.

"Wait, second?" he asked blinking.

"Gabriella would want to know, too. I'm staying under her roof while I'm here." Taylor reminded him. "But trust me, when Troy goes over there it's third wheel central."

"Well if the next time Troy and Gabs are together and you need someplace to hang..." Chad started casually.

Taylor smiled. "Your door's always open for me." she remembered.

Chad smiled and nodded. "Exactly."

Ok so Taylor felt a little better talking to Chad now. She knew she was still interested in him, but at least they reached an agreement. All she had to do was keep her actions in check and make sure nothing went too far. She'd tell Brian what was going on and explain everything to him. And if he really trusted her then he'd understand. That would make her feel better and hopefully help her decide which one she'd want. What, you didn't see that thought coming?

"I'll see you later then." she smiled before leaving the park.

Chad watched Taylor as she slowly disappeared from his sight. He couldn't get any ideas with her. It had to be a strict friendship between them until further notice. But it was something and that was good enough for Chad. At least they felt comfortable around each other and they knew they could talk. And Chad couldn't help but feel right around Taylor. Even though he had gone on a couple of dates in college, he never felt anything with them like he did with Taylor. And the last thing he wanted was to see her get hurt. So as much as he wanted something more with her, he knew how wrong it would be to risk the relationship she was in. He could wait for her. And he would.

"Yeah.... Later."


Yeah a lame chapter, I know. But really, how long did you want to see awkwardness between Chad and Taylor? And for you Troy and Gabriella fans, brief moment in there for you. So again, I'm not sure what else to do to keep the story going for more than two chapters. I love hearing suggestions, so it's all good. I'm gonna stop here for the night cause I got my first day back at school tomorrow and I gotta thin of any other ideas to type foe this and the songfics. And I wanna read other stories, too. Hey at the rate I go, I'll reread some stories if I have to. XD Yeah, lazy person right here. So what else to say? Um, actually I think that's about it. So I'll hopefully update sometime tomorrow and keep my eyes open for opinions and/or suggestions. So until later, peace out people! xD Maybe there's something good on TV tonight....