Just wanted to apologise for the wait, I've been away for two weeks but I hope to be updating regularly from now on. In case you forgot what happened since it's been so long here's a recap: Troy and Gabi were running lines andsince the script called for a kiss Troy took his chance and kissed her, now she's left confused wondering if it was Troy or Arnold kissing her...

Enjoy!

"You did not!"

"I did."

"No way."

"Way, man."

"Seriously??"

"SERIOUSLY!" Troy lost his patience, "Chad you are sounding more and more like Sharpay everyday." Troy looked over at Chad with a worried expression on his face.

"Dude, watch the road!" Chad pointed to a car that was about to overtake them, Troy swerved and continued to drive. "Anyway, I still can't believe it, you and Gabriella?"

"Me neither." Troy replied breathlessly, running a free hand through his hair as they stopped at traffic lights. "It was… incredible."

"I can tell," Chad smirked, ever since Troy had come to pick him up, he had had such a huge grin on his face that Chad had assumed he had slept with a hanger in his mouth. Even when Chad had pointed this out to Troy, the smile hadn't budged. "But what does this mean? Oh, turn right here." Chad indicated to a road.

"I don't know, I wish I knew what she was thinking. She might have even thought it wasn't me…" Troy said uneasily, his thoughts spilling out.

"What do you mean?" Chad replied slowly, "Was she blind-folded or something? Kinky…" He laughed.

"No!" Troy said exasperatedly, "we were reading lines at the time; the kiss was in the script." Troy looked over to his curly haired friend, hoping this had cleared things up. Chad's jaw dropping answered his question.

"I see, so you're wondering whether she thinks you're just a really good actor or you were just using the excuse to plant one on her?" Chad said, Troy winced at his bluntness.

"Yeah, basically that's it." Troy nodded, as he pulled into a parking space. Troy turned off the engine, and looked at the restaurant in front of him. "What is this place, Chad?"

"The new Mexican place, Chiquito. I've wanted to try it for ages and you know I love fajitas…" He grinned, rubbing his stomach eagerly as he got out of the car. "I heard Zeke got a job here, so I thought we could check it out." Troy shrugged, he was hungry so who was he to argue? They walked into the restaurant and Mexican music could be heard faintly in the background, sure enough Zeke walked up to them a black apron matching his black uniform, with a t-shirt saying the words, "famous for fajitas."

"Hey, guys!" Zeke smiled brightly as he made his way over to his two best friends. "Table for two?"

"Yeah, Troy's my date for the day!" Chad grinned as he slung an arm around Troy's shoulders.

"Dude…" Troy groaned.

"Aaah, you're right." Chad nodded, taking his arm down, "you're with Gabriella now, I know my place." Chad pouted while Troy rolled his eyes, but Zeke's eyes widened.

"You and Gabriella?" He asked excitedly.

Troy opened his mouth to explain but Chad clamped a hand over it to silence him, "How about you get us a good table Zeke, then we'll give you the gossip…" Chad winked.

Zeke's face broke out into a gleeful grin, "you know I love a bit of gossip…" He lead them to a table and Troy put his head in his hands, his best friends were turning into teenage girls, what is happening to all the men? He thought desperately.

"….So then he kissed her!" Chad finished dramatically.

Zeke's gaze flew to Troy, "No way."
"Way," Troy replied tiredly, they'd been having the same conversation ever since they had sat down, Troy looked at the menu, "So anyway Zeke could I have the-

"But now he's wondering if she thinks it was just him in the character…" Chad interrupted, as Zeke nodded.

"Zeke, does the burger come with salad or just chips?" Troy asked.
"Well, he should totally go and tell her the truth." Zeke added, oblivious to Troy's question.

"That's what I think too." Chad agreed, Troy raised his hand trying to get Zeke's attention, since his loud and rumbling stomach wasn't doing the trick but Zeke was getting too caught up in the story.

"I think that Troy should tell Gabriella the truth, the odds are she's thinking the same and I'm sure she would have known the kiss was coming. She would have stopped it if she only wanted to run lines." Zeke finished, obviously quite pleased with himself.

"You know…" Troy began slowly, "That's a great theory Zeke…can I eat it???" Troy finished, annoyed. "You two ladies can gossip all you want, but Chad you brought me here to eat and I'm sure as hell gonna do that!" He scanned the room and saw a brunette waitress, with her back to him serving drinks to the next table but one. "Um, excuse me, Miss?" He called.

The waitress turned around and it was none other than Gabriella.

Troy dropped his hand in shock and his face turned the same colour as the ketchup sachets on the table as she walked over. "Hey guys." She mumbled, keeping her eyes off Troy. "What can I do for you?" She finally looked up and saw both Chad and Zeke smiling at her, "What?"

"Oh, nothing." Zeke grinned, patting his blushing colleague on the shoulder. "I've got to go help your Dad with something, could you get these guys some drinks?" Gabriella nodded as Zeke walked off, giving Troy a thumbs up as he did.

"Your Dad?" Chad asked.
"Yeah, this is his restaurant. It only opened a couple of weeks ago, Zeke and I have been helping out. I had no idea Zeke loved to bake, he's in charge of desserts here." Gabriella explained.

"Yeah, he's a great cook." Chad agreed. "Isn't he Troy?" Chad kicked Troy under the table, he was staring at the menu and hadn't looked at Gabriella once.

Troy grunted at the pain in his leg and then looked up at Gabriella with a confused look on her face. "Yeah, he is."

Gabriella locked eyes with Troy, and felt embarrassed about what had happened that morning, they'd gotten carried away and she couldn't imagine what Troy must think of her, no way had that been her intention when she'd let him read lines. "So anyway, what can I get you?" She repeated.

Just you, Troy thought as he looked at her. "Um…coke please."

"Same here." Chad said. "In fact if you two will excuse me I need to go to the little boy's room." He got up and walked away before winking at Troy and giving him a look saying, 'don't blow this.' Gabriella saw him walk away and sat down in his seat opposite Troy, she leaned in close.

"Listen, I'm so sorry about this morning. If I came on too strong or anything, it really wasn't my intention when you offered to read lines with me." She blurted, and then leant back against her seat. "I can't imagine what you must think of me." She said covering her face with hands in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.

He grabbed her hands and pulled her back towards him. "No, I need to apologise. I felt like I took advantage, it was there in the script and I just thought, when will I ever get another chance to be able to kiss you? It was definitely not why I came to see you."

"Why did you?" Gabriella asked, she had been wondering all day.

Troy lowered his voice so she had to lean in closer, "I came because of something you said to me, do you remember? You said that the basketball game was the most important thing to me."

Gabriella nodded her head slowly, the words vaguely ringing a bell.

"Well, I wanted to tell you that that's not true." Troy continued, nervously, rubbing his thumb over her hand. "I mean basketball is important to me, of course. But so are you, and I want to be around you. I don't want to have to give whatever this is between us up and I'm so sorry I quit the musical." Troy finished and let go of Gabriella's hands, he had never been so open with anyone before. Gabriella sat and looked Troy, if someone had told her a month ago that he would be saying these wonderful things to him she would have thought they were stupid but now, it seemed she had been waiting her whole life to hear those words.

"Troy…thank you. Those were wonderful things to say, but I'm glad you quit the musical." Gabriella admitted, Troy's head shot up.

"What do you mean?" Troy thought he'd heard her wrong.

"I mean this game could affect your entire future, Troy. I heard college scouts are going to be there, and I completely agree with your Dad that you need to be focussed." Gabriella locked eyes with and he nodded knowing she was right.

"So, what about us?" Troy asked, almost not wanting to hear the answer.

"We'll…take it slow, okay?" Gabriella offered. Troy nodded, but looking at her, now he had kissed her and passed the point of no return he didn't know how long he could resist her anymore.

"Hey, guys! Ready to take our order Gabs?" Chad smiled at the pair as he returned to the table. Gabriella jumped up and began to listen as they ordered, taking care to write down what they said rather than fill the notebook with hearts and the name of one Troy Bolton.

Hope you liked it! He's told her how he feels, wooo! But there will still be Gabriella's past boy troubles surfacing, and this leading to her Dad not approving. And other problems, how will their new romance fair with the stress of the lives? Review and find out! Over a hundred reviews now, that makes me so happy:D