Chapter 12: Stay With Me

A week had passed since the kiss and thing were still extremely awkward between Troy and Gabriella. Gabriella tried to avoid Troy as much as possible, while Troy kept trying to convince her that he hadn't planned anything. However, no matter how hard he tried she just wouldn't give him the time of day. After a couple of days Troy gave up and realized that it wasn't worth it, she wouldn't listen. He realized it wasn't worth trying at all, nothing was ever going to be the same as it used to be, not after everything that had happened over the years.

It was a cool Saturday morning and Troy was outside practicing basketball. He needed a day to himself, a day where he could just practice and not have to deal with anyone else, this was going to be his day, or so he thought. Troy practiced some free throws, some lay-up and tried coming up with some new manoeuvres for the team. After a while he sat down in the grass and took a water break. He was about to get back to the game when his cell phone rang.

"Talk to me," he answered.

"Hey man, what are you up to?" he heard Chad's voice reply.

"Just shooting some hoops. What's up?"

"I was calling to tell you that Sharpay and Ryan are having a huge party at their beach house, and we're going." Troy frowned; he wasn't in the mood to go to a party. If Sharpay was throwing that meant Gabriella would be there, with Matt.

"Go without me, I'm not really in the mood to party."

"Is this about Gabriella? Get over her man; it's never going to happen."

"Wow, thanks for the encouraging words," replied Troy sarcastically.

"Look, I know you like her man, but she's with Matt. You need to move on and you're coming to this party even if I have to drag you there myself."

"Uh, I just, I don't want to go."

"You're coming. I'll make you a deal, you come to the party and stay for at least two hours, then if you really still don't want to be there, you can leave."

"Fine, but only if I have to stay for an hour and a half."

"Nope, two hours."

"Fine," Troy sighed.

"Awesome man, so I'll meet you there for eight."

"I guess so, see you then," said Troy before hanging up. Troy laid down in the grass, his head resting in his hands. He looked up at the cloud, and slowly zoned out into his own thoughts.

****

Gabriella found herself at Sharpay's beach house early Saturday morning helping her set up. Although she had never really been a big party girl, she was actually looking forward to the party that night. Gabriella was excited to just let loose and spending some time with Matt. Everything was good between them again since Gabriella forgave him. He hadn't laid a hand on her, and everything had gone back to normal. Gabriella now trusted him and believed it was only a one time thing.

"Where do you want these?" Gabriella asked Sharpay, holding up a case of drinks.

"Um, over by the bar," she replied. "After you put those down, can you help me move the furniture around?" Gabriella nodded before walking over to the bar and placing the case of drinks down.

"It so awesome that your parents are letting you have this party, it's going to be so much fun."

"I know, and the best part is it's unsupervised. I mean, it's about time. We're pretty much adults, we're moving out next year and they won't be able to supervise us anymore."

"Exactly," agreed Gabriella. "So, what are we doing with the furniture?"

"I want to push it to the sides so that we can have a dance floor inside too," Sharpay explained as she started pushing a car. Gabriella followed suit and within an hour they had everything set up. Gabriella looked at her watch and saw that it was already three o'clock.

"Well, I've got to go home and grab a shower and get ready. Matt's going to pick me up around seven thirty, so we'll be here before eight." Sharpay nodded and pulled her into a hug.

"Thanks so much for all your help."

"No problem, I'll see you later." Gabriella started walking towards the door as Sharpay called out to her.

"Make sure you wear something cute." Gabriella laughed.

"I will Shar."

***

It was close to eight thirty as Troy and Chad walked into the party, to see that a lot of people were already there. As soon as they walked in the girls started to swarm Troy, he simply smiled at them and followed Chad towards the bar. Chad grabbed a beer off the counter for both him and Troy.

"Thanks," said Troy as Chad handed him the beer.

"Come on dude; let's go find you someone to dance with." They started making their way around the house seeing who was all there. They had almost reached the doors leading to the beach when Troy's eye fell on Gabriella. He frowned as he saw her cuddled into Matt, his arms wrapped around her waist. As Troy ripped his gaze away from Gabriella he saw that Matt's eyes had fallen on him. He lifted one of his arms and waved to Troy. As Troy waved back, he saw Gabriella's head spin around to see who Matt was waving to. Her eyes fell on Troy for a split second and see immediately turned away.

***

Gabriella ripped her eyes away from Troy.

"Um, Matt can you go get me a drink? I'm going to go make sure Shar doesn't need any help." Matt nodded.

"Yeah, of course," he smiled. Matt watched Gabriella walk away before he made his way over to the bar. He grabbed a coke and the bottle of rum, and made two rum and cokes. Before walking away, he pulled a small bottle out of his pocket and poured the liquid into one of the drinks. He put the bottle back in his pocket before grabbing the drinks and walking back to Gabriella.

"Here you go," said Matt as he handed Gabriella her drink.

"Thanks so much," she smiled.

"Shar didn't need and help?" he asked. Gabriella shook her head.

"See said everything was fine." Gabriella lifted the cup to her lips and took a sip of her drink. Matt smiled.

"Is it good?"

"It's perfect, just what I needed."

"I'm glad," he smirked.

***

As the night went on, Troy found himself dancing with multiple girls, and kissing the occasional one. Although no matter how many girls he danced with or kissed, he always seemed to find himself looking for Gabriella. Every time he'd spot her she seemed to be getting drunker; however he noticed she wasn't acting the same way as before. She wasn't crying or upset, she wasn't even excited or upbeat, but rather she was slowly loosing energy.

***

"Matty," Gabriella said in a sing-song voice. "I'm getting really tired," she yawned.

"You want to head up to the room?" he asked with a smile. Gabriella nodded.

"Will you carry me?"

"Of course," he replied as he slipped an arm under her legs and the other behind her back. As Matt walked towards the stairs, Gabriella in his arm he couldn't help but smile to himself. He walked all the way to the far end of the hallway and took a left to the room furthest from the party. As he entered the room he placed Gabriella on the bed and he laid down beside her. She leaned over to him and placed a kiss on his lips; Matt kissed back and slowly deepened the kiss.

***

Troy had been at the party for two and a half hours and he was ready to go home. He walked over to Chad, who was dancing with Taylor, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"I'm going to head out," he yelled over the music.

"Are you sure?" Chad replied. Troy nodded.

"Yeah, I'm just going to hit the washroom and then leave. I'll call you tomorrow." Chad nodded.

"Okay see yeah," he replied before going back to dancing with Taylor.

Troy made his way upstairs and all the way down the hallway and two the left. He was about to enter the bathroom when he stopped.

***

Matt rolled Gabriella onto her back and pinned her to the bed beneath him. She was slowly loosing conciseness, and he was going to make her move. He reached down and buttoned her jeans. Gabriella started to squirm beneath.

"What are you doing?" she asked scared.

"What do you think? I'm doing what we should've down months ago," he replied roughly. He pulled her pants down and Gabriella tried to push him away, but she had no strength.

"Get off of me!" she cried.

"Don't worry honey, you won't feel or remember a thing," he laughed. Gabriella tried her hardest to get out from underneath Matt, so he brought hi hand up and slapped her.

"Stop it! Please just stop it!" she yelled.

***

Troy heard voiced coming from the room next to the bathroom. He walked towards the door and leaned into it, pressing his ear against the door.

"Stop it! Please just stop it!" he heard Gabriella yell. Troy immediately got an adrenaline rush. Someone was hurting her. He tried to open the door but it was locked. He ran down the hall and then back at the door knocking it over. He walked into the room and found Matt on top of Gabriella was she laid beneath him weakly, trying to get away. He ran over to the bed and grabbed Matt by the neck of his shirt he pulled Matt off of Gabriella and threw him to the ground.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" he yelled, as he held Matt to the ground.

"Trying to have sex with my girlfriend," he yelled frustrated.

"No, you're trying to rape your fucking girlfriend. What did you do to her?"

"I didn't do anything."

"Really, then what'd this?" Troy asked as he pulled the bottle out of Matt's pocket. "Hmm, date rape drug. I bet the cops would love to hear you had this."

"Get the fuck off of me man!"

"I'll get off of you, just after I do this," he said as he punched him in the face. Troy lifted Matt up and pushed him out of the room. "If I so much as see you look at her ever again, I'll go to the cops." Troy saw the anger in Matt's eyes as he turned around and walked down the stairs. Troy ran back to the room and saw Gabriella asleep on the bed. He grabbed her pants and put them back on her petite body. He slowly lifted her into his arms and started carrying her downstairs. As he looked around he noticed that no one was paying attention to him, so he just walked towards the door and left, Gabriella in still in his arms.

As he reached the car he gently placed Gabriella in the passengers' seat and did up her seat belt. He walked around the car and got into the drive seat and starting the car. He pulled out of Sharpay's driveway and started making his way home. As he drove down the road he couldn't help but notice how peaceful Gabriella looked. He felt bad, he should've known something was wrong with her, she wasn't drunk, Matt had drugged her. Would she even remember any of this happening? Would she let Matt come crawling back into her life? Troy wouldn't let her. He would tell her everything that happened.

After ten minutes of driving Troy pulled into his driveway. He got out of the car and gently lifted Gabriella out as well. He walked across the lawn that lay between their houses. When he reach the front door he leaned Gabriella on his knee as he bent down and got the spare key that was hidden under the flower pot. He unlocked the door and quietly walked upstairs not wanting to wake Gabriella's mom. He entered Gabriella's room and saw that it had change a great deal. It now had a more sophisticated décor and a bigger bed. He pushed back the covers before gently placing her in the bed. He removed her shoes, and took the clip out of her hair. He turned to walk away when he heard Gabriella stir. Her hand gently touched his arm sending sparks shooting through his body.

"Stay with me Troy," he heard her whisper.

"It's not a good idea. You won't be happy in the morning," he replied.

"Please," she begged, tightening the grip she had on his arm.

"Okay," Troy gave in and slid onto the bed beside her. Gabriella moved closer to him and cuddled into him, her arm draped over his waist and her head resting on his chest. Gabriella's breathing became even as she fell asleep once more. Troy laid there, listening to her soft breathing, his arm wrapped Gabriella's shoulder and he slowly drifted off to sleep.

A/N: And that's chapter twelve. I hope you liked it. I'll try to have the next chapter up soon but I can't make any promises. Please let me know what you thoughts. Thanks so much for reading and thank you to those who review :)