A/N Firstly, I want to thank runninequalslife and laughXoutXloud for their feedback and helping me tweak.
This chapter's pretty long, but I hope not tedious! You guys have been slacking on the reviews a little so get typing and tell me what you think!
Originally, when I planned this story, it was going to be two chapters for each year of their life. Now, however, as they get older, it's virtually IMPOSSIBLE to keep to that, so expect roughly six chapters for this year of the rest of their years...if my words can be contained that is! lol
ENJOY! REVIEW!
Rated M for strong language and sexual scenes
Disclaimer: I own nothing
After throwing her flustered mother her keys and travel documents - passport, driver's licence - Gabriella sighed as her mother paused in front of her, knowing the question she was about to ask.
"Are you sure--" she was interrupted by the blaring car horn, beckoning from outside, but she ignored it. "Are you sure that you don't want me to ask Taylor's mom if you can stay? You know that Carol wouldn't mind. How about Lucille? I could call--"
"Mom," Gabriella stressed the title exasperatedly. "I'm seventeen. I'll be in college next year. I think I can handle two days on my own without burning the house down, or causing any other disaster, okay? Really, you're only in New York - it's hardly the other side of the world."
"You're sure?" Maria asked, her eyebrows pulling up.
"Yes, Mother, I am sure. If it makes you feel better, if I start to freak out being on my own - which is not going to happen - I'll go stay with Aunt Lucille and Uncle J, 'kay?" Before her mother could respond, Gabriella said, "Mom, the driver's about to leave… go! I'll be fine, I promise."
"Okay, okay." She grabbed up her bag, told Gabriella where the emergency contact details where and then hugged her tightly once they had walked out to the front step, the September morning air, crisp, vitalising. "Love you, sweetie,"
"Love you too, Ma. Enjoy."
"Sure, I'll enjoy every second of the number-crunching." She joked. "Okay, I'm coming." She called over to the driver, waving a hand telling him that his incessant tooting was unnecessary.
As she climbed into the black car, smiling at the driver whose, slim, pale face she could see in the reflection of his mirror, she rolled her window down, waving at Gabriella as the distance between them increased.
"Bye!" Gabriella called, Maria blowing kisses in response.
"That your little girl?" The driver's surprisingly deep voice queried.
"Uh-huh," Maria answered proudly, unable to see a little more that a dot of her daughter's form. "Seventeen. First time staying on her own."
"Oh!" He said, his deep chuckled vibrating in his chest. "Better be careful." He warned, "The first time my wife and I left our eldest girl - was the same age as yours is now - we came back a little earlier than she expected and found her boyfriend in our kitchen in nothing but his boxers." He shook his head gravely, as he turned the car down onto a busy main road.
"Oh, no," Maria replied. "I have no worries with Gabriella, she's a good girl."
"Yeah," he laughed disbelievingly and then, the car stuck in traffic and not moving, he turned for the first time to look at Maria, his right arm stretching over the back of the passenger's seat, aiding his balance. "My girl was class president, best grades in her school." He laughed as Maria's face struck with panic, her eyes widening ever so slightly, her head swivelling to look out of the back window, as though she were contemplating turning back and demanding Gabriella skip school and come with her. "Anyway, you probably trust your girl, no one's to say all kids are the same."
******
Knowing it was Troy before she even saw his face, Gabriella said, "You're early." As the door swung open.
"I wanted to say goodbye to your Mom but…" he paused, peering around the house, listening out for sounds to detect another presence. "Damn!" he said dramatically, his right arm, hooked at the elbow, swinging across to the left side of his body, emphasising his annoyance at having missed Maria. "Looks like I'm too late," he sighed, Gabriella rolling her eyes. "I really wanted to get here early enough."
"You're such a liar." Gabriella scoffed, watching him smirk as she gripped the front of his plain navy t-shirt, slammed the door shut and smashed her soft lips to his and, as his arms circled her small waist, lifting her feet from the ground and walking, without their lips breaking contact, to the living room, wasted no time in slipping her silky tongue between his lips, flicking it over his with frantic need.
******
Settled a sofa arms, Gabriella slowly brushed her frazzled curls, repositioning her white daisy hair decoration as she went. She heard Troy, who stood across the room gazing lovingly at her as she carried out this mundane activity, suddenly hiss, drawing in a sharp breath.
"What's wrong?" she asked, turning to face him, her hand suspended in mid-air as her brushing motion stopped.
Snaking his hand slowly under his t-shirt, wincing as he did so, he replied, "You scratched me." And raised the crumpled material of his shirt, folding it up along side, showing her the scrape that ran almost along the entire length of his right side, alongside his ribs, a few tiny bubbles of blood visible as they rose to the surface of his skin.
"Sorry," she blushed.
"You really wanted to see me, huh?" he teased.
Shrugging awkwardly, she replied in a mumbled, "I missed you." And Troy chuckled and muttered under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear: "Kinda kinky." But, feeling embarrassed enough, she let the comment go, not wanting to pursue the issue.
******
"You're such a goody-goody, Gabriella," Sharpay admonished from across the circular table. "What's the point of your Mom being away if you're not going to use the house?"
They were hardly the best of friends, but as Sharpay and Zeke always seemed to be together, the group had made a stringent effort to be, at the very least, courteous, and this effort resulted in them deciding Sharpay was actually tolerable - in small doses.
Rapture filled the lunchroom, with everybody from Freshman to Seniors, Jocks to Punks inhabiting the eating area, exchanging tales about their classes, dreaded teachers and tedious assignments. Within their group, however, the only interesting topic was Gabriella having her house to herself; they all seemed to have individual plans for what use the house could be put to, and each expressed grave disappointment when Gabriella refused them all.
"I don't care what you guys say, or call me, I'm not having a party - and, no, Chad," she added discarding the crusts of her sandwich, stuffing them into her brown paper lunch sack. "Calling it a 'gathering' is not going to make me change my mind, 'kay?"
"Dude, come on," Jason said to Troy. "Help us out, use those puppy-dog eyes on her."
Laughing, Troy shook his head. "Don't get me involved," he said. "It's Gabi's decision, if she doesn't want one then…" he shrugged. "Whatever. It's up to her." He received a glare from each guy on the table, each of them sending him telepathic signals, calling him names that amounted to the same thing: traitor. But Troy didn't care, he simply turned to Gabriella, who was quirking her eyebrows smugly at the boys, and said, "If you're ready, I'll walk you to English."
Saying goodbye to the group, Gabriella poking her pink tongue out as Jason coughed unsubtly, "Saint.", the two of them exited the lunchroom, their arms locked around each other, Troy whispering into her ear.
Arriving a few minutes early, Gabriella decided to linger at her locker. "God, Troy," she complained, her walnut eyes swivelling in her head. "You sound just like my mother. Yes, I'm going to be fine. No, I won't leave a door unlocked and get murdered in my sleep. Jeez, anyone would think I was some ditzy blonde or something."
"Hey, I'm not underestimating you, I just want you to be safe." Troy said as he slumped his shoulder against a neighbouring locker, gazing imploringly into Gabriella's eyes, stretched a hand forward, cupped her cheek and grazed his thumb over her left cheek-bone.
Sighing into his touch, her head lolled to the side, falling even more into his palm. "I know, but you guys seem to be worrying more than I am. I'd understand if I were twelve or something, but…I mean, I'll be able to vote by next year. Like I told Mom, if I start feeling weird, I'll come right over, 'kay?" she stretched up onto the toes of her pink ballet flats, kissing him softly in a reassuring manner.
"'Kay." Troy mumbled, still not completely happy with her compromise. "Promise me. You heard the weather today, right? They're expecting heavy rain."
Sliding her arm into her locker, pulling out her three work books and slipping them in her arm, Gabriella shut the door of her locker before returning her attention to Troy. "I love you, babe, but this has to stop. They said heavy rain, not torrential thunder storms." With a final quick kiss, she strolled away, ready for English.
"Love you, too!" Troy called before she was too far away to hear, laughing as she blew a kiss over to him and then merged with the crowd as they trailed into the classroom.
******
The wind was like a vicious howl sounding from a pack of hungry wolves intimidating their prey; the scrape of their untamed claws against the glass windows that would give way at any second.
It wanted her.
Throwing her protective comforter off of her trembling body, Gabriella leapt off her bed, sprinted to the bedroom door and bounded down the stairs, the pounding of her heart increasing each time the thunder and lightening snarled at each other, bared their jagged silver teeth and took another blow. Her breaths were rapid as she reached for the house phone, her frenzied fingers flying over the keys as she dialled Troy's number. She pressed it to her ears, whimpering as nothing happened. Trying three more times only to get the same result, exasperatedly, she threw she black phone against the back of the sofa. The lines were dead. Snapped twigs clinging to their parent trees, thrashed against the glass panes and Gabriella shrieked, as the lights within the house and the street-lamps flickered angrily.
The weather forecasts had forewarned that heavy rain was on it's way, and that hadn't bothered Gabriella in the slightest. The rain had started, a light patter falling down, the streets glowing as the rain twinkled in the light of the houses and streetlamps, and even as it grew heavier, she remained calm, not seeing anything to be panicked about. Peacefully, she climbed into bed when the mood took her, sending Troy a quick text as promised, telling him that she was okay, and slowly lulled into sleep. A growl of thunder arose her, her eyebrows furrowing as she saw the heavy rain streaming thickly down her windows, shrieking when the house shook at the sight of the raging lightening. She's tried to ignore it, cowering under her sheets to block it out, but it had proved futile; it seemed to get louder, stronger, more vicious as she put her mind against it.
******
Sitting anxiously on the edge of his bed, Troy had tapped his foot constantly for the last twenty minutes waiting to see if the storm would dissipate, taking along with it, his worries for Gabriella. The wind's howling came again with a vengeance, and Troy, tired of sitting around and stressing himself, finally rose from his bed. Pulling on a pair of jogging bottoms and a t-shirt that lay strewn across his desk chair (with the lack of light, he was unable to make out the colour of either items), he bent over, stretching his hand forward to grab the first foot of his trainer, but it fell through the darkness. "Shit!" he murmured as the lights finally went out, so instead having to crawl about squinting, until his hands grasped the desired items.
He ignored the rain as it beat furiously down on him, only caring that his running against it seemed to slow down his conquest to get to Gabriella. Thankfully, being a house he knew so well, he had no trouble finding it - even in the dark.
"Shit!" he cursed again as the latch to the back gate slipped through his fingers, testing his patience. Finally getting it open, he darted across the lawn, hunching his back, his hands flying protectively over his head as the lightening struck a near-by tree in a house a few doors down from Gabriella's, the tree crashing to the ground with a crack. He knew there was no use calling - she would never hear him with such a racket being created - so he ran straight for the tree that led to her balcony. It took him a while to get his climb started - unable to get a steady footing, his fingers at first incapable of staying in the slippery grooves. After a treacherous climb, he jumped over the railings onto her balcony, and tapped loudly on the door.
******
She had heard a loud thump, but had stayed fixed in her position under the comforter, sure that it was just another branch hitting the floor of her balcony, but then she'd heard a tap. At first just one tap - easy to phase out - but then it grew, the sound insistent. Gradually, she pulled the comforter away, her head raising, afraid. Adjusting her eyes as well as she could to the deficiency, she tried to distinguish the shape, shrieking when she saw the blurry outline of a person's body. As she yelped, lightening flashed, revealing a pair of blue eyes behind the glass, illuminated with shock at the close proximity of the silver bolt.
"Troy!" she yelled, surprised and relieved, as she climbed out of bed, detangled the sheets that had trapped her in her hurry, and ran over to the door, flicking the lock and pulling Troy inside, wrapping her arms around his wet body, his saturated clothes seeping water as she squeezed him. "Oh my God…thank you." She said, frightened tears still streaming down her flushed cheeks.
"Hey, hey, hey, it's all right, I'm here, it's okay." He cooed in her ear as she continued to grip with extreme force.
"I was so scared." She whimpered. "I was so scared and I-I tried to call, I did, but the lines…the lines were dead and then my phone wasn't getting any signal and after that …the lights…God I love you."
"I love you too." He said, kissing her cheek repeatedly as he held her.
Finally she pulled back, and her eyes had adjusted enough for her to see Troy. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, it takes more than some rain to get me." He joked, kissing her quickly on her lips.
"Are…how…I don't want you to get in trouble."
"Hey, my parents sleep like the dead, you know that. Don't you remember all the noise we used to make when you'd stay over when we were younger? They wouldn't shift a bit." he laughed, remembering those times. "They won't be up till my Dad wakes for his run," he shrugged, "I've got a ton of time, it's not even one, yet. …Your flashlight work?" He said as his eyes glanced around the pitch black room.
"Umm…yeah…under my bed, but…I couldn't find it."
"Kay," he mused. He inched them close to the bed, careful not to bump into anything and then fell to his knees. "I think we need to get you a smaller bed, Gabi." He groaned as the top half of his body disappeared under the bed in search of the light source.
It took him a whole seven minutes to locate the item, the old board games under her bed hindering his effort. Finally, with a cheer, he pulled the item out, and crawled from under the bed.
"It better work after all that." Gabriella joked, remarkably calm even in the darkness with the knowledge that Troy was right there beside her; her protector.
"And on the seventh day," Troy said, blowing the head of the torch for good measure, even though he couldn't see any dust. "God said…" he positioned his finger over the switch, Gabriella giggling at his show. "Let…there…be…light!" In true comedic irony, the flashlight illuminated and at the exact same time, a jolt was heard as the power was restored, the light from the torch seeming insignificant.
Gabriella snorted with uncontrollable laughter.
"No way! I can't freakin' believe that." Troy moaned, taking the torch and dropping it by his feet. He turned to Gabriella, and his lips slowly stretched into a broad smile, followed by rumbling laughter as she held her stomach, tears streaming as she laughed. It was as though all the tension, fear and apprehension that had built within her was now being released in her bouts of infectious laughter.
Still breathing heavily from the giggles, Gabriella looked at Troy. "Oh God," she said, springing up. "You're soaked, look at you."
Troy honestly hadn't noticed, but the second she bought it to his attention, he began to shiver with the cold.
"I'll get you a towel and some dry stuff." She returned a few moments later, a grey towel in hand, tossing it across the room to him as she turned her back, kneeling by her chest-of-drawers and rummaging around for suitable, unisex, bottoms and a top for him to wear.
So involved she had been in finding him warm, dry clothing, she hadn't heard the sound of his waterlogged bottoms falling to the floor, his t-shirt following soon after.
"You can wear--" her speech died, her brain unable to function and provide her with the rest of her sentence. "Uhh…" In the blaring light, Troy stood in nothing but his boxers; blue and plaid. Her heart raced unsustainably, her mouth running dry at the sight of his bare arms, chiselled chest. The head-rush and shallow breaths were something that she'd never experienced. It wasn't the first time she'd seen Troy in boxers - they'd shared baths together in the pass, but they were so much younger, the resulting feeling so drastically different. Slowly, she tread towards him, trying to clear her mind from all the impure thoughts that flooded it, there suddenly seeming to be an insufficient amount of space in her brain to process these new emotions…urges. "Here." She whispered, barely audible.
It was as if a magnet, a force larger than ever before, was pulling them slowly together. As her hand continued to inch forward, handing him the clothing, Troy, equally as silent, reached his forward, laying it on her waist and lowered his head slightly. Gabriella's fingers opened of its own accord, her brain was too focused on the coming kiss to also control them, and the top and bottoms flopped to the floor, her hand then raising, resting gingerly on his bare shoulder.
Their lips finally locked, Troy imprisoning Gabriella's lips softly with his own, as his other palm cupped her cheek and the soft kiss heightened to new levels, a raging passion neither had experienced before channelling into the kiss. The hand that had previously been fixed to Gabriella's waist, slowly began to travel, moving further down, brushing the silky skin of her legs. For the first time as Troy's hand explored her, she was in nothing but a t-shirt of his that fell just half-way down her calf, but Troy, deep in the moment, didn't let this detail detract from the intention of his groping hand, inching his palm further up the hem of his tee, until it wrapped around Gabriella's pert butt.
A moan filled the room, but neither were able to distinguish whose it was, their simultaneous moans and whimpers pouring into each others' mouths as their tongues devoured one another. The two pairs of feet began to clumsily shuffle backwards towards the bed, their lips joined all the way, where Troy slowed his kisses for a mere second, taking care to lower Gabriella gently onto the mattress. Many times before they'd been in this same position of Troy cautiously balancing his weight while Gabriella lay beneath him, but they had developed an unsaid rule where the said situation only ever took place in the living room, a safe zone, as they saw it, where there was no danger of things going any further. Tonight, however as Troy's hand squeezed Gabriella's underwear-clad bottom, the tips of his fingers occasionally slipping under the cotton, grazing her bare butt, and she caressed his naked torso, her hands fascinated by his hard nipples and the trail of hair that led from his navel, all rules seemed to be out.
"Troy," Gabriella panted as his lips worked down to her neck, his hands inching the shirt up until her striped boy shorts were disclosed. As her top moved higher, she moaned as Troy shuffled down the bed, his lips suckling on the exposed skin of her flat stomach. "Hmm…" she whimpered. "Troy…" Her hands threaded through his damp hair.
"God you're so fuckin' beautiful," Troy grunted as Gabriella wrapped her arms around her own body, lifting the hem of her t-shirt, slowly pulling it over her head and discarding it onto the floor.
She had noticed that even in his hormonal state, he had not wanted to push her, and so had rolled her shirt up to her breast, but hadn't lifted it any higher, allowing her to remove the item had she chosen to do so.
"I could say the same for you." She whispered as she eyed his sweating body. A string of curses flowed from Troy's mouth as Gabriella softly pushed him off of her, her body now laying on top of his. It seemed highly unfair to her that all she could offer was the treat of her roaming hands, so she had decided to flip their positions, Troy now being the one whose body was being dusted with kisses, nips, and suckles.
"Gabi," he panted breathlessly. He didn't know what had changed between them, what emotions had been released, but that was the least of his worries as she gazed up at him in nothing but her underwear, his flesh softly taken between her teeth. "…Ugh!" he groaned as her tongue dipped into his belly button.
From her position on top of him, she could feel, and see, for that matter, his hardened member, pressing into the top of her inner-thigh, the pressure of it both strangely comforting and arousing. Her arms either side of his head, she bent down, kissing him softly, fervently, his manhood shifting slightly as they moved and prodding her directly in the sacred spot between her legs.
For almost five minutes, his hands had been fascinated with the clasp of her bra, his thumb slipping under it and rubbing the material between his fingers.
"It's okay," she said, knowing that he was holding back. She resumed the kissing, his head held between her two hands, and soon after she heard the clasp snap open. They both paused for a second, Gabriella pulling back and staring Troy deep in the eyes before she slowly lifted her left arm, pushing the right strap down and then repeating the process on the other side, Troy twitching beneath her as she did so, flipping them over so he could take the treasured mounds between his lips.
******
"Gabi," Troy huffed as Gabriella's lips fixed onto his neck.
"No…no…" she pleaded. "Don't stop…I'm okay…don't stop."
Using iron will, he pushed his body off of hers that was writhing on the mattress, a light layer of sweat glistening on her nude body. "We…we… can't--"
"I want to," she replied, desperately, her attempts to pull his body back to cover hers futile, her arms feeling too weak.
"Gabriella," Troy said sternly, still hovering over her. "I don't…I don't have anything…any… protection." He whispered, embarrassed, feeling as though he let her down as her head flopped dejectedly back onto the floral pillow that lay under her, her eyes fluttering closed with the disappointment. "I'm sorry," he whispered lifting his body off of her, and swinging his legs over the edge of her bed, his feet flat on the ground as he dropped his head into his palms and exhaled a deeply as his erection stared up, tormenting him. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, shit!" the words coming out muffled as he spoke into his palm.
"Troy,"
"I could go get some." He suggested energetically, his head spinning to look at her, still naked and not the slightest bit self-conscious. "I could…" his eyes began to quickly scan the room locating his clothes. "I could go and…I'd be--"
"Troy," Gabriella shook her head sadly. "It's a half passed one in the morning, kay? Where exactly are you planning on buying condoms?"
"I don't know." He sighed, sinking back onto the bed. "I just…don't know. Fuck." He murmured his favourite word again, feeling as though nothing else would befit the situation.
"Maybe…" Gabriella started hesitantly. "Maybe…You've had a lot of basketball practice. You've got a whole lot of testosterone running 'round your body now, that was probably what…this… was all about. Your body doesn't know what to do with it. Just like Mr. Warner told us the other day in Health." It was in her nature to find a logical answer for everything, even in such a situation. The truth was, however, is that she wanted what almost happened just as much as Troy did - her bodies way of displaying it (though she was acutely aware of her arousal) was much more subtle than Troy's. It hadn't been something they'd spoken about, but she knew that it was right at that moment, nothing was holding her back.
"Trust me," he replied sulkily. "My body knows exactly what to do with it." His head snapped up, "Wait, what did you just say?"
"Huh?"
"Health. You mentioned Health!" his frustration was evident as he rolled his eyes. "'Take one and pass it along'. Ringing any bells? Jesus, Gabi, please tell me you took one the other day, please." He'd let go of all his morals, and was literally begging. "Please."
"I…umm…I did but--"
"Where?"
"You want me to remember what bag I bought to school a week ago?" she asked incredulously.
"I'm dying here, Ella, I feel like I'm about to explode."
As the words left his mouth, Gabriella's eyes involuntarily flickered down to his straining organ, which truly did look on the brink of exploding, her own organ pounding uncontrollably at the sight, in sync with her throbbing heart. "The grey one," she suddenly remembered, squeezing her legs together to try and alleviate the pulsation. "The one with the tassels."
Troy didn't care much for the state of her bag by that stage. He picked it up, emptying its load onto Gabriella's hard wood floor and rummaged through he pile, searching for a bright red package (she had told him what colour to look for, hoping it would speed up the process). He paused when he found it, his weight still down on his right knee as he fingered the small foil. The circumstance seeming unreal, he waited for his alarm to ring at any moment and wake him from this bizarre dream. It never came. "Here," Troy said quietly as he stood, walking over to the bed where Gabriella chewed the inside of her lip apprehensively. He set it on the pillow beside them - easy access - and slowly sat gazing at Gabriella, willing her to break the silence.
She let out a single bemused chuckle, feeling just as perplexed as Troy. Twirling a strand of hair between her fingers, she glanced up at him, let her eyes fall into her lap, and then looked up one more time. "Are we really gonna do this?" she asked quietly.
"Only if you want to." He replied hastily, clearing his throat nervously as his hand scratching the back of his blushing neck while he waited for her response.
Tentatively, she leaned forward, her hand on his knee. "Kiss me." She replied without a hint of embarrassment. Troy was back on top of her within seconds, kissing, groping just as they had before, his arousal getting more prominent and harder for him to contain as she tentatively ran her fingers down the length of his hard shaft.
A short while after, Gabriella asked shyly: "Does it…you know…umm…fit?" when Troy had rolled the red rubber carefully down his appendage, taking care not to split it.
He'd stared down at it for a while before he answered, twisting his head at various angles to ensure that it had been correctly put on. "Umm…I…I don't know…I think so." He said, sounding unsure for the first time that night - or early morning. "What do you think? It looks okay… doesn't it?"
Gabriella blushed, glancing down at it again to help Troy in his assessment. "I…wouldn't really know but…I guess it looks okay. …Everything seems to…be…in." she said tactfully.
"Right." He leaned down, kissing her again, this kiss softer than much of the previous ones had been. "You…ready?" he whispered.
In her naivety, she failed to understand what he had meant, answering, "Yes. Troy, I told you, I want this."
"No," Troy corrected, her eyebrows furrowing. "I mean…are you…you know…" he did everything he could not to say the word, cringing at how it may sound, but he soon realised that there was no way around it, so bought his lips to her ear and whispered, "Wet?"
She gulped at the question, and released a sharp breath. She hadn't known that such a simple word, that lone, insignificant syllable, could have such a profound effect upon her, upon her body. She closed her eyes at the warmth that seeped out of her, the heat that oozed from core, that same heat surrounding her heart. "Ask me again." She demanded softly, wanting to hear it again, hear the raspiness in his usually gentle voice, hear the lustful hum deep in his throat.
"Are you wet, Gabriella?" he asked again, this time more confidently, his cool fingers flying into her already slick folds, and guiding them to his desired level of moisture. As his nimble fingers worked within her core, Gabriella writhed beneath him, her hips bucking until his digits slipped deeper inside of her, the burning liquid coating his fingers, causing an insatiable fire to slink through her veins her spine curling with the sensation.
"…God…" she moaned, snaking her arms around his neck and puling his lips down on to hers.
******
The sweat produced by his body had now considerably cooled. He'd been consumed by a scorching heat only hours before, but now his temperature was vastly different, his torso covered with tiny goose-bumps, the hairs on his arms alert. He shuffled over to the right of the bed, trying to share Gabriella's body-heat, but when his arm went to curl around her waist, it simply hit into his stomach, the space beside him empty. He opened his eyes in confusion, blinking a few times so they could adjust to the early-morning darkness. He'd always pictured, though his friends would howl with laughter if he'd admitted it, waking up with the girl he loved wrapped in his arms after making love. He'd stroke her hair, whisper in her ear and say that he loved her. But it seemed that wasn't going to happen, and Troy's fears began to grow when he asked himself why.
"Gabi?" He croaked, wincing at his rough voice, clearing his throat and trying again, this time clearer. "Gabi?" he said quietly, aware that it was still extremely early. "Ella?" Shifting from his position on Gabriella's bed - the comforter strewn across his waist, his body propped up on his left elbow - he stood slowly, pushing his matted bangs out of his eyes and scanned the dim area for the navy jogging bottoms that Gabriella had meant for him earlier in the morning. He didn't take the time to find his boxers before pulling the bottoms on, his sandy curling hairs peeking out from under the waistband as the bottoms hung low on his waist. Not bothering to cover his nude chest, he walked over to the door, slowly, tiredly, making his way down the hall and padding down the stairs.
He peered over the banister as he descended, hearing a quiet series of movements from the kitchen. Shuffling down the remaining steps, he followed the sound, groaning at the sight of himself as he caught his reflection in an ornate mirror, his hair dishevelled, Gabriella's grasping hands having pulled it in a million different directions earlier in the morning, and inched tentatively towards the kitchen door. Once there, he saw Gabriella in a pair of black house-shorts, and a baggy sea blue hoodie. She seemed deep in thought, so he didn't disturb her straight away, instead just watched silently as she rested her elbows against the cupboard top, just by the stainless steel sink, and gazed out of the window into the darkness, her attention occasionally diverting from the dark scene to the glass of Orange juice she had beside her, sipping at it, and then refilling it with the carton that she kept beside her.
His steps like a cat; slow and dileberate, Troy kept forward, hesitated, and then said almost soundlessly, "Hey,"
Her head turned in response to the noise and she faced him, smiling gently and replied, "Hey," with equal softness.
"I woke up but…you weren't there. I just…I was…uhh…are you okay?"
Nodding with an assuring smile, she replied, "Yeah, I felt a little…umm…well" her hands gestured to her body, Gabriella unable to say the words. "I went and took a shower,"
Troy flinched, feeling guilty as she spoke, her words re-conjuring an image that would remain forever burned into the depths of his memory; the sight of her wincing face, the blood that tarnished her bed cover.
"And then," she continued. "I was thirsty so I came and got some juice - you want some?" she turned and picked up the almost-empty carton but Troy shook his head in refusal. "Anyway, I didn't want to wake you, so, I thought I'd stay down here a bit and now…here you are." Lightly, she giggled.
"Here I am." Troy seconded, his voice lacking the upbeat tone that Gabriella had possessed. "Gabri--" he began hastily, but Gabriella abruptly cut him off.
"Troy, wait," she said, pushing herself off of the counter a bit and stepping a tiny few steps closer to him. "I'm not sorry." She said. "I'm not sorry and I don't regret anything. I know that there are people who might think it weird that we've never even spoken about it or anything but we just…you know…did it, but…" She shook her head, trying to work through her thoughts and expresses them in an understandable way.
"What I'm saying is…I've never thought about us in that way before. I know it's weird cuz we can get so hot making out sometimes but, honestly, in my mind it always seemed to stop there. But tonight," she gave him and dazed smile. "It suddenly went so much further in my mind, you know? It was like something just hit me - Whack! - and I…I wanted it…you. I felt this thing when you looked at me." She glanced up at him, their eyes locking for a moment. She knew that he understood her at that second, that she didn't have to say anything further, but she felt a burning need - something he seemed to inspire in her - to speak, to hear the weight of her words fill the space around them. "I was sure everything was going to be okay, I didn't have any hesitations or reservations. It was me and you, that was it. And I just…yeah…" she suddenly felt nervous. "I… thought you should know, cuz I don't feel sorry for anything that's happened tonight and…I hope you don't either."
"I love you, Gabriella," Troy said as he crossed the room towards her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her body into the curve of his. "Nothing will ever change that. What we did, what we just did, it was the most amazing thing… like nothing I've ever felt before. I could never regret doing something so incredible, and the fact that it was with you? That we could share such an important moment together? It just made it all the more special."
"I love--" Before Gabriella could complete her sentence, her lips were squashed by Troy's, who was pressing their lips together eagerly, backing them towards the kitchen counter for its support.
As his tongue twisted into her mouth, and glided over the roof of it, the sensation tickling, his body pressed further into hers. Gabriella could feel him once again, his length gradually becoming more pronounced until she could distinctly feel it grinding into her and she then began grasping at his head with one hand, her other boldly snaking around to his behind, her small hand squeezing his firm butt.
"Hmm," she suddenly winced and Troy jumped back, reflexively checking that she was okay.
"What's wrong?"
She took a few breaths before answering, trying to abate the pain. "Just…I'm kind of… sore."
"I'm sorry." He said sincerely, though the uncertainty in his voice betrayed his lack of knowledge for the current situation. "Is it bad?"
"Just…strange, I think. I mean, I'm not used to feeling any kind of soreness or discomfort…down there," she said tactfully, blushing a little. "But it isn't too bad, not half as bad as what I heard it could be. I think it'll wear off soon enough - a couple days maybe." She tried her best to put his mind at rest, to soothe the guilt she knew was eating away at him. "Troy, it was inevitable, don't beat yourself up about it."
"I just don't like knowing that you're in pain because of me." He said honestly, stroking her left cheek.
"Then don't think of the discomfort," she deliberately emphasised the word, showing him that he was dramatising the situation. "Think of the pleasure," she smiled coyly. "Think of everything that happened earlier, how incredible it was, how special, and…did I mention incredible?" she asked, feigning naivety. "I love you and I love what we did. This just happens to come with it. I, for one, will be using it as a happy reminder."
"You're so freaking adorable, you know." Zac chuckled, dipping his head and softly capturing her lips.
"That's why you love me, isn't it?" she whispered, sweetly, their lips only centimetres away from each other, their sweet breaths arousing each others' needs.
"One of the many reasons." Troy mumbled before swiftly lifting her into his arms and cradling her to his chest.
"What are you doing?" She squealed as Troy cautiously mounted the staircase.
Rounding the corner towards Gabriella's room, Troy said simply, "Making sure you experience no further discomfort."
Once at her bedroom door, Troy paused, huffing. "Wow," he stated.
Gabriella waited a while for him to continue, but he never, he just merely stood there, shifting their weight from one leg to the other, all the while, his arms remaining strong. "What?" she asked finally.
"Orgasms make you tired." He yawned, before taking his right foot and pushing the door open.
"Wait!" Gabriella called frantically, the sudden flaying of her arms almost making Troy lose his balance.
"What?"
"You're carrying me over the threshold." She said, not feeling the need to go into any further explanations.
Troy rolled his eyes. "One: it's the threshold to the house, not any threshold. "Two:" he continued, as he took a pointed step over the gold band by the door, walking over and laying Gabriella softly among her pillows. "So I did it before the actual ceremony. Not as if I've just doomed the marriage."
She wasn't sure if he'd picked up on the deep meaning of his words, his nonchalance as he slipped in a movie for them to relax to told her that either, he didn't, or, he knew full well what he had implied but didn't find the need to take it back. Her heart as it soared around the room and finally thumped loudly back into her chest, hoped for the second one that his statement was an insight into his future plans. Not that she'd ever admit it to anyone other than Taylor, but she had a number of notebooks where she'd scratched her and Troy's name into the paper: T&G Forever. Mrs. Troy Bolton. Mrs. Gabriella Eva Bolton. Mrs. Gabriella Bolton. Troy and Gabriella Bolton. It was the first time, however, that she had been given the feeling that Troy too had had those same thoughts - the white picket fence, the green lawn that their bare-footed kids would race around in the hot summers, while they held hands and watched them bicker over who could run the fastest.
She'd always been told - from older cousins, friends, teen mags - that guys didn't discuss their feelings, something she'd had more than enough experience on, that the fastest way to freak them out was to get to serious, and yet, here she was, wrapped in the arms of the boy she loved, the one that had just told her that he would one day make them official. She would be his…forever. She was at peace.
******
"Babe?" Troy said softly, peering down at Gabriella, whose head lay across his naked chest.
"Hmm?"
"You tired?"
The first sounds of the day were beginning. Through their light breathing, the sounds of the whistling birds were audible, the high hum of the morning breeze accompanying the sound. Darkness had just been broken, the warm glow of the sun rising slowly, stretching it's arms and glowing above the yards, and houses, the roofs of the parked cars gleaming with the reflection.
"A-a little…I guess." And then, her eyebrows knitting together and her head lifting from his chest, her drowsy eyes gazing into his, she asked, "Why?"
Troy shifted down onto the mattress, changing the position of his body that had been resting mostly against the headboard. He didn't speak until their face were parallel, their eyes boring into each other's like a drill into a concrete slab. His left forefinger curled, moving a single lock of Gabriella's hair behind her soft ear so that his view of her hypnotising orbs was uninterrupted. "I want to kiss you." He whispered, the tips of their noses brushing together in a kiss of their own. "All of you." He amended, the hand that had been stroking her cheek, his left hand, dropped to her waist, sliding down slowly over the thick hoodie.
He waited, seeing how long it would take her to grasp the meaning of his words. His actions persisted, the soft stroking of his hand trying to make his intent clear. It curved around to the flesh of her, barely covered, bottom, slipped under, and then quickly retracted from, the light cotton material. Silence dawned while all this happened. From its place on her bottom, it drifted down, until his hand covering the skin right at the top of her inner thigh, his thumb brushing a little higher.
It hit her. His hand moved ever higher, his lips now suckling on hers as she whimpered lightly at the contact.
"It's up to you." He stated, his words absolutely true.
Gabriella was silent as he kissed her again, gazing into his intent eyes when he pulled back.
They had moved so quickly in those last few hours. But, somehow, she wasn't afraid. Apprehensive, and slightly nervous, yes. But fear? No. She wasn't repulsed by his suggestion, didn't find it off-putting. Instead she felt curiosity, a tingle slowly crawled through her veins as the image created in her mind made her heart skip a beat. In that place Troy had made her so aware of, she felt a twinge, a pleasant surge of heat.
"I'm…I'm nervous." She said. "But…" she leaned forward and quickly pecked his lips, drawing courage from the kiss. "I want you to."
She seemed embarrassed by her candid statement, even in the dim light Troy could see the colour rise up her cheeks in that adorable way he loved. It began with slow kisses; one to her cheek, nose, lips and then slowly further down; her neck, the curve of her breast (he had soon removed her top) and her taut stomach. He took it as slowly as possible, giving her time to change her mind retract her statement of consent. Her fingers threaded through his hair as the work of his lips became more intent, her stomach growing tighter each time his hot breath snuck over her skin, his lips nipped at her thigh, or his tongue slithered over her trembling body, her legs involuntarily jolting each time her skin was taken into his mouth.
Troy's hands had been busy caressing her legs, but Gabriella had had enough of his skirting around the issue, and boldly placed her hands over his, lifted them, and repositioned them so they were in her desired position; the waistband of her shorts. He could no longer hold back, her action proving just how much she wanted it. Slithering further down the bed, his back curling into a position that reminded him of his mother's yoga move - the sight of Gabriella's plain black underwear (the only thing she was currently wearing as she hadn't put a bra on under the hoodie) served to banish any thought's remotely concerning his mother…or anyone else, for that matter.
As his tongue worked on the unfamiliar territory and she responded with pants, pleas and moans, he reminisced, going back to his fifteen year old self, home alone with his lap-top perched on his legs. Slowly, he'd tapped his search into Google, gulping when hundreds of videos that met his specification popped up. He clearly remembered the stunned look on the females face as she was pleasured, it was much like Gabriella's now, he could hear the ragged breaths in his ear, but they were no longer the breaths of a stranger on-screen, they were the breaths of his girl, his one and only girl.
The fact that he was able to impart such a level on pleasure on a person, did unimaginable things to his body - emotionally and physically. He felt that distinct stirring in his tracksuit bottoms as Gabriella's hips bucked, his tongue surging forward due to her unexpected movement. The moan. The cry. The grip.
"Oh-oh-oh!" Gabriella cried as his wet tongue tentatively flicked over clit. She marvelled at the pleasure something so small and seemingly insignificant could bring. Her heart began to beat so quickly that the individual beat seemed to merge into one. Sweat poured from her body as her face contracted into a mere sample of its former self. "Oh! Ohh!" she tried to loosen the grip she had on Troy's hair, but her brain wasn't able to concentrate on anything other than the sublime pleasure and instead her fingers only tightened when Troy's tongue moved faster, thrusting in an out of her with purpose. She was an elastic band, being stretched to an unknown length, just waiting, at any moment to snap. The frustration was building within her and she couldn't take it any longer. "Oh…ohhh… God… PLEASE.. Please…Troy…OHH…!!"
It was now Troy's pride that was acting, telling him that he was being relied upon. He latched his lips onto her swollen clit. He could feel the heat being exuded from her body, from her core.
"God…Oh… that's it…ye-yes yes! OHH! TROY! Troy…Troy…Tr…"
Emptiness.
Her hands fell from their position on Troy's crown. She had nothing left inside of her. He had taken it all. As her wild pants subsided into uneven breaths, her body continued to tingle at the unfeasible pleasure she had experienced. She could feel Troy's lips inching slowly back up her sweating body, but her eyelids refused to open to see the man who had just pleasured her so spectacularly.
"Troy…" she whispered as his body settled beside hers, pulling her naked form into his arms. "Troy..."
"Shh." He whispered. He knew she was fighting her body to express herself, but he just wanted her to relax and enjoy the moment. Having been bought to such a place by his own hand many times before, he understood completely what she was feeling; the calm, the fatigue, the inexpressible feelings of pleasure. These next few moments would be the most crucial, and they had to be appreciated without interruptions.
"Thank you." Were her last uttered words before she slipped into sleep in his protecting arms.
******
It'd been mere hours since they had separated, but nevertheless, Troy scrambled around frantically getting ready for school that morning, craving to see her soft face again, her luscious pale lips, her gentle smile. He'd always believed that he couldn't love her any more than he already did, but what he'd felt for her had been surpassed that morning when she'd allowed him to take the thing that was most precious.
Darting around his tip of a room, he snatched up his work books and his keys, leaping down the stairs to the kitchen, where he'd rush his breakfast, and share a few words with his mother before leaving - he desperately hoped that Lucille chose this particular morning to have a meaning conversation with him.
"Whoa, Roadrunner, careful you don't break something." Lucille chuckled as Troy sped around the kitchen, splashing milk over the work surfaces as he poured it hurriedly into his bowl of frosted flakes.
"Sorry." He huffed, taking the checked tea-towel from her and dabbing at the creamy white liquid.
"I'm surprised you aren't tired," she began, missing the slight look of panic on Troy's face as his eyebrows shot up, as she had turned her back on him, her head stuck into the fridge. "That storm was pretty intense last night."
"What?" he choked, his voice unusually high. "I mean…I didn't think you were awake, you guys always sleep through that stuff." He shovelled a heaped-spoonful of cereal into his open mouth, chomping down on it with purpose.
"I stirred a little but I didn't wake fully," Lucille replied, sipping at her morning coffee. "We saw the reports on the news this morning. The damage, your Dad said, is pretty bad around here, too; a few cracked wind-shields, a couple fallen trees."
"Wow," Troy grumbled noncommittally. Having run home just minutes before his Dad's alarm clock echoed throughout the house, rousing his parents, Troy had already seen the worst of the damage, but he did his best to cover his tracks, feigning surprise as his mother told him of the reported magnitude of the storm. Once he had devoured the majority of his breakfast, he stretched over to the sink, filling a tumbler with some water, gulping it down to dislodge the food that had gotten wedged in his throat in his rush.
"I hope Gabriella's okay," Lucille said, a touch of worry in her usually smooth, calm voice. "I know she hates storms."
"Ahh…" Troy said with a slight smirk, "I'm sure she managed."
As he pressed a quick kiss to his mother's cheek, and grabbed his bag from the floor, Lucille shouted, slightly confused, "Someone must've had a good sleep last night!" for she was unused to his being so jubilant, in the mornings - especially on a school day.
Before stuffing his body carelessly into his truck, Troy yelled back smugly, "The best!"
There's a nail-biting smiley somewhere that needs to be inserted in this A/N lol
I worked super super hard on that so I hope it was worth it.
Review xoxo