A/N: Here you go my lovely internet persons! Sorry for the wait, but school is time-consuming even though I bet I could do all the stuff that consumes 8 hours in school, in maybe 2 hours at home.

Chapter 13

"No… Friggin… Way…" Gabriella mumbled, her eyes never leaving the boy in the window of the house across from her.

"Still too goody-goody to say the 'f' word?" Troy said, smirking.

"Shut-up, Troy." Gabriella fake glared at him, "You are really my neighbor, huh?"

"No, I just broke into this house, turned off the alarm before it could ring once, ran upstairs, hacked into their computer to waste time on IM, then sat in their window until you came out your balcony." Troy joked.

"That's impressive." Gabriella smiled, going along with his joke.

"I don't want to go to school tomorrow!!" Troy groaned out of the blue. Troy threw his head back for dramatic effect but still kept his arms crossed on the window sill.

"Same here, dude. Why do you not want to go to the hell hole more than normal?"

Troy mentally fought with himself. He could tell Gabriella the real reason he knew school was going to be a bitch the next day, or he could always lie. But this was Gabriella, and oddly, he found himself never wanting to lie to her. "Because I won't be able to be near you…" Troy started, looking down at his hands. He started playing with his fingers and when Gabriella didn't respond to what he had just confessed, he continued. "I wont be able to kiss you, hold you, talk to you, anything. And then Chad will kill me if I do…"

Gabriella felt her cheeks burn and her ears catch on fire. Was Troy really just proclaiming that he actually liked her in a lot of words? "Troy…"

Troy snapped his head up in a fraction of a second. His eyes immediately found her chocolate eyes that were filled with an emotion that he couldn't quite place, all he knew what that it stretched for miles in the chocolate depths. Gabriella smiled a small smile then walked to the far corner of her balcony. She flung her legs over the white wooden rail and grasped the braches of the humongous tree. Swinging her body forward, she let her body come off the railing, but kept her hold on the branches. Once her legs got close to the trunk of the oak tree, she wrapped her legs around it.

Gabriella held onto the trunk of the tree tightly and let go of the branches her fingers curled onto. She moved her hands from the branches to the trunk of the oak, about a foot above her hands. Being careful not to scrape her legs on the rough bark since she was still wearing the black boy short, Gabriella shimmied down the trunk of the tree. When she was close enough to the ground to push off, she did.

Gabriella's toes curled once her bare feet hit the cold and wet grass. She went to walk across the terrain until she was under Troy's window, but Troy was already at her level.

"How did you get down here?" Gabriella wondered aloud. He didn't have a balcony or a tree, just a window on the second story. How on earth did he get down without his legs breaking?

Troy let a small smirk fall onto his lips. "That's for me to know and you to find out."

Gabriella smiled and reached a hand up to brush an ebony curl that fell into her face behind her ear. She felt a rough hand wrap around her wrist right before she had the chance to push the intruding curl. Gabriella's eyes followed the hand all the way up to the arm and locked her own eyes with Troy's.

"Do you have any idea of how cute you are?" Troy whispered in the night.

Gabriella blushed a deep scarlet. A smile spread across her face along with the embarrassing blush.

Troy let his hand off of Gabriella's wrist and slid his hand up to her shoulder while he brought his other hand to rest on her hip. He looked directly into her eyes and Gabriella had to hold back a gasp. His eyes weren't like they normally were. If it was even possible they were even more beautiful at this moment. His eyes were a deep almost navy blue.

Gabriella's hand that was on the side that Troy was holing her shoulder on, found it's way to cup his face on it's own accord. Time seemed to slow, as if they were the only two people on the entire earth and as if their movements were at a snail's pace. Their lips gravitated towards each other, pulled by an invisible force.

Their lips fused together and moved with one another. It was as if there was a law that they couldn't pull away from one another. Troy's hand slipped from her waist to her lower back, so he could pull her even closer to his own body (if that was even possible).

When the need for oxygen became absolutely unbearable, their lips separated. Even though their lips were not touching, their eyes stayed locked together. Troy rested his forehead against hers. "You have no clue how much I loved that."

"Actually, I think I do." Gabriella answered. She had loved it too. It was as if she finally had her dad back, as if nothing else was wrong, as if everything was how it should be and nothing could mess it up.

"No. You really don't." Troy answered in a determined voice, causing Gabriella's eyebrows to knit together. How could she not? She felt the same way!

"Huh?" Gabriella stumbled. She didn't understand.

"You really don't know how much I loved that. How much I felt." Troy broke the lock between their eyes and looked down. "How much I finally felt." Troy let his arms slide off of her body and fall back at his sides.

"Troy…" Gabriella whispered. Troy brought his eyes up and looked at her with a burning gaze. His eyes weren't that deep navy anymore. It was as if they had been turned almost white with his change in attitude.

Troy kept his eyes connected with hers, but didn't speak. Gabriella took this as her cue to continue. "I don't know what you are talking about, and I would like for you to enlighten me on the subject."

"You and everyone else." Troy mumbled. His eyes found the ground again and he continued to look at the green blades of grass and he stayed like that for a immeasurable while. They were both in deep thought. Gabriella was still trying to figure out what he meant by his words and Troy was having an inner battle with himself on the subject of how much he should or shouldn't tell her.

If he told her, she could tell everyone else, and ruin his life even further in the progress.

"When we kiss like that, my life isn't as horrible as it normally is, my heart isn't as damaged as it normally is, and my past evaporates." Troy said quietly to the ground, but Gabriella picked up every word.

Afraid to see the look on Gabriella's face, Troy kept his eyes on the grass. The grass couldn't hurt him.

Gabriella couldn't utter a word. She was more confused as before. She heard grass crunch and noticed Troy's retreating figure. He walked right around the house, and into the front door.

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Gabriella ran down the stairs and into the kitchen. She had woken up late, so late, that she didn't even see a sliver of Chad's figure—not that he wanted her to anyway. She flung open the pantry door and grabbed a granola bar. When you wake up as late as she just did, breakfast wasn't a necessity. After slipping on her black ballerina flats, she was out the door and speeding down the road in her red automobile.

Gabriella darted through the halls, only stopping at her locker for less than two seconds. She arrived at her homeroom in record time. The moment Gabriella was seated in her chair, the tardy bell rang. At least I made it. Gabriella thought.

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Gabriella was switching out her books and binders at her locker after second period when Troy walked by. Her eyes left the inside of her locker and followed his body as he walked down the hall. As if he had felt her eyes on him, he turned his head to look at him. One of Troy's eyelids hid his beautiful blue eyes in the form of a wink. Gabriella could feel the fire burn into her cheeks as if someone was suspending her above a campfire.

Troy continued walking down the hall and when he left Gabriella's view, she snapped out of her gaze and grabbed her books. Her next period was in another building so she had to walk out of the main entrance and to the next building.

Once arriving at her third period class, she had to strain to look and pay attention to the teacher. Troy was clouding all of her thoughts. The class seemed to drag on forever and when the bell rang, she was one of the first out the door. She walked out of the second building and headed back towards the main entrance. Third period was the only period she had in the second building.

Gabriella lost her footing, causing one of her books to slip out of her grasp. She bent down to pick it up, then placed it back in her arms. When she looked up to make sure she wasn't about to run straight into someone, a large red banner with white letters caught her eye. It was huge and the print was clearly readable, but she was in such a hurry she didn't see it when she sprinted into the school.

The sign read: "Homecoming Dance Friday"

Oh shit.

A/N: Hey guys, this idea for the end just kinda popped into my head, because my homecoming dance was two days ago. It was awesome by the way. I got to dance with the dude I am secretly in love with! Please review, the more reviews, the faster I write the next chapter!