This chapter is a bit of a filler, but no worries, I'm working on the next few. I've found that I get too overwhelmed working on more than one story at once, so to weed out delays on No Good (which is already technically delayed) I'm going to focus on finishing FBH first and then get back to it. Hopefully you guys aren't too mad, but the faster I get inspiration and finish FBH, the faster I can start working on NG again. So maybe I'll have FBH finished by the new year? Here's praying

Anyway, enjoy this chapter, ignore any spelling or grammatical errors because I'm only 20, I'm human lol. Make sure you REVIEW to tell me what you think and I'll see you with another update on Monday!

First Bad Habit

Previously

"Shut up!" Troy groaned back in response. "I'm just saying you're beyond sexy and yesterday… after you were done teasing me; I appreciated it more than you know."

She smiled, hiding a blush that he couldn't see anyway. "So what, you get some and you turn into a big ball of mush on me?"

"You're fucking hilarious, you know that?"

"Isn't that why you like me so much?" Gabriella asked.

"Yeah yeah."

"Well I feel the same way," she spoke softly into the receiver.

xx

"Sweetheart, I'm sorry."

"For what? You didn't call him back and forgive him did you?"

"No, God, no. I'm just sorry that you and Drew had to go through it all. It would have been different if it were just me to go through all this drama with your father by myself but I never wanted to hurt you two. And it's unfortunate because I'll never regret having you, you're the two best things that happened to me and if it weren't for your father, I wouldn't have you. I just wish there had been an easier way. A better man, different circumstances, something, anything. If I had never fallen in love with him…"

"You can't help who you fall in love with, Mom. And like you said, we were two good things that came from you being in love with him. He was a good a guy when you met him obviously or he put up a good front and things just ended up not working out. I don't blame you, but I blame him for not sticking around for his family. But if there's one thing I'm grateful for it's you and Drew. I just wish Drew would understand that he can't be my father; he can't control every aspect of my life. This is something we're going to have to live with. It sucks and it hurts, but it will be okay…eventually."

xx

"I'm just…excited. It's interesting seeing you talk about him. I'm pretty sure this is exactly how I looked to my mother when I fell in love for the first time."

"Stop, Mom. I am not in love with Troy. We haven't even known each other long enough for that."

"Love doesn't have a timeline, Gabi. It happens when you least expect with who you least expect."

Gabriella scoffed. "And you think it's with Troy? I mean sure, I like him and I'm attracted to him and this whole mystery pretend bad boy thing he thinks he has going on but I wouldn't say I love him."

"Okay, whatever you say.

If you wish to be loved, show more of your faults than your virtues.
-Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Chapter 14

A week had gone by and things had started to cool down a bit for Gabriella. Of course, she was still grounded, so she did as told-school, practice if she had it, and back. It left little time for her to see and hang out with Troy outside of regular school times, but the upside was she still had her phone, so they kept in touch very well. Drew had settled back into his classes, crunch time coming up due to the semester being almost over and the amount of papers he had to write was growing immensely by day. Isabella threw herself back into her work as well, making it clear to Joseph that she did not want to see him or his new bride ever again. Any business he had with the family pertained to the kids in her opinion and she wanted no part of that. Drew and Gabi were adults and if they wanted to see their father, they would make that decision without her.

Gabriella was currently sitting in her Chemistry class, watching the clock intently, waiting for the bell to ring so that she could get on with her day. She had free next period and she just wanted a break from the day, plus it might give her a chance to see Troy.

Itching to get out, she tapped her fingers on the desk impatiently until the bell finally sounded in all its loud glory. She gathered her books and wasted no time getting out of there, all but flying out of the room before Taylor could stop her to talk. Believe me she loved Taylor, but she was not in the mood for talking to her best friend. She'd done so well at avoiding explaining to her best friend what was really going on and why she was actually grounded, but she had a feeling she wasn't going to be able to avoid it for much longer and it was best to avoid Taylor until she came up with a valid excuse for herself.

Turning the corner, she arrived to her locker, spinning her combination before shoving her Chemistry books into her locker. She then turned for the stairwell she knew Troy would be in, hoping to find him waiting for her since she had texted him last night about her free period today.

As she pushed open the doors, she found the back stairwell to be empty, not a person in sight and no remnants that anyone had been here within the last couple of hours. Strange. She could have sworn she'd seen him briefly this morning. Of course, she was running late, so she didn't really get a chance to speak, but she was sure that he had been leaning against a locker on his phone while surrounded by the necessary crowd that he hung out with, plus those few desperate girls that vied for his attention. This was usually when he took his smoke break anyway because he always had a free during 5th and then lunch, but Troy Bolton was not here today.

Huffing, Gabriella let the door close and stood in the now almost empty hallway. The bell was going to ring in a few seconds, so most people had hurried off to either class or wherever they'd decided they wanted to be this period. Gabi, however, was looking extremely lost.

As If sensing that she had been looking for him, there was suddenly noise from down the hall as Troy approached with 3 guys behind him, all 4 of them horsing around as they walked down the hallway. She stopped and smiled as she watched him make his way towards her. As he got to her finally, she reached for him and his hands came down to circle around her waist, pulling her close to him.

"Where were you?" She asked as they kind of had their own little moment, due to his friends hanging back a little bit. "I went to the stairs…"

"Sorry," he said. "Didn't realize you were going to come."

"I told you I had free period."

He nodded. "Yeah, forgot about that until last minute."

"What are you guys doing?"

He shrugged. "Not sure yet, but I'm not planning on being at lunch or the rest of the periods today."

"Why?"

He shrugged again and Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Seriously."

"I am being serious. It's not like we can plan these things, they happen on whim. We don't just up and decide to skip class one day, its spur of the moment."

"So what are you going to skip class to do?"

He sighed, avoiding the answer he was going to have to tell her eventually, but lucky for him, his sigh was all it took for her to figure it out. "I'm not gonna like it, am I?"

"Probably not."

She looked around, a contemplative look on her face. Troy watched her carefully before she looked back up at him, biting her lip. "Let me come with…"

Troy's head was shaking left to right in protest before she even finished her sentence. "No, not happening?"

"Why?" She pouted.

"Do we really have to go through this again Brie? We've talked about this way too much."

"Okay, then let's not talk about it and let's just go, I'm ready."

She started to move towards the guys he came with, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back to him. "Brie, stop. I don't know what we're gonna get into and I'm not dragging you with me into the unknown."

"Well it's better to be together than apart if shit hits the fan right?"

"No, Brie, it's not."

"Well it's either I go with you, or you don't go!"

He took a deep breath, blue eyes staring into her own brown. "We're not doing this. You're not going to sit here and give me an ultimatum."

The guys Troy had come with started to notice as the tension rose between the couple. "Well, I'm not just going to sit here and let you fuck something up and not do anything about it."

"I've been doing this shit since before you came along and I can bet you, I'll still be doing it after you've gone, so don't think just because you're my girlfriend now means I'm going to change anything about myself."

"So you want to get in more trouble? You want to go to jail? And I'm just supposed to let it happen?"

"You're not letting anything happen, I'm making the decision to do what I want."

"Troy please," Gabriella finally pleaded, closing her eyes exasperated by arguing with him. "Just think this over. Same way you don't want to drag me into the unknown, I don't want you walking into the unknown without me and then having to hear tomorrow that something bad happened and I just let you go."

Realizing that she was almost at the point of giving up and knowing that his intentions were not to start a fight, he ran a hand over his face as he pulled her to him in a hug, burying his face into her shoulder. He kissed what was exposed of her shoulder gently as his hands gripped tightly to her body, her grip mirroring his as she wrapped her arms tightly around his torso. Then he pulled himself away from her slightly and took her chin in his hand, pressing a very passionate and forceful kiss to her lips in reassurance.

"I'll call you when I'm back and I promise you that nothing will happen." He whispered and before she could even protest or say anything else to stop him, he had let go of her and was walking away with his friends, not looking back.

~FBH~

Gabriella had been sitting red-eyed with a tear-streaked face in her bedroom around 11pm that night when she heard a hard knocking on her bedroom window.

She'd finished the rest of the day at school, attending the rest of her classes and keeping pretty much to herself. She'd come home and given her mother one word answers before retreating to her room, barely coming out to eat a pretty silent dinner just the two of them.

As much as she'd tried to focus on other things, like the paper she had due in 2 days that she hadn't even started on yet. Instead she'd just started crying and she wasn't even sure why she was crying. Was she upset that he just left? Was she worried he was going to get in trouble? Was she scared that something bad would happen to him? Did she cry because he wouldn't let her go with him? She just wasn't sure and she definitely wasn't prepared for the emotions to hit her as hard as they did.

So when Troy was knocking on her window at a little bit past 11pm, she still was not sure where she stood emotionally, but she proceeded to open the window to let him in.

As she pulled the window open, he stumbled through it. "Hey, hey. Brie, hey."

"Troy…" she went to start, but he cut her off, getting through the window and placing his hands on her arms-whether to steady himself or get her to focus on him, she was not sure.

"I'm so fucking sorry. I'm a fucking idiot, I know."

"Troy you're drunk or stoned or whatever. You need to go."

"Look, I didn't fucking mean it. But I'm a fuck up, this is what I do best."

She shook her head. "You're not a fuck up, Troy. But you need to go home before someone realizes you're here."

He stumbled, over what she wasn't sure, and then gave her an unsure look. "I…I don't know…if I'll make it home."

"You can't stay here."

"Please…"

"Troy, no!"

"Gabi…Brie, I just…I need to know that you're not fucking done with me. I need to know that you don't want to be fucking done with me."

"Shh!" She tried to get him to be quieter and stop being so loud. "Troy, I can't. Okay, I can't, and you need to go."

"I…" he stopped and just stared at her. "What did I do? I screwed it up. You fucking hate me. I'm so fucking…"

"Troy!" Her hands forced his face to look at hers. Both of their eyes red but clearly for two different reasons. "I am so mad at you right now, I really am, and I really want to hate you with all of my heart…"

Troy's eyes dropped, looking down. "But," she continued. "Something won't let me. I care too much. And I need you….I need us to do this together, I need us to work this out together."

He opened his mouth to respond, but stumbled on his words. "I'm so…"

"Don't say sorry. Please stop saying sorry. I don't want to hear a sorry, I just want you to be here."

So he stayed. And they stayed together. Just being together and leaving all the heavy to be handled with later.