Author's Note-So I'm sorry for not updating. School had ended with finals, but then we also had a death in my family, and I was needed so fanfiction was pushed back in my mind. This chapter was originally longer, but then I had to cut it in half or else it would drag on too long. I'm hoping you guys forgive me for not updating, and you should be able to expect the next update in a couple of days. Tell me what you think in a review. Thanks.

"With a mini series you can give the story a proper sense of pacing, a proper sense of closure," Garth Ennis

"Bro, you've got to get over her," Lucas said into the phone, holding it tightly to his ear in hopes that no one else was around to hear him. Football practice was about to start and he didn't want to be late or else Coach Danforth would make him run suicides.

"I am. I was." Austin sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose. "I thought I did, but…fuck you Luke. Don't go all therapist on me."

"Hey, don't get all bitchy at me. You fucked it up with Ella. You're the one that—"

"Hey!" Austin snarled over the phone. His hand around his cell phone tightened a little. "I told you that I didn't cheat. I'm so fucking tired of saying it. I don't know why people don't believe me."

"Maybe because you haven't given anyone a reason to believe you? But I don't see why it's so bad. You still have your football friends and cheerleaders. Isn't that all that matters to you: sports and getting laid?" Luke asked while pacing around the school's hallway.

"Yeah? Well you're wrong! The only girl who I wanted to fuck was Ella, and now she's…gone. Only God knows where she is…"

Lucas let Austin drift off. He was torn between helping his brother out and deceiving his brother in order to protect Gabriella's whereabouts. "Austin…you're my bro. Just hang in there. I'm sure you'll get your chance to talk to Gabriella again. You know her, and you know that the good inside of her will push her to contact you in order to explain her reasoning on why she moved."

Lucas didn't see the girl standing at the corner of the hallway, listening in on the conversation. Gabriella really didn't mean to eavesdrop but when she went to go warm up for running she noticed that Lucas wasn't around and so she went looking for him. It was when she heard his voice that she slowed down her pace and listened carefully. She was surprised when she found that he was on the phone with Austin, however, she shouldn't have expected anything less considering they were still brothers.

But there was something about the conversation she was hearing that made an unfamiliar feeling settle in her stomach. Was she feeling guilty for just leaving Austin behind? She knew she was totally over him, however, now that she was perfectly fine with how her relationship turned out with Austin she was starting to get other feelings towards the football boy and those feelings consisted of wanting to show him that she was over him and that he should move on from her too because there was absolutely no chance of them getting back together.

Five days had passed since Gabriella decided that she was going to join the cross-country team, and three long practices had taken place where instead of helping out at the football camp, she now worked with Coach Carter as he helped her with her long distance running. It was while Coach Bolton allowed his basketball camp to take a break that Troy and one of his friends would occasionally sneak out of the gym to go and watch Gabriella to see how she was doing.

Troy didn't want to seem like a pervert, but it was only natural to want to see his girlfriend. He found that after their skinny dipping adventure he was craving her more. Not just her body, however, as he wanted to hear her voice too.

"Dude, that information meeting on Wednesday totally screwed me over," Jason said while kicking a small pebble around on the ground; boredom seeping through his tone of voice. "The write up that fucker has to send out to all parents is going to get me into a lot of trouble."

Troy scrunched his eye brows while trying to remember exactly what happened on Wednesday. He knew that they filled out a lot of surveys that at the end either classified them as being ready to go off to school or showed that they weren't going to make it in the real world. It was at the end of the session that their administrator, Mr. Eric White announced that he was responsible for writing each kid an evaluation to send to their parents. Troy could only hope that he did alright during the stupid session.

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Troy answered automatically. His eyes were focused on Gabriella who was stretching off to the side. For the last couple of days she had been complaining how sore her muscles were, and he was glad to finally see that she at least was trying to stretch.

Jason looked at Troy with a raised eye brow. The two boys were starting to show effects from the heat they were standing in. Sweat collected on both boys' brows and their faces were becoming red. "Did you just listen to me? Or are you too busy watching Gabi?"

"Uh…yeah." Troy said before being smacked by Jason's hand. Troy rubbed his stomach while glaring at his friend. "Do you really want me to help you with English this afternoon?"

Jason smirked. "Yeah. I really do."

"Then hitting me isn't going to make me help you."

"Well maybe you should stop fucking Gabi through your eyes. It's so obvious that you two think about each other 24/7. It's starting to be creepy." Jason grinned cheekily. He wiped his face off by using the hem of his t-shirt before retreating towards the door that led to the inside gymnasium. "Be at my house by three. After we can walk over to Sharpays and help set up for the party tomorrow."

Troy nodded as he turned his head again to look at Gabriella. Looking wasn't creepy, right?

He shook his head to rid of the thoughts Jason put into his head. No, looking was okay as long as he was dating her. It was like a privilege or something.

"Sharpay, your father's and my anniversary party is in a day. You knew that you would need a dress fitting sooner or later. I don't see what the big deal is," Mrs. Evans spoke.

Gabriella kept quiet as she listened to mother and daughter converse. She had promised Sharpay that she would come with her when she met with her mother at the house. She knew that Mr. Vance Evans wasn't going to be home since he was still on a business trip, however, Gabriella wasn't expecting to meet Sharpay's mother either. She thought that she would just wait in the living room while mother and daughter spoke, but in reality she was sitting less than ten feet away from the pair. But now looking at the older blonde she knew where Sharpay got her looks from. Gabriella could only imagine how Mr. Evans looked considering she couldn't imagine Sharpay looking like him in the slightest way.

After Sharpay asked her to come over to her house for the very first time to go through with the dress fitting, Gabriella understood silently that Sharpay really had no other girl friends to ask. It was starting to become clear that even though Kelsi and Sharpay hung around the same boys, the two girls were completely different. Sure, they got along; however, they didn't click well with personalities at times.

Although Sharpay was now getting along with her mom after their meeting at the coffee house, she was still having trouble excepting the face that she would indeed be showing soon, and that people were beginning to talk about how they heard Sharpay was pregnant with Zeke Baylor's baby.

"The big deal is," Sharpay motioned down to the dark pink dress she was trying on, the dressmaker long gone to fetch a glass of cold water, "this dress is so tight that I'm afraid in a week I won't be able to slide into it. People are going to see my stomach. Don't you think Gabs?" Sharpay turned to Gabriella, her narrowed eyes enough to let Gabriella know that she was supposed to agree with her friend no matter if she was right or not.

Gabriella sighed, looking between mother and daughter. She knew that Sharpay would hardly be showing, the only thing changing about the blonde was that she actually was starting to get breasts that were noticeable.

"Umm…" Gabriella was saved by her ringtone; indicating that she had a new text. She motioned down to her cell phone in her hand while shrugging her shoulders helplessly. "I should really take this. I think this is Troy letting us know that he's on his way here to help set up for tomorrow."

"Troy Bolton?" Mrs. Evans asked with interest. She was a kind women who knew what she wanted and when she wanted it.

Gabriella bit her lip while standing up. "Yeah. Somehow him and Jason got stuck helping Sharpay and I set up for tomorrow. We're going to put them to work by making them move tables around while we do the place settings. I'm just gonna go and …" Gabriella motioned to the door exiting Sharpay's bedroom. She really hoped that she pulled off the act of making them believe that Troy was actually calling her instead of just texting her.

After Gabriella left the room Sharpay sighed. "What is it now Shar?" Mrs. Evans asked. "We're almost done."

"It's nothing about the dress. I'm just worried a little."

"Worried? That's not good for the baby honey."

"I know, but don't worry about it mom. I think I know how I'm going to fix it." She turned to her mother with her bright brown eyes. "Can we please be done for today. I'm not feeling well."

Mrs. Evans gently pushed a stray piece of hair behind Sharpay's ear in a motherly fashion. "Of course. I'll go find Mrs. Livingston and tell her your measurements."

As Mrs. Evans walked out of Sharpay's room Gabriella was coming back inside, a small frown on her face. Once the door was shut Sharpay hurried over to Gabriella on the bed and sat down. "So you're going to tell me what's wrong or else I'm going just have to interrogate you."

Gabriella looked up in alarm. "There's nothing wrong. Why would you ask that?"

"Don't give me that answer Gabs. I'm good at reading people, even if I don't show it at times, and this whole afternoon you have been a bore-fest. Now I have a feeling that whoever just text you that it wasn't Troy. So what gives for the lying?"

Gabriella sunk back so that she was leaning against Sharpay's pillows. "I overheard Luke on the phone with Austin this morning. You know, I've been talking to Brooke and Luke about Albuquerque and both of them have mentioned how much he's changed."

"You don't still have feelings for him, do you?" Sharpay asked. "Because I thought you and Troy were so into each other."

"We are!" Gabriella exclaimed quickly. She absolutely was into Troy, so much in fact that that she wanted the whole world to know now. After she calmed down a little Gabriella continued, "It's just…I don't like it that Luke has to keep things from Austin for my benefit. If Austin just knew where I was and the whole story of me moving here then it shouldn't be a big deal anymore because now I have Troy. I'm falling for Troy so hard that I feel like it doesn't matter if Austin even sees me in person because I've moved on officially."

"Call him," Sharpay said simply. She grabbed Gabriella's cell phone from the bed and held it out to her friend. "Do you still have his number?"

Gabriella bit her lip, a blush coming to her cheeks, showing her embarrassment. "I deleted his number a while ago, but then that was Luke who just text me, giving me Austin's number again."

Sharpay swiftly took the phone from Gabriella and dialed the number. "It's ringing." She grinned from ear to ear as Gabriella's eyes went wide again and panic rippled through her system. Her hands shook as she felt sweat brake out on the back of her neck.

"Sharpay!" Gabriella hissed in a harsh whisper. "Give me my phone now!"

Sharpay chirped happily, "Okay. He picked up."

Sharpay thrust the phone back into Gabriella's hands as Gabriella's mouth dropped open in shock. She wasn't expecting to talk to him so soon. She was going to talk to Troy about it first and just let him know, but now that Sharpay dialed and Austin was apparently on the other line, she had no choice but to deal with this now.

"Gabriella? Hello?...Ella?" Austin asked in a huskier voice than what she remembered.

Gabriella swallowed loudly while closing her eyes. "Yeah. It's me," she whispered. She never would have expected herself to get scared by just talking to someone over the phone, but now that she was actually talking to Austin her body was going to frightened mode.

"Oh God," he sighed blissfully. "It's really you, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Who else would be calling you on my cell phone?" She asked in the same soft tone she was using before.

"I don't know," he chuckled. "It's just I've dreamed that this would happen, and now that it actually is…it's so good to hear your voice baby."

"Don't Austin. You can't call me those names anymore since I'm not your baby. That's what I'm calling you about actually."

He swallowed thickly. He never imagined that Gabriella would be calling him about this. "What?" He played off his shock, "Are you saying that you're someone else's? Is that it Ella? Please tell me it isn't and that you're coming home finally."

"I am home Austin. I've been home for a while now." She was referencing the fact that she was finally settling down and adjusting to Cannary, California once again. "And Yeah," she breathed out a sigh of relief, "I am with someone and I'm very happy with him."

Austin wasn't going to show that he was weak again in front of her. If she wanted to move on, then he could show her that he could move on too…hopefully. He pushed aside his hurt feelings and turned them into irritation. "So that's why you called?" He snapped. "You're calling to tell me that you're not coming back to New Mexico and that you've moved on from me already?"

"Austin, we've been over for a while now. Even before you—"

"I didn't cheat! How many times do I have to tell you that Ella? I. Didn't. Cheat." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I hate how we left things. I hate the fact that you will never be able to trust me again. And I hate that I lied to get people on my side instead of yours. I just never expected you to leave. I love—"

"No you don't. You don't love me. Austin, I've excepted the fact that we were over before we broke up, and I've realized that even if you didn't cheat on me and I somehow magically met Troy, then you and I still would have broken up. We didn't work well together, and so I'm calling because I want you to move on."

"And how would you know if I moved on or not?" He shot back, thinking over the name 'Troy' as all of a sudden, 'Troy' was his least favorite name. "It's not as if you're back in Albuquerque."

"I'm not going to explain myself, even though I firmly believe that it doesn't really matter anymore, but just know that I'm moving on. I think I love—" this time Gabriella didn't need Austin to cut her off as she looked at Sharpay right away. She was afraid of the blonde's expression as Sharpay looked just as shocked as she did.

"Holy Fuck," Sharpay whispered. It was when Gabriella didn't say anything that Sharpay hit her lightly in the arm.

"Gabriella? Gabriella?" Austin loudly said into the phone.

"…Ye—yeah," she stuttered. "I have to go."

Gabriella didn't wait for Austin to say anything else as she quickly shut her cell phone and threw it down on the bed. She didn't look at Sharpay as she already knew the blonde's facial expression.

"Don't say anything Shar."

"I wasn't going to," she stuck her nose in the air before a smile pressed itself onto her face. "Except you love Troy!"

Heat rushed to Gabriella's face before she could get one of Sharpay's pillows to put over her face. "No. I did not say that!"

Sharpay chuckled at her friend's behavior. "Come on Gabs, this is a good thing. Now all you have to do is tell Troy."

"No!" Gabriella yelled. "No, no, no, no, a thousand times no! It's too soon. I don't love him. I'm not in love with him. I just…whatever I was going to tell Austin was not true," she lied unconvincingly. She put the pillow down once she was sure her cheeks returned to their normal color. If only Gabriella was telling the truth then it would be so much easier facing Sharpay at the time.

"So did you get a hold of this Brooke girl?" Chad asked while taking a bite of his ice cream sundae. He held it out to Taylor who looked at it in disgust.

"How can you eat at a time like this?" Taylor asked while scrunching up her nose in disgust.

Chad rolled his eyes while looking both ways down the street, and then crossing. Taylor followed closely at his side while fingering her cell phone that was close to being thrown into the nearest gutter.

"It's not a big deal. I just can't believe that you haven't told Gabriella that Brooke is coming. She's gonna be pissed."

Taylor shrugged her shoulders meekly. "I forgot three five ago, and then I remembered each day since, but…I don't know how to tell her. I keep thinking of different scenarios, and each outcome turns out worse and worse."

Chad would have told Gabriella right away that her old friend was coming up to Cannary, however, it wasn't his place to tell seeing as this was Taylor's fault that Brooke was coming.

"Just do it quickly. It's like ripping off a band aid."

Taylor snorted while pushing Chad slightly. "No way. I'm going about telling Gabriella at my own pace."

Gabriella lugged the garbage out to the side of the street where the garbage truck would surely pick it up that morning. She froze as she had the feeling that someone was watching her, but when she turned she instantly could make out Troy's figure across the street. It looked like he was reading the morning paper on his front porch, but had stopped for some reason, and now his dark blue eyes were set on her brown ones.

She walked across the street to him as he made his way to his feet. "Hey baby," Troy greeted with his hands falling onto her waist. He pressed a hard kiss to her lips, the image of her in the creek replaying through his mind yet again as he hardly had a good night's sleep since that day, and felt pleasure when Gabriella looped her arms around his neck to pull him in closer.

"Good morning," Gabriella murmured before his lips found hers again. She liked the intensity she felt with Troy, the guilt she automatically felt being pushed to the back of her mind. When Troy started peppering her exposed neck with quick, sharp kisses Gabriella pulled back a little. "Troy," she said breathlessly, "I think you're mother was just watching."

This automatically stopped him. He sighed loudly while leaning his forehead against Gabriella's. Their eyes never left each other. Gabriella was intrigued by the way his eyes changed color so easily as she watched his dark blue eyes turn darker and darker until they were a deep bluish black.

"I should have told you that you look beautiful right now," he whispered back to Gabriella.

"If you think I look good now then just wait until tonight," Gabriella flirted back. "You'll love what I'm going to wear."

"Tonight?" He asked with confusion flickering across his chiseled cheeks. She smiled as her fingers went up to cup both of his cheeks, loving the feeling of them and how prickly they felt. "What's tonight Brie?"

She rolled her eyes knowing that he was just messing around. "I love how your cheeks feel right now. Have I ever told you that?"

He narrowed his eyes. "No, I don't believe you've ever told me that."

"Uh-huh, and I also love the way the skin feels underneath my fingertips. Have I ever told you that either?" She asked in her husky voice. She lowered her eye lashes so that she had a sultry look about her. "I'm hoping we can find some alone time together."

He didn't care if his mother was watching or not as he grabbed her swiftly again and brought his lips down to hers in a crushing motion. Gabriella yelped with surprise but eased into the kiss.

"So I was thinking that I could take Gabriella for a day to go into the city for some shopping? I was hoping to get her an outfit for tea with my parents. Oh," Lauren exclaimed as if she made a huge horrible mistake, "I forgot to tell you that my sister, Amy, is coming with my parents at the end of the month. I hope that's okay. She wanted to work on wedding things."

Carlos smiled while picking up a post-it note that held Harold's name on it. "Why do we have Tucker and Harold sitting near the wedding table? I think we should move them back by the kids' tables."

Lauren smiled at her fiancé's antics before picking up another post-it note to lay down on the rough draft of the seating chart. "Where should we put Gabi? At the wedding table or at Troy's table?"

Gabriella decided to make her presence known by walking in to the kitchen. "Why would Gabriella sit at the wedding table?" Gabriella spoke in third person and emphasized her name to make sure that Lauren understood that she couldn't use a nickname. "I'm not a part of the wedding, so I should sit next to Troy."

Both Carlos and Lauren looked at each other before Carlos grabbed Lauren's hand and squeezed gently. In the meantime Gabriella reached for a napkin to tuck into the upper part of her dress so that she wouldn't spill any of the left over spaghetti sauce on her new dress for the Evans' anniversary party.

"Honey, Lauren has something to ask you," Carlos spoke carefully.

"I want you to be one of my bridesmaids." Lauren bit her lip in anticipation of Gabriella's answer. She wasn't oblivious to the teenager's discomfort with the whole wedding, and so was hoping that by making Gabriella a bridesmaid then that would help her feel better about the wedding.

Gabriella blinked in surprise, nearly dropping the sloppy fork in the process of trying to understand what Lauren had just said. "I…uh…" The blonde looked too hopeful and way too nice to be rejected, and so Gabriella put on a tight smile, her grip around the fork turning her fist white, "I would love too."

"Is it just me or is Mr. Evans giving me the death glare?" Zeke asked while readjusting his tie around his neck.

All the people in the group looked at him as if he were crazy. "Dude, maybe he's glaring at you because you seem to be more dressed up than he is…and it's his own party!" Chad pointed out.

"It's better to be overdressed than underdressed," Zeke argued back. His readjusted his tie for what seemed like the hundredth time that evening. "Anyone know when Bolton or Gabi are going to show up?"

Zeke was hoping Gabriella would get there soon because she had met Sharpay's mother, and Sharpay had pointed out that her mother absolutely adored Gabriella from the moment they were introduced. Zeke was hoping, selfishly, that Gabriella and he could somehow start up a conversation with Mrs. Evans and then Gabriella could subtly point out Zeke's good features to make him look better.

"I thought Troy was here. I swear I saw him," Kelsi said quietly before her eyes went a little wide before she recomposed herself. Taylor was the first one to notice Kelsi's change and followed the small brunette's eye sight. She smirked as she knew who Kelsi was looking at right away.

"Just go talk to him," Taylor suggested quietly.

Kelsi bit the inside of her cheek as she didn't know why she was getting so nervous. "I think I will. We never did finish our conversation from the dance. Excuse me."

The whole group watched her leave. Jason had a curious expression on his face before his features clouded over when he saw the boy Kelsi was talking to. He wondered how Lucas got an invitation to come to the party; however, his answer was soon answered when he saw Gabriella join Kelsi and Lucas in discussion about something.

Even though Jason was annoyed that Kelsi would just leave the group to talk to that kid he couldn't help but look at Gabriella as she stood out among all the teenage girls there. "Wow, is it just me or does Gabs look really good tonight?"

"Well she never has been ugly," Chad said, also looking over his shoulder to get a glimpse at their friend. "Bolton's gonna be following her around like a puppy tonight."

"Who will I be following around?" Troy asked as he joined Chad and Taylor on the couch, a cup of punch in his hand.

Taylor smirked at him. "Have you seen Gabi yet?"

Troy gulped, getting the feeling that Taylor knew what he was planning on doing with Gabriella that night, however, his mind calmed down once he realized that it was impossible for her to know because he didn't see Gabriella as the gossiping type. "Not yet. She had to work in the afternoon and instead came separately. Why?"

"Because she looks hot tonight," Sharpay chirped in happily, glad to see Troy squirm in his seat.

"She's here already?" Troy asked, looking around the room to try to search for her. If his friends were saying these things about Gabriella then there was no doubt in his mind that other boys who weren't close to Troy would also be thinking them, and he wasn't about to let another guy try to hit on his girl.

Gabriella silently approached Troy's turned back. Her white dress that had a deep cut in the front and a black bow that encircled her small torso swayed around her knees. The strapless shoulders making her olive colored skin stand out even more. She quietly put her hands over his eyes and bent down to whisper in his ear.

"Guess who?"

Troy grinned as his own hands reached up to interlace with her own. "I'm hoping it's someone hot."

Gabriella pulled back to place a kiss on the back of his neck, anticipating how it was going to be that night. "I'll let you be the judge of that."

Troy looked up at her face and smiled. "Hot, as usual."

Gabriella let go of his hands and walked around the couch so that she could sit next to Troy. She smiled at her friends. "Hey everyone. Enjoying yourselves?"

"I just want this to end. I'm so worried that my dad is going to go over to Zeke's parents and say something inappropriate," Sharpay said. Zeke put his arm around her in order to comfort her before looking around the room again.

"Don't worry baby, I have a plan. I'm going to win over one parent at a time and I'm going to start with your mother with Gabriella's help."

"What?" Both Gabriella and Sharpay asked.

"How the hell am I supposed to help you? If you're with me then we're both going to look bad," Gabriella pointed out.

"Hey guys," Amanda greeted in a simple black dress that highlighted her long legs. "How are you Sharpay? My parents told me about the…" She leaned in to whisper, "…pregnancy."

"It's no secret now," the blonde snapped. "How are you Amanda?"

"Good. Apparently Lauren invited my family over for tea in a week. I can't wait to see Joseph and Diana," Amanda gushed as Gabriella looked at her with confusion.

"Lauren as in…my dad's fiancée?" Gabriella asked as she tried to figure out how Amanda would know Lauren's parents' names. "You've met her parents before?"

Amanda sat down, folding her legs in the process. All of a sudden Gabriella felt less attractive when sitting so close to this girl. "Of course I have. They've visited Cannary before and my parents are great friends with Joseph and Diana. They're two of the hardest people to get along with, but they like me, so I have nothing to worry about."

"Hardest people?" Gabriella asked, trying to keep her nerves down, but it wasn't working as Troy felt her tense up beneath his hand.

Amanda smiled. "They're very judgmental about people behind their backs, unless of course they hate you so much, then they'll just cut you down in front of everyone. But if they like you, then you're practically gold in front of everyone's eyes. You have to be very careful about what you say in front of them or else they'll just pick at you until they find a fault."

Gabriella didn't like Lauren, but she didn't want her parents to hate her. Gabriella never wanted anybody to hate her unless she hated them first. It might have sounded childish, but she didn't care as this was a new thing to worry about. "I need a drink. A very, very strong drink. Excuse me."

"So what's up Troy? Cat got your tongue?" Amanda asked with a feline smirk.

But Troy was too busy looking after Gabriella's retreating back to concentrate. Out of all the body parts he couldn't help but be attracted to a woman's shoulders. There was just something about looking at bare shoulders that made them look so delicate and fragile.

"Are your parents even serving alcohol here?" Zeke asked.

"Yes, but don't get any ideas. My parents do not need to think that you're a drunk also," Sharpay said before eyeing Amanda up. She never did like the blonde; however, she tolerated her when she was around for everyone's benefit, but now that Gabriella obviously was uncomforted by Amanda then Sharpay really didn't care what she sounded like. "So Amanda, who did you come here with? I mean, besides your parents, usually you have a different guy on your arm every week. They're like ice cream flavors for you." Sharpay looked around at Troy's, Chad's, Jason's, Taylor's, and Zeke's uncomfortable faces. "Am I right? Don't you remember when she was dating two guys at once Zeke?"

Amanda looked surprised at Sharpay's words, even though she knew that the blonde was right. She swallowed her first comment that came to mind, and bit the inside of her cheek. "I came here with Adam tonight. You know, Adam who's a senior? The guy who's talking to Gabriella right now."

Troy narrowed his eyes before standing up and walking over to Gabriella. He smiled while coming from the side and putting his hand on her lower back. "Hey Troy," Adam greeted. "I was just asking Gabi if she knew where Amanda was."

"Oh yeah," Troy said as he felt Gabriella tense under his hand once more, "she's actually right over there on the couches with everyone else." Troy nodded his head to the right to show Adam and was relieved once Adam excused himself to go over to his 'date.' "I'm sorry about what Amanda said. She doesn't mean any harm I'm sure."

Gabriella rolled her eyes while sipping on her new drink. Troy looked at it with a raised eye brow. Gabriella smiled sweetly, forcing it as her smile didn't reach her eyes. "Don't worry. It's just diet coke. The bartender was being an ass and wouldn't give me anything unless I flashed him my chest."

Troy knew it was wrong but at mention of Gabriella flashing anyone he couldn't help but let his mind think about how her breasts would look right now. He offered her a supportive smile before wrapping her up in a hug.

"Do you want to go find a room? We can just get away from everyone for a while. No one will ever know," Troy whispered huskily in her ear.

Gabriella wanted to stay mad at the fact Amanda was basically imagining her boyfriend naked in front of everyone, but she didn't want to seem like the bitch in the situation by complaining, however, she couldn't stay mad because it wasn't Troy's fault that Amanda couldn't stop fucking him through her eyes.

Troy nipped at her ear before blowing warm air on her. She giggled despite her best effort to stay serious. "We can go to the guest room I usually use. It's in the east wing; farthest away from this party."

Gabriella turned in his arms, smiling a true smile up at his charming face. "Okay. That sounds nice."

"Good because I think they just started playing music, and I really don't want to dance with anyone but you," Troy winked down at her. He started to lead her away to the staircase with his hand on her lower back again before they were stopped once more.

"Hey bitch!" An all too familiar voice spoke up from behind the couple. Gabriella froze dead in her tracks at the cold voice that sounded all too cheerful. "I thought I would find you going up the stairs. We all know how much you like to party."

Gabriella turned around while quickly glancing at Troy. She saw that he was ready to say something to defend her, but she beat him to it as a small gasp escaped her mouth.

"…Brooke."