Looking Back to Move Forward

SUMMARY: Troy and Gabriella have been friends for 11 years, best friends. They've even been more, but circumstances years ago led them to end their romance and revert back to just being friends. But will one special weekend of reminiscing about their lives and the memories they've shared remind them of the one thing that they're both missing? M for adult situations/subject matter and sexual references/depictions.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own these wonderful characters...I just love them like the rest of you. :-)

AUTHOR'S NOTE: First, sorry for the longer time between chapters. It's not from lack of desire to write them, I promise...just a lot of other stuff keeping me busy. Let's see...for Dee, some moving fun...for xZANESSA4LIFEx, some family stuff. :-) For Andizzle, something in here not at all inspired by that blue-eyed guy I really don't like one single bit...lol. For all of you, more sweet Troyella...and my continued thanks!

Chapter 21 - Our

Troy and Gabriella spent the next two weeks figuring out what all needed to be done to prepare for Troy's official move to the cabin. Troy had alerted the apartment office that he did not plan to renew his lease. The two of them started collecting boxes from their friends and set to the task of packing Troy's stuff up.

"You don't actually need all 50 of these shot glasses, do you?" Gabriella asked, removing one from the cabinet and quirking a brow at Troy.

"What? We aren't going to have any huge parties consisting of at least 50 people passed out in our living room?" Troy joked.

"First of all, I draw the line at 10 people passed out in our living room and second of all, yes we'll have parties but people will not need their own individual shot glasses. They will end up sharing, oh, about three, as they always do."

Troy thought back to other parties they'd been to or that either of them had thrown and he knew she had a good point, not that he had meant to hold onto all those shot glasses anyway. They were part of a collection he'd begun in college but had long since stopped adding to. But, his mind had focused on something other than their discussion of shot glasses. "We said 'our'…" he said, trailing off and smiling at her.

Gabriella smiled, not expecting that comment in return. "Yeah…well, it will be…basically is…our living room…in our cabin."

"Mmm…I like the sound of that," he said, approaching her and sliding his arms around her waist, his hands resting on the small of her back.

Gabriella placed the shot glass down on the counter and wrapped her own arms around his neck. "Me too," she returned softly, before leaning up to meet Troy's lips in a sweet kiss. Pulling back after a minute or so, she smiled up at him. "But, if we want to get all of your stuff moved over to our cabin, we should probably get back to work," she said softly.

Troy leaned his forehead against hers and sighed. "We haven't earned a break, yet?" he asked hopefully.

"This was a break."

"It was too short," Troy complained, trying his best at a pout and a pitiful face.

Gabriella laughed at his attempt. "Bolton," she said, in what was meant to be a stern voice, "do you want to live with me or not?"

Troy knew he wasn't going to win this one. "Yes," he answered simply.

Gabriella moved one hand from his neck and reached down to pick up the shot glass she'd placed on the counter. Holding it up in front of Troy's face, she continued. "Then, start telling me which of these you are fully attached to and which ones we can donate."

"I'm fully attached to you. We can donate everything else," Troy replied with a smirk.

Gabriella looked at him with amusement. "Nice try, charmer."

Troy narrowed his eyes playfully at her before releasing her waist and turning to the cabinet containing the shot glasses, starting to remove them and separate them into those he wanted to keep and those he didn't.

Gabriella grinned, placing the shot glass she still held down with the others and moving to tackle another cabinet, removing plates, wrapping them in paper and placing them carefully into a box. They had decided to keep Troy's set of dishes and just combine them with Gabriella's so they'd have more for family gatherings or having their friends over. They worked in relative silence for a little while, making some good progress on the kitchen.

Next, they moved onto the living room, sorting through Troy's dvds and cds and separating out any that were duplicated in Gabriella's collection or that Troy just didn't want anymore. Having packed up those to be moved and set aside those to be donated, Gabriella felt pretty good about how much they'd accomplished that evening. Seeing Troy start to look around the room to determine what they should focus on next, she moved closer to him and slid her arms around his waist from behind, rubbing her hands lovingly over his abs. Troy grinned, turning around in her arms. "Break time?" he asked.

Laughing inwardly, Gabriella looked back at him and shook her head back and forth, watching his face fall a bit. She smirked at this, before clueing him in to what she really intended. Pulling out of his arms, she reached down and grabbed hold of one of his hands. Troy watched her quizzically. "Come on, Bolton. Let's go sort out the bedroom," she said saucily.

Troy's face lit up and he happily let her pull him in the direction of the bedroom. He certainly didn't need another invitation…

Several days later…

"Ella, what happened to the boxes that were sitting in the dining room?"

Gabriella looked up at him from the box she was just closing in the bedroom. "What do you mean, Troy? I took those to the donation drop off location earlier along with the boxes of the stuff I decided to donate from the cabin."

"What? Why? Those weren't supposed to be donated," Troy exclaimed, seemingly upset.

Gabriella's eyes widened and her mouth went dry at this. She racked her brain to try to remember their earlier conversations about those boxes. "No, Troy, they were. Remember? We said that we'd put the 'to be donated' items in the dining room so we didn't get them confused with the stuff to be moved," she defended.

"But not all of them, Ella! Just the ones in the center of the room, not the ones against the wall."

"Wha…? But you didn't tell me that, Troy. I thought we said any that went in there should be donated." She watched in horror as Troy turned away from her and ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

No longer facing her, Troy let the smile that had been threatening spread across his face. He knew he was being mean, but, well, he had never been one to shy away from a good opportunity to pull a prank, even on the woman he loved.

"Troy, baby, I'm sorry…I honestly thought that's what we said. What was in the other boxes? I can go back to the donation center and see if I can get them back. It's only been a few hours. They probably haven't done anything with them yet."

Troy wiped the smile off his face, tried to put on his best pained expression, and turned around to face her again. "Can you, please? Some of those boxes against the wall had some important memorabilia…my winning senior basketball jerseys from high school and college, my framed diplomas, my ESPY award…"

"Oh God, Troy! Oh, I feel so bad. Okay, um, I'm going. I will go and get those boxes back," she said, nervously biting on her lip, pulling her keys out of her pocket, and heading out of the room. She rushed down the hall, grabbed her purse off the kitchen counter, and headed toward the door, starting to mentally panic and sending up a prayer that the donation center had not in fact done anything with those boxes yet and that she could find the right ones.

Just as her hand landed on the doorknob, she felt Troy's hand on her shoulder. Confused, she turned to look at him. Seeing his lips twitching and spreading into a wide grin, his eyes twinkling mischievously, and his shoulders starting to shake in silent laughter, she frowned. She let go of the doorknob, tilted her head and put her hand on her hip, watching him, waiting for the explanation she both wanted to hear and didn't.

"Ella," Troy wheezed, losing his own battle and cracking up with laughter, "don't…don't go."

"Trooooy…"

He just looked at her and cracked up laughing again.

"I didn't donate anything I wasn't supposed to, did I?" she asked, her tone dry, anticipating his answer.

"No," Troy choked out between laughs, "but your face…oh my gosh…that was…priceless."

"Priceless, huh?" she replied, voice dangerously low.

"Uh huh," he replied cheerfully.

Gabriella let her purse slide down her arm until she gripped the short strap with her hand. "Troy Bolton…I…am…going…to…kill…you," she gritted out, punctuating each word with a swing of her purse at him.

Troy backed away from her, hands held up, still laughing despite her purse actually making contact several times. "Ella, come on…I couldn't…resist," he said, catching the purse on its latest swing and removing it from her hands.

"Errrrrrrr"

"Did you just growl at me?"

"Jerk."

"No, seriously, did you just growl at me?" Troy asked with humor lacing his voice.

"Aauuuggh"

Troy started laughing again. He couldn't help it. Her sounds of annoyance were too adorably hilarious.

Gabriella huffed off toward the bedroom again.

Troy let his laughter subside, put her purse back down on the counter, and followed her. As he entered the bedroom, his face suddenly made contact with a pillow. As the pillow dropped away from his face, he looked over toward her only to see another pillow in his line of vision right before it also made contact with his head. Recovering from the second hit, he raised his arm just as another pillow sailed through the air at him. He was able to deflect this one, but still stood there looking a bit stunned.

Seeing her boyfriend caught unawares by the pillow attack and still standing there looking at her uncertainly, Gabriella doubled over with laughter. No, it certainly wasn't an even revenge for the minutes of anguish he'd put her through thinking she'd made a horrible mistake, but still, it did make her feel a bit giddy nonetheless.

Regaining his composure, Troy leaned against the doorframe. "Feel better now?" he asked dryly.

"A smidge," Gabriella remarked.

"I deserved that."

Gabriella snorted at this. "You deserve more."

Troy smirked. "Fair enough. But, baby, you gotta admit…I got you good."

Gabriella scowled at him.

Troy approached her, watching as she crossed her arms firmly across her chest. "Ella…" he cajoled, leaning in to kiss her and ending up kissing her cheek as she turned her head before their lips met. Regrouping, Troy kissed her cheek again, and then her temple, and then her ear. Gabriella closed her eyes. She was melting, damn him. She went to move away but his arms encircled her, keeping her in place.

"I hate you."

"No you don't," he responded, kissing her jaw.

"You suck."

"I know," he murmured into her neck.

Her arms loosened and dropped to her sides. He pulled her closer. "That was mean. Why do I put up with you?"

Troy smiled. "Because I am generally very nice," he said quietly, sucking lightly on her neck and rubbing soothing circles on her back with his fingers.

Gabriella sighed, then allowed her arms to slide around his waist.

Realizing he was winning her over, Troy pulled back and looked down into her face, which had considerably softened in the last few minutes. "Forgive me?" he asked with a small smile.

Though she tried to fight it, she couldn't stop the smile that formed on her own face. "Fine," she said, the last traces of annoyance being voiced in that word.

Troy breathed an inward sigh of relief. He'd had fun with his prank but of course didn't want to have an irritated girlfriend for the rest of the day, or worse, longer.

"So…" He leaned his head toward hers. "Let me make it up to you," he murmured against her lips.

"Okay," she murmured back just before Troy's lips tugged on her own, pulling her into a heady kiss. His hands moved down her body and latched onto the back of her thighs, pulling her legs up to wrap around his waist and carrying her over to the bed. There, he made his amends to her…to her repeated satisfaction.

Moving day - a week later…

"Dude! How do you have this much stuff?" Chad exclaimed with a grunt, as he carried another box into the cabin alongside Troy, who had his own arms full.

"I don't know, man…accumulation."

"I thought you were getting rid of shit."

"I did. Donated a bunch of stuff and gave a bunch of furniture to Kelsi and Jason for their new house."

"You didn't give me anything."

Troy laughed. "Well, what did you want, dude?"

"Hmmm…I can take your PS3 off your hands, your Wii, all your games, your plasma…"

"Uh, no," Troy cut in dryly.

"Then, why the hell am I helping you, Bolton?"

"Because I've done the same for you."

"And because it helps me too, Chad," Gabriella put in sweetly, passing by them with a beautiful smile painted on her face. Chad couldn't help but smile at her happiness and that of his friend, whose eyes glimmered as he watched his girlfriend walk in the opposite direction.

"You so have it bad, man."

"I know," Troy replied, with a goofy grin on his face.

"You sure about this whole moving in, thing? It's seriously like their house, man…don't even attempt to think otherwise," Chad said dramatically, as though imparting sacred wisdom upon his friend.

Troy chuckled. "She's my home…she can do whatever she wants in regard to the house."

"Ugh…you are such a sap, Bolton," Chad said in a disgusted tone, though a smirk swiftly formed on his lips.

Troy just shrugged and they continued down the hall with the boxes, depositing these particular ones into the guest room.

...

Out in the living room, the ladies were starting to open and unpack some boxes. Taylor, Sharpay and Kelsi were there in addition to Gabriella's mom, Maria, and Troy's mom, Lucille. Their parents had decided to come and help out with the moving day activities as they definitely approved of their children's decision to take their relationship to the romantic level again and kind of wanted to see it in action.

...

Jack Bolton was currently out on the deck with Zeke and Jason getting the grill fired up to make everyone some dinner. Troy and Chad stepped out onto the deck to put in their requests before heading back out to Chad's truck to grab some more boxes. These they carried back to Troy and Gabriella's bedroom. Deciding to take a break with the carrying, they started unpacking some of Troy's clothes. Chad carried some of his friend's shirts into the closet only to come walking back out laughing a few seconds later.

"What?" Troy asked, wondering at his friend's amusement.

"Wait," Chad said, going to the bedroom door and calling down the hall asking Gabriella to come back there for a minute. She excused herself and headed back there, curious as to what they needed.

"What's up, Chad?" she asked, entering the room.

Chad put his hand condescendingly on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. "Okay, Gabs, I know this living with someone thing is new to you, but you do realize that Troy owns more than five shirts, right?"

"Well…yeah…" Gabriella stammered.

"Yeah, well…that's about all you've left him room for in the closet," Chad informed her, with amusement.

Troy's eyes met up with Gabriella's as she looked over at him, eyes widening a bit. "But…no, that can't be right. I thought I made room."

"You donated some clothes and shoes too, right babe?" Troy asked.

"Yeah, Troy."

Troy approached the closet, peering in. Chad was right. Gabriella's clothes lined each side of the walk-in closet and also were stacked on shelves at the back. Her shoes were hung in a shoe organizer over the back of the closet and also stacked on portable shelves in the back of the closet. There was, in fact, a space about two feet wide open on the right side of the closet toward the back. He presumed this was his space. "Um, babe…how many items did you donate?"

Gabriella bit her lip. "Um…a handful of shirts, a couple skirts, a pair or two of shoes…"

"Mmmhmmm…well, that is something," Troy replied carefully. "But Chad's right, hun, I do have a bit more clothing and it's not going to fit in there right now.

Gabriella sent him a sheepish look. "I'm sorry, Troy. I was trying to convince myself that it'd be enough space. I'll do another run through. If nothing else, some stuff of mine can be hung in the guest closet. I'm such a girl. I have too many clothes."

"You're right…you wear too many clothes," Troy said, teasingly pulling on Gabriella's t-shirt.

"Oh! Bolton! Save it for later!" Chad barked at him.

Gabriella giggled. "Chad's right, Troy…think about your shirts, not your pants," she said, giving him a devilish look. "Oh, hey, I did clear out the bottom three drawers for you," she said, pointing toward the dresser.

"Great! I'll make use of those then," he returned in a chipper voice.

"Thanks, babe. We'll figure it out. I promise," Gabriella said sincerely before leaning up to give him a quick peck on the lips before turning and heading toward the doorway. She paused briefly, putting her hand on Chad's shoulder for a few seconds as he had done with hers minutes earlier. "Thanks, Chad," she said in a syrupy voice. "However would we figure this all out without you."

Chad cleared his throat, feeling uncertain about her thank you and the way her eyes were sparkling as she said it. "Um…sure…anytime." And with that, Gabriella swept past him and headed back toward the living room.

Troy burst out with a laugh the second she left. Seeing the look on Chad's face, knowing his friend had just been played, however subtly, by his girlfriend, he couldn't help it.

"What are you laughing at?" Chad growled.

"You."

"Yeah…you just wait…you shouldn't be laughing. You who will 'make use of those then'…you need to fight for space, Troy."

"And for my right to party?" Troy snarked.

"Oh, you think you're so funny? You just wait…you'll see."

"Whatever, dude. We'll figure it out. We get to figure it all out now. It's the greatest thing, man."

Seeing that lopsided grin on his friend's face again, Chad just shook his head at him. He walked over to his friend, slapped him on the back and gave his final words on the matter. "You just hold onto that, buddy." Then, he turned and left the room, leaving Troy staring after him and shaking his own head in amusement before following him a few moments later.

...

When Gabriella re-entered the living room, she smiled at the other ladies who were so sweetly helping she and Troy get settled into their new situation. She moved to sit down on the sofa between Lucille and her mom. A few moments later, she heard the screen door to the deck open and close and heard Chad asking if he was ever going to see those burgers he'd ordered up. She grinned at this and turned to help her mom tear open a box of books and cds. At the same time, Lucille was just opening up a new box she'd pulled over to her. Upon seeing the contents of the box, she stopped and cooed at her finding.

Gabriella stopped pulling books out of the box and stacking them on the coffee table and looked her way curiously. "Oh…look how cute you two were!" Lucille exclaimed, holding up a photo for Gabriella to see. "I don't know why Troy didn't include this day in the scrapbook. We had so much fun."

"You don't know why Troy didn't do what, mom?" Troy asked teasingly as he entered the room.

"I don't know why this day didn't make the cut for Gabriella's scrapbook," she explained again, handing a different photo from the same day back over her shoulder to her son.

Troy looked down at the photo his mother had handed him…

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yes, yes...a minorly suspenseful ending there...don't get too excited...lol. But, this whole moving day got longer than I anticipated and therefore, has become more than one chapter. And, sorry for the T & G fade-to-black moments, as Dani so aptly called them...but I promise we'll get to see more than Barbara did again before this story's over. ;-)