A/N: We are back!!!! Are you guys happy? LOL we are too! Thailand was amazing but it's good to be back on FFN! The good news continues though! This week we got holidays cause of some kid getting H1N1 in the school. Following the protocol, the school has to close for a week! WHOO! We have hw through emails but dude, we can write more!!! YAY!

Thanks for the reviews! BUT some of u complained that the story is dragging looong and Troyella is taking WAY too long! Sorry!!! But the drama merely started…really….

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: We still own zilch.

Chapter 25

Previously:

"That's not important. What is important though, is that I decided to pursue her heart and take her away from you Bolton. So you better watch out."

***

"I am also sorry for what I said last time. You are not just nobody to me and I hope you know that." He finished off with a whisper.

"You what?!?" Gabriella yelled out with wide eyes, staring at her best friend with disbelief.

"I am sorry okay? It's somehow just slipped, I didn't mean to tell him the truth." Taylor said in a small voice.

"I can't believe you could let that happen!" Gabriella continued to yell. Taylor looked down guiltily with a small pout.

"I can't believe you were so careless! Really Taylor, really?" it was the worst news someone could give Gabriella this early in the morning. Not only was she still feeling weak and her head hurt, now her best friend just added stress onto the pile as well.

"I am really sorry Gabi, I didn't mean to tell Ryan everything. It was just that the ride here was so awkward that I wanted to say something so I started babbling. You know me when I babble, I don't even know what I am talking about!" Taylor tried to defend herself, even though it was a lost case. She spilled the secret to a stranger, period. Nothing more, nothing less.

"You could have babbled about something else! I don't know, for example about the time you were in high school and you went into the guys' changing room instead of the girls' but didn't notice until you ran into the football captain who was all naked. Not about my fake marriage!" Gabriella scolded Taylor who immediately blushed at the memory she was trying so hard to forget.

"Hey! That was one time and it was not my fault ok? I had a lot in my mind and I was mad about the fact that Jenny was voted the captain of the scholastic decathlon team and not me!" Taylor cried out.

"Whatever." Gabriella waved her hand and pulled out her cell phone. Time for some damage check. Opening a new window, she began to text.

To: Ryan :)

From: Gabriella Montez

Date: 22 September 2009 10:30

Hey Ryan! It's me, Gabriella. I was wondering, how about a lunch today at 1? I didn't get to thank you properly for taking care of me the other day yet. What do you say?

Pressing 'Send' she slid her phone shut a looked at Taylor.

"I am not going to stay angry at you forever, but right now, I am really using all my will-power to not run to you and strangle you, so I think you should go." She said in a normal voice.

"Yea, call me when you feel like meeting up okay?" Taylor said and after receiving a nod, she stood up and left the house. Right after the door slammed shut, Gabriella's phone indicated a new message. Sliding it open, she read Ryan's answer in which he agreed and told her that he would pick her up at 12:30. Glancing at the clock, Gabriella noted that she had about 2 hours. Just enough time to clean up and change.

New mission: Find out how much Ryan knows and see if he is any threat to the contract.

"You were right, this is the best spaghetti in the whole town." Ryan exclaimed with a full mouth and Gabriella giggled.

"See I told you! Finally I got to treat you to it. You always paid for me so I was starting to feel bad about using you. If there was one more meal that you would pay, I would seriously start considering not eating with you." Gabriella said and Ryan laughed out loud.

"Then I am glad that I listened to you today and drove here." Ryan nodded and finished his plate. After a small talk, the two of them argued a bit about who would pay but Gabriella won. They decided to take a small walk in the park nearby.

"It's so peaceful here don't you think?" Gabriella breathed out and closed her eyes for a while. When Ryan didn't say anything, Gabriella opened her eyes and looked at him. However, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Ryan?" she looked around for him. Suddenly a single rose appeared right in front of her and Gabriella turned around to come face to face with a smiling Ryan.

"Sorry, I just went there to get this for you." He apologized and gave her the flower. Gabriella nodded and silently accepted the gift her face showing surprise and shock. The two of them started walking wordlessly through the park again.

"You know, this is the first time someone had ever given me flowers." Gabriella said after a while, still staring at the flower. Ryan nodded and they fell into silence once again.

"I know." Ryan suddenly said, breaking the silence.

"Huh?" Gabriella blinked in confusion.

"I know that Troy didn't marry you for love." He elaborated and Gabriella stopped breathing for a while.

"Ryan…I-I…" she started but he cut her off.

"I hate thinking about the "if's" and the "what if's" you know? But lately, it's all I have been thinking about: 'If I had the chance first…', 'if you had met me first…', 'if you didn't marry Troy…'" he continued and the two stopped walking, just simply facing each other. Even though Gabriella didn't have the courage to look into Ryan's eyes, instead, she stared at the rose.

"P-please…" she whispered but was once again not heard and cut off.

"If two people's marriage isn't real, then it's not yet too late for me, right?" Ryan asked, but Gabriella knew that he didn't want an answer.

"Will you give me a chance?"

Troy opened the front doors and was greeted by the delicious smell of home made quesadillas. Smiling to himself, he went straight into the kitchen.

"I am home!" he exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Yea, sure, whatever." Gabriella answered abstinently and Troy's smile faded a bit.

"Well, I am going to change now. Is the dinner ready yet?" he asked, determined to get her attention.

"5 minutes." Was all he got, so Troy turned on his heels and headed up into his room. When he came down, everything was set up already and Gabriella was sitting in her chair, waiting for him.

Before Troy could bite into the delicious food, a single rose in the small crystal vase caught his attention.

"What is that?" Troy asked while pointing at the flower.

"It's a rose." Gabriella answered simply while chewing and trying to somehow cut the cheese.

"I know that." Troy rolled his eyes and too, bit into his dinner.

"Then why were you asking about what it was?" Gabriella looked at him as if he was crazy.

"What I meant was, where did it come from?" Troy asked again.

"Ryan gave it to me." was Gabriella's answer that made Troy choke on his melted cheese. When his coughing subsided, he looked at Gabriella with shock.

"Why would he give you flowers?" he asked, his voice harsher than he intended to be.

"Last time I checked it was one flower and why wouldn't he?" Gabriella said, her tone matching Troy's equally.

"You don't give married woman flowers for no reason." Troy started an inevitable argument.

"Why not? Is there a rule against it? Is it illegal?" Gabriella asked, dinner long forgotten, no matter how good it was.

"No, but you don't give women a red rose unless it means something!" Troy said angrily.

"What does it matter to you if it means something? Our marriage is fake anyway!" Gabriella exclaimed, she, too, was getting angry.

"What does it matter to me? It doesn't! But I am still you husband, fake or not! And I am saying that I don't like it if another man gives my wife a red rose!" Troy yelled out and slammed his fist on the table.

"There are only few months left in our contract anyway so who the fuck cares?!" Gabriella screeched out.

"I do!" Troy matched her volume. Suddenly the room fell silent and a staring contest began. Gabriella closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. When she opened her eyes again, she found Troy still staring at her, his normally electrifying blue eyes dark with anger like the sky covered with dark clouds just before a big storm.

"Now that our marriage is coming to an end, you can go and meet up with Sharpay all you want and I will do whatever I feel like doing with my life. Each of us will go our own way okay?" she said with a normal voice, even though it took all her strength not to burst out crying at the thought of the end.

"Where is it? Where the hell is it?" Troy mumbled while going through the piles of paper works on his table in his home office.

"Where the hell did I put it?" he continued muttering and moved on to the drawers of the big wooden table. Since the argument yesterday, Troy couldn't fall asleep at night. He lay there the whole time, staring at the ceiling and thinking about the contract. The next day right after breakfast that was very quiet, he decided to look for it. However, an obstacle rose after about five minutes of searching: Troy had no idea where he had put the contract. That's why he was now, 2 hours since he started looking for it, turning his office upside down, looking for the single sheet of paper.

The search soon spread from the office to the whole house and while Gabriella made an effort to clean everything up, Troy was only making a bigger mess. Still, the contract was nowhere to be seen.

"What are you doing?" Gabriella asked curiously after she noticed that Troy was actually going all around the house with a big frown and mumbling something.

"I am looking for something." Was all she got so Gabriella just shrugged her shoulders and decided that after she finished rearranging the small bookshelf in the living room, it was time to start preparing lunch.

"You having lunch at home today?" Gabriella called out.

"Yea." Troy yelled back from somewhere deep inside the house.

"I can't find the contract." Troy said when they were sitting in the kitchen after lunch.

"What do you mean by you can't find it?" Gabriella exclaimed with wide eyes.

"As in I don't know where it is and I tried looking for it everywhere, no such luck." Troy said.

"Well, have you tried your office?" Gabriella asked and Troy's eyes widened.

"Nooooo, that thought had never occurred to me." he said sarcastically and Gabriella put her hands up.

"I was just trying to help." She defended herself.

"Well, your help is not very good." Troy said and Gabriella just poked her tongue out at him.

"Whatever." Troy rolled his eyes.

"Let's make a new contract." Troy suddenly suggested.

"What? Why?" Gabriella asked in shock.

"Well, the old one is lost and all the terms were on it. Since we still have few months left, I think we have to establish the terms, maybe change some around so everything is nice and clear so there are no arguments at the end." Troy tried reasoning with her, a plan slowly forming in his head.

Gabriella sighed and mentally weighted the pros and cons, carefully thinking about the suggestion.

"Fine, let's do this." She nodded and Troy did everything he could, to prevent himself from jumping out in joy and dancing around excitedly.

"Good choice." He nodded, instead. So the two of them moved over to the living room and Gabriella brought her laptop to the couch and they started putting a new contract together.

"Don't use that font, it's stupid and childish." Troy shook his head and Gabriella just pouted.

After an hour, the main body was written and all the main terms were included.

"Troy Bolton is forbidden to call Gabriella Montez/Bolton a machine to make food, chicken, vacuum cleaner or a bird." Gabriella read out loud while typing the term down.

"What? But…" Troy started but Gabriella glared at him. "Fine." He pouted and looked down.

"The period of marriage, what should I write down? How many months did we have left?" Gabriella asked while frowning, what did the last contract say?

"Write down three years." Troy said with a smirk. It was time to get to the main part of his plan.

"What? Hell no! Three fucking years?" Gabriella yelled out and furiously shook her head. There was no way she was being stuck with this guy for another three years.

"Why not? It's just three years." Troy said in a normal tone, even though he was holding his breath.

"Why not? Are you crazy? No way in hell I am going to be married to you for another three years. I mean, there is no way the old contract said another three years! Three months maybe!" Gabriella said.

"Think about it carefully Gabriella? What about Grandmother? What about my father and my mother? Think about them. Do you know how disappointed they will be if we divorced this early? Do you know how heart broken will grandma be?" Troy asked carefully. Oh yea, he just played the family card.

Gabriella closed her eyes. How could Troy do that? She couldn't believe Troy just went there. He knew she loved the Boltons to death! He used the guilt trip on her! If they divorced, it would mean that she would never be able to meet the Boltons again. No more Elizabeth, no more Lucille and no more poker. She would miss them so much, Gabriella knew that. They were the closest thing she had to a family and she didn't know if she would be able to be without them. Also, what is three years right? It's not that long and it would mean she would have money without working, still be able to see the Boltons and she would still be close to…

No, Gabriella shook her head. She couldn't let her thoughts go that way. Opening her eyes, she found Troy staring at her and studying her reaction. He was obviously still waiting for her answer.

"I have few more conditions." She said and Troy smiled. He knew she just agreed to his proposal.

"Whatever you want."

"Don't forget to buy me flowers!" Gabriella called out after him as Troy went to his car.

"How could I." Troy called back at her before speeding off. It was the Clause 105 of their new contract: Troy was to buy Gabriella flowers every Wednesday and it was Wednesday today. The new contract was way better in Gabriella's opinion. It definitely had more benefits for Gabriella than the old one:

-Troy was to settle for toast for breakfast everyday.

-Troy was to wash the dishes every other day.

-Troy and Gabriella were to share the house chores equally between each other.

Gabriella looked at the contract once again. The only problem was those three damn year. But she still smiled at the conditions and terms.

"Awe, life's good." She smiled and turned on the TV.

Sharpay was humming while walking out of the elevators of the office. Walking as if she was on the catwalk, she proceeded further down the hallway, occasionally nodding at the employees and people around her.

She went to turn right when sudden whisper made her stop dead in the tracks. A voice was coming out of the room to her right. The door was opened a bit and normally, Sharpay wouldn't think anything of it and just carry on with her own thing but when she heard 'Troy' and 'Gabriella' being harshly whispered, she couldn't help but curiously peek in and eavesdrop. Peeking inside, Sharpay didn't see anything but a mass of brown curls standing in the middle of the room, talking into the phone.

"I can't believe you could let something like that slip Tay! It's no wonder Gabriella is mad at you now." Chad said into the phone, not noticing he had an audience.

"I know how you are when things are awkward but that's not an excuse honey." He said and listened to what his wife had to say.

"Yes, I know you didn't mean to." He nodded even thought she couldn't see.

"But it was a big secret Tay! It's not something you go around and tell strangers." Chad said carefully as if even a small slip would make her explode.

"No, I am not saying anything like that! Don't be ridiculous, but what if Troy finds out that you told his secret to Mr. Evans?" Chad asked while Sharpay's curiosity just increased. Secret? Troy? Ryan? What secret did Troy have? As far as she knew, there was nothing that Troy wouldn't want Ryan to know.

"I don't know if he is going to fire me! But I would be mad as well I someone spilled my secret to a stranger." Chad continued his discussion with his wife.

"That's stupid idea Tay! I can't just walk to him and say 'Hi, Mr. Bolton! You see, my wife told Mr. Evans about you fake marriage with my best friend. But there is nothing to worry about, Gabriella talked to him and it seems like he wont say anything!' That's fucking stupid Taylor." Chad exclaimed and Sharpay gasped. Fake marriage? Troy and Gabriella were in a fake marriage? Sharpay slowly backed away from the door as if it was about to jump at her and attack her. When she was far enough for her liking, she turned on her Jimmy Choo heels and headed back to the elevators. There was only one person she wanted to see right now.

Gabriella's day was getting more and more interesting and crazy by the minute. First it's the contract and her 3 year longer marriage and now Sharpay Henney was sitting in her living room, asking for a cup of tea and for a 'chat' as she put it herself.

After she handed Sharpay a cup of strawberry tea, the two woman sat down in the living room sofa and Gabriella waited patiently for Sharpay to start.

"I know we haven't started off that nicely with each other but I want to change that." Sharpay suddenly said and Gabriella did everything she could not to start choking on her tea or burn her tongue in the hot water.

"Oh." Was all she managed to say in the shock.

"So let's start from the beginning." Sharpay said with a smile.

"O-okay." Gabriella said slowly.

"Where did you two meet? I mean, I clearly never saw you before so it must have been somewhere else right?" Sharpay asked

"Uhm, we met on a plane to England." Gabriella answered. It was true after all, wasn't it?

"Exciting! But why did you guys marry so suddenly? One day me and him are still sitting together, drinking coffee and the next, he is getting married!" Sharpay asked, her true purpose slowly floating to the surface, even though Gabriella didn't notice.

"Uhm…I-I…w-we…" Gabriella didn't know how to start but Sharpay cut her off with a serious tone.

"You know it's very hard for me not to have Troy by my side." She said a bit quieter than before and Gabriella frowned. What the…

"It's unfair to always want Troy by your side when you are in love with another man Sharpay. That's selfish you know?" she said and Sharpay nodded.

"I know." Sharpay said. "Which is why, from now on, I will only have eyes for Troy." At this, Gabriella's cup slipped from her hands and the glass shattered on the ground, the liquid inside spilling out all over the wooden floor. However, neither of the women noticed and continued staring at each other. Gabriella with horror and shock and Sharpay with pleading eyes.

"Please help me get Troy back." She almost begged. Gabriella couldn't believe this. Still speechless she kept staring at the woman in front of her. Sharpay had the guts to ask someone's wife to help her get their husband! That was ridiculous but Gabriella couldn't bring herself to see the ridiculous side. Instead, she saw her world crashing down and felt her heart being shattered into millions of pieces same as the cup she just dropped.

"Troy loves you very much you know that? That's why he married me in the first place." Gabriella heard herself say. What did she just do? It was like her body did whatever it wanted to do and her mind didn't have any say in it. Why did she just say that? She didn't know what was happening but she noticed that she was now kneeling on the ground amongst the tea water, picking up the small pieces of glass.

From: Pay

To: Troy boy

Date: 23 September 2009 18:40

Meet me at 8 at Solace? Pay xoxo

Troy looked at the message and smiled.

From: Troy

To: Pay

Date: 23 September 2009 18:41

Sure, c u there. Troy x.

Flipping his phone shut, Troy walked towards Harry's office. They were to discuss few things before Harry had to leave home to his wife and two daughters. Solace, that was Sharpay's favorite bar. They always went there when Sharpay felt like getting drunk or just talking to Troy in private, without fans running to him every 5 minutes, asking for a signature. Suddenly Troy remembered something and took his phone out again.

"Hello?" came out from the other end, as soon as Troy finished dialing and pressed call.

"Brie, it's me Troy." He said.

"Hey. What's up?" she asked, someone was in a good mood, Troy thought.

"I just wanted to call you to tell you that I wont be home for dinner and I will come late today, so don't wait up for me ok?" Troy said.

"Oh. Where are you going?" Gabriella asked her tone not so cheerful anymore.

"I am going to meet Sharpay for a while. But I wont be that late, really." Troy said while closing his eyes. How would Gabriella's reaction be? That, he didn't know.

"Oh." Gabriella said quietly.

"Well, then see you." Troy said and hung up, while stepping inside Harry's office. If he had waited for Gabriella to respond he wouldn't gone into the office. If he had waited for Gabriella to respond he would have heard something that would change his plans for the night entirely. On the other end of the line, Gabriella stood in the middle of the room, still holding the phone to her ear.

"Don't meet Sharpay, just go home… Please just go home…" she whispered.

After few drinks were consumed, Sharpay and Troy sat at the bar and talked animatedly. Both were having a great time while remembering their childhood memories.

"I still don't think it was nice of you to pull Amy's hair when she said that my hair looked like worms." Sharpay said while laughing and Troy soon joined her when he remembered what he did to the poor small Amy.

"I couldn't help it! She was making fun of you and it was job to protect you all the time from whatever." Troy exclaimed and laughed some more.

"I can't believe I haven't realized it sooner, but you were always by my side." Sharpay suddenly said, no traces of laughter anymore, but a small warm smile replaced it instead. Troy quieted down as well, not knowing what to say, he played with his glass of alcohol.

"Thank you for being patient with me Troy, I want to go to you now. Will you take me in?" she asked in whisper. Another glass shattering to million pieces could be heard.

When Troy came home that night, he found Gabriella sitting on the couch, waiting for him. When he came in, neither of them said anything, but both of them knew that the other knew what happened.

Wordlessly, Troy went into the kitchen and took out few bottles of beer. Handing one to Gabriella who gladly accepted it, he took a sip out of his own bottle.

"You know I met up with Ryan yesterday." Gabriella started and broke the silence between them.

"What did you guys do?" Troy asked simply.

"We walked. We talked. He told me he knew, and he thought about the if's. He asked me if it's too late for him." Gabriella informed him in a quiet tone. Usually Troy would have jumped up and started yelling and freaking out about it but today, he just sat there, slowly drinking his beer.

"Is it okay if I like him?"

A/N: CLIFFHANGER!!!! Lol…this chapter if freaking long! You guys better review A LOT! What did you think? The next chapter up SOON! PROMISE! 3