A/N: Hey! So this is the second last chapter! How sad is that??? Oh man! Sorry it's a bit short but that was the best part to cut it....hehehe..

Anyway, enjoy and REVIEW!!!!

Disclaimer: We do not consider anything in this story as a part of our property...because it's not!

Previously:

"At that time I didn't know I love her so much."

"You shouldn't wait for me anymore…I'm sorry."

"Will you….will you marry me?"

Chapter 36

"Will you…marry me?" Troy asked, hope shining in his eyes. He held his breath while Gabriella just stared at the ring in front of her.

"Oh this is so weird!" Gabriella breathed out heavily and looked away.

"What do you mean?" Troy looked at her confused, still holding up the ring for her. Seriously, couldn't this girl just be straightforward and say yes…or no?

"You tell me to go and be happy with Ryan and you leave…and now you suddenly do this!" Gabriella exclaimed with frustration and pointed at the velvet box held out in front of her. "How can a guy be so fickle!?"

"I am not being fickle!" Troy tried to defend himself. "At that time, I thought letting you go like that would be the right thing to do." He said and then looked at her in annoyance. "Anyway, are you gonna take this or what?" instead of answering, Gabriella just glared at him. "I mean, are you going to marry me?" Troy quickly corrected himself. Gabriella looked at him and put a finger to her chin, pretending to think.

"Uhm…I will think about it." She decided and nodded.

"What the…" Troy breathed out but quickly stood up when he noticed Gabriella walking towards the kitchen.

"Want something to drink?" Gabriella asked him as she was peering into the fridge, as if nothing just happened, as if the guy she loved with all her heart didn't just propose to her for real.

"Did you refuse me because of Ryan?" Troy asked instead and clutched the ring box tightly.

"First of all, I didn't refuse you…yet." Gabriella smirked and pulled out two cokes. "And second of all, Ryan has nothing do to with this, we decided to be just friends." She revealed to him and Troy had to keep himself from jumping up and down squealing like a girl. To say he was happy was an understatement. He was ecstatic now that Ryan was out of the picture, he could do anything he wanted to win her over. Finally! Troy inwardly breathed out in relief.

"Then what is it? Am I not good enough?" he suddenly remembered and frowned. With Ryan not messing with them anymore, he didn't see any other reason as to why she wouldn't say yes immediately.

"No." Gabriella shook her head. "I have to give it some thought before I can actually answer you." She tried to show his her reasoning.

"So, when will you give me an answer?" Troy pried; he really wanted one as soon as possible…maybe…even this very moment would be perfect. Gabriella looked at him with a smirk.

"In a week." She said and turned around, trying not to laugh. She knew he was an impatient person so she was sure he would not be ok with a whole week.

"No way!" Troy yelled out with wide eyes. "That's way too long! Three days max!" he complained and Gabriella glared at him playfully.

"Brie?" Troy knocked on the door leading to Gabriella's bedroom softly, the next morning. "Brie, you awake?" he tried again when he got no answer the first time. Troy decided to wake up early and get Gabriella so they could both go and exercise together like he always wanted. They would run next to each other on the beach and then they would hold each other for support when they stretch. After that, they could sit down at some random diner and have breakfast. Even the mere thought of it made Troy smile and knock at Gabriella's door again.

However, when he didn't get any answer, Troy sighed and decided to give up. Walking down the stairs, he heard a light snoring coming out of the living room. Curious, he went inside, only to find that Gabriella fell asleep at the computer again. Walking over to the couch, Troy picked up the blanket and put it over her, making sure she was covered properly, before he reached over and turned off the computer. Glancing back for the last time, he turned around went out for his morning jog. Guess his plans weren't going to happen…

"What did you do?!?!" was the first thing Troy heard when he got back from exercising.

"Morning to you too. The jog was great thanks for asking!" Troy chuckled and went over to get some cold water.

"What the hell did you do!?" Gabriella looked at him accusingly.

"What are you talking about? I went out for a jog, that's all." Troy looked at her weirdly.

"You turned off my computer!" she exclaimed exasperated.

"Yea, you left it on the whole night. Electricity doesn't come free you know." Troy shrugged and went over to sit on the couch.

"..!" Gabriella said every word as a sentence before she exploded in anger.

"Oh yea…oops." Troy said and went back to reading the newspaper.

"Oops?" Gabriella gasped out. "Oops? Is that all you can give me? You lost my work and all you can say is 'oops'?!" she took a small book and threw it at him.

"Hey what the…" Troy yelped out when the object hit him in the head. "What's the big deal? If you were a good writer you wouldn't worry if you lost your work! Because it would all be in your head! I guess that says something about you!" he exclaimed.

"What?" Gabriella's eyes widened in surprise. How could he say that?

"Ahhh, such a chicken." Troy mumbled in annoyance but Gabriella still heard it.

"Why do you want to marry me then? Why do you like a chicken?" she asked, angry with the guy in front of her, who seemed to be completely indifferent about the fact that he lost the work she has been working on the whole previous night.

"Who says I am marrying you because I like you?" Troy snorted and folded his newspaper. "It's because I feel sorry for you. Who would want to marry a small, noisy and stupid person like you?"

"Uhh, there is always Ryan." Gabriella said slyly and smirked when she saw Troy flinch.

"Yea, good luck with that." Troy grunted which made Gabriella even angrier, she felt like throwing the while computer on his head.

"You know what? I will give you an answer right now!" she yelled out, referring to his proposal. "I don't think I can marry you." She breathed out and looked away.

"What?" Troy whispered out with wide eyes.

The tension was almost unbearable. Not to mention the awkwardness between them. Gosh, she couldn't even look at him, let alone live with him. When she was in the kitchen, Troy walked in. She was just closing the fridge, holding oranges when he wanted to get to the fridge to drink milk. Of course they would have to pass each other and so they did…or at least tried to. When he walked towards her, Gabriella didn't dare to look up. She just stared down or onto his chest which was her eye level anyway. He wanted to step to the right to let her pass but she did the same thing except she stepped to the left, thus colliding with him again. They both went to move again and it went like that for a while until Troy sighed and turned around to walk around the counter to get to the fridge so Gabriella had a free pass back into the living room.

Gosh she couldn't bear this. It was too much, and she simply couldn't imagine everyday being like this for the rest of their lives. Turning around, she made her way back to the kitchen.

"How long are you planning on staying here?" she asked. She had the right to, it was, after all, her house wasn't it?

"Uhm, well, I would like to stay until I find an apartment for myself." Troy looked down at the plastic bottle. "I am going to pay rent to you until then though." He offered.

"I don't need money." Gabriella shook her head and looked around. The room was once again messy and she inwardly groaned at the amount of cleaning she would have to do very, very soon. Looking back at Troy, she suddenly smirked. "Although…"

"What?" Troy asked, not liking her sly gaze at all. This girl was plotting and it scared him to death just thinking about what was going on in her head.

"I could use help around the house you know, do this, clean that…" she trailed off, biting her lip so she wouldn't crack up laughing. Look how the tables have turned.

"What?" Troy's eyes widened in shock. "You are asking me to be your maid?"

"Maybe…" she said in a sing songy voice. Troy closed his eyes and breathed out to keep himself from yelling at her. Him? THE Troy Bolton? A maid?

"Look, maybe you should re-consider my offer. I mean, if we get married, I promise not to make you clean anymore! I will hire a maid for the house!" He pleaded again. "Think about it Brie, you might regret it later."

"Regret?" Gabriella burst out laughing. "You know, I don't think I would regret anything, being married to you wasn't great anyway. It was all cleaning and fighting, nothing else." She said with a huff. Who did he think he was? Brad Pitt?

"No!" Troy objected. "There was…" he paused to think. "How about…" he stopped, finding that he couldn't come up with anything. Gabriella just raised an eyebrow as if to say "I told you so."

"Yes?" she urged him to come up with something.

"Anyway! The cleaning wouldn't be a problem anymore! I told you I will hire a maid!" Troy changed the subject after giving up on their argument.

"Troy," Gabriella's face suddenly became serious. "Please don't, let's just be friends." She touched his shoulder and walked out immediately.

Troy stood there motionless. He didn't know how to react on that, he knew that he went way past the friendship line and there was no returning for him. It was stupid from her to even consider offering him to be friends. He couldn't do that and he wouldn't. His face was full of determination when he decided.

There was no way he would be just friends with Gabriella, or his name wasn't Troy Alexander Bolton.

Every emperor needed an advisor to conquer the territory and expand his empire. Every historical character whatsoever had a helper that helped his name be in history textbooks. Hell, even Santa had his little helpers because without them, he wouldn't be able to deliver all the presents. So Troy, was allowed to have his own helpers right? Even if it was only for conquering a girls heart.

And who is better than the pair that knows her the most?

"So here is the last box." Chad informed him with a relieved sigh. For a man, Troy Bolton sure had a lot of clothes and Chad was the unfortunate person that got to pack and unpack all of Troy's belongings every time he decided to move, which was quite often these days.

"Just put them in my room. I won't be staying here for long anyway considering my plan didn't really got the way I wanted it too…" Troy instructed him and Chad groaned inwardly, this meant that he was going to have to carry these boxes around the town again and unpack everything and then eventually pack them again, only to pack them up few days later for Troy to move…again.

"So?" Troy asked Taylor that came into the house right behind Chad. Yes, Troy had to call Taylor and Chad for help and he wasn't proud of it. However, they were the only people in the world that knew Gabriella more than she knew herself and he planned to use it to his advantage. So after explaining and bargaining, they finally came to an agreement. They would help Troy get Gabriella back in exchange for some financial help so they would be able to set up some stupid video rental shop or something.

"Here." Taylor said with a chuckle and handed him an envelope.

"What's this?" he asked looking at the white object in his hands with confusion.

"Why don't you open it and see?" Taylor suggested, boys could be so thick and slow sometimes it was sad! Without another word, Troy tore the top open and took out few sheets of papers that were neatly folded to fit into the envelope. Reading the first one, his eyes brightened up and he quickly looked at the rest of the pages. The papers contained everything, Gabriella's dislikes, likes, weaknesses, some things she had said in the past, some things she had done in the past and more detailed information about her.

"She hates carrots?" he mumbled with interest. Wow, there were many things he didn't know about this girl and he couldn't wait to learn more about her. Turning his attention to the very last page of the whole "informational booklet", Troy's eyes widened when he realized what he was looking at.

"Oh yea, each of us wrote one when we were like 17 or something. She was pretty much the same back then." Taylor told him when she noticed what he was staring at so intently.

GABRIELLA MONTEZ'S GUIDE TO ROMANCE

A/N: Look out for the next chapter! THE LAST ONE! REVIEW...it mite come faster that way! :P xoxo