Hey guys so I was in a big rush to get the last chapter up, so I didn't have the chance to say how sorry I am that it took so long for me to update.
Also I wanted to thank you guys for the amazing reviews and such. They're great
Anyways, here is the next chapter, which I'm not so sure about...let me know what you think.
Enjoy!
Chapter 38: Unexpected Party
"Ah…I'm stuffed." Jason flopped down on a couch, rubbing his stomach.
"Me too." Chad did the same, joining his friend on the large couch.
It had been a strange day for the group of guys. They were half relieved to have a girl free day, but the other half needed and wanted the girls around. Troy had seemed out of it and distracted for most of the day, and after many attempts his friends had gotten him to spill out what was bugging him. After that, they had all agreed to not bring it up again.
Ryan came into the living room from the kitchen, Troy and Zeke following closely behind. "Thanks for helping clean up guys." He said sarcastically to the two guys on the couch. Chad and Jason had managed to escape the massive clean up they had done after eating dinner.
"No problem." Jason replied, getting more comfortable.
Zeke walked closer to one of the front windows and looked out curiously. "Looks like the girls are finally back." He told his friends. He wasn't sure whether to be excited or not.
"Really?" Troy asked and went over to the window to see for sure.
"Yep." Zeke pointed down at the silver car, which was just pulling into the driveway. When it stopped, they watched the driver's door open first. Sharpay hopped out and went to the trunk, where Taylor, Gabriella and Kelsi all joined her. Then they started to unload bags of stuff they had bought. Moments later, they were bringing it all into the house. The guys all remained silent.
"We're home!" Sharpay called from the front door. Her words were followed by footsteps coming up the stairs.
"Hey." Zeke greeted the girls when they filed into the room. "How was your day?" he asked automatically.
Taylor looked at the other girls. "It was pretty good." She smiled. "What did you guys do?" she asked.
"Uh…nothing." Jason replied slightly awkwardly. There really was nothing worth telling. Suddenly there was a strange silence among the group, until the phone started ringing.
"Thank goodness." Ryan muttered under his breath. He reached over and grabbed the phone that was perched on one of the end tables. "Hello?" he said into the receiver. Whoever it was must have said something good because Ryan's face broke into a smile. "It's been forever!" he said excitedly. "Hang on." He covered the speaker with a hand and looked at Sharpay. "It's Brooke." He told her.
"Oh my god really?" Sharpay broke into a huge smile. Ryan nodded happily. "Put her on speaker." Sharpay demanded. The rest of their friends stood there clueless to what was going on.
"Okay." Ryan pressed a button on the phone and put the receiver down. "Okay, you're on speaker."
"Sharpay?" a girl's voice came through.
"Brooke!" Sharpay exclaimed. "How are you?"
"I'm stunning." Brooke replied. "Anyways, I'm calling to ask, why you didn't call and let me know that you were going to be at your summer house for the week?"
Sharpay laughed lightly. "Well Ryan and I have friends here." She replied. "I didn't know if you'd be at your place."
"Yeah, we're here all summer this year." Brooke told her. "Right now the whole gang is here actually. Everyone's parents have dragged them to this party my parents are throwing tonight."
"Oh yeah, mom and dad were so disappointed that they were able to go." Ryan said.
"Well…" Brooke started. "We could use some more young people around here. Plus everyone's missing the Evan's twins. We haven't seen you two in forever." She said. "Why don't you two and all of your friends come over?" she asked.
Sharpay and Ryan looked at each other, and then to their friends, who all shrugged and nodded their heads, letting them know it was okay. "Well sure, that sounds great." Sharpay replied. "We'll just take the boat over."
"Perfect." Brooke said, a tone of happiness coming to her voice. "Well, see you soon then. I've got to go." She added before hanging up.
Sharpay clapped her hands happily like a little kid who just got a brand new toy. "Oh I'm so excited!" she smiled.
Ryan also had a huge smile on his face, but instead of freaking out like his sister, her turned to his friends and decided to explain what was going on. "Our family is friends with a bunch of other families who own summer homes around this lake, and so we have grown up with their kids." He told them. "There are always random dinner parties or lunches or whatever being held, so that's when we all get together." He went on. "Unfortunately though, since our dad has been working so much more, we haven't been around much the past few summers. So it's been a while since we've seen our friends."
"Oh, okay." Taylor nodded. "Well then, we'll all come along, wont we?" She asked her friends.
"I don't ever think there's been a party that I refused to go to." Chad replied.
"Sounds nice." Gabriella said. "We should probably change though, right?" she asked.
Sharpay nodded. "Ooh, we should all wear those summery dresses we bought today." She said excitedly.
Kelsi laughed. "Sounds good." She smiled. "So when should we be ready?" she asked.
Ryan looked up at the clock on the wall. "Everyone meet on the dock in an hour."
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Troy came out of the bathroom and found that the bedroom was empty. He sighed and sat down on the bed, where Gabriella had been sitting moment before, tying up a pair of wedge sandals. She was clearly gone now.
Over the past twenty the minutes, the two of them had moved around each other, neither of them saying a word the whole time. Gabriella had gone straight into the bathroom, shopping bag in hand, and had come out with a pretty dark purple dress on. She had pulled her hair out of her face a bit, though most of it was still hanging around her shoulders.
Troy had gone into the bathroom just as she had sat down to put her shoes on. He hadn't expected her to be gone when he came out. She was though, and he was going to have to find her if her wanted to talk to her and make things right. But it seemed like he had wasted all of his energy thinking about their fight all day, that he did the only thing he could think of doing was just heading down to the dock early.
It was already beginning to get dark outside, so Troy concentrated carefully on the stone steps leading down to the water. When he finally stepped onto the beach and looked up, he was surprised to see that Gabriella was standing on the dock, watching the last bit of sun sink below the trees. It hadn't occurred to him that she might have come down here early. He walked closer to her, figuring now was as good as time as any to talk.
"So are we just going to ignore each other until one of us decides to say something?" he asked. He saw Gabriella jump a little before she turned around to face him. Clearly she hadn't expected anyone to show up.
Gabriella looked at him and bit her lip. "Troy…" she started. She was about to go on, when she saw over his shoulder that the rest of their friends were heading down the steps and would get down here any minute. She immediately changed what she was going to say. "Everyone's coming down, so we'll just have to do this later." She said.
Troy looked over his shoulder and sure enough, everyone was just stepping onto the beach. They all looked just as nice and dressed up as him and Gabriella were. "Okay…" he sighed and looked out at the water.
"It's probably better just to wait anyways." Gabby told him. "Sharpay and Ryan are really excited about this and I don't want to ruin anything for them."
Troy was about to reply to that, but the sound of several footsteps on the dock made him turn his head and look to see everyone coming.
"Ah, we didn't even need a full hour, perfect." Ryan said happily, when he and the rest of the group finally reached where Troy and Gabriella were standing. He went to go get the boat ready to go, and a few of them helped him. Sharpay was happily talking away about how excited she was to see her friends, filling whatever strange silence there had been before.
"Hey, everything okay?" Taylor asked Gabriella quietly. She knew that they had all obviously interrupted something.
"Yeah." Gabby replied, though she didn't look entirely happy. Taylor knew she probably wouldn't look happy until she fixed things up with Troy.
"Cheer up, you might actually have some fun tonight." Taylor said and gave her friend a little smile. Gabby couldn't help but smile back.
"Yeah I guess." She said. She highly doubted it though. From what she had heard of Brooke so far, Gabby could tell that she and the rest of Sharpay's high-class friends were most likely the type of people that acted the same way Sharpay had when she had first met her. Snobby, self-centered and able to get whatever they wanted.
After the day Gabriella had so far, those kind of people were the last kind of people she wanted to deal with.
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"Just when I thought your house the was biggest house I had seen…" Jason commented as they got out of the boat fifteen minutes later. "You bring me here." he finsihed, staring at the Massive house not far away from the lake's shore.
Sharpay gave a little laugh. "They have an absolutely gorgeous house." She said. "Come on, let's get up there, I want you guys to meet everyone." She added impatiently.
"Hold your horses." Chad said, helping Kelsi onto the dock before extending a hand to Taylor, who was still in the boat.
"Thank you." Taylor smiled at him and straightened out her dress.
Chad smiled back and put his hand back. Gabriella, who was the last to get out of the boat, immediately grabbed it. "Thanks Chad." She whispered when he pulled her out.
"Alright, let's go." Ryan said and led them off the dock. They walked through a beautiful garden, which was lit up with tiny little lights. The garden led to a big stone patio similar to the one at Ryan and Sharpay's house. The glass doors, which led from the house to the patio, were all open and letting in the slight breeze. They went straight through the doors and into the house.
It didn't take long for Ryan and Sharpay to find Brooke and the rest of their childhood friends. "Brooke!" Sharpay called excitedly.
A girl who was sitting on one of the clean white leather couches on the other side of the room, got up and made her way over, a bunch of other people getting up and following her as well. "Sharpay! Ryan!" she hugged them both. "It's so good to see you!" she said happily. "You brought your friends too!"
Sharpay nodded and turned to her friends, ready to introduce everyone. "Alright guys, so this is Brooke, Brittany, Travis, Kelly and Curtis." Sharpay pointed to each of her and Ryan's exquisitely dressed and well-groomed friends, who were all standing in a row now.
Brooke looked over the group of them, her eyes finally landing on Troy, who was standing closest to her. "And who is this?" she asked flirtatiously. She snaked an arm around Troy's neck and pulled herself closer to him in the process.
To everyone's surprise, Troy smiled after a brief look of shock. "Troy." He told the girl currently hanging off of him.
Gabriella stopped her mouth from dropping open. She couldn't believe it. Mostly she couldn't believe Troy. Now she was going to have to set this girl straight, since clearly Troy wasn't about to. It really wasn't something she wanted to do, but she did anyways. "Troy, baby." She said, moving towards him and slipping an arm through his. "Let's go look at the stars." She suggested, gazing up at him. She glanced at Brooke, who shrank back a bit when she realized that Troy was clearly taken.
"Alright." Troy tore his eyes away from Brooke. He was a little shocked at Gabriella's sudden move, but figured he might as well go with it.
"There's a whole buffet of food and drinks in the other room, where the big party is, if any of you want it." The girl that Sharpay had introduced as Brittany told them nicely.
"Thanks." Gabriella smiled at her. "Come on, let's go." She said to Troy, acting as if there was nothing wrong between them. The two of them left, and she knew that they left the room silent.
They walked straight to the buffet that Brittany had just told them about. "Want anything?" Troy asked.
Gabriella just looked at him blankly for a second. Did he not understand that what he had just done was definitely not okay? "No." she replied, getting annoyed now.
"So where to then?" Troy asked. He had noticed the touch of anger in her voice but had gone on anyways.
Gabriella looked at him again. Apparently he wasn't getting the clue that she was mad. "Forget about it." She shook her head angrily and turned away, heading for one of the doors they had first come through to get into the house.
Troy sighed, letting out a little groan of frustration. He was trying to decide exactly what to do. Go after her or do what she advised and forget about it for the night? Things were getting more complicated by the minute.
"Dude, what is going on?" Chad asked, coming up beside him. He had secretly been watching Troy and Gabriella, and had seen everything that had just happened.
"This day is just getting worse and worse." Troy told him. "Now, not only is Gabriella mad about this morning, but apparently she is mad about something else."
"Well what is it?" Chad was curious.
"I have no idea." Troy sighed.
Unfortunately for him, Taylor came up on the other side. She had heard their last bit of conversation and was rolling her eyes. "Are you both blind?" she asked. "Obviously Gabby is mad about your little introduction with Brooke." She said to Troy.
"Oh yeah…" Chad couldn't help but nod along with that.
"What?" Troy asked. "What did I do?"
Taylor and Chad exchanged a glance. "Has your brain stop working or something?" Taylor asked. Her voice was getting louder. She couldn't believe that Troy couldn't see it.
"Uh…" Troy started, wondering how to answer that. He looked to Chad for help.
Chad shrugged. He couldn't lie about this one to try and make things better. "It looked like you completely forgot you have a girlfriend." He explained carefully.
"So she's mad because…" Troy trailed off and thought about it. Then, to Chad and Taylor's surprise, his confused face turned into an angry one, instead of an understanding one. "I'll be back." He muttered before heading in the direction that Gabriella had just gone.
Taylor and Chad watched him leave. "Think we should do something?" Chad asked. He was a little frightened, since he recognized his friend's anger. He didn't want anything bad to happen.
"No." Taylor shook her head. "We'll go check on them in a little while and break them up if necessary. She sighed.
Meanwhile, Troy was walking quickly across the patio and out into the garden. He spotted Gabriella walking slowly, not to far ahead of him. He jogged and caught up to her. "Wow, you followed me." Gabriella said when she noticed him.
"Yeah. I think maybe we should talk now." Troy told her, some ice in his voice.
She looked at him. "Wouldn't you rather go and get to know Brooke while you can?" she matched his tone.
Troy let out a little frustrated laugh. "So you are mad about that." he nodded.
Gabby rolled her eyes. "You finally figured it out…" she sighed. "I was beginning to wonder if you would ever get the message."
Troy took a deep breath. "So it's okay for you to get mad about this, but it's not okay for me to get mad about Tristan?" he asked.
Gabriella stopped walking and turned to face him. "The thing with Tristan is completely different." She told Troy, much more seriously.
"Really?" Troy was completely frustrated. "Why does it seem like everything is different with Tristan?"
"Because, unlike what I just saw, when I'm with Tristan or talking to Tristan all I can feel is guilty, while you seemed to forget I even existed." Gabriella told him, her voice rising. "I'm always thinking about how you would react, because I know you don't like him, and that's perfectly fine, but you have to understand that this is just the way I am." She burst out. "I draw people in, I don't judge them, and if they need help or a friend or whatever, I'll give them that." She went on, finding that her eyes were beginning to fill up with angry and desperate tears. It was all coming out now. "Tristan just needs somebody to talk to." She sighed, and took a moment to collect herself before continuing. "But I'll stop if it's going to cause stuff like this." She finished, reaching a hand up and wiping a few tears away.
"No…" Troy sighed. His anger had faded away with her outburst. He knew that trying to stop her from being a good person was something he just couldn't do. No matter how much it bothered him. "I'm sorry." He stepped closer to her and took both of her hands in his.
Gabby closed her eyes and sighed. "Me too." She told him.
Troy looked at her. "So why are you still crying then?" he asked.
Gabriella stared back, thinking for a moment before coming to a conclusion. "I just wish there was some way that you would know I'm always yours." She told him.
Troy thought about that for a moment. Then he let go of her hands, and to her surprise, pulled his class ring, which he always wore, right off of his finger. "Here." he said, grabbing her hand and dropping the ring into her palm.
Gabriella was stuck between happiness and worry. She ended up shaking her head. "Troy, a ring can't solve our problems." She told him realistically.
He took a deep breath. "I know." he said. "But it can help."