38. There's no way back now

"So how late are we already?" I asked Troy as I hoped throw my bedroom to find my second black Louboutin shoe. I was wearing a perl white dress with a gold DVF necklace.

"Well only 5 minutes for now..." Troy answered as he watched me hopping through the room. He smiled, "You look funny."

"Funny? Funny?! I've been looking for this shoe 5 whole minutes long. I can't seem to find it. Mind to help me a little, Mr. Bolton?!" I hissed at him as I continued looking for it.

"Sure, sure..." he said and got up. He walked behind the arm chair and... he picked up my shoe!

"MY shoe! My lovely black Louboutin shoe! Give it to me. NOW!" I said and walked over to him. He handed me the black shoe and I got into it, "You hid it, didn't you?"

He shrugged. His only response was the shrug.

"It was YOU. You did this. Troy, I nearly had a heart attack. I thought I lost it. Do you know what it means to lose a Louboutin?! I would never forgive myself for it. Never."

He looked at me for a second before he burst out in laughter.

"This. Is. Not. Funny." I said and hit him with every word.

"Alright, alright I apologize." He said, still laughing his butt of.

"Ugh, whatever!" I said frustrated and opened my clutch to put in my BlackBerry Bold and my wallet, plus mascara and lipgloss. "Alright, "I started looking around, "I'm done. Let's go."

"Are you sure?" he asked me as we walked out of the room.

"Yeah, I am done." I answered and looked at myself in the mirror. "I will be done after I put out the hair rollers." I said and saw Troy nodding in the mirror.

"Good plan." he said and I walked into the bathroom. "Why are you so nervous anyway?"

I slowly put hair roller after hair roller in my sink. "Me? I am not nervous."

"Oh yeah you are. Just admit it."

"Alright fine. I may be a little nervous." I admited as I put down the last hair roller. "It's just... we're going to be official again, you know? It's going to be paparazzi all over us again." I answered honest as I walked over to him.

"If you don't-"

"Don't even start with this. I do want to walk hand in hand with you through the Central Park and I know it won't be possible without attending with you the Gala tonight. Because if I wouldn't, then the paparazzi - the whole media - would go crazy just seeing us next to each other."

He nodded, understanding what I meant. "It's hard to be with me, huh?" he asked me as we entered the elevator.

"It's worth it." I almost whispered and leaned my head on his shoulder, "It's so worth it." I said to myself.

He squeezed my hand and I smiled. It definitely was worth it. Everything was worth taking if I could only be with him. Everything.

We sat in the limo and waited in the queue to come up. I saw the lights infront of the Met and the media waiting for Troy to arrive. Women in beautiful dresses made their ways into the Met. If only they knew I was with him... If only.

"Are you ready?" he asked me as I looked out of the window.

I nodded, not looking at him. "Yeah, I am."

"Are you sure?" he asked me again.

"Look, "I said and looked at him, " If you're going to keep on asking me if I was sure, or if I was fine, then I am not going to be sure or fine."

He nodded, "I just want to make sure-"

"I know and I love you for caring for me, but I am fine. Perfectly fine." I said and kissed him.

"Alright, I'll stop now." he said and smiled against my lips. I returned his smile and he kissed me again. "I love you." he told me, straight into my eyes.

I smiled, "I love you, too."

The car door opened and Troy stepped out first. I heared saw the paparazzi taking pictures of Troy already. I stepped out after him and everyone went crazy. The Media, the paparazzi, the... fans?!

"Mr. Bolton, why are you here with Gabriella?"

"Are you back together again?"

"Is it out of pity?"

"Is she pregnant?! Is that the reason why you're with her again?"

"Are you getting married?"

"When's the bell going to ring?"

"When's the birth date?"

"When's the wedding date?"

"Have you already picked out a place?"

I couldn't form my mouth to bring out words. Pregnant?! Wedding?!... PITY?! This was crazy. Just insane. How could they? How... This is sick.

Without a word from both of us, we walked into the Met. But we did stop in front of the entrance to smile for the cameras just for a second. Then we entered and I could breath again.

"Alright... What was that?!" I asked him.

"I told you they would get crazy."

"Yeah, crazy but this was...insane." I said and looked at him, "I mean, wedding alright, pregnant accepted but pity?! Seriously?"

He shrugged, "At least it wasn't something dirrty."

I sighed, "I guess... So, how much work will you do in here?" I said and looked at the crowd. It was a High Society Event, of course it was. There weren't a lot of young women, maybe about 10 or so. The Majority was over 60 going to 100, if I should guess.

"Well not a lot."

"Try to say that in per cent."

"75%?" he asked me and I looked at him.

"75%?! You're going to Australia tomorrow in the noon. I was hoping to at least get some alone time with you. To enjoy ourselves..." I said and he smiled before he placed his hands on my hips and we kissed. There it was, a flash light. We just got a beautiful picture of us kissing. The only problem was, the whole world was about to see it in a couple of minutes. Not much of a privacy...

"I so hate this." I said and sighed as I placed my head on his chest.

"It'll blow over. I promise it will." he said and laced his fingers with mine.

We walked in and I felt some eyes on me. But most of the crowd wasn't paying attention to us which was perfectly fine with us.

"It won't get any worse now. This out there was the tip of the iceberg." he answered and I nodded.

"One hell of an iceberg if you ask me."

He smiled, "Alright, so who do you want to be introduced to first?" he asked me and I just glanced at him, "Right doesn't matter to you. This will be a torture to you anyways, right?"

"Exactly." I agreed with him.

"I tell you what, we're going to be here not more that 3 hours. Deal?" he asked me in a whisper tone as we walked through the crowd.

"Deal." I said and smiled.

He grabbed two champaign glasses off of the plate and handed one to me.

"3 glasses maximum." he said to me.

"Maybe..." I said and hugged me with his free arm, "Alright fine. 3 glasses if it will only last 3 hours. One glass per hour."

He nodded, "One glass per hour." he echoed me and kissed my cheek.

"See it is nice to be able to do this in public, right?"

He nodded.

"Let the night begin..." I said and took a sip of my champagne before I left Troy, so he could do his business and I could find someone to talk to.

"Are you Gabriella Montez?" a woman asked me and I turned around.

"Yeah, that's me. I'm sorry, but you are?"

"Tinsley Mortimer, sorry for not introducing myself. I am such a horrible person at times." the blonde woman said to me.

I nodded and smiled, "Nice to meet you Tinsley."

"Same here. So..." she started and looked around, "I see you're here with Troy Bolton..."

"Yes, I am." I answered, not willing to give away more information.

"You know, that he has dated half of the even guests here, right?" she asked me.

I looked around and saw women in their 80's, "Well I was aware that he is into older woman but I wouldn't have guessed that they are so old." I answered honest and she faked a laugh.

"Oh right, follow me and you will see where the real party is." she said and I followed her through the crowd.

"Can I take a picture of you two?" a photographer asked us.

"Oh sure! I love pictures." Tinsley said and hugged me. We both smiled and a bright flash appeared. The picture was taken. "Okay, now we really have to go." she said to the photographer and grabbed my hand.

She dragged me to the end of the hall and we stopped in front of a silver door.

"You're ready to become an ultimate inside?" she asked me.

I looked confused, "I guess..."

She opened the door and there it was. A huge party with all kinds of ages, well mostly teenagers and people in their 20s. On the left was the dance floor, on the right was the bar which was nearly not recognizable because of the many people around it. Oh and in the back of the party were the Junkies. Cocaine, Heroin, LCD, Pot, Speed... name it and it was there. I felt like I was in my past again. In my horrible junkie past. I started to get goosebumps right away.

"Well, that's different from what's out there..." I answered and she smiled.

"Hey Tins!" a dark skined guy walked up to us, "I see you brought a friend with you." all eyes turned now to me.

"Yeah, that's Gabriella." she said and there were 'Oh's and 'Ah's.

"You're Troy's new thing, right?" a red haired girl asked me.

"Tiffany," another girl hit her, "You can't just ask her this like that."

"Right," she said and turned her head to me, "I'm Tiffany and you are the new thing Troy has." she said to me, "There. Better?"

"Ugh, whatever, Tiff."

New thing?! Was I the new 'thing'? Just a thing?! Nothing more? Confusion overwhelmed me. I was unable to think right, unable to answer.

"Where did you get that thing story?" Tinsley asked her.

"Oh it's all over the internet. There." Tiffany said and handed her her iPhone. Tinsley and I took a look at the website.

Troy Bolton and Gabriella: Round 2

Looks like Troy Bolton just can't keep his hands off of that wonderful woman. For now, all we know is that nothing can seperate those two. After nearly a year of on and off, will they commit for eternity? Neither of them has made a statement yet. But deep in our hearts - and on our walls - we don't want Troy Bolton to marry her. Our bachelor is definitely not ready to lose his title. Not now and not ever.

I turned around and ordered a martini. I needed a drink right now. A good old martini.

After a couple of seconds I got it and took a sip. That felt good.

"Are you okay?" Tinsley asked me worried.

"Yeah, I am fine." I said and drank the martini out in one gulp, "Okay now I need to get going. It was nice meeting you." I said and wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible.

"Wait, "Tinsley said and grabbed my arm, which was practically out of the little 'party' of theirs, "You're already leaving?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I don't feel so well."

"Oh that's sad... Do you want some pills? I have some magic ones." she said and smiled. I knew what she meant. Ectasty, for sure.

"No thanks. I had one of those in my early years. I am out of drugs."

"You just drank one martini in 5 seconds. You can tell that your grandmother honey, but not us." the dark skinned guy said.

"Well, I am mostly out of drugs. No more drugs, except alcohol, for me."

"Wow, must've been a one of a hell step for ya, hottie." a blonde man said.

"Anyways, it was nice meeting you all. Bye." I said and nearly stormed out.

This had been like a trip to my past. To my awful, awful past. I couldn't help but feel tears building up in my eyes, so I quickly walked into the ladies room. I closed the door of my cubicle and took a long deep breath. I waited a couple of second, so I was alone to open the door and wash my face. So much to the perfect make-up for the perfect night. Well the perfect night wasn't going to be perfect anyways...

I sighed and started to do my make-up again. This was going to be a long long evening...

4 hours later I was still at the Gala and already donned 40,000 $ - 10,000$ for one hour and 1 glass of champagne for one hour, having now 4 glasses of champagne and one martini have been knocked down. I wasn't drunk yet - I was far away from being drunk -, but I started to get bored. Every 30 minutes I looked at Troy, who didn't seem bored at all. He was the busy business man tonight and I just wished that he would already turn into the hot Lover boy already. I was done with this Gala. Totally done.

After another hour it seemed like the charity Gala was finally coming to an end. But that didn't mean Troy was getting to an end with his business talks. I couldn't take it anymore, I just couldn't bear sitting here and talking to old Ladies about the important things in life. I was sick of... just all of this!

So what does a well educated woman like I do in a situation like this? That's right, a text message it is.

Just come home whenever your business meetings or whatever is done. I can't sit here all evening and wait for my boyfriend to realize that this has been such a torture for me, since there are mostly old women around me. I can't talk about the important things in life all night. But I can tell you what, this is not one of the important things in life.

Gabi

I got up of the chair and walked out. I didn't even bother to watch him reading my text message. I wasn't even sure how he reacted and I didn't care. I was done for the evening. I was cranky and tired. I just wanted to go home. As soon as I left the Met, I realized that there were people like the press around, just waiting for me to come out alone. It would be the perfect story. But before I could step into the already flashing cameras a hand pulled me back.

"There's a backdoor." a blonde guy said to me.

"Backdoor, right. You see, I am kind of new to this all 'press thing'."

He nodded, "I figured. But why did all other girlfriends of Troy Bolton know that there was a backdoor?"

"Probably because there are all models. Models know about those things. It's their job to know this."

"Right... I'm Kyle by the way."

"Gabriella." I said and smiled.

"I know... believe me, I know."

"Alriiight, so where's that backdoor?" I asked him.

"Right, follow me." he said and I followed him into a small hallway, "So, are you Troy Boltons new girlfriend?" he asked me, like it was nothing.

"Yeah, I guess that's my title now." I said and shrugged.

"What? You don't like being Troy Bolton's new girlfriend?"

"See, I am his girlfriend. Only his girlfriend and I hate that the press is making such a big deal out of it."

"It is a big deal. For Troy Bolton it is a huge deal."

"Why's that?" I asked him.

"Someday you will understand." he said and held a door open for me. "This is now Amsterdam Ave." he said as I walked out.

"Thanks." I said and turned around to catch a cab.

A yellow cab stopped and I got in, "300 E 55th St" I said to the driver and he drove off.

"Long night, Miss?" the driver asked as we stood in the traffic jam.

"You call it a long night, I call it a horrible night." I answered and he nodded.