Chapter 55
Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters
"Are we okay?" Gabriella asked shakily.
"You tell me. Are we okay?" Troy replied quietly.
"I want to be" Gabriella said.
"I want to be okay too. I love you Gabriella but last night felt like my heart was ripped out and stomped on. I can't keep... I just can't" Troy said emotionally.
"I promise it won't happen again" Gabriella said.
"Promise is a really big word Gabriella" Troy said solemnly.
"I mean it Troy. The next time I get the urge to stare at someone's penis I'll come and ask you to strip for me again. I don't want to look at anyone else" Gabriella said trying to lighten the situation.
"Anytime, anyplace" Troy said teasingly making Gabriella blush at the thoughts that ran through her head.
"Troy" she protested laughingly before looking anxious. "Um... I'm still not ready to do more than... er... um... I mean..." she stuttered.
"It's okay Gabriella. I understand today was an exception. I can wait until you're ready to do that again" Troy said reassuringly.
"It's not that I didn't like it because I did it's just..." Gabriella tried to reassure him but couldn't articulate what she was feeling.
"It's okay Gabriella, you're setting the pace here. I'll understand if you aren't ready for what we did today. I kind of pushed you"
"You didn't push me into touching you Troy. I wanted to. I'm just kind of freaked out by it at the moment. You make me want things I never thought I'd be ready for this soon. Make my body want things my mind isn't ready to deal with."
Troy laughed. "Yeah I remember feeling like that" he agreed hugging her.
Gabriella hugged back. "Do you want to put on a movie?" she asked wanting to cuddle up or a while.
"Yeah okay" Troy turned on the TV and returned to wrap his arms around Gabriella. He held her gently thanking the gods that she still felt safe cuddling up on the bed with him.
"Do you want to stay for dinner?" Troy asked as the movie finished.
"No I'd better go home" Gabriella said. "You're parents don't know I'm here."
"I understand if you feel too embarrassed to let them know you're here this afternoon but remember we didn't do anything to be ashamed about" Troy tried to reassure her.
Gabriella blushed.
"I'll walk you home" Troy said getting up and offering Gabriella his hand. They went out the window and walked home silently.
"Troy stopped as usual a few houses away from Gabriella's and kissed her gently. "I'll call you tonight" he promised.
"I love you Troy. Talk to you tonight" Gabriella said smiling. They continued on and Troy left Gabriella at her front steps with a kiss on the cheek.
-o0o-
Troy was early to pick up Gabriella next morning wanting to make sure she was okay. They'd talked for a while the night before but both had been busy trying to finish the homework they'd saved to do Sunday afternoon and then ignored in favour of cuddling up together after the emotional upheaval.
"Good morning Troy. I don't think Gabriella's even out of the shower yet" Maria said.
"I'm early" Troy agreed. "I'm not in a hurry though I can wait."
"Help yourself to the fruit bowl and I'll tell Gabriella you're here" Maria replied.
"Gabriella Troy's here already" Maria called through the bathroom door.
"Okay Mom tell him I'll be down in about ten minutes" Gabriella called back.
"Do you know why he is so early, were you expecting him?" Maria asked.
"No, perhaps he just needed to get out of the house" Gabriella suggested.
Maria huffed. Gabriella was probably right but she was also suspicious that he'd turned up early hoping she'd already left for work.
Gabriella quickly dressed and ran down the stairs with her hair still wrapped in a towel. "Troy, is everything alright?" she asked.
Troy turned and grinned. "Yeah I just wanted to see you" he admitted.
Gabriella smiled and walked over to kiss him softly. "Good morning" she said.
Troy wrapped his arms around her pulling her tight against him for a moment. "You need to finish getting ready" he replied smiling at her fondly.
"Okay" Gabriella said. She kissed him quickly and went to leave. "Have you had breakfast?" Troy asked.
"No can you pour me some muesli and a glass of orange juice?" Gabriella asked.
"Sure" Troy said going to the cupboard to look for the muesli.
"I have to go" Maria said frowning slightly.
"Oh would you like me to wait outside for Gabriella?" Troy asked. "I didn't mean to put you out."
"No this morning will be okay Troy but please don't make a habit of it" Maria said.
"Thanks Maria" Troy said gratefully.
Gabriella came back down and ate her breakfast. "Mom Gone to work?" she asked.
"Yeah" Troy confirmed.
"Why'd you come over so early?" Gabriella asked smiling to let Troy know he was welcome.
"I wanted to make sure you were alright after yesterday" Troy said quietly.
Gabriella smiled again. "I'm fine Troy" she reassured. "I'll be back in a moment."
Gabriella arrived back downstairs ready to leave and gave Troy a hug and a kiss before they left the house. "I almost wish we could just go upstairs and snuggle up watching movies" she said.
"Yeah but if I don't turn up for school someone would tell Dad and he'd come looking for us" Troy replied laughing ruefully.
"Did you get all your homework done?" Gabriella asked.
"Everything I need today" Troy nodded. "I have an English essay due tomorrow that I think still needs some work tonight."
"Do you want me to look over it?" Gabriella asked.
"If you have time" Troy said gratefully. "It's not very good though."
"Don't worry about that Troy" Gabriella grinned reassuringly. "I'll still love you if your essay sucks."
"Oh one thing I wanted to warn you about in case the rumours get out of hand. I plan to be friendly to Bec if I see her with her boyfriend."
"To pay him back for not coming on Friday?" Gabriella asked.
"Yeah I know she's used to it but she was really hurt when he wouldn't come and celebrate the win" Troy said.
"I think it was what he said more than that he wouldn't come" Gabriella said thoughtfully.
"Yeah well he's an arse, Bec deserves better" Troy said.
"This from the boy who had more fuck buddies than female friends" Gabriella said amused.
"At least I was honest with them. They all knew that I wasn't going to date them or act like a boyfriend" Troy said defensively.
Gabriella laughed. "Don't worry Troy I think it's sweet" she said teasingly.
"I'm not sweet" Troy protested automatically.
"Sure you're not" Gabriella agreed sarcastically as they entered homeroom.
"Lunch on the roof?" he whispered in her ear.
"I'll meet you there" Gabriella agreed smiling.
"I'll get the food" Troy said.
-o0o-
Gabriella smiled to see the picnic Troy had laid out for them. It was mostly cafeteria food but he'd brought a picnic rug and set everything up with a plastic vase and some daisies.
"Hey" Troy said smiling up at her.
"Hey Troy. You didn't need to go to this much trouble" Gabriella said smiling. She came and sat next to him and he handed her a plate.
"Are you hungry?" he asked.
"Mmm" Gabriella agreed. She leaned over and kissed his cheek.
They ate companionably. "Do you want to talk about what happened yesterday?" Troy asked quietly when they'd finished.
Gabriella blushed. "Why ask me that here?"she asked.
"I wanted to know if you needed to talk, not make you think I was trying to get a replay" Troy explained.
Gabriella smiled. "I'm okay with what happened. I thought about it last night and I'm not upset with you or with myself. I'm not sure where we go from here though."
Troy went to interrupt and Gabriella held up a hand to stop him. "I know it's up to me. I just need time to think about what I want" she finished.
"Take as much time as you need." Troy said reassuringly.
"Can I ask you some questions?" Gabriella asked hesitantly.
"Sure" Troy smiled.
"Was it really okay? I mean did you enjoy it?" Gabriella asked blushing fiercely.
"It was perfect Gabriella" Troy said wrapping his arm around her. "I loved every second of it."
"Do you want to do it again?" Gabriella asked.
"Of course, as soon as you're ready" Troy said.
"Even if that's all we do?" Gabriella asked.
"Yes. Though I would feel a bit selfish if that's all we do. I would love to return the favour when you're ready" Troy said seriously.
"Oh...umm...I...er..." Gabriella stuttered.
Troy smiled gently. "When you're ready" he repeated.
Gabriella brought up another concern she'd had since Sunday. "If we do end up together long term will it worry your family that I'm not Jewish?" she asked. Differences of religion had caused a lot of tension in her parent's families.
"What?" Troy asked confused.
"You're circumcised and you said it was because your parents are of Jewish descent. Will it worry your family that I'm not Jewish?" Gabriella repeated.
"It shouldn't" Troy replied honestly. "Mom's family is Jewish but she pretty much gave up all religious traditions when she married Dad. His ancestors were Jewish but not for the last few generations. I think he's more agnostic. I don't think I've ever been to synagogue. Do you have a religion?"
Gabriella shrugged "Mom doesn't but my Dad was Catholic. It caused an awful row with his family when he married Mom. Mom said they got over it after a while but we haven't been in contact with any of them since shortly after his death" Gabriella said. "He had me baptised but we rarely went to church. I haven't been since the funeral."
"Why do you think they stopped visiting?" Troy asked horrified that her family had abandoned her and her mother like that.
"Honestly I think they might have lost contact with all the moving we did. Even if they tried to contact us a year after the funeral we'd already moved interstate three times" Gabriella said sadly. "And I don't know where to find them either."
-o0o-
Troy was on his way to class that afternoon when he saw Bec and her boyfriend Sam. "Hey Bec, how are you today. You were fantastic at Decathlon last week" Troy said grinning at the girl and completely ignoring the boy beside her. "Hey Erin, you were great too" he added as she walked past.
"Hi Troy" Bec said smiling at him.
"Hey Troy" Erin said latching on to him as Sam dragged Bec away. "What are you doing?" she hissed.
"Making that Arse Sam regret not coming to the decathlon" Troy said.
Erin burst out laughing. "Well I hope for Bec's sake it works" she admitted.
"Gabriella said he was nasty about it the other night when she asked him to come out for pizza with us" Troy said.
"Yeah I was close enough to hear him. He said he didn't want to know her geeky friends" Erin said.
"We'll this is one 'geeky friend of Bec's' who has no interest in knowing him either" Troy said.
Erin smiled. "I'm sure he didn't mean you" she said.
"But he would have meant you and Gabriella" Troy countered. "I don't need friends like that."
Erin laughed, "I'll see you around Troy."
-o0o-
Things settled back into a routine for Troy and Gabriella. Troy kept being overtly friendly to the scholastic decathlon team particularly whenever Sam was in the vicinity. Sam had initially questioned his girlfriend with suspicion until she told him that Troy had come to the decathlon meet to support his girlfriend Gabriella and then tried to make friends with Troy. Troy however showed no interest in getting to know Sam in spite of his growing friendships with Bec, Erin, Martha, Scott and Daniel.
-o0o-
Gabriella noticed that Troy was jittery as they collected their things and walked towards the front of the school Thursday afternoon. "What's up Troy?" Are you nervous about seeing your aunt and uncle? I thought things were okay when you babysat last week" She asked sympathetically.
"Yeah they were but it's still feels forced, I'm afraid it's kind of like a temporary cease fire. But Steve said they should know whether Debra is pregnant by now" Troy said.
"It's unlikely it will happen the first month Troy. The books say it takes an average of six months" Gabriella said not wanting him to get his hopes up too much.
"Then why'd she go nuts after only two months of trying last time?" Troy asked.
"I don't know Troy. I wish I did. It's one of those hormonal things men aren't supposed to understand. Sometimes the thought of a baby completely seems to take over a woman's brain. It happened to our neighbours in Seattle. They almost got divorced over it" Gabriella tried to explain though it didn't make much sense to her either.
"Still it would be great if she is pregnant and we can start trying to put it all behind us again" Troy said optimistically.
Gabriella didn't want to burst his optimism but she was afraid that things would actually get worse once his aunt fell pregnant and no longer needed Troy's ongoing co-operation.
Troy kissed Gabriella and hurried across to jump in the back of the car when Steve pulled up. "Hi Uncle Steve, hey Jakie" he said smiling at the little boy and leaning over to kiss his cheek.
"Tiss tiss Jakie tiss" he demanded.
Troy laughed and leaned in so Jakie could plant a slobbery kiss on his cheek. "Thanks Jakie" he said smiling and trying to ignore the urge to wipe his face.
Steve laughed.
"Any news?" Troy asked him hopefully.
"Afraid not Troy. We'll have to try again next month" Steve said sighing.
"How is Aunt Debra about that?" Troy asked really meaning 'is she going to go crazy again'.
"She seemed alright this morning, she was disappointed of course. She was talking about possibly getting the screening tests done" Steve said carefully.
"Tell her not to bother. It won't make a difference after what she said to me the other week I'm not willing to do more than provide samples. This month was always a long shot, it was our first real month trying because we missed Friday night and Saturday l the first time and it takes an average of six months anyway." He turned away from his uncle "Hey Jakie. Did you have a good day?" He asked.
Jakie grinned and babbled.
Troy replied as if he'd understood more than a few words here and there and the two of them kept up the conversation the rest of the way to Jakie's home.
Jakie went running in as they entered the house. "Momma" he yelled excitedly.
"Hello Jacob" Debra replied kissing the little boy. "Go and play with your toys. Do you want to play blocks?"
"Outsi" Jakie said.
Troy looked at Steve.
"Sure Troy can take you outside" Steve agreed.
The two boys flashed him very similar looking grins and Troy grabbed Jakie's jacket which Debra had just taken off and sat him on the table for a moment to put it back on him. Jakie whined a little but Troy reminded him that he couldn't go outside without the jacket.
"Come on Jakie" Troy said enthusiastically, throwing the little boy over his shoulder. He all but ran out the door and lifted Jakie up to fly around the yard. Jakie shrieked with joy as Troy spun and swooped him through the cool evening air.
"Dinner's in the oven it will be ready in fifteen minutes" Debra called out to them.
"Thanks Aunt Deb, have a nice evening" Troy replied politely.
"Troy enjoyed his evening with Jakie, they ate dinner and he bathed the toddler and read him some stories. Jakie went to sleep without too much of a struggle and Troy held him for a while before putting him to bed and starting his homework.
A/N: Thank you to Pumpkinking5, stordec23, LaueeeCarter, brianna4797, jlenon06 and for your support.
