They immediatly jumped away from eachother. Shocked by almost had happened. Duke's foodsteps were on the stairs but even during this loud storm it was like that, that was the only sound Troy and Gabriella heard. Would he notice something about their behaviour? Troy quickly sat down on the other couch. His heart racing. He secretly looked at Gabriella. Her head as red as a tomato, avoiding his look.

Duke walked into the livingroom. ' Hi, how did everyone sleep? I yelled because I didn't just want to barge in while you were bussy or something.'

Gabriella frowned. ' Why are you making that assumption?'

Duke shrugged. ' no offence but my brother over these has a reput..'

' Duke!' Troy said threatning. He looked at Gabriella. ' Don't listen to him. He likes to exaggerate.'

' Seems like he is right' Gabriella muttered.

'Sorry, what did you say?' Duke asked.

Troy did hear what she said and he couldn't help it but it felt unfair. She made it sound it was only him, while SHE was checking him out. SHE was sending him signals. Why was she making him the bad guy? But if that was what she wanted? Fine. Troy looked at het coldly before answering his brother. ' Nothing Duke. We were doing absolutly nothing. I wouldn't dare to try something.'

Gabriella heard the coldness in his voice and immediatly regretted her remark. She slowly looked up at him but he didn't look at her. The air in the room suddenly felt cold. Duke looked at his brother and their guest and cleared his throat. ' Well, by the look outside you wouldn't tell but it's 8AM in the morning. I tried to see if something like water is working but the storm has flattenend it.'

Both Troy and Gabriella didn't respond and Duke felt uncomfortable.

' I'll turn on the tv and hopefully they will tell us something more. Maybe when it all will end and we can go back to how things were'

Duke turned on the TV.

( Me and our crew of newsflash03 hope all of you were save last night. We maybe survived this,but it's not over yet. We only survived the tail of the storm. In the next 3 days we have to be aware of the fact that storm will hit land and a hurricane will appear. Keep windows and door closed, don' t go outside and stay with the people you love. Help strangers in need and most of all. Be kind to each other.)

' Wow, sounds scary' Duke said.

Troy looked up at the ceiling before back to Duke. ' Duke, remember that leak we had upstairs? Mom told us about it just before she left? Maybe we should take a look. If this is indeed the tail of the storm..'

Duke groaned.

'Fine i'll go by myself. Can you watch her?' Troy pointed at Gabriella with his head. ' I'll be back later.'

Troy went upstairs. Duke looked at Gabriella not sure if he should ask but he did. ' What happened?'

'Nothing'

'Ookay, well if you want to talk about it. Or not. ' Gabriella looked at him with a frown. ' Well you know where to find me. I'll go see if Troy needs help'

Duke runned upstairs and Gabriella buried her face in her hands. Stupid move Gabs, nicely done. Now they both stay away from you because you can't keep your thoughts and opinions to yourself. She got up and walked over to the bookshelf. Her head was still sore but maybe something to read might helped a little. Besides, what else could she do in the meantime anyways? Gabriella grabbed the one with a red cover which she knew was a romantic novel and sat back down on the couch, opened it and started reading.

after an hour or so Gabriella wondered if everything went okay upstairs. She got up and walked up the stairs, unsure if she made the right decision. Gabriella didn't hear anything besides the storm. She went up a little more and she entered the first floor. Gabriella saw 4 doors which she thought it had to be 2 bed and 2 bathrooms.

'cute'

The storm was clearly louder up here, it was hard for Gabriella to listen to any other sounds besides that. She took a left and went up to the next staircase up to the loft. And then she heard voices.

' Troy I don't think it worked, please try my idea and use that shelf over there'

'But if I use that, another leak will start Duke. I told you that 30 minutes ago'

Troy's voice sounded irritated and Gabriella was still unsure if she would enter the loft. She took a few more steps up and peeked through the window when she saw Troy on a ladder and Duke holding it. The two brothers weren't aware that Gabriella was there. Too busy trying to fix the leak which became worse by the hour. Gabriella looked around the loft. She saw several things, tools, shelves but also glues and plywood sheets. Maybe that could help?

She coughed and both guys jumped up by surprise.

' Never do that again' Duke said.

' I'm sorry guys.' Gabriella laughed.

' Yes, thanks a lot.'

' Oh crap, Troy your bleeding pretty badly' Duke said shocked.

Troy had ripped his arm open and a huge cut was on his upper arm. Blood poured from his arm. But since he was holding a shelf that kept the leak smaller, he wasn't able to remove the blood.

' Duke, we have to think of something fast because it's leaking faster than expected.'

' But your arm..'

' I'll fix it later.'

' Over there, there are some plywood sheets, maybe with some glue it could help? Gabriella suggested with a whisper.

' Both boys looked at Gabriella and back to each other. They nodded and Duke grabbed it. Thirty minutes later, they fixed it as good as it could and both boys sighed relieved. Troy got off the ladder he was on, but he had lost a lot of blood and felt a little head lighted. Duke immediately helped him up.

' Whoa, you alright?'

' I have to lay down for a bit. Can you help me to my room?'

Duke nodded and helped Troy down the staircase into his room. Troy laid down and closed his eyes.

' Thanks better, thanks bro'

' Your welcome.'

Gabriella had followed them downstairs and searched for a first aid-kit. Duke turned around and nodded approvingly.

' I'll go downstairs watch the news'

Duke left the room and for a moment Gabriella hesitated, but she wanted to help him. She carefully sat down at the edge of Troy's bed and opened the kit to get bandage, alcohol and some tissues. She applied the alcohol on a tissue, looked at the wound and started cleaning it. Troy opened his eyes in shock.

' Auw, what the hell are you doing?'

' Lay down still, I'm cleaning your wound.'

' Why would you do that?'

' Because it's my fault it happened and besides. ' Gabriella looked shortly at him before turning her attention back to the wound ' you cleaned mine. And I want to apologize '

'For what?'

'Well' She was done with the alcohol and rolled a bandage around his muscled arm and she immediately felt that shock in her stomach again. Gabriella looked into his eyes. 'For being a blubber mouth. I said some things this morning which wasn't fair. I know you heard it so..'

The warmth of Gabriella's hand on Troy's arm felt like it was on fire. How could she have so much impact on him? What was happening here? He rescued this woman just yesterday and the only thing he wanted was to kiss her. Troy swallowed and stares into her brown chocolate orbs.

' I heard what you said. I felt really unfair because I had the feeling it wasn't just me.'

It was like time stood still. Gabriella stopped what she was doing and stared longingly into those beautiful blue eyes.

' It wasn't just me? ' she repeated.

Troy shook his head and whispered. ' no..'

Troy cupped her face into his hands. Her soft skin, tanned. His rough hands caressing her cheeks. Shocks went up in down in their bodies.

' May I? ' Troy whispered.

Gabriella didn't answer him, but instead she leaned in and her lips touches his.

And it matched perfectly.