Chapter 10



Troy couldn't believe how Taylor spoke to him when he went to Gabriella's. He had never seen her so upset about anything. It bothered him of course but he really couldn't blame her. At the same time he just wished that someone would listen to him. He hadn't told Chad yet, because he knew that if he did Chad would tell Taylor and Taylor would tell Gabriella. He wanted to be the one to tell Gabby.

He tried calling Gabriella's house again later that day, but her mom answered and said Gabriella couldn't come to the phone. He decided to call the only person that he could think of. Not because he wanted to talk to them, but because they were the only person that knew the truth besides Troy.

"Hello?" answered Sharpay.

"Sharpay, it's me Troy."

"Hi, did you talk to Gabby?"

"She won't return my phone calls. I tried to go over there but Taylor wouldn't let me see her."

"Oh wow. She has really good friends." Sharpay said sarcastically.

"Shut up, they are just trying to protect her. You know watch out for her. Not letting her get hurt. All of those are things you wouldn't know about." Sharpay sat silently on the other end.

"I thought you had forgiven me." She said softly.

"Sharpay, I appreciate you telling me the truth, but you have to know that what you did, well it's pretty unforgivable right now."

"I understand. Why did you call then?"

"I think I might need your help."



Ryan decided that it might be time to visit Gabriella. He knew that she didn't know the truth yet because Troy had been calling Sharpay. He got in his car and started driving to Gabriella's. It wasn't a long drive; she only lived about two streets down from him. Once he got there he saw Gabriella sitting on her front porch which was weird because she never did that. She caught sight of him and began to wave. 'At least she's not mad at me', he thought to himself. He got out of the car and started walking towards her.

"Hey Gabs, I just thought I would stop by and say hello….."

"Hi Ryan. Do you want to come in?"

"Oh, I'm not staying long. But I do need to talk to you real quick. Can you spare a sec?" he said trying not to sound too nervous. He wasn't going to tell her exactly what happened, but he was going to try and convince her that maybe Troy wasn't such a bad guy.

"Um, sure. I guess we could sit in the grass." Gabriella said while she sat down.

"Listen Gabriella, I know these are the last two people that you want to talk about, but you need to hear me out." Right after he said that, he noticed immediately how uncomfortable she got.

"Ry, I don't know if that is such a-"

"No, just please. I really need to say this to you. You know I wouldn't do anything to hurt you Gabs, just give me a chance?"

"Ok" she replied reluctantly.

"I'm not here to protect my sister, or to stand up for Troy. But what I did come to tell you is that maybe you should hear him out; give him a chance to explain things to you."

"Why would I do that?"

"I know you Gabby, you aren't resentful, and you listen to reason. Why should that not be the case now?"

"I don't need reason to know what I saw Ryan. I know you are just trying to help the situation, and thank you. But I am going to have to ask you to stop. No one forced him to do anything. So please, just let me deal."

"Ok sweetie, but please take some of what I said into consideration." He said before getting up to walk to his car. She tried to smile and wave at him, but that failed. Instead she just lay back on the grass and looked at the clouds. She heard him get in his car and drive away. Why would he come here just to tell her that? Maybe he was just standing up for Sharpay. She was swimming alone in her thoughts when she heard another car pull up in front of her house. She thought it was her mom when she heard someone call her voice.

"Gabriella?" she shot up and said,

"Troy?"



Before Troy had called Sharpay he had decided that he had had enough. He had to see Gabriella. He had asked Sharpay to come with him to Gabriella's house and try to explain things to her. Maybe she would listen to the person that was to blame for this whole mess.

He picked up Sharpay and headed over to Gabriella's house.

"Thank you for coming." He said as she got into his car.

"I guess it's the least I could do. Do you think she will listen to us?"

"I hope so. I don't know what I would do if she doesn't."

"Why didn't you just call her?"

"I have tried. She just isn't taking my calls."

"Oh, well I hope she doesn't like punch me in the face or something."

"Gabby wouldn't do that." He said. Of course that was a lie. He didn't know how Gabby would react to seeing Sharpay, especially with him. But he didn't want to take any chances of Sharpay backing out. They finally got to Gabriella's house and he saw that she was laying down in her front yard. Just seeing her made his heart skip a beat. He didn't know how she would react. All he wanted to do was run up to her and hold her. He got out of his car and said her name. She must have recognized his voice because she sat straight up and said his name before even looking at him. This was it.



Gabriella didn't know whether to jump up and hug him or to turn around and go inside.

"What are you doing here?" she said softly.

"I need to talk to you." He replied as he started to walk towards her.

"I don't think that is a good idea Troy."

"Gabriella, please just let me talk to you. You don't even have to say anything. Just listen."

"Troy, we don't have anything to talk about. Please, don't make this harder."

"I wouldn't come over here to hurt you any more than I already have. I just need to explain." Gabriella started to feel the tears coming on. It was the first time she had cried in days. She didn't want him to see how much pain she was really in. She was about to go inside when she heard another car door close. She looked at Troy's car and saw Sharpay step out of it.

"What is she doing here?" she said shakily. Every feeling she had felt of sadness just turned into rage. Gabriella couldn't remember ever being that angry.

"She needs to explain some things too." Troy said.

"You both need to leave." Gabriella said feeling more and more angry by the second.

"Not until things are set straight." Sharpay said from the car. She began to walk over to them but Gabriella stopped her.

"You are making a big mistake Sharpay." Gabriella said warningly. Sharpay looked at Troy as if to ask for help and began walking towards her anyways.

"Gabby please, just listen to us." Gabriella had had enough of Sharpay being there, so she began to walk over to her not seeing anything but red. As soon as she got close enough she lunged at Sharpay tackling her to the ground. She began to punch, not slap Sharpay in the face.

"I told you to leave!" Gabriella said as she kept hitting her. Troy sat there in amazement watching Gabriella beat the living daylights out of Sharpay. When he finally snapped out of it he ran over to the girls and tried to pull Gabriella off of her. Sharpay was screaming bloody murder as Gabriella just wouldn't let go. Before Troy could get her off he noticed that Gabriella's hand was tangled up in Sharpay's hair. Sharpay started screaming even louder when Gabriella was finally pulled off taking a huge chunk of hair with her.

"Let go of me!" Gabriella yelled as Troy held her back. This wasn't like Gabby at all. She had never even hurt a fly. But then again, a fly wasn't a tramp that had slept with her boyfriend.

"No please! Don't let her go!" Sharpay yelled as she started to get up off the ground. When she got up Troy got a good look at the full extent of her injuries. Her right eye was swollen shut, her nose was pouring blood, she had huge scratches and marks on her face and of course, there was a big bald spot were Gabriella had taken out her hair. Sharpay jumped quickly into the car and locked the doors. She didn't want to risk getting any more injuries.

"Gabriella calm down." Troy said trying still to keep her back.

"Don't tell me what to do Troy. You should've known better than to bring her here."

"I know Gabby but let me explain."

"No, let me explain. We are done Troy; I want nothing to do with you. Leave me alone, forget I even exist. I'll do the same." She shook him off and started to walk to her door.

"Gabriella wait, please. I know that if you let me explain, we can work this out."

"Let you explain? What do you think I am? I'm not stupid Troy, I saw you. No one told me anything. I think you have explained enough." She turned around and made it to her door. She slammed it shut and collapsed. She began sobbing and couldn't stop. She had just told the man she loved that she basically hated him.



Troy walked back to his car. He didn't even know what had just happened. He looked at Sharpay who was crying hysterically and then motioned for her to unlock the doors. He got in and she immediately began screaming.

"YOU SAID SHE WOULDN'T DO THAT TROY!"

"How was I supposed to know Sharpay?"

"SHE WAS YOUR GIRLFRIEND!"

"Nothing like this has ever happened before! You need to calm down!"

"I CAN'T CALM DOWN! DID YOU EVEN LOOK AT ME?" she began hyperventilating and Troy contemplated taking her to the hospital.

"Do you need a doctor?"

"NO JUST GET ME HOME!" he drove as fast as he could to Sharpay's house and got her there in no time. She ran out of the car and hurried inside. He knew she would be fine; it wasn't anything an ice pack couldn't take care of.



Here is chapter 10; I thought Gabriella should stand up for herself in this one. And oh sorry for the misspelling of Kelsi's name. I did spell it Kelsey, not Kelsi. So I will try to remember. Thanks again for all the reviews, I love hearing that you guys like the story!