DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters.
A/N: Hey guys so I decided that I better start this chapter when I had time!!! Man my life has been crazy these past weeks, I swear every time I turn on my laptop my dad appears out of no where and says I have trials or something, it's driving me insane!!!! Anyway enough of my woes, here is the next chapter!
Saving Me
CHAPTER 11
IN A SECOND
Gabriella walked through East High's door completely oblivious to the looks that she was getting from the surrounding students. Her mind kept on replaying what had happened the day before with Troy, how he had showed up and said those things, how he had managed to put the pieces back together again. She shivered as she remembered the feeling of his lips against her skin, the feeling of being held by him, his hand on her cheek. Gabriella sighed as she reached her locker and opened it, the only thing he hadn't done was talk her into forgiving Taylor. Gabriella wasn't sure if she could forgive her for what she had done; it hurt to know that a person she considered a friend could turn around and do something like that without trying to get the full story first, admittedly Gabriella wasn't sure if she would have told Taylor the reason she always seemed to be with Troy, but that didn't matter. Taylor could have at least asked instead of assuming, especially about her relationship with Troy. Gabriella frowned as she thought about it. She wasn't sure what she had with Troy, they had been friends, but last night, last night something had changed between them or at least she thought something had changed and Gabriella didn't know where that left her standing.
"Hey" the object of her thoughts walked up behind her and Gabriella jumped.
"Troy! You scared me!" she exclaimed spinning around to face him, he laughed and Gabriella bit her lip as the lock of hair that always seemed to fall into his eyes fell and she fought the urge to reach up and push it away.
"Whoops, sorry" he said still grinning and she narrowed her eyes playfully at him.
"Sure you are" she muttered and turned back to her locker, her mind spinning, should she say something about last night? Or should she leave it?
"So, are you going to talk to Taylor?" Troy asked curiously and Gabriella turned back around to face him.
"I don't know, are you going to talk to Chad?" she replied and Troy shrugged.
"Chad's not the easiest person to ignore, besides he's my best friend and didn't know all the facts" he said and Gabriella shut her locker door and they both headed to homeroom.
"Well, Taylor didn't know all the facts as well but still shouldn't they have asked before assuming?" Gabriella asked and Troy shrugged.
"Maybe you should give her a second chance; after all she did tell you the truth" Troy said as they stopped outside the door.
"Fine, I'll think about it" Gabriella sighed and Troy smiled, patted her awkwardly on the back and than went inside.
Gabriella furrowed her brow and turned to watch him. What had just happened? That wasn't Troy, she was sure that wasn't Troy. The night before he hadn't been afraid to touch her and now it seemed like he wasn't sure what to do when it came to touching her, the awkward pat on the back had spoken volumes. After a moment of contemplation, Gabriella shrugged and let it go; maybe he was conscious of the one meter rule.
Gabriella sighed in frustration as she stared at the equation in front of her. She knew that she could do it, it was just a simple algebraic equation, but she couldn't concentrate. Her mind kept on returning to Troy's strange behavior, she had no idea what she had done. He seemed to be avoiding her ever since the morning. She's guessed that he had been avoiding her because he was in a majority of her classes and always seemed to arrive after her. This would have been normal if he had sent her one of his smiles that Gabriella had become quite used to, but when he did walk in and she looked up he would meet her eyes and than look the other way. It was beginning to get to her, because she had become so used to Troy sending her a secret smile when he walked into the room or him coming up to her and squeezing her sides while she stood at her locker. Gabriella groaned and her head hit the table as she wondered again what she had done. Why was he pushing her away? Did he regret what had happened last night? No, he couldn't have, but what if he did?
"Miss Montez is there a problem?" Gabriella head snapped up as Mrs Blair suddenly noticed her head down.
Gabriella went bright red as the entire class turned to stare at her. Everyone except Troy, Gabriella sighed and closed her eyes as she turned her head to the teacher; she reopened them and realized that she was staring at Troy.
"No, I'm sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night" she replied and Mrs Blair smiled kindly when she saw who she was looking at, she had seen Troy and Gabriella together countless times and she was sure that there was something between them.
"Well try and get some more sleep this time" she replied and turned back to the whiteboard.
Gabriella shook her head to clear her thoughts and turned her attention back to the sheet of equations, in the back of her mind, however, she felt her father pushing her to find out what happened and Gabriella knew that she needed to know what she had done.
Gabriella weaved in and out of students headed to the cafeteria; she was heading in the opposite direction because the person she wanted to talk to was always there the first half of lunch period. Truthfully, she wasn't sure that she wanted to talk to the particular person but, like the night before, Gabriella could feel her father gently guiding her and although she had some misgivings she decided it was better to trust him than figure this out on her own. As she walked Gabriella's mind turned to Troy and she sighed as she thought about he seemed to be ignoring her completely, although she had to admit several times during class she had looked up with the feeling that someone was looking at her and turned her head to find Troy slightly red. It didn't make sense that he could look at her but he wouldn't talk to her. Gabriella barely realized that she had reached the lab when she walked in and found it empty. She frowned, where was Taylor? She was normally here, Gabriella was pretty sure Taylor never went to lunch till she was hungry and Gabriella knew that rarely ever happened. Sighing again she looked around and her eyes landed on a portable CD player. She cocked her head curiously and walked over to it. She turned it on and hit play to see what CD was in it.
Don't know where you are
Wish I just could be near you
I would sail oceans
To get a glimpse of how you feel
You're all the things I'm looking for
Everything and so much more
What I think
You are just perfect
Could it be?
That I am worth it
Is this thing an open door?
Walk right through to something more
You and me
My life would change in a second
In a second
Don't know how you feel
You seem to keep it to yourself
Would you climb mountains?
To show me this is something real
You're all the things I'm looking for
Everything and so much more
What I think
You are just perfect
Could it be?
That I am worth it
Is this thing an open door?
Walk right through to something more
You and me
My life would change in a second
In a second
Could it be?
Could it be?
You and me
You and me
Do I see?
Do I see?
Clearly
What I think
You are just perfect
Could it be?
That I am worth it
Is this thing an open door?
Walk right through to something more
What I think
You are just perfect
Could it be?
That I am worth it
Is this thing an open door?
Walk right through to something more
You and me
My life would change in a second
In a second
Gabriella smiled a little sadly as the song finished. She didn't know how Troy felt and she never would at the rate this was going, she knew he was everything she was looking for and so much more, she knew that he was perfect, well maybe not perfect but close to it, what she didn't know was if what she was looking at was an open door and all she had to do was walk through to find something more. She didn't know if Troy would go to great lengths to show her that this was something real, she didn't know if she was worth it. What if he suddenly thought that she wasn't worth it?
"Gabriella? What are you doing here?" Taylor's voice broke through her thoughts and Gabriella spun around to face her feeling slightly apprehensive, Taylor looked wary and curious and Gabriella smiled at her hesitantly.
"Hi Taylor" she said quietly turning off the CD player.
"What are you doing here?" she asked again setting her books down on the table.
"I, uh, came to talk to you actually" Gabriella said fiddling with the hem of her shirt and Taylor stood there and waited for her to start, she figured that Gabriella needed to tell her off and she waited, bracing herself for whatever came next.
"Taylor, relax, don't look so worried, I haven't come here to tell you off or tell you that our friendship is over. I came here to ask you a question" Gabriella said smiling slightly as Taylor visibly relaxed.
"What's the question?" Taylor said sitting down in a lab chair, Gabriella joined her and sighed, Taylor watched as her friend turned melancholy.
"I want to know what I did to Troy" Gabriella said and than realized that it wasn't a question, but a statement.
Taylor looked at her sadly and knew that Gabriella had to know, Taylor was almost positive that Troy hadn't told her how much she meant to him, she'd seen the body language that Troy had been sending Gabriella and she had had Chad confirm that Troy thought that although Gabriella said that she liked him, Troy wasn't sure about it because she never seemed to show it. According to Chad, Troy thought that he was doing all the work and was the only one that cared in their friendship or whatever it was that they shared.
"Well believe it or not, I spoke to Chad this morning and he's been giving me some hints as to why Troy's acting the way he is. Gabriella, Troy thinks that you don't care about him the way you say you do. Because you never seem to show it with your actions, to him it's like he's doing all the work and he's the only one that cares in whatever you guys have. I have to say, though while I know that you like him, you never seem to show it" Taylor said and Gabriella stared at her in shock.
Taylor shrugged and Gabriella's mind drifted. Taylor watched as Gabriella face changed, to Taylor it was like Gabriella had realized what she had been doing. Gabriella herself, was to busy thinking about Taylor's words. She realized that Taylor was telling the truth and that maybe she needed to change it. Gabriella looked at Taylor again and offered her a weak smile.
"Thanks Taylor" she said and got up and walked to the door.
Gabriella suddenly stopped and turned around; she could feel her father urging her to do something that Gabriella had been contemplating.
"Taylor? You're forgiven" Gabriella smiled at her and Taylor's mouth dropped open in shock as Gabriella left the room.
Gabriella headed to the only place she knew that Troy would go during lunch. She headed to the gym. Troy had told her once that when he had a lot on his mind he went to shoot baskets. Sure enough when she walked in he was there shooting baskets. Gabriella suddenly felt very nervous; they hadn't spoken since this morning and she wasn't exactly sure what to say to him. Her mind unexpectedly flashed back to the week before when she was last here, she'd felt the same way than as she did now. Gabriella slowly walked over to him and waited for him to realize that she was there. It only took him a moment to realize that she was there. He turned to her and dropped the basketball as Gabriella cocked her head to one side as he approached her warily.
"Gabriella?" he asked raising his eyebrows in surprise.
Gabriella had no idea what possessed her to do what she did next but she did it anyway. With a sigh she wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder. She could feel him tense and than he relaxed as he returned her hug. Gabriella sighed as she closed her eyes and tightened her grip on him. She could feel his head on top of hers and Gabriella felt so safe and so comfortable. She smiled as she felt his lips press against her forehead and than the bell rang. Gabriella and Troy jumped apart and looked at each other, each knowing that something had changed definitely this time. Troy grinned at her and Gabriella smiled softly as he pulled her back into his arms. Gabriella closed her eyes again and relaxed into him.
"I'll see you later" she whispered into his shoulder.
"Mmm-hmm" was his reply, Gabriella stood on her toes and kissed his cheek softly.
"Bye" she said as he looked into her brown eyes.
"See you" Troy said as she pulled away from him, his hand found hers and he squeezed it gently.
Gabriella smiled and left the gym. Her thoughts strayed back to the song and her smile grew, he really was perfect, now she knew that it was an open door and all she had to do was walk through it and she would find something more. Gabriella sighed and realized her life had just changed in a second.
A/N: Another chapter done! Sadly there is only two more chapters to go, hopefully they will come sooner than this one. I'm not particularly sure about this chapter, I don't know if it fits in the story or not, I really didn't like it anyway. The song is 'In a Second' by Ally and AJ. I'll really will try and update soon!