They're just two friends meeting for coffee. That's all it is. At least, that's what Gabriella keeps telling herself all morning, even though she can't eat a single bite for fear of throwing up due to the nerves and she can't decide what to wear because nothing is good enough.

She feels like a teenager again, off to go on her very first date with her high school crush. And ironically, the man she's about to see was her high school crush.

She takes a deep breath and flattens out any potential wrinkles in her white sweater before entering the coffee shop.

They're just friends.

Yet her heart betrays her and picks up its speed as she sees him already there, sitting at a table with a cup of coffee and waiting for her. He looks up the sound of the door opening anxiously and his face breaks into a brilliant grin as he recognizes her and waves her over excitedly.

"I'm not late, am I?" she asks after walking over to him, and she drops her purse on the table, opening it to find her wallet containing her debit card.

"No, no, I'm just early," he assures her, before gesticulating to her purse as she rummages through it. "I can pay for your coffee if you want?"

"Troy Bolton, early? What happened to you in those ten years?" Gabriella teases him, choosing not to dwell on how easy it suddenly is to flirt with him, before shaking her head. "Thanks for the offer, but I can pay for myself. I'm pretty sure I make more than you anyway."

Troy rolls his eyes. "I grew up. And I guess that's a fair point, Dr. Montez."

He laughs a little at the proud smile she sends him – being called Dr. Montez never gets old to her –, before offering her an apologetic smile. "I would have ordered something for you too, but I wasn't sure whether you still had the same coffee order."

"I do," she says, feeling a warmth spread through her at the implication that he still knows what she used to order, as she finally fishes the wallet out of her purse. "Aha! I'll be right back."

While she stands in line to order, she can't help but sneak a few glances at him and every time, she feels a spark when she sees that he is looking back at her, his cheeks flushed a pleasant pink.

She feels a bit embarrassed at the suggestive wink the young barista sends her after she takes her order, obviously having caught the silent flirtation going on between her customers. However, Gabriella refuses to entertain the thought that the flirtation might mean that there's something more going on than a rekindled friendship.

They're at ease with each other – as much as they can be as exes, at least –, they have always had chemistry, and Troy is a naturally charming person. Of course, there might be some flirtation, it's only natural. It doesn't have to mean anything else.

So, when she returns to Troy with a cup of delicious coffee, she decides she's just going to enjoy this without any pretences.

Sitting down, she grins and raises her eyebrows. "So, tell me about those kids you teach."

Half an hour later, Gabriella is almost spitting out her second cup of coffee – paid for by Troy this time, after much arguing – as he tells her stories of the pranks that Chad, now also working at East High, has pulled on Ms. Darbus recently.

"Nothing has changed, huh?" she says when she's done laughing, amusement still present in her voice. However, all joy quickly evaporates at her words and she mentally berates herself for letting it slide as she bites her lip and looks at a frowning Troy.

Some things may not have changed, indeed, but it still feels like everything has.

"I mean, I guess I never really expected us to become a teacher and a doctor slash PhD student, though," she adds quickly, before trailing off.

She also never expected them to break up and lose all touch for ten years.

As Troy laughs, sounding almost relieved at her skirting around the subject, and nods, she narrows her eyes at him and says, "You know I never asked you how you did end up becoming a teacher."

Troy smiles wistfully. "Well, once I enrolled at Berkeley, I just decided that I had to give music a shot, and then I realized how much I love help guiding people, so I just rolled into it."

She would have remembered fondly how much Troy did guide others, including herself, on the path to growth, but there's one thing that shocks her to her core. "You went to Berkeley? You quit U of A?"

Troy blinks, bemused. "Ryan never told you?"

Gabriella bites her lip, feeling herself flush in embarrassment. "He never really talked about you to me. I guess it was because he knew how hurt I was after I left."

She really doesn't want to talk about what happened between them, but she supposes it's better to be honest.

She wishes she hadn't done it, though, when she sees the pain cross Troy's face and her heart constricts when she thinks about how much she wishes she could take his heartbreak away and she considers how he's hurt because of her.

"That's fair, I guess," he says, his voice small, as he rubs his neck. Then he purses his lips and asks, tentatively, "Do you ever wonder what would have happened if we hadn't stayed in Albuquerque initially?"

Every day.

Even when she was happy with Henry, that thought has always been in the back of her mind, and seeing the hopeful twinkle in Troy's eyes as she nods slowly, a pit grows in her stomach as she considers what could have been.

"I wanted to contact you when I got to California, you know," he admits, blushing a little as he continues to rub his neck.

Curiously, she asks, "Why didn't you?"

She mentally berates herself for asking such a stupid question. Of course he wouldn't actually do it, not after they broke each other's hearts so badly.

Troy grimaces as he appears to search for an answer, silence and tension settling between them before he finally settles on, "I was scared."

Her heart shatters at that admission. If there's one thing that she can think back on fondly with regard to their relationship, it's the fact that they helped each other overcome their fears. And somehow, she has become his fear.

"How did it all go so wrong?" she wonders out loud, and they share a sorrowful smile.

"I guess we were just tired of fighting," he says with a shrug and Gabriella bites her lip and looks down at the table. They fall silent yet again as she contemplates how true his words are.

All the time they were together, they had to fight for each other, for their future, for their happy ending. And at one point, she supposes they lost that naïve hope that everything would work out magically.

"I should have fought for you."

Gabriella feels the tears burning behind her eyes as she blinks and looks back up to see him staring at her firmly, his eyes darkened to navy blue and filled with regret.

"Troy…"

He shakes his head. "I should not have given up. That's not me."

"It wouldn't have worked," she says, her words and beliefs as solid and confident as his opposing opinion. "We would have been so far away from each other. We would have grown apart."

"We wouldn't have been the first couple to have to deal with long distance," he retorts, a slight hint of frustration evident in his words as he keeps his gaze fixed on her, his face hard and his lips in a firm line.

"We would have just been delaying the inevitable. We would have never made it," she says, shaking her head as the panic starts to well up inside of her and the memories of those awful days leading up to their break up start flashing before her eyes. "I stayed in Albuquerque for you and we still broke up."

"I never wanted you to stay," Troy reminds her, the anger and agony in his eyes and his voice building. "I never wanted you to give up your dreams for me. I just wanted to be a part of them."

Gabriella gulps. He's right. Everyone was right. It was her decision to give up Stanford and stay in Albuquerque, despite knowing better. It was her decision and her fear that she couldn't have both her dreams and love.

And, as she stares into his darkened, stormy eyes, she realizes that it was her decision to give up on him when he needed her the most.

She feels awful.

A stray tear falls down her cheeks, which she rapidly wipes away, and Troy closes his eyes painfully at the sight, which makes the ache in her heart grow even stronger and simultaneously takes the air right out of her lungs.

"This is a mistake," she says shakily, unable to keep her voice steady with all this emotion. "I'm sorry. I have to go."

Quickly, she grabs her coat and walks out the door, never turning back when he calls her name desperately.

She keeps walking and walking and walking, until she finds herself home, safe in her old bedroom.

And then she cries.

"I feel so awful," Gabriella whines as she stops typing for a moment and turns around to look at her boyfriend, who is sprawled all over her bed, throwing and catching a plush toy.

Troy stops throwing and turns his head to give her a small smile, her heart immediately going into overdrive at the sight and the butterflies swarming her stomach.

It's amazing how he can still manage to make her feel like that.

"It's okay, babe," he says genuinely, before turning away and resuming throwing the toy. "We're in college. Deadlines are part of the deal."

Gabriella huffs and lets her shoulder slump. "But this was supposed to be our night. I haven't seen you in two weeks! I was really looking forward to this and now I'm ruining it."

"You're not ruining anything."

His words are still as passionate and convincing as ever, but she can't help but feel a little pang in her heart as she notices he doesn't turn to her to stare into her eyes or give a comforting grin.

It's a small change in his behaviour , but it doesn't sit well with her that he seems to be slowly closing himself off.

She knows the reason why – it's the pressure, it's always the pressure – but she just wishes she could help him. But, as she sighs and turns back to her laptop, she realizes that she'd be a hypocrite if she were to attempt to convince him that it's going to be okay or shower him with encouragements and sweet, meaningless words.

He might be buckling under the pressure, but she's also dealing with something difficult. She's dealing with the fact that the longer she's at U of A, the more she craves the challenge that Stanford would have offered her. The longer she's here, the more she starts to doubt her decision of not going there.

She wishes she could talk to him about it. He's the only person who understands her and understands the way she thinks about these things, and he's the only person who could actually offer insightful advice that she'd actually be willing to listen to.

But she can't. Because if she admits what her heart knows to be true, he would encourage her to leave. And that's the one thing she doesn't want to hear, especially from his mouth.

She sighs again and bites her lip, before shaking her head and closing down the laptop a little more harshly than she intended. Turning around again, she shrugs as she sees Troy's raised eyebrows and worried frown.

"I couldn't concentrate."

At this, Troy's face softens and he offers her a smile of pity as he pats the bed. "Come here."

Gabriella smiles in return, warmth coursing through her veins at the image before her, and with a deep sigh, she walks over to him and snuggles next to him on the bed.

They stay like that for a while, comfortably silent, before Gabriella asks, "So, how are your classes?"

"Good," Troy says in response, and Gabriella frowns. They haven't seen each other in two weeks – surely there must be something more for him to tell her. A few months ago, they would have cell phone calls that lasted for hours after having seen each other all day.

In another attempt to get him to open up to her, she asks, "How's practice with the Redhawks?"

She feels him tense next to her and she wraps her arm around him in an effort to make him feel a little better. Sighing, he answers, "Good."

She knows it's not good and not just by the tension in his body. She knows how much pressure he's under, caused – unintentionally – by Chad and his dad, and it hurts her a little that he won't talk to her about it.

"How are your classes? Besides that essay that you can't seem to write, I mean," Troy asks her in an obvious attempt to steer away the conversation from his troubles and suddenly, Gabriella understands why he won't talk to her.

He doesn't know what to say. And neither does she. She can't tell him her classes are terrible and that she wishes deep down that she'd gone to Stanford without getting her heart broken.

"Good."

Troy gulps besides her in response, also aware of how curt and shallow this conversation is, and how it doesn't feel like them anymore, before dropping a soft kiss to her forehead and smiling at her, although it doesn't quite reach his darkened eyes.

"You want to watch a movie?" he asks, wiggling his eyebrows. "Maybe some Disney?"

That sufficiently breaks the tension, and she laughs heartily as she pokes him between the ribs. "What's it with you and Disney?"

He shrugs casually. "I like a happy ending."

She just rolls her eyes and giggles as he jumps off the bed to scour her collection of DVDs.

When the movie's on and they're lying on her bed, wrapped up in each other as they watch the animated figures on screen, it almost feels like everything is right. She still feels at peace when she's in his arms – that hasn't changed.

But she can't help but think everything else has.

His words keep echoing in her mind. He likes happy endings. So does she. And how she wishes she could have one with him.

But the doubts are ever growing. They're not talking anymore. She's afraid and he's scared. The main thing that bonded them – their ability to understand and help each other when things get tough – is crumbling down. They're not even physically apart yet and still nothing feels the same.

What will happen when she inevitably goes to Stanford, whenever that may be? If they're like this when they're in close proximity, who knows what will happen when there's an actual distance between them. She doesn't see how they can survive. She doesn't see a future for them anymore.

Oh, how she wishes they could have their happy ending. But it seems further out of reach than ever.

After hours of crying, every painful memory of that horrible first semester of college flashing before her eyes, Gabriella finally finds the strength to calm down.

As she gets up to wipe her nose and to get a cup of water to tend to her dry throat, she suddenly sees something lying on the floor.

It's a polaroid, lying upside down. It must have fallen out of the box of memories without her or her mother noticing.

Furrowing her eyebrows, she picks it up and she feels the tears well up in her eyes again as she sees what the photo is.

It's a photo of her and Troy, most likely taken by her mother, as they are snuggled up together in the hammock that used to be in the backyard. Their lips are curving up in blissful smiles as they are wrapped up in a sweet kiss.

This was early senior year, she would assume by her hair that's growing out, and she feels a tug at her heart as she looks at how happy and in love they looked. This was before it all went south, before she made that string of bad decisions that led to the decline of their relationship.

She thinks back to what her mother said. About how brave she used to be, about how Troy always seems to make her smile, and she feels terrible.

She threw away all that happiness, all that love, out of fear. And now she walked out on him again. In her panic, she thought that was the right thing to do in order to avoid having to deal with the consequences and the fallout that's been hanging over their heads ever since they found each other on the rooftop at the reunion. Now she realizes that it was wrong, that it only heightened the hurt that she must have caused him.

How can she ever face him after this? How could she ever have forgotten that his heart had been broken just as much as hers?

The good thing, she supposes, is that she doesn't necessarily have to face him. She will be leaving Albuquerque again in a matter of days and then she'll be back to her old life, back to trying to accommodate to her new normal without Henry. That's hard enough as it is, so it's a good thing that Troy won't have to be added to her list of worries.

Yet it doesn't sit well with her. Looking at the photo again, she longs to be back in that moment, she longs to feel that way again.

If she leaves like this again, her last memory of Troy being utter anguish, and if she doesn't make up with him, she'll be no better than she was back then.

This is her opportunity to make up for her mistakes and to come to terms with old regrets. This is her opportunity to have this person who meant so much to her back in her life, in whatever small capacity that may be.

But the question is, is she brave enough to do it? Is she brave enough to confront the past? Is she brave enough not to run away this time?

Before she can find a satisfying conclusion to the dilemma that is starting to haunt her – should she open herself up to Troy Bolton again or is that a terrible idea? –, the answer to her question ends up right on her doorstep.

It's evening when a soft knock comes on her door and her mother softly tells her, "You have a guest."

Jumping up from her bed, where she's been reading a book, she expects Taylor or Kelsi. Who she doesn't expect to see is Troy.

Yet he's here, his hands shoved in his pockets as he stares at anything but her. Her mother shoots her a pointed look that tells her to be brave, before nodding at Troy politely. She smiles when he thanks her and disappears from the room, leaving them alone.

Then it becomes awkward. Troy still isn't looking at her and vaguely in the back of her mind, she feels shame for how she wouldn't look at him at the reunion, because it hurts.

"This place really hasn't changed at all," he says almost wistfully after what feels like an eternity has passed. He smiles as he points to the daisies on her nightstand. "I see you still love daisies. I always used to love it when you put them in your hair."

Both faces flush at that straightforward admission, and Gabriella looks down at her lap and fidgets with her hands for a moment, before returning her gaze to him. He's rubbing his neck awkwardly, something that seems to be becoming a regular occurrence when he's around her. Gabriella gulps when her eyes stray from his face and land on his stomach, where his shirt is riding up slightly, revealing a small patch of skin. For a moment, she is incapable of tearing her gaze away, and her cheeks flush even more when she finds her thoughts straying to some rather intimate memories of her hands caressing his abs… amongst other things.

In an effort to distract herself from her inappropriate thoughts, she looks back up into his eyes and asks him, "What are you doing here?"

Her inquiry isn't meant to be accusatory or annoyed, but it must have come across this way, because Troy closes his eyes painfully for a second, before shrugging and grimacing. "I came here to apologize."

Gabriella blinks in astonishment. "What for?"

Troy sighs, before walking over to her bed and sitting at the opposite edge, staring ahead. It feels weird, sitting so far apart from him, but that's not a thought she dwells on much as he starts to explain.

"I assume I came off a little too strong this morning. It wasn't my intention to upset you or make you feel like it's your fault that we didn't work out. Like I said, I should have fought harder too. And I guess I want to fight now. For our friendship, at least. I don't want us to end on bad terms again before you leave."

He's staring straight into her eyes now, his own stormy and anguished, and she knows that he means every word. Feeling her lips curl up involuntarily, she shakes her head and averts her gaze. "You have nothing to apologize for. I ran out because I hadn't realized how much hurt there still was between us and that freaked me out. Running away and not realizing it sooner was dumb and selfish. So I'm sorry too. I guess I still have that tendency to run away from my problems."

The last sentence is uttered shyly and with a slight edge of embarrassment, but it just makes Troy chuckle fondly. When she looks at him, there's a mischievous twinkle in his eye. He winks as he tells her, "It's not a big deal, I'm used to it."

Gabriella rolls her eyes in response, before smiling at him again. "I feel the same about not ending on bad terms, though. I was actually in the midst of trying to gather my courage to call you and apologize myself."

This makes Troy light up a little and she giggles at the excited grin that forms on his face as he utters, "So, are we going to be friends again? For real this time?"

She bites her lip and thinks for a moment, before grinning and nodding. Then she sticks her hand out. "Friends?"

Troy looks at her hand for a moment and then shakes his head and opens his arms. "How about a hug? Or is that too much?"

She giggles again as she contemplates this. Is it straightforward? Very much so. But it feels right. They've always been physically close, so a handshake feels weirdly impersonal and inappropriate when she thinks about it.

Nodding, she scoots a little closer and hesitantly wraps her arms around his torso as he envelops her into a hug. His embrace feels just as warm and comfortable as it used to, and she can't help but melt into him, laying her head on his shoulder as he does the same on hers. Closing her eyes, she breathes him in and revels in the feeling of peace and the butterflies swarming her stomach.

When they release from each other's embrace, his lips ghost over her ear, just far away enough not to touch. It sets off a reaction within her core that she does not care to define, and when they've pulled away, she almost gasps as she sees the darkened, almost dangerous colour of blue swimming in his eyes. She knows what that means. Lust. Desire.

She feels the same longing rise up within in her, and for a tiny fraction of a moment, she wonders what would happen if she were to push him back on the bed and they were to repeat those intimate memories she was just thinking of.

Her eyes can't help but flicker to his lips for a millisecond, but she quickly blinks and pulls away before they have another almost kiss and get themselves into another awkward situation.

"Just friends, right?" she asks to be sure, and an emotion she can't decipher flickers across his features before he smiles and nods. She returns the smile, feeling a bit relieved. "Good, because I'm really not ready to fall in love again."

If Troy thinks anything about her implication that she would fall in love with him again, he doesn't show it. He does furrow his eyebrows, though, as he inquires, "What happened between you and that Henry guy anyway?"

"He cheated on me."

Immediately, Troy jumps, an undignified look on his face and his mouth agape. "Are you serious? Why would anyone cheat on someone like you?"

"I never got an explanation," she says, pairing her words with a casual shrug, but she can't hide the bitterness in her tone, which apparently doesn't go unnoticed by Troy as his eyes darken with anger rather than lust now.

"What an asshole."

Gabriella shrugs again, averting her gaze for a moment, before staring straight at him. "It is what it is."

Of course, it isn't. She's still broken up inside because of how much her trust has been betrayed and how much her confidence has fallen, but she won't deny that Troy's anger on her behalf makes her feel a little better. However, it's not enough, and she doesn't want to talk about it anymore, and thankfully, Troy seems to get the hint, for he doesn't press any further and sits back down on the bed dejectedly.

In an attempt to lighten the mood and change the subject, she musters a cheeky grin and teasingly tells him, "You know, I'm kind of disappointed that you came through the front door and didn't climb the tree."

Troy rolls his eyes and laughs, the sound music to her ears. "I'm not as young and spritely as I was in high school."

And with that, they fall back into an easy conversation that lasts for the remainder of the evening.

And when she excuses herself to go to the bathroom halfway through, she can't help but see something reflected in her eyes that hasn't been there for a long time.

Happiness.