Much faster update. I wanted a little more feedback, but I owe you guys for never keeping my word. So, here it is. It only took TWO DAYS! Who's happy? d: Ehh? Ehh? Haha. A fair warning; you might not be so happy after this one.

(Disclaimer- Why must we keep on coming back to this? I. Own. Nothing. Except Melanie, but nobody really likes her… as of this chapter.)

This chapter is dedicated to: strawberry.sparkle and xxxbethaniaxxx, they're both new readers, and they spent about an hour reading the whole story, when someone should've been doing homework. (;

Who's That Girl

Chapter 23- The Unconquered Maze

Nobody's POV-

"Just try, Ella. It's not that hard." He urged one last time, and turned around walking out of the room. Unfortunately, he didn't see the small nod Gabriella had emitted, moments after he had left.

"Hey Chad." Cameron greeted, as he sat down beside him.

"Hey Cameron." Chad replied, not looking up from his Sport's Illustrated magazine.

He nodded, before looking around, and noticing that everyone was gone except the two themselves. "Where's Troy?" He asked curiously.

"Bathroom." Chad answered.

Cameron nodded. "The girls?"

"Mall." He told him plainly.

"Why did they-" He started, as he was cut off by Chad.

"They wanted to go get Gabriella gifts." He answered simply.

Cameron raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Why didn't they just go down to the gift shop on the first floor?" He questioned. Chad shrugged in response.

"I don't know. I'm not a girl, dude." He replied, still flipping through the magazine. Cameron chuckled as he thought of what to say next.

"True, that. Or else Taylor would be a les on us." He told him, smirking.

Chad rolled his eyes. "Ha-ha, Cameron. You're so hilarious." He responded sarcastically.

"What about Jason, Zeke, and Ryan?" Cameron asked, making him crack a smile.

"Well, they were dragged to the mall with the girls." He answered, setting the magazine in his lap.

"What about you?" Chad shrugged.

"Jimmy's in surgery again." He replied, lowering his voice to a whispering tone. "Gabriella's hug almost killed him." Cameron looked at him in bewilderment.

"Jimmy?" He queried.

"My best friend!" Chad exclaimed in an obvious tone.

Cameron nodded, realizing who Jimmy was. "You mean that weird basketball you carry around?" He questioned, as Chad gaped at him. He huffed furiously, turning the other way.

"Some people wouldn't insult my friend." He spat out. Cameron scratched his head in confusion at Chad's behavior.

"Sorry?" He replied tentatively.

Chad turned back to him, laughing. "Nah. I was just kidding. To answer your question, I'm only here for Troy." Cameron nodded again.

"That makes more sense." He decided, as he leaned back into his uncomfortable chair next to Chad. "Wait, here is Jimmy though?"

Chad frowned. "My mom came and took him home." He answered.

"And that doesn't." Cameron muttered under his breath.

"So, what did Gabriella say?" Chad asked curiously.

Cameron shrugged. "Just that she's not going to try to forgive him." Chad nodded in response, as Cameron continued to talk. "It's kinda weird, though. Don't you think? They're meant to be. Troy only fed her a small white lie." He finished, as Chad shook his head.

"Not from her point of view." Cameron cocked his head to the side.

"What do you mean?" He questioned.

Chad pursed his lips, wondering if he should say anything. Cameron was her cousin after all, he decided. "Well, it's not because of the lie or the trust issue." He told him, not noticing that there was someone else standing next to them.

"Then what is it about?" Troy asked, with a raised eyebrow. Chad looked up at his best friend with wide eyes. Troy wasn't supposed to hear it.

"T-Troy! Hey Man." He greeted him nervously. There was a dead silence, where both Troy and Cameron were waiting for Chad to finish his previous quote. Troy sighed, realizing that he wasn't going to budge anytime soon.

"What's it about then?" He pressed again, this time, directing it toward Cameron.

He shrugged, genuinely not knowing. "Hey, don't look at me." He replied, as he pointed to Chad. "The basketball whisperer over there was just about to tell me." Troy raised his eyebrow, looking at his best friend.

"Chad?"

He threw him a sheepish look, as he ran his hand through his crazy curls. "I'm not good at explaining things." Troy and Cameron rolled their eyes.

"Just tell me." Troy ordered him, not receiving a reply back. "Come on Chad! I wanna know why that lie was so important to her." He said, leaning on the wall near them.

Chad shrugged at him. "It would be better if you asked her, yourself." He told him. "I mean, she did tell the rest of us."

Troy bit his lip furiously. He could feel him drawing the blood from his own lip. But he didn't care about the pain right now. All he cared about what why Gabriella had told their friends why she was mad at them. She lied to him about, when it actually was about the two of them. He definitely didn't get that. Wincing, at the sharper pain he was feeling, he leaned off of the wall, and stomped inside Gabriella's room, not saying anything else to the other two.

After hearing the door closing shut, Cameron looked at Chad suspiciously.

"She did not." He retorted. "Why did you tell him that?" Chad chuckled, folding his arms behind his head, and leaning his head against the wall.

"Think about, Cam." He replied smugly. "Troy goes running in there all angry, he gets her mad." He paused, smirking. "Eventually the anger breaks, and there you have it." He stated proudly. "We have two wild animals going at it. Just hope that they won't scar us for life if we accidentally walk in on them." He finished, pretending to grimace at the end of his statement.

"What if the others come back and go inside?"Cameron asked, playing along with his unlikely situation.

"We'll laugh at them, and run." Chad replied proudly, as Cameron chuckled in response.

"You're an open-minded guy, Chad." He told him. "Very open minded." He declared, seeing Chad playing with his afro.

Gabriella sat on her bed thinking about what Cameron had said. Most of the things that he had yelled at her were true. Not the getting freaky part though. But she probably should forgive Troy face to face. She just didn't know how to. As she thought of ways to say something, she heard the door opening again. She looked up and saw Troy himself.

"Hi Troy." She greeted softly. Instead of a salutation or a smile from him, she received him yelling a question at her.

"You told the rest of the gang, and not me?!" He questioned. "It's all about us for god's sake!" The anger and frustration, every emotion pent up from the past couple of days was really starting to get to him.

Her head shot up at the tone and volume of his voice. "What?"

"You are such a fucking hypocrite Gabriella!" He yelled at her, shaking his head.

"How am I a hypocrite?" She asked in confusion.

"You lied to me!" He responded angrily.

"The reason why you rejected me." He clarified for her, once he saw her face contorting into a perplexed expression. "You didn't care about the white lie I made."

Gabriella looked taken aback at his comment. How did he know that?

"Yes, I did." She stated sternly, forgetting about her previous thoughts of forgiving him. Instead, she focused on sounding real as possible. "It just showed that you can't be trusted." She continued, keeping a straight face.

He sighed. "Gabriella!" He exclaimed in frustration. She didn't respond, she just wanted him to say what he needed to.

He let out an angry breath as he called her name out again. She grunted in exasperation.

"What?" She screeched at him.

"Tell me the real reason." Troy demanded furiously.

"I already did." The brunette replied, as she shrugged.

"That's not what Chad told me." He said, taking a step closer to her.

She rolled her eyes, trying to think of something to say. "Well, maybe he's lying." She uttered out, making him scoff.

"Maybe you're the one who's lying." He retorted.

"I'm not!" She cried, as she shook her head at him. "It's all about the trust." She lied. "You can't have a relationship work without it. You know that." She finished, biting her lip. If he didn't get off of her case soon, she'd just blurt it to him out of anger.

He viciously ran his hand through his hair in irritation. "Cut the freaking bull Gabriella!" He shouted.

"It's because you don't love me!" She exclaimed unintentionally.

He chuckled menacingly at her, shaking his head again.

"What the hell does lying have to do with that?" He spat out. "I've loved you my whole life. As a sister at first, and then as a lover. Which is right now!" He threw his hands out in distress. "What's telling you I don't?"

She closed her eyes tightly, before opening them again. "When you lied." She replied in a small voice.

"Evaluate, Brie." He said, his voice breaking in anger.

He sighed, when she didn't respond. He took in a deep breath to control his anger, before lowering his tone of voice.

"We've been truthful with each other, our whole lives. Can't you do so right now?" He asked calmly. She sighed in defeat before answering him.

"I needed to see if you would hurt me." She stated, looking away from him.

He stared at her in befuddlement. "What?"

Gabriella took in a deep breath before deciding to tell him the truth.

"I knew that you would try to protect me, Troy." She began, sighing. "But I still had hoped that you wouldn't lie to me. If you had told me the truth, then you would've saved us from the hurt in the future." She explained, as she noticed that he was staring at her blankly.

"Don't you get it?" She asked quietly, as she played with her hands that were currently situated in her lap. "Most of the time, you have to hurt the people you love to save them." She continued, shrugging. "Trust is a petty part of this, Troy. The only thing that you proved to me by lying was not that I couldn't trust you, but that you won't go all the way for me." She expressed, her voice starting to break.

"You'd rather take a shortcut." She told him, taking in a deep breath. "Sure there would've been a lot of drama. But it would've been worth it." She paused, before she continued her confession. "If you loved me, you would've gone through all of it for me." She finished, raising her eyebrow at him when he looked at him in disbelief.

"That's a stupid reason, Gabriella." He said, shaking his head. "Either way there would've been drama!" He exclaimed.

"Not-" He shook his head, as he interrupted her before she could finish her statement.

"I knew that I was taking a risk when I told you that lie." Troy interjected. "But I did it for your own benefit. Doesn't that show you I love you enough?" He questioned her boldly. "There's even more drama with that decision."

Gabriella bit her lip. "This all goes back to the trust thing. It just shows that you don't love me?" She tried weakly. He groaned.

"Oh my god, Gabriella!" He yelled at her. "What the hell is wrong with you!? Did losing all of that blood do something to your head?" He asked furiously, as he rolled his eyes. "You're questioning my love, when I should be questioning yours!" He snapped angrily.

The brunette shook her head at him. "This isn't about my love for you." She replied. He nodded at her.

"Of course it's not just about you. It's about our relationship, if we even have one anymore." He said, wanting to get his point across. "You're asking if I love you." He told her, as he doubted that she really meant that. "And you definitely should know."

He shook his head at himself. "If you don't, then I'll clarify it for you. I damn well love more than I should!" He paused, looking up at her to see if she was looking at him. She wasn't. He sighed, as he spoke his next sentence. "But what isn't known is your love for me." He said slowly.

"If you loved me, you wouldn't have tricked me and lied to me, first." He stated sternly, as he shook his head, realizing what was really happening between them. "You're causing all of this drama for us, and for what?" He questioned in annoyance. He threw his hands out to show his clear frustration. "For us to never be?" He asked in disbelief.

"You're driving a steak between us Gabriella." He told her in exasperation. "It's like you've put us in this huge maze. We're both so far from each other, and even farther from reaching the prize." He paused, as he looked at her sadly, noticing that she still wasn't looking at him. She was looking down instead, her hair, shielding her face. "It's like you don't even want us to be together!" He exclaimed. "I'm trying my best, Brie. But every time I've come close to succeeding, you stop me. You're always preventing us from getting out of that maze."

He sighed, when she still didn't say anything. 'That should've evoked something in her.' He thought. He waited a couple moments for her to say something. She still didn't respond, making him look at her in disbelief. He nodded sadly, taking in the full rejection from her. He took in a deep breath, before replying.

"If that's your ultimate goal," He pressed. "keeping us from getting together, then fine." He decided, shaking his head painfully. "I'll stop."

Tears continued to weld up in her eyes as she relished on what he was saying. She didn't want them to separate. She was just confused at the moment. She didn't expect it to come out like this.

"Stop what?" She asked him, with a slight nervousness in her voice. She knew what he meant, she wasn't that dense. She just really didn't want it to be what he was about to say.

He took in another breath before he spoke his last word to her.

"Trying." He told her quietly, his blue eyes dulling for the third time in his life. He walked out of the room, slamming the door blindly, on the way out.

Gabriella looked up at the door that he had just walked out of. Her eyes were red, as her face was stained with tears.

She clenched her eyelids shut again, trying to prevent more tears from leaking out of her brown eyes.

She was trying hard not to let the pain and hurt overcome her body.

Okay, who's not happy now? –insert raised hand here- Me too. And I'm the one who's writing it.

At least things get better next chapter. (:

The next one is MUCH longer, and slightly happier, trust me.

I'm kinda thinking that I might add one/two/three more chapters than planned. What do you guys think? Just maybe.

-Ilyilyx3

Sneak Peak- (I've been forgetting to add these haven't I? Haha. Oh, and they're in no particular order. If they were, you'd so figure it out.)

"He didn't come…"

"Gabriella, if you really want him back, then why don't you chase after him for once?"

"Melanie?!"

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"She's with me."

Whoever hasn't been paying attention to my hints, is in for a real shocker.

Oh. And for all of you TMG readers, minor setback. I had the chapter finished, and I was going to post it today, along with this one. But, my brother deleted it. ):

If it helps though, I have a third of it rewritten already. (: Not long until I finish and post it.

You can thank spring break. Haha.

Review!