Okay, guys, I am absolutely blown away by the reviews! You guys are AMAZING! Thank you so much for reading this and there is more to come. At the end, I 'll try to make a list of my reviewers, thanking them for all their support. Again, thank you so much.

The after-date!

Gabriella could hear Troy running behind her, trying to catch up to her. She continued to run until she felt Troy wrap his arms around her waste, trying to hold her still. She pulled away and turned to face him, tears running down her face. Her heart broke more when she saw the look of hurt on Troy's face.

"I'm sorry, Troy. I can't do this with you."

She turned and ran back to the truck, opened the passenger door and grabbed her purse. She pulled out her cell phone and called her mother.

"Mama? Can you please come pick me up?"

♪

Gabriella stayed in her room the whole weekend, lying in her bed. She had spent the last two nights crying herself to sleep. She only came out to eat dinner, but remained quiet, causing her parents to worry. On Sunday afternoon, Gabriella walked down to get a glass of water. She heard her parents in the living room.

"I told you it was a bad idea to let that boy take her out!"

"We don't know if it was his fault! You can't blame him until you have the facts, Greg!"

Gabriella cringed when she heard her parents argue. They were never like this. The Montez home had always been so full of love.

"I warned that boy. I told him if he hurt her..."

"He didn't hurt me."

Mr. and Mrs. Montez turned to see their daughter standing a few feet behind the couch. Mr. Montez was red, obviously angry at Troy for hurting his daughter.

"Dad, he didn't do anything to me. I hurt him."

Mrs. Montez went around the couch and wrapped her arms around her daughter.

"Oh, honey. Do you want to talk about it?"

Gabriella shook her head.

"No. I'm going back upstairs. Just don't be mad at Troy. He did nothing wrong."

Gabriella walked back up the stairs, leaving her worried parents standing in the living room.

♪

Monday morning came too quickly in Troy's opinion. He sat through his math class, not paying attention to the teacher. His mind was on Gabriella, as it had been all weekend.

"I can't believe she turned me down like that. I poured my heart and soul out to her."

Chad watched his buddy and noticed the permanent scowl on his face. All Chad knew was that before class, he had been with Troy while Taylor was walking with Gabriella. When they passed each other, Troy had only said hi to Taylor and Gabriella had only said hi to Chad.

"What happened this weekend?"

♪

"Pop quiz!"

Gabriella groaned as the science teacher started to hand out the quiz papers. When Gabriella received hers, she looked at it and scribbled down the first answer. She found her mind wandering to Troy and Friday night. It had been amazing. She had had a wonderful time until he sang her his song. It was a great song, but what it represented...

"Time's up!"

Gabriella looked down at her sheet and noticed she had written her name and one answer. The teacher picked it up and gave Gabriella a strange look.

"Meet me after class, Ms. Montez."

Gabriella just nodded. Taylor looked at her friend in disbelief. What had gotten into her?

♪

"Ms. Montez, please explain the meaning of this. One answer! You had fifteen minutes and you only wrote down one answer. Are you feeling okay, Gabriella?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just didn't get enough sleep this weekend. I'm sorry, Ms. Fitzpatrick."

Ms. Fitzpatrick sighed.

"It's okay, Gabriella. Try to get more sleep tonight. You can rewrite the quiz tomorrow."

"Yes ma'am. Thank you."

♪

Taylor waited outside the science room for Gabriella. She saw the shorter brunette step out of the classroom and walked up to her.

"Gabriella? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Taylor."

Gabriella walked to her locker, leaving a very confused and concerned Taylor by the science room.

♪

Chad watched in disbelief as Troy missed his seventh basket. It was gym class and Troy had only shot seven.

"Troy, man, what's up? I've never seen you miss so many shots in your entire life!"

Troy didn't turn to his best friend. Instead, he took another shot from the foul line and completely missed the net. He groaned as he saw the gym teacher giving him a disapproving look.

"What happened this weekend? You were fine on Friday. And you didn't even talk to Gabriella today."

"Leave it alone, Chad."

Troy took another shot that bounced off the rim.

"It's Gabriella, isn't it?"

"Leave it, Chad."

"What did she do? Or did you do something?"

Troy turned and glared at his big haired friend.

"I'm warning you, Chad. Just drop it!"

Chad gave Troy a hard chest pass.

"No! Something happened between you and Gabriella. It's making you play like shit!"

Troy threw the ball back at Chad, the force pushing his friend back a foot.

"It doesn't concern you! What happened between Gabriella and I is none of your business! And it really doesn't matter that I'm playing like shit because I quit the team!"

Chad was about to throw the ball back at Troy when it was intercepted by Mr. Scott, the gym teacher.

"I don't know what is going on here, but you two better straighten it out. Showers! Now!"

Troy and Chad shot each other one last glare and left the gym, heading to the locker room. Troy grabbed a towel out of his locker and slammed it shut. Chad sighed.

"I'm sorry, Troy. You're right, it doesn't concern me. It's just... Taylor and I are really worried about you and Gabriella."

Troy sat down on the bench.

"I'm sorry for blowing up. I know you're just worried."

Chad sat down beside Troy and lightly punched him in the shoulder.

"You wanna talk about it?"

Troy sighed and turned to look at his best friends before looking at the floor in front of him.

"I asked her out to dinner on Friday..."

♪

"So you just left him there?"

Taylor and Kelsi were sitting with Gabriella in the music room, trying to understand why she was acting so depressed. They were skipping english to discuss why Gabriella was so down and distant.

"I didn't know what else to do! He just sang me an amazing song, told me he loved me, and sat there! What was I supposed to do?"

Taylor and Kelsi looked at each other before turning back to face Gabriella. Kelsi took one of Gabriella's hands.

"Don't you love him? Or at least like him?"

Gabriella sighed before a few tears streamed down her cheeks. Taylor took her other hand and waited patiently for her to answer.

"I can't love Troy. He's not supposed to love me."

Taylor looked confused.

"Why not? If he loves you, he loves you. And I know that you love him."

"I do love Troy, but he can't love me. He promised that he wouldn't."

Kelsi now shared Taylor's look of confusion.

"When and why?"

"At the start of out music project. We were only supposed to work together and he was supposed to merely put up with me. It was surprising that we even became friends. Now... It's just really confusing!"

Taylor and Kelsi shared another glance, talking with their eyes. Gabriella looked at them and rolled her eyes.

"I hate when they do that. I'm right here, you know! They're just like my parents."

Taylor and Kelsi pulled Gabriella into a hug, yanking Gabriella out of her thoughts."He loves you, Gabs. Give him a chance."

Gabriella murmured into Taylor's shoulder.

"I can't."

"I don't want to hurt him."

♪

"Wow, man. That's harsh. She just left you there?"

Troy nodded and put his head in his hands.

"Yup."

"Wow. No wonder you guys aren't talking."

Troy groaned and shook his head.

"I told her that I loved her and she brought up a stupid promise that I'd made when we first met."

"What promise?"

"I told her that I wouldn't fall in love with her."

Chad shook his head.

"Why would you make a stupid promise like that? You've done a lot of stupid things before, Troy, but this is a whole new level."

I dunno, Chad! She just shot it out of nowhere and I agreed! I didn't think I would actually fall for her!"

Chad felt truly sorry for his best bud. He had had his heart ripped out. Chad and Taylor had gone to an amazing restaurant on Saturday and it made him feel guilty that he had had so much fun when Troy obviously didn't.

♪

Yuppers! Chaylor got together! That's for all of the Chaylor fans out there!

Jay