Author's Note: I love that you guys are going along with this concept! I really appreciate it. Thanks for the reviews, I greatly appreciate it.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of them.

Chapter 9: Infidelity

"Mm," Sharpay whimpered happily, pressed underneath Portman on her bed. She wasn't used to this attention, and she had no way to explain to him that she wasn't ready for what it was fairly obvious he wanted. She knew it was obvious by where his hands were headed, namely, up her skirt. "Portman," She finally managed to say.

"What's wrong Evans?" He asked softly, kissing the pulse point on her neck. She whimpered and squirmed, "What is it baby?" They kissed each other again. "That's better."

"I just need a minute," She said softly, into his kiss. It felt so good, she was having trouble pushing him away. But she needed to be in control, and when she was with him, she wasn't in control. He nodded and sat up, she flung her legs over the edge of the bed, closed her eyes and ran her hands through her hair. He smiled at her.

"So, what's up?" He said, lounging on his side as she looked down at him. "You're upset about something."

"It's just," She sighed, "We're moving kind of fast aren't we?"

"I like fast," He sat up and kissed her again, she kissed back softly, and kind of lamely. "But obviously you don't."

"It's just, I don't really know anything about you," She explained, "Except that you're gorgeous, and you're a really good kisser."

"OK," He nodded. He wasn't used to this. Girls rarely wanted to do anything but make out with him. "So what do you want to know?"

"Anything," She laughed, "Everything, who are you? Where are you from? What's your family like? All of that."

"Um, babe," He looked at her, "I'm not sure what you're expecting from me, I'm not the boyfriend type."

"But I thought," She started,

"Like you said, this is fun right?" He sighed. She nodded, "So," He leaned in and kissed her again, "We're cool right?"

"I have a lot of work to do," She said quickly.

"Oh," He said confused, "Right, sure." He stood up. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," She nodded. He walked out. She fell back onto the bed and closed her eyes. Connie wandered in and threw her book bag down.

"When Julie gets back I'm going to kill her for convincing me to register for this schedule and then bailing on me," She plopped onto the bed. She looked over. "What's with you?"

"Does he do this a lot?" Sharpay said. Connie looked over at her sympathetically.

"He's kind of a player yeah," Connie sighed, knowing exactly what she meant. "Did you sleep with him?"

"No!" Sharpay say shocked. "I'm a virgin!"

"Yeah, I figured since you'd never even been kissed before Portman," Connie laughed. "Look, he's a dick head. And yeah, he's hot, trust me there isn't a girl on this campus who hasn't thought about going there,"

"Even you?" Sharpay looked at her. She nodded.

"Oh yeah," She laughed, "I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Guy, he's amazing, I couldn't ask for a better boyfriend, but yes, I've thought about it. I actually almost did."

"Really?" Sharpay looked at her. Connie nodded. "When?"

"Sophomore year," She shrugged. "Guy and I were fighting a lot, it was a bad time. We went to this party. We got a little drunk and we made out."

"You didn't have sex though?" Sharpay asked. Connie shook her head. "Why not?"

"Well, I wanted to," Connie laughed, "But he stopped it, he said he wouldn't feel right about it." She smiled. "So he's a prick, but an honorable one. But you can't take him seriously. He plays games with girls, but he doesn't date."

"He plays games?" Sharpay smiled. Connie nodded. "I can play games."

Julie and Chad walked from the movie theater to a place to get some dessert. They had laughed practically the whole night. Julie sighed as they sat down. This was too good to be true, she hadn't had this much fun with Adam in ages. No, she couldn't think like that. She loved Adam, this was just a crush, on an exciting, cute, funny, perfectly suited guy who was right here instead of a thousand miles away. She was in trouble.

"Chad," She said, he nodded, "I think we need to talk."

"Yeah," He said quietly, "I was thinking the same thing."

"We can't do this again," She sighed, "I have a boyfriend, you have a girlfriend. We have to just be friends."

"Right," He said, "I mean, I like you, but we're just friends, so from now on, we just hang out in the group."

"Perfect," She smiled, "Although, maybe if every once in a while we hung out, just us, that would be fine."

"Sure," he said, "Because we're friends. And maybe if I move closer," He smiled and inched his chair over to her side of the table, she laughed.

"I think I'd be OK with that," Julie smiled. "But only because we're friends." She looked down and their hands were next to each other, she slid hers under his, "And holding hands?"

"Holding hands is definitely in the friends package," He smiled, so did she, "And what if I gave you a friendly kiss?" He whispered and leaned in to her.

"I think I'd really really like that," she whispered, closing her eyes and he kissed her softly. She sighed in happy whimper as he pushed his chair closer to her. It had been forever since she'd kissed a person for the first time. Six years, in fact since she had first kissed Adam. Chad's hands wrapped his hands around her head and they kept kissing. She pulled away once she remembered herself. "I can't," she stood up, "This is crazy!" She walked away.

"Julie wait!" He said standing up and following her. "Wait!" He stopped her. "Look, I'm sorry."

"I have a boyfriend," She said, not really talking to him, "Adam, and I love him. And we have plans! We're going to The University of Minnesota together, and then after college we're getting married. I'm supposed to spend the rest of my life with him."

"Those are big plans for someone you met when you were thirteen," Chad rolled his eyes. She crossed her arms. "Look, you go home in six months right?" She nodded, "So, you want to spend the rest of your life with someone without even knowing that there's the possibility that there could be someone better for you."

"What about you?" She looked at him, "You have a girlfriend."

"Forget about her," He shook his head, "Really, I like you Julie, a lot, and yes, I care about Taylor, but we're young, and we've never been really serious, I mean, we've never even," He sighed and looked down, "Just trust me here OK? We have a connection; I know you feel it too."

"Just for the six months?" She sighed, he nodded, "And you won't tell anyone? The last thing I need is Charlie giving me guilt about this!"

"Not a word," He said, "My lips are sealed, I swear to God!"

"Not too tight I hope," She smiled flirtatiously and kissed him her mouth slightly open and her tongue teasing his lips. He opened his mouth and let her in. He was trying not to smile, Taylor had never kissed him like that.

"Where's Chad tonight?" Zeke asked, as the guys sat at the Evanses, playing video games, "Ah you are going down mother fucka!" He shouted, Averman dropped his controller.

"He went to the movies with Julie," Troy said. The Ducks stopped and turned and looked at him. "As friends."

"Yeah, it better be as fucking friends," Charlie said, "For his sake."

"What you've never gone someplace with Julie?" Ryan asked. Goldberg laughed, "Is that a stupid question?"

"Back in Minnesota Julie's on three tracks," Luis explained, "Hockey, school, and Adam. If we are alone with Julie ever it means that she's tutoring us."

"Or in Luis's case, he's tutoring her," Charlie explained, "For the only thing our Julie does not excel in on her own is Spanish."

"None of you have ever even thought of her like that though?" Troy asked, "I mean, I'm completely in love with Gabby and everything, but even I've noticed that Julie's beautiful."

"We didn't say we didn't notice that she's beautiful," Goldberg shook his head, "It's just Julie's more like our sister."

"Other people like their sisters right?" Ryan asked. Everyone laughed.

Taylor smiled as she walked back into her room. There was something incredibly wonderful about Adam. He wasn't like other guys. He definitely wasn't like Chad. He was smart and funny and sweet. She sat down on her bed. Kelsi still wasn't in, she was more than likely with Jason, or working on the show. She sighed, and looked down at her cell phone. She felt guilty, but then, what did she have to be guilty about? It was just dinner they hadn't even kissed. She picked up the phone and went into her contacts. She called Chad.

"Chad," Julie whimpered in his car, as he kissed her neck, and his phone went off. "Your phone," He sighed and pulled away, looking at the caller ID.

"Taylor," He said quietly, Julie nodded and pulled back, running her hands through her hair. She knew she had to get used to this. She was the other woman. It was part of what made the whole thing so appealing. "Hey baby," he said answering it.

"Hey," She said, "I miss you."

"Miss you too," He mumbled, "What's up?"

"Nothing," She said, "Just wanted to say hi. Where are you?"

"Uh, Ryan's," He said, "We're doing a video game tournament."

"Fun," Taylor laughed, glad for the first time that she wasn't home to be neglected. "I'll let you get back to it."

"OK, bye babe." He said.

"Bye," she whispered, and hung up. There was a knock on the door, she stood up and answered it. Adam was smiling on the other side, "Can I help you?"

"I forgot something," He said.

"Did you?" She laughed. He nodded and leaned in and kissed her.

"Yeah, I did," He smiled. "See you tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow," She giggled. Adam walked away and closed his eyes. So that's what it felt like to kiss someone else. He'd only ever been with Julie for anything. It wasn't that he didn't still love her. But they'd been together for almost six years, they planned to be together for the rest of their lives. They were madly in love. But they were also eighteen. To live their whole lives without even knowing what else was out there? To make that decision with nothing to compare it to? It was just now starting to seem crazy.

"Linda, I wanted to ask you," Fulton walked into her room, she sat up and wiped her eyes, "I'm sorry, I didn't, um,"

"No," she said quietly, "What's up?"

"Are you OK?" He asked sitting down. She nodded. "Charlie?" He said quietly, she nodded. "What happened?"

"I broke up with him," She said, "I told him not to call me, and now, I miss him."

"Of course you do," He sighed, "We all do."

"But I'm not this girl," She shook her head, "I'm not the girl that needs her boyfriend all the time, even when we were together, I never defined myself as Charlie Conway's girlfriend."

"Yeah," Fulton nodded. "I know."

"You know, I wanted him to go," She sighed, "He asked me what I thought, and I said it was a really cool opportunity and he should do it."

"Call him," Fulton said, "Come on, I know Charlie OK? And he's probably sitting on that poor kid's couch, whining constantly about how much it sucks and how much he misses you."

"Thanks Fulton," She smiled and hugged him. "God, I feel so pathetic."

"Nah," Fulton shrugged, "You're in love, also, you're crazy."

"Watch it," She pushed him away and laughed. "I'll take away your Bash Brother if you're not nice to me!"

"Nah, he's already gone," Fulton shrugged. She looked at him. "Crazy blonde stole him."

"Sharpay Evans," Linda sighed, "The girl's going to be the death of me, I know it."

"Call Charlie," Fulton laughed standing up and walking out. She sighed and picked up her cell phone. He was still number one on her speed dial.

Charlie jumped as his cell phone vibrated in his pocket.

"Don't pick it up man," Averman said as he pulled it out, "You need to cut the Linda strings."

"Maybe it's not Linda," He shrugged, "It could be my mom, I haven't talked to her in a few days." He looked down. "Or its Linda."

"Don't answer it," Luis said.

"Screw you guys, I'm not blowing her off," He jumped off the couch and walked into another room. "Hey," He said picking it up.

"Hey," She said relieved to hears his voice.

"Is everything OK?" He asked.

"I miss you," She sighed, "Like a lot."

"I miss you too," He said quietly. "But I thought,"

"I know, I know what I said," She sighed, "And I hate this, and I just,"

"You can't keep doing this to me, Linda," He said, "I love you, but, I can't keep wondering where we stand. I can't keep holding my breath for you."

"Is that what you think I'm doing?" She said, "I'm trying Charlie."

"Not too hard though," He mumbled.

"You know, I don't know what I was thinking," She sighed.

"Linda baby wait," He said, "Don't hang up."

"What do you want me to do?" She said, "You think I'm stringing you along, and that's not it, I'm confused. I love you, I want to be with you, but you're not here!"

"Yeah," He said quietly, "So what do you want?"

"Come home for the show," She said softly, he sighed, "I'm working so hard on it, it would mean so much,"

"I'll think about it." He said, "Look, I'm at this guy's house."

"Yeah," She said, "I'll talk to you soon?"

"Do you want to start talking again?" He said softly.

"Yeah," She said, "I do."

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