Burn
By: skyz
Disclaimer: I don't own Chad or Sharpay. Don't own High School Musical either. Don't sue, kay?
A/N: Another one. It was rather odd to write. I'm not sure if it's exactly what I wanted. A more apt prompt would have been regret, but I digress. Thanks to everyone who's been reading and those who took the time to review.
3.
The fire flared strong and sharp as a gust of wind swept through the night. The stars were a bright splash of glitter against the dark night sky.
She inhaled tasting the scent of something acidic on her tongue. She stared into the flames and felt the heat scorch her face. She welcomed the slight sting it caused as it reminded her what she needed to do.
She glanced down at the papers clenched tightly in her hand.
Heard the faint echo of days long gone.
The memory of words once spoken scraped raw across her mind. She couldn't escape them no matter how hard she tried.
"If you think you'll never regret this I'll let this go. No matter if I think you're making a mistake."
That had been the tail end of it. His certainty that she'd say what he wanted her to. The thought that she'd give in had been born from his arrogance.
Her pride had let her deny him.
"Not like I don't know what you're thinking, Sharpay. I can see the wheels turning in your mind. I don't mind though. One of these days…"
His belief had almost been enough to convince her. He'd stood steadfast and firm on this one subject. Never dejected. Never defeated. Never losing hope.
Her scorn had never been hidden.
The burn of his want had left her cold and bitter.
He wasn't the one she wanted.
"I can't wait forever. I thought I could but I can't. Sharpay... This isn't doing either of us any good. Please…"
It was the closest to begging he'd gotten and closest she'd been to agreeing.
But he wasn't the one she wanted.
When he'd stared at her with those intense eyes and touched her with his callused hands she'd felt the burn straight to her soul. But it hadn't warmed her and that had made her even angrier with him.
"I can't be that guy who can sweep you off your feet. Quote verbatim from Romeo and Juliet. I'm not too good with words and I can't give you flowery prose about the many and varied ways in which I love you. I think about it but when I try to say them I get tongue-tied. I can't be that guy for you, Sharpay. The one you dreamed about and chased after. I won't be that guy. But I will be the man who will love you with everything I have. I'll be there to see you through your greatest triumphs and your greatest losses, loving you through it all. I can't say this any other way, but will you marry me?"
It hadn't been the first time he'd asked or the last.
The words he'd used on that occasion had stayed with her. Through her triumphs and her losses. Resonated.
Her reply had been the same as any other time he'd asked that question.
"Another day, huh? Maybe a different answer," had been his response.
She'd married the one she wanted. The man she'd chased after for so long had finally found his way to her. She'd married his best friend and watched it bring him to his knees.
He'd tumbled from that lofty perch of his. His arrogance gone and his belief a distant memory.
The pleasure had burned through her as he fell hard and long. He'd chased and cajoled and lost in the end.
Or had he?
Again she felt the papers clenched between her fingers. She stared blindly down at them. She didn't need to read them to know what was written.
A brief letter to accompany the invitation to his daughter's Baptism. A polite farce at its best. She'd read it and felt…too much.
"We've got leaves! Look out they're falling," Troy's voice broke Sharpay from her thoughts.
He zoomed into view with an arm full of leaves. Trailing in his wake their son toddled behind him clutching a handful of leaves.
She tossed the papers into the fire abruptly.
He hadn't been the one she wanted.
She wanted the memory of him to burn to ashes.
She wanted to escape him.
"Don't stand too close to the fire," she warned as she caught her son's tiny hand in her own and lifted him to her hip. "You'll get burned."