Relocation

by: skyz

Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me.

A/N: The prompt was relocate. Sometimes I see Sharpay outside of the theatre world and this is one of those times. Sharpay has Daddy issues. Thanks again to everyone who's reading this story and thanks for those who've left comments. Glad to see some people enjoy this. Thank you. Enjoy.

13.

Chad stared at the print out that had been tossed in front of him.

"What's this?" he asked without bothering to look at it more closely. He glanced at Sharpay who stood looming over him.

"What does it look like?" she retorted with an arched brow.

Chad shook his head and glanced down to study the paper.

"Plane tickets?" Chad said. He frowned and continued to read. "I really don't have time for a trip, Sharpay."

He sat back and turned to go back to eating his coco puffs.

"You really are something else," Sharpay muttered and grabbed the papers up. "Did you see your name anywhere on this, Chad? These tickets are for me. As in I'm moving. As in I think we should--"

"Whoa! What? Let me see," Chad grabbed for the papers half standing from his seat at the kitchen table.

Sharpay danced back out of reach.

"No way," Chad muttered. "You're not serious. Let me see what it says."

"I'm completely serious. I've been promoted and Ralph--don't look like that--said that he wanted me with him in Chicago. I'm being made a junior partner."

Chad couldn't help but stare at Sharpay. He really didn't want to believe her but from the tilt of her chin and the fierce look in her eyes she was telling the truth.

She was leaving town.

He ducked his head as he took his seat and picked up a spoonful of soggy cereal.

"All right then," he said with his back to her.

He heard Sharpay sigh.

"Chad... I'm relocating not breaking up with you. So stop with the slumped shoulders and wounded puppy look. It's tiresome."

Abruptly he dropped his spoon back into his bowl splashing milk onto the table. He got to his feet and grabbed his bowl. He marched to the sink and tossed it in thoughtlessly.

"You didn't even talk to me about this," he snapped. "Those tickets are for two weeks from now and this is when you bring it up? I think that shows just how much this whole thing means to you. So when you say this isn't a break up forgive me for not believing a word out of your mouth, Sharpay!"

"When was I supposed to bring it up? You've been so busy with the renovations to your offices downtown I've hardly seen you. I tried to talk to you but you blew me off so I figured why shouldn't I take the offer and figure out the rest later. This is a huge step for me and you know it. I'm one goal away from proving my father wrong."

Chad tensed and kept his back to her as he gazed sightlessly down into the sink.

"It's always been about your father hasn't it? Trying to prove something to him that shouldn't even matter. You can't even live your life without first thinking what your father's going to say. What if he hadn't liked me? I'm sure I would have been crossed off your list as a mistake, right? I don't understand how you can be happy chasing after something that you don't even need."

"You're making this all about me here and it's not. You knew all of this when we started dating. I told you I had a plan and that I was sticking to it. You no doubt thought you could change my mind but I have told you again and again what I want. This step is part of the plan. And I know you don't believe this but you're part of the plan now too, Chad. This hasn't been some game to me if that's what you're thinking. I meant it when I said this wasn't a break up."

With a sigh Chad finally turned and faced her.

"Whatever," he said with a shrug. "You can delude yourself for as long as you like. You go ahead and move to Chicago."

Sharpay's eyes narrowed and she glared at him.

"I see that you have no faith in us at all. I wasn't planning on abandoning you. I could be back here every other weekend. You could come to visit me. It wouldn't be forever just until I have Ralph settled and then I'd come back. A year at the most. Why is that so difficult to comprehend?"

"A year?" Chad's laugh was incredulous. "Sharpay you realize that I'm in love with you, right? That we aren't just dating for the hell of it. This is going somewhere."

Sharpay ran a hand through her hair and sighed.

"Of course it's going somewhere! We're going to get married but if this is the way you act when difficulties come up then I--"

"Don't say I act like this all the time because I don't. You just told me you're leaving in two weeks. Fourteen days from now and you're on a plane to Chicago. What are you going to do about your stuff? We live together and there's so much we should have talked about before you decided to accept Ralph's offer. If this is how you treat me now then I'd hate to see how you'd be as my wife."

Sharpay's face filled with color and for a moment it looked like she might hit Chad before she took in a huge breath and her shoulders slumped.

"Our communication skills leave a lot to be desired," she began somewhat stiffly. "I'll admit that I should have told you a lot sooner. Certainly before there were only two weeks to go and I'm...sorry about that. But you really make it difficult to bring these things up. You make lightly of how I feel about my father but that's how it is. I need to do this. I need this for me, Chad. Just like you've needed and done things for yourself. I'm not so single minded that I can't see that I need you too, because I do see that and I understand it. There is no way that I will have one but not the other. I deserve everything. Yourself included."

Chad's jaw worked and he glared back at her for a long moment.

"I'm not happy about this," he finally said his tone losing some of it's anger.

Sharpay let a small smile form.

"I see that."

"Before we get married we've got to sort some of this stuff out. Really because it's ridiculous how easily we avoid talking to each other. I guess we'll see where this goes."

"See where this goes? Chad this isn't going anywhere but to the altar. You're going to marry me."

"That's a fact, huh?" Chad asked with a small laugh.

"Oh, no," Sharpay shook her head. "That's the truth."

"So I'm going to be Mr. Sharpay Evans now too? Even for you that would be a little extreme," he taunted lightly.

"Just don't expect for me to be Sharpay Danforth. And Chad?" Sharpay paused.

Chad crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the kitchen sink.

"What?" he demanded.

"The fact is I'll make one hell of a wife."