"She'll be right down. She felt the need to 'freshen up'," Nikki told Ryan with a laugh as he, Gabriella, Chad, Taylor, Zeke, Kelsi, and Jason stood in the living room waiting for Sharpay.

"Um…you guys can stay if you'd like? Derrick is at camp, and the adults are all M.I.A. They left me alone. Not the best idea on a normal day, but perfect for those days your crazy best friend calls you at three in the morning, needing to be picked up in LA." She finishes her sentence with a happy smile that has the girls in front of her in awe.

Gabriella couldn't help but think that the girl in front of her was a natural beauty. She had no makeup on and her hair was flowing around her shoulders in soft, natural waves. There was something about her eyes that did not fit with the rest of her but Gabriella ignored it and smiled back the girl.

Taylor was jealous of the vibrant, little girl in front of her. Her height made it hard to believe she was eighteen, but she could tell by the way Chad kept eying her body, that the boys definitely got it.

Kelsi was just happy to find someone shorter than her for once, and wonderd why the girl's eyes were so dull. She's laughing, that means she's happy, right?

"Where is Troy?" Gabriella asked suddenly.

Everyone shrugged. "He's acting weird. When we pulled up to the house he started muttering about his bad day getting worse, and then refused to get out of the car," Chad said.

Nikki laughed. "Ah. We don't bite. I'll head out and get him, just make your selves at home."

Nikki turned and walked out the front door, almost as soon as everyone was situated, Sharpay let out a yell. "Bradin—who is the guy standing next to Derrick in this picture? Kind of off to the side of Nikki and hidden a bit by the tiki pole?"

Bradin gave her a strange look but glanced at the picture anyway.

It was a candid shot of the Westerly siblings, a boy Sharpay was all too familiar with, and Ava's ex-fiancé.

She had walked by the same picture a million times and never noticed the boy hidden slightly by the pole. "That's Cameron. The only reason Nikki lets us keep it up is because you can barely see him." Bradin replied, with an eye roll.

"That's Troy Bolton. He moved to Albuquerque the summer after eighth grade. Ryan and I were here that summer and Nikki had already torn up all of his pictures. I never knew what Cameron looked like." Sharpay whispered to Bradin through clenched teeth.

"Where's Nikki?" Bradin asked Ryan suddenly, apprehensively.

"Outside getting Troy." Ryan said calmly; confused.

"Ryan, why don't you take your guests out back? Let them walk around the beach."

With that she turned and ran outside with her brother and the Wildcats looking on in utter confusion.

When Sharpay and Bradin reached her Nikki stood frozen on the sidewalk, staring at the boy in front of her.

Cameron Bale [Troy Bolton] was staring back at her, opening and closing his mouth, apparently unable to find the words.

"I…" Troy trailed off as he saw a very angry Bradin Westerly staring at him. Neither Bradin nor Troy said a word; they simply stared at each other. Nikki suddenly seemed to pull herself together.

"Troy Bolton I'm assuming?" she asked sarcastically. Her arms crossed protectively over her chest and Sharpay got the distinct impression that she was trying to hold herself up. "Nikki if you would just let me explain—"

"I don't want or need an explanation," the girl said harshly.

Troy grimaced. "Look I understand that you're angry but if you would just let me explain—once again Nikki cut him off.

"No. You misunderstood. I don't need an explanation because I don't know you."

Sharpay smirked and wrapped her arm around her best friend's waist. Nikki surreptitiously leaned against Sharpay for the support her shaking knees were no longer giving her. "Nikki, please don't do this, don't act like I'm not here." Troy pleaded.

Bradin suddenly spoke up. "What'd you expect? You skipped town and broke her heart!" The oldest Westerly cried incredulously.

Troy shrugged. "I think I'm in shock," he offered with a small half smile.

Nikki suddenly seemed to pull herself together because she blinked and then offered him a big, fake smile. "I'm 'Cole Westerly, and you must be Troy. It's so nice to meet you!" she said chirpily.

Troy's mouth fell open in shock. Sharpay choked back laughter, and Bradin remained stoic.

"Um…Nikki…" Troy trailed off.

"Yes? Is there a problem? Your friends are waiting for you in there. You wouldn't want to just disappear on them." T

roy winced at her thinly veiled attack, while Sharpay and Bradin smirked triumphantly.

"Can we just talk? Please?" Troy asked his voice thick with emotion.

Nikki stared at him coolly, her eyes showing no emotion. "Haven't you heard? You're not supposed to talk to strangers."

Without another word, Nikki turned and walked away from him, never turning back.

"Fuck." Troy muttered angrily.

"I think she handled that quite wonderfully." Sharpay said with a giggle.

"Sharpay, fuck off." Troy snarled before turning and chasing after his way ward ex.

"You can't ignore me forever!" Troy half whispered, half yelled. He had been standing outside Nikki's bedroom door for the past ten minutes; he can just hear the interrogation he's going to get from Gabriella when she finds him. Silently, he thanked Ryan for unknowingly holding his friends off. Tired of begging, Troy opened the door and walks into the room.

"What the fuck!" Nikki yelled angrily, spinning around to face him in a black, lime green, and teal striped bikini top. "I could have been naked, you creeper."

Troy rolled his eyes and shut the door behind him.

Trying a different tactic, Nikki smirked at him seductively. "Or maybe that's what you were hoping?" she taunted, untying her bikini top. Troy began to stutter, she couls make out girlfriend, and that he thought she was degrading herself, and can't help but laugh. If he thinks taking off her top in front of her ex-boyfriend is bad, he should see her on a good night.

"It's not like you've never seen it before," she mocks, securing the top and then pulling a low cut, tight black tank top out of her closet.

"Nikki. I'm not here to reminisce with you. I just came to say that I'm sorry for just showing up like this, I honestly had no idea we were coming here, and I guess to apologize. I know I should have told you I was leaving, where I was going but," he is cut off before he can finish his explanation.

"Save it. It doesn't matter. Sure it sucked for about month. I cried. Felt sorry for myself, but then I grew up. I got over it."

Although he isn't ready to admit it, hearing Nikki say she got over him that quickly hurts. He nursed a broken heart for over two years before he met Gabi, and much to his chagrin, her being over him really makes him feel stupid for the way his heart has been pounding since he first laid eyes on her in the drive way.

"Nik, I—

"No one calls me that anymore. Only my family and I don't know who the fuck you are, so if you would please excuse me, I need to finish getting ready."

The fact that she interrupted him once again annoyed him immensely, but it was the collage of pictures hanging from the left wall that really caught his attention. The pictures were beautifully done, each picture focusing on Nikki with important people.

There was one of her and Sharpay taken at a bon fire the summer they turned fifteen. Troy is shocked to realize the background of the photograph is Albuquerque. Another is of Nikki and her brothers, each of their arms wrapped protectively around her. He finds another of Nikki and Sharpay, this one in black and white, and he assumes they are thirteen or fourteen, staring into each other's eyes sullenly. It's as though they are searching for each other's souls. Still another of the two girls shows them to be much younger, three maybe, they are holding onto each other tightly, and Troy can't help but marvel the strength of their friendship.

A few pictures show Nikki with Amber and various friends of theirs, in some of them she looks like his Nikki, but in most of them she has stick straight hair, too much eyeliner, and a black hoodie or t-shirt on.

There are a few with her and guys he does not know.

She is fifteen and on the back of the boy he remembers as being Bradin's best friend, and another of the two of them shows her at seventeen. He recognizes the look in her eyes, and her face, and her hair, and her lips and he wonders if Bradin knows his best friend has had sex with his little sister. He tries not to let it hurt but it does, so he quickly moves on to the next photograph. She's with random guys in some of them, kissing their cheek, riding on their backs, dancing, and he can't help but feel jealous of each and every one of them. He wonders what that says about his relationship with Gabriella. He finally reaches a picture of someone he really recognizes.

"Your aunt must not come up here much, huh?" he asks, his voice shaking a little.

"What?" Nikki asks harshly. She was so busy watching him look at her life that she forgot to be angry.

"You took this after sex," he points out quietly, pointing to the picture in question. "That one too."

Nikki watches, reminding herself she owes him nothing, and forces the steely glint back into her eyes. "Your right she doesn't come up here. So what."

Troy finally turns to look at her, his face the picture of disbelief. "Aaron was my best friend Nikki! And at least one of those pictures was the taken the same fucking summer I moved. How could you do something like that?" he asked.

Nikki stared him straight on and shrugged, refusing to be ashamed, refusing to look away. "I guess I just needed someone to comfort me," she responded coldly. "He did a pretty nice job."

Troy flinched and shook his head. He waited two years, he had barely kissed another girl in three years and she was shamelessly admitting to having sex with the boy that had been his best friend the same summer he left her.

"So how many have there been?" he heard himself ask. Nikki shrugged and reminded him it's no longer his business. "Humor me," he said harshly.

She told him five, including him, and then about the other boys, the ones that barely matter.

His chest tightened and he was vaguely aware that he can't breathe. The thought of so many people touching her made him sick and he couldn't understand why. He thought she was out of his system.

One last picture caught his eye and he moved closer to see it correctly. "What happened?" he asked, tracing the bandages on her face. The picture shows a sixteen year old Nikki with a broken nose, a split lip, he thinks a black eye but isn't sure, and a sling on her shoulder, holding her arm in place.

Sharpay, Ryan, Bradin, Derrick, Ava, Jay, Susanne and Johnny are all crowded around her. It occured to him that the girl in the picture should look broken but she looked stronger, more defiant than he had ever seen her. Nikki stares at the photo for a second, her hand traveling up to touch her nose subconsciously. "My face got into the way of my ex's fists," she quips. Troy exhales sharply, as if someone kicked him in the chest.

"You think that's bad? You should see him. I took a baseball bat to his face. I shattered his nose, and one of his cheekbones. Also broke his ribs but that damage isn't as lasting." Troy turned to stare at her, wondering who she has become.

He fell in love with a sweet, innocent, slightly naïve, heartbroken girl five years ago.

The girl standing before him isn't just heartbroken, she's shattered. The girl he knew had crashed and burned and an entirely different person had pulled herself from the wreckage.

She stared back at him defiantly, daring him to judge her.

"He was my best friend." Troy said again.

She nodded, and turned away. She wanted to tell him that the first time she was with Aaron she cried. She felt so disgusting, so awful that she didn't know what to do. She wanted to tell him that the alcohol helped with that and that for a while, when she was drunk she could pretend it was him. She wanted to tell him that sometimes after Riley would hit her, she would cry for Cameron and for her parents; begging him to come back and save her, begging them to take her away with them. She was afraid if she tried to tell him, she would break down when she reminds him that he never came, so she stayed quiet.

"Some people believe there is one person for everyone," she said as he prepared to leave the room. He stopped and listened. "That you meet that person and they are just it and no matter how hard we try we just can't forget them."

Her eyes were trained on a picture he hadn't noticed, one of Nikki and Cameron that someone had taken when they weren't looking.

"When I was thirteen, I met a boy. Somehow, by fourteen I fell completely in love with him. I thought he was my soul mate."

There are tears in his eyes and he knows if anyone sees them they will not only judge him unfairly, but they will question him. He can't have that.

"I was wrong and I no longer believe in that crap." Nikki finished bitterly. "Besides, you always did have one foot out the door ready to run away from me. I was just too stupid to not consider the fact that it would happen again. I did what I had to do to move on. You don't get to judge me. You don't even fucking know me."

Before Troy can say anything, she pushed past him and into the bathroom, slamming the door closed behind her.

Finally posting a little more to this story! Thanks to the people that reviewed :) Not sure if anyone will read it but since I spent time writing it I might as well post it. I will definitely be attempting to clean up the language and content a bit-the girls really are not as sleazy as I am currently writing them, I will also be working on fixing that.

Please review if you read this, it will give me incentive to continue!

I recognize I switch back and forth between the past and present a lot, it is something I am trying to stop. Please ignore it. Thanks!