Author's Note: I'm back! Please review.
Disclaimer: I only own the plot.
High School Musical is Wicked!
Chapter 6: What If I Don't Care?
By musiclover94
Recap…Taylor and Kelsi once again exchanged looks at the pair, not bothering to hide the meaning. Instead of denying it, Gabriella just sighed and looked up at Ryan, who smiled back.
Troy turned around and saw, to his horror, his Gabriella and Hat Boy gazing into each other's eyes, Ryan hugging his girlfriend. Gabriella, upon seeing that Troy had seen the gesture, quickly detached herself from Ryan and looked at the ground. Ryan looked positively terrified at Troy's murderous expression shot at him. No one said a word until they got to Kelsi's house, then Taylor's house, and then Ryan's house, where a Barbie-pink convertible was parked in the driveway, signaling that Sharpay had already gotten home.
"Bye Troy, Gabriella," he said, walking up the steps.
"Bye," they both said.
Troy and Gabriella walked in silence for a few more blocks because they live a couple doors down from each other. Troy stopped a few doors down from Gabriella's house, in front of an alley that was pitch-black.
"Gabriella," Troy said. It was not a question, it was a statement.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Come over here," he said in a deadly voice. Gabriella obeyed, looking scared.
Once his girlfriend was close enough, he swiftly caught her arm and pulled her closer, so that they were almost nose-to-nose. His piercing grip stayed, starting to make her arm hurt.
"Gabriella, I do not want you socializing with Ryan Evans. Not now, not ever. Bad things will happen if you do," he said in a deadly whisper.
Gabriella was quaking with pure fear by this point, her chocolate brown eyes wide with fear. She nodded an almost undetectable nod.
"Glad we got that straight. Don't tell anyone we had this conversation, do I make myself clear? Don't tell anyone," He said, a slightly maddening look in his eyes, looking slightly deranged in the moonlight. She nodded again, getting more terrified by the moment.
"Bye," he said and walked to his house.
The trouble with school is, they always try to teach the wrong lessonThey want you to become less callow, less shallow
But I say, why invite stress in?
Stop studying strife, and learn to live, the unexamined, life…
Dancing through life, skimming the surface, gliding where turf if smooth,
Life's more painless, for the brainless
Why think too hard?
When it's so soothing
Dancing through life, no need to tough it
When you can sluff it off as I do
Nothing matters, but knowing nothing matters
It's just life, so keep dancing though…
It was the next day, a little bit into another complete run through. Gabriella was keeping her promise to Troy; she hadn't even looked at they guy she was head over heels in love with yet.
Hands touch, eyes meetSudden silence, sudden heat
Heart leap, in a giddy whirl
He could be that boy
I'm not that girl
Gabriella was truly singing from the heart now. Ryan must love another…he always seems to smile when he sees Cara…that must be it. Her heart sank as she sang on.
After Mrs. Darbus had released them all to leave after practice, Gabriella seized her chance. When Troy wasn't looking, she stole a few moments with Ryan.
"Ryan?" she asked.
"Yeah, Gabi?" he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
Gabriella took a deep breath, looked around to make sure Troy wasn't watching and told him everything.
"And now I can't talk to you, and, knowing Troy, I probably can't look at you either." Gabriella said sadly.
"And what did Troy say would happen if we talked or looked at each other?" Ryan asked seriously.
"He just said 'bad things will happen'. I don't want you to get hurt, Ryan." She wrapped her arms around his waist and sighed into his chest.
By then the auditorium was empty except for Ryan, Gabriella, and unknowingly, Troy, who had finally noticed Gabriella breaking the promise.
"What if I don't care?" Ryan said defiantly. He pulled Gabriella closer, but not in the forceful way Troy had, but in a passionate, but soft way.
Their lips crashed together, more passionate and true than any stage kiss could do. Because this was real. The As Long As You're Mine kiss was real as well, but it was planned. This, however, was unplanned, no planned amount of passion. They remained kissing for several minutes, or maybe days for all they knew. All that was real to them was each other.
Unfortunately, the Crazy Ex had seen all this. He ran over, looking more murderous than ever. He wrenched the two apart.
"What are you doing, Gabriella?" he said in a deadly whisper, which was far worse than a yell.
"N-n-nothing…" she stuttered, looking downright petrified.
"Oh, making out with Hat Boy was nothing!" he said in the same deadly whisper, gripping Gabriella's bruised arm so tight she was starting to lose feeling in her forearm.
"Leave her alone!" Ryan exclaimed, approaching Troy and trying to get him off Gabriella. She was now more terrified than ever before, not for herself, but for Ryan. She was silently mouthing to him 'Run. Now.' But her efforts were unnoticed by Ryan, who was trying his best to keep Troy off Gabriella. Ryan was much smaller than Troy, so this was proving unsuccessful.
Troy suddenly stopped his efforts to get to Gabriella and rounded on Ryan, who did not back down.
"And you," he said, directly to Ryan, "You'd better watch out."
And with that, he walked out of the auditorium, laughing an evil laugh.
Gabriella looked ghostly was shaking from head to toe. She quickly approached Ryan, who looked mutinous.
"Ryan…don't leave…" Gabriella pleaded.
"Why should I stay here?" he asked.
"You heard what Troy said, he's going to really injure you, or worse…I just don't want to see you get hurt!"
"What if I don't care?" he repeated, grabbing both her arms, "I'll be ready for whatever comes my way, Gabs. Don't worry about me."
And before Gabriella could restrain him, he walked out the door, the same door the Troy had walked through minutes before. He had not even kissed her goodbye.
Ryan was walking calmly away from the back entrance of the school, approaching the perpetually dark alley he always passed by. He had not kissed Gabriella, for he knew if he did, he would have never let her go.
A rough hand grabbed his jacket and pulled him into the darkness of the alley. He had been expecting this, so he did not struggle. He saw a brief glimpse of Troy's maniacal figure holding him by the scruff of his neck. It was dinnertime, no one would be outside to hear or see this, except him and Troy.
"Hello Evans," he said, leering at him. Ryan wasn't showing any signs of fear.
Without any warning, Troy slugged Ryan in the gut. He had expected it, of course, but it still came as a blow. Once, two, three, four, five times Troy punched him. He felt an ominous cracking of his ribs on the fifth one. He kneeled down and coughed up blood. Troy stood over him and laughed a self-satisfied, crazy laugh.
"That's-what-you-get-for-messing-with-my-girl," he said, marking each word with a kick to Ryan, who kept his cries for help inside.
Troy left a blood-soaked Ryan in the alleyway, out of sight of passerby. If his body could talk, Ryan's would be screaming. A steady scream of blood was issuing from his mouth and various scars on his body. His leg felt like it was on fire, bent at an odd and uncomfortable angle. He had been thrown facedown, so another stream of blood was pouring out of his nose. With all the energy he could muster, he flipped himself around and his body gave another unheard scream of pain. As the world above him, slipped out of focus, he only had one thought on his mind.
"Gabriella…" he whispered and then everything went black and Ryan Evans lay still.
Gabriella was running around the neighborhood, frantically trying to find Ryan. There was no sound outside; she could see happy families eating dinner through their windows. She came to the deserted alley and let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Author's Note: Please review! And don't flame me for making Troy so mean; it's fiction for Pete's sake! And if you liked it, please tell me why if you can. Thanks. And ideas are, as always, welcome.