The Party: Part II

It had been 15 minutes since Chad had suggested they all play a game and still Troy couldn't stop glaring at his friend and frowning at Chad's gift in being able to interrupt every situation. Troy, Gabriella, Kelsi, Jason, Chad, Taylor, Zeke and Nick from the basketball team were all sat round in a circle playing Truth or Dare.

"Okay, I'll spin it this time." Kelsi offered as she leaned forwards and spun the empty milk bottle, it spun a few times then came to a stop at Gabriella. All eyes at the circle landed on her.

"Um…I'll take dare, I guess." Gabriella said meekly.

"Oooh, Montez is getting daring." Troy muttered from beside her, she nudged him playfully and looked at Kelsi.

"Go on then, what's my dare?" Gabriella prompted.

"Oooh, I can't think of a good one!" Kelsi said desperately racking her brains.

"Can I take your turn then Kelsi?" Nick asked, his dark green eyes shining mischievously.

"Sure, Nick. Sorry, Gabriella, I'll think of a really good one for you next time." Kelsi smiled and then joined the rest of the group in wondering what Nick was going to dare.

"Gabriella, I dare you to come with me into the closet and let me have my way with you for seven minutes…" He grinned slyly, and everyone in the circle let out whistles and cat calls. Except Troy.

Gabriella blushed, "This isn't seven minutes in heaven…"

"It's still a dare." Nick shrugged. Troy studied his team mate, remembering him to be the one who had been staring at Gabriella when they had all been playing volleyball…

"You don't have to do it if you don't want to." Troy leaned over and whispered to her.

"You chicken?" Jason winked.

"No." Gabriella stood up, smoothing out her dress. "I accept your dare, Nick. Although it may be end up being me who is having my way with you." She said flirtatiously. He did a thumbs up to the group and followed her into the closet.

He shut the door hastily behind him, and moved towards her. "What are you doing?" she asked moving away.

"Having my way with you, the dare remember?" Nick whispered, stroking her arm. She shrugged him off and moved to the other side of the miniscule closet.

"I was only joking, Nick! I'm not the kind of girl to kiss random guys in closets." Gabriella smiled.

"What about what you said out there?" Nick asked, starting to get slightly annoyed, he thought he was gonna score here.

"It's a game, I was just kidding around." She waved her hand nonchalantly.

He moved closer, was she playing hard to get? Nick thought, she certainly was different, maybe this was her way of coming on to him, he moved quickly and grabbed her around the waist, his arms too strong for her to free herself…

"They've been way more than seven minutes." Troy observed to the group, every minute Gabriella had been in there with him had been torture, he hated thinking of another guy kissing her and touching her, when he himself and not even had the chance to do either. "And where and Chad and Taylor?" He added, noticing they weren't in the circle.

"They went upstairs about 2 minutes ago and also Troy, Gabriella and Nick have only been in there 5 minutes…" Kelsi smiled suggestively.

"Oh…" Troy replied. Just at that moment Chad came downstairs in a rush. "Chad what's wrong?"

"Taylor she's ill, she thinks it's the chicken." He raised his voice, "People don't eat the chicken, BAD chicken!" The people dancing looked at him alarmed looking around for an actual chicken he seemed to be yelling at.

"Okay, I think they know the chicken was bad." Troy said grumpily.

"Dude, what's wrong?" Chad enquired, whilst searching for the house phone, a hard task when he saw the mess his house had become. He saw Troy looking at the closet, "they still in there, huh?" Troy nodded and Chad placed a sympathetic hand on Troy's shoulder. Chad waved the phone, "I'm gonna call Taylor's mum and get her to come and pick her up, you should probably tell Gabriella, she's staying with them." Chad dialled a number and ran back upstairs to Taylor, and Troy walked over to the closet and knocked.

"Excuse me? I don't mean to interrupt but-" Troy opened the door, and was nearly knocked back my Gabriella throwing herself into his arms, hysterical. Troy grabbed her by the waist, her arms tight around his neck as she sobbed onto his shoulder. "Dude, what did you do to her??" He practically yelled.

"Nothing!" Nick retorted, "that's the problem! Frigid.." Troy cut him off by punching him.

"Leave her alone. For God's sake, what's gotten into you??" Troy knew Nick liked the ladies but it had always been harmless.

"What's gotten into me?" Nick slurred, "about six of these." He said holding up a beer bottle, 5 others lay in shatters inside the closet, Troy was alarmed to see blood smeared on a few of them.

"I think you should leave." Troy muttered sternly. Gabriella had never seen him like this; Troy was still holding her tight, something she was grateful for. "But you can't drive." He added. "Not like this." At that moment Chad and Taylor came down the stairs, Taylor clutching her stomach and groaning. He grabbed his car keys and shouted.

"Troy, I'm driving Taylor home, do you mind watching over everything here for a while?" He was rubbing Taylor's back in comfort.

"Yeah, sure." Troy nodded, then he had a thought. "Can you take Nick as well? He's drunk." He added.

A look of confusion crossed Chad's usually bright face, "He's drunk? We didn't have any alcohol…"

"Brought my own." Nick hiccupped, "always good to be prepared." He winked at Gabriella, who shivered.

Chad saw the way Nick was looking at Gabriella and intervened, "Yeah, Nick you're coming with us. And you can hold the sick bag in case Taylor gets ill." He added frowning, some birthday this was turning out to be. He turned and whispered to Taylor, "Try and get sick at least once, yeah?" Taylor smiled.
"Wait," she added weakly, "that means there's not enough space for Gabriella, she's staying with me."

"It's okay." Troy said, "I can take her home."

"Thanks man." Chad said gratefully, and he, Nick and Taylor left.

Troy decided to take charge, "Actually I think it's time you all left. Thanks for coming everyone." He looked around at the many, many people in the room and watched as they all started to pile out in groups, a last goodbye was heard and the door shut for good. Troy locked it and leant against the door, it had been a tiring night. He saw Gabriella sat on the sofa, her head in her hands, he moved over and sat next to her, she put her head on his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her.

"Wanna talk about it?" He asked softly.

"No." She breathed.

"Okay." He replied, he slowly pulled her backwards so they were resting on the sofa. They didn't know how long they lay their, in each other's arms. All they knew is that they'd never felt more safe and more at home. Gabriella yawned softly.

"Do you wanna go to Taylor's?" Troy asked.

She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked into his piercing blue eyes he looked into her own dark, tear filled ones. "I should, but Taylor needs her space tonight. Um, maybe you should take me to my house."

Troy felt his heart breaking at seeing how upset she was, he was aching to know what had happened between her and Nick so he could go and kill him but he didn't want her to feel the pain of reliving it.

"But no one's there at your house." Troy said, he couldn't bear to think of her alone. "Come home with me." The words came out of his mouth as if out of his control. He wanted to take them back instantly, he realised how it must have sounded.

Gabriella's eyes widened at his suggestion, "Really?"

"No, I mean yeah. But I shouldn't have said that. But the offer stands if you want to. Obviously you could have your own room or whatever, I just thought." Troy was rambling as she was sat there silently, a small smile creeping over her face.

"Troy," she said softly, "that would be brilliant, thank you." She kissed him lightly on the cheek, and he vowed he would never clean his cheek again, it was tingling all over.

A few minutes they were on the road, it was 11.30pm and pitch black outside. Troy kept stealing glances at Gabriella as he was driving, she was sat in the passenger seat next to him. Nodding off slightly, she was jolted awake when they hit a bump.

"Sorry, about that." He winced, as they sat in the traffic lights, he was drumming his fingers quietly on the steering wheel, willing his eyes to stay open.

"It wasn't just you that punched Nick. I punched him too, you know." Gabriella's voice suddenly came out of nowhere.

"Sorry?" Troy asked, unsure if he'd heard correctly.

"Nick, I hit him while we were in the closet." She muttered as she played sheepishly with the hem of her dress.

"Why'd you hit him?" Troy asked intently, turning onto his road.

"He tried to feel me up." Gabriella said quietly looking at the floor. Troy kept one hand on the wheel and put his free hand on her thigh.

"Gabriella, he didn't…hurt you, did he?" Troy asked calmly, even though inside his blood was boiling. He pulled into his drive, stopped his car, undid his seatbelt and turned to face Gabriella.

"No, he didn't hurt me." She shook her head, hastily tugging at her dress.

"Are you sure?" Troy asked sceptically.

"Uh huh." Gabriella nodded, avoiding his gaze and tugging at her dress, trying to make it cover more of her thigh.

"Is it your leg?" Troy said careful not to upset her. She was silent for a while and then nodded slowly. He put his hand back on her thigh, "may I?" She nodded. He slowly moved the dress up, his hand touching her thigh sending sparks of electricity shooting through her body, despite the circumstances; finally he saw a gash on her leg. "Oh, my God, Gabriella. Did he do this??" He moved himself closer so both his hands were on her thigh examining the cut.

"Yeah, well, not on purpose. He put his hand up my dress and when it got to about here," she pointed and area just below the cut, "I hit him on the head with one of the bottles, it broke on the wall and a piece of glass cut my leg." Gabriella finished her story, and placed her hand on top on Troy's which was still on her leg. "Don't worry, it's just a scratch, honestly, it looks worse than it feels."

"If you're sure…let's go inside then." Troy got out of the car, carefully, as he could barely see a thing. He went round and opened the door for Gabriella and took her hand to help her.

"Are you sure your parents won't mind?" Gabriella whispered as Troy unlocked the door.

"Mind what? That I'm helping out a girl in need? Nah, they'd be proud!" He smirked, "now I'm sure everyone will be asleep so let's keep it down." He walked in and Gabriella followed, she'd never been in his house before and now she had she was very impressed. It was huge and very nicely decorated. Troy began up the stairs, "come on I'll take you to the spare room." They snuck along the upstairs landing and Troy saw that the spare room was occupied, he hit his hand to his head. "Oh, I forgot. My aunt and uncle are visiting, they came tonight, they must be in there. Hold on, let's go to my room before we wake anyone up." Troy urged. He opened a door and she followed him in, he flicked on the light. Troy's room was exactly as she had expected it, basketball stars pinned up on the walls, a TV, a double bed, but it was tidier than she would have thought. She sat down with him on the bed, "Okay, Troy. How is this gonna work?"

Troy glanced around the room waiting for inspiration, "I have a sleeping bag, I can use that and that you can have the bed."

"No, I couldn't. This is your house!" Gabriella shook her head.

"I'm not sleeping in the bed, you're the traumatised one! You need rest!"

"I'm not using the bed so you might as well." Troy smirked at her reply; at least she was getting some of her feistiness back.

"Come on, Montez. We haven't argued in SO long, you wanna break the pattern now?" Troy folded his arms and smiled at her.

"How about we share?"

Troy nearly collapsed, "Share?? The bed??"

"Yeah," Gabriella replied as if it was the simplest thing in the world, "no funny business though. If it's okay with you?"

"Yeah," Troy spluttered, "good, by me…" Gabriella smiled at his awkwardness. Then realised what she was wearing and blushed, her tight dress was hardly comfortable to wear in bed.

"Uh, Troy? Do you have anything that I could borrow…?" She asked timidly indicating her dress.

"Oh, yeah. Let me just have a look…" He started rummaging through his chest of drawers and Gabriella studied his room further.

"So," she commented to fill the silence, "do all the girls you bring in here love the face that your walls aren't plastered with half naked women? A bit off a turn off for them I'm sure…" She smirked, his back to her.

"Actually," he replied, turning around to face her, "you're the first girl who's ever been in here." He didn't miss the smile that came over her face when he said that. "Anyway, here. I'm sorry I couldn't find anything more…feminine." He shrugged holding up a wildcats jumper and some shorts. "You can go in the bathroom to change." He nodded in the direction of his en-suite bathroom and watched her right until she shut the door. He breathed out deeply; he couldn't believe what was happening. Chad would flip when he found out Troy had gotten Gabriella into bed, maybe not in the normal sense of the world but still…Troy took off his shirt and went to put it away.

Gabriella changed into Troy's clothes and folded her dress neatly. The jumper was so comfy, a bit big, but wearing it made her feel safe, it smells like him, she thought. The shorts were short even on her and you could see the cut on her leg. When she left the bathroom she walked straight into a bare chest...

So there, that was the party! I know I promised a kiss, but I never said it was on the lips! I think I'm driving you all mad! But if I get lots of reviews for this chapter I might be able to speed up the lip locking. Next chapter preview: Jack Bolton is shocked when he goes to his son's room to take him for basketball practice that there is a girl in his bed, what will happen??

Thanks for reading, and thanks for all the reviews so far they all mean so much.

Sophia x