95 Percent of Tickle Fights End with Sex (Gabriella's Story…Part One.)

Setting: The Night, 8.4.07, Chapter One of The Board of Secrets

Gabriella stood, heartbroken, staring at one brown-haired, brown-eyed, basketball-playing, obviously gay, completely trashed Chuckie Brown, her eyes filled with tears. They were the only two people still in the room.

"I just don't… How could he…" She ran from the room. Outside in the hall, she ran right into Troy.

"Gabriella! What's wrong?" he asked. Gabriella said nothing, but instead she kissed him heavily, taking him by surprise.

"Do you love me?" she asked.

"Of course I do, Gabs," Troy said. "What on earth makes you ask?"

"I can't do this anymore, Troy," Gabriella said, crying. "Keep your boys in line or just tell me the truth."

"What?" Troy asked, utterly confused.

"One of your boys he said…he said…," Gabriella broke down crying.

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on," Troy said. "I'm getting a little tired of this."

"I don't know what to believe anymore," Gabriella cried, running the other way, in the direction of the living room and Taylor.

"Well, I guess that's that," Troy said, rolling his eyes and taking another drink from his bottle of alcohol. He turned around to see Chuckie staring at him , open-mouthed. "What?"

"I can't believe I never realized it before," he said.

"What?" Troy asked again.

"You're straight when you're drunk," Chuckie exclaimed. "God! It explains so much!"

"What!" Troy asked, incredulous. "Chuckie Brown, I'm surprised at you."

"Well, you shouldn't be," Chuckie retorted. "Who, in your mind, is the person you'd most like to screw, right now?"

"You are, baby," Troy said, eyes glinting. Chuckie rolled his eyes and gently lifted the bottle from Troy's grasp.

"Don't drink any more tonight, sweetheart," he said. "Go back to the living room."

"But!" Troy protested.

"Troy, seriously." Troy pouted but walked back to the living room and laid down on a couch.

Gabriella sat down on one of the Evans's many luxurious sofas littering the living room. Her usually brown eyes were red from the tears she'd shed in the last ten minutes. Taylor emerged from the crowd, spotted her, and rushed over to her.

"I heard about the fight," she said. Gabriella grunted, reaching to take her hair out of its intricate updo. "He'll come around again."

"What if I don't want him to?" Gabriella asked.

"You two are meant to be together. Ask anyone," Taylor replied.

"No. Taylor, I mean, I am done with Troy."

"You don't mean that."

"I do."

"Then why've you been crying for the last ten minutes?"

"I–" Gabriella began, but Taylor had a point. "Ryan's coming over."

"Gabriella, don't change the subject."

"Hey guys," Ryan said, approaching them. "Why so sad?"

"Gabriella, well, she and Troy just broke up," Taylor told him.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Ryan asked, cracking a grin. Taylor slapped him. "Well, he's such an ass, I just figured…"

"That's not the problem, Ryan," Gabriella said. "The problem is, well, what it is, is…I, well…" She wanted to tell him. She wanted to tell someone, she needed to tell someone. Had to tell someone what Troy's drunken best friend… Chuckie? …had let slip to her. That no one would believe nor remember in the morning.

"Gabi, is there something you'd like to share with the class?" Ryan asked.

"Not really," she finished lamely.

"Okay, that's fine," Ryan said, taking Taylor's vacated spot and finishing off his can of beer. "You don't have to talk about it." Gabriella sighed. "What?"

"Ryan, I – I don't know what to do. Troy's been such an ass, but I'm not really even sure about anything these days, and I just need… I just need… I just need…" She'd started to cry again without really noticing it. "I just think that I need…" She's moved too close to him, and she knew it. They shared a kiss, slow and romantic, or as romantic as it could possibly be. "Sorry," she muttered after.

"Don't apologize," Ryan replied. "Half my fault too."

"I put the idea in your head," Gabriella said.

"You wanna go somewhere quieter, and you can tell me what it is that you 'just need'?"

"Uhm, sure," Gabriella said, throwing a glance in Troy's direction. He was looking at her and Ryan, Chuckie sitting next to him. "Your room?" Ryan nodded. Gabriella helped him up, across the room and up the stairs to his bedroom.

"So what is it?" he asked.

"Um…it's nothing. One of Troy's friends said something. I don't think he meant it, but it's still weird."

"Which friend? And what did he say?"

"You know, that drunken basketball goon. The gay one."

"Chuckie?"

"Yeah, him."

"What did he say?" Ryan asked, very interested.

"Nothing. It's not important."

"Anything that makes you cry is important."

"He said, well, more like let slip.. that – that – that…" She was stuttering badly as she forced the words out of her mouth. "…that he and Troy were…that they used to be–"

"Used to be what?"

"Lovers," she finally finished. Silence ensued, then Ryan burst out laughing.

"That's a joke, right?" Ryan laughed. "C'mon Gabi, that's the best thing I've heard in…long long time."

"Ry, I'm serious. He said that."

"Who did?"

"That drunken basketball goon of Troy's. The gay one."

"Chuckie?"

"Yeah, him."

"He's jealous," Ryan said. "He wants Troy. You want Troy, Sharpay wants Troy. Hell, we all want Troy."

"You want Troy?"

"Well….what I mean to say is–" Ryan began.

"Ry…are you? Are you?" Ryan turned away from her and picked at his shirt. "Ry…"

"Honestly?"

"Honestly."

"Yeah, I am. I've got to be. I've never known how to not be."

"Well, it's easy…" Gabriella said, moving closer to him on the bed. He put his arm around her reflexively.

"No, it's not. Either way, it's not."

"Are you after my boyfriend?"

"You broke up, so technically…"

"Ryan."

"No, I'm after Kelsi, remember? And you," he added as an afterthought.

"You're after me?" Gabriella asked. He nodded. "Why?"

"You're nice and I like you."

"We're friends."

"Yeah." He wasn't making any sense, but neither was anything else.

"Ryan, you've been drinking."

"Yes," Ryan replied.

"I think you ought to go to bed."

"Why?"

"Before something happens we'll regret."

"Something we'd regret?" he asked.

"Something we'd regret," Gabriella confirmed. He fell over into his bed with one push.

"What might we do that we'd regret?" Ryan asked, interested.

"I don't know. Something. You're drunk and I'm not thinking straight."

"Well, of course not. You just found out your boyfriend–"

"Ex-boyfriend."

"–is gay. I don't know anyone who'd be thinking straight. And I'm not drunk." Gabriella looked at him, and he looked at her.

"Nothing that we'll regret," Gabriella said finally, more to herself than to him.

"Gabi, did you break up with him, or did he break up with you?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes."

"He did." Tears began welling in Gabriella's eyes again.

"That's new."

"Ry, I don't want to talk about Troy. We're probably done for good now. Especially after what he saw downstairs."

"Gabi–" Ryan kissed her cheek. "You deserve better than Troy." He kissed her other cheek. She turned her head and caught his lips with hers. There was an awkward pause until Ryan brought two more beer cans out from under his bed.

"Your parents let you keep beer in your room?" Gabriella asked, trying to break the silence.

"They don't know about it," Ryan replied.

"So, they don't let you keep it there?"

"Ask me when I'm sober." They looked at each other again.

"Nothing we'll regret," they both said together. He snapped open his can and looked at her.

"Aren't you going to try and ask me?"

"I don't want to regret asking you. I might be better off not knowing."

"You're definitely better off not knowing."

"You're a pretty sober-acting drunk. I heard stories about you, but I guess it's not true."

"I'm not a drunk, I'm an alcoholic."

"Potayto, potahto," Gabriella said, waving it off.

"No, really."

"You're an alcoholic?" she asked, seriously.

"Yeah," he answered seriously.

"You're 17," Gabriella said.

"Yeah," he said again.

"Oh my God."

"Yeah."

"You go to meetings?"

"Every Thursday morning with my dad and Sharpay. Dad's pretty disappointed in me, I'd say." He took a drink from his can. Gabriella looked at him very closely.

"I don't believe you."

"That's fine. Don't believe me. You don't have to. You will though. I won't remember I told you in the morning, so it's probably better you don't." He finished off the can and turned it over to make sure it was empty, threw it behind him, and reached for the other can.

"Why don't you just quit?" Gabriella asked him, putting her hand on the unopened can to prevent him from drinking it.

"You think I'm not trying? I tell myself every Thursday morning that this week I'll stop. Hell, I can recite the 12 steps from memory, doesn't do a damn thing. For me, it's not as simple as 'just quitting'. I could 'just quit' right now. Here, take it." He handed her the can, and she took it. There was a long pause. After quite a struggle ensued, Ryan eventually regained his can (but not after seriously attacking Gabriella), then laughed and set it on his nightstand.

"You know what you need?" Gabriella asked, having watched his every move. "A significant other."

"A significant other?" Ryan repeated.

"Yeah," she said.

"Alright. Who should I make my significant other?"

"Well, do you want a boyfriend or a girlfriend?" she asked.

"Honestly doesn't matter to me," Ryan replied. "I've never had either, so who am I to say which I want?"

"For girls, there's Kelsi. And me," Gabriella said.

"I like Kelsi. I like you."

"And boys. I wouldn't know where to begin."

"Troy," Ryan said, decisively.

"You can't have Troy," Gabriella said, laughing. She didn't realize he was serious.

"Why not?" he asked, suspiciously.

"Cuz he's mine," she said, laughing still.

"You broke up. He used to be lovers with his basketball goons," Ryan reminded her.

"I don't care about that stuff."

"Don't make me attack you. I'm just as agile when alcohol isn't driving my mind."

"I'm ready. Gimme your best shot." Ryan grabbed her around the middle and began viciously tickling her incessantly. She laughed and laughed and laughed. "Quit it Ryan. You're gonna make me pee my pants!"

"Don't care. Forfeit your hold on Troy," Ryan replied, grinning, continuing his tickling. She leaned around and kissed him again. Though he had been expecting it that time, it still made him stop for a second and that was all she needed. She pushed him off of her, and he suddenly knew she had the willpower to get him sober, which was exactly what he wanted. She disappeared into the bathroom, and when she returned, Ryan was passed out on the bed, halfway between reaching for his beer can on his nightstand and stopping himself from trying to grab it. She laughed and hung her pants up to dry along with her shirt which had gotten wet from the faucet, rearranged Ryan into a sleeping position, climbed into the other side of the bed, and went to sleep herself.

A/N: Shalalalalalalalalalaladida, ladida. This piece was originally entitled Say OK, like Vanessa Hudgens's song, but then I remembered it's not 2007 and that song isn't popular anymore. So yeah. And another thing! The first half of this was originally in First Person, Gabriella, and the second half was originally in first person Ryan. Man was that hard to sort through.

xoxo
Samanthax3

Oh, and PS, I know this is short, but it's kind of important, don't you think?
PPS, don't own, blahblahblah, do I really have to say that every time?