Taylor sat in the hall waiting for a meeting with her professor. Looking down at her assignment she frowned once again at the D- circled in red over her exam from last week. Surprise, surprise her grade had taken a nose dive these past few weeks. Not a complete shocker given that she'd also spent most of her time listen to Chris Brown's Good Bye and Alicia Keys's Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart while juggling Vodka and Tequila on the side. Closing her eyes she leaned back and let her head hit the wall behind her. How did she get to this point? Just at the beginning of this year she was doing well in all her classes shopping for a homecoming dress with her best friend and having a movie night cuddled up in bed with Chad while they played footie under the covers. Opening her eyes she let out a sigh and leaned back on the bench. She stared out into the hallway only to see Chad talking to some red head. Letting out a sigh she rolled her eyes. Just as she was going to get up their eyes met and she froze as he bid his goodbyes to the woman and began walking her way. His brown eyes that once held a certain charm now seemed guilty and concerned.
"Hey," Chad said coming up to her slowly, stopping only so that he was able to lean on the opposing wall.
"What?" Taylor said looking away from him and at the bulletin board on the wall advertizing tutor sessions in the writing center on Tuesdays. Her bottom lip retreated to hide the quivering emotion that seemed to be making its way to the surface. Biting down hard on her lips she slowly let out a long breath hoping to calm her nerves.
"How are you doing?" he asked after a moment's pause.
"Why don't you just leave me alone?" Taylor said turning her body so she was facing away from him.
Chad let out a breath as he slumped against the wall. "Tay, I never meant to hurt you."
"I find that hard to believe." She said looking at him with a fine line of tears forming beyond her control.
Chad own eyes seemed to be filled with a fine line of tears she hadn't expected to see, not that it changed the hate that she had for him in that moment, or made her feel more sympatric to his feelings. "Tay,"
"Taylor," She corrected pushing herself up onto her feet. "You can call me Taylor," she said jabbing her finger in his direction. "In fact just ease my name from your entire vocabulary." Taylor said making her way towards the stairwell.
"Taylor," Chad called out was he followed her out of the exit the door making an extra bang noise as it hit the wall again. "Wait."
"No," Taylor shouted as she kept moving pulling the final door open and stepping into the night air and onto the path back to the dorm.
"Taylor," Chad said coming to her side and jogging a bit to keep pace. "I swear I didn't mean for you to find out like that,"
"Yeah well I did," Taylor said changing direction in effort to end the conversation.
"I know and trust me I'm not proud of it. I'm not proud of any of it." Chad said reaching out to grab her hand and pulling her to a stop.
"Don't touch me," Taylor said pulling her hand away from him and then lifting the other to slap him across the face. The slap echoed and Chad face turned the right stunned and yet amused.
"Feel better?" he said bring a hand to the side of his face to rub it gently.
"No," Taylor said crossing her arms. They both stared at each other as the wind lightly blew past them. "What happened?" She said finally. "You should told me,"
"I don't know what happened." Chad said solemnly.
"When did it happen?" Taylor said uncrossing her arms and bringing a hand up to her temple. "No, I don't want to know this," she said turning away from him.
"Thanksgiving break." Chad said with a sigh, "When you were at your moms we stayed behind on campus because Sharpay's dad was in Tokyo and my mom and dad were in Colorado. We were watching movies and … We kissed,"
Taylor turned around again lifting her hand as the slap echoed louder.
Chad nodded as he turned back to face her again. "We only slept together once,"
Taylor heart sank further.
"After that we agreed to wait, we knew what we did was wrong and we didn't want to hurt you anymore than we already had. We made a deal to break up with our significant others," Chad said taking a deep breath, "She broke up with Troy that night you came over when Gabriella moved in, I wanted to tell you, I wanted to be a man about this and tell you." He said is own voice quivering.
"Then why didn't you?" Taylor said swiping away a tear rolling down her check.
"Cause I didn't want to hurt you, I couldn't, I can't." Chad stopped as he took a breath watching her closely. "I love you Taylor, I can't stand to see you hurting."
Anger festered up inside her, "You ripped my heart out." She said quietly. "You literally ripped my heart out." She said patting her chest.
"I'm sorry," Chad said taking a step forward.
Taylor took two steps back and held out her hands. "I don't want to keep being the girl that keeps crying about the same things." She said turning around and making her way back to her dorm.
Gabriella laid in her bed looking out into the middle of the room in daze. That was when the door opened and Taylor walked in tossing her back pack to the floor. "I hate this fucking school!" she exclaimed.
Gabriella pushed herself up, "Meeting not go well?"
"Shit," Taylor said bringing her hands up to her temple. "I forgot about the meeting."
"What happened?" Gabriella said standing up now and adjusting her shirt better.
"I ran into Chad and before I know it he's confessing all this crap to me out in the commons." Taylor said with a faint sob. "Trying to forget someone you love is like trying to remember someone you never knew." Taylor fell to the bed letting out a sigh as she buried her face in her hands. "It's hard to tell your mind to stop loving someone when your heart still does."
"Tay," Gabriella said coming to sit by her on the bed and place a hand on her shoulder. "It's going to be alright," Gabriella said
"I can't keep doing this," Taylor said looking up at Gabriella, "my grades are slipping; I'm drinking during the day." Taylor let out another sob. "I need help,"
Gabriella nodded as she took a deep breath letting Taylor fall against her. Taylor's shoulder trembled a little as Gabriella slowly petted her back, trying her best to be supportive and there for her. After a while of telling her everything was going to be alright Taylor fell asleep. Gently placing her down on the bed under her covers Gabriella slipped on her shoes and grabbed her key, quietly leaving the room and locking the door behind her.
Gabriella made her way upstairs to the third floor and knocked on the door, her hands trembling and her breath almost faint as she waited in the hall. Quietly she knocked again. This time there was a grumble and a noise of something falling inside. When the door opened she came face to face with Zeke who was shirtless and groggy eyed.
"Sup?" he said leaning on the door frame and squinting out into the hallway at the lights.
"Taylor needs help." Gabriella said
Zeke straighten and reached for his shirt as he rushed out the door. "What happened, did she fall, is she bleeding?"
"No, no, no." Gabriella said holding her arms out to stop him. "It's nothing imminent." She said taking a deep breath.
This time a more awake Zeke looked back at her raising his brow. "What's going on?"
"She failing her classes, she'd drinking more, she's depressed." Gabriella frowned as she twisted her fingers in her hands. "You the only other person I know who's kind of her friend that can help."
"What about Troy?"
Gabriella shook her head, "I'm coming to you." She said almost pleadingly. "I don't know what to do,"
Zeke let out a sigh and leaned against the door frame again. "Alright," he said reaching over to his side and picking up a note pad. "You're going to go to the drug store and get "three gossip magazines, just dirty, juicy gossip, get tons of Chocolate, sour patch and popcorn," he said as he wrote these things down. "Get nail polish, any colors preferably bright ones, and get the an old classic movie." He said tearing the sheet out. "Stay away from romantic comedies or romantic dramas, go with action or horror, make sure the guy on the cover is cute." He said holding out the piece of paper.
Gabriella took the slip and looked at him with confusion.
"It's called having a girls night after a bad break up, remind her that she can have fun without Chad, that she has more friends than just Sharpay." Zeke smiled, "Trust me, this is exactly what she needs right now." He said with a nod.
Gabriella nodded as she looked at the list again. "Thank you," she said with a small smile.