Hello my lovelies! I know this is said about every day, but I really am sorry for not updating. I just started my junior year of high school, so needless to say I'm still trying to adjust. Anyway, I hope this was worth the wait. Enjoy!
♥
Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. Sorry.
My suitcase hit the hardwood floor with a padded "thud". It had a purple stain on the front from Zeke's grape juice incident at breakfast, and after stuffing all my clothes in without bothering to fold anything it was looking a little tired.
"Hello room. Hello bed." I flopped down onto my comforter and didn't move for a good minute. A traffic jam on the interstate had prolonged the drive home to long after dusk. It wasn't until about an hour ago, when the only noise in the car was the hum of sleepy conversation and the light drizzle of evening rain, did I realize how exhausted I was almost falling asleep on top of Troy.
I yawned and finally pulled myself up from my bed, my only motivation being the thought of the hot shower awaiting me, and searched through my suitcase for my toiletries. Half a dozen bug bites decorated my arms and legs and the cuts on my foot, my battle wounds as Troy called them, were still red and sore.
Hearing footsteps in the hallway and I looked up to see my mom standing in my doorway. "I'm glad you had such a good trip, Gabby."
"Yeah, I did, mom. Thanks."
"You have fun with Taylor?"
"Yup."
"And…with Troy?" Her tone of voice changed slightly and I almost blushed at the way she was looking at me.
My mouth opened a second before I could get any words out and I tried not to rush out an answer. "Uh yeah mom, we had a great time."
"That's wonderful." The way she spoke almost hinted that she was disappointed I hadn't told her anything else. "Good night sweetheart."
Even after she left I sat still, almost in shock, wondering just what she had been implying with her question.
&&&
The rain from yesterday made the ground wet the next morning, but it was a sunny cloudless day in Albuquerque when I pushed open one of the large glass doors to the William J. Charter Library and stepped inside. I got a giddy chill down my spine and instantly headed through familiar book shelves to the Young Adult section. Standing in front of the rows and rows of books I grinned like and idiot and dropped my bag onto the ground, already spotting five books I was dying to look at.
Forty minutes later I sat on the floor, leaning against the Ja-Je authors with a pile of about twelve books beside me, flipping though something called 'Swinging Lila' when my cell phone vibrated.
"Hey." It was Troy. I could hear his iHome playing Jimmy Eat World in the background. "You wanna do something this morning? I want to see you."
"Well, I'm at the library right now. How about this afternoon?" I spoke quietly, hoping nobody would come glare at me for using my cell phone in the library.
"The library in Leesburg? I have to drop off some forms at Raleigh, so I can swing by."
Starting Monday Troy was working for Raleigh Landscaping, a company owned by one of Jack's friends from college and the offices were about a minute from the library.
"Um," I searched for a way to say no without sounding rude, I liked going to the library by myself and spending as long as I wanted sitting amongst the shelves. "I'm not done here yet, so you'd have to sit around and do nothing."
"I'll just stop by to say hi, there's something I want to ask you anyway."
"Alright." I put on a cheery tone. Why he couldn't wait an hour was beyond me but sometimes it was easier to just agree with him than try to understand his stubbornness.
"I'll see you in twenty minutes, okay? I love you."
"Okay." I answered only half paying attention as I began to read the back of another book from the shelf behind me. There was a second of silence before I caught my mistake. "I mean, I love you too."
Oops.
&&&
"Once upon a time there was a boy named King Troy who lived in a far away place called New Mexico." Startled by the break in silence I looked up to see Troy sitting down beside me, stretching his legs out across the carpet. "Good book?"
"Don't know yet." I checked the page number in the book and put it down on the floor. He leaned over to kiss me, before reading off the title. "'Through Broken Glass'? Sounds intense."
"It's about a girl who grows up with a schizophrenic mother."
"Geez." He shook his head and there was a minute of silence. "So anyway," he looked up at me. "My parents have decided that for their twentieth anniversary this summer they want to renew their wedding vows. They're having this party, kind of like another wedding the beginning of August."
"Really?" I smiled. "That's so sweet, twenty years is a long time."
"Yeah, well, my parents want you to come, a lot of group is invited actually, but I wanted to know if you would come as my date." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I mean, you don't have to, since you're invited anyway, but I thought it might be more fun that way."
"As your date, huh?" I grinned.
"I know it sounds kind of-"
"Troy." I stopped him. "I would love to go with you."
"Yeah?" His whole face changed and he smiled.
"Yeah. I kinda like you, so why not?" I teased.
He leaned down to kiss me. "You're just so funny, aren't you?"
"I like to think so."
&&&
When I got home from the library, with the nine books I decided to check out, I debated with myself for a few minutes whether or not to call Sharpay. Finally, I decided I would and she picked up after only the first ring.
"Gabby! Hi!"
"Hi Sharpay. How's the beach?"
"Incredible. I'm here right now actually. It's finally not too hot today so Ry and I are out here, not melting for once. "She laughed. "How was the lake?"
I started from the beginning and told her everything. She laughed when I told about Troy jumping into the water with me on his back and "awed" at the heart I'd drawn on Troy. Finally, I brought up the one part of the trip I hadn't mentioned.
"You know, Shar. We really wished you had been there. Especially Zeke." I bit my lip, knowing I was going into deep water.
"Doubt it." She huffed. "He's probably to mad at me to care at all. I assume you know what happened?"
"Well…yeah, he told me. But Sharpay, he's not mad at all. He's just really upset."
"That's not my fault." Well, yes it is. "He shouldn't have slept with me if he didn't want to get hurt. He knows I don't want to be with him."
"Shar-"
"What Gabby?" She sounded fed up. "What am I supposed to say to that?"
"I don't know." I sighed. "But…"
"But what?" Sharpay did not like to be told what to do.
"You're gonna have to tell him that you really don't want to be with him."
"Gab-"
"No, I'm serious Sharpay. You keep leading him on and it won't be long before he really does stop caring and you'll have lost a really great guy who would do anything for you."
She didn't say anything.
"Look," I sighed. "I don't know why you don't want to be with him. But I do know that you have somebody here who is completely infatuated with you and would kill to be with you, and you just keep hurting him. So if you really don't want to be with him, then you need to end it as soon as possible."
"I have to go Gabriella. Bye."
The phone beeped, she had hung up on me.
&&&
That evening I stood in the Bolton's kitchen doing the dinner dishes with Troy, he rinsed and I loaded them into the dishwasher. His parents were very set on having their boys help out with chores. Even Chase had the job of wiping down the table. I watched him stand on his tip-toes, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth in determination as he sprayed the table and reached over as far as he could to wipe it clean.
"Hey kid." Troy always called his brother 'kid' or something of the sort. "Pull your pants up."
"No." Chase's pants hung halfway down his bottom. He didn't even look at Troy as he walked around the table and tried not to drop the spray bottle from his little hands.
"Chase, seriously. They're about to fall down."
"I don't care."
I stifled a laugh watching Chase, balancing himself by grasping the edge of the table, washcloth in hand, completely disregard his brother. However stubborn Troy could get, his brothers could be just as bad.
"You're such a weirdo." Troy shook his head and picked up another plate.
"Troy, don't call your brother a weirdo." Jack walked in, he always walked tall, it was something that used to intimidate me.
"Dad, look at his pants! He won't pull them up!"
Suddenly Jack laughed, scooped Chase up by his belt loops and threw him over his shoulder. "You know why he's doing this, right?"
Troy shrugged, annoyed. So Jack began to tickle his youngest, who had now dropped the so carefully held cleaning materials onto the kitchen floor. "Chasey," Chase had a contagious, bubbly laugh. "Who else in this house wears their pants too low?"
The kid squirmed and kicked his little feet as he laughed. "Troy and Alec." Chase was still learning to pronounce his 'r's but he always got Troy's name almost spot on.
"See." Chase was plopped onto the kitchen counter, something I doubt the boys did in front of their mom. "He just wants to be like you. Think about that next time you call him a weirdo." Jack gave Chase a high-five and winked. Chase tried to copy him by scrunching up his entire face and closing one eye.
"Weirdo." Troy mumbled under his breath, but he nudged me playfully when I laughed.
"Just say good-bye to your brother and get to your movie." Chase jumped onto Jack's back and Jack swung him around to face us.
"Bye Chasey."
"Bye Troy."
"I'll bring you back some popcorn, okay Superman?"
"Okay."
He was almost out the door when Troy yelled out. "Aren't you going to say good-bye to your girlfriend?"
"Bye Gabiella!" His voice called from the hallway.
"Bye Chase." I wondered if this is what my life would be like if I lived with my sister. A part of me always wished to have a life like Troy's. He had a big, crazy family and no idea how lucky he was.
&&&
The movie had been good, not great. Afterwards we parked a minute from my house, next to the elementary school. Within seconds I was on his lap, straddling his waist as we kissed.
"Hey Troy?"
"Hmm?" His lips moved from my mouth to my neck.
"Do you think Zeke and Sharpay will ever figure their whole mess out?"
He shrugged and mumbled something along the lines of 'I don't' know' before shifting his hands from my waist slowly down to my thighs, running his thumbs against the denim of my jeans.
"I hope they do. You know, I think she does want to be with him, she's just needs to learn how commit to it."
"Uh-huh." Farther and farther down he kissed until he reached my collarbone.
"Maybe she just- "
Suddenly, he groaned and leaned back until his head hit the seat. "And apparently, we're talking now."
"Troy, come on."
"I'm not doing anything."
"Exactly, I'm trying to talk to you and you're not interested at all."
"Well, I didn't exactly park five minutes from your house so we could talk."
"I'm not just your fuck-buddy, you know." I don't know which one of us was more surprised when those words came out of my mouth. "I mean…I'm sorry. That was harsh. I didn't mean that."
"You know what? I think we're just having an off day. How about I take you home before we put ourselves into our own mess?"
"That's probably a good idea." I shifted myself back into the passenger seat as he turned the ignition. We drove in silence for a minute, he had one hand on the wheel and I wondered if the other one was supposed to be in mine.
"I don't think of you that way, you know. As a fuck-buddy, I mean. Not even close, I never have."
"I know, I…I don't know, it just came out. I know you don't."
"And I love you." His smile was so playful and genuine, so easy to catch that I smiled back.
"I know. At least, that's the rumor going around these days."
Hope you all liked that. I put in the little bits of Troyella drama to show that, yes, believe it or not they are a real couple! And they do have little fights and quirks that tick each other off. I want them to be realistic, so if you're wondering why it didn't get perfectly resolved or escalate into a fight, well….that's just not as real, to me anyways.
Also, I've got a reason behind Chase's nickname (Superman). Hopefully, I'll be able to tie that in somewhere later.
And yes, you will get to see the other Wildcats! LOL. We just to wait for them to come home.
I hope you all got what Miss Montez was implying when she was talking to Gabby. And that issue will come up later, in a really big way…but that's all I'm saying for now ;)
Lastly, (geez, this is a long author's note!) Please, please review. Thirty seconds of your time makes my whole week better.
Love you all! And thanks to my beautiful best friend Katie hugs
Sparks
xoxoxo