Troy put a hand on his stomach as he kneeled by the toilet and puked. He started feeling sick right after Gabriella and him went to dinner after swimming. He just felt a sick feeling all of a sudden and ran out of the room. And that's how he ended up here.

He grabbed a towel and wiped his mouth, standing up from the toilet and flushing it. He was in the bathroom, right next door to him and Gabriella's Cabin. So he just grabbed his tooth brush from the cabinet and brushed his teeth thoroughly.

He rinsed his mouth a couple of times and looked at himself in the mirror. He was a little pale and his eyes were a bright pink. Wow, he thought. He was definitely sick…

Troy heard small footsteps running down the hall and shuffling into the bathroom and he turned his head to the left.

"Troy?" Gabriella came around the corner and looked at him. "Troy? What's wrong with you?" She got a closer look and stroked his cheek "You look sick."

He coughed once. "I am." He said hoarsely.

"What happened? Did you puke or something?" Gabriella asked looking worried again. She really was worried. What if she caught what he had? She couldn't afford to get sick and neither could he. They had jobs to do. Gabriella couldn't handle all of it by herself.

"Yeah…" Troy coughed again and wiped his forehead.

"Oh, Troy… you look miserable." Gabriella smiled sympathetically and reached forward hugging him around the waist tight. Troy hugged back, of course and rested his head on hers. "Thanks." He smiled.

"Come on, you need to get better." She took his hand and led him back to there room. She walked in, dropping his hand and grabbing his blankets and pillows. "Come on, go lye down on the couch."

He did what he was told and went to lye down on the couch, it was actually, believe it or not, more comfortable then the bunk bed.

Gabriella grabbed the blanket and placed it on Troy, carefully. Then she grabbed the pillow and helped him lift his head up and she adjusted it just right for him.

"Get some sleep." She said and kissed his cheek. "I'll see you in the morning." Gabriella smiled and walked towards the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" Troy asked.

"To check on the kids, I'll be in shortly, myself. Now go to bed." She turned off the lights and went out the door. Troy sighed. His stomach was uneasy, but he tried to shake it off and think off good things… like Gabriella. He needed to tell her soon. Any longer, he might explode. He wanted so bad to kiss her, touch her, and love her. He wanted it so bad… and he was pretty sure that she wanted it too.

--

Gabriella sat straight up in her bed again and tried to hold back a scream. She bit her tongue and buried her face in her hands. She tried to hold back the tears but she couldn't. She just let them fall, crying silently in her hands. Why does she keep having this dream? Why? What brought this all up? Gabriella sniffed and looked up.

"Gabriella?" Troy sat up in the couch and looked at her through his sleepy eyes. She quickly stood up and tried to wipe away her tears, but Troy saw this.

"Shh… go back to bed, Troy." She stroked his cheek and pulled the blanket up higher, over his body. But he took her hands and stopped her. "Gabriella… were you crying?" He touched her face. She sniffed. "Uhh, no… I'm fine…" She grabbed his hand from her face and placed it back in his lap.

"Gabriella, don't lie to me. What happened?" He looked at her, straight in the eyes. She couldn't keep much from him. He knew her to well.

"Okay, yes I had a dream, but I'm fine, I swear… please, go back to sleep, I need you help tomorrow and I want you to get better." She sighed and tucked him in again, forcing him to lay down. "goodnight," She kissed his cheek and walked back to her own med, snuggling under the covers. She sighed, quietly… she had to tell Troy… soon.

"Hey, sleepy head!" Gabriella greeted Troy as he stirred in his sleep and sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Hey, Gabi…" He smiled. "Are you okay?" troy asked.

There's Troy for you, always thinking of others before himself. So caring and kind. "I'm the one who should be asking you that… and I'm fine." She smiled and played with the strings on her sweats.

"Oh I have great news!" Gabriella grinned. "What's that?" Troy asked looking up to meet her beautiful, chocolate, brown eyes.

"We don't have to work, today!" Gabriella grinned.

Troy grinned back. "Are you serious?"

"Yep! The counselor came back, so we go back to our regular jobs tomorrow!"

Troy smiled. "This is great… so what do you wanna do?" Troy asked.

"Well I don't know what you wanna do, but its only 8:30, you can go back to sleep."

"Nah, I'm good… I feel much better by the way, thank you."

"No problem, Troy… it's the least I could do after all you've done for me." Gabriella smiled sweetly and ran her fingers through his hair… "Your hair looks nice, scruffy." She giggled.

"Is that supposed to be an insult." He asked, smirking

Gabriella snickered. "Only a little," Gabriella used her fingers to show mow much little was.

Troy stood up and walked towards a mirror. "Oh my god, I am scruffy." He smiled and tried to fix his hair.

"Ahh, who cares its just me and you… besides it looks fine, actually." Gabriella pondered her thought.

"Hey do you wanna go get some ice cream?" Gabriella asked.

Troy turned around. "Ice cream?"

"Sure, come on! No ones up yet, we can just sneak into the kitchen and get some, come on." Gabriella ran forward and took Troy's hand, leading him out of the door… actually, more like running out the door.

They eventually made it to the kitchen and they both tip toed in carefully. Gabriella walked further ahead then Troy, so she didn't exactly notice the wet floor sign.

"AHH!" Gabriella yelped and slipped on the floor, but right before she could go down, Troy's arms caught her and pulled her right back up. "Oh my god, thank you." She sighed and put her hand to her chest trying to breath evenly.

"Troy, there traps! They knew we were coming!" Gabriella exclaimed, sarcastically. Troy laughed and went towards the refrigerator, with Gabriella following. He quickly grabbed, some chocolate ice cream bars and handed one to Gabriella, getting one for himself.

"Come on! Lets go!" Gabriella took his hand and fled from the kitchen.

--

"Troy?"

"Yeah, Gabi?" Troy asked licking his ice cream away. Him and Gabi were watching television together, on the floor, with blankets on top of them. Troy was leaning against the love seat and Gabriella was seating in between his legs.

"Are you a virgin?" Gabriella asked bluntly, like it was the most common thing in the world to talk about.

"What?!" Troy nearly shouted.

"What?" She asked back defensively. "It's a perfectly valid question to ask a friend."

Troy sighed and put his head against his back. Why was she talking about this? It was embarrassing… He finally sighed. "No…" He grunted.

"Hmm… how?" She giggled.

"How what? How I lost my virginity?"

She nodded. "Yep…"

"I was drunk at a party, there… I don't even remember the girl… I regret it though." Troy licked his ice cream.

"Oh… that sucks." Gabriella said. That was all she could think to say. I mean, what was she supposed to say?

"What about you?" Troy asked just as bluntly.

Gabriella froze. Oh no, please no, she thought. Why? Why did she have to ask the stupid question? Gabriella turned slowly in his arms. She had to tell him at some point, and now seemed as good as any.

"Yes, Troy… I'm a virgin… I thank god everyday that I am, because… I came very close to loosing it…" Gabriella looked down and tried to not picture the scene that always played over and over in her head, everyday, for three years.

"W-What do you mean?" Troy asked, watching her closely.

She sighed. "That's what I've been having dreams about, Troy… I was fourteen… I went to a party with Sharpay and a few other friends… It was supposed to be just a regular party at some fancy country club…"

Gabriella stopped to wipe a tear away. "We went in and we were having fun… until, some guys walked up to us and asked if they could talk to us, privately. We were young and we saw them around school before and they looked like nice guys. So we followed them."

Gabriella sniffed and continued through her tears. Troy rubbed her back and had a sad expression on his face as he listened to the sad, crying girl talk before him. "They eventually had us in these rooms and they started talking about how they always thought we were really pretty and that they wanted to be with us."

"Me and Sharpay thought it was pretty awkward but we just went along with it. So pretty soon one of them leaned forward and kissed Sharpay. She was pretty shocked about it but she kissed back anyway… and then the same happened to me." Gabriella sighed and continued.

"They were getting really close and he and Sharpay realized something bad was going to happen… they held us against a wall… they started ripping our clothes off… we begged them to stop but they wouldn't… one of them even smacked Sharpay… but other then that the boy was being nicer to her then the other was to me. "

"He kept cussing at me and telling me to do things and to shut-up… He kept hitting me against the wall each time he pulled away from kissing me. I shouted and shouted but they wouldn't stop… eventually they had us in our underwear and then the door swung open…"

"It was the owners of the country club and some police. They got the guys off of us and me and Shar scrambled to the floor, sobbing and looking for our clothes. We eventually found them and we looked up to see that the policemen were putting the guys in handcuffs when the one that hurt me spoke. "I will come back for you, Gabriella… I promise…" He smiled wickedly at me and was forced out of the room…"

"Me and Shar got help from the people there and our parents eventually came to pick us up and they found out. They helped us as best as they could but we were still never okay. Shar is pretty much over it, I mean she will never be over it but she's better then I am… then again even she says that I got it worse then her… which I guess, you could say that I did. "

Gabriella put her hands in her heads and cried silently. Troy was so shocked that this had happened to her he didn't know what to do. He could not believe that men could be so stupid and cruel. Because of the Gabriella had never really moved on… they were the reason that she had those haunting nightmares and the reason that she cried herself to sleep, almost every night.

Troy grabbed hold of Gabriella's waist and hoisted her into his lap rocking her back and forth, hushing her and trying to calm her down.

He wound the blanket around them both and kissed the top of her head repeatedly as she cried in his arms. "I'm so sorry, Gabriella… I'm so sorry…"

Gabriella sniffed and tried to breath in. "I-I'll be okay…" She tried to close her eyes as she felt tired and so very peaceful in Troy's arms. She decided something. From then on she would not let herself cry anymore. Not cry about them ever again. The reason she promised herself this is because she would be sure that Troy would always be there for her.

By his understanding, caring and comforting she realized that she didn't need to cry about them anymore. She wouldn't. Gabriella breathed in one last shaky breath. "No more crying…" She told her self aloud. "No more…" And with those last words she fell asleep.