A/N: I'm sorry for how long it's been taking for my updates. They aren't as quick as they once were but I'm trying! To explain myself, I'm informing you all that I've been working on a new oneshot that I'm trying to perfect and it's taking me forever and distracting me from this story. That doesn't mean that I'm not making time to write this one because I am. Also, please bear with me for the next month or so because this semester of college is almost done and professors are killing me with projects, presentations, papers, and finals that are going to be happening soon. I'm going to try to update whenever I can but please don't become antsy when they arent that quick. Anyway, on to the story!

It was Friday, the day before the big event in California and Gabriella was going crazy with getting that hall set up.

"At what time are you and Chad coming down tomorrow?" She was obviously speaking to none other than Taylor.

"Chad and I should be walking in at about 7:30-8:00ish or so."

"And are you bringing anybody?"

"Nope…I'm going to be the lone ranger of the evening."

"What about Chad?"

Taylor was hesitant to answer the question. She knew just who Chad would be bringing but she couldn't just tell her best friend that he was going to bring someone, especially if its him. She would just have to lie even if she didn't want to…it was for Gabriella's own good. "Nope. Not that I know of. He hasn't mentioned anything to me so I'm assuming that he'll be alone as well."

"Alright then. I'll still have the two additional seats open for you guys in case anyone comes last minute."

"Uh…sure thing. That's fine." Taylor stammered out. She felt horrible that she had to lie but what else could she possibly do? She didn't want to force Gabriella to see Troy but she did want to help. Besides, she knew her best friend just wanted to be happy and this was just a helpful nudge in the right direction without her knowing.

"By the way, are you guys still going to be staying at my house this weekend? I totally don't mind at all. I'd actually like for you guys to come even if you guys do bring someone else with you last minute. It'll be fine…I got more than enough space here."

"Or so you think…" Taylor mumbled and faked a cough.

"What'd you say? I don't think I caught that." Gabriella furrowed her brows and pressed her ear against the phone more to try and make out whatever Taylor was trying to say.

"Nothing…just complaining about the amount of dust I just found on top of the shelf." The dark beauty covered up. "But yeah, that sounds good. I'm down for staying at your house. It's better than paying a hotel room especially if it's not necessary to."

"Exactly my point." Gabriella said and just before she was about to open her mouth to say something else, she heard something crash on the other side of the enormous room. "Ugh! Great! Something else to add to my freakin' stress! Taylor, I'll call you back later."

"Hang in there, sweetie. It'll be worth it tomorrow."

"I hope so."

"Later Gabs."

"Bye." She shut her phone and dragged her feet across the room towards the commotion. "What could've possibly happened now?"

She made it to the sight of disaster and found that one of the mini disco balls that they rented had fallen. Gabriella yelled out in frustration.

It was going to be a long night.

Taylor was losing it. Wait, no that was an understatement.

She was freaking out.

How could she be able to face her best friend tomorrow and show up with Chad and Troy? She could pretend that she found out that same night but Gabriella would at least expect a text or something ahead of time to warn her but Taylor knew that wouldn't be the right move to make. If she texted or called her ahead of time to give her a heads up, Gabriella would be avoiding everyone the whole night.

She felt like she wanted to back out but there was no way of backing out now. Gabriella would need her tomorrow and the rest of the weekend. Taylor was more than sure of that.

Unsure of what to do or how to handle the situation, she was out the door and already in her car on her way to Chad's place. Her conscience was eating her up inside and she knew it was the right thing for Gabriella but she wasn't sure how she would take it. She feared for the worst due to the unsettling feeling at the pit of her gut.

Was this ultimately the right thing?

Taylor was more than one hundred percent sure that Troy would be with Chad. She figured that maybe she could talk to him and get his point of view on all of this. Besides, he's the one that Gabriella doesn't want to see anyway – for now. Maybe he could even convince Taylor that everything would be okay and to just relax since it wasn't her problem.

Oh wait, they're making it her problem too. How could she have forgotten?

Lying wasn't Taylor's thing at all especially to people that meant a lot for her. Gabriella was one of those people. They were like sisters since day one. Deciding to just ignore the problem for now, she continued driving for about another ten minutes before pulling into Chad's driveway.

She fumbled with the release of the seatbelt, already feeling the slight jitters come back again. She predicted that tomorrow she would be a wreck and that's if she even makes it 'til then without saying word or chickening out.

She stepped out the car and frantically walked up the walkway to the front door. Taylor quickly knocked on the door about twenty times. She was desperate to let out her stress and talk it out. Rolling her eyes and letting out a frustrated sigh, she looked at her watch. It was only six thirty; Chad had to be home.

As if having the instincts of a dog, her ears perked up as she heard the sound of loud grunts and a dribbling basketball. How could she have been so naïve?

"Duh! He's in the back…gosh, what else would that retard being doing?" She said to herself as she walked off the porch and around the side of the house towards the yard. Surely enough, that's where she found Chad and Troy.

"No way you're going to win this time!" Chad taunted as he blocked the three pointer that Troy was trying to throw.

"Please, I could beat you with my eyes closed and a broken arm!" the blue-eyed hunk replied.

Taylor didn't mind watching at all. It was like she was in a fantasyland of basketball porn. Two very attracted men playing shirtless as they jump around fiercely for a ball, as though they were two lions fighting for that night's dinner. Beads of sweat rolling off their chiseled chests and faces as they continue to taunt each other and make those sexy grunts of frustration. Their somewhat visible groins bouncing around in their basketball shorts that hung low on their hips. Oh yeah, it was definitely basketball porn heaven for Taylor.

She mentally shook herself out of her daze and called out to them," Guys!"

No response.

"Hello? Guys!"

Still got nothing.

"Would you freaking jerk off's drop the ball for a minute and take notice that you have company?!?!"

That did the trick.

The guys dropped the ball and turned to face her direction. "Now that our game seems to be officially interrupted, what can I do for you, McKessie?" Chad asked with a slightly annoyed face.

Taylor noticed that she must have hit a nerve with the guys from the glares they were giving her. It wasn't her fault that she had such a guilty conscience. She had to blame that one on Chad for telling her about Troy in the first place. "I need to talk to you…both of you actually."

"What's on your mind, Tay?" Troy asked as he laid out and stretched his shirtless body on the grass, panting for air from the intense game of basketball.

'What's on my mind? Pft, how the heck did my best friend not sleep with you – that's what's on my mind. Wait! I can't believe I'm checking him out….ew, how wrong is that? Well it's not that wrong considering that he is one hunk of a man and I haven't gotten any in awhile…' Taylor mentally rambled and shook her thought out and blushed. It wouldn't matter though, its not like either guy could read minds anyway. "It's about tomorrow."

"What happened with tomorrow?" the perfectly sculpted figure on the grass asked, the worry was evident in his tone.

"Look, I don't know if I should bother riding in the same car with you guys over there. As it is, I'm supposed to pretend that I have no idea about you accompanying Chad…and if I show up with you both then she's going to be pissed with me." Taylor replied.

"Why would she be mad at you?" Chad quipped up and sat beside Troy on the grass.

"Because it would insinuate that I know something and if I know something, then I'm supposed to give her a heads up."

"So what are you suggesting…that I call off my date after I already invited him? That's pretty rude, don't you think?" Chad said as he playfully put his arm around Troy's shoulder.

Taylor rolled her eyes at this and chuckled as Troy pushed his friend's arm off him. "That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that if we play this, we're going to have to play the parts better."

"Go on…" Troy said.

"Well for starters, I'm serious about not showing up with you guys. If I leave in my own car before you both do, then I'll be there at her house before in time for her to think that I had no idea that you were even in Albuquerque. Secondly, you guys need to come up with sleeping arrangements because I'm staying at her place. Chad, you're supposed to be staying there too but I don't know how she'll feel about Troy being there. Besides, it would be rude of you to leave your 'date' so you need to figure that one out."

"Dude! You didn't tell me that you were going to crash at Brie's house!" Troy said as he gave Chad an incredulous look.

"My bad. That completely slipped my mind, honestly." Chad held his hands up in defense.

"Obviously. What are we going to do?"

"I was on the phone with her earlier and she was insisting that Chad and I stay with her. She even said that there was more than enough room in case we brought people with us. I mean, I know she's being open and friendly with the invitation with us but I have the gut feeling that she might not be up to letting you be the exception." Said the only woman there.

"I don't think she would want me there…at all. I mean, it's bad enough that I'm going to the event without her knowing so I don't think she'll be up to letting me stay there with you guys. I highly doubt it." Troy said. He looked down and had a distant look in his eyes as he thought to himself..

"Listen to you two! You guy's got to be kidding me. Gabriella is one of the nicest people that I've ever met. We're all mature here and you know how she is about leaving people out – it's not her thing. I'm sure that even though Mr. Bolton here fucked things up, she'll be willing to let him stay. She'll probably be willing to push the differences aside for the sake of saving things from being awkward. It's the mature thing to do." Chad looked back and forth between Taylor and Troy. He truly believed that Gabriella would be a softy and allow Troy into her home.

"But that's just it. You weren't there when I told her the big news. You didn't see the look on her face or hear the pissed off words that she said. You didn't see any of it. Maybe I shouldn't even go…"

"Don't be ridiculous. You didn't come all the way over here for nothing, did you? I don't think so. Troy, you love her. Fight for what you love. I know she still feels something for you…I think the whole world knows that if they understood her editor in chief letter for last month's issue. Don't give up. Me stopping by wasn't meant to make you feel discouraged. If anything, it's just to help you so you know what to expect and what's going to go down. I just can't deal with lying but I'm going to suck it up for your sake." Taylor sat on the other side of Troy and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You go get our girl!"

He laughed at the last part and so did Chad. It lifted up the mood of the quite unhappy moment.

"That's what I'm aiming to do…hopefully it all works out that way."

It was like déjà vu or merely a coincidence.

It was that sick gut feeling that just wouldn't go away.

Gabriella had been tossing and turning the whole night and couldn't seem to have just rest her eyes. She rolled over and looked at her clock. 3:45 AM.

Frustrated from her lack of sleep, she pushed the thought aside and figured that it was probably because she was nervous for the party later on. After all, it was a big event that could break her career if anything went wrong.

She sat up on her bed and wandered over to the fridge and served herself a cup of orange juice. What was there to do at this time in the morning? She could watch infomercials on random channels, organize her closet, or just lay in bed until she could finally sleep. Instead of doing either of those things, Gabriella went back to her room and grabbed the camera upon her dresser. It felt like forever since she last took photos or even looked at any.

"I seriously need to update my facebook photos…but no way in hell am I going to do that looking like this…" She said to herself as she looked at the mirror above her dresser while holding the camera in her hand.

Gabriella sat upon her bed Indian style and turned the camera on. "Let's see what we have on here." Skipping through the pictures, she saw that the last time she used it was when she was in New York.

"Oh wow…" she said aloud with a giggle as she stared at the picture of Chad sleeping with drool on his chin. "Good memory."

The pictures of the sights that they saw, the enormous Barbie house from Toys 'R' Us, the pictures from the road trip; all of that put a smile on her face while she reminiscence. Those were moments of happiness and times that she could always look back on and remember the fun that raveled her life. She could always look back on those memories and think about how true and dear her friends really are. They were without a doubt her second family and irreplaceable.

Too bad that nothing can last forever – even if its just thinking back on happy memories.

Gabriella stumbled across pictures of that night. The night where everything changed even more and turned her world into a whirl winding roller coaster. The smile that she had melted off her face like slippery butter to a steaming pan. She began to frown looking at pictures that she didn't even know existed. They were pictures of Troy and her on the dance floor at the club. She had to admit to herself that they looked very intimate, sexual, and yet passionate. They were pushed up against each other's bodies and you could obviously tell that they were grinding. But the passion came from a specific zoomed in picture of their faces. They were looking intently at one another and their faces seemed so serious but soft. Surely there was enough lust oozing from their body language but their eyes had passion. She couldn't deny being able to see that from the picture.

Her eyes started to water as her mind flashed to the events after that led her to back out of the rest of the road trip. Her goal of pursuing the one that got away was crushed that night. Troy damaged all of her hopes of being able to call him hers and for her to belong to him. She wanted to desperately be his again and have that in return that she did the crazy thing of traveling across the country for him only to find out she was too late. He wasn't meant to be hers again.

'I should of tried harder to make him stay in Albuquerque when I had the chance. He would've never married that damn trifling man stealer if I just could've convinced him more. None of this would've happened!' Gabriella mentally yelled at herself and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. For her, it felt as though the world was crashing against her shoulders. Nothing seemed like it was going to be alright.

How could she ever forgive him for humiliating her and for lying to her in such a way? But most importantly, how could she ever forgive herself for being so foolish? He might have caused her that pain but she couldn't help but to blame herself because she allowed for it to happen. She was being too open with her emotions and knew that she was playing with fire with an 'involved' man. What bullshit was that word. But it wasn't entirely her fault. He did lie when he knew he should've been completely honest from the get go.

Out of pure frustration, anger, and stress, Gabriella began to delete every picture that Troy was in. Tears fell rapidly along her cheeks but she didn't care. She gasped for breath as the room suddenly became too stuffy to think straight and threw the camera across the room and crashing to the carpeted floor. She brought her knees up to her chest and buried her face between them. She sobbed and her body shook uncontrollably.

It had been weeks since she allowed herself to think about him and what he had done to her. The intense impact crashed against her fragile frame like a tidal wave that became too much to take. She fell over on her side and curled up into the fetus position. Her head felt like it was spinning even though she was lying down. Her vision became a blur and she felt the sweat rise to her skin from the lack of air in her lungs.

"No, you're not pathetic…you cant always control what the heart feels Gabby. It happens, its normal. No one ever said that getting over your first love is easy especially after the years that you guys were together. I mean four years is a long time!"

Those words that belonged to Taylor suddenly popped into Gabriella's brain. She may have not been considered pathetic before the road trip but she definitely felt pathetic once she returned from it. How did she let Taylor convince her for that?

"Well, if your heart must insist on its feelings for Troy, do something about it! What do you say we try looking up Mr. Bolton? You know, like where he could be. Basically track him down and set out on a road trip and find him! Doesn't that sound exciting?"

Oh wait – that's how she was convinced.

She continued crying to herself as the broken reel in her mind kept replaying that stressful weekend. Seconds that became minutes and minutes that became an hour, Gabriella was asleep with tear stained cheeks.

She was going to look like hell in the morning.

End of Chapter! This is just setting up the drama and hype that I plan to have for the following chapters. I noticed that my last one didn't get many reviews but I kind of understand and anticipated that reaction. I found the last chapter to be somewhat boring and didn't expect to get many anyway but I needed to prepare a few things and I couldn't just go on without having reactions to Troy being back. By the way, did anyone see Zac Efron on SNL? The sketch for HSM4 was hilarious!

Anyway, are there any opinions? comments? thoughts? Let me know in a review! Thanks!