Chapter 9: What Now?
For the next three hours Gabriella completely ignored Troy. Watching her flirt with practically every guy at the party made Troy's blood boil. Why couldn't he make her laugh like that? Why didn't she ever smile at him like that? He was standing on one side of the pool while watching Gabriella on the other, he just loved watching her. Chad, Jason and Zeke had long gone to find Taylor, Sharpay and Kelsi leaving him alone. Not exactly alone, many girls had come up and tried to flirt with him but he just ignored them, keeping his eyes on Gabriella.
For the past three hours Gabriella made sure that she was nowhere near Troy. She knew he was watching her but pretended to be enjoying the company of the other guys at the party. She danced with a couple of them but made sure to keep out of the water.
There was no way she was going to let anyone see the hickey Troy had given her a week ago. She had done a pretty good job keeping it from her friends. For the past week she had covered it up with foundation and left her hair down for extra care. Now a week later it was still visible but not as much as it had been on Sunday when she had first discovered it. Gabriella hoped that by next week it would be gone for sure.
Gabriella shifted her eyes to her right and saw that Troy was still looking at her. She had seen countless girls to up to him, rubbing themselves up on him, but he made no attempt to hook up with any of them. This was unlike Troy and Gabriella couldn't help but wonder why.
The guy in front of her was still talking, not that Gabriella was paying him much attention. He was on the football team, what was his name? Craig, Greg, something like that. She was only there to see if she could get a reaction from Troy. About two hours ago Kelsi, Taylor and Sharpay had disappeared with Chad, Zeke and Jason. They better be keeping to the plan. No way am I doing this one alone. It was Shar's plan to start out with anyway.
"…. so that was how I made the final touchdown and won the game last weekend," Craig or Greg said.
Gabriella turned her attention back to the guy she was supposedly talking to. "Wow, that was a really interesting story …"
"Greg."
"Greg, right. How could I have forgotten? Um, can you please excuse me for a minute? I need to go find some friends." Without waiting for an answer Gabriella left in search for her three best friends. She couldn't find them around the pool area and Ryan told her that they must have gone inside. After ten minutes of searching Gabriella heard some laughter in the game room. Walking inside she found her best friends with none other than Chad, Zeke and Jason having a strangely good time.
"Ahem," Gabriella cleared her throat loudly enough to be heard over all of the laughter. "You guys seem to be having a good time. Have you been here awhile?"
"Gabi!" Taylor said looking somewhat guilty. "There you are, we were just talking about you."
"We were?" Kelsi said, looking completely confused.
Sharpay nudged her friend with her elbow, "Yeah, we were just coming to get you when we ran into the guys."
"The guys?" Gabriella questioned with a quirk of her eyebrow. "You six seem to have gotten pretty close since I last saw you. Zeke, Jason, Chad may I have a minute with my girls? I need to talk to them privately, that is if you don't mind."
"Not at all, Gabriella," Zeke responded before the other two could say anything. "We were on our way to find Troy anyways. See you girls later."
After the guys had left the room, Gabriella shut the door and turned back to her friends who all had guilty expressions on their faces. "So you seemed cozy."
"No, we were just casually flirting," Taylor said. "Nothing more, right girls?"
"Right, right. Is that true Shar?" Gabriella asked, knowing that Sharpay was the easiest to crack. All it took was an intent look in her eyes and Gabriella knew she would have her singing like a canary.
"Ugh! I can't take it! Zeke is such a sweetie, nothing like Troy. He's kind and smart and he bakes! I'm so sorry but I can't go on with that stupid plan!"
Wow, so not what I was expecting. "Do you two feel the same way about Chad and Jason?" Kelsi and Taylor slowly nodded their heads 'yes'. "Well, if that's how you three feel then I guess there's nothing I can do about it except to say that I'm happy for you."
"Really?!" Sharpay, Kelsi and Taylor asked in unison. They all ran over to Gabriella, hugging the living daylights out of her.
"Um, girls, having a little trouble breathing here." After they let her go she added, "But this does not mean that I am going to start getting along with lunkhead basketball boy Troy, is that clear?"
"We would expect nothing less," Sharpay answered with a thousand-watt smile on her face. "Now come on we have a pool party to get back to."
On their way back to the yard Taylor turned to Gabriella. "So any cute boys worth mentioning?"
"Ooh, yeah. Give up the details," Sharpay said.
"No one worth my time. It really seems that most of the jocks that go to East High are egotistic jerks. Except Jason, Zeke and Chad of course," Gabriella added after seeing the looks on her friends' faces.
"Yeah, Jason is such a sweetie. I love how he can make me laugh so easily," Kelsi said with a dreamy look on her face. The other three laughed, bringing Kelsi back to reality and turning her face crimson red from embarrassment.
"Aw, Kels. It's okay if you love him," Taylor said whilst trying to stifle her laughter. "You two are so cute!"
"You mean like you and Chad?" Sharpay asked causing the other two to giggle.
"What about you and Zeke?" Taylor retaliated.
"Can we please stop talking about your love lives and get back to partying? I serious need to get rid of some stress," Gabriella spoke out desperately trying to change the subject. She really didn't want the conversation to turn over to her and Troy. Not that anything was going on between them, because there wasn't.
"Yeah! Let's get into the pool, I am dying out in this heat," Taylor said.
"And get my hair wet? Thanks but no thanks. I'm going to sun bathe, anyone care to join me?" Sharpay said making her way to the lounge chairs.
"I'm with Shar, no way I'm getting in the pool and risk getting my hair wet," Gabriella said. She sat down next to Sharpay whilst Taylor and Kelsi went to the pool. They were sitting there for a good fifteen minutes talking about random things when Gabriella felt someone standing in front of her. "Excuse me," she said with her eyes still closed. "You're in my light."
"Sorry, but we need to talk." Upon hearing that voice Gabriella knew exactly who it was that had disturbed her relaxation.
"What do you want Bolton?" Gabriella asked finally opening her eyes and cursing herself for doing so. Once hers had connected with Troy's Gabriella knew she was lost in them. Thank god I'm wearing sunglasses.
"Just five minutes, please."
"I'm going to check on some stuff. I am the host after all," Sharpay said excusing herself. "Give me the details later tonight," she whispered to Gabriella before disappearing into the crowd.
"Ugh, Bolton, what now?" Gabriella was really irritated with how his mere presence was making her insides turn in excitement. "If you want to talk about what had happened last week we already talked about it. There's nothing more to say on that matter so be a good boy and leave."
"I didn't want to do this but you have given me no other choice."
"What are you -" Before Gabriella could finish her sentence Troy had swooped down and lifted her into his arms. "Troy put me down!"
"Not unless we have a decent conversation. I am really trying to be civil here and all you do is turn away from me," Troy said while making his way to the edge of the pool. "So either talk to me or I'm jumping into the pool. If I do jump I'm bringing you in with me."
"You're bluffing, you wouldn't dare."
"Oh I am capable of many things my dear."
"I don't believe you, you don't have the guts to do that." Without another word Troy jumped into the pool, bringing Gabriella in with him. "Ugh! TROY! YOU JERK!" Gabriella exclaimed when she resurfaced. She splashed some water at Troy before making her way out. Kelsi, Taylor and Sharpay were waiting at the edge with a towel, after seeing the whole scene unfold. Taking the towel Gabriella walked back into the house with Sharpay, Taylor and Kelsi following behind her. They entered Sharpay's room and closed the door, waiting for Gabriella to explode. A minute went by and Gabriella still had yet to say anything, she simply continued drying herself. Knowing it best not to say anything the other three sat on Sharpay's bed waiting for Gabriella to begin her rant.
After another minute or so it began. "Ugh! I can't stand him! He is such an egotistic jerk! He cares about no one but himself and thinks that he can always get his way just because he's the stupid captain of the friggin' basketball team! I mean there are other people out there -"
"Gabi, what's that?" Taylor asked eyes wide at what she saw.
"What's what Tay?" Gabriella asked annoyed that her friend had interrupted her rant. Taylor got off of Sharpay's bed and made her way over to Gabriella. Pulling her hair back Taylor pointed to the mark on her friend's neck. "That. Is that what I think it is?"
Sharpay and Kelsi, now seeing the hickey, made their way over to Gabriella as well staring intently at the mark as if to make sure it was real. The silence was broken by Sharpay, "OMG! Gabi, how could you not tell us about this? You've been covering it up haven't you? How long have you had this?"
"By the color of the mark and the size of it I would say somewhere around five days to a week," Taylor responded logically after eye-examining the mark. "It doesn't look novel and the color is fading. The only thing that remains a mystery is to whom the hickey belongs to."
"Well, Gabi?" Sharpay questioned her brown-eyed friend.
"No one important," Gabriella replied cursing Troy for getting her wet and thus putting her in this predicament. "Not really worth mentioning."
"Wasn't Troy at your house last weekend?" Kelsi, who had remained quiet during the whole ordeal, spoke out. Damn!
Taylor and Sharpay's eyes widened in realization. "TROY BOLTON GAVE YOU THAT?!" Wincing from the loudness of her friends' voices Gabriella gave them a meek nod. After calming down Taylor, being the rational one, asked, "What happened?"