Chapter 8

Let Me Take You There

This chapter is based off of the song Let Me Take You There by Sammy Hagar and later done by the Plain White T's. I have a link to the song on You Tube in my profile. I really encourage you to check it out. It's one of my two favorite songs right now :-)

Let Me Take You There

I know a place that we can go to
A place where no one knows you
They won't know who we are
I know a place that we can run to
And do those things we want to
They won't know who we are

Let me take you there
I wanna take you there

I know a place that we've forgotten
A place we won't get caught in
They won't know who we are (they won't know, won't know)
I know a place where we can hide out
And turn our hearts inside out
They won't know who we are

Let me take you there
I wanna take you there
Let me take you there
Take you there
Take you there
Ooohhh
Ooohhh
Ooohhh
Ooohhh

I know a place we'll be together
And stay this young forever
They won't know who we are

Let me take you there
I wanna take you there
Let me take you there
Take you there
Take you there
Ooohhh

We can get away to a better place if you let me take you there
We can go there now cause every second counts
Girl just let me take you there
Take you there

Troy was feeling restless. Last night he had made out with a woman who was practically married, and he was sure that his feelings were more than platonic. But that wasn't bothering him as much as the walk he had with Sharpay that ended on the top of a hill at sunset. Sharpay was just so interested in him. And he was still grateful for the relief she provided when she acted like the girls he had known before Nowhere. She was so normal, and Troy couldn't be more grateful for that.

Troy glanced at the clock sitting on the nightstand next to his bed. It was 10 in the morning. It was time to get up. He sat up and stretched while he let out a loud yawn. Then, he went over to the bathroom and turned on the shower. While he was waiting for the water to heat up, he brushed his teeth.

After he was done in the bathroom, he shuffled over to his dresser and pulled out his last clean shirt. Before he shut the drawer, though, something shiny and black caught his attention. It was his cell phone.

Troy wondered how he could have possibly forgotten about that. He had practically depended on that thing like it was an essential organ or something before he came across Nowhere.

He flipped it open. It was also dead. Troy rummaged around in his duffle bag until he found the charger and plugged it in. He tapped his foot as he waited for the phone to turn on. 'You have new voicemails' the phone read.

"No kidding," Troy mumbled as he selected to listen to his messages. Nothing happened, though. Then Troy noticed a small message in the corner. It read 'no service'.

Great. Now what? Troy doubted that driving anywhere would help. Then he got an idea. Maybe he could get service from the hill Sharpay had taken him to, but he would have to wait until his phone charged.

Then, Troy heard a knock on his door. He got up and answered it. It was Gabriella.

"Hey," he said, very interested as to why she was showing up at his door after what they had done last night. He thought for sure that she would be avoiding him for another week.

"Hi," she said, coming in and closing the door behind her. Before Troy could ask her why she was there, her lips were firmly planted on his.

Troy was shocked. He had no idea how to react. Should he kiss her back? Was it really wrong for him to kiss her? After all, Ryan was Gabriella's fiancé, not his.

Then, Troy's mind and body came back to reality and he just couldn't resist answering her lips with increased passion and intensity.

Then Gabriella grabbed the bottom of the shirt Troy had just put on, lifting it up and parting her lips with his only long enough to pull his shirt over his head.

"Wait," Troy said, breathlessly. "Are you sure you want to do this? You're engaged."

Gabriella looked at him and started to shake. "I'm engaged," she whispered as large tears began to roll down her cheeks.

Troy put his shirt back on and pulled Gabriella close to him, hugging her. He really had no idea what to say. He knew she was engaged too, and he hadn't stopped her. He felt like the scum of the earth.

"What are we doing?" he asked really himself more than Gabriella.

"I'm supposed to be in love with Ryan, and here I am fooling around behind his back. If he ever finds out, he'll never speak to me again. Or worse, he won't marry me."

Troy took a breath and sat Gabriella down on his bed. "Gabriella, maybe that isn't such a bad thing. I'm not telling you this because I want you to leave him for me. I'm telling you this because I want you to be happy. Remember last night? Working at the grocery store and Ryan are not your only two options."

Gabriella was silent for a long time, and Troy was afraid to say anything else. He had done enough damage in Nowhere.

"Troy," she said, finally. "I need to see my fiancé."

Before Troy could ask her any questions, she stood up and quietly exited his room.

Troy stayed in his room all day, lost in a sea of confused thoughts and feelings. Troy wondered why he was still in Nowhere. Nobody was forcing him to stay, and everyday seemed to be more complicated than the one before.

It was probably about time for him to pack up his things to leave. Troy began to gather his belongings and tossed them into his duffle bag. He would leave tomorrow morning.

Troy went downstairs and joined the Evans' for dinner. After he was done, he went back up to his room and grabbed his cell phone, which was now fully charged.

He made the hike up the hill to the rock Sharpay had shown him the day before.

When he reached it, he pulled out his cell phone. Troy was relieved to find that he had two bars.

He called his voicemail, and the recording on the other end said, "You have 27 new messages."

Several of them were from friends, and another good bit were from his parents, asking where the heck he was. It was the last message that changed Troy's plans, though.

"Hey, Troy," a woman's voice said cautiously on the phone. "This is your mother again. I know that you probably never want to speak to me or your father again, but please just here me out for a moment. Your grandfather has cancer. It's pretty bad." Her voice began to shake. "It's everywhere, and he's refusing treatment. They've given him a month to live, and I know how close you two are. Just thought you might want to know," she said, whispering the last sentence.

Troy was upset. His mom was right that he was very close to his grandpa. He had taken him on fishing trips when he was a kid, and he was always up for a good game of cards with Troy. He needed to see his grandpa again.

Then Troy thought about why he had left home. He remembered how angry he was.

He had been walking to his room after a tough basketball practice when he overheard his mom and dad say his name. He stopped just to hear what they had to say about him.

"Troy is a great basketball player. The Red Hawks just hasn't totally realized that yet."

Now Troy was really interested. He had been offered a full ride for the Red Hawks to play on their basketball team, and he was excitedly waiting for the fall when he would be a freshman there.

"But did you have to pay them that much?" he heard his mother say.

What on earth were they talking about?

"A few bucks to a few scouts now to give him a little boost into a great basketball program will pay off with a few million when he goes pro."

"Yeah, but 10,000 dollars?"

Troy had heard enough. He was so angry he could hardly breathe. He needed out fast, so he ran to his room, tears blurring his vision, and packed a duffle bag with a few changes of clothes. He didn't intend to run off forever, but he had to get away.

As he stormed through the hall and down the stairs, he could here his dad calling his name from the second floor. Troy didn't care, though. The last people he wanted to face at that moment were his parents. So he ignored his father and grabbed the keys to his green jeep and left the house, slamming the door with all of the force he could muster. Before Troy even realized what he was doing, he was on the road, searching for something, anything that could change what he had just heard.

That was how Troy ended up in Nowhere. He had driven all day, and when the end of the day was approaching and he was running out of gas, he came across Nowhere, but now he wanted to go home more than anything. Sure, he was still angry at his parents beyond even his own understanding, but he needed to see his grandpa. He would know what to say and how to deal with the situation.

Troy's grandfather lived in Los Angeles, while his parents lived in Albuquerque. But the chances of Troy's parents being in LA were significant. Troy rolled his eyes. There was no question that he needed to go to Los Angeles, an soon. In fact, he couldn't bare the thought of staying in Nowhere another night. He needed to see his grandfather.

Troy quickened his pace down the hill. He was almost jogging now. Then, just as quickly as his desire to go home overtook him, he remembered Gabriella.

He couldn't just leave. Not now. He was sure that once he left, he would never see Gabriella again. Everything that had happened was sure to come out, and he would never be welcomed in Nowhere ever again. No. He needed to take Gabriella with him.

Troy stepped out of the desert onto the worn out asphalt road, headed straight to the Montez house. He had to talk to her.

He approached the front door and rang the doorbell. Gabriella answered, clearly shocked to see Troy standing there.

"Gabriella, I need to talk to you," Troy said before Gabriella was even able to say hi.

Gabriella looked shocked and not sure how to react.

"Please just hear me out. I promise that I will never bother you again," Troy said, feeling desperate.

"Okay," Gabriella said, not showing any sort of confidence.

"Great," Troy responded, grabbing Gabriella's hand and practically dragging her out onto the front porch.

"Are you okay?" she asked, sitting next to him on the front steps.

Troy took both of Gabriella's hands and looked into her eyes, searching for any kind of clue about what she was feeling.

"Gabriella, I'm leaving."

"When?" she asked, sounding surprised.

"Tonight. Right now."

"Wh-what?" she asked, Troy could see her trying to keep her calm.

"Gabriella, I want you to come with me," Troy said, looking her in the eyes.

He saw her face loose color as her eyes widened in shock.

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Sharpay needed to find Troy. Dinner had ended and she saw him go up the hill to the rock she had shown him. Her plan was to catch him when he came down, but when she saw him descending, she could tell that he was a man on a mission, so she decided to follow him instead.

Sharpay kept her distance as she crept behind Troy until he was standing at the front door of Gabriella's house.

Before she could scold herself for eavesdropping, she found herself hiding behind a huge boulder that was decorating the Montez's front yard, not even ten feet from the front steps.

That's when she heard Troy tell Gabriella that he was leaving that night, and he wanted her to go with him.

Sharpay could feel her eyes moistening as he asked her. Troy was supposed to be hers. She had spent so much time getting to know Troy, and then put so much energy into playing hard to get, and now here he was professing his undying love to another girl. A girl who was engaged to her brother.

A/N: I have received some feedback about whether this should be a Troyella or a Troypay. I am very interested in what you think about that. I have really tried to remove my bias from the story about who I prefer so the couples who end up together are true to the story, and not to my sentiments. I really hope that when you read it, you can come to accept who ends up with who, even if it isn't the couple you usually prefer. But I really am honestly curious in what couples you prefer and why! It might influence what I write later on...
Anyways, thank you for the reviews! I truly appreciated them! And please keep up the feedback...It means the world to me :-)