Sorry I didn't update for a while, but I had the storylien worked out and just couldn't be bothered to actually write it cause I thought it'd end up a little longer than it did. I apologise greatly for the number of spelling mistakes in this, just tell me if you don't get some of the sentences and I'll try to translate them.
Disclaimer: Hmm, 58 review implies that at least a few people are reading, so maybe it is worht disclaiming ownerhsip of HSM... nah, still not.
Gabriella squinted into the bright yellow light falling onto her face through the open window on her left. She tried to open her eyes fully, but found herself blinded by the sunlight so quickly closed them again. Where was she? Where had she been when she went to sleep? She couldn't remember. Rolling over onto her side she tried opening her eye again, this time to more success. Just as she was still on her side, the idea to open her eyes buzzing through her thoughts, another idea came, a memory. She knew where she'd been last night.
Sitting up as fast as possible Gabriella tore her eyes open and waved her arms in front of her, searching for some sign whether or not this was Troy's room that she'd slept in or another one that she just didn't remember going to. Eventually her sight returned and she quickly glanced around the room. To her it seemed like the entire room was stained with yellow and white, but it was just the brightness of the sun lingering on her eyes, besides, it was her own stained yellow room, so it didn't matter.
She sighed and fell back onto her bed, squinting when the light caught her eyes again. Why did the sun have to exist? Mentally yelling at herself for a stupid and answer-able rhetorical question Gabriella sat up again and rubbed her eyes, turning around so her legs were over the side of her bed, her toes skimming the beige carpet.
"Mum!" She called, hearing her voice echo through the house.
"Yes Gabi?"
"What time is it?" ("SUMMERTIME!!!" lol, sry)
"Why don't you just look at your clock sweetie?" Gabriella rolled her eyes and stood, wobbling for a second as her legs got used to taking her weight before wandering around her bed and over to her clock, which was inconveniently placed above her bed so she couldn't see it when she was in it (the bed, not the clock).
"Okay mum." Then Gabriella saw the time. "MUM! WHY DIDN"T YOU WAKE ME UP!?" Gabriella started running madly around her room, grabbing a random top and a pair of jeans and pulling them on, taking about three minutes to realise that the jeans were on backwards and the top was actually a blanket. So much for that approach to rushing, maybe she should rush a bit slower.
"Why did I need to get you up?" Gabriella paused halfway through pulled her jeans back up (this time the right way round). Why did she have to get up early? Oh… right… that… Troy.
"Troy had a basketball game two hours ago, he asked me if I'd go ages ago and I said I would." Gabriella suddenly felt stupid for rushing, it was hardly as if he'd still have wanted her to go. She'd just dumped him… when he wasn't even her boyfriend in the first place… did that even work?
"I'm sorry sweetie, you should've said. I'll call Lucy now and you can apologise." Gabriella barely heard what her mother said, and if she hadn't suddenly realised she may have missed those vital seconds to yell at her mum not to.
"Don't worry, I'll go meet up with Troy later, apologising over the phone seems very insincere." Elena was surprised at Gabriella's apparent sincerity, but lowered the phone watched as her dishevelled-looking daughter came downstairs. Even in her mother's mind Gabriella looked terrible.
"Have you had a shower?" Gabriella didn't even consider her mother's question, and automatically just shook her head.
"Don't have time. Meeting Josh. Got to go. Bye mum. Love you." She muttered, and hurried out the door. Elena watched Gabriella leave and closed the door behind her. Josh might not be too happy.
Gabriella's phone rang just as she stepped out of her taxi and onto the footpath outside the café she was meeting Josh at. After shuffling through her bag for a while, Gabriella finally found the source of the high-pitched noise and dragged her phone up to her ear.
"Hello?"
"Hey Ella, I was just wondering where you are?"
"Oh, hey Josh. I'm just outside Belladonna's, I'll meet you inside in a moment." Handing some money over to the taxi driver and waving him off, Gabriella flattened her hair as much as she could and composed herself before she started towards the door to the café.
"Don't worry babe, I'll meet you where you are." Gabriella held back an angry noise at Josh's suggestion; she was really hungry.
" No don't worry, I don't mind sitting with you for a while." Josh's laugh came from the other end of the phone before he hung up on her and someone wrapped their arms in a would-be affectionate way around Gabriella's middle. It wasn't affectionate cause at the same time her stomach grumbled pretty loudly which sort of ruined the moment.
"Bad luck, I'm already meeting you here." Josh whispered in Gabriella's ear before kissing behind it lightly, she wriggled uncomfortably in his grip and turned herself around to face him.
"Hey Josh." She put her arms around his neck and hugged him. Sure, she didn't love him, and he sometimes got a little annoying, but he was still her boyfriend, and a nice person besides.
"Hey." He smiled and kissed her lips softly. She kissed back half-heartedly, but didn't let him deepen it and pulled away pretty quickly. He looked disappointed for a moment after they'd separated, but quickly covered it up and smiled at her again. Gabriella let go of him and he began leading them along the footpath.
For the first few minutes of their walk there was complete silence between the couple, Gabriella coughed a few times to cover up her rumbling stomach and Josh watched the path ahead of them as if it were the most interesting thing ever, which Gabriella found slightly offensive, then again, she was the one who wasn't returning the feelings, so she could hardly be the feeling betrayed. Eventually Josh led them into a park and they sat together on a bench, Gabriella didn't even mind when Josh put his arms around her shoulders and began stroking her hair, but she couldn't help wishing that he talked a bit more. That was never a problem between her and Troy.
As the silence stretched on, Gabriella noticed that Josh had his phoen out and seemed to writing a text message to someone, she peered over his arm to see who he was texting, but he blocked the phone from view.
"Who are you talking to?" Gabriella asked casually.
"No one."
"Liar." She muttered and pushed his arm off her shoulders.
"Come on, Ella, I'm just kidding." Josh scooted over on the bench and put his arm back around her. Gabriela felt her insides squirm uncomfortably, and while in the process of trying to convince herself that the squirm was butterflies, just like it was supposed to be, the idea of her stomach returned again when it rumbled loudly. Luckily, the sound was muffled as her phone beeped from her bag and she quickly fished it out, looking for any excuse not to be touching Josh; after her deep conversation with Troy last night it seemed to unnecessary to be talking to Josh about who he was texting. It wasn't like she actually cared if he was cheating on her, was it?
She scanned through her phone until she finally found her inbox. It turned out that Josh wasn't cheating on her, he'd been texting her. Why not just talk to me? She thought, but realised why once she'd read the text. 'Do u wanna come ova 2 my plce 2nite? 3 Josh'. Gabriella quickly deleted the message, there was only one reason why he'd text her to ask her that, he didn't just want her to have dinner with him.
Once the dreaded message was deleted another one came up, and answer to the last text that she'd sent, 'my fone has a waterproof case, da shower duznt effect it, its easy 2 txt in here'. Her eyes widened. It seemed like so long ago when her and Troy were laughing over then word shower; or at least she was laughing, Troy was texting jokes. Josh must have been watching her carefully, because he seemed to notice her eyes widening.
"So what do you say? You want to come?" He asked, not knowing that Gabriella had been reading Troy's message not his. Gabriella barely heard him, in her ears, he sounded like Troy, and Josh's question phrased with Troy's text sounded a little bit… intimate.
"Um…" Gabriella's suddenly disappeared, her throat began burning and she felt like she was going to be sick. She shook her head quickly, then stood, stumbling a little as she did.
"Ella? Are you okay?" Gabriella shook her head again as she felt vomit build up in her throat. "Ella? Gabi?" Completely forgetting that she was throwing up, Gabriella opened her mouth to object to Josh calling her Gabi… he ended up covered in vomit. That was probably punishment enough.
"I feel sick." She managed to get out before she threw up again.
"Okay, I'm going to take you home." Josh calmly helped Gabriella back to the street, then hurried her to his car, dodging more vomit as he went.
Now Gabriella was lying in her bed again, except tis time it was notably different because Troy and Josh were sitting on either side of her, and Troy's head was blocking out the sun.
"Hi," she muttered, sitting up quickly then falling down again as her head throbbed. "Looks like I'm staying down here." Troy chuckled awkwardly but Josh stayed silent. He probably felt a little outdone by Troy, who was in his basketball singlet and shorts and looking a lot hotter and sweatier in a purely attractive way, Gabriella didn't fail to notice this either.
"Are you okay Gabs?" Troy asked in a worried tone and she nodded.
"Yeah, just kind of… dishevelled." He nodded, then looked away feeling as if he was intruding upon Gabriella's and Josh's time together.
"Your mum said you looked tired this morning, it's probably just the flu or sleep-loss or something." Josh suggested, tyring to keep himself noticed.
"Hmm, I didn't really sleep well last night. I think I got moved half way through the night." Gabriella couldn't be bothered to consider the potential awkwardness that could come from this comment, and paid the price when Troy added to her words.
"You didn't leave that late, only at like midnight or one." He stopped talking quickly when he noticed Gabriella's expression.
"What happened last night?" Josh asked curiously, his eyes on Gabriella and Troy's worried expressions.
"Oh, um… we had dinner with Troy's family. You knew that, didn't you?" Gabriella began, shooting Troy a look which told him not to say anything.
"Yeah, but your parents were talking until midnight? That seems a little unrealistic."
"And what are you suggesting happened to make Gabi stay that late?" Gabriella groaned as Troy spoke.
"Nothing, we didn't do anything and Josh didn't think that we did, he was just winding you up, Troy." Josh and Troy both looked annoyed and unconvinced at Gabriella's explanation, but she wasn't finished. "Josh, I'm fine, I'll call you to reschedule our date, I'm sorry it stuffed up so much. See you." She leant over to him and kissed him on the cheek, whispered something in his ear and smiled at him, then lay back down and watched him stand and leave, waving to troy as he did, evidently he was happy. Troy felt a surge of jealousy flow through him, but ignored it for Gabriella's sake; they'd already talked about this… kind of.
"What do you want me to do?" he asked innocently, his gaze fixed on Gabriella's closed eyes.
"What are you doing here?" Her eyes stayed closed as she spoke, but Troy could tell she was annoyed at him.
"Your mum called me. She said you wanted to apologise for something." Gabriella groaned and sat up again.
"Right. Sorry I wasn't at your game this morning, I slept in."
"You're forgiven." Troy said immediately, still looking at her hard.
"What?" she asked, unnerved by his eyes fixed so stubbornly on hers.
"That's it? Just an apology, we're not going to talk about… anything else?" Gabriella shook her head quickly and tugged her eyes away from Troy's; he lowered his gaze down to his knees. "Okay. I'll go." He stood and started towards the door, but just before he reached Gabriella spoke.
"Wait." He looked back at her, a hungry desperation playing in his blue eyes. "Can we still just be friends?" Troy was still for a while. Could they? Could they really still act normal after all of the stuff they'd revealed last night? At the time it'd seemed natural and fitting for the occasion, but had it really been the time?
"Yes." He answered, not meeting her gaze. He began turning away again.
"One more thing."
"What?"
"Shower." Troy faced her fully, and let his eyes be drawn to hers. They stuck. Inside he knew that the right thing to do was to laugh, it had been funny at the time, talking about texting in the shower, so why wasn't it funny anymore? That question wasn't nearly as rhetorical as it seemed.
Gabriella's mind whirled out of control as the seconds went on without a response from Troy. She found herself trapped in his cobalt eyes, she felt drawn to them, and apparently was because she stood and walked over to him, stopping about a metre away. A safe distance… sort of. This was going to be a problem.
Troy closed the distance between them with a single step and suddenly his lips were against hers. Suddenly they were kissing very eagerly and her arms were around his neck pulling him closer. Suddenly his hands were slipping under her top and massaging her stomach, exploring around her hips and belly button. Suddenly her fingers were weaving through his hair and she was gasping at every tiny bit of pressure he placed on her body. Suddenly it was over and Troy was whispering in her ear. Then he was gone and she was standing in the middle of her empty room.
Had any of that actually happened? He body told her yes but her brain told her no. It wasn't physically for that to have all happened and for her to still feel so empty and confused was it? His words, whether imagined or not, still echoed through her head.
"What about a shower?"
Lol, love that last line! But what does it mean? In my mind that's a cliffy, but that's just cause I know what happens next (lol, if you replace the word 'know' with want thet last five words are both names of my fanfics... i'm sleepy :-O zzz)
