Short, terrible, but necessary, this chapter really does speed the entire story along so despite the lack of Troyella or any actual plot, this is very necessary. Sorry for the long time to update.
Disclaimer: as if
Troy sat alone on a picnic table in the middle of the deserted park, wondering dully if Josh had just told him to go there so that he'd get bashed or mugged. Before he'd gotten the text message, Troy wouldn't exactly have thought it likely that Josh would do something so… rebellious… but post-text-message there wasn't much that he though Josh wouldn't do. And that thought definitely wasn't comforting.
Troy flipped his phone over in his palm, glancing down at it and checking the time every couple of minutes. It was now 5:03, if Josh didn't show in the next 12 minutes troy was going to leave. Sure, he was a little rebellious, and probably stronger and less likely to be targeted by muggers than some other boys (ie, Josh); but sitting alone in the middle of a park, with the sky darkening rather quickly and no one really knowing why he was there or who he was with, he wasn't exactly in the safest circumstance if something did go wrong.
The phone in Troy's hand suddenly beeped and vibrated, the sound echoing loudly through the otherwise virtually silent park. A flock of bats squeaked noisily and took flight, apparently scared by the noise. Troy ignored them and opened up the message on his phone. It was from Josh. 'R u there?' Making a frustrated noise, Troy quickly texted back his answer, looking up every so often as the back of his neck began to prickle. It was almost as if in some unconscious state of mind Troy knew that Josh was just out of sight waiting for him; but to his conscious state of mind that just seemed weird and mildly creepy, so he barely paid any attention to that particular idea.
"I wasn't sure if it was you or some other random druggie who just came to the park to-" Josh's voice came from a huddle of trees behind Troy, and he whipped around quickly to face it.
"You don't need to finish that sentence, it's me." Troy interrupted, resisting the instinct to jump off the bench and talk face to face with Josh. Staying on the bench was much more 'Troy Bolton'.
"Yeah I know," said Josh, taking a seat beside Troy, who tried not to edge away. "So, have you spoken to Ella?" Troy shook his head, careful not to let any emotion onto his face, and forcing an expression of contempt to appear instead.
"She's not talking to me."
"Why?" Troy winced, and for a moment Josh seemed to think that it was him who'd caused this, and looked slightly excited, but Troy looked back down at his phone and the message that was open. It was the one from Gabriella earlier, and it consisted of exactly that word, 'why?'.
"Cause of something I did." Troy said passively, smirking just to make Josh think it was bad. Which really it was.
"What?" Troy shrugged and leant back against the picnic table behind him, faking a yawn. "What did you do to her?"
"Nothing…" He answered in mock defence. "At least nothing that she didn't enjoy." Josh's face paled at the point where he was barely visible in the semi-light. Troy held back a laugh and decided that 'Josh-paling' should be an Olympic sport; who can make Josh the palest in less than 5 minutes?
"What did you do to her?" Josh asked repeated, his tone angry.
"Look, it wasn't big or dangerous or deadly or hurting anyone at the time, so I did it, okay? I can't take it back now." Josh now looked perplexed and angry, which troy thought was a very interesting blend of expressions.
"Did you two have sex?" Troy quickly looked at him, then, realising that he was serious, looked away again and tried to hold back another smirk. Where in the world did he get that idea from?
Turns out that Troy should never have tried to hold back a smirk, because he wasn't very good at it and pretty soon one had broken out on his face. Josh seemed to take this as an answer and stood up, looming down in a relatively scary way over Troy, who just smirked back up at him.
"We didn't do it Josh." Troy said, forcing his smirk off his face as he looked up at Josh and trying to look serious. Which definitely wasn't easy when the school's 'perfect, teacher's pet' boy was looking down at him as if he wanted to kill him.
"You did."
"I swear, man, we didn't." Now Troy was being completely serious, because he'd just noticed Josh bringing his fist back in preparation to punch, which wasn't good.
"Why are you lying to me, I deserve to know."
"Josh, dude, listen. I swear me and Gabriella-" he was cut off by a fist hitting his jaw. Hard. And it really hurt. "Josh!" But again he couldn't speak owed to Josh now punching his stomach and causing Troy to double over in pain.
"What do I have to do to you to get the message through, Troy?" Josh asked, a slightly insane glint in his eyes as he once again loomed over the other boy, who was squatting and clutching his stomach. "I've tried to be reasonable, I've put up with it. Gabriella going on all the time about you: 'Troy did so well in that basketball', 'I think Troy's really improving in maths', 'Troy said something so funny the other day', Troy did this and that, Troy's my hero and I love him more than I love you!" He yelled the last part and punched Troy again, taking out his anger in one big solid blow.
Troy crouched, panting, on the ground, vaguely aware of drops of blood falling from his face onto the crumpled sand dying grass under his feet.
"Josh," he started, slowly and quietly, trying to help him see some reason. "Why am I getting punished for this? Haven't you talked to her about it? If you're really so…" he broke off, reasoning that Josh might not like being called jealous so early on and while he was so far away from his normal self.
"How am I supposed to talk to Ella? She barely speaks to me even when we're alone. She doesn't care about me, at least not like she cares about you." Troy felt his heart speed up at these words, but was also painfully aware of the guilt seeping through his body.
"Then why didn't you break it off, if her heart isn't in it then-?" Josh flopped down onto the ground beside Troy, his head dropping into his hands.
"I just thought that maybe over time it'd get better. Y'know, if I impressed her enough, gave her gifts and took her out and helped her and acted like the perfect boyfriend, I thought she might sort of, like me more."
"It might've worked, if-" But josh cut him off.
"If she wasn't already in love with you." Something about that sentence jolted Troy's brain into thinking straight again. Gabriella, in love with him? Very unlikely, even by his standards. He shook his head.
"No, she isn't. She hates me right now."
"Why?" Troy winced again.
"I kissed her." Both boys waited for the others reaction, but when none came at either end, Troy continued shakily. "I didn't really mean to, it's just, we'd been talking, a lot, and it all seemed to fit. We sort of, seemed to feel the same, and I just thought… maybe it could work."
"What about me?" Josh looked up and Troy could see tears mixed with dirt on his face, apparently his hands had been dirty before.
"I wasn't thinking of you."
"Was she?"
"I don't know…" There was silence between them as Troy adjusted his position and sat down properly, fiddling with a stray stick on the ground. He couldn't see Josh beside him, but he could almost sense his body shaking and tears dripping down his face. Both wanted to speak, to say something that would comforts the other, but neither really knew what; it wasn't exactly like they knew each other well.
"Troy?" Two tired and confused faces looked up at the girl approaching them. Both knew who it was. They stood up in unison, Troy flinching as his stomach gave a painful jolt.
"Josh?" Gabriella appeared, looking confused and worried, her eyes flicking between her boyfriend and her… Troy. She gasped when Troy's face came into sight as the moon appeared form behind a cloud.
"Troy, what happened?" he was silent, but couldn't help looking uneasily a Josh, who kept his expression blank. The tears had mysteriously disappeared. "Josh? You did this." His lack of denial seemed to answer her question. "Why would you-?"
"It wasn't his fault Gabi, it was me… us." She looked even more confused at this, but when her eyes met Troy's she knew that Josh knew. He knew what they'd done and how they-she felt.
"I'm so sorry Josh." She whispered.
"I know. Get lost." His words were all in a monotone, and before departing he gave Troy one more punch. Blood spurted from Troy's lips and Gabriella hastily went over to him.
"I'm so, so sorry." She whispered, pulling his hand into hers.
"It's not your fault." He answered, his words slurred because of the blood now streaming into his mouth.
"Come on Troy, you can come back to my place. My mum won't be home yet, and I can help clean you up."
"I really don't think that'd be a good idea." He murmured, wincing as she began leading him to the edge of the park.
"Well I don't think you're exactly in the position to do anything else." Gabriella pointed out rudely, moving her arm to around his shoulder when he stumbled on the unstable ground. "You need my help right now."
"I need you." He said under his breath, closing his eyes as more pain shot through his body. He didn't realise her stiffen momentarily beside him or her worried expression as she continued to lead him out of the park.
One word: urgh!
