Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of HSM…unfortunately. Neither do I own Natasha Bedingfield or her song…or T.I. or his song. I own Stephanie and the 2014 G-Rein though! So say something now!!!
[Ignore those last two sentences; I was having a little possessive moment back there, hehe] Hey guys. Well it's summer and I know that should mean I should be able to update more but I working on my series for YT, and I'm so active during this summer but I always find time to read. But what matters now is that chapter three is here, lol. Before I start I would like to thank the users that did both parts of reading and reviewing from the last chapter. They are: CuteANDSexxxy17, nayla1988, dreamluver209, LunaSolTierra, TraylorxChaylor, MermaidRam85, Babys2245, Princesslala66, look at the stars, Sciencefreak2007, kyw0202, glasvegas, the gifted one, seabreezylady18, and mzwendy85. Thank you so much for your reviews, they meant a lot to me. Now what everyone's been waiting for…
Chapter Three
"Taylor, are you even listening to me?" Taylor turned to Stephanie. She didn't even notice Stephanie's entrance much less did she know she was talking to her. Taylor put a hand through her hair and sat up on her bed.
"I'm sorry Steph, what were you saying?"
"Well..I was telling you about all my plans then I asked you what you were thinking about when I realized I was being ignored," Stephanie said after putting on her undergarments and grabbing the lotion off the table.
"Sorry..I'm not thinking about anything really, just you know, people," Taylor said honestly.
"People like.." Stephanie asked curiously.
"My old crush," Taylor said not wanting to call any names.
"Ooh la la," Stephanie sang as she threw on her blouse. "Who is he?"
"I rather not say. Plus, you know him," Taylor countered leaving Stephanie with something to think about.
"I know him, huh, well don't worry McKessie, for I will find out." Taylor closed her eyes smiling at Stephanie's ways just as the cell phone on the dressing table vibrated and soon after began ringing playing Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten."
"Can you get that for me, Steph," Taylor called out from on the bed.
"No problem," Stephanie said right before picking up. "Hello?...Yes you may but may I ask who's speaking?..Excuse me?...Champaign?...Whoa, whoa…look girl don't be popping off on me just cuz of your crazy ass name," Stephanie yelled with her hand on her hip. Recognizing the name similarity, Taylor jumped off the bed and begged Stephanie to give her the phone.
"Come on, Steph, hand over my phone. She just hates when people say her name wrong, that's all. Stephanie sighed and gave Taylor her phone. Taylor watched as Stephanie went up to the mirror contemplating what she was gonna do with her hair. "Hello," Taylor said into the phone wondering if Sharpay was still there.
"Taylor! Sweetie, how are you? I haven't heard from you in like two months. How's Miami treating you," Sharpay asked excitedly forgetting completely about what had just transpired with her and Stephanie.
"I'm great, it's great, thanks. Shar, I'm sorry about my roommate going off like that."
"Well a bitch will always be a bitch," Sharpay said shrugging it off.
"No, Sharpay, she's not like that at all, she's kind of like you actually..the 'no crap-taking' kind of girl. You just have to get to know her."
"Whatever, I called to speak to and about you," Sharpay said obviously annoyed.
"Okay, so how's Sharlene?" Taylor asked wondering about her goddaughter.
"She's just being the spoiled brat she is."
"She takes it from her mother," chipped in Zeke as he kissed Sharpay on the cheek while rocking Sharlene to sleep. Taylor smiled as she heard Zeke's voice over the phone. He was like the big brother she never had.
"Tell Zeke I said hi, would you," Taylor said.
"Yeah sure, baby Tay said hi," deadpanned Sharpay. "So Taylor," she said more lively, "how would you like to see all your old classmates from senior year?" Taylor fixed herself to lie down completely on her bed.
"That would be awesome, but how?"
"Well there's this get together that's happening next month back in Albuquerque in East High's gym."
"And who's organizing this?"
"Yours truly, and I spoke to the officials at East High and they agreed to it," Sharpay said proudly.
"Well I will be there, just email me all the info," Taylor said completely unaware at the fact that Chad and Gabriella had been invited. And it wasn't like Sharpay was gonna mention it to her either.
"Okay I will, take care now sweetie."
"You too Shar, bye," Taylor said before hanging up the long distance call.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Stephanie started while applying lip gloss to her lips, "but didn't Gabriella and Chad graduate in the Class of 2008 with you guys?" It was then it hit Taylor.
"Um yeah, b-but why would Sharpay invite them…she wouldn't invite them without telling me…would she?"
"Well from my 20-second chat with her, she sounds evil enough," countered Stephanie as she grabbed her hand bag.
"Whatever, give Derek a kiss for me, would you?"
"I'll tell him you said hi," Stephanie corrected. "Cuz quite frankly only I can kiss my man." Taylor laughed.
"Fine."
"Tay, I want you out this of this house, you hear me? If you're not gonna hang with Jay, find something constructive to do with your time."
"Okay, okay, I'll stop by the hospital and see if they need me."
"Don't play smart with me, if they need you, they'll page, you know that."
"Stephanie, just go. I'll be fine. I don't want to you to keep Derek waiting," Taylor trying to get Stephanie off her case.
"Honey please, I got that good good," Stephanie said making Taylor laugh. "But seriously, find a man, so many guys want you."
"And seriously, go meet yours. I don't need a guy to satisfy me, just back off, would you…please?"
"Okay, but you better believe I'm getting a niece or nephew before I'm thirty." Taylor threw her pillow after Stephanie which she dodged and ran out the room. "Bye!" Taylor smiled to herself as she thought about her best friend.
She could be so silly, Taylor thought while getting off of her bed. She retrieved her pillow and placed it back on her bed. Then she took her towel headed to her bathroom. She made a mental check that after her shower she would call her her assistant to let her know she was coming into the office.
After Taylor got dressed she remembered about the phone call she had to make. She pulled out her phone and looked through her contacts. Mehn, I gotta put her on speed dial. She put the phone to her ear and waited as it rung.
Troy plopped down on his bed. He picked up the remote from on his nightstand and turned on the TV; he had finally gotten all that high school drama out of his head and was ready to relax. He had to rest his mind in order to come up with clever excuses to give Zeke and Sharpay. -- Stacks on deck, patron on ice, we could pop bottles all night, baby you get whatever you like, yeah you can you whatever you like yeahhh..--
Troy groaned as he heard his cell phone ring. He didn't expect Zeke to be the one to call him. Now, it looked like he was gonna have to give Zeke a raw answer. Troy took a deep breath and blindly answered the phone. "Hello?"
"Um yeah let Trina know I'm coming to the office would you," a clearly familiar voice said. Troy muted the TV and sat up as he heard her voice.
"Taylor?"
"T-Troy??...Hold on for a sec." Taylor removed the phone from her ears and looked at the screen and saw the words 'TROY' on top. Shit. I went too far down. "I'm sorry I meant to call my assistant Trina, her name's right next to yours."
"So you still got my number? I'm honored," he said honestly. Taylor rolled her eyes.
"Don't get a big head; I keep it for emergencies."
"Trust me, I wasn't, I..," he scratched the back of his head, "I really didn't think you'd keep it after all of these years..and all that's happened, you know." Taylor quietly thought about Troy's lifestyle and got his point.
"Yeah well, um…I gotta go Troy, it was-"
"Tay, wait. Can I ask you something," Troy questioned cutting Taylor short of her goodbye.
"Ask away," Taylor sighed as she walked towards the door of her apartment.
"I'm guessing you got a call from the Baylors by now, right?"
"Riiight," she repeated as she locked the door. She wanted to know where he was going with this.
"Well…?"
"Well…what?" she said clueless.
"Are you going?" It was then Taylor realized it. He was still affected by Chad and Gabriella, although he surely had a strange way in showing it.
"Well yeah, it would be cool to reunite with my old friends," shrugged Taylor as she got into her 2014 G-Rein. "Are you going?"
"Have you talked to Gabriella or Danforth since, you know," he said choosing to ignore her question. Taylor inhaled deeply.
"No, no I haven't..have you?"
"Nah, I just heard from Zeke that they working on their second child."
"Yeah I heard about that too, but you didn't answer me Bolton," Taylor said as she started the engine. Troy laughed at her words.
"I don't remember us going on the last name basis."
"We'll get there soon enough if you keep ignoring my questions intentionally," Taylor joked as she reversed out of the parking lot.
"I wasn't really..I just haven't really made up my mind as yet."
"So basically, you're not going," Taylor said seeing right through him.
"I would love to see my old pals again, really I would, but I don't know if I can handle seeing 'them' again," he said referring to Chad and Gabriella.
"Well from I've heard on all the entertainment stations, you've got a hand full of ladies by your side." Troy covered in face in shame.
"I'm sorry Taylor. I know back when we had that talk in the park you told how you felt about guys like that but-"
"Hey, you don't have to explain yourself, it's your life, Troy," Taylor said with slight disappointment in her voice.
"So you aren't mad at me," Troy asked. Taylor sighed.
"I guess not," Taylor said half-honestly. She quietly thought about something for a while. She definitely didn't want to experience the seeing 'them' by herself. And who better to support her through it than the other victim. "Troy, I think if I'm going to this thing, you should too."
"I don't."
"Oh come on, how bad can it be??" Troy sighed and then there was a long sigh before Taylor heard a gulp.
"Okay, I'll go…but on one condition."
"Alright, and what's that," Taylor asked.
"Be my date."
*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: Well that's all for now. I know a lot of you guys couldn't wait until Troy and Taylor met. Well, they didn't exactly meet, but that was a start. Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think and what you might to want happen cuz I'm writing this directly off of my head now. Thanks,
~Favor1234~