Troy opened the door to the back of his truck clumsily as Gabriella giggled at his efforts. They were outside of Jake's house on the Friday night after East High had just won their homecoming football game with Jake running in the winning touch down.
It would be an understatement if people said Troy was a little drunk. Gabriella was a little drunk, but compared to Troy she would be counted as sober, but at least Troy wasn't the puking types as he clambered into the back seat of his truck just like Gabriella did a second before.
Gabriella giggled again as she pulled Troy closer to her by the collar of his shirt as she connected their lips together which Troy responded instantly too by putting his hand to the back of her head and his other hand went to her lower back, right above her rear.
Gabriella let out another giggle as they pulled back and their foreheads rested against each other. Gabriella was drunk and she knew that she was, it wasn't anything new to her, she just didn't like to do it often, but seeing as her best friend had ran in the winning touchdown for their school Gabriella was convinced by Chad and Jake to celebrate with them and she brought Troy down with her.
"What are you laughing at Montez?" Troy slurred his words together as his fingers played with the hem of her shirt just itching to go higher on up and under.
Gabriella smiled all bubbly as she just responded by kissing Troy down his neck and sucking urgently on his skin as he replied with a moan. Neither one was complaining that they were in the backseat of the car as long as they were together.
It was a bright and sunny day out. The wind was barely blowing as the sun was about to go down. The leaves were changing color from dark and light greens to hues of oranges and reds. Gabriella sighed contentedly as she looked at herself in her full length mirror that was on the back of her door. She was ready, there was no question about it. She was ready for homecoming with Troy as she looked at her strapless orange dress that had a flower on the side and went just above the knee.
Gabriella sighed happily again as she thought about the previous night. She only remembered up to the point where they had gotten into his truck even though she lived right next door to Jake and her mom and Eric were out. Gabriella shut her eyes thinking back to that morning and waking up with a huge head ache that had died down by now and finding Troy downstairs sleeping on her living room coach in just his boxers and a thin sheet barely covering him.
Somehow last night she had convinced him to spend the night on the couch so he wouldn't drive home and Gabriella was just thankful that she at least was a smart drunk still with some common sense that Troy couldn't drive in that condition. He had had an even bigger hangover than she did and she felt bad because she got the feeling last night that he wouldn't of drank if she didn't because he was planning on having 100 percent of energy for the next night with Gabriella.
"You smile any more and it'll be implanted on your face." Taylor commented as she came out of Gabriella's bathroom that was connected to Gabriella's bedroom.
Gabriella turned around with her eyes open now and just shrugged. "I'm happy Tay."
Taylor smiled at her best friend as she looked at the clock. She still had to do part of her make up and she had left her make up kit in Gabriella's bedroom when she originally went into the bathroom to start getting ready with her hair.
"And I'm glad you're happy, but that doesn't mean that I stare at myself in the mirror and think that for you." Taylor teased as Gabriella just rolled her eyes and felt the light breeze coming from her open balcony doors.
"Ha ha Tay." Gabriella said sticking her tongue out at her friend as Taylor started digging through her duffel bag that she brought over to Gabriella's house earlier for her mini make up kit. Gabriella stood leaning against her bed post that was about ten feet away from her double open doors to her balcony as the cool air felt good against her skin. "So…" Gabriella said staring out into the tree that was slowly changing color. "You and Chad have a room at a hotel?"
Gabriella could feel Taylor blushing as Gabriella's back was still turned towards her though as she heard Taylor zip her duffel bag closed. "Um…" Taylor cleared her throat, clearly flustered by Gabriella's topic changer. "Yeah."
Gabriella smiled. "Don't worry about it. I think the only other person that knows is Troy." Gabriella smiled even bigger as she heard Taylor groan. "But that shouldn't concern you right now because almost everyone at school knows that you and Chad go at it like little rapid, very horny rabbits." Gabriella teased even more. "What you should be concerned about is that your friend, very close friend might I add, had to heard about this from her boyfriend." Gabriella pretended to be hurt, even though she really wasn't. Taylor would've told her eventually like always.
Taylor sighed. "Gabi, I'm--" And then it clicked and Gabriella almost wanted to let out a cheap laugh. "Hey, you little faker. You did this last time and you were just kidding."
Gabriella rolled her eyes as she turned her head slightly to see Taylor out of the corner of her eye. "Yeah yeah, just go finish getting ready." Gabriella laughed as Taylor squealed once she saw what the time was. It was 4:30, and they were supposed to walk on over to Jake's house at around 5 so they could do the whole picture thing much to the parents requests even though Gabriella's mom wasn't going to be there, and then they had dinner reservations at the local Italian restaurant at 6, and they didn't really plan on getting to the dance until around 7:30 or 8.
Taylor rushed into the bathroom as Gabriella heard her stomach growl. She had forgotten to eat lunch that day since when she woke up she really wasn't feeling up to eating and before she knew it Taylor was knocking on her door to come and get ready for the dance. Gabriella figured eating something light right now, wouldn't be that bad, as long as she didn't get it on the dress.
Gabriella walked into her kitchen and looked around for something small to eat that wouldn't possible have a chance of ruining her dress when all of a sudden something red caught her eye. Gabriella walked over to the fruit basket her mom kept on the kitchen counter and picked up a red apple and bit into it.
Gabriella looked down at the silver camera that she was supposed to take over to Jake's house so that Mrs. McKessie could take photos for Gabriella's mom who had already asked her to do so, so there was no way that Gabriella was getting out of pictures, plus she was pretty sure that Troy's and Chad's parents were going to be going over to Jake's house too for pictures, so she probably would have to pose with Troy a couple of times.
Just then the doorbell rang and Gabriella found this strange since everyone she knew was probably getting ready for the dance, but then a thought ran through her mind. What if it was Troy and Chad? They weren't supposed to pick them up, they had originally just planned to meet up at Jake's house, but what if they were there early and here she was eating away before dinner.
Gabriella took one more quick bite of her half eaten apple figuring that would be enough to hold her over until dinner. She self consciously ran her hands over her dress that fit her curves perfectly, making sure that there were no necessary wrinkles and made her way to her front door where there was a knock. Gabriella opened it with a smile on her face and instantly froze up as she saw who was standing there.
"D-dad?" Gabriella questioned clearly confused as to why he would be at her house.
"Hey--" Carlos looked up from the ground and stopped before he continued. "Did I catch you at a bad time?"
"Um…yeah." Gabriella said and she didn't know why there was regret in her voice, but she couldn't help but feel that a little. "Homecoming dance." Gabriella said motioning to her dress.
"Well you look beautiful honey. Who's the lucky guy?" Carlos asked and saw that Gabriella looked up at him with sharp brown eyes that didn't seem mad, but they told him that it was too soon to be asking these kind of questions. "Too soon for that?" Carlos asked.
Gabriella nodded as she felt her shoulders shrug. The father and daughter just stared at each other for what felt like 12 years when in reality it was only twenty seconds. "Why are you here dad?" Gabriella asked with a softness in her voice. It was one thing to come back out of the blue a week ago and say that he was staying, but it was another to actually come back a week later and actually still be there like promised. And for that Gabriella almost felt respect towards him, at least he seemed to be keeping to his word.
"I came here to talk because your--" Carlos started.
"Because mom is out of town." Gabriella filled in with a slight laugh at his plan. It almost sounded like some half cooked plan she would come up with when she was younger.
Carlos scratched the back of his neck nervously as he looked at Gabriella hesitantly. "Yeah, I guess you caught me." Carlos said a little defeated as Gabriella offered him a small smile as her right hand played with the doorknob awkwardly and almost a little nervously. Their two dark brown eyes that were almost identical locked for another half a minute before Carlos sighed, "I guess this is a bad time."
Gabriella nodded her head. At least he really was making an attempt. "Um…yeah." Gabriella looked over her shoulder briefly and saw that they only had five minutes until they really had to leave to go to Jake's house and Gabriella swore that she heard Taylor's shuffled feet moving around upstairs. "I should really--"
"Get going?" Carlos filled in and Gabriella smiled thankfully at him and nodded.
"Yeah, I should really get going." Gabriella said in a complete sentence.
"Yeah, I understand you have your date, maybe I'll um…" Carlos trailed off wondering if it was okay for him to say what he intended to say.
"Call you…" Gabriella said realizing that didn't make sense. "I mean call me, well you were going to say call you which would mean me." Gabriella rambled as she looked at her dad sheepishly.
Carlos let out a small chuckle. "I'll call you." Carlos smiled at his daughter lovingly as Gabriella smiled back with her cheeks tinted red. "I'll let you get back to your date, and have a great night honey. You really do look beautiful." Carlos said one last time as he turned a 180 and started walking down the porch steps.
Gabriella sighed quietly as she watched her father start walking away. To some people it was a big step letting him call you, but Gabriella suddenly realized that she was wanting him to call her, just to ask how her day was. Even if it was a one time thing, and he might be gone the next day, Gabriella could live with that much to her mom's dismay, but what Anna doesn't know won't hurt.
Gabriella didn't know what possessed her to do this but her legs took off and she ran the best she could or at least speed walked down the steps and to her dad's retreating figure that was halfway down the walkway. Gabriella felt her dad tense up in surprise as she wrapped her small arms around his back and embrace him into a hug, but he soon relaxed once he realized what she was doing.
Carlos turned around in the hug and hugged her back once they were face to face and Gabriella buried her head in his chest just taking in the scent of him and his cologne. It wasn't like her boyfriend's scent, it wasn't like her best friend's scent, it was more like a father's smell, a smell that Gabriella missed.
"His name's Troy dad. Troy Bolton and he's very nice." Gabriella said into his chest as she felt like she at least owed him that seeing as he was being very understanding right now, and it kind of felt good letting her dad know about Troy and that part of her life. Many kids would dread having discussions about their boyfriends to their dad's, but Gabriella had been missing that so she would take any conversation that was given to her.
Troy sat in the passenger side of his car. He had no idea how Chad had managed to get him to agree to letting him drive, but there they were stuck in traffic at a stop and go light. Chad was chuckling slightly as Troy let his eyes look at him from the corner with a skeptical look.
"What?" Troy asked in a monotone as he sat bored out of his mind seeing as Chad didn't want music because it would hurt his head because he was still hung over from the previous night even though he basically had tried every cure for it.
"Nothing…" Chad sensed that Troy wasn't going to push it any further as he let out another chuckle and decided to just tell Troy what was on his mind as the light they were stuck at finally turned green. "It's just…you got bitched at by Haley." Chad laughed again as Troy rolled his eyes.
Chad had been talking about nothing else for the past four days. Troy saw his parents behind them in their own car as they followed them to Jake's house even though they already knew where to go since his parents for school events had worked with Jake Hill's parents various times to Troy's unknown knowledge.
"Are you ever going to forget that?" Troy groaned from his seat as he shifted lightly feeling his right leg fall asleep.
"Hell no. How can you forget something like that?" Chad laughed again as he flung his hand down from laughing to hard only to have it connect with the car horn, having it go off and the two drivers on either side of Troy's truck turned to look at them as Troy could see his mother's disapproving look from behind them.
Troy groaned again at Chad's lack of self control, "Remind me again why you were at my house at 10 in the morning until now?" Troy asked.
Chad sighed dramatically and Troy thought for someone who had a huge hang over that morning to have it decrease to a small one nonetheless they were still quite nosy and chipper.
"I told you already, my car's in the shop so I'm riding with you over to Jake's house and then I'll drive Tay's car to the dance and hotel." Chad explained for what seemed like the fifth time already but to Chad something seemed different about Troy, he was spacing out lately that day. Chad turned a sharp corner as Troy was literally flung to the side against the door and that was when Troy decided Chad was never driving again. "And you weren't even home at 10, so you can't complain I came over too early. What the hell were you and Gabster doing up until the early hours of the day?" Chad wriggled his eye brows as Troy couldn't help the eye roll happen as he looked away from Chad.
Troy couldn't help but think about what Gabriella suggested to him Wednesday night in the bed of his truck. He remembered how he flirted back and agreed to stay over night and when he got home that school night he automatically told his dad that he was staying over at Chad's house for a cover. Even though Troy knew that his dad would be okay about his whereabouts and if Troy told him about Gabriella and how they were going to go to the next level, it would just be his mom and when it came to their relationship his mom controlled everything, just like a woman should Troy remembered Taylor telling him.
"I already told you that I think I past out on her couch." Troy reminded him as he self consciously played with the black velvet box in his suit jacket that was over a dark blue dress shirt that had light blue lines going down it and a baby blue t-shirt under that with khaki pants. Troy didn't want to get too dressed up, but he didn't want to be wearing jeans also.
"Right." Troy could hear the sarcasm in Chad's voice. "And I won't sleep with Tay tonight."
Troy just put on a lazy smile as he opened his car door and hopped out with Chad following close behind along with his parents. Troy saw two other cars and figured that they were Haley's and her parents since he didn't recognize them to be Taylor's or the Danforth's.
The next ten minutes were a blur to him as he was now in the backyard of Jake's house talking with Jake and Chad about a sports show they all saw the previous week. Taylor's and Chad's parents both got there as all the mom's emerged into discussion about things Troy would never understand as the dad's all stood around the grill talking probably about the same thing their sons were. Apparently Jake's parents had invited everyone's parents over for a grill out after their kids head off since it was one of the last good nights that they probably would have until the temperatures started rising again.
"Dude, Troy?" Chad asked as he hit him lightly on the shoulder. Troy opened his mouth to speak but found he couldn't as he saw Gabriella walking graciously over the two dividing lawns with Taylor and a smile on her face as she took everyone in and her eyes landing on Troy's last. Troy smiled back at her as he swore she had a twinkle in her eyes.
"Oh good, they're here everyone." Haley squealed with excitement as Gabriella and Taylor made it over to the three boys along with Haley.
Taylor automatically wrapped her arms around Chad and they shared a kiss as Troy just started at Gabriella who was looking at him amusingly. "I know I'm breath taking, but you don't have to stare." Gabriella joked as Troy seemed to snap out of it as he glared at her playfully before putting his two hands on her waist and bringing her closer to him to connect their lips.
"You look beautiful Gabi." Troy said sincerely as Gabriella gave him a quick peck on the lips one more time in front of the parents eyes as they all seemed to have their cameras ready.
"Pictures!" Haley squealed and everyone shared a quick laugh at her eagerness as the couples went off on their own and their parents following.
"I hate pictures." Troy complained as Lucille Bolton led the two teenagers over to a nice looking tree that was one fourth bare with golden colored leaves hanging off the branches.
"Stop complaining Troy. And stop fussing, you look handsome." Lucille said in her motherly tone and Troy's face turned a dark red as his hand that was fussing with the collar off his shirt immediately listened to his mother as he lowered it and Gabriella giggled softly at how Troy seemed to have a soft side for his parents.
"Gabriella, is this picture okay with you? Because if your mom doesn't want a picture like this we can--" Gabriella cut off Lucille's worries.
"It doesn't matter where we take pictures, my mom isn't even here this weekend so I don't think it really will matter." Gabriella told her as Lucille's face dropped. "It really is okay. Wherever you want me and Troy will be fine." Gabriella reassured her.
"Mom just take a picture so we can move on." Troy whined from behind Gabriella as her back was already pressed up against his chest.
Jack chuckled softly at his son's behavior and Lucille nodded her head. "We'll make copies and Troy can give you them at school later this week Gabriella."
Gabriella nodded her head knowing she didn't really like taking pictures, sure they were nice but she didn't care to be in them as much. "Okay, thanks Mrs. Bolton." Gabriella said as she turned towards Troy a little bit more as his parents were in a little debate on how to work the camera and she said out of the corner of her mouth, "I hate pictures now."
Troy chuckled softly and stroked her hair, "Join the club." Just then a flash went off in Troy's eyes and Gabriella blinked in surprise as Troy blinked his eyes repeatedly trying to adjust to the light that just shined in his eyes.
"Mom!" Troy complained as she laughed lightly along with Jack.
"We're ready." Mrs. Bolton declared as Troy wrapped his arms around Gabriella from behind and pulled her close as their fingers interlaced and Gabriella turned her head a little so that it was leaning into Troy's chest a little bit more and a smile of pure bliss was on both of their faces.
From what Gabriella sawfrom Troy's parents outside the uncomfortable business dinners and outside of gym class, they were the perfect family. Granted nothing is perfect, but Troy had a loving mom and dad that seemed to be in love with each other as they even shared kisses throughout taking pictures making Troy moan and groan with embarrassment, but Gabriella knew that sometimes they fought since Troy was complaining about that two weeks ago and how if his mom isn't happy then no one was happy. But everything seemed to be okay and Gabriella could tell that they love their son very much and that made Gabriella think back to her dad and mom's situation. Just because her mom and dad were fighting doesn't mean that Gabriella has to forget about her dad and pretend that he's not around anymore, she decided being in Troy's arms while flashes went off that she would let her dad in gradually, she would just have to find a way around her mom.
Next chapter is the dance and Troy and Gabriella time. Thanks for reading, hope you liked it, and let me know in a review if you want me to add things, improve things, or get more characters in volved like go into Troy and Chad's friendship more or Gabriella's and Jake's or whatever. Thanks--