Gabriella bathed in the cold air that was blowing softly against her body. She drank in the calmness and quietness of her surroundings. Her body was running on mostly frozen food and take out for three straight days during their Christmas Break. She had only seen Jake once in those three days and it was on accident as they just so happened to be both getting the garbage cans and bringing them back to the sides of their houses.
Gabriella felt the sun from up above her as she had her eyes closed remembering how Jake didn't glare at her. He didn't hit her with ice and watch her freeze to death. He kept his cool and his eyes met hers. They had a staring contest for ten seconds before Jake started walking again, just trying to see what the other one was feeling without words messing them up.
From what Gabriella could see from Jake's eyes was that he was suffering just as much as she was. He was just too damn stubborn to admit that he was overreacting a little tiny bit. Gabriella knew that she hadn't been dividing her time evenly between her social life and school life, but she was going to start over when school started in January. She was going to make it right and they would be getting new classes soon so it would be a perfect start. She was going to make Jake proud, if only she knew that Jake was already proud and he was just disappointed in himself that he let his anger get the better of him when he should've talked it out with Gabriella.
But then again, it's not like either one of them knew how to handle this fight since they had never truly fought before. Jake was just so used to when he fought with other people or had other disagreements that he would get mad, let it blow over a couple of days, and then just act like nothing happened without ever mending that so called relationship, but Gabriella was different. She was his best friend so somewhere along his fighting cycle he was going to have to make a change.
Gabriella heard footsteps in the background knowing it was Troy gathering the supplies they needed for the task they set out to do that day. Her mom was with Eric one last time before Christmas hit them and they would be driving four hours to get to Gabriella's great aunt's house, or in other words…her grandmother's sister's house.
Gabriella didn't know how she got roped into this as she wasn't really feeling up to doing anything but study three days ago, and now Troy had her laying in the back of his dirty truck waiting for him to come back with the hose, a bucket, and rags to clean his truck. Gabriella knew that she said that she would clean it, but she was somewhat joking.
Three days ago Gabriella wouldn't be doing this, that she was sure of, but it was like now since Jake looked to be calming down. She would just have to give him a couple of more days and then maybe they would be back as best friends.
"Heads up!" Troy's voice called as Gabriella rolled her eyes behind her eyelids knowing that Troy was probably having difficulties with the hose or something like that as they were at her house and he had never had to work it, but how hard could it be?
Gabriella's high pitch voice filled the air as she sat up quickly making the hood of Troy's sweatshirt that he gave her fall off of her head. Gabriella hosted herself over the edge of his truck and felt her feet touch the ground as the water droplets on her face ran down her skin and into the neck of her overly sized sweatshirt.
"Troy!" Gabriella shrieked as Troy was busy trying to hold in his laughter and aimed the running hose water into the bucket of soap. Gabriella hugged the sweatshirt closer to her body after she was done wiping off her face on the sleeve of the red sweatshirt.
"What the hell was that for?" Gabriella asked in a demanding tone as Troy looked up at her with an innocent face on and shrugged. Gabriella could see his muscles under his black and white long sleeve shirt. It was of a band that Gabriella has never heard of and no matter how mad she wanted to seem towards Troy, she just couldn't help the smile that was on her face as he gave her the toothy grin.
"I was just going to rinse off my truck. How was I supposed to know that you were going to be just laying there?" Troy teased as he kinked the hose so the water didn't come out as Gabriella saw that the bubbles from the soap were overflowing in the green bucket. "But at least we know that the wet sweatshirt thing works for you." Troy joked even though Gabriella saw the glint in his eye that told her that he was still being serious.
Gabriella looked down at herself and saw that the front of the red sweatshirt was a dark, dark red as it clung to her body through her white beater underneath. Gabriella rolled her eyes as she looked up and their eyes met and he smirked.
"See…I told you. You're now thinking, 'Boy, my sexy boyfriend who is quite strong is always right.' And I couldn't agree more with you Gabi." Troy said as he tried to imitate Gabriella's voice in a higher tone than his usual one and failed miserable.
"You are so egotistical sometimes, you know that Wildcat?" Gabriella mocked as she walked over to him deliberately swinging her hips as she watched his eyes travel down her body. She was also wearing light faded blue jeans that hugged her legs and sat lowly on her waist a good couple of inches under her pierced navel. She had an already made hole in her left knee as that was the way the jeans came and her hair was down in it's natural curls.
"It comes with the package." Troy said with a smirk as Gabriella now stood in front of him with raised eye brows.
"And what package would that be Mr. Bolton?" Gabriella saw his eyes twinkle, making her smile even more and bite her lip in anticipation as his body was so close to hers.
"The Troy Bolton package…he's nice, caring, funny, good looking, and…" Troy drew out the word. "he makes you wet."
Gabriella heard and understood the sexual reference, but then jumped back in surprise as another burst of cold water hit her front side and she brought her hands up to block the water from her face. As soon as the water hit her though, it stopped and she looked up at Troy again with a glare as she was now completely drenched on the front side with the cold air nipping at her.
"Troy Bolton." Gabriella bellowed darkly as she smirked and Troy looked at her innocently again. Gabriella bent down slowly and picked up the sponge from the bucket that was full of water and soap and whipped her hand, making the water that was held in the sponge spray out and splatter him with water.
"Gabi!" Troy whined as he flicked a bubble off of his chin.
"You asked for it." Gabriella said as she walked around his truck swinging her hips again as Troy tried his hardest not to stare and fall for her tricks. Gabriella started running the sponge against the car and cleaned the splattered dirt off as Troy took this as a note to start spraying the truck off and smiled mischievously. He unkinked the hose and extended his arm up so he got the roof of his truck and heard Gabriella let out another strangled yell of distaste as he aimed the water past his truck and onto her from the other side.
After another forty minutes and a lot of cold water being sprayed innocently on each other the truck was spotless and Gabriella found herself and Troy running inside for warmth. Even though they lived in New Mexico and the temperatures didn't drop that bad, it seemed like it did for someone who was used to warm temperatures and all of a sudden cool air takes over their state.
Gabriella was shivering as Troy shut the wooden door behind them and she led them into the kitchen. Gabriella turned around with her back against the counter.
"Your lips are blue." Troy murmured as he pressed his body against hers and put his arms on her soaked sweatshirt that was clinging to her body even more.
"The are not." Gabriella said as she rolled her eyes at Troy's over exaggeration.
"Well they are gonna be blue if you stay in these wet clothes." Troy reached up softly and moved a clinging wet curl behind her ear.
"And who's fault is that?" Gabriella joked as she smirked and looked up into Troy's blue intense eyes after he didn't answer for a couple of seconds.
Troy didn't respond as Gabriella saw his cerulean eyes turn even darker and his gaze was glazed over as if he was staring off into space when in fact he wasn't staring through Gabriella, he wasn't staring past Gabriella, he was staring right into Gabriella. Trying to analyze something that had been on his mind for a while now.
"Wildcat?" Gabriella asked softly as she sensed something was wrong.
Troy wanted to say something. Gabriella could tell that as he opened his mouth, but nothing came out and Troy just brought his hands down and connected both of their hands together.
"I--" Troy stopped short as his fears took over. But they weren't hide-under-the-bed scared, it was more of a put-your-face-in-a-bag embarrassing freight. "I l--" Troy stopped again as Gabriella's eye brows scrunched together.
She cocked her head to the side as another shiver went through her. What was Troy trying to tell her?
"Wildcat, what is it? You can tell me anything." Gabriella reassured him as his eyes bored into hers and she held his gaze.
"I l-like my sweatshirt on you." Troy said quickly as he scratched the back of his neck with his hand.
Gabriella looked at him curiously for a quick second before her face relaxed as in the back of her mind she knew that that wasn't what Troy wanted to say, but she let it slide because she knew that when Troy was ready he would tell her whatever it is that he was trying to tell her.
Gabriella smiled as she straightened out the collar on his orange and dark blue polo. "That makes two of us." Gabriella said as another shiver ran through her.
Troy sighed tiredly, "Let's get changed before we freeze to death and then maybe you can help me with my math?" Troy suggested as he was deliberately forcing his mind to think about anything other than the 'L' word that was about to come out of his mouth. He wanted it to be special, not just something he threw out there. Plus he wasn't sure if Gabriella felt the same way and he was letting his nerves get the better of him.
"Dude, do you even know what you're doing?" Troy hears his best friend's voice from down the counter a couple of feet as Troy's hand connects with the clear cold glass counter top that probably had alarms on it if anyone or anything were to break the glass.
Troy runs his hand smoothly against the cold crystal clear counter and walked over by Chad, peering down into the showcases to see jewelry sparkling from the lights up above them.
Troy shrugs at Chad's question, "Do you think I know what I'm doing?" Troy shot back with a smirk as Chad looks at him and has a smug look on his face as he shakes his head in disbelief.
"And you choose your best friend to come with you who may I remind you knows nothing about this type of thing. Hell, whenever I'm buying something for Tay she always comes with so I don't mess up." Chad laughs as Troy rolls his eyes.
"And you tell me this now?" Troy exclaimed as he scans over the jewelry that almost any girl would kill for if it came from their boyfriends who were in high school.
Chad shrugs as he fingers a silver ring with a red jewel in the center. He looks at it closely and puts it carelessly on the rack again, "One hundred bucks for that…Dude, you're wasting your time here. Jewelry was only made to make our wallets empty." Chad said as he patted Troy on the back.
Troy shrugs as he looks around the store that they had downtown in their city. Quite a few women were there and only one or two men who were accompanying their wives or girlfriends. Troy sees four shop workers circling around and helping people as another worker was at the checkout counter.
"Well this is the place that I got her bracelet, so maybe I'll be lucky enough to find something else that Gabi will like." Troy said silently counting down the days until her birthday party they were having for her in a week. Even though her birthday wasn't until the first weekend in January, they were having it on December 30 so she was sure that she could come since January was the damn month Troy wasn't looking forward too since Gabriella would be busy almost all the time along with himself since it was about only a month away since the playoffs started.
"Fuck, we could've asked Tay to come and help us." Chad said in a frustrated tone because he didn't think of that originally.
Troy sighed, "But then she wouldn't be keeping Gabi occupied and stopping her from wondering where her perfect boyfriend is." Troy said smugly as Chad just rolled his eyes with a grin.
They boys were silent as Troy scanned the jewelry again in the cases and saw all the diamonds glittering beneath him, he saw the gold chains holding special lockets, and he saw the rings knowing he wasn't going to get her one since he didn't know her size and he knew from past experience a ring meant a lot to some girls, although Gabriella wasn't some girl. She was his girl who he loves, and he was going to tell her that on her birthday night.
But before he could tell her that, he had to get enough courage to admit it out loud as he was still afraid of rejection, he needed to find the perfect time that night, and he probably should practice saying it so it doesn't come out all mumbled and incoherent.
"You know…Jake probably would know what to get her. Maybe if we just call--"
"No." Troy said a little bit too sharply as he shut his eyes with his back to Chad pretending to be interested in the necklaces below him. "I mean…I don't think Jake would want to talk to me personally." Troy said a little bit more quieter than normal.
Troy could just imagine Chad's face contort into confusion as Troy still knew that Chad and Jake talked at sometimes. But Troy didn't blame him, just because Gabriella was having problems with Jake doesn't mean that Chad had to shut him out too.
"What does that mean?" Chad asked as he fiddled with bracelets that were hanging up.
Troy sighed as he ran his hand through his hair, "It means that Gabi and him got into a fight the day before break started and they haven't spoken for a week now." Troy explained quietly as he only knew a little bit about the fight.
"Oh." Chad shrugged as if shrugging it off as no big deal even though Troy knew that he was curious, but didn't want to show it.
Troy sighed again as he looked at his best friend for the first time in a minute, "I guess Jake brought attention to Gabi that she failed one of their biggest tests in English and the fight started off from there." Troy said answering Chad's silent question. "It escalated into this huge thing about me and her and how she's not equaling out her time and it just ended very badly." Troy looked at Chad as Chad thought about what Troy just said.
Chad's shoulders went up and then down in a shrug, "I guess that explains why Jake has been pissed lately."
"Yeah…he's made it very clear that he doesn't want anything to do with us anytime soon. But I'm kind of hoping that they patch things up by her birthday party in a week because I would kind of like to invite him without having him taking a swing at my head." Troy said thinking back to a couple of weeks ago and how Taylor demanded that Gabriella did nothing for her birthday and that they would plan it.
Chad let out a snort of laughter just imagining that thinking it would be kind of cool to see who would win that fight, the basketball Captain or the football Captain. Troy looked at him with mock annoyance. "I don't even understand why Jake is so upset in the first place. It's not like Gabi and I skipped school for a whole week." Troy said with a shrug as he turned back to the jewelry before him and saw one of the sales people making her way over to them, but being stopped by another couple.
There was a silence as Chad cleared his throat and Troy turned around having a feeling that Chad wanted to say something, but was holding back. Troy looked Chad over and now could definitely tell that there was something Chad wasn't saying.
"Do you have something you want to say Chad." Troy more like said instead of questioned as Chad looked at him smugly now.
"Yeah, if you don't mind." Chad said as he put the piece of jewelry that he was holding down on the counter top. "It's just…" Troy sensed his voice's change from smug to serious as Chad's eyes dropped to the see through showcase in front of them instead of looking at him. "Say you were in Jake's shoes and your best friend got a new boyfriend…" Chad started off slowly.
Troy felt his forehead crease as he took in Chad's words that seemed to echo around in his mind. "And at first they went on a couple of dates and they were in the puppy stage of their relationship where things could still either go terribly wrong or stay on the good side…"
Troy nodded his head letting this sink in. He knew that they definitely were past the puppy stage of their relationship. "And then they were getting serious and pretty soon Gabs only saw her boyfriend on somedays because she was busy the rest of the time, or she started slacking on her homework because she was daydreaming about this so called boyfriend." Chad's voice dripped with seriousness as he glanced up and saw that Troy was staring at him thinking about the words he was speaking.
"And all this is fine as long as she gets her priorities right, which she seemed to do for a while, but…" Chad trailed off and Troy found that he was anxious to hear what Chad was going to say. "Then she skips school and misses her English test that was half of her grade and gets drunk in mid morning. Going against almost all the rules Anna has set for her, breaking the law with the alcohol," Troy thought about this but didn't consider the alcohol thing because a lot of kids their age did it. "And now you as the best friend is probably feeling like he doesn't even know who his best friend is anymore because of this." Chad finished as he dared to look up at Troy's expression.
Troy let this sink in. Gabriella had reassured him over and over again that it wasn't his fault and that it was hers and Jake's, but Troy wasn't too sure about that anymore. He was her boyfriend that thought he loves her, so shouldn't he be one of the first ones to notice if she's changing? Unless he is the one who is corrupting her?
Troy blinked in surprise. Nothing was different about his life, it's not like he changed his way of living. It was all basketball, school, friends, and now girlfriend time. He didn't stop going to parties. He didn't stop drinking from time to time. The only thing different is now he had a girlfriend who was doing it with him. And he just figured that Gabriella in the past probably would've gone to most of the parties he went to if it wasn't for dance, so maybe it wasn't that she was changing, she just had more free time than what she and Jake were used too?
"Troy? Dude, I'm sorry. I shouldn't of said anything." Troy snaps out of his thoughts as he hears Chad say this.
"No, I think you brought up some good points." Troy admits as he offers his best friend a smile and finally a salesperson walks their way.
She gives them a huge smile as her hair bounces off her shoulders reminding Troy of Gabriella's curly hair that he loved to run through his fingers. Even though Jake might think Gabriella's changing, Troy still knew that everything was okay with Gabriella and himself, and if he didn't notice anything different then maybe it was Jake who was wrong?
"Hi, my name's Marcy. Is there anything I can help you two with?" The woman of maybe 30 years smiled brightly at them as Troy thought for a moment.
He wanted Gabriella's birthday to be special…especially if her and Jake weren't talking by then. "Yes. Yes you can." Troy smiled at Marcy as his finger pointed to Gabriella's birthday present.
Author's note--So what did you think? I'm not really liking this chapter so much, but it's not the worst one either. Review please and thank you.