Okay, so I only got 9 entries for the contest, but who cares! It's close enough! lol
BTW, let's see if u can guess the first scene in this chapter. It's kind of obvious since it's in italics, but still...
Also, I wanna thanks shortytori322821 for the idea of the last line of the italics section. I changed it around a little, but it's basically her idea. Thanks :)
Brandon couldn't believe it. His best friend, his brother since they were 2 months old, had abandoned him. He had ended their friendship all in the course of 5 minutes. They had made a promise to each other that would help them spend more time together and Troy had ruined it. He was alone. Again. The promise, along with the lifelong bond, was broken.
Brandon felt a wave of fury overtake him as he stomped over to the locker rooms and pushed past the confused team members.
"They should be my team members too..." Brandon angrily thought.
He made his way over to his group of other friends that consisted of Chad, Zeke, Jason, and, now his ex-friend, Troy. Troy must have felt the heat of the situation for he had his shirt off and was leaning against the cold lockers. His eyes were closed. Brandon knew that he was trying not to cry. But at the moment, he didn't care.
"Troy!" Brandon demanded, glaring daggers into Troy's bare skin.
Troy's eyes snapped open, but he didn't turn his gaze over to Brandon. He stared at the lockers in front of him and kept quiet.
"Troy, look at me!" Brandon again shouted.
With a sigh, Troy followed orders. He turned his head ever so slowly and flatly said "What?"
Brandon, eyes glittering with anger and voice quivering with attempted control, dangerously asked "Are you quitting the team?"
Troy squinted his eyes and gave a small, sarcastic smile. "No. Why the hell would I do that?"
Brandon clenched his fists and growled "We made a promise Troy. Don't you remember?"
Troy slowly bobbed his head into a nod and replied nastily "Yeah, I remember. I just don't think that I should sacrifice my happiness to make you feel better. So you didn't make the team. Doesn't mean you have to be such a selfish wuss about it."
"Selfish?"
"Yeah," Troy answered in a 'duh' tone. "I mean come on. You're the one that always said how we should always balance out our popularity and stay by each other no matter what! Now when something comes up that'll probably make me more popular than you, which I wouldn't let happen anyway, you try to take it away from me. Yeah, some best friend you are. Just because your life's pathetic doesn't mean that mine has to be the same way!"
Brandon's eyes widened and most of the blood in his body rushed to his head in a rage. "What do you mean by my pathetic life? Mine's just as good as yours!"
Troy rolled his eyes and scoffed "Yeah right. Your dad's wasted all the time and your mom's cheating on him. Then you're always running to me like a little wimp. We're 13 Brandon, not 3! Grow up!"
Brandon tried to hold back, but he couldn't help it. He violently shoved Troy into the lockers and seethed "Don't you EVER talk about my parents like that! You KNOW why my mom's with Charles!"
Troy laughed shortly and shot back "Sure. I guess the slut gene really runs in the family."
Brandon paled, knowing what and who he was talking about. "What did you say?"
Troy evilly grinned "You know exactly what I'm talking about. We all see the way Gabriella jumps on your back in the hallway and sniffs your neck. I'm pretty sure that's incest."
Brandon's color quickly started returning to his face. "Troy, don't even go there..."
"And then she's always hitting on me, even when I was going out with Sharpay. Then she wears those short skirts that are shorter than her hand! Face it Brandon. Gabriella's pathetic." He walked up to directly face Brandon, their faces inches apart. Troy could feel the rage coming from his body. He whispered "You're a selfish con artist Brandon. You're worthless."
Troy gasped when he felt a sudden pain in his nose. He knew that he was just punched. He looked up, but then found himself against the lockers seconds later, being attacked in his stomach. He opened his closed eyes and found Brandon holding him by the neck and throwing furious punches at his muscular torso. Troy lifted his leg and kicked him back in the hip, pushing him off of him. Brandon stumbled back and didn't notice Troy running for him. He looked up and yelped when his head hit the lockers. He sunk to the ground and was immediately lifted and pressed against the wall, his back facing Troy. Troy twisted Brandon's arm and took in his screams and cries for him to let go. Troy grinned victoriously and threw Brandon to the ground. Brandon looked up at his ex-best friend and his eyes automatically widened. This wasn't the Troy Bolton he once knew. He was replaced with a lying, evil person that didn't care for him at all. He could see the once blue eyes he grew to know so well darken into a deadly grey. He was merciless. And he was headed straight for Brandon.
Brandon, unable to stand from the shock, scurried away on his hands and feet, but was stopped when he felt a sharp shooting pain coursing through his rib cage. Troy repeatedly stomped on his mid section while Brandon was trying to hold in his lunch. But it became too much for him as he turned his head and threw up on Troy's shirt, which was thrown on the floor beside him carelessly. Troy stopped short as he watched the mixture of undigested food and blood spill onto his shirt. His brand new 80 shirt.
"You stupid son of a bitch." Troy growled, picking Brandon up by the hair and dragging him over to the full length mirror that hung on the wall. Brandon eyes widened as Troy violently drew back Brandon's arm and smashed it into the glass, seeing the shards start to stain with red.
"AHHH!!" Brandon screamed at the top of his lungs, pretty sure that the rest of the mirror would break from the volume. Troy threw him to the ground again and kicked him in his sides, trying to make him surrender. But Brandon didn't. Instead, he just grabbed Troy's foot and pushed him into the pile of broken glass across the room. Troy landed on his bare back and shouted "SHIT!!"
Brandon couldn't stand to see Troy hurt, but in this case, he grinned. He ran over to him and grabbed his neck, holding him down to the ground while he punched him in the face repeatedly. Troy closed his eyes and tried to squirm away, but Brandon's hold was firm, strong, and unforgiving. He could tell that Brandon wouldn't forgive him for this for a long time.
"WHAT'S GOING ON OUT HERE?!" a voice boomed behind the fighting boys. Brandon ignored the coach. He just kept punching and clawing at Troy and held back the boiling hot tears in his eyes.
He was suddenly pulled from the beaten teenager and pushed into the lockers. He went back for Troy, but was pushed to the ground. He looked up into Chad's furious eyes. He saw the coach run for Troy and guessed that it was him who pulled him away from Troy. No one on the team was strong enough to remove him.
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Chad spat in Brandon's face.
"Get out of my face Danfor-" Slap. He looked up at Chad again, who had a look of hurt drawn across his face, but was pretty much covered with fury.
Chad shoved Brandon into the lockers one last time before harshly demanding "Get out of here and never come back."
Brandon swallowed back the huge lump in his throat and looked at Troy. He was barely conscious and was shakily nodding as the coach whispered things into his ear. He wasn't sure, but Brandon sensed fear coming from his ex-best friend. When Troy looked up at him, that all disappeared into hate as he lowly seethed "We're through."
Before turning away, Brandon nodded "Fine. I'm done with you." With that, the black haired teen turned away from the scene and walked out of the locker rooms, feeling the stares and glares from the boys surrounding him. As he ran to his locker to collect his homework, he let the tears roam his pale and bleeding face as he thought back to the song that Troy sang to him 25 minutes ago. Even if you fall, I won't let you break...
"Thanks for letting me break Troy. Now I know what kind of person you really are..." He said to himself as he walked out of the building, unwillingly taking the memories with him.
Brandon shot up like a rocket and looked around the dark room. The TV was still on, but the picture was dark. He wiped his sweat soaked forehead and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. It was only a dream. It was only a nightmare. It wasn't happening again. It was in the past and that's where it was going to stay. He was fine.
He sighed heavily and tried to get off the wet couch, but found that he couldn't. He looked down at his chest and smiled at the brunette that was resting on it. Her eyes fluttered open as she mumbled "You're wet."
Brandon grinned "Yeah, you tend to sweat when someone's sleeping on top of you."
Gabriella rolled her eyes and groaned "It's more than that. I've slept on you before and the only time you sweat when you're sleeping is when you have a nightmare."
Brandon sighed again and played with her bangs, thinking about the memory that he dreamed of. He's had that nightmare almost every night since he's been at his father's house and by now he thought that it was trying to tell him something. The coach seemed a little happy that Troy and Brandon were fighting, but tried to hide it. That was one of the many things the confused Brandon about it. The other was why Troy had started mouthing off to him after he glanced at the coach's office. He faintly saw Troy nod before he started insulting him. Then the fear in his eyes when the coach was talking to him on the floor. His bottom lip was quivering and his eyes were watery. At first he thought that it was just the pain, but now it seemed much bigger than that.
"You're right," Brandon confessed "I've had this nightmare every night since I got here."
"The Troy breakup?" Gabriella guessed, a bit of nervousness in her voice.
All Brandon did was nod. He threw his head back into the soft couch and whimpered "I hate to admit it, but I...I...I think I...miss him. God, this is so confusing!"
Gabriella groaned "Please don't mention being confused when it comes to Troy."
Brandon, now on full alert, concerned "What happened?"
Gabriella sighed "I think...I think I need to break up with him."
"What? But I thought you loved him more than life itself." Brandon recalled.
Gabriella replied "I know, but I just don't wanna take anymore risks with you."
Brandon closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He held Gabriella's hand in his as he softly said "Gabby, I'm sorry about everything that's happened since you befriended Troy, but you can't break up with him."
"Why not?"
"Because he'll think that I set you up to do it," Brandon answered obviously "And that will just create a whole other mess."
After thinking for a few moments, Gabriella asked "So you're actually telling me that I should stay with your worst enemy?"
"Yeah," Brandon sighed, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV "As weird as it sounds, I don't want him to hurt anymore than he already is."
"Ha!" Gabriella said loudly "Finally! I got you to say that you don't hate him!"
Brandon rolled his eyes "Yeah, yeah. I've said it before."
Crossing her arms, Gabriella teased "Oh yeah? When?"
Brandon pondered the thought before answering "Remember the time when I..." He stopped. "What about the time I..." He stopped again.
Gabriella raised an eyebrow and predicted "You've got nothing, right?"
Brandon distracted himself from the conversation with "Hey! New episode of Family Guy!"
Gabriella giggled "Typical Brandon..."
--
...Troy, Chad, and Taylor...
Troy stared at the cell phone in his hand, confused. Gabriella had just hung up on him with no reason at all. And she did it quickly, sounding very flustered. But that wasn't Troy's main concern. His mind was on the voice in the background...the male one.
"What happened Troy?" Chad asked, sounding concerned.
Troy blinked for a few seconds, trying to find the answer to that question. What did happen?
"Th-there was a guy in the background," Troy answered, his voice breaking for reasons that he didn't know. "I...I think Gabriella's cheating on me..."
"What?" Taylor piped up, letting go of Chad's hand. "Why would she do that?"
Troy shook his head slowly "I don't know. I guess she's tired of me fighting Brandon, so she's moving on."
"Troy, let's be reasonable," Chad said "Gabriella loves you, we both know that. She wouldn't bail on you, especially now since you're in the hospital because her brother stabbed you. We've all known her for a long time, so we know that she wouldn't do something like that."
"But think about it guys," Troy denied "How would you feel if your boyfriend or girlfriend was spending his time beating up someone you love? You'd try to stop it, but after a while it just gets old. I don't blame her for this."
"Troy, I think you just need to calm down and get some more information about this. Maybe she just went to go visit a family member."
"I doubt it."
Taylor and Chad sighed in unison. They weren't getting anywhere with their friend.
"Troy, do you want me to talk to her?" Taylor asked sweetly.
Troy nodded "Sure. Just don't mention anything about me."
"Well then what else am I supposed to say?"
"Just talk about cheating and see if she looks guilty." Troy shrugged.
Taylor sighed "Okay fine. I'll talk to her tomorrow."
Troy thanked her "Thanks Taylor. Well, I'm really tired. See you tomorrow."
"Bye Troy." Chad and Taylor dismissed themselves and walked out the door, still confused about the phone conversation.
--
...The Next Morning...
Gabriella sighed and shut the door to her house. This is how it must have felt for Brandon when she left. Bare and empty. She hated it.
She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, signaling a text. She opened the phone and read
Meet me at the mall in 5
From: Taylor
11:34 4/26/08
She texted back "ok c u there" and grabbed her purse, walked out the door, and drove away in her car.
--
...At the Mall...
Gabriella walked into the mall and looked around the food court, seeking out her best friend. She walked over to the Subway and greeted "Hey Tay."
"Hey Gabby," Taylor smiled, taking out her wallet. "Can you wait a second, I need to eat. I haven't had anything all day."
"Yeah, me neither," Gabriella lied, remembering the chocolate chip pancakes she had from her father's house. "I'm gonna go get some pizza. Be right back."
She walked over to the Dominoes and ordered a slice of extra cheese pizza and a root beer. She paid for it and walked over to the table that Taylor was sitting at. Sitting across from her friend, she started "So, what's going on?"
Taylor shrugged "Nothing. I just need to talk to you about something."
"What is it?"
Taylor put down her sub and sighed "Where were you on last night? We were supposed to go to the movies."
Again, Gabriella lied "Oh, I had to help my mom with her presentation for work."
Taylor slowly nodded, not buying her excuse. "Oh, well it didn't sound like that over the phone."
"What do you mean?" Gabriella asked, swallowing a bite of her pizza.
Taylor replied "Remember when Troy called you last night?" After Gabriella nodded, Taylor continued "Me and Chad went to the hospital when you didn't show up at the movies and Troy said that you were supposed to be with me. I didn't know what he was talking about so he called you. He was really confused when he hung up and said that it sounded like a guy in the room with you. He didn't recognize the voice and you sounded really rushed, like you wanted to hang up with Troy and get back to whatever you were doing."
Gabriella bit her tongue to keep from telling the truth and said "So what are you saying?"
Taylor sighed "Gabriella, Troy thinks that you're cheating on him."
Gabriella's mouth dropped. "He WHAT?!"
Taylor repeated "He thinks that you were with someone else. Just think about it. You're making up excuses and there was a guy in the room with you. Doesn't it just seem obvious?"
Gabriella shook her head, refusing to believe it. "Taylor, I'm not cheating on Troy! That guy you heard was Brandon! We were sitting right next to each other!"
Taylor denied "But Brandon ran away and didn't tell anyone where he was."
"There's only one place he can go! It's obvious!" Gabriella nearly yelled.
Taylor continued "Then what about the excuses?"
Gabriella explained "I didn't want Troy to come running after me! Oh God, he really thinks that I'm cheating on him?"
Taylor nodded sympathetically "Yeah. I'm sorry Gabby. Just tell him what really happened and maybe he'll change his mind."
Gabriella sighed "Okay. Thanks Taylor."
"Anytime." Taylor replied with a hug.
--
...1 Month Later...
It's been 1 month since the incident with Brandon and Gabriella. Troy made sure to keep his distance from Gabriella by not allowing her into his hospital room. Whenever Gabriella asked to see Troy, Troy told the receptionist to not let her in. He apparently didn't take Taylor's advice to get more information. Gabriella knew why she wasn't allowed in. She couldn't wait until he was out of the hospital and back at school. She would be able to get some alone time with him and explain herself.
Her phone rang. She picked it up and said "Hello?"
"Hey Gabby," Chad greeted. "I've got some news."
"What's up?" Gabriella asked, anxious.
"Troy's allowed to leave the hospital tonight! He's almost fully healed from the sword and as long as he attends his physical therapy, he's home free!"
Gabriella heard her heart scream in happiness and the smile on her face spread to her ears. "Really?! Thank God! It's about time!"
"I know! I was about to kidnap him or something. Anyways, how are you two holding up? You know, after the whole...cheating thing? Does Brandon know about it?"
Gabriella sighed "No, he doesn't. I don't want him to get involved with this. We've already got enough problems."
Chad nodded "Yeah, he's be the last person I tell. Troy told me that he doesn't want to talk to you while he's in the hospital, so that's why you weren't allowed in. He wants to wait until after he's home."
Gabriella let out the breath she didn't know she was holding and said "Oh, I thought he was just avoiding me until he got the guts to talk to me. Thanks for telling me. Oh, when does he go back to school?"
"Next week," Chad answered. "His parents want him to rest a little more until he's completely back on his feet. He's doing pretty good though. He's really excited to leave this place."
"Yeah, I would too." Gabriella joked.
Chad laughed "Yeah, me too. Okay, I gotta go. See you tomorrow."
"Alright. Bye." Gabriella hung up and sat back in her bed. She would finally be able to talk to her boyfriend again and explain herself. The night that Taylor told her about his thoughts, she decided not to break up with him. It would just confirm that she was cheating on him. She refused to let him think that.
"One week. Just wait one week." She whispered to herself before drifting off into sleep.
I felt bad about making Gabby break up with Troy, so she's not gonna do it. But be prepared for a big surprise next chapter...
REVIEW!! Thnx :)
Rachel :)
Sneak at Next Chapter:
- Troy comes back to school
"Hey Troy!" Jason greeted his friend, patting him on the back.
"Good to have you back, Mr. Bolton." Ms. Darbus smiled.
"It's good to be back." Troy smiled back halfheartedly.
- Intense Troyella Moment
"Troy, Chad told me that you wanted to talk to me after you got out of the hospital. What's up?" Gabriella smiled, leaning in for a kiss.
Troy quickly darted away. "When did I say that?"
"But Chad said-"
"I meant whoever said that I want to talk to you?" Troy glared at her, anger flashing through his eyes.
Trivia:
- Troy was supposed to come back to school in this chapter, but it was getting too long
- 3 MORE REVIEWS UNTIL WE REACH 800!! COME ON PEOPLE, HELP ME GET TO 1,000!! YOU'LL GET THE SEQUAL SOONER IF THAT HAPPENS :)