From AK-tutti: Hi! Did you miss us? We know you were looking forward to some drama, and we hope we deliver some of it in this chapter. So here you guys are:

From Stessa: Hey, we're back with more!

Disclaimer; We don't own HSM. And sadly, we don't own the wonderful song 'Sexy! No No No' by Girls Aloud, that Stessa hates. We don't own 'True Friend' by Hannah Montana either, which Stessa loves.

Twist Of Love

Chapter 11.

"Is it true!?" Gabriella yelled, tears cascading down her cheeks, as she held the magazine up in front of her best friend and boyfriend, who had agreed to meet her in her apartment.

"What!?" Sharpay shrieked, as she moved forward and grabbed the paper from Gabriella's hands, so she could take a look on the front page. Her eyes scanned over the lines, and she became more and more self-conscious with each word she read. She could feel Troy stiffening next to her, as he swallowed hard.

"Well!?" Gabriella wanted to know.

Sharpay briefly looked up at her best friend, and was not surprised to see the complete look of horror written across her face. She looked so sad, and heartbroken, Sharpay almost couldn't stand it. She then glanced down at the magazine's front page, and scoffed. How they found out, she didn't know, and she couldn't care less. She had to find a way to convince Gabriella that it was just rumours.

Sharpay looked up at Gabriella again, and mustered to make an angry face, "Gabby!?" she hollered, standing up, "How can you think that about me? Huh? I'm your best friend! I'd never sleep with your boyfriend! They are just rumours!"

Gabriella grabbed the magazine again, and let her eyes linger on the front page. She wanted to believe them, but she wasn't convinced, "But Sharpay… it seems so real! And you two… you've been acting different! And I found a picture where you were holding hands!"

"So we're not aloud to hold hands!?" Sharpay shot back, planting her hands on the side of her hips, "First.. you say we fight too much, so we go out a few times to become better friends, and then when we do, we become really close, and ONE time Troy holds my hand… and here you are accusing us for sneaking around behind your back!?" she paused, to scoff, "Something is wrong with that picture, Gabriella!"

"But look at this!" Gabriella said, and smashed the picture from her coffee table, up, into Sharpay's face, "He has an arm, ONLY an arm, around me, his girlfriend… and YOU, you a girl that he didn't even like to begin with, he holds hands with.. Something is wrong, Sharpay, forgive me for being suspicious."

"Well…" Sharpay said, letting out a deep sigh. She refused to give up on this. She was going to win this argument. She was going to convince Gabriella that nothing was going on between her and Troy, even though everything was going on. She had to do so. For their friendship's sake, and for the sake of The Sweethearts, "Then I dunno what to do to convince you, Gabriella. I can't tell you anything but the truth."

Gabriella, who had noticed that Troy had been awfully quiet in this argument, until now, turned to him, and expectant look on her face. She wanted to know his opinion, and she was going to; "Troy?" she questioned, "What do you have to say about this?"

Troy didn't move to say anything, he just stared into the floor, so Sharpay kicked him across the leg, to make him speak, and that did the trick, even though it looked slightly suspicious towards Gabriella, who arched an eyebrow at the action.

"Gabby…" Troy mumbled, looking up to catch her eye, "I don't know what to say to you. I'm so… So sad that you don't have more faith in me. Sure, I was holding Sharpay's hand, but yeah, tough deal, I like her now. We're friends. And I do that with all my female friends. It's a thing… an action. And just because I hold her hand, doesn't mean that I'm jumping into bed with her, every night I'm not with you."

Sharpay held back her laugh, because she didn't want Gabriella to know how true that statement was. Troy always jumped into bed with her when he wasn't with Gabriella. Almost always. In stead of laughing, she reached her hand out and stroked Gabriella's cheek, "I'm sorry you got so upset because of this, Gabriella. I didn't even know about this, until you said so. I would never do such thing to you… I promise."

Gabriella locked eyes with her best friend for several years, and let out a deep breath. If she couldn't trust Sharpay, then who could she trust? She shot her a half-sad smile, "Best friends forever, right?"

"Best friends forever." Sharpay agreed, before wrapping her arms around the petite Latino, and hugging her tight.

"I'm sorry, Sharpay," Gabriella mumbled, into her hair, "I really am. I shouldn't doubt you, you must be so disappointed in me because of this. I feel… I feel awful."

"It's okay," Sharpay whispered, as she locked eyes with Troy, over Gabriella's shoulder, "It's okay, you're forgiven."

Gabriella pulled back and looked deeply into Sharpay's chocolate brown eyes, "Thank you, but I don't deserve it, do I?"

"You deserve everything." Sharpay assured her, kissing her cheek lightly, "'Cause you're the perfect best friend. A gorgeous female, and you have a wonderful voice. You're the best."

"And you're an awesome girlfriend too," Troy added, as he broke the two girls apart, and wrapped his strong arms around Gabriella as well, "I love you, Gabs. Don't doubt that. And I forgive you too."

Gabriella let a few tears slip, and threw the magazine to the ground, when they broke their hug. She angrily stomped on top of it, and cursed beneath her breath.

Sharpay giggled slightly, and made her stop, "Calm down, Gabriella."

"I'm furious!" the brunette said, clutching Sharpay's arm tightly, "How are we gonna get over these rumours? We have to reassure our fans!"

"We'll get Mr. B to set up an interview of some sort." Sharpay said, nodding her head, reassuringly, "Or maybe even a press conference – anything! Just to make this stop. Is that good enough?"

"Yeah," Gabriella nodded, biting her lip, "Yeah. Yeah, we'll do that."

--

Sharpay groaned, and slowly let her body stretch out, to get more relaxed. She felt so tired and worn out. She just wanted to sleep longer, but it was kinda hard… for several reasons. She had a lot on her mind, and she couldn't think clearly. These last couple of months, since the horrific magazine front page, she had been living in a fog.

Luckily, they had convinced Gabriella that nothing had been going on between them, and there was nothing going on between them, because she had ended it with him. However… that decision wasn't easy to live up to, when he kept calling her, and wanting to spend time with her so.

So eventually, she had given into his charming ways again, because that was how much she loved him. Their affair had kept on going for these two months, and Sharpay sometimes felt that Gabriella still didn't believe them completely, even though she never mentioned it. But why should she, anyway? They were sneaking around behind her back. Big time.

Sharpay hated herself for it. She felt awful, and sometimes it felt like the guilt was eating her up from the inside. It was all she could think about, and she wrote a lot down in her diary, scribbling every feeling or emotion into the little book, as if it was going to make her feel better. It helped for awhile, until everything came back, and she had managed to fill out her diary in record speed.

She wrote about the feelings she got whenever she spent time with Troy. Those amazing bubbles that started in the pit of her stomach, and erupted to her whole body. Those bubbles made her feel happy, and gave a bounce in her step when she walked. She was more smiley, and more silly than ever before. Her eyes were more shiny, and her hair was more beautiful. She was cheery and joked around – all because she was in love.

But when that feeling went away, which it did more often than always, she felt guilty. Especially when she spent time with Gabriella – which was what she did around… 24/7. It was horrible. The Latino girl spoke about her boyfriend and what they had done the night before. How he had taken her out to prove his love, how they had danced to 'Halo', their song. And Sharpay couldn't do anything but just listen, and come out with the occasional 'oh' when something was über-cute, and just nod along, and pretend to listen. It was hard, and the smile Gabriella had on her face, made it all ten times worse. She wished she could just forget that, and it was those times when she told herself to break it off with Troy the next time she saw him.

But she never could. Because then he cut her off with a sweet kiss, or told her that he loved her too, and that he felt just as confused and guilty as she did, but he hoped they could be together. Without hurting Gabriella. But it was not happening. In another world yes, maybe they could. But in reality, they both knew it would never happen. And Sharpay just wanted to cry because of that, and she also wanted to stop.

But most of all, she wanted to tell Gabriella.

She turned onto her side, and looked at Troy's sleeping face. He looked so adorably cute. His eyes were shut tightly, and he was clutching his pillowcase firmly in his right fist. His shaggy brown hair was a mess, but he looked gorgeous. Why again, did he have to be so irresistible?

She still found herself waking up next to him in her bed, even though she shouldn't. She just couldn't say no. But she wanted to. It was so confusing, and she wore herself out thinking about it.

She laid back down, onto her pillow, and stared into her ceiling. She remembered all the fan-mail they had gotten on their webpage the day that magazine had been published. All those girls around the world, who was frightened it was over, had written them tons of mails. And it had been heartbreaking reading about it. They really believed The Sweethearts were broken up.

So that interview had been really necessary. They had all given a statement to the same magazine who posted the 'shit' about them, to reassure all their fans.

Sharpay grabbed the article from her nightstand, where she had kept it, to remind herself to be more careful around Troy, and definitely when they went out places. To make sure not to get too close to him. She let her eyes scan over the words, reading them for the umpteenth time.

The Sweethearts made a statement, to decline the rumours about their break-up. They were all deeply horrified of the rumour, and wanted nothing but to reassure their fans, that they were still a group, and were recording another single.

"I don't know who made up there rumours," Gabriella Montez said, as she held onto Troy Bolton's hand, "Troy and I are a couple, I trust him. And I trust Sharpay. I don't know why people would want to hurt me like this. Hurt us."

Sharpay Evans, the other part of The Sweethearts agreed with her partner, and best friend, "I would never do such thing to Gabriella. Troy and I are just friends. We're close friends, and he sometimes hold my hand, but there's really nothing to it. We're definitely not breaking apart. We're releasing another single soon."

And Troy, their manager's son, was deeply shaken up by all this, "I'm not used to being in the limelight, and being recognized, but suddenly I am, and it's so confusing. But I'm in love with Gabriella, and Sharpay is my friend. I hope people will realize that, and leave our private lives alone."

This magazine is deeply sorry about these rumours, and wish The Sweethearts good luck from now on. We can't wait for their next release!

Sharpay placed the article back down at the table, and breathed out a sigh. She didn't know how they managed to convinced Gabriella, but she was forever grateful for that. If she had found out, both of their careers might have been ruined. She would have been responsible for that, and it would have killed her.

Now, it was just the guilt which was killing her. Gosh, she wished she could do something about that! Turning onto her stomach, Sharpay took her pillow, and screamed into it.

--

You could say many things about Gabriella Montez, one of them being naive, and that was indeed true most of the times. She always chose to believe the best in people, and what they told, that was a quality that would often backfire, but that was still the person Gabriella was. Whenever someone called her naive, she would always stand up and defend herself, even though she knew deep down, that it was so very true, she just didn't wanna face it.

She was being naive about this whole Troy and Sharpay thing, but she didn't know it yet. She chose to believe her best friend's words, because she knew Sharpay would never lie to her. If only she knew, that it was in fact what Sharpay had done! Lied. When it came to her best friend, Gabriella's mind didn't go that far, and that was beyond change. Sharpay was her best friend, and she trusted her.

It's all good. Gabriella was working out at the gym, it was all part of the job. At least one hour a day, she and Sharpay would workout, it wouldn't always be together, but most of the times anyways. Today she was alone at the gym, surprisingly no-one ever went, other than Gabby and Sharpay of course. Or maybe they were there, when she and her blonde friend weren't? That seemed more likely than no-one and ever.

Gabriella was 'biking' and had decided to drop the thoughts of Troy and Sharpay possibly fooling around behind her back. Sharpay would never do that, she had decided, but she still thought her best friend was hiding something, and she hoped Sharpay would soon trust her with. They had always trusted each other, so Gabriella couldn't see a reason, why Sharpay couldn't tell her whatever secret she had.

Her mind began wondering off to something different than that. Tabloids! All those rumours they would spread about The Sweethearts, it was disgusting! Those rumours were the course of So Strong not doing so well in the charts in the beginning, people were still convinced about the rumours back then, so they weren't too eager to buy the single. So Strong went in at no. 15 and began climbing down instead of up, so it was about being seen in a lot of places together, hugging, laughing and having a blast for Gabriella and Sharpay - no Troy, that wouldn't help at all. So that was what they did, and what they were gonna continue to do, until there was a change in the charts.

So Strong was all the way down at no. 34, and Gabby and Sharpay were still doing their bit, but then one day something amazing happened! The single hopped all the way up to the position of no. 3, and today it was glorying at no. 1. They got the news yesterday, and they were excited. They could lay off the act, not they had minded, but being forced to have fun for many, many weeks wasn't their idea for having a good time.

Today would be all about meetings and such. Gabriella and Sharpay were having a meeting with their manager and producers to decide, what their next single was gonna be. Well, first they were gonna have a meeting with Mr. McK about it, Mr. B was still too depressed to work, and when they settled on an agreement, they would walk the idea with the producers, and then there would go some weeks by, and they would get right to work with it. They were also having a meeting with some camera crew or something about a The Sweethearts documentary in styling of filming them for an entire year and then make it to a film. Gabriella hadn't made her mind up about that yet. After all that, she and Sharpay had decided to get together and write some songs for their sophomore album, they had promised October, and they had already recorded some bits, and then of course their new singles of this year were gonna be on it, but they were already, the one's released at least.

Honestly, Gabriella hated meetings, and she knew Sharpay did too. It was too quiet and too serious for them, they were goofballs almost through and through, mostly Sharpay who didn't seem to have a serious bone in her body, but Gabriella loved her like that, there was no way of denying it. Sharpay was a nutter with no doubt, that you could confide in, and who would be there for you, when you needed her to be, so in Gabriella's opinion her best friend had it all.

Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong

Could this be something good?

Maybe I'm weak, maybe I'm strong

Or am I misunderstood?

Maybe it's time to open my heart

So my head's not upside down

If you could give me that something

You've turned my life around

Speaking of, that was Gabriella's cell phone ringing and Sharpay's name flashing across it. It was always like that, when you spoke of the sun, it would shine a minute after. She pressed the green button and answered the phone.

"Sharpay Denice Evans! We need to have a very serious talk!" She exclaimed dramatically, when she answered the phone, kinda like Sharpay did sometimes.

"What did I do now?" She could hear Sharpay say on the other line, and she knew her best friend was just playing along. "Whatever it is, I have an alibi!"

Gabriella had to hold in the laughter, that was typical Sharpay. "You changed the ringing tone on my cell phone!"

"I don't have an alibi!" Sharpay admitted on the other end. She did this all the time, changed the tone on her best friend's cell, and Gabriella would always know it was her. "But I have an excuse! A year ago Maybe I'm Right was no. 1 in the charts, and I thought it should be celebrated as you've experienced. I've changed mine to the song too, so loosen the helmet, it's too tight."

"Ok, I totally get your point now!" Gabriella giggled, Sharpay's rambling would always get her in a better mood. "So, why did you call? What do you want?"

"Our song-writing session, when is that?" Sharpay asked, again typical her to forget those things, Gabriella had always been the organized one of the two of them, and Sharpay didn't mind at all having her as her calendar. "I have a feeling it's 3:30, but I'm not entirely sure, that's why I'm calling. I'm almost definite, though, that it's something 30, I just don't know what the something is, and I know my trustworthy calendar must know the correct answer to that riddle, so I'm awaiting your respond anxiously. Anyway, what's the something?"

Gabriella sighed, did she have to go through this almost everyday? "You know very well, that the something is 3, you're just calling to bug me!" She answered her friend's question, and tried her hardest not to sound annoyed.

"Gabriella Raúl Montez, my time to do the middle name thing, I'm appalled that you'd think something like that of me!" Gabriella could hear her best friend fake-sobbing on the other end, and she was used to it, and it wasn't like she minded, that was just who Sharpay was. "So it is 3:30, and you're absolutely sure, that the something is 3?"

"I'm absolutely sure, Shar. Was that all?" Gabriella asked, with a hint of begging in her voice, it was hard to bike and talk on the phone at the same time. At least for her it was.

"I think so..." Sharpay trailed off, but quickly stumbled upon something else to say. "Gabs, I really wanna apologize, if I have, like, not been like myself these past months, but I think I'm getting back to the old me, so I hope I wasn't too much of a bother then."

"You've never been a bother." Gabriella said, softly. "What makes you think that? And honestly, you seem like yourself, and you have for a long time."

"Oh, no reason. Thanks. Bye, sweetie."

And before Gabriella could reply, Sharpay had hung up the phone. Like she'd just said, Sharpay seemed like herself, but was she? Gabriella could still feel her blonde best friend had a secret!

With that thought in mind, she finished her work-out and went home to get ready for all the day's many meetings.

--

"Ok, Gabby and Shar, you know why we're here." Mr. McK said, as soon as they'd all seated themselves at the table in his office-ish room at his house. He had some sheets of paper lying in front of him, which he passed to his daughter, Taylor (you remember her, right ;b), who'd gotten the important to note everything said at the meeting down on paper. He had personally asked her himself, because he knew she'd do anything for her daddy. Mr. McK had to admit to himself, that he was anxious to know Gabriella and Sharpay's single suggestions. "So, what do you have for me?"

Sharpay locked eyes with her best friend, feeling a little hint of ashamed. She cleared her throat and spoke; "We don't really have anything. I'm sorry, Mr. McK."

"I apologize, too, Mr. McK." Gabriella agreed, looking down at her folded hands on the table. "Normally we would have worked on something, as soon as our last single had had its release, but it didn't do so well, and you know what we had to do then, so there wasn't much time to work on something."

"So for the first time ever, The Sweethearts has got nothing?" Taylor asked out of nowhere, right after she'd written the last thing, that had been said, down. She was more eager to know, what The Sweethearts' next release was gonna be, than she was to help her daddy.

"You know what they say, Tay. Never say nothing..." Sharpay slowly began, but was cut off by Gabriella.

"That's not what they say, Shar. It's never say never!"

"Isn't that a Bond-film?" Sharpay wondered out loud, earning herself an eye role from her best friend. "Well, isn't it?"

"We're not here to discuss the adventures of James Bond!" Mr. McK interrupted, just as Gabriella was about to open her mouth to reply to Sharpay's question. "Now, Sharpay, what do you have in mind? You said never say nothing."

"Well, we were offered a song about a year ago, but back then we didn't think it would be one of the best songs to start out with, so we declined the offer." Sharpay started the explanation, and let her best friend take over.

"But now, that we've been in the industry for almost a year and half, we feel confident with doing a song with such lyrics, at least more than we were back then, when we were only 16." Gabriella finished the explanation, but before she would hand the announcement of the title of the song over to her best friend, she had something to add to the explanation. "But if we decide to go with this song, let me just say, that neither of us want to get too exposed, if you know what I mean, in the music video. We want to keep the same style, as we've always kept, okay?"

Mr. McK agreed to the terms and looked expectantly at the both of them, because he didn't know who of them was gonna say something next. That was the thing with The Sweethearts, they would always take over each other's sentences in a meeting, leaving everybody else confused.

"Anyway, the name of the song is 'Sexy! No No No..'" Sharpay cheerfully announced, both her and Gabriella opening their arms in a way, that clearly said; 'isn't this just the best idea, you've ever heard?' And they both looked like, they'd recently been on the funniest ride in Disney World.

"Uhm, can I see the lyrics to that song?" Mr. McK asked, just by the name of the song he felt obligated to say no, but he had to see the lyrics first, they might turn out to be different, that he'd imagined.

"We thought you'd never ask!" Gabriella said, she picked up the lyrics from her bag and handed them to their manager.

Mr. McK read the lyrics thoroughly and then said; "You can't sing this song, girls. You have many little girls looking up to you, and this would ruin your reputation."

"I don't really see, how this one song can do that." Sharpay said, getting ready to fight for the song. "Ok, so maybe we have these little girls as our fans, but guess what? We have a very wide fan-base. And on those channels kids are most likely to watch or listen to, they'll just beep the bad words. And honestly, there aren't that many bad words. Yeah, there are a few hell's, but that's nothing they haven't heard before. We have a few 'lover, come and get me' and a few 'dirty', but that's that."

Gabriella shook her head, and decided to take over. "I think, what Sharpay's trying to say is, would it be so bad, if we did this kinda of song just this one time?"

Mr. McK didn't answer straight away, he looked from Gabriella to Sharpay and then back at Gabriella, he glanced at his daughter and then down at the lyrics he still had in his hand. He could just as well read them again, analyze a bit, were they really that bad?

Taylor was sitting at the edge of her seat with excitement. There was nothing to type right now, so she was taking a break. What was her dad gonna decide with this song, she couldn't wait to know. It sounded like it would be a typical teenage-song, but weren't teenagers also the one's who bought the most music? Yes, that they were. But then again, who were to say others wouldn't like it, as Sharpay had said, The Sweethearts had a very wide fan-base.

"I guess, it wouldn't be so bad this one time." Mr. McK finally said, and Gabriella and Sharpay cheered on him, as Taylor typed what her father had just said down. "I'll take it to the producers later today, now off you go. You have another meeting in a few, am I not correct?"

Both Gabriella and Sharpay nodded and got up from their seats, and they hugged Mr. McK and Taylor goodbye, before they left to go have another meeting.

--

"We get what you're saying, we really do, but the answer is no!" Gabriella said, she didn't wanna budge, and neither did Sharpay. They didn't want some camera-crew following them around for a whole year. Where was the privacy in that?

"We knew you'd feel like this, most people do." One of the camera-dudes said, trying to sound as understanding as possible, while at the same time he wanted to make this documentary. "But we won't be invading your privacy, I swear to you we won't, it's just so your fans can get a sense of who you really are."

"The fans do have a sense of who we really are. I mean look at us. Or look at Sharpay." Gabriella added, when she saw her best friend making funny faces to the camera, another one of the camera-dudes used to film the meeting with, so they had something to add to the documentary, if The Sweethearts decided to go for it. "And while we're at it, why is that camera on?"

"A 'how did it all start' for the documentary, if you decide to go for it." The first camera-dude explained, already sensing that Gabriella wasn't gonna agree to this, but he was just as stubborn as she was, and then there was Sharpay. There was still a chance at convincing Sharpay to do this. "I can't see, why the camera thing is so bad, I mean Sharpay's head is covering the whole thing, so what's the big deal?"

Sharpay, still making faces to the camera, took no notice of what was being said. She had come into the room with Gabriella, the camera-crew had talked their case, both she and Gabriella had said no, and now Gabriella was fighting their case, while she was busy goofing off with the camera.

Gabriella closed her eyes, opened them again and sighed. "Fine, the camera can continue to be on, but we're still not doing a documentary. 'A Year With The Sweethearts' or what the hell you called it, we refuse."

"There's no way of getting you to do this, is there?" A third camera-dude asked, a dude who had been very quiet until now. A very cute camera-dude, Gabriella couldn't help but notice.

She noted to herself to be nice to this guy, she didn't know why, but she liked him as soon as he had spoken. Yes, she was with Troy, whom she was in love with, but wasn't it ok to have small crushes? Wasn't it ok to look but not touch? She believed it was.

"What's your name?" She avoided his question with a question, on purpose. She was gonna answer his question, but she needed to know his name first.

"It's uhm... it's Cole." The third camera-dude, now known as Cole, said, a little taken aback by Gabriella's interest in knowing his name.

"Ok, Cole. There is no way of getting us to this." She said, and turned her head to her best friend, because Sharpay had begun making noises to the camera as well now. "Although Sharpay's action might speak differently, we don't want to do this. Now can we go?"

Not waiting for an answer, Gabriella grabbed Sharpay by the hand and dragged her out of there.

Once outside, Sharpay had made a decision. She looked at her watch, it showed 2:30, which gave her an hour until she had to meet with Gabriella again, and she had something she really had to do.

She hugged her best friend, saying goodbye, and after that she was off to do the thing she had to do, the thing she should have done a long time ago.

She had realized that under the meeting, they had a few minutes ago. To everybody in the room, she may not have seemed like she listened, but she did and because of that, she'd made the decision spoken of earlier.

She had realized, that Gabriella didn't want to do the documentary, because she wanted to keep a little piece of their privacy secret from the public, she wanted to keep as much a secret as she could, but it was very difficult because of the press. That would be the best reason not to want to do this, Sharpay had to admit, but that wasn't the reason she didn't wanna do it. She didn't wanna get caught, she didn't want the world to know, what a lying, cheating, backstabbing bitch or to say it better; slut, she was towards the girl, she claimed was her best friend.

So she had made her decision, she was gonna end it with Troy, and this time it was gonna be for good, no matter how many times he said the words, that made her weak. This was her decision, and she wasn't gonna change it, because Gabriella was her best friend, and she had been for nearly 15 years now. Sharpay loved Gabriella more than anything, and she didn't want to lie, cheat or stab her in the back anymore. Gabriella might not know about these things, but that didn't mean it wasn't real.

Troy and Sharpay had agreed, that they weren't gonna hurt Gabriella's feelings, but Sharpay had realized, that was exactly what they did. Gabriella might not know, what they were doing behind her back, but they were still hurting her, and Sharpay didn't wanna do that anymore, so she was gonna end it with Troy, so she could stop lying to Gabriella and go back to the was things were.

That.was.her.decision!

--

Troy was waiting for her in her own apartment, he couldn't wait to be with her. He missed her, he hadn't seen her for hours and he needed her.

But when Sharpay stormed through the front door, he realized that that wasn't going to happen. He had been happy, until he saw that look in her eyes, and now he knew something was wrong.

"Troy, we need to talk!" There were those four words, that he didn't wanna hear. There were those four words coming out that beautiful mouth of hers, he couldn't bear it.

He could feel the tears forming in his eyes, as she led him to her couch, not to be with him, but to do something he'd hoped would never happen.

They sat down in her couch together, and he could feel himself dreading the next thing, she was gonna say to him. It wasn't good, that was all he knew.

"We have to stop seeing each other, Troy." That was another sentence, that he did not wish to hear, but still he heard it coming right from her beautiful mouth again. How could something so beautiful hurt him so bad with those simple words?

"Why?" Was all he could get out, he didn't know how to fight for her this time, because he could feel, that this time she meant business with what she was doing. Breaking it off with him.

"Why? Troy, are you even listening to yourself right now?" He knew the answer to this one. No, he wasn't listening to himself at that moment, he was still trying to digest her words, and he was still fighting his hardest not to cry. All he could do right now was to close his eyes and shake his head as in 'no', and that was what he did, while he awaited the next thing she had to say. "This isn't right. We can't keep doing this to Gabby, she's my best friend!"

It was the same old song, she'd used it on him numerous times before, when she was certain she wanted to break things off, but back then all he had to do was kiss her, and she would forget all about it. This time was different, this time he could feel her determination to end it with him, so he just sat there and took it, because there was nothing he could do!

Sharpay said a lot of things to him in the next half hour, and he didn't hear half of it, he was busy trying not to cry. He didn't wanna cry in front of her. He had done that once before, but that was when his mother had died, and they had begun this whole affair, it was understandable to cry back then, but he wasn't gonna cry now. He didn't want her feeling sorry for him, because she did what she had to do. He was gonna make things as easy for her, as he could by not crying.

".. but I think we should stay friends, Troy, I really do. Mostly for Gabriella's sake." Troy nodded to what she said, or at least he thought he did, he wasn't sure. He was in some kind of trance of sadness, where he couldn't speak, and where he wasn't really aware of the things going on around him.

He saw her get up and go over to the door. Was she gonna make him leave? She opened the door, so his best guess was gonna be yes.

"I would like for you to leave now." He heard her say, and as pure reflex he got up from her couch and slowly made his way towards the door. He stopped in front of Sharpay and locked eyes with her, hoping that the look in his eyes would tell her all the things, he had wanted to say to her in the past half hour. It seemed like they did, because she nodded as if she'd understood, what he really wanted to say to her.

Troy took her nod as his cue to leave, and he would never be with her again. None of them knew, they wouldn't see each other again for a very long time.

When she had finally closed the door behind him, he let the tears fall freely, not knowing that on the other side of the door, that was exactly what she did as well.

--

"Gabriella Raúl Montez, I'm ready for our song writing session!" Sharpay announced, when she entered the room at Bolton Records, where Gabriella and herself wrote their songs, when they wrote together. When they wrote alone, they wrote in private.

Gabriella was already there, sitting by the table in the room, waiting for her best friend. She sent Sharpay a look, that clearly said, she wasn't impressed with her appearance. "Do you have any idea, what time it is?"

"Yeah, it's 4:07." Sharpay stated, as she sat down next to Gabriella at the table, acting like nothing. "I know you said 3:30, but if you think about it; I'm not late, I'm just really, really early. So technically you can't be mad."

Gabriella decided to ignore Sharpay's last sentence, well she ignored her best friend all together. This was classic Sharpay, so she wasn't really that surprised about it.

They turned on the stereo and plugged in a CD, they had mixed together a few months earlier. They always liked to listen to music, whenever they were writing songs, it was what kept them going all the while. Whenever they had writer's block, they would stop and listen to music for awhile, and that would somehow get them back in the game, so they had decided a long time ago, that when they were writing songs, it always had to be with music.

True Friend came through the speakers, and Gabriella began thinking about, how much this song reminded her of Sharpay's and her friendship. It was almost dead on! And Gabriella had to admit, she knew the song by heart.

"This song so reminds me of us two." She said, letting the former subject drop, no need discussing it, as it would just end in stupid unserious argument between the two of them.

"How so?" Sharpay asked, she was curious, but she also felt very guilty, because of the name of the song. 'True Friend', if that was the impression Gabriella had of, then... well, she was lucky, she didn't know just how mistaken she was. Sharpay wasn't a true friend, the last four months, that Gabriella knew nothing about, had proven that.

"Y'know..." Gabriella trailed off, giving her blonde friend a saying look and waved her hand at the stereo, as if she would get it then. "You don't know? Parts of the lyrics, like 'somehow you're never out of second chances', I think back to nearly 5 months ago, when I messed up and we had that fight, but you forgave me, because you are a true friend."

"Yeah, sure." Sharpay didn't know what else to say, Gabriella was making her feel so bad without knowing it. She was tempted to blow the whole secret, be the true friend Gabriella thought she was, but wouldn't that hurt sweet Gabs? So much for true friend.

"Everything, really. The whole song fits." Gabriella went on, and Sharpay kept feeling more and more bad and became more tempted to blurt the secret out. "Especially, you know the secrets I could never tell. It's so dead on, and I feel like it's mutual. I love you so much, Shar."

"I love you, too, Gabs." Sharpay said, she leaned in and gave her best friend a deep hug. "More than you'll ever know, I swear."

The hug lasted for the rest of tunes of True Friend, while Sharpay listened carefully to the lyrics. She felt so fake with Gabriella, and the only way to get rid of that feeling was to tell her everything, but she couldn't. She would most definitely lose Gabby, if she confessed, but then again they could work through most things, so maybe they could work through this also. Yeah, maybe she should confess? Tell the truth? No, no, no, no, no! She couldn't, she just couldn't do it. She and Troy had promised each other, they wouldn't tell, and even though she had ended it with Troy forever and wasn't the biggest fan of him for starting it in the first place (she knew, she was just as guilty as him), she was gonna honour her promise.

"You're a true friend!" Gabriella sang softly into Sharpay's ear, and they broke apart, Gabriella with a smile on her face.

Screw it, Sharpay thought, I have to tell her!

"Gabriella, we need to talk!"

From Stessa; So yeah! What do you say? Did you like it? Was it worth the loooong wait? Was it? I hope it was! Things are hopefully gonna get good now! I hope you really liked this! And uhm yeah… Remember the promise we wrote by the end of last chapter? About this fic being finished before the new year? Yes, well. I think that maybe we won't be able to live up to that. Hmm, as things are going really slow. But we'll try, I promise you that! Pleaaaase remember to leave us a review?!

From AK-tutti; I'm taking full responsibility for the slowness of the arrival of this chapter. I was suppose to write on, but then I had a friend over for like a week, and I thought it would be rude to sit by the computer and just write. But after she left, I hurried up and finished my bit. I hope it was enjoyable. Thanks for still reading, and please, please, please leave a review? Uh, uh! Advertising: The next chapter of I'd Rather Be Special should be up by the end of this week, hopefully. Okay, on with it. Please, you guys, be nice and review. We'll love you forever! I have this cookie, that was actually meant for stessa, but now I think the person who writes the best review should have it, so get reviewing, you guys!

Stessa and AK-tutti were here :)