Troy looked at his phone as it started vibrating and smiled when he saw the caller ID.

"Hello?" He picked up and rolled his eyes.

"Troy?" A little voice answered him back, not sure if she got the number wrong again.

"Yes. May I ask who's calling?" He asked and smiled.

"Oh Twoy!" Her voice was filled with relief. A moment ago, she had called and another man had answered on the other end, scaring the hell out of her. "It's Mallowy!"

He laughed at her excitement that was heard through her adorable voice. Hearing her, he couldn't help but joke around with her.

"Mallory? I'm not sure I know anyone named Mallory." Her loud gasp made him laugh again.

"You forget me, uncle Twoy?" Troy's eyes widened when he heard sadness in her voice. Being young and not able to understand it was a joke, she furrowed her eyebrows in worry.

Figuring she might start crying if he continued the joke any longer like he did last time, he gave it up. "Oh Mal!" He heard her sigh in relief. "My favourite girl in the whole entire world. How could I forget?"

"No, your favourite girl is auntie Pay." She laughed.

"Oh, that's true. Sorry Mal, you're my second." He said.

The little girl sighed, "Fine, okay, only because I love auntie Pay."

"I do too," He quietly said, then sighed. "So to what do I owe the pleasure of a phone call from you?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"Oh! You wemember my burfday?" She said excitedly, worried her favourite uncle wouldn't come to her birthday party.

"Of course I do, Mal," He laughed. "I think this is about the hundredth time you've called me today. How could I forget?"

"It's the nine time. I don't want you forget." She said seriously. "Pwomise you come?"

He shook his head and smiled, "Yes pretty girl, I promise you I will come."

"Okay. Bye Twoy! Love you!" She hung up before hearing his response.

/

He smiled and put his phone back in his pocket before turning back to the person in front of him.

She laughed before saying, "Was that Mallory?"

"Yeah, she's been calling non stop today to remind me to come," He leaned back in his chair.

"And you are right?" She narrowed her eyes a little to look at her best friend.

"Of course I am. why does everyone keep doubting that? Even Mallory does, that's why she's been calling every five seconds," He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I am going to be there."

Gabriella pursed her lips, not knowing if she should throw in her two cents or not. He wasn't known for always showing up when he promised and it sucked that everyone expected that of him.

"How are things going with Sharpay?" She asked, knowing completely well what happened.

"Good," He sighed then groaned and looked up at the ceiling. "Horrible. I'm an idiot."

Gabriella raised her eyebrows, "Honey, you're just figuring that out now?" She earned a glare from Troy. "Well, you are! That's why we broke up, but seriously Troy, why are you doing this to her?"

"I'm not trying to," He mumbled.

"Well then, try not to," She looked at the man before her. "I don't get it."

"What?"

"You changed. We all saw it. You changed for her. Why shut her off now?" Back when they went out, he was a jackass like no one could ever imagine, it was a good thing she wasn't looking for anything serious. Sharpay was a different story, everyone saw her change him. He became less arrogant and he let Sharpay in his life. "Why are you pushing her away when you held on to her so close? You're hurting her, Troy."

"I know, damnit," His fist came in contact with the table. He took a couple deep breaths. "I know, everyone has been telling me that. You, Chad, Taylor, even Ryan."

"Well, we all know how you are. You're going to push her away so much that she's going to hate you soon. Look at ex-girlfriend one, two or just all the girls in the world," Gabriella looked at him, not knowing whether or not she should be sympathetic. They had a special connection, other than Sharpay, she might've been the only other girl he had somewhat let in.

"I don't want her to leave me," He said quietly.

"She wouldn't!" Gabriella sighed. Why that boy even question that confuses her. "And you know what? I know you very well, Bolton, and I know you love her. So show her and tell her you do." She paused then, "And I know when you guys fight, you always go for what hurts the most. Not caring what you say because you don't want to get hurt yourself. I'm warning you, Troy. Don't play that game with her. Her heart is way more fragile than you think."

Troy remained silent. Gabriella always made sense when she spoke. That usually annoyed mostly everyone. She was the one with the answers in math or chemistry and also their answers for any problem they had. Though sometimes, times like now, Troy was very thankful to have her in his life.

"Troy," She snapped him out of his train of thoughts and said, "Your phone. I'll laugh if that's Mallory," She said and shook her head. That little girl could make everyone love her in a second without even trying.

He picked up the phone and answered, "Hello?"

"Yo Troy! Can you come down here, man?" Scott's voice could hardly be heard though all the talking from the background.

"Why? Where are you?" Troy asked, turning away from Gabriella.

"I ran into your director, there's some stuff about the movie he wanted to talk about."

"Uhm," He looked at Gabriella, who was keeping herself busy, finishing off her plate of food. "I can't, there's this thing I have to do tonight."

"C'mon, it won't take that long. It's still only 2," Scott urged. "We'll be done by 5. Come to Paradise now." He hung up.

Troy stared at the phone for a few seconds, debating with himself whether he should go or not.

"Gaby, I'm sorry, do you mind it I leave?" He shot her an apologetic smile.

She raised an eyebrow at him, "I don't mind, but are you going to make it back in time?"

"Yeah, I'll be done by 5, Mallory's thing is at 6." He got up and threw a bunch of bills on the table, way more than necessary. "Bye," He gave kissed her on the side of her head and left.

Gabriella sighed, knowing that if he doesn't show up tonight, he was going to be screwed.

/

Sharpay looked at herself in the mirror while humming. Even though she wouldn't admit it, she was trying to impress Troy. It seemed stupid, considering he had seen her at the worst, but it still mattered to her what he though. He would tell her she was beautiful either way though, she knew that.

"Shar?" Taylor walked into their huge mansion and yelled.

"Ever heard of knocking, Tay?" Sharpay smiled at Taylor through the mirror as she walked into her gigantic closet.

"O yeah, yeah," Taylor threw herself onto the couch and waved her hand dismissively. They've walked into each other's house as it was their own for as long as they could remember. Knocking had just seemed to be a waste of time after a while. "Ew. You look gorgeous. Mallory is going to like you more than me soon. She goes for looks."

"Shut up, you're beautiful." She laughed at her friend's restless expression. "Chad's with Mal?"

"Yeah, daddy's little princess." Taylor rolled her eyes.

Sharpay looked at her friend. Even though she seemed so tired and pretended to be annoyed at Chad and Mallory, she knew Taylor loved it. And as much as Sharpay hated to admit it, she was jealous. She couldn't help it. That was what she had wanted with Troy, but that seemed like a place they could never reach.

"What's going on in your head girly?" Taylor watched Sharpay's distant look. "Trouble in paradise?"

Sharpay let out a dry laugh. "Paradise?" She sighed and sat down beside her friend. "It was this morning." She paused. "I just, sometimes I just hate him so much, you know? He can make me feel so damn special, but he can make me feel like shit too." She felt her eyes water and she cursed them for betraying her. "I don't want to lose faith in him. But I am."

"Oh honey," Taylor wrapped her arms around her Sharpay, letting her lean her head on her shoulder. "It'll be okay."

"I hate him so much for being able to make me feel this way because it shows how much I actually love him." Sharpay looked at their reflection and got up, forcing her tears to stay down. "We are not going to listen to me whine. We have your daughter's party to get ready for. Come on, there's a dress in my room that I know you'll love." She grinned and pushed Taylor out of the closet.

She frowned when her cell started going off. After looking through the pile of clothes she had tried, she finally found her phone.

Unknown.

"Hello?" She said cautiously, a few times before, a few fans had gotten her phone number before. How they did, she didn't know, but she had to change it to avoid that happening again.

"Pay," Hearing his voice, despite of herself, she couldn't help but smile a little.

"Your number's blocked." She said after a minute of neither one of them talking.

"Oh, uhm yeah, I thought you might not picked up, so I blocked it." He shrugged even though he knew she couldn't see her.

"Oh," She said, not knowing what to say to that. She hated their conversations now. They were either as awkward as this or their stupid arguments. "Was there something you needed? I have to go help Taylor help get ready."

"Do you? Uhm, alright, sorry, no I didn't." He stuttered. He had just wanted to hear her voice because through all the bullshit he has done, he still loved her.

"Okay then," She said, unsure of what to do. His breath was heard through the speaker and they weren't saying anything, just breathing into the phone.

"I'm sorry, Shar," He said quietly. "I love you." He hung up on her, not wanting to hear her reply. He didn't know how she would react or say because of the way he had been treating her. Honestly, he wouldn't even blame her if he found her gone one day.

/

Troy leaned back in his chair. It has been 2 hours since he had been sitting here talking to his director about his movie and now they were finally done.

"Alright, so I'm going to have to leave guys." Troy pushed back his chair. 4:45.

"Oh come one, Troy. You told us you had to leave at 6, have a drink here. We need to celebrate your movie." Scott pushed Troy back down.

"We already celebrated yesterday." Troy shook his head.

"Well we're celebrating again. Drinks on me, alright? Now how can you say no to that?" His director, Alex Baer, laughed and called the bartender over and ordered three drinks.

"I don't know…" Troy stared at the time on his phone. He did have an hour left technically. "Fine, one drink. I promised my wife I'd go."

"Getting married might be one of the stupidest thing you've done, my boy," Alex patted his back. "All those girls who would love to get their hands on you." He shook his head, almost disapprovingly.

"I only need that one." Troy smiled and drank.

/

Sharpay let out a frustrated scream when she reached Troy's voicemail again. She didn't see the point in leaving him a message again. She had already left five and he wasn't picking up his phone.

"PayPay," She turned around to see the little girl standing there with a small pout on her face.

"What can I do for you, my love?" She forced a smile because she knew what the little girl wanted.

"Twoy pwomise." Mallory had called a billion times since her party started an hour ago, but he had not picked up the phone once.

"He's going to be here, honey. He's just running a bit late." Sharpay picked up the little girl and walked her back out into the backyard where her party was. "Go play with your friends, he'll be here."

"Okay," Although Mallory ran off to her friends, Sharpay knew her pout wouldn't leave her face until she saw Troy.

She took out her cell phone again to look at the time. 7:09. While walking to the table with food, she dialed the number she knew by heart.

Hey, this is Troy Bolton. Obviously I cannot answer the phone right now, Leave me a message. Sharpay groaned when she heard that. She could nearly kill him right now because of how pissed of she was. The one thing he could not do was breaking this little girl's heart. He had to know how much this meant to Mallory.

Putting her phone back in her pocket, she looked around and Mallory playing with another little girl and smiled. A pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist from behind and she immediately freaked out, dropping them all onto the floor. She looked up to see Troy grinning at her.

"Where the hell were you?" She hissed, careful not to let the kids overhear her.

"Well, someone's in a bad mood," His words slurred and as he walked around her, he stumbled. "Mallory!" He yelled as he looked around the backyard and saw the little girl's face light up from the other side of the yard.

Sharpay narrowed her eyes before grabbing his arm and spinning him around. "Please tell me you're not drunk, Troy."

"Twoy! Twoy!" Mallory screamed, happily while she pulled at his pant leg.

"Honey, I'm sorry, could you give us a minute?" Sharpay watched as the little girl's face fall again.

"But he come for me?" Mallory's eyes started tearing up in confusion and sadness as she turned to Troy.

"I did!" Troy leaned down to pick Mallory up. Mallory jumped, causing him to almost drop her.

Taylor walked over to Sharpay and quietly said, "I'm sorry, Shar, but a few parents are worried about Troy and he's already drunk, do you mind bringing him inside or home?" It hurt Taylor to have to do that to her best friend, but she had no choice. She couldn't ruin her daughter's birthday party just because of Troy.

Sharpay nodded and forced a smile on her face as watched as Taylor lifted a, now screaming, Mallory out of Troy's arms.

/

"I cannot believe you!" Sharpay walked into their house, dropping all her stuff on the ground, not really caring for anything right now.

"Oh stop being so over dramatic," He waved her off and laid down on the couch. Even though it was only 9, he was desperate for sleep.

"You came to a 3 year old's birthday wasted, Troy!" Sharpay screamed. How did he not understand this? Oh wait, that's right. The drinks he had before going to the party.

"Ugh, you're going to make my head hurt soon." Troy rubbed his temple.

"You promised Mal you'd go. Do you know how many times she asked me where you were?"

"And I was there!" Troy yelled, standing up.

Sharpay turned to him, anger in her brown eyes. "Drunk! You were at her party drunk! What is the matter with you? God, you are so self-centered. Do you ever think of anyone besides yourself?"

"Stop being so sensitive, this wasn't even your birthday. And I am not self-centered. You can't always be the center of my whole world." He yelled. Even in his drunken state, he knew the things he's saying are wrong. But right now, it seemed as if his mouth had no filter.

"I know that I'm can't. You're the only person that's in your world. You don't care for anything anyone ever does for you." She screamed, exasperated. "I forgive you. Every single fucking time you do anything and you don't even care!"

"Well no one told you to forgive me, now did they?" He growled. This was the beginning of the game Gabriella had talked about. The two of them always said things, things that might not be true, but they did, to hurt each other. Whoever hurt each other most, won.

"Why did I ever marry you?" Sharpay said, almost a whisper. Tears fell down her face as she continually tried to wipe them away.

Troy gave her a dry laugh. "If it hadn't been for that extra booze I'd drank, trust me, I wouldn't have let it happen. I can have all those girls out there, but-"

She cut him off before he had a chance to finish his sentence. "Well you know what? You can have all of them. I don't care." Her voice cracked as she raised it once again. When had they become such a messed up couple? They used to be the two people everyone envied, how could they have turn into this?

Troy stared at her. Her response was not something he had expected, but he quickly made sure she didn't see him freeze. "Oh please, I'll give you a day before you come running back." He smirked.

"I can't keep doing this anymore, Troy." She cried.

"What?"

"This." She threw her arms up in the air.

All traces of his confidence vanished, "What do you mean?" He watched her open her mouth and close it several times. "Just fucking spit it out, damn it."

She stared at him for a moment, trying to find the Troy Bolton she had fallen in love with. But all she saw were broken promises and someone that had full power of hurting her like no one has. "I want a divorce."

The alcohol seemed to suddenly all leave him. Troy knew he should say something, anything to fix it, to stop her from thinking anywhere near a divorce, but his pride got in the way and instead he said, "The feeling's mutual," before slamming the door behind him as he left.

I know everyone hates Troy now. But I still love him. Well, it took me a long time to update, I know. But I just had to work out how I wanted this story to go and ideas kept popping into my head and I didn't know how to put them together, Blah blah blah. But here it is! I hope it's good :S I didn't even read it over a single time because I was way too tired. I feel like this chapter was very choppy, but I didn't know how to write this chapter. I knew exactly how I wanted it in my head but I couldn't get it in words. It's very frustrating.

Personally I thought this chapter sucked.

REVIEW? Please? I'd appreciate it.

-macyxo