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Protecting Miss Montez

Chapter nine

Playing Hero

Two days later, the door to Gabriella's room stayed open as she watched a Lakers game on her TV. Troy stood in his spot by her door, watching it while doing his job. He and Gabriella hadn't talked since the ballroom almost-kiss and neither of them had a problem with it. There was a crack of thunder overhead and Troy smirked when he noticed Gabriella bring the blanket she was using to cover up with further towards her face. It had been raining for the past two days, which gave Gabriella the perfect excuse to stay in her room.

About two hours later and when commercials were the only thing playing after the game was over, Troy noticed that Gabriella had fallen asleep and it was only eight o'clock. He guessed thunderstorms calmed her down and put her to sleep, but in a few more hours, he would figure out otherwise.

***

Troy was currently standing in a pitch-black hallway with a flashlight in his right hand that lit up a small circle by his feet. The lights had gone out because of the storm and he was told to go about his regular schedule while they tried to figure out why the backup generator wasn't working. It had been a while since he had seen a thunderstorm this severe, but he was never afraid of them.

He and Chad would run around in his backyard during them when Chad would spend the night and they would only come in when his mom and dad would run out in big raincoats screaming things about how they could get struck by lightening as they carried them in, telling them to get their pajama's on already.

It was memories like that that had him smiling in the darkest of days and now as he stood in the literal darkest day, he was still able to smile. As he sighed, missing his mom as he thought of her, he heard movement in Gabriella's room and became instantly still as he listened.

He heard a groggy groan come from Gabriella as he stepped closer to the open door and after a few more seconds of listening, he could hear her panicking, clearly talking in her sleep as she yelled at someone to leave her alone. Troy's eyebrows creased in confusion as he stood in her doorway, wondering if this dream of hers would pass but as a flash of lightening flashed, brightening the room he could see that she was tossing and turning as tears flowed down her face.

"Where are you?" He heard her mumble and suddenly, making him drop his flashlight and jump, she screamed, sitting up quickly in her bed.

Troy hurriedly went over to her, grabbing her arm gently as she folded against her legs, sobbing against them as her sweaty back heaved up and down. He didn't know what to do. These were the moments that he panicked. Like he told her before, he didn't know how to handle women, definitely when they were freaking out.

"Hey, Gabriella, it's okay." He said quietly, causing her to look up quickly as if she just realized that he was there next to her, like she didn't feel his hand on her arm before.

She immediately grabbed him, holding him tight around the neck and he tensed, but slowly relaxed as he put his arms around her, feeling her forehead against his neck.

"Where the hell were you?!" She asked him, saying this against him so that it was hard to hear her.

"What do you mean?" He asked her in confusion, moving his hand slowly on her back as she hiccupped.

"I had a nightmare that someone broke into my room through my window." She put her hand against her forehead, trying to calm down. "And you-you weren't outside when I ran out there. He…"

Her sentence trailed off into a new sob and he held her somewhat frightfully as she shook her head, wanting to forget about it. She lifted her head from his shoulder slowly, breathing sporadically as she realized that she was sitting on his lap and that he was still holding her.

"Don't worry about it, Gabriella." Troy said with a nod, seeing her tear stricken face as lightening flashed outside, lighting up the room momentarily. "Nothing's going to happen to you, okay?"

Gabriella nodded, breathing out shakily as she slowly calmed back down. She felt Troy's thumb against her cheek, brushing away the watery substance on her skin and as she moved her eyes from his arm to his face, she saw the way he was looking at her carefully. His long eyelashes brushed against his cheeks as another flash of lightening brightened the room and his eyes moved to hers as his hand trailed away from her face, stopping at her neck.

She moved her hand that was around his shoulder up to his shaggy hair that was soft against her palm as she ran her fingers through it. They could both tell they were debating whether or not they should change their relationship dramatically, but as Gabriella pulled Troy towards her, capturing his lips into a rough kiss, Troy gladly kissing her back, they both knew that they wouldn't have been able to resist each other; no matter how hard they tried.

Troy's hand rested underneath Gabriella's t-shirt on the small of her back as they pulled away, breathing heavily at their unexpected make out session and Gabriella smiled shyly at him, feeling her heart pounding.

Never before did she feel what she had while she was kissing Troy. With Drew, sure, it was fun occasionally and they had something for a while, but with Troy it was as if they had been kissing each other for years, meant to be together. Under these circumstances though they weren't so sure if they should go any further with their relationship. Should they be friends that kissed once? Should Troy stick to talking back to her? Should he get up now and leave her among the wrinkled sheets and thunderstorm just outside the window?

Neither of them knew the answers to those questions, but they were questioning everything as they stayed quiet, looking at each other in wonder. Troy played with a strand of her hair that lay against her back as he looked at her, the first out of the two to talk.

"I'll lay with you until you fall asleep." He said in a whisper, seeing the smile form on her face as she nodded.

"Okay." She whispered back, rolling off of his lap, setting her head on her usual pillow.

Troy looked down at her before lying down next to her, still skeptical about staying, but as her scent floated off of the pillow he laid his head on, he knew that he'd rather stay here now while the lights were out and no one was worried about her than to get up and leave now.

Gabriella scouted closer to Troy, lying her head on his pillow instead as he wrapped his arms around her, smiling to himself as Gabriella's forehead pressed against his neck. This had to be worth it, he thought as she ran her hand through his hair again, causing a shiver to run down his spin. He smiled down at her, seeing that she was becoming tired as she breathed steadily next to him, her hand slowing in his hair as she slowly drifted to sleep.

***

Gabriella woke up the next morning alone, before Rosy had a chance to come and wake her up. She smiled, pressing her face against her pillow as the scent of Troy lingered there and she quickly went into the bathroom to shower and get ready for her day.

When Troy heard Gabriella's bedroom door open he smiled, looking over at the doorway to see Gabriella smiling too, her hair slightly damp as it fell against her green t-shirt. He glanced down the hallway, looking both ways before pushing Gabriella into her room so that they weren't in viewing distance from anyone passing her hall.

He kissed her softly, pulling her close to him as he pulled away, winking at her.

"Morning Miss Montez." He smirked, quickly going back to the hallway to take his spot by her door.

"Oh, so that's how it's going to be, huh?" Gabriella asked with a laugh, swatting him before making her way to the kitchen for breakfast. When they were there, Troy sat in front of her, looking into her eyes as they waited for her meal.

"How are you today, Troy?" She asked casually, hiding the smirk on her face as she put her hand over her mouth, leaning her elbow against the counter.

The kitchen staff glanced at the two, raising their eyebrows at them as they stirred and scrapped at the pots and pans on the large stoves in the kitchen.

"I'm good." He nodded. "The thunderstorm had everyone frantically rushing around last night." He told her as if she had no idea that there was a thunderstorm at all.

"Did you run around with a flashlight playing hero?" Gabriella joked, winking at him as she came up with a mysteriously clueless joke.

"Something like that." He replied with a nod.

"You two are mysteriously cheerful today," the main chef smiled as he set down a plate of food in front of Gabriella and she shrugged, plucking a strawberry from the plate and tossing it into her mouth.

"Rain can do that to people," Gabriella said, laughing softly with a shrug.

As the kitchen staff went about their daily routine, Gabriella and Troy sat quietly, inhaling the sweet smell of the air that blew through the open kitchen door. They talked only briefly about random topics that Gabriella would come up with, but other than that, they gave no hints to the staff that they were in any way involved.

"Do you want to go for a walk outside?" Gabriella asked Troy with a smile, pushing her plate to the side.

"I'm surprised you want to go out after the photographer incident," Troy said.

"Well, now that I can knock someone out myself thanks to you, I'm not too worried about going out there."

Gabriella stood, raising her eyebrow at him so he'd follow her out and he did, pulling a pair of dark aviators over his eyes once they were in the backyard. The flower pots around the backyard were recently rearranged by Mrs. Montez, so to the both of them, the backyard had a newer look.

"So, guess what?" Gabriella said with a smile, walking backwards so that she could look at him and walk at the same time.

"What?" Troy smiled, kicking a stray rock to the side, putting his hands in his pocket.

"We're having a ball here in a couple of days," she said, her smile growing since she could officially go to her first ball.

"Luckily you can ballroom dance now," Troy continued to grin, and then cleared his throat. "You're going to have to find a date. Might be awkward."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Gabriella responded quickly, as if she had thought a lot about what the night of the ball would bring. "I can go alone. You know, stand up for women's independence and all."

"Well, I'm sure you'll have a good time," Troy nodded, glad for her.

"Too bad you couldn't be my date."

"Yeah," Troy smiled, "to bad."

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unknownbyhim22