Sorry for he late update, and keeping you all in suspence. But it's a long chapter, so it's worth it :D 5,728 words

We opened our eyes and stared at each other, I could see her eyes full of shock and shame. I quickly moved away from Gabriella, looking towards Dannie.
"I tried to tell you, you made it so hard for me" I said, stepping closer to Dannie, my words were stumbled.
"DON'T YOU DARE BLAME ME" Dannie yelled, I was taken aback, and so was Lauren by the look of things.
"I'm not! I wouldn't ever! I'm so sorry," I said, almost breaking down into tears.
"NOTHING YOU SAY WILL EVER MAKE ME FORGIVE YOU, I HATE YOU!" Dannie yelled, causing everyone around us to look.
"Dannie, calm down babes, it's going to be okay," Lauren said, attempting to embrace Dannie in a hug, who pushed her away.
"GET LOST! I HATE YOU TOO, YOU'RE A BITCH, AND YOU ALWAYS HAVE BEEN!!!" Dannie yelled at Lauren, who immediately began crying.
"Do you have any idea what you're saying?!" I heard Gabi shout.
Where did the sudden confidence come from? Gabi has never had the courage to stand up to someone, especially my now, ex-girlfriend. She changed when she was in Florida. Her body was different, her face was different and her personality was different. She was still the same Gabriella I used to know, but somehow, she grew up and confidence and courage came with her.
"Gabi, just leave it please. Dannie, can I talk to you?" I asked politely.
"TALK TO ME? YOU WANT TO TALK TO ME, OH HELL NO!" she screamed.
"Please," I begged.
"You get one minute!" she said.
"Oh, uh, well, why don't we go inside," I said, she sighed and walked down the road to my house. I turned and Gabi, walked over and whispered in her ear. "I love you, I'll come back soon, babe." I kissed her cheek and walked away, with Lauren following.

"Dannie," she called as we entered the house, my dad raised his eye-brows and shook my head at him and he told us where she was, we found her in the living room pacing up and down. "Dannie come and sit down." I had to be honest, Lauren was a sweet girl; she didn't need Dannie as a friend.
"Piss off Lauren," Dannie mumbled and Lauren looked slightly hurt and sat down on the sofa. "Are you deaf? Go on get out!"
"Lauren, just go see Gabi please? I'll be there soon," I said as kindly as I could.
"Yeah go see the slut, just get out of here," Dannie said quietly, while pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Okay, don't you care call her a slut! She is nothing like that!" I shouted.
"Fine then! She's a boy-friend stealer!" she screamed.
"Just listen please. I love you, you know I do-" I started.
"No you don't. You wouldn't get with your best friend if you loved me," she said.
"I haven't 'gotten' with her. We never planned for this happen, but it just did. See, me and Gabi have history; our lives together go way back. We've been best friends ever since we were born. But I guess along the way to where we are now, we developed chemistry and a feeling for each other and we can't just ignore those feelings. We just wasn't expecting this to happen," I said, rushing to get the right words out.
"Did I do something?" she asked. How do I answer this question? I could easily tell her the truth and that she was too clingy and that she was a bitch and that I didn't love her anymore, like I loved Gabi or I could take the easy way out and just lie. Lying comes naturally to me now; after all I've lied, so many times in this past week. Why stop now?
"No, you haven't done anything. It was just our relationship that failed and broke, it's my fault but I love Gabi more," I said. She smiled and turned around to face me, with tears staining her face and her mascara running down to her chin.
"I guess I knew you loved her differently to me since I met her on Monday. The way you look at her says it all; I guess I was jealous because you've never looked at me like that before," she said still smiling.
"I'm sorry Danielle," I said solemnly.
"I knew this was bound to happen so let's just let it go and be friends?" she asked in more of a question.
"We'll work on it," I smiled. "Thank you."
"Stop talking," she started. Wow, one minute she is this sweet caring vulnerable girl, whom of which I only see once in a blue moon and then she sort of turns back to a bitch like girl. She walked past me and into the hallway and stopped at the front door, pulled it open and stopped there. "Go get your girl Troy." And then she was gone.

I started after her, has she just told me to – Is she okay about all of this? All these questions were playing in my mind. I shook my head and ran out of the door, down to Gabriella's house. I didn't even bother knocking, I ran straight inside, and into the living room. Gabriella and Lauren were sat on her sofa, just staring at the wall; I looked at them both, and saw their heads shoot up.
"What happened? Where's Dannie?" Both of them shot questions at me. I didn't reply, I just ran over to Gabriella and embraced her in one of my bone crushing hugs. "She…she told me to come, she said it was okay, she knew we were in love, she could tell, she doesn't mind, it's all okay," I hugged Gabriella and stuttered out my words, sounding. I pulled away and looked at Lauren.
"Sorry, It's all fault, all of it, and it's my fault she called you a bitch" I looked a her apologetically and walked over to her and hugged her. I didn't know her well, but this seemed like the right thing to do. Lauren was a nice girl, a good friend and she didn't deserve to me Dannie's slave.

"It's fine, I didn't like her much anyway, she's become so big headed" Lauren laughed, returning the hug. "I'd much rather have friends that respect me, and don't think I'm her Barbie doll" Lauren continued.
"Then, be our friend?" Gabriella offered, standing up from the sofa and putting her arm around me. "You're a really nice person," She said.

There was something different in Lauren, she wasn't your typical teenage girl who caused drama almost twenty four seven. She was the kind of girl who seemed timid and quiet when you meet her, but the minute you get to know her, you realised that she was this confident, funny, and smart girl. And I definitely wanted to know more about her. "Yeah, c'mon, become a part of our gang?" I said as more of a question. She seemed taken aback by our sudden want to have her as a friend and to be part of the group but we wouldn't have it any other way. Dannie wasn't her friend; she just wanted someone to be her puppy dog and to use her. And Lauren was that puppy dog; she was the girl who accepted Dannie's every demand whether it was a good demand or a really bitchy one, Lauren still did everything Dannie wanted her to and Dannie was a bitch towards her in return. How could she have let that go on for so long? "What do you say?"
"Oh, uh, okay. Yeah!" she replied with a grin forming on her face. "I'd love to."
"Great!" Gabi said. "Just come sit with us at lunch tomorrow or we'll see you in the halls before homeroom."
"Won't your other friends mind though, I mean, I was friends with Dannie and they didn't like her so they might not like me," she said, with the nervousness kicking in.
"Don't worry, we'll talk to them tomorrow. We'll tell them that you are nothing like Dannie, because you aren't and we'll say that you're a really nice girl and that you're not looking to cause drama," Gabi explained.
"Oh okay, cool," Lauren said breathing a sigh of relief. "I think I'm going to go home now. It is okay if I use your house phone to call my mum?"
"Yeah, go for it!" Gabi smiled and showed her the way.

A while later Lauren was gone, and Gabi and I were in her bedroom, with her lying on her bed and me sitting in her purple beanbag chair. Her room was quite big; her aunt had decorated it for her just before she returned from Florida. It was now purple, white and silver. Her bed frame was silver with a purple bed spread. On that bed spread there was white patterns, like spirals. Her four walls were purple as well, but a different shade to the bed spread; the bed spread was a dark luminous purple, while the walls were only a light purple, but they weren't the ordinary purple you see every day, the shade had something unique added into to give it that special luminosity. The walls were only half painted purple because the other half of the walls was painted silver, but a rich silver that shone in every direction. They were a million and one pictures hung up on her walls, some of friends, some from Florida and some of her family and last but not least, some were posters; posters of fit celebrities, as she calls them. The entire room just suited her personality, from the colours of the walls, the oak wood flooring beneath our feet to the rugs laying on the wood and the curtains shutting the light from the outside world which French doors were situated leading out to her balcony. There even were fairy lights twisting around her balcony fence giving off this bright gold, yellow, glow in the late evening.

"So tell me again why are we re-organising your room?" I asked, almost terrified of her answer.
"Because I've been back only a week or so and I just crammed stuff in and I haven't really done anything with it to sort it out; so now, seems like the perfect opportunity," she said. That was the answer that terrified me. 'Seems like the perfect opportunity' that opportunity also included a very bossy and demanding Gabriella Montez, not that I minded of course, I loved been with her; but I could already tell it was going to be a long night, and we don't have long.

"No! That goes there! God, you don't listen!" she screamed, going into stress mode almost instantly. I was moving a very heavy box to the corner of the room, and then sorting it all out. Apparently it was full of her make-up. How much make-up did she want? She didn't need it anyway. "Just be careful with it and just listen okay. I want you to put that in the corner near the desk. Have you got that?" she explained. I nodded and moved it very carefully yet quickly to the corner and put it down gently, making sure that all was well with her makeup. About an hour later we were done and I collapsed onto the bed, bringing Gabi down with me. I kissed the top of her head and breathed a sigh of relief that we were done.

"Thank you for helping me, it looks amazing now" Gabriella smiled. I looked deep into her eyes and took this as an opportunity to show her how much I loved her. Before I knew it, our lips were connected and her petite body was pushing down on top of me. I won't deny it; I was very turned on by this point. The more our tongues battled for dominance, the harder it became to control myself. I moved my hands down to her hips, gradually taking her vest top up little by little. Before I even had chance to finish what I started, Gabriella had moved my arms above my head, so she could take my black top off. Jesus, she really wanted this? Was all I could think in my mind; I finished what I started and slowly began taking the rest of her vest top off; leaving us both shirtless. Wow; her body was amazing.
"Troy…I'm sorry, I got carried away" Gabriella said, tensing and pulling away.
"It's okay, so did I, got caught up in the moment" I replied, my heart rate was going at a dangerous speed, I felt as though it was about to break out! Gabriella smiled down at me and kissed my cheek, picking up her top and sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Hey guys, this is Lauren, obviously, is it okay if she hangs out with us and stuff," Gabriella said that afternoon at the dinner table. Everyone looked between the three of us, stood their with me and Gabriella at either side of a worried looking Lauren.
"Cutting a long story short…" I piped in "Dannie is a bitch, Lauren is lovely and we thought it would be cool to have her in our…'gang'" Everyone stared at me for a moments time, and then all agreed to having Lauren sit with us. She settled in quite well, she sat between Gabriella and Kelsi, looking as though she had been with us for her whole life, never mind several minutes. The day was going pretty well, everyone knew me and Gabriella were going out now, however, we would keep what happened last night a secret. It wasn't anything major, just two hormonal teenagers. Dannie hadn't talked to me all day; she smiled at me in the corridor, which was better than nothing I guess. She even smiled when Gabriella was attached to my hand, which I felt slightly guilty about, but what could I do now?

The day had all been pretty much the same to be honest, people staring at me and Gabriella holding hands, the talk being 'what happened to Dannie?' and 'why didn't she care?' I felt like shouting at everyone to keep their noses out! But I didn't want to make a scene. I had Gabriella, and that's all that mattered to me right now.

In final lesson (Maths) I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, so I took my phone out and read…

Mum's picking me up, taking me shopping, idk why, come round at 6 ish love you xxxxxx

I smiled at the message and immediately texted back.

Will do, have a nice time. Love you xxxxx

I shoved my phone back in my pocket and sank lower into my chair, ignoring what the teacher had to say, I had other things on my mind. All of a sudden I saw something small, white and crunched up land in the middle of my maths book. A glanced over the room, trying to figure out who threw the small piece of paper, I couldn't spot any one out so I grabbed it and opened it to find a note. Chad.

B-ball practice after school, in the gym. Don't be late. Chad.

I turned my head in his direction, only to see his head in the direction of the teacher. Unusual behaviour. I grabbed my pen and quickly wrote a note back telling them to wait for me after class and we'd walk to the gym together. Wait a minute. My dad has another meeting, so they can't be practice tonight. What was Chad doing? I scribbled out the note I had previously written and wrote:

Dude, my dad has a meeting, so we don't have practice.

I slyly threw it over to his desk and, luckily, it landed in the middle of it. I saw him open it quietly, read it over and wrote another note as quickly as he could. Seriously, we're like a bunch of girls, with this note passing thing. He folded the piece of paper up again and passed it back to the girl behind, who then passed it to a boy beside her, who finally passed it to me. It took longer than normal, but it was a safer way of getting caught and not getting detention, because at East High, our detention consisted of receiving a lecture from my dad and having to paint set of the school productions. On top of that, detention was no fun at all.

I know, but I thought that you and I could just practice on our own today, and we need to talk.

'We need to talk' what could we possibly have to talk about? I wrote back asking that question, but I didn't get an answer all I got was raised eyebrows from him as he crunched the piece of paper into a ball again and hid it beneath his left hand. That still didn't answer my question, I spent the last half an hour of the class wishing and wishing that the bell would just ring, I sat in my rather uncomfortable chair, staring at the over large, black and white clock on the wall. It was as if time slowed down purposely so that I would stay here, it seemed like an eternity before the final bell rang, I quickly stood up, shoved my books in my bag and headed for the door.
"Remember people! Homework sheet due in a Monday!" I heard the teacher shout.

Great homework, that'll be fun. I'll pretend I didn't hear her.
"Dude, what could we possibly need to talk about?" I asked as I joined him outside of the classroom.
"Uh oh, let's see, you let Lauren join our group, not that I'm mad about it of course, I like her, she seems like a nice girl, you break up with Danielle and then you're with Gabi almost ten minutes later. And what better way to talk about it during basketball," he said ending in a sarcastic tone.
"Right... let's go then. I don't want to be here all afternoon," I said. We arrived at the gym and quickly changed into our basketball kit, luckily the gym was empty this afternoon, since there was no extracurricular activities been held. "So... out with it."
"Okay, firstly, stop with the sarcastic comments, and tell me what went on with Gabi, Dannie and Lauren last night," he said
"Well, we went to the beach after we saw you and Taylor, then I took her home and we kissed by the car, and it was getting a bit intimate and then Dannie caught us, we had a slight argument and then she was like 'I guess I knew all along that you loved Gabi more than me, because you never look at me like the way you look at Gabi' and then she was like 'Go get your girl' I was quite confused actually because she took it well, considering I sort of cheated on her," I said, while we passed the ball to each other to warm up.
"Wow, I wasn't really expecting that. I'm just happy that you got together with Gabi, because honestly, each time you look at her, it's like you're having eye sex," he said as he threw the ball towards the hoop. Nothing but net.
"Dude! I do not look like I'm having eye sex!" I yelled in a complaining manner.
"Seriously, you do! I'm not sure any of the others see it, but I sure do!" he said, grinning from ear to ear. "Since we're onto that topic, have you, ya'no..."
"No."
"And why not? You've know her for sixteen years!" he said.
"Just because we've known each other for that long doesn't mean I'm going to jump into bed with her as soon as we start dating. She isn't ready," I said, throwing the ball in the air, aiming for the hoop.
"And how do you know that?" he asked.
"I just do man. It's not rocket science, and even if she was, it's not like we would anyway, I want to wait till it's the right time," I said. "Before you say it, no I am not frigid."
"Do you want to?" he asked ginning like an immature boy, that he is. I hesitated, did I really want to? I mean, I've thought about, what hormonal sixteen year old teenager hasn't thought about, but did I really want to? "Troy!"
"Oh uh, sorry. I don't know if I want to just yet. I have thought about it but I think about Gabi as well, I know she's not ready, so I'm willing to wait until she is." I answered honestly.
"Seriously, wow you really are mature. 'Willing to wait' that's a laugh, what if, for some bizarre and weird reason, Gabi wanted to wait until marriage to have sex, what would you do then huh?" he asked. I hadn't really thought about that, especially from what happened last night, I didn't really think she wanted to wait till marriage.
"I haven't thought about that. Why do you know something?" I demanded.
"What? No! Of course I don't, just asking that's all, because let's face it, you do seem horny," he laughed and ran down the court, dribbling the basketball as he did so, and slammed it into the net, and ran back with it. I was planning to keep last night a secret, there was no doubt in my mind that I would ever tell Chad, there was just some things you have to keep from your best friend. And what happened between me and Gabi last night, was in the category. I think it's time to ask him a question.
"Shut up. More to the point, have you done it with Taylor?" I asked. I saw him flush red and start dribbling the ball on the spot, avoiding all eye-contact. "Have you?"
"Uh... no," he said, after a few seconds of ignoring my question.
"Oh wow. Seriously dude, that's funny, you give me grief about not having sex with my girlfriend, when you haven't even done it with you girlfriend, that's classic dude," I said laughing. I grabbed the ball and ran down the court, jumped in the air and watched as the basketball flew straight into the net.

"Anyway, now that's over with…I gotta go, I'm going round to Gabi's," I threw the ball to Chad and watched him jump to catch it. He looked at me, a huge grin forming on his face.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," He winked, breaking into laughter.
"That's not much then," I laughed at him and ran out of the gym, leaving him looking gormless, hearing a distant 'hey!' after he had realised what I had said. I ran into the changing rooms and grabbed my bag from my locker; I figured it would be easier to shower when I got home. I walked out to my car in the front parking lot, and threw my bag on the back seat taking the front seat and setting off.

I drove home thinking about what Chad had said only moments ago. Thinking about how he laughed at me when I told him Gabriella and I hadn't had sex yet. He's such a fool, he was laughing at me, when he's in exactly the same position as I am. Whatever, I want to wait until we are both ready, no matter how long it takes.

Once home, I took my bag out and locked the car, walking to the door and unlocking it, my mum and dad must still be at work. I ran upstairs and dumped my bag in my room, walking into the bathroom and taking a quick shower, before changing, and styling my hair. Once I was all ready, I glanced at the clock and noticed I still had around half an hour. There wasn't much left to do, and I couldn't have my dinner, because I was probably going to be having it there or something, I had no idea what was happening, I just obeyed. I smiled at the cheesy thought. I picked my phone up of my bed and shoved it roughly into my pocket. Then walked down stairs and turned the TV on and watched a basketball game between two NYC teams.

"I'll see you when I get home then; I've no idea when that will be by the way. Bye mum" I said, putting the phone down. I grabbed my keys and walked out of the house, locking the door behind me. I glanced over at Gabriella's house as I came out of my own, checking that her car was in the driveway, so I didn't look like an idiot if she wasn't in. Hands in pocket, I walked round to Gabriella's. I tapped lightly on the door and was greeted by Gabriella's mum.

"Hey Troy, she's in the kitchen…oh and thank you so much for helping Gabriella with her room the other day," she smiled, stepping aside so I could enter.

"It's no problem Miss. Montez," I replied, smiling at her and walking into the kitchen.

"We're baking cookies!" Gabriella almost screamed at me, her eyes lighting up at the thought.
"Okay then, as long as we can have chocolate chip ones," I smiled at her, walking over and giving her a hug. Gabriella went to each of the cupboards, getting a different thing out of each cupboard, I stared at her wide eyed.
"Your mum's still organised is she?" I laughed, watching her open the immaculate organised cupboards.
"Always has been, always will be" Gabriella laughed, clearly becoming very frustrated by how many cupboards she had to open. "Why can't she just have a 'cookie cupboard'?" Gabriella said. Finally, when she had everything out, she began opening the flour. "Don't just stand there" She shouted at me. I laughed and walked over, sarcastically helping her open the bag of flour.
"Geeee, that was hard!" I said. Gabriella stuck her tongue out at me.

"You know, I don't think you need any more flour" I laughed. Gabriella was stood pouring more flour into the thick, lumpy mixture.
"Of course we do" She smiled, possibly empting half the bag into the bowl. She just made the cookie mixture worse!
"Right now…butter?" She questioned, looking up. I handed her the big carton of butter and she emptied some of the contents into the bowl.
"Just mix…It might work out," I laughed, the bowl overflowing. We furiously mixed the bowl, hoping to get some moisture out of the butter.

After half an hour of attempting to make the cookie dough right…It was done, well as done as it was going to get. It was the worst mixture I had ever seen!! We put the 'cookie dough' into small blobs on the tray, and shoved them in the oven.

"I bet you they will taste amazing!" Gabriella said, coming towards me, step by step. Oh hell; here we go.

"Yeah right, come on, we better tidy up," Gabi's face dropped but then immediately perked up as I gave her a huge hug.

I walked over to the counter and picked up a bag of flour and some eggs.
"Where do I put these?" I asked, swiftly turning around, colliding with a petite body.
"Shit!" I shouted, as we lay on the floor, covered in eggs, flour and the chocolate chips Gabriella was once carrying. At first, I thought Gabriella would have a massive go at me, so I sat still for several seconds, preparing myself for the worst.

Gabriella erupted in laughter. "THAT WAS AMAZING" she struggled to get her words out with her laughter taking all her breath away. What? I had just covered us and the kitchen in flour and eggs, and she wasn't bothered?
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, I didn't see you there" I stuttered, I felt so bad, and felt as though we needed to tidy up before her mother came down.

We quickly set to work cleaning up; we planned on tidying the kitchen and making sure the floor was spotless and that there wasn't a speck of dirt in sight before cleaning ourselves up.
"You do realise that this'll take hours!" Gabi complained. This girl complained too much.
"No it won't. There is too of us, if we separate the jobs, like half and half and then we'll get it done quicker than we will if we do the jobs together," I said.
"Okay then. I'll wash the dishes and put the ingredients away and you can mop the floor and clean the counters. Is that okay?" she said.
"Hmm, that's fine babe," I said, getting to work with cleaning the counters, while Gabi started the water and added fairy washing up liquid into the sink bowl. As soon as I was done with cleaning the counters I went to find the mop and bucket from her utility room, which was situated next to the kitchen and the garage. I automatically found it and dragged it back to the kitchen; Gabi was drying the dishes while I mopped the floor. Soon enough the tiles were sparkling clean and all we had to do was put the ingredients away.
"Gabi, why don't we both do the ingredients?" I asked while taking the towel, which she was finished with, out of her hands.
"But you don't know where things go," she said.
"Why don't I put the eggs, milk and butter away in the fridge while you put the flour and other stuff away?" I offered.
"Deal! Shake on it," she said, holding her hand out for mine to shake.
"Deal!" I laughed as my hand connected with her and let sparks fly.

An hour later we were sat at the dinner table with chicken pasta bake filling out plates; Mrs Montez had appreciated our hard work in the kitchen and had let me stay over for dinner. To be honest; she would've let me anyway. In the middle of the table there were two plates full of golden brown but slightly burnt cookies. They looked alright, smelled alright but the way they tasted was a whole different ball game. Just because something looks nice and smells nice doesn't necessarily mean that it will taste delicious, the percentage of the cookies tasting great were to be approximately 25%. That's not good. That's not good at all.
"So troy, how is basketball?" I heard Mrs Montez ask. I heard Gabi groan and slouch back in her seat, playing with the pasta on her plate. "Gabriella, do not slouch." Okay, so I had to admit, Mrs. Montez was a little strict at times, but she only meant well. I took a sip of my orange juice and cleared my throat before answering.
"It's going good, we have a few games lined up before the season officially starts, but only friendly ones, to make sure that people know we haven't died during summer," I laughed; mostly at my lame try for a joke though. I heard Gabi laugh beside me, I knew it was fake.
"Oh okay. So who are you playing first what the season starts?" her mother asked.
"Uh... someone from another state I think," I replied.
"Mum, can I get a drink please?" Gabi said as she rose from her chair, and not waiting for an answer, before walking in the direction of the kitchen. I could only smile quickly at her mother before taking rather long gulp of my drink. Why did it get so awkward in here?

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong, or are you going to just look at your ceiling?" I asked. We were now in Gabi's bedroom, lying on her bed, side by side, with our arms limp at either sides of our waist. We were cuddling, we weren't touching, we weren't kissing; we were just laid there, in complete silence. It wasn't an awkward silence but it wasn't a comfortable one either. She continued to stare at the plain white ceiling which had three ballpoint lights inserted in three different areas. "Gabriella?"
"What?" she said as she continued to stare up at her ceiling.
"What's wrong?" I asked gently.
"I feel sick," she blushed. I couldn't help but laugh.
"Cookies?" she nodded and rolled over onto her side and settled her head onto my chest. "I told you to slow down."
"They seemed nice and then it got to the fifth one and that just killed the whole concept of them being nice," she mumbled. I laughed and wrapped her up in my arms. "Don't laugh at me!"
"You shouldn't have eaten that much then, I only had three," I said, as I rubbed her shoulders with my hands. "Even that seemed enough for me."
"I liked them," she said. I didn't say anything, I just let her rest on me and we laid there in an comfortable silence.

About ten minutes I looked down at Gabi, only to realise that she was asleep, so I carefully slid out from under her grip and laid her gently down onto the bed and pulled the covers over her. "Get well soon, baby girl," I whispered and kissed her forehead. I said a quick goodbye to Mrs Montez and I headed home.

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