I'm not a person to complain about my reviews, cus honestly I don't like whining about something like that. Since I took a 'break', I know I might have lost readers. But honestly, is there only three people out there who reads this? It takes me hours, days to write a chapter, and like, ten seconds to write a review. I'm not lying when I say that I write better, longer, and get more insperation when I get reviews telling me what they think of it. I'm not asking you to review, I'm just telling you that it would mean the world to me if you post those small words. And I'm honestly loosing faith in this story. I feel like I've lost the storyline... Is it worth putting down the energy on it anymore?
And you can all thank the best beta reader through times and times, Noelle82 for making this chapter readable. (is that even a word?) ENJOY! :)
It wasn't like Gabriella didn't know that she needed to talk to the blue-eyed boy, that was trapped in her brain, later today. And it really wasn't like she had planned on escaping later this morning because of it. But the feelings that the two of them had evoked last night changed both their looks on the subject.
While Gabriella was stuck on what she was going to say to Troy, Troy himself was stuck on what Gabriella was going to say to him. It was a trap none of them could get out of without one another.
It was almost 5:00 pm and Gabriella had been up since…well, it wasn't like she had slept at all after the night's actions. She'd taken a really nice walk early that morning to clear her head and to try thinking of something that could get her out of the mess she had caused by herself. But nothing seemed to come to mind; it was like every tiny little cell in her body was against her and working like black and white. "You'll just have to suck it up, Gabriella." She winced at the thought and kicked herself mentally for letting this happen. "Oh, come on, you liked it, and you can't deny that." No, she couldn't. There was no way in hell she could deny that she'd liked it. No other guy had ever, and it really is ever, made her come that hard, feel such passion or made her as wet as Troy Bolton had done hours earlier. It was stupid to deny it, but she could always try couldn't she?
"He kind of looked like Ryan Kwanten, you know? I'm not sure it's him though, but I'm definitely going to dig it deeper. He's so sexy," Sharpay went on and on while the three girls' were heading up the north lifts later that night. Gabriella and Taylor were not even bothering to stop her, both knowing that nothing would make her stop, anyway.
"What happened to Troy yesterday, G? He had a cut on his forehead," Taylor asked, turning the attention from Sharpay.
Gabriella curled in her seat, for once glad that Sharpay was seated between her and Taylor. She knew someone must have told Taylor since she wouldn't ask Gabriella if she didn't know that she was near him when it happened. It would be best to just go with it. "He fell," she explained, not even bothering to tell the rest.
Tingles shot through her when pictures from yesterday played once again in her head.
Gabriella took a deep breath when she jumped off the lift together with her two friends. She could see the guys standing a bit further away waiting for them. Troy looked gorgeous in his snowboard uniform with dark brown squares all over it, black helmet and mirror glasses on. She was immediately lost in the thoughts from the night before again and didn't come out of it till Sharpay shook her, and she flushed pink and looked away. "Come on Gabriella, focus."
"Where should we go?" Chad asked everybody. Troy and Gabriella were playing alone, pretending like nothing was wrong. It was easier for them both.
"How about we ride Sunset, and then we meet up here again later?" Troy proposed. Everybody seemed to like the idea except from Gabriella, who just stood quietly, while looking down at her snowboard boots. She jumped when she heard his voice say her name, "Or what do you think, Gabriella? How would you want to ride?" The smirk on his face was impossible to miss, and she narrowed her eyes at him. None of their friends seemed to understand the words he spoke, but Gabriella knew that he was talking about their night.
She had thought that maybe the cockiness would've softened, and he would show a softer side of himself after that. But clearly she was wrong.
"Fuck you, Bolton," she hissed through her teeth, watching the smirk on his face grow wider.
"Now we all know you want to do that."
The other six' eyes were jumping back and forth between their two friends. Tension was in the air, and something was clearly not right between them, but everyone stayed quiet, afraid of saying something that would have one of them blowing up and throwing the other off the hill.
But in the end, it was Chad who broke the awkward silence and spoke, "Okay, let's go then."
Troy and Gabriella made sure to place a good three friends between them as they rode off. Both of them were annoyed with the other for a reason that both of them were too stuck in their own heads to of them wanted to admit something to the other, and since both of them had a very high sense of pride, they didn't want to start talking either. So the teasing and dark comments began, and on a much higher level than before.
They didn't meet any other staff from Croascount. The hills were only open for the staff that night, but most of Chad and Troy's co-workers liked to stay near the hotel during the night. Since the last lifts would be closed by the time they decided to stop the riding, it meant that they were taking the scooter back with the guys later, something Gabriella had not given a thought.
After the third ride down, Gabriella decided to take a break and sit down at a table on the outside part of Restaurant Sunset. She put her snowboard in the snow, walked over to a stool, and sat down, taking her helmet off and shaking her hair a bit to let it flow free in the soft, night breeze.
She sighed as she looked out over the beautiful view. What could possibly have gone wrong between her and Troy? Was it her? Were her standards too high? Or was it that he was too much of a cocky bastard? Deep inside, she knew that none of that was true; she was the only one to blame in this case. Well, at least for how it started. She had been the one to reject him in the very beginning, and she had been the one to not want anything to do with him.
"Oh, fuck it. He's the one being a cocky fucking bastard," she mumbled, upset with her own thoughts.
"I thought I told you that talking to yourself is something you do when you're crazy. Maybe you should go to the clinic and check yourself; I might even drive you if you're nice. Anything to help you become at least a tiny bit normal." Gabriella closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, reminding herself to stay calm as she heard whose voice it was.
"Wow, how mature of you, Troy, very mature." She turned around, her eyes cold as ever and her voice not flowing far away from the same level.
Troy smirked at her words. "I always liked being a child."
Gabriella rolled her eyes. Troy sat down in the stool on the other side of the table, taking Gabriella in. She had her helmet in her hands, her hair was in two lose pigtails, making the lose strands of hair fly in the breeze, and for a second, Troy wondered if she really was for real or just something he imagined. Her beauty was so natural, and it was a miracle to him how someone so beautiful could be so cold inside. Then he thought about last night, she had not been the cold Gabriella last night. Last night she'd been sexy and seductive. She'd been joking, teasing, and almost vulnerable in a way.
How could she have possibly changed into this cold one in such short time?
Taking a deep breath, Troy decided to speak. "Look Gabriella." He paused. "About last night-." Gabriella's cold eyes shot up to meet his, and he trailed off, taken aback by her reaction.
"What about last night, Troy?" she hissed.
He watched her, trying to make out how and what she wanted to hear, because he did not want to fight over this, no matter how much she thought that was his mission. He just wanted to make it clear that they were on the same page about it.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done what I did and I… I'm sorry, I really am." He paused again, looking out over white land while running a hand through his hair. What was he supposed to say? Well, he didn't really have anything to lose, did he?
His soft voice caught Gabriella's attention. This was the guy she thought he would've been when they met the first time after last night; she had thought that he would've been this guy from the beginning. And it made her slightly mad that he had acted like an ass, but as he sat before her right now, looking like he really regretted it, she sighed and said with a slightly softer voice than usual, "What are you sorry about, Troy?" It wasn't like it was his fault, and she knew that. She had wanted him as much as he had wanted her. Sure, he had been the one to stand so close, taking her lips in a lip lock impossible to pull away from, had been the one to pull her clothes off later, and had been the one to…
Well, it didn't make sense, anyway.
"I don't know. I honestly don't know Gabriella, but I do know that I don't want you to be mad at me. And if my apology can make you not mad at me, then I don't really care what I'm apologizing for." Well, that made sense, and also made Gabriella's insides take an unusual spin.
"There's nothing to apologize for here, Troy. We obviously were attracted to each other last night, and I do not regret what happened. I can't really say I do, maybe in some way I do, because I'm not a one-night-stand girl, but in another way no."
Troy drew in a deep breath and quietly thanked God. Because he did not regret last night either, not in any possible way. "Okay, well, how do you want to take it from here then?" he asked carefully, not wanting to lose this Gabriella too quickly.
Gabriella rubbed her face. "I… look, can't we just forget about it? It would be easier to just pretend that nothing happened," she said, and when Troy was about to cut in she continued, "I'm not saying I regret it, just to not think or talk about it."
"Got it." He winked at her, and Gabriella rolled her eyes again.
When the five friends met up again, all of them were tired and wanted to go home so they decided on it. "But we'll have to pair up, because we only have two scooters," Chad explained. Taylor immediately walked over to his side and put her hand in his, signalling that she was going with him. "I have got three seats, and Troy has two."
"I'm going with you guys," Sharpay squealed and paired up with Chad and Taylor, leaving Gabriella to sand there alone in the middle. Her eyes darted back and forth between them, and she frowned.
"Come on, why can't I go with Taylor?" she groaned.
Sharpay stepped forward and patted her shoulder so she was stumbling forward to Troy. "Because you're going with Troy."
Gabriella stomped off and sat down behind Troy, giving cold looks to the other two girls before Troy took off. She placed her hands around his torso from behind, making both herself and him to shiver.
Troy shivered at her touch, and even though he had four layers of clothes under her hands, he still shivered. He put more pressure on the gas with his thumb, leaving Gabriella to take a better grip around him and pull on tighter. Her frame was now brushing against his back and her hands were only a few centimetres from his hardening cock.
Some desire…