A/N; I seriously don't know what I'm doing anymore, I've lost everything for this story and I just get extremely annoyed whenever I'm sitting down to write it. So I'm really sorry for bad updating, oh and school is taking over my life seriously I didn't even know it was legal to have this many tests and exams and just blah. But, enjoy my dear friends, and feel free to tell me (or not) how bad the ending is, because believe me I know that but oh well, I'm gonna stop now.

The photo in her hands slowly slid down the floor. Its coloured frame landing downside, hiding the smiling faces on it from her sight. Instead, she drew her eyes to look out over the beautiful view that seemed to be seen wherever you were at the resort. In a way, it had calmed her to be there. The snow and 'calm' atmosphere made her good. But things were starting to take an awful turn.

Her meetings with Troy were starting to fool with her head pretty badly, and now the picture that laid downside on the floor under her. For a moment, she wished that it would have slid through the small narrow openings of the floorboard that held the balcony together. In that way, it would have slid down to the balcony under her, and hopefully that person would throw it away, leaving her to her misery. But that thought was quickly out of her mind as she bent down to pick the picture up again, her eyes going blank at the sight.

Gabriella had never been much for crying. She found other ways to reveal pain or suffering through, and she felt that it helped her better than just moping around crying for days over something that wouldn't get better anyway. And that was why she was now sitting on her balcony with the down comforter around her, shuddering as the cold air found their ways to get to her body through it. It felt good in a way, because the cold air made her feel alive and that's exactly what she needed. Something chilling her body felt excellent when her feelings inside were everything but cold.

~*~

"Aww, come on, just one little picture, Gabi," he pleaded. Kissing down her neck in the way that he knew she liked it. He knew how to please her, he knew how she liked it when there were just the two of them, and he knew just how to work with her when he wanted something that she didn't want to give.

"Alright, alright! One picture, no more." And she stood from his lap while he smirked in triumph and fixed the camera on timer, to sit back again and pull her onto his lap once more.

"Smile to the camera!" he exclaimed, and just as Gabriella made a goofy grin and stuck her tongue out towards the camera, he let his hands glide over her sides, making her turn halfway around with a happy laugh on her face at the exact moment that the light went off and flashed the perfect picture of the two of them.

~*~

The photo was perfect, almost too perfect. There was not a single flaw on it and it annoyed her. Why had she even kept it? It was like it was from another century, hundreds of years ago. Back when time didn't have an end, and happy seemed to be her everyday life.

Today, it was more like happy was Gabriella Montez motto.

She could be happy, she was not boring. But it always took some extra effort to bring that smile back to her lips. She always smiled with her friends, because well let's face it, they were pretty damn awesome and she loved them more than anything else in the world, but it never really came to that extreme happiness anymore. It bothered her sometimes. More then bothered.

-

"This world can screw itself backwards," Troy muttered as he sat down at the breakfast table he'd seen Taylor sitting at. The dark girl looked up at her friend and laughed a little at the words.

"Well gooood morning, Troy. The world's happy to be here with you on this beautiful day too." She laughed and Troy couldn't help but let a small smile spread over his face at his friend's capacity of making him smile.

"Seriously though, what has it done to you to have you in this mood?" Troy reached for a bowl and poured some cheerio's in to it.

"It's unfair and won't give second chances," he muttered again, showing the spoon into his mouth and chewed aggressively.

"Do you mean sixth and seventh chances?" Taylor watched as Troy glared at her and then showed more food into his mouth to stop him from snapping, because he knew that she was not the one to be irritated with. In fact she was right, his second chance had passed long ago and he'd just watched it fly by.

"God, it's so fucking unfair, Taylor! I knew I screwed up, I asked for help and all I get is two fucking useless words. I mean, what did I ever do to piss him off? I've always been a good friend. I was the one to help him to get the courage to ask you out, for crying out loud!" He threw his spoon down and threw his head back, letting out a frustrated sigh.

Chad had told Taylor that morning about his conversation with Troy the night before, so she was not clueless.

"I'm guessing this is about the conversation you had with Chad yesterday?" Taylor questioned. Troy nodded. "About how you wanted help because you, how shall I put it, 'don't get along with Gabriella'?" And she had the fucking nerve to smirk at him, but knowing that he needed her he just scoffed and nodded his head again. Man, he swore that he saw the satisfied smirk on her face before she spoke up again.

"Troy, have you tried talking to Gabriella?"

This earned another scoff. "Yeah right, 'hello Gabriella, I think I might have some feelings about you but I'm not sure that's why I'm acting like a fucking bastard. Oh and by the way, you're fucking sexy when you're annoyed to hell with of me.' Uhm, no thanks Taylor, I think I'll pass that one," he muttered, once again grabbing the spoon and showing food into his mouth.

"You idiot, sometimes I actually think that you're as dumb as Chad," and she sighed a bit frustrated. "I meant like, trying to get on her good side. Like, not being a complete bastard and making all those remarks as soon as she's near you. Have you ever thought about that?"

Troy looked down into his bowl while he thought about what she had just said. "Well, no…"

A pleased grin spread over the African-American girl's face again. "Well then, you have your solution. Or at least first try."

~*~

"GABRIELLA LOOK HERE PLEASE!!"

"MISS. MONTEZ, OVER HERE!"

"IS IT TRUE THAT YOU'RE PREGNANT WITH BEN'S CHILD?!"

"GABRIELLA! WAS HE REALLY THE ONE WHO BROKE UP WITH YOU!!??"

"WORK IT, BABY, WORK IT!"

~*~

Yeah, despite the words Troy had told his best friend the night before about "no feelings attached" in his and Gabriella's… relationship, his blood boiled when he rode behind her in the lift, watching her talk and laugh with some man that he'd never seen before. Even though he knew nothing about them, if they knew each other from before or not, Troy didn't like what he saw at all. Why couldn't Gabriella laugh like that when she was with him? And why did she even laugh with that man, he was a fuckwad. He looked at her as if she was some easy meat.

When he jumped down from the lift, Troy was glad to see that the two of them went into different directions, and he turned his skis towards the brunette beauty.

"So you're desperate now, Montez?" Gabriella jumped in surprise and turned around as quickly as she could with her skis. She honestly hadn't seen Troy behind her, and if she had she would have planned a better comeback to something he would say.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. You looked damn ready to jump the guys bones, was that what you wanted?"

Gabriella's jaw practically fell open at the words that left his lips; she couldn't believe what she just heard. "Just to clear it all up to you, even though you have absolutely nothing to do with it, he offered me dinner tonight but I said no," she hissed furiously.

It was now Troy's turn to be surprised, his jaw formed an 'o', He was out of remarks at the moment.

"Yeah, leave me alone." And with that, she was one her way down the slope, leaving a stunned Troy behind.

Why had she turned down that guy? That was the question Troy asked himself all the way down the slope. Not that he wasn't glad, because he wanted… no, screw that, he should be the only guy Gabriella was with.

-

"ARGH! He's just so fucking stupid!" Gabriella groaned as she threw herself down on the couch in Chad's living room where Taylor was all the more.

"Who?" Taylor asked as she came back to the room with two cups of hot chocolate.

"Santa Clause," Gabriella replied sarcastically as she excepted the cup from her best friend. "Troy, who do you think? Why can't he just leave me alone? I mean, it can't be fun being him when I'm acting like this. I'm being really mean, and it's with purpose, and he still goes at it, who the hell does that, Tay?" she whined, sinking lower against the cosy pillows.

"Oh come on, Gabs, don't tell me you want me to reply that question because I think you know the answer to that one yourself."

"He's a guy and guys are jerks?" The brunette muttered.

-

It impossible. He couldn't do it no matter how much he tried, tossed and turned. He'd never be able to do it again. Memories about a certain brunette hunted his brain and he just couldn't sleep.

"God, what is going on with me," he muttered to himself, his fingers running through the dark treasures of hair. "It's fucking useless, like it's going nowhere." He kicked some snow with his foot and rose from the chair he was currently sitting on.

"It's like a fucking soccer game; the ball is going back and forth on the field, between me and her. It's never even, one second we're talking like we're actually mature friends…" he trailed off, squinting his eyes out over the view from the Hillside to see a deer running its way through the trees.

"And the next we're acting like teenagers that hate each other?" A voice behind him finished his sentence off.