Another long update span. Gah, I don't know why I'm so lazy with updates. I promise I'll try to get better at it, which it probably will when the major drama that I have planned begins ;)

In the meantime, try to enjoy the mediocre chapter. Trust me, I'm not at my best in this one...

Chapter 15 - Hollow

Monday was bleak. Bleak and tense, no matter how happy everyone pretended to be. Everyone except for the obvious culprits, who didn't look anybody in the eye all week in fear of the huge story that consumed them would burst and tell everyone everything. Chad and Taylor just drifted through the halls with the tight gang like loose trash, not making an effort to strike up a conversation or even acknowledge their presence. This placed the friends in slight shock, for Gabriella and Taylor were the only ones who knew the real meaning behind all this. Everyone else thought that it was just another fight between the two lovers. Even Brandon kept his mouth shut about his exciting news regarding the confirmation call he had received that day at lunch. When he returned back to the table after the call and Troy asked him who it was, Brandon just quickly shrugged it off and said that it was no big deal, don't worry about it.

It was the period after lunch that Troy was finally fed up with Chad's behavior. He quickly partnered up with the zombie for their in-class biology assignment and started his questioning.

"You've been quiet all week man, is everything okay?" he whispered as the teacher started explaining the project.

Chad just lazily shrugged, not taking his empty eyes away from the front of the room. "Just tired, I guess…"

Troy just nodded slowly, biting his lip in curiosity. "You talk to Taylor lately?"

Chad winced and stiffened upon hearing her name, his eyes completely detached from the rest of the world now.

"I'll take that as a no," Troy said, staring at his friend's locked jaw and clenched fists. Chad didn't say a word.

When the instructions were finished being given, Chad grabbed the worksheet and stomped on to the back of the room to a lab table, not waiting for Troy who had to jog to catch up to him. "Hey, sorry about that."

"About what?" Chad growled, hiding behind his curtain of limp hair. He just didn't seem to care about the way he looked anymore, even shaving off his facial hair. He was wearing his oldest pair of sneakers, grey sweatpants which he absolutely hated more than Darbus, and his chunky red Wildcats sweatshirt from two years ago which was now stained with food and had holes in several places. All in all, he looked like a hot mess.

"You know," Troy answered "About what happened. Who'd have thought, huh?"

"You don't even know what happened, Troy, so stop going all Dr. Phil on me, okay? If you want to know what happened, just ask and if I feel like telling you, I will." Chad looked back down at the paper in front of him and continued filling in the answers that he knew were right. Ever since that night last week, the whole gang had noticed that he was paying a little more attention in class instead of sleeping or texting someone.

Troy sighed and took the assignment away from Chad so that there was no way he could become distracted. "Fine," he started "What happened between you and Taylor?"

Chad's jaw locked again, proving that whatever did happen had affected him more than any other fight that the couple have had. Usually he would just roll his eyes and spill everything to his best friend without any questions being asked but now, Chad seemed on the verge of a breakdown. Not to mention that this was indeed their longest fight in the history of their relationship.

He took a very long, unstable breath and, without looking at Troy, began "Never in my 18 years on this Earth have I ever been so confused. Not even when you told me about what Wolf was doing to you. That's obvious compared to what Taylor said to me." He stopped as his voice cracked, lowering his head a little in embarrassment. Troy lightly touched his shoulder and said "Chad, what did she tell you?"

Chad kept his breathing even, closing his eyes to concentrate on the least painful details of the memory. He took one more deep breath before beginning "You know she blew up and then the rest happened right after I dropped her off. I stopped the car, but she didn't get out, so I started talking…"

FLASHBACK

Chad killed the engine as he pulled up in front of Taylor's almost invisible house, expecting her to tear the door open and run out of the car before it even stopped. He didn't know what to feel about this, so he decided to do what he always did in tense times. Talk out his feelings.

"Taylor-"

"Don't." Taylor held up a hand, still not looking up at her hurt boyfriend. He could hear the raging conflict in her shaky voice.

Chad sighed "Taylor, I'm sorry."

She crossed her arms and looked out the window. "For what?"

Chad shrugged, not taking his eyes off of her. "I don't know, whatever I did to make you act like this."

In the window's reflection, he could see her lips quiver and her eyes look up to the sky, her mouth asking "Why?" She finally took a deep breath and shrieked "Why does everything have to be about you? What if this is about me, not…" Her voice broke as she recognized the phrase that was leaving her lips. "…you?"

Chad's breath stuck in his throat, choking him along with the lump that had aroused there. "I've heard that line before."

"Then you should know what it's meaning is."

"Taylor, no." Chad reached over and grabbed her arms in his hands, despite her physical restraint. "Talk to me!"

"Chad, let go of me!" Taylor wailed, fighting against his iron grip and losing. His fingers wound around her wrists like super glue.

"Not until you tell me what's gotten into you." Chad begged, tightening his hold almost to the point where it hurt her. "Is it someone else?"

"No!"

"Did you hear a rumor about me from someone? Because I think I really pissed Jimmy off at practice and he's

been-"

"No, it's not that!" She was crying now, the tears cascading south of her cheeks like raindrops. "Just let me go, Chad!"

"What is it?!" Chad nearly shouted, now having enough of her beat-around-the-bush nonsense. "What could I possibly have done to cause you to act this way?!"

"IT'S ME, GOD DAMN IT!!!" she screamed in fury. "I DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE!!!"

You could have placed three hungry, raging dogs in the backseat of the car for all Chad was listening. The area surrounding him had ceased to exist, his heartbeat was now a distant memory, and his brain function was more complicated than the situation he was in. He was as frozen as an iceberg, but with nothing beneath the surface to catch his fall. He just stared at Taylor with nothing short of hurt. Confusion, heartbreak, and hurt. His hands slid off of her wrists slowly and unconsciously.

Taylor watched his hand drop with an agonized look and fighting the same battle as him, only she seemed to be winning against the lump in her throat, for she started "Chad…"

She didn't continue. Chad blinked twice and turned his head just a fraction towards the oncoming headlights that were heading toward his car. He heard her gasp and whisper "No…" Taylor sucked in a deep breath and whimpered "Chad, you can't be here right now. You have to go."

He didn't reply. Chad just swallowed and watched the two silhouette figures exit the vehicle, one large like a man and one a little smaller, but with a woman's figure. They froze when they saw his car and seemed to tense, even in the dark. They looked familiar.

He swallowed again, the clog rising in his neck. "Fine," he whispered. "Leave."

Taylor inhaled, but didn't let it leave her lungs. Chad didn't acknowledge any of these facts as his eyes were still teasing him and he knew that if he blinked, they would spill over and betray him and his rock hard exterior. He was as still as a statue. You couldn't even see him breathing.

Taylor's watery voice seemed to come out of nowhere. "You don't deserve me anyway," She opened the car door and grabbed her purse, turning to finish "please remember that."

The only way Chad knew to turn the car back on was the slamming of the front door. He drove slowly, slipping through the streets invisibly without even seeing them, the tears rolling down his flushed cheeks.

END FLASHBACK

"So she just left you there?" Troy asked as Chad finished the story and their assignment.

"Yup…"

Troy scoffed "Wait, so you two aren't officially over yet. She never really said that you were done." The glint of hope in his eyes was noticeable, but didn't encourage Chad to answer the way his best friend wanted him to.

Chad rolled his eyes and looked up at Troy for the first time since starting the story. "What's the point of staying in a relationship when you don't love the person? It's a giant waste of time and I don't have that kind of time to waste. Not with the game coming up. Face it, Troy. Taylor and I are history."

Troy watched Chad bury his head in his hands, knowing that he was silently crying out for his ex to walk through that classroom door and run into his arms, taking back every word that she had said to him. Chad didn't deserve this, he concluded. He was either going to get over it or demand an explanation from Taylor for her sudden lack of heart. Chad would not suffer from her selfishness.

"Not if I can help it…"

--

"Sharpay!"

The blonde spun around and cocked her head to the side as she saw who was running up to her.

"Troy?"

Troy finally caught up to her and started "Hey, can I ask you something?"

Sharpay hesitantly nodded. "Depends on what you want to know. What's up?"

Troy sighed and pulled her over to the lockers, keeping his voice low. "Have you seen Taylor today?"

Sharpay's eyes immediately saddened, lowering to the floor. "Yeah. Gabby and I are taking turns checking on her."

"So she's as bad as Chad?"

"Worse."

Troy shook his head. "I don't think that's possible."

Sharpay giggled without humor and started walking again. "Oh yeah? Is Chad breaking out into random fits of sobs every five minutes? Is Chad slacking off in class? Is Chad having constant nightmares about her?"

Troy retaliated "He would be crying if he weren't so stubborn, he's actually doing better in school, which is not normal, and he woke up screaming on Saturday when I slept over. His behavior is completely flipped and that's not good."

"So they're the same?"

"Seems like it."

The two slumped their shoulders, now totally stuck on what to make of the situation. They paid no attention to the bustling students that walked around them unconsciously and they didn't realize that they were about to be late to their next class. They just stood there against the lockers, faces forlorn, and depressed.

Suddenly, Sharpay's face lit up, taking Troy by surprise. "Wait! Where's Gabby?!"

"Why?"

"Have you seen her?"

"How should I know? You're the one who last saw her."

"Damn, you're right…" Her face fell for a split second before becoming serious again. "Text her and tell her to meet us outside of the cafeteria bathrooms."

"Us?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes and huffed "Don't you want to get Chad and Taylor back together?" She grabbed his arm and began pulling him along with her. He stopped her.

"Depends on how you plan on doing it. What's going on, Sharpay?" He gave her an extremely skeptical look, afraid to take another step toward the crazed blonde.

Sharpay rolled her eyes. "Just trust me on this one, Troy. I know Taylor so much better than you ever will and I know what it takes to get her to listen."

"Then why isn't she talking yet?"

Sharpay gritted her teeth and glared hard at him, growling "Bolton…"

Troy sighed, digging in his pocket to grab his phone and reassured her "Fine, I'm texting, I'm texting."

--

The dance team hustled out of the locker rooms, chatting with their teammates about the recent practice. It's only been two weeks, six practices and they already had half of another routine down. This time they were practicing hard for the state championships that they would take part in just a short month and a half. Everyone was excited, mainly for the fact that they were going against West High again, who won the competition last year. They swore to themselves that they would not let their rival school beat them once again and they were confident in that oath since Brandon was now leading them to victory. They all agreed that Michael was pretty good as a captain the previous year, but he wasn't nearly as good as Brandon and definitely not as passionate. Which was most likely the reason that he was voted captain so quickly.

Brandon, Mike, Todd, and Drew were the last ones to exit the locker rooms after changing and discussing the next practice on Wednesday. They talked over trying new flips and lifts, but turned down most of the lift ideas since they all seemed a little too cheerleader for them and, according to Todd, cheerleaders were definitely not hip-hop.

After Todd and Drew left, only Brandon and Mike remained to continue talking and laughing off topic. They soon found themselves in the middle of the gym when Mike finally brought up the topic of Brandon's job audition.

"So…" he started "you get an answer yet?"

Brandon struggled to suppress a grin, knowing very well what he was talking about. "Yeah, they called at lunch."

"Well?" Mike pushed, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

Brandon let his smile free and slapped palms with his friend. "Say hello to the new instructor of the senior classes."

Mike smiled back at him and even though he anticipated Brandon getting the job, slight shock still took over him. "Holy crap, that's awesome! Congrats, man!"

Brandon shrugged "Thanks. But I gotta give you props. I mean if it weren't for you helping me out before the tryout, I probably would've had a panic attack."

Mike nodded "No problem, dude. Did you tell anyone else yet?"

Brandon shook his head and replied "Nope, I wasn't ready yet. I was going to tell them this morning, but Chad and Taylor aren't exactly in the mood for celebrating."

Mike's eyebrows came together in confusion and worry. "Are they okay?" He concerned.

Brandon shrugged again, brushing off the matter like it wasn't all that important. "They'll be fine. They go through this at least once a month."

Mike chuckled "Make-up, break-up game?"

"Kinda, only this is the first time that they've ever broken up. They just constantly fight and argue."

"Wow, sounds like love to me." Mike said "You and Amy should advise them on that. You two are pros."

Brandon laughed, pushing Mike away by the shoulder. "Shut up, man."

He laughed along with him and joked "I'm serious, you could write a book with all the experience you have."

Brandon rolled his eyes "Mike, look where all of that fighting led us."

Mike nodded and pointed out "It led you to Izzy and Amy to me. Is that such a bad thing?"

Brandon shook his head, starting to see his point. "I guess not. They're possibly the best thing that ever happened to us."

"Exactly my point. You could share all of that wisdom with people who need it."

Brandon stopped walking and asked semi-seriously "Like who? I don't know anyone who would need anything like that."

Mike didn't stop, but slowed his pace a little. "I do…" he mumbled.

"Huh?"

He stopped, slamming his eyes shut as he realized that he said too much. He dropped his shoulders and clutched his gym bag strap with nervousness, turning around to face Brandon. "Nothing, man, I just know some people who need some serious help right now."

Brandon cocked his head to the side, curiously asking "Oh yeah? Who?"

Mike avoided eye contact with his best friend, looking at the ground and hesitated for a moment before answering "My cousin. She…she was suicidal a few months ago."

Brandon grimaced. "Why?"

Mike seemed to be getting more and more irritated with every word that came out of his mouth next. "Who knows? She never talked to anyone about her problems except her idiot brother and God knows he didn't do anything but make things worse." He glared at the bleachers on the other side of the gym with a faraway look in his hard eyes.

Brandon paused, noticing the sudden tense turn that the atmosphere had turned in just a couple of seconds. He carefully asked "Did she eventually get help?"

Mike's expression suddenly switched again, from anger to sadness. He still didn't look at Brandon as he shook his head slowly. "Nope. By the time her brother found her, it was too late. She was only sixteen, Brandon, and she killed herself." He closed his eyes in a blink that lasted a little longer than a few seconds. When he reopened them Brandon could plainly see the new glassiness.

Some of Michael's old anger must have traveled from him to Brandon because he could feel the simmering heat building into his system. "Michael, I'm sorry to hear that. Why didn't her brother do anything? Didn't he care?"

Mike nodded and replied "Of course he cared. It was just his form of 'helping' that sets me off. At her funeral, he said that she was trying to help herself and he approved of it. When he said that, I lost all remaining respect that I had for him. He supported her decision to commit suicide. I haven't spoken to him since."

Brandon took note of his friend's forlorn expression, the look of disgust and betrayal that crossed his features. It hurt to look at. Brandon couldn't imagine the feelings that Mike must have felt right now. "You were really close to him, weren't you?" he predicted, already knowing the answer.

A tiny grin lifted at the corner of Mike's lips, probably from a distant memory from better times. "Especially him. Emmett was like the brother I never had."

Things were silent after that, but not awkward. Mike was who knows where in his thoughts and Brandon was still trying to figure a few things out. He remembered Mike being very distant and depressed at the beginning of summer, but quickly got over it. That must have been when he and Amy got together. He had asked Mike why he was so down but every time he just shrugged it off as nothing. It all made sense now. But one other thing was tugging at his mind…

"What do you mean 'she tried to help herself'?"

Mike's eyes switched to Brandon and sighed, hesitating again. He took a few steps towards Brandon and stated "Brandon will you promise me something?"

Confused and hesitant, Brandon nodded slowly. "…sure. What is it?"

Mike closed his eyes for a quick second before opening them again, determination and confidence blaring from them. "You have to swear to me that you'll never cut yourself. I can't have someone else that I care about do that to themselves again. Please, just promise me that."

Brandon just stood there, blinking at him and even more confused than ever. How could he think that he would do something so stupid? "Of course I promise that. I already swore to Troy and Gabriella."

"You did? When?"

Brandon recalled "Last week. Gabby was telling Troy that she would start cutting herself if something ever happened to him and we promised each oth—wait, she never promised me anything…" His voice drifted off at the end, not remembering anything about his sister promising anything, although she brought it up in the first place.

Mike shook his head slightly. "You promised her but she didn't promise you?"

Brandon still wasn't completely back from his recollection. "Yeah, I guess so…"

Mike shrugged, nearly forgetting his depression in the humor of the situation. "Wow, so you're the only one making any promises then."

"You're right, I am."

"And you're keeping those promises, right?"

Brandon raised his right hand and lifted his chin. "I swear on our friendship I will never hurt myself for anybody, even Isabelle."

Mike smiled weakly. "Thanks, Brandon. You have no idea how important this is to me."

Brandon rolled his eyes and started walking toward the front gym doors again, resting an elbow on Mike's shoulder. "Don't worry. I'm a happy person with a happy life. What could possibly go wrong?"

The two became so caught up in the sarcastic possibilities of what could send Brandon's life down the toilet that they didn't notice the back doors of the gym close and the deep, familiar chuckle of a young man clad in black, his piercing brown eyes boring invisible holes in Brandon's back.

Not trying to sound cocky or anything, but I really love that ending. Hehe, guess who...

Well, I'm gonna go hit the sack. It's almost 3 AM over here and my dad would kill me if I wake him up :S So sorry, no previews or trivia, but check back later tomorrow and I might post them up.

And make sure to review! We're really slacking in those. 7 for last chapter? I know we can do better than that...

~Rachel :)