Author's Note--HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE! Well, technically it's still New Years Eve for me, but in some parts of the world it's New Years Day. Sorry it's taken me a while to get this one up, but I've been working on a one-shot, and I've never done one before, and I don't know when I'll be posting it, but it'll be soon. So look forward to that. I also want to tell people that I have two banners on my profile page. One for this story, and another for Finding Love. Now, I'm not a professional at it, and they were my first ones to create, so they're not perfect. Far from it actually. But if you want, check them out. I have to give credit to runninequalslife, even though she doesn't know it, but once I saw her banners on her profile page, I just wanted to try some for my stories.
Read on...
Over the last seventeen years--almost eighteen--Gabriella had been woken up in hundreds of different ways. Whether it was from her dad who liked to bang on her door. Her mother who would quietly sneak into her room, shut off the alarm clock, and then gently shake her awake. Her best friend who enjoyed making odd sounds with his mouth close to her ear just to see her jump up in surprise. But Gabriella had never been woken up by light peppering of kisses…but there's a first time for everything.
A smile melted onto Gabriella's face as her eyes remained closed with sleep. Over the past couple of weeks she and Troy had shared various kinds of kisses. Thus concluding, she had various times to remember what his lips felt like. So it was safe to say that it was Troy's mouth that was gliding over her skin in a morning wake up call.
She felt his hand softly smoothing a curl as she knew that her hair was probably a mess, but Gabriella didn't care as she let Troy continue on his journey around her neck. She felt her breath hitch in her throat as he started sucking on the soft skin behind her ear.
Troy smiled against her skin as Gabriella's head rolled to the side to give him easier access. He really didn't want to wake her, but Chad had poked his head into the room to tell them that they were all going to try to take off early to beat the storm that was supposed to pass through.
"Brie?" Troy whispered softly as Gabriella let out a low moan. He shut his eyes almost painfully as the sound of her voice made his blood rush downwards. It was hard enough sleeping next to her, but when she made little sounds like that, he couldn't help but be a guy and let his mind run wild.
"Way to ruin my dream Troy." Gabriella's teasing voice came out in a hushed sound. If Troy's ears weren't highly sensitive whenever it came to listening to Gabriella speak, then he would have missed her little murmur of displeasure.
Her eyes opened and met a deep blue that sent chills down her spine. He was leaning over her; his face about eight inches away from her face as his smile mirrored her own.
"I didn't want to wake you up." His fingers trailed from her curls on her head down to her soft cheek to softly stroke her cold skin. "But I had to for two reasons."
"And the reasons?" Gabriella prompted as a little yawn leapt out of her mouth. Her toes curling from the sensations that were running wildly through her body. It was almost too hard to force words out of her mouth as Troy's fingers kept up their ministrations on her cheek.
"Well for one, we're all trying to leave soon so that we can beat the storm home." Troy leaned down and buried his face in the soft curls that were pushed to the side of her head.
"And the second?" Gabriella's eyes shut in pleasure; a smile stretching even further up and onto her face.
Troy's nose rubbed up against Gabriella's brown hair to push it out of the way. He momentarily nipped at her ear with the warm cavern of his mouth. Gabriella's breathing quickened; her chest was rising up and down at an unhealthy rate.
"The second?" Troy's husky voice filled Gabriella's brain as he whispered in her ear. "As beautiful as you were sleeping, I just wanted to hear your pretty voice."
Blood rushed to Gabriella's cheeks to create a soft red look.
Troy peeked up from his position from cradling her head and saw the small blush. "Make that three reasons on why to wake you up. I also wanted to see you blush for me."
Gabriella ducked her head away from Troy as a full on blush erupted from the bottom of her neck to the top of her face. "Troy," her voice whined as she started to sit up a little into a half laying position/half sitting up position against the pillows. "Stop it. You're embarrassing me."
"Nah." His voice was so nonchalant that the sound almost convinced Gabriella that there was nothing else in the world that they had to worry about. His demeanor that morning was so cool and content that Gabriella could get use to waking up like that every morning. "You're blush just makes you even more beautiful."
Gabriella leaned back on her elbows to prop herself up just a little bit more. A coy smile was on her face now as her eyes seemed to be sparkling with mischief. "Hey, come here." Her voice invited warm sensations to overtake Troy's body as he leaned just a little bit more closer to Gabriella.
"Hmm?"
"Closer." She whispered until Troy's face was just an inch away from her own; his body laying halfway on top of her own. The thin cotton sheet twisted around their bodies that fit each other perfectly. "That's better."
"Now what?" His amused eyes danced across Gabriella's flawless face.
"Now you kiss me."
"No mom, I'm not at home." There was a pause as the older version of Sharpay started talking again. Sharpay's mother was traveling once again for her job and Sharpay was getting annoyed already as most kids would love to talk to their only parent, especially if they knew that they wouldn't hear or see them again for at least a week, but Sharpay wasn't like most kids.
The blond sighed impatiently as her mother went on and on about what her life was like away from her only child; thinking that Sharpay was actually interested in all her accomplishments.
"Mom!" Sharpay exclaimed a little too loudly; making Derby Evans to snap her mouth shut in astonishment at her only child's outburst. "I'm glad that you're happy and all, but I have my own problems to deal with."
"Then tell me about them honey. I have time to listen." Derby's smooth voice danced through the two phone lines. Sharpay could almost see her mother lounging around the pool at whatever hotel she was staying at this month. Almost all male waiters--who were half her mother's age--surrounding her like she was a piece of meat ready to be flipped on the grill.
For starters, my MOTHER isn't here. Sharpay wanted to say that to begin, she really did, but when she opened her mouth, the first thing said was, "For starters, my best friend has completely gone nuts!"
The cheer captain sat down on the king size bed in the master bedroom. It was ten o'clock in the morning and it seemed everyone was just waiting on Jason and Zeke to return from getting gas at the local gas station, and for Jake, Sadie, Taylor, and Gabriella to finish packing so that they could leave.
"Oh." Her mother cooed while taking a sip at her daily morning Bloody Mary. "Is everything okay with Gabriella?"
Sharpay's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "I just said that she has gone completely NUTS! She quit cheerleading! How am I expected to win that cheer award if I don't even have a complete squad?"
"I thought you had 12 girls on your squad and only ten can compete for that one little competition in January?" Derby asked while swirling the celery that was in her drink around with the tip of her tongue.
Sharpay had to give her mother credit for remembering the rules that she had known for three years now. "I do, but two of the girls are going to be gone for that weekend. And they just happen to be juniors who have known about this weekend since they joined the squad their freshmen year. It's always the fourth weekend in January. It hasn't changed for fifteen years now!"
"I'm sure Gabriella will be fine by then. Just give her time."
"That's the thing mom, " Sharpay cried. "She quit! She quit and nothing will change her mind to join again."
"I'm sorry dear, but--oh! I'm really sorry, I have to go honey. Please call again and I promise we'll talk some more."
Sharpay shut her eyes. Even after everything that they went through with her father, Derby Evans was still the same person. She still loved to travel. She loves to get out of Albuquerque. And she loves feeling like she's still a teenager herself and not a mother.
"Bye mom." Sharpay whispered before she heard a dial tone. She quickly shut her cell phone as there was a soft knock on the bedroom door. "Come in." She called as she quickly swiped at her eye to cover the tear that wanted to escape.
Gabriella poked half her body into the room; completely oblivious that Sharpay had just been on the phone with her mother. "Hey." She greeted with a giddy smile; pushing the past day's conversation out of her memory. "I'm just here to make sure that we have everything we brought out of every room."
Sharpay looked at Gabriella with a hint of hurt in her eyes. She quickly blinked it away though as it took a second longer to push a fake smile onto her face. "Zeke brought our stuff downstairs already."
"Oh. Sorry for disturbing you."
"Don't worry about it." Sharpay's cheek muscles tightened as she was starting to believe that it was possible to hurt from smiling for too long and too hard. "You probably didn't notice since you and Troy were busy in your room."
Gabriella nodded her head awkwardly as she wasn't hard on the hearing. She did hear how Sharpay punctuated Troy's name. "Um…yeah. We were probably packing."
"Like I said, don't worry about it."
Gabriella was about to retreat back to her room where Troy was, but she couldn't force her feet to move. She didn't want to be fighting with her friend. She had known Sharpay long enough to know when their friendship was on the edge, and that time was now. So she tentatively stepped fully into the room and shut the door behind herself.
Sharpay didn't say anything as Gabriella sat down on the bed opposite from her. She sat down Indian style; her hands on either side of her carelessly. Gabriella looked at her blonde friend curiously; as if analyzing everything, but she couldn't for the life of her understand why Sharpay was so mad and flustered whenever the topic of Troy came up around them. And then with the topic of quitting cheerleading also setting a feud between the two of them, Gabriella was having trouble talking with Sharpay about things without bringing up either said things.
"What's up Shar? And don't give me this bull crap about being fine." Gabriella softly demanded as the blonde's eyes softened just a little bit.
Sharpay had been through various things. Some things were just unmentionable as Gabriella and Zeke were the only two that knew what really happened with her father. But in that moment it didn't matter as part of Gabriella and all of Sharpay knew that her not liking Troy had little to do with Sharpay's dad.
"Just tell me why you don't like Troy? I know I said it didn't bother me that you don't like him, but it does. I'm admitting it right now that I lied and I need to know why?" Gabriella almost sounded desperate as she grasped onto Sharpay's hands. "Did he do something to you? Is that it?" The thoughts consisting of Sharpay were pushed to the front of her mind as the knowledge of Troy, who would never lay a finger on a girl in an inappropriate way, was pushed to the back of Gabriella's mind. Because in that moment, it was only about the two girls, and no boys. "Did I do something? Because if I did something to offend you, then I'm sorry."
"No. It's nothing about you!" Sharpay said. Her voice rose past a normal talking sound, but yet she wasn't quite yelling either. Gabriella instantly stopped as Sharpay continued. "It has nothing to do with you! I just…there's this feeling, and I know I couldn't go to you for help because EVERYONE lately has been saying that we just need to give you time!" Sharpay was on the brink of having a huge meltdown as she couldn't control her feelings anymore.
"And so I have been. I've been trying to wait patiently, but it's hard. And I don't know what to do. And then the feeling returns. It returns whenever you're with Troy because I just…I feel like you're always with him lately!"
The truth finally hung in the air. The two girls stared at each other. One slightly out of breath from her outburst, and the brunette with the owl eyes. To Sharpay it felt like the air was thickening as she knew that she shouldn't have said anything, but once she started she couldn't put a cork in it.
"Shar," Gabriella finally started. "You know you can tell me anything, and if you were feeling this, then…why didn't you just tell me?" Gabriella asked with a hint of sadness. "You're my very good friend. I know I can tell you things that I can't tell others, so why didn't you just come to me?"
"Because you needed time. I don't understand the whole process of losing…uh…of losing loved ones, but I at least had enough common knowledge to know that you needed time." Her voice was raw. It was weak. It was vulnerable. It was so unlike Sharpay.
"Fuck time." Sharpay's head snapped up at the brunette's voice. "You're my friend, and I value your opinion. And you let me think that you didn't like Troy because of your past. I'm not mad. I'm just…hurt I guess."
"This is what I wanted to avoid." Sharpay declared. "But I guess it's too late to take it back, huh?"
"Yeah. I guess now we just figure out what we can do to fix this."
"It's nothing. I um…it's my own issues I have to work through myself." Sharpay whispered as she looked down. Now was the time that Sharpay wished Gabriella would step in and say that they would work through them together. She of course would never ask this of Gabriella at the time because then that would be like admitting she was weak and a loser at her own life.
Gabriella laid a hand on Sharpay's own hand again. That action made the blonde look up. "I know that I'm spending a lot of time with Troy right now, but it's because well…not to sound corny or anything, but I love him. It might seem weird and kind of fast pace right now, but I truly love him. It's like I'm totally comfortable with him. He just makes me feel so alive and I can't help but feel more than attracted to him. And if that's not love, then I don't know what is."
"I feel it too."
"With Zeke?" Gabriella asked.
"…not exactly. More so when I'm working with my fashion designs." Gabriella was about to speak, but Sharpay stopped her. "Like I said, I have a lot of issues to work through."
It was Troy's voice calling for Gabriella down the hall that brought the girls back to reality that there were actual people who were also in the house with them. Gabriella hesitantly looked at the door as Sharpay could see the want in Gabriella's eyes. The want that meant she wanted to be in Troy's arms and not talking to one of her many friends.
"Go. I'll live." Sharpay instructed quietly.
Gabriella nodded numbly as if in a trance. She stood up and walked to the door, but before she opened it she looked back at Sharpay and gave a small, unsure smile. "We're good again, right?"
"Of course. Go now. Troy's looking for you."
Gabriella shut the door after leaving Sharpay alone in her room again. The smile disappearing off of her face.
A loud ripple of thunder echoed through the eerie house. Nine teenagers sat around the fireplace that was currently burning red. They were all waiting impatiently for Jason and Zeke to get back, but it seemed as if they were taking forever--which they were since it was only supposed to take them twenty minutes at least to just get gas for the cars, but they had been gone for an hour already. And that was enough time for the storm to catch them, and now they could hardly see five feet in front of themselves outside.
To keep everyone at least a little bit calmer, Gabriella and Kelsi had gone downstairs to the creepy unused basement where board games were sure to be kept. It wasn't the fact that the teenagers wanted to make it to school the next day, but it was the after school activities they were going to miss that bothered them. Some had basketball practice to attend, some had cheerleading practice, one had a choir concert to practice for, a certain brunette wanted to see her dad, and others that had no school activities had other social plans to attend.
But they all sucked it up, and plastered on fake smiles when Gabriella and Kelsi returned with various different games that could last for hours, Monopoly, Twister, Clue, and even some of the littler kids games like Candyland and Shoots and Ladders. No one wanted to be the one to complain first and seem like it was THAT important to get home--even though they were all thinking the same thing.
Chad, Taylor, Kelsi, and Lyle had all started playing Monopoly. Surprisingly Taylor, one of the smartest kids at East High, was losing. While Sadie, Jake, and Sharpay who put up a big fuss decided to play Clue. Troy and Gabriella were currently sitting with blankets around them since it seemed as if when the rain came, so did the cold front and the temperature dropped drastically; as drastically as New Mexico could get at least.
"Are you sure you guys don't want to play?" Taylor questioned as they were setting up the board game for Monopoly.
Gabriella sighed for what felt like the hundredth time. "Tay, I really just want to read."
Chad clicked his tongue in disgust. "It seems Bolton has rubbed too much off on you. Not a good thing." A second later a pillow hit Chad square in the afro. "Hey!" He complained as he whipped it back at Troy who ducked and the burgundy pillow went flailing into the dining room through the arch that was the door.
"What the fuck?" A guy's voice made almost everyone's head turn briefly before a soaked Jason and Zeke walked into the living room. The pillow was in Zeke's hand as he held it between two pinched fingers by the corner; as to not get it wet like himself. He dropped it daintily onto the cushion besides Troy on the white couch.
"Where were you guys!?" Sharpay exclaimed right away as both boys were taking off their ponchos that Gabriella knew Jason kept in the back of his car just in case he ever was stuck in a storm. He had gone through a phase when he was sixteen wanting to be Mr. Perfectionist, and part of being a perfectionist was being ready for anything. But he grew out of that phase quickly when he received a D on a paper, but the ponchos were just never removed from his car.
Zeke patted his dry head that seemed to escape the rain by being blocked by the hood on the poncho, but Jason wasn't too lucky as his hood must have fallen down because he was currently in the corner shaking his head out like a dog.
"Eww!" Gabriella cried as water droplets splashed onto her since she was the closest one to him.
Jason looked up with a grin and narrow eyes. "You think that's disgusting? I have water in places that I didn't even know about."
Almost all the girls' faces scrunched up as Gabriella just gave him a sarcastic look.
"I'm crying for you on the inside." She said.
"You will be when I'm done with you." He said as he walked swiftly over to her, picked her up as if she weighed nothing, and dropped her carefully to the ground. Her cries of protest just made him chuckle at her weak attempts to free herself. He started moving his fingers on her sides while shaking his head over her again. Water flying everywhere as Gabriella was soon becoming damp on her soft skin due to Jason's soaked clothes.
The kids watched on in amusement as Kelsi leaned over to Taylor and asked, "Do they do this often?"
"Oh yeah. They pretty much act as if they were ten years old."
Weeks ago Troy would have felt a possessive power within himself. He wouldn't have trusted Jason's motives for a second as he couldn't think of any boy who wouldn't love to put their hands on Gabriella. She is the girl that every guy fantasizes about. If she wanted something, all she had to do was ask and guys would line up to help her. But Jason and Gabriella were just best friends. At first Troy didn't understand it. How could the basketball captain be immune to Gabriella's charm and beauty? But after getting to know Jason a little bit more, listening to him talk to the other guys in the locker rooms at school, and going on that one run with him, Troy knew that he could at least trust him to not take Gabriella away from him.
Gabriella sat down with a pout on her face next to Troy. "You were supposed to help me." Gabriella accused as she rubbed at her arms; the dampness from the water soaking into her chilled bones.
Troy chuckled as he pushed the hair out of her eyes. "Sorry Beautiful, but you looked like you were having fun." Troy mused as Gabriella smacked his hand away.
"You're horrible!" Jason chuckled from standing behind Gabriella and Troy. She turned pointedly to look at Jason with a glare. "And you're no better! Now I'm all sticky from the damn rain."
Both boys were laughing now as Gabriella had such a serious face on that they should either be cowering in the corner from the look she was giving them, or laughing about it and hoping to play out the scene goodheartedly.
Gabriella rolled her eyes at their immaturity with the whole situation. "You two deserve each other." She cursed.
Troy smiled sympathetically after his laughter subsided. "Baby," he cooed near her ear so no one else could hear. "What if I said you looked even hotter all wet?"
"I'd probably kick you in the balls for trying to charm your way onto my good side again." Troy's face paled a little as Gabriella's sweet giggle filled his ears.
Jason rolled his eyes. "Way to go onto her side Bolton."
"So am I forgiven for laughing?" Troy asked with his blue eyes holding onto her stare.
"That depends."
"On what?"
"On if you make me lunch." Gabriella said cheekily before pecking Troy once on the lips.
"So obviously we're gonna be here for a while." Jason cut in so that everyone would hear him. "I think I'm gonna go take a shower." He started for the stairs as he had already started taking off his black t-shirt.
"Hey Zeke, you never did say what took you guys so long." Lyle said right when Chad passed Go and received two hundred dollars.
"One of the locals recognized me, and he started talking like we were old time friends." He rolled his eyes. "You know, some old guy who only sits around fishing from dawn until sundown. Not real fun, if you know what I mean."
"Harsh." Chad said. "But on the bright side, maybe we can crash early tonight, then leave early tomorrow morning and make it back for basketball practice by the afternoon?"
"Thank God. You've finally had a decent idea since you've been here."
"Uh…thanks Sharpay?" Chad more like questioned.
"I REALLY need to get back to cheerleading because it seems as if we need to find a replacement for the competition at the end of January."
Gabriella only shifted once in her seat as she took a quiet deep breath to calm her nerves. She decided that she wasn't going to get upset when the girls would talk about that in front of her. She knew a replacement was going to happen sometime since she knew that they needed a full squad to compete, and she really had no right to get upset because she's the one who quit. Not the other way around.
"If you want, I can help you find a replacement." Gabriella offered. "I mean, since I was Co-Captain, it probably is part of my job with you to find replacements."
"Fine." Sharpay said without much of a fight. "We'll hold try-outs at the end of this week."
Kelsi wasn't used to sharing a room. She was an only child and had only once shared a room. She didn't even remember it as it was for the first month that she was born and she had a crib set up in her parents' room. But other than that whenever she was at home, she never had to share a room. Of course when she got together with some of the other drama girls and they had sleep overs they would all sleep on the floor in sleeping bags together. But she had never slept in the same room as a teenage guy before.
But she soon found out that it wasn't much different than with girls. They both went to their own beds. They laid under the covers. And then they both would fall asleep. Of course though, they would both have to knock on the door just incase the other one was changing, but that didn't bother Kelsi that much.
She knocked on the door softly, but heard nothing. So she walked into the room and instantly froze once she turned around after shutting the door behind herself.
"Holy Crap." Was her first response as she didn't know how to react.
Sitting on her bed with his feet on the floor was Jason. He had wrappers around himself. A first aid kit was open laying lifelessly on the bed with things strewn around it. A red liquid was traveling down his bent arm starting at his wrist and traveling down to his biceps.
Jason looked up sheepishly as he was trying to do various things at the same time. He had a bottle of rubbing alcohol open, cotton swabs dabbed with the cleaner and stained with a light red color, Band Aids that were crumpled up faced Kelsi as Jason cursed under his breath. A broken vase was stationed near his feet.
Kelsi rushed over to him as she carefully avoided the glass. She got onto the bed as she pushed the ruined Band Aids out of the way.
"What happened?" She asked frantically.
"The vase kind of broke." He admitted.
"It KIND OF broke." Kelsi mused as she didn't even ask Jason before she took his injured arm in her hands and examined the cut that was making such a big mess. She delicately took an unused cotton ball and gently pressed it to his arm to clean up the running blood. "Okay, so this is going to hurt." She warned.
Jason's eyes bugged open as he tried to pull his arm away. "Wait, I think this is okay. I cleaned it out before you came in." He hurried to tell her as she surprisingly had a firm grasp on his arm.
"Did you really?" She asked in a strict voice. He always thought that she was a quiet girl, but she was proving him wrong as her nails slightly went into his arm to keep her hold.
"Jeez, cut your nails." He yelped.
"Then stop struggling." Kelsi commanded with frustration. "And my nails aren't even long. You're being a baby."
"I'm being a baby? I have fucking ten nail indents in my arm. Not to mention I have a cut that will probably get infected now."
"Ha!" She exclaimed triumphantly. "So you didn't clean it. Just hold still and squeeze something if it hurts."
"That's what she said." Jason muttered in disgust as right after he said that he sucked in an air of breath as Kelsi applied the cleaning solution.
After Kelsi finished cleaning it and wrapping it up with a white wrap to hold the Band Aid even more in place she smiled approvingly. "There. All done."
Jason looked down at his now bandaged arm. "Thank you." He murmured.
"Yeah, well…don't go picking up glass anymore. And make sure you stay away from windows. We don't need you breaking any of those either. God knows how messy that would be."
Jason chuckled sarcastically with an eye roll. "Ha, ha. You humor me."
"Are those my sweat pants?" Troy questioned.
Gabriella shrugged with a smile on her face when she got onto the bed. "Maybe." She said nonchalantly as she snuggled under the covers. "I need something to sleep in since I didn't feel like doing laundry."
Troy rolled his eyes as he leaned over and pressed a kiss to Gabriella's smooth jaw. "Well, I never knew that my clothes fit you."
"That's because they don't. I had to like roll the hem of the pants like twenty times." Gabriella said as she pushed the covers down and pulled up her tight t-shirt to show Troy just how many times she actually did have to roll them.
But Troy wasn't looking at her pants that were situated particularly low on her hips. Instead, he was looking at the smooth expanse of her tan stomach, and especially the little red gem in her belly button.
"I never knew you had a piercing on your navel." Troy said as Gabriella also looked down at it.
"I guess you didn't notice it the last time I had my shirt off in front of you." She knew that Troy knew she was talking about just two nights ago and how they had their little fight about having sex.
Troy leaned down even more and pressed a kiss right above her belly button. "I have all the time in the world to get to know your body."
Gabriella's hand that wasn't holding her shirt up to the bottom of her breasts reached out and cupped the back of Troy's head as he peppered kisses on her small torso. "I'd rather it be sooner rather than later though." Gabriella's voice hitched as his lips reached her hip bone and began sucking lightly.
"Patience is a virtue Brie." Troy gave one last flick of the tongue before pulling back and pecking her lightly on the lips.
"You sound like my mother." It came out so easily that Gabriella didn't know what she said until Troy tensed up a little and her eyes went wide. They both looked at each other as Troy couldn't tell what Gabriella was thinking. Gabriella continued on though as she didn't want her good time that she was having with Troy being ruined by sad memories as that was for when she was by herself in her room back in Albuquerque. "But I don't want to be thinking of parents right now. Because I know for a fact that your mother wouldn't appreciate the way that I'm picturing you right now."
"And how's that?" Troy whispered huskily.
"Like you said before: patience is a virtue." Gabriella whispered back before giving Troy one last kiss goodnight. "I'll tell you later...maybe."
Troy shut his eyes as if he was debating with himself whether or not to give into Gabriella's suggestion the other night about having sex. Her voice was just so tantilizing at the moment. But the good guy in him won out again as they both knew deep down that even though they established that they love each other, they weren't ready for sex just yet. When Troy opened his eyes, he was met with a pair of amused brown orbs. He then said four words that Gabriella wasn't quite expecting yet.
"I love you Brie."
"I know Troy." Gabriella sighed as she snuggled down into bed and Troy wrapped his arms around her. "And that's just one of the reasons why I love you."
