Troy

I can't believe how quickly my time here has gone. They're right about the saying, time flies when you're having fun because I have, I really have had fun. Being with Sharpay has been the most fun I've had in my entire life. I wouldn't have said that a while back but being with her right now has changed my mind on things. I don't want to go but I've got to. I've got to go back to University. I've got finish off my time in college. I can't just do two years of college and give it up for a girl. I know they say love makes you do crazy things but I'm not in love with her and I'm certainly not stupid.

It's my last night here in Manhattan and I want it to be a night that I'm gonna remember for the rest of my life. Sharpay's invited me to go around to her studio apartment for dinner. She hasn't cooked it, she's ordered in because her exact words to me where:

'Me, cook? I don't think so. I've never cooked once in my life and I'm not gonna start now.' It made me smile because that was a typical Sharpay Evans thing to say.

I'm wearing my best dress shirt. I want to impress her. I don't want her final image of me until I see her again to be of some slob. I want her to think that I'm making an effort for her and that I would always make an effort for her. I'm wearing a white dress shirt and a pair of my best jeans. I'm only going around to her place so I'm not gonna dress up that fancy. I apply my aftershave to my face and neck. I want to smell good for her. I want her to remember my scent. I want to remember her scent, so when I'm back in Berkley and I'm lying in bed, looking up at the ceiling and I'm thinking of her, the thought of her perform will make me smile, she smells so good, like sweet flowers. I don't know what the perfume is but it's so delicious. I know that I said that I didn't love her but what I do know is that I really like her and I would love to be with her. I would love to fall in love with her one day. Because the Sharpay that I know, is the Sharpay I want to spend the rest of my life with.

We've just finished eating the Chinese food that Sharpay had ordered in. She remembered that my favourite takeaway is Chinese, I'm not actually surprised because the new Sharpay is lovely, sweet, kind and funny. She has an amazing smile and laugh and she actually cares about people now. The old Sharpay wouldn't have remember that it was my favourite food. For starters we had soup, she had chicken and sweet corn and I had won-ton soup. We both had a handful of prawn crackers and it just made the meal, it was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. I've never tasted anything so good in my life. I knew that New York was famous for it amazing food but I never expected it to be that good. We had more starters which we shared. We had BBQ ribs, won-tons, crispy spring rolls, chicken and prawn toast and king spare ribs. It was delicious, just thinking of it right now is making me hungry all over again. We both shared a quarter of crispy duck with pancakes with vegetables and hoisin sauce. Mm, it was so good and for our main course, yeah, we haven't even had our main course yet, I had sweet and sour chicken with fried rice and she had chicken chow mein. I bet you're asking, aren't you full after that and the question is, oh yeah but it was so worth it.

I take my glass of white wine and walk over to the sofa and sit down, she follows me and sits down beside me. I wrap my arm around her and pull her towards me, she rests her head on my chest and I stroke my thumb up and down her arm softly.

"I can't believe that you're actually leaving tomorrow," she says to me.

"I know," I answer her. "I can't believe how fast it's gone."

"I don't want you to go," she says and looks up at me. "You know that, right?"

I nod. "I do." I reply

"Do you have to go?" she asks

"I do," I say. "I have to go back to Berkley, I need to finish off my studies."

"Couldn't you transfer to NYU or somewhere closer than Berkley?" she asks

"I don't think that they're a university around here that does both what I want to do." I say to her.

I feel really bad because she doesn't want me to go, I don't want to go either but I have to. My education and my career is there. If I want to become what I'm studying then I need to stay there. I know that I really care about her. I really do. I've never cared about somebody so much in my life. I care about her more than I ever did with Gabriella. Maybe I didn't care about her as much as I thought I did. But looking at her right now is making me feel really bad. She's looking up at me with those big brown eyes of hers with sorrow in them. I don't want to make her unhappy, that's the last thing that I ever want to do but I have to go back. If it was up to me then I would stay here, if I wasn't in university then I would stay here all the time. Be with her all the time. But unfortunately I can't. I have to travel back and finish it all off.

"What if I find a University that does something similar to it?" she asks. "Would you stay then?"

"If there was one, then yeah," I reply. "I would stay because you have no idea how much I want to stay with you but I don't think that there is and I can't just leave now, I'd have to leave at the end of the year. It's almost over with."

"I know that," she says with a sigh. "But I really don't want you to go now. I want you to be with me for longer than this. Two weeks isn't long enough and for the first few days we weren't like this, we weren't in a relationship. I mean, that is what we're in, isn't it?"

I smile. "Of course it is," I say to her. "I wouldn't be kissing you like I have been doing or speaking to like I have been doing if we weren't in a relationship."

"I'm sorry," she says. "I've only been in one seriously relationship in my entire life, I don't know when I'm in one fully or not."

"Well, I can tell you this," I say to her, leaning towards her face, I look deeply into her eyes and give her a warming smile. "We're in a relationship, Sharpay and I'm absolutely glad about it."

She smiles big at me. I think she's happy with what she's just heard. She leans up to me and pecks my lips softly. I unwrap my arm from around her and I take both mine and her glass of wine and place it down on the coffee table in front of us. I lean back to her and turn my body towards her, I lean towards her and place my hand on her cheek softly, I stroke my thumb softly across her cheek and look deeply into her eyes. She gives me another warm smile.

"Sharpay," I say to her with the softest tone in my voice that I could possibly do. "I know that we're not in love with one another."

She nods.

"But I was thinking," I says as I look down and then look back up. "That maybe tonight could be our special night."

She's shocked and her eyes open wider than before. "You want to be with me," she says with shock in her voice. "Sexually?"

I nod. "I do," I say. "But if you don't want to that then I'll understand. If you're not ready then I really would understand."

She lets out a breath and looks at me. "The truth is," she says nervously. "I've never actually done it before."

"And you're scared?" I ask her.

She nods and looks down. I place my hand on her chin softly and lift it up to meet my eyes. She looks into my eyes with those chocolate brown eyes of hers.

"You don't have to be embarrassed about it, Sharpay," I say to her with a soft tone in my voice. "There's nothing wrong with not having sex before. If you're a virgin then I think that that's amazing."

She looks at me strangely. "You think that it's okay for me to still be a virgin?" She asks me.

"Yeah," I say with a shrug. "Because that means that you're waiting for the right person and there's nothing wrong with that. Wait, weren't you with Peyton for like a year or something?"

She nods. "I was but we never got the chance to do it," she admits. "We were both crazily busy and I think towards the middle of the relationship, we both kinder gave up on it."

"If you don't want to do this with me," I say to her with a soft tone in my voice. "Then I'll understand. You're not in love with me so if you want to be with somebody that you love then we can wait until we both fall in love."

"You would do that for me," she asks.

I nod. "I would," I reply. "Because I want the best for you Sharpay, the absolute best and I never ever wanna hurt you."

She gives me a warm smile. "Troy, you really don't know, do you?" She asks me.

"Don't know what?" I reply.

"I've always been in love with you and I've never stopped," she admits with a smile.

"Sharpay," I say to her. "You don't have to say that just because you feel like you're being pressured into doing this."

"I'm not being pressured into doing anything," she replies. "You're not forcing me to do anything that I don't want to. You're being really sweet about it all, like you've always been. That's who you are, Troy Bolton, you're a sweet guy who cares about other people before himself. And that, that is what I love about you, I've always loved that about you."

I smile.

"And in high school," she says. "It wasn't just a crush on you, I was in love with you and I've always been in love with you since 8th grade."

"8th grade?" I say with shock in my voice. "I had no idea that it was that long."

She nods. "What can I say," she says. "You've always been this amazingly sweet guy who has never changed." She places her hand on my cheek and looks deeply into my eyes. "I never want you to change either."

I smile again. "Don't worry," I say to her. "I'm not going to."

"Good," she replies. "I'm yeah, I'm afraid of having sex but person isn't on their first time. I want to remember you in a good way, Troy, more good than I already remember you, but if we're not going to see each other for a while then I think that this way is the best way to say goodbye and have the memory of whilst we're not with one another."

I lean towards her and I take her hand in mine and I lace my fingers through hers. I look down at our fingers interlocking and I look back up into her eyes.

"Are you sure about this?" I say with a calm tone in my voice.

She nods. "I've never been so sure about anything in my life," she replies.

I lean towards her and I kiss her softly, I place my free hand on the side of her neck, I deepen the kiss by sliding my tongue into her mouth and we both moan at the same time. I release her hand and I move it to the small of her back and I stroke my hand softly across it. She moves towards me, moving towards my lap, she arches her thighs over mine and sits on my lap, wrapping both of her arms around my neck, we're together and this is gonna be a night that I'm never ever going to forget.