"Isn't that against the rules?"

I jumped a bit and turned around, carrying this plate of food, to be met with Troy Bolton. "What?"

He chuckled a bit and leaned over and grabbed himself a plate, "Sorry, I don't know why I said that, like you'll even get it. It's dumb."

"No, tell me."

"You have two waffles on your plate," he points out, "it's a dumb joke, really. I just haven't really seen people eat that much here." Ohhhh, okay, I get it. Ha. Yeah, it's kinda funny. But that doesn't really apply to me.

"Oh, I eat," I laugh and turn back around and add some bananas and strawberries on top of the waffles, "that's funny, though."

He shakes his head, "it was dumb."

Maybe a little bit. But I'm not mad about it. We're talking. I had a feeling he'd be there because the Smiths are at everything, but I didn't know for sure since he's not a Smith, he's a Bolton and he doesn't have an obligation to come, you know? Plus, this really isn't his scene, I think. I mean, he's dressed for it, but you can tell it's not his usual scene but he's not really that dressed for it, if you know what I mean. Ha.

"Where's Stacy?"

"She's actually sick," he tells me grabbing a biscuit, "which is why I'm here. My aunt paid for four seats, so."

Oh, right, I forgot about that. Even if he wanted to come, if Stacy wasn't sick, he probably wouldn't be able to. You have to RSVP to this thing. "Oh, well, I'm sure you're thrilled about it."

He laughed as he moved along in line behind me, "Hey, free food? It's not too bad."

"True," I get out of line since I pretty much got everything I wanted already and just waited off to the side until he was done grabbing his food.

And when he was, he joined me and we walked back to the tables. "Where are you sitting?"

I looked around, forgetting where I was and then spotted my brother chomping away on his food, "Right over there," I point to a table that is in the sort of back, but not really, "what about you?"

"I'm over there," he pointed to the same area but a few tables over and a little in front.

"Have fun," I tell him before walking away and joining my brother along with Morgan's family.

Last year, we actually got seated with the Smiths so I'm a little bummed that, that wasn't the case this year. It would have been perfect. I could have talked to Troy throughout the whole thing without feeling like I actually wanted to, you know? It would have felt more of just mingling with everyone but ugh.

Oh well.

We all eat and then there's a presentation, a speech, whatever, same old boring things that take place at this event.

And throughout the whole thing, I steal glances at Troy. He's never looking, but I don't stare for too long just in case he does decide to look up. That would have been totally embarrassing.

But I decide to look over again, and this time, he's actually already looking at me. And the minute our eyes lock, he gives me a small smile before looking away. And oh my gosh, it made my heart flutter. He was looking at me before I was even looking at him. But on the flip side, he caught me staring.

I don't even care, though, because we had a moment.

It was definitely a moment, right? I mean, I felt my heart flutter, my cheeks grew red. He smiled at ME. And it just felt different.

"Who do you keep looking at?" my brother leans in and whispers to me.

"What?" I turned to him, "no one, why?" Fuuck. He caught me and I know he's not going to let it go because my brother is nosy and he loves to pry in my personal life, which most of the time, I don't even care. He's my brother. We're close. But I seriously have nothing to tell and it's embarrassing.

I'm pretty much into a guy and I have no idea if he's interested in me. How embarrassing.

My brother wasn't buying it, obviously. "Is it that new guy that you brought to the house the other day?"

Oh yeah, they've met. Fuck.

"It's nothing," I tell him, grabbing some grapes off my plate and plopping them in my mouth, "he's just hot so why wouldn't I look at him?" Ha, Gabriella, that's such a stupid answer. Whatever, though.

"You get crushes on guys pretty fast," he points out which is true, "so I'm not surprised you're into the new guy."

"It's not like I want to date him, I just, he's hot, okay?" I've said that already, but whatever, "and we're working on a project together, he's in my English class. We're sort of friends. I don't know. Plus, he's not from here. Why not make him feel welcomed?"

My brother laughed and shook his head, "I mean, if you say so."

Yeah, I do say so.

I grabbed some more plates and then discreetly looked back over to his table, but he was gone. Fuck. Where did he go?

Yep. I was gonna go look for him. "I'll be right back," I tell my brother.

"No, yeah, we can go out tonight," I tell Charlotte over the phone, "where were you thinking?"

I didn't search for Troy for that long. Maybe a minute, but he was nowhere to be found. And on my way back, Charlotte called me so I stepped out to the garden to talk to her for a minute.

She was having a hair crisis so of course she called her best gal pal. But now that I talked her through it, we're talking about plans for tonight.

And going out sounds like fun, "I mean, we can just do dinner Carlyle and then head over to the Pony Bar if you want or we can just come back to my place and just hang out. I'm down for whatever. Okay, yeah, call Cassie and let me know. Okay, yeah, bye..."

I hung up my phone and checked my texts really quick. I had a few. Two from Savannah and one from Cassie.

And then I turned around to get back in there and I saw Troy standing in the walkway.

"Hi."

"Hey," he puts his hands in his pockets, "taking a break?"

I put my phone back in my purse and shrugged, "No, I was just talking to Char." And then I realized I don't know if he knows who that is so I corrected myself, "um, my friend."

He nodded and walked in further so I backed up a little bit, "I was walking back in and I saw you out here, thought I'd ask what you were doing."

"Ohhh yeah, um," I try my best not to let my big mouth tell him that I was actually wondering where he was, "my friend called and so yeah, also I guess just getting some fresh air. It was getting a little bit stuffy in there."

"It was," he agreed, "is this thing almost over?"

I laughed and grabbed his wrist since he had a watch and saw that it was almost 1. "Just about, I think."

He chuckled and smiled at me, I think finding it a bit funny that I just borrowed his wrist for a second. But if he knew me, he'd know I'm kind of a straight forward person. If this was any other person, I'm pretty sure I'd just straight up flirt with them. But I don't know. I'm scared he'll reject me. He's not from here. He's not one of us. I honestly don't know what he thinks of me and I really, really do not want to ask and be disappointed with the answer. Ugh.

"I'm ready to get out of here."

"Me, too," I agreed, leaning against the rail, looking out into beautiful NYC. God, I loved this city so freaking much.

"You want to?" he asked me, turning towards me a bit, "I mean, it's almost over, right? Why don't we just sneak out the back?"

Okay, um, he's definitely not from here. I can't just sneak out. Well, it is almost over so I guess I could, but I've never done that. And I have no idea what my parents would say about it. If they'll be upset or mad. But seriously, all the people I needed to see and talk to, I've already talked to. So why not?

Should I? Or should I not? "I kinda do."

Troy turned his back to the scenery and started making his way towards the exit, "Let's go. Maybe catch a movie or something. Or get some more food."

I'm always down to eat. And I'm always down to watch movies. It was two of my favorite things.

So I followed him out, but not before sending Morgan and my brother a quick text message saying I left. And only my brother knew what I could possibly be doing. I'll explain it to Morgan later.

Because right now, we're racing down the stairs trying to get out of here.

And we do.

And I'm so excited. I'm hanging out with Troy Bolton. This is exactly what I wanted.

"Wait, how have you not seen Casablanca? It's only one of the greatest movies of all time."

I giggled as I bit into my ice cream, "I don't know, I just haven't."

Troy shook his head and also took a bite of his ice cream as we walked back to my place, "That movie is a classic, you NEED to watch it."

This is probably the part where I should tell him that I'll watch it and he should bring it over sometime, but I don't want to make it too obvious that I'm sort of feeling him, you know? I'm already waaay too giggly around him and that's probably freaking him out but I can't help it.

"I will," I tell him, "maybe."

"No," he shakes his head, "one of these days, I'm bringing it over and we're watching it, I don't care what you say."

AHHH. Well, obviously I'm not going to say no! And thank God he was the one who said this, not me. But I'm not sure if it's because he wants to hang out or if he really wants me to watch the movie.

I'm getting the feeling that he just wants to watch the movie because he looked pretty taken aback when I mentioned I haven't seen it, so... Ha.

"Fine, whatever," I laugh and I look over across the street and see Ryan Fitzgerald.

My ex boyfriend Ryan.

Is this really happening to me? Like is he seriously across the street right now?

Troy stopped walking because I stopped walking and then came back to me and looked over where I was looking, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I shake my head and keep walking, "nothing."

"Do you know him?"

Do I know him? Ha. I only dated him on and off for the past two years, have been friends with him for much longer and he decided to dump me and go out with older girls who had so much more to offer in this city. But whatever, at least he didn't cheat, right? That's the way I'm looking at it. He had the decency to call if off before. Well, that's what he told me, anyway. Who really knows. But it's a complicated situation and I don't want to get into it right now.

I shrug, "ex boyfriend. No big deal."

Troy didn't say much else, he just bit into his ice cream and glanced over at Ryan a couple more times. "He looks like a douche, anyway."

I couldn't help, but laugh. It's not like I want him back but whenever I do see him, all these memories rush back. All the good memories that we've come to accumulate over the past two years. "Oh, completely."

Whatever, we passed him and soon enough weren't able to see him. Thank God.

"Can we stop by the bookstore really quick? I want to buy something."

"Yeah, sure," Troy tells me as he's about done with his ice cream cone, "what are you thinking of buying?"

"Gone girl," I take the last few bites of my ice cream as well, "they're making it into a movie and I really want to read the book before since the books are always better than the movies."

Troy nodded, "Yeah, completely. What way is it?"

I look around, figuring out exactly where we were and then I get close to the sidewalk and look for oncoming traffic. There was none, so I crossed the street and Troy closely followed behind. We walked up the block and then turned the corner and walked a little bit more until we hit it.

Ah I love bookstores. Savannah and I, who are the readers of the group, would come here ALL the time last year and just browse for hours.

"I found it," Troy yells at me from across the room after being there for about five minutes.

I walk over to him and quickly take it out of his hands and scan through it. It's hardcover and more than 200 pages. Ahh my favorite kind of books. And the cover of it just looks so... plain, but creepy. So good. I can't wait.

Troy looks around while I go and pay for it and when I'm done, he follows me out.

And we go right back to the path we were on to my house. It's 4:30 and I have to get home if I'm gonna go out with my friends.

But if I'm being honest with myself, I think I'd rather just hang out with Troy. But I don't know his plans and I don't even know if he wants to continue this hangout. Maybe it was purely because he wanted to get out of the brunch and I was the only person he really knew he could do that with. I don't know.

And I didn't care. At least I got to hang out with him.

We reached my building a little bit later and I was a bit bummed about it. It had been a wonderful afternoon full of talking, munching on popcorn, laughing throughout the movie.

I didn't want it to end, but obviously it has to sooner or later. I just wish it was later.

"Thanks for ditching the brunch and coming with me today."

"Oh an..." Fuck, I almost say anytime and I don't want to sound to desperate, so, um, "I wanted to get out of there as well so it was no problem."

He smiled at me and let out a small chuckle and I was worried he caught what I was going to actually say, but whatever. "I should get going, but um, have fun tonight with your friends."

How does he know about that? "What?"

"I overheard you in the garden," he reminds me, "Remember?"

Oh right, right. "I was seriously creeped out for a second," I laughed a little bit, "but um, yeah, thanks. I'll see you Monday?"

He smiled at me and nodded, "See you Monday."

And then he turned around and walked out the building but not before turning back around to give me one last smile. And when I turned around to head to the elevator, I was smiling. Big and cheesy and ahhh. I don't know if this is the beginning of anything or a one time hang out, but right now, I didn't care.

It was a perfect hang out. And that's more than okay with me right now.