I went with the black Alexander McQueen dress because Morgan told me it'd be a small message to Troy. It'd let him know that maybe I wore this because he said it looked good on me. And I mean, maybe she's right. It's a subtle way of flirting, right?

And also, everyone's wearing white.

I'm looking around the room and so many people are in white. Thank God I went with black. The black dresses are for sure standing out.

"Gabriella!"

I turned around and saw Lizzie Stevens standing there with some champagne in her hand and a water in the other,"oh my gosh, I LOVE your dress, where did you get it? It's sooo pretty. No, not even pretty, like so hot."

Lizzie was the cutest. I couldn't help but laugh. "Thanks, girl. It's Alexander McQueen, my mom bought it. But I love your dress, too. Is it Chanel?"

"It is," she smiled, "damn, you're good at these designer brands."

I am. "Is Mark here?"

She nodded, "yeah, he's probably grabbing himself some food or something," she rolled her eyes at her boyfriend of a year, "but yeah, I just wanted to tell you that you look hot. I have to get this champagne to Tiffany, but I'll see you later."

Lizzie was off and the minute she left my sight, Charlotte came up to me and handed me a vodka soda. "I just saw Kimberly Jackson wearing the dress I was going to wear first. Thank God I decided to change, I hate that bitch. She's sooo annoying."

See! It's not just me that thinks this. She is annoying.

And I couldn't help but think of her and Troy now. Do they have something going on? Like, yeah, she's really pretty, but annoying. Doesn't he see that?

"I don't know what anyone would see in her."

I'm mainly talking about Troy, but Char doesn't know that yet. She'll probbably be the next to know to be honest. Well, if there's anything to tell.

We go and meet up with the rest of the girls and sit down to have dinner which consists of steak, shrimp skewers, mashed potatoes, fries, steamed veggies, so many good things. Seriously, Katherine knows how to throw a party and she always has the BEST food.

After we ate, we mingled and danced and mingled some more.

I saw Troy earlier in the night, I said hi to him, he said hi to me and then we sort of just went our separate ways.

And I haven't ran into him since. But I have seen him. In fact, I'm currently looking at him right now. He's by the bar, he's leaning against it actually and he's with Kimberly, of course. She's laughing at something he said and she playfully hits his arm. And I seriously just can't take it. I've never felt this before. I've never had this feeling. Seeing a guy I like with some other girl flirting or whatever the fuck they were doing. So I had to get out of there.

I turned around, grabbed my drink and headed to the garden of this place. Every place had a garden, thank God. It was a place to escape for me.

It was so peaceful out here. I was a little bit cold, but my dress was long sleeve so I was okay.

5 minutes out here turned into 20 minutes so I probably should head back in. I could tell my friends I was talking to my mom so they wouldn't think I was crazy for just being out here. They've never seem me like this- sad over a boy. But I guess there's a first for everything, right?

And the minute I was going to grab my drink and turn around to leave, I heard the door shut closed.

Someone was up here.

I turned around and there was Troy Bolton walking towards me. Fuck. Why is he here and why is he coming towards me? How did he know I was even here? Wasn't he too caught up in Kimberly to even notice I was up here?

"Hey," he calls out to me. God, he's so hot.

"Hi," I tell him.

He comes closer and I could see his blue eyes twinkling. How could someone not like him? Seriously. "What are you doing out here all by yourself?"

I shrugged and turned around to grab my drink and took a sip, "just needed some fresh air."

"Are you not enjoying yourself?"

Okay, fine, I'm not really. I mean, I hate to be that girl that's not having fun because of some guy. Some guy who down the road might not even be worth it, but I am being that girl tonight and I hate it. I'm moody. I'm sad. I'm just... ugh. I don't want to be here anymore. I want to be home, snuggled up in bed.

I really didn't know how to answer him, though, because I'm sure he could tell by my face. "It's okay."

He nodded and came over and stood by me and looked out over the ledge at downtown New York. We were on the highest floor of the building and could see everything. It was breathtaking and beautiful.

"Well, at least you look nice," he tells me, "you went with that dress?"

I looked over at him and he was looking straight ahead. I wanted to smile, but I was a little mad at him. "Yeah. I figured everyone was gonna be in white."

He laughed and nodded. "Yeah, you were right about that."

Ugh. I'm so fed up with this. I wanted to cut the crap. I didn't want small talk. I didn't want mixed signals. But I also didn't want to come out and be straight up with him about my feelings. So I took a more subtle approach. "What are you doing out here?"

He looked over at me and looked like he just offended me or something. "Oh, I'm sorry, did you want to be alone?"

"I'm just wondering why you're here instead of in the party," I tell him.

"I don't know, I saw you come up here and I wanted to see if you were okay," he shrugs, "I mean, why else would you leave?"

Okay, ummm. Sure. If he came up right away, that would have been believable but it's been 20 minutes. I've been up here for 20 minutes by myself. "You didn't see me come up here. I've been up here for like twenty minutes. What took you so long then?"

He didn't say much. He just continued staring out into the night sky and his blue eyes glistened and it's honestly so annoying how beautiful they are.

"I wasn't gonna rush up here if you wanted to be by yourself," he tells me and okay, whatever.

"Look, I'm fine, you can head back."

But he didn't. He just stood there and didn't say much else to me.

Like, what does he want from me? Is he really concerned? Did he just want some fresh air as well or what? I don't know. All I know is that I don't really want to be around him anymore because it only makes me sad, mad and annoyed. Especially since I just saw him with Kimberly.

So I think I was gonna go.

But he turned to me and in a way stopped me. "I don't know why you're up here when everyone's downstairs having a lot of fun."

Ugh. "I'm just not really in the mood, but I guess I can ask you the same thing."

He chuckled a bit. "I mean, I needed a breather as well."

Oh of course he did. I heard Kimberly was an aggressive kisser. An aggressive flirt. Everything. And that's probably why she can't keep a boyfriend. Wait. Me neither. I can't keep a guy. Fuck. Are me and Kimberly the same? NO way. I'm not annoying, am I? Well, obviously to some people. I can't please everyone.

"Okay," I mumbled, "whatever."

I turned back to looking out into New York. It was really beautiful and I really did not want to go back inside yet anymore. I thought I did, but nope.

And I wasn't going to let him run me out of here. Nope. He could leave and I'm going to stay.

Troy didn't leave, though. He was still there and it was pissing me off. Like, does he know and he's just trying to torture me or what? Did someone tell him that I have a crush on him and he's up here making me sweat it out? What other reason does he have for being up here?

"Look, if you're not gonna leave, then I will," I tell him, "I'd like to be alone."

"Why do you want to be alone?" he pesters me.

"No particular reason," I quickly glance at him, "don't you have people to get back to?"

He chuckles and shakes his head a bit and then continues to stare off. He rolls his sleeves up a bit and then he runs his hands through his hair before he turns to me. "Can you maybe lighten up so I can make a move?"

Wait. What? What did he just say to me? No. I'm imagining this, right? I have to be. There's NO way he just told me that straight up. Nooo.

"What?" I somehow manage to get out.

"I came up here for a reason but it's not really for the reason I told you," he tells me and then gives me a small smile as he scoots in closer and I seriously stop breathing. "I didn't see you come up here. I looked everywhere for you and here you are..."

Okay, no, I don't, obviously. But my throat is dry. I'm like frozen, pretty much and I honestly can't believe what I'm hearing. He didn't see me come up here. He looked for me. He wanted to see me. Which means he likes me, right? Oh my gosh. Am I dreaming? I HAVE TO BE DREAMING. I have to be.

I turned to him, my body fully facing his and his facing mine. "What are you talking about?"

He closed the space between us a little bit and looked straight into my eyes, "I'm going to kiss you now, stop me anytime if you want."

Obviously, I don't want to stop him. I want to kiss him more than anything.

So I don't. He closes the gap between us and his lips touch mine and fireworks explode. Not literally. But in my head. Fireworks are exploding. Butterflies are forming, and my heart is pounding which I'm pretty sure he can feel.

I'm kissing Troy Bolton on the garden rooftop of one of the best buildings in New York. I mean, are you kidding me right now? This is how my night is turning out? 30 minutes ago, I was a mess. Not completely, but I was so annoyed that Kimberly got Troy. That she had the balls to flirt with him. And that he might somehow be into her or something. But here is he, kissing me. So that means he's into me, right? It has to.

And I can feel it.

He has one hand on my face and the other behind my head, slowly in my hair and my arms are snaked around his neck and I'm deepening the kiss as he's smiling into it and in turn, it makes me smile into it. I've never smiled into a kiss before. I've never smiled while kissing. This is new. And different.

But we have to break apart for air. And when we do, he's smiling down on me while his hand is still resting on my face.

And my whole mood has change- dramatically.

"This is exactly why I came up here," he whispers, "in hopes of doing that."

"I'm sorry I was being a bitch," I tell him, my arms now off to my side and it's probably not romantic at all and I might be ruining the moment, but I don't think anything could ruin the moment we just had. It was seriously perfect. "I don't know..."

"I don't care," he shrugs it off, "you didn't stop me so I don't even care what happened before that."

Me neither. I didn't care about my shitty night. I didn't care that Kimberly was talking to him and he seemed to be enjoying his time. I didn't care that Kate Thompson had almost the exact same dress as me which made me upset. I didn't care that my phone died. I just didn't care about anything that went bad today anymore. I didn't.

And it was all because of Troy. This moment. Us kissing.

Which we continued to do for the next five minutes before going back inside the party.

It was perfect.

"So you're not into Kimberly Jackson?" I ask Troy as we're walking into my place after exiting the elevator later that night.

"Kimberly Jackson?" he asks back as if it's such a far fetched question.

I really didn't want to ruin the night, but it's been a few hours since we've kissed and I just wanted to know. I only saw her once during the party after we came back from the garden rooftop and that was that. They didn't interact after that because well, he was by my side hanging out.

I kicked off my heels and put my clutch down on the table and nodded, "yeah, everywhere I turned, you guys were talking and stuff."

He looked at me and a small smile appeared on his face, "I'm not into Kimberly Jackson."

"What's with the smile?"

"I don't know, is that why you were upset earlier?"

Fuck. I'm caught. He now knows I was upset over that. But then again, my mood completely changed after we kissed so he had to have known that had an impact, right? He's not dumb. I'm sure he put two and two together and realized that maybe I had seen him with her and that's why I was moody.

And I shouldn't even try to hide it. "You kept giving me mixed signals, I didn't know if you were into me or not and when I was thinking that yes, maybe you are into me, I see you with Kimberly."

We walked over to the living room and took a seat on the couch, but before I did, I grabbed a blank from the sofa chair and brought it over to us.

It was only 12:10 AM. The party was still going on, but I was tired so Troy offered to bring me home.

"Well, you weren't wrong about me being into you," he tells me as I cover myself, "I just didn't have the balls until tonight when I saw how amazing you looked, I knew I had to make a move before someone else did."

Oh my gosh. Butterflies.

"She's just a friend," he continues, "she's in my math class and I mean, maybe she's into me, but I'm not into her. At all."

"Good," I say a little too loudly and soon, "I mean, that's good because well, frankly, she's pretty annoying."

He laughed and threw his head back and then put his arm over me on the couch and gave me this look that sent chills up my spine. I honestly don't know how I got so lucky. How in the world this guy is into me and is currently sitting on the couch with me right now. I really don't. But I'm okay with it.

Troy moved some hair out of my face and then leaned down and gave me a small peck on the lips, "I'm only into you, if that's what you were wondering."

I sort of was, but I didn't want to just come out and say it, obviously.

"Since when?"

Once everything is out there and I know a guy is into me, I'm so much more open about everything. I don't have a problem with texting or calling guys first or making plans with them. I don't have a problem spilling my feelings. I guess because I'm secure.

He gave me a small smile and shrugged, "I always found you attractive, like way out of my league attractive, of course, but I think the moment I really thought to myself, 'man, I think I like this girl' was that one afternoon where I came over to work on the project and you were in the kitchen talking to Lupe and I was coming back from the bathroom and I overheard your guy's conversation. On accident. I promise I wasn't trying to."

"What were we saying?" I don't even remember.

"She was telling you about her grandkids and her family and your guys backs were turned to me so I was able to just watch and I don't know, the way you would light up at pictures she'd show you or how interested you genuinely seemed in whatever she had going on, it was nice. It was nice to see that here. Because I love Stacy, she's my cousin, but we all know she doesn't give a shit about her maid's son that goes to public school, you know?"

Oh wow. I remember that conversation completely. Her youngest grandson learned how to say grandma and he was trying for so long and she always told me about them and I knew them, too, so when he finally was able to say it, I was SO happy for her because she lives for her grand kids. And kids.

The fact that something that simple can make him like me, though, is a true testament to how people are in New york and it's really sad.

"Is that why when I walked back to the table, you were just smiling at me and I called you out on it?"

"Yes," he laughed, "that's exactly why."

I couldn't believe it. That's why he was smiling. "And what took you three weeks to make a move? Why not?"

Troy shrugged and moved his arm from behind my back to in front of him, "I don't know. I'm obviously in this world now, but at the same time, I'm not. Yeah, I grew up here. I lived here until I was 5. But Chicago is my home. That's all I really know and it's not like this at all. I'm a normal guy and everyone here is so fancy and important- you're no different whether you like it or not."

I'm not going to try to disagree because it's true. I'm a little socialite here. My mom's a socialite and a business woman. And my dad. Well, a business man.

This is my world and I know it's not really his, but he's stuck with it for now, whether he likes it or not.

"I get it."

"But you're different and I started seeing that more and more," he explains to me, "and I just thought, enough is enough. Someone else is going to sweep her off her feet so I better get to her first. Literally had no expectations, but here we are, so I think it worked out in my favor."

"And in mine," I tell him. It definitely worked out in mine. But I wasn't going to let him know that I'd been crushing on him say day one, basically.

Nope. I was just going to sit here and lay my head on his chest while we watched some TV.

What a perfect night.