"So, Will and I are officially together," Savannah announces with a squeal as we're all sat around our usual table at Cafe Boulud, "it happened yesterday."

"Ahhhh!" We all exclaimed in excitement.

Will and Savannah are literally the cutest. They were getting to know each other a week before summer started but they put it on pause because they were both going to be out of town for the summer and when they got back, they just picked things back up and started hanging out and now I guess they're official which is so exciting. Savannah's last boyfriend cheated on her and Will is the sweetest. She needs someone like him, for sure.

And she looked SO happy, too. "Did he straight up ask you and plan it out or was it super casual?"

"I mean, he planned date night and it was sweet, so yeah, maybe he planned it? Even though it seemed more of a spontaneous thing, like it felt right to ask me so he did."

"I'm so happy for you, S," I tell her grabbing my lemonade, "seriously, he's so nice."

"Right?" she agrees, "like he's still in our world so get gets it, but at the same time, I feel like he's so different. I don't know. I'm happy."

Awww, we're all happy for her.

We're currently at Cafe Boulud, a cafe here in the Upper East Side, having dinner and catching up. Well, not really catching up, but just talking. Well, at times it is catching up. It's Monday. We have a tradition of coming here every single Monday no matter what. Okay, family emergencies, school stuff and doctor or dentist appointments we can't get out of are the exceptions. But usually, every Monday, we'll meet up here for dinner and just talk. About our weekends if we don't spend them with each other. About life. About school. We started it freshman year when we felt we were old enough to just go to a restaurant just the five of us and we've been keeping up with it ever since. It's fun. It's important. And I love it. It keeps us close. It keeps us informed. I'll never get tired of it.

And this is the place where I should probably tell EVERYONE about Troy Bolton and the fact that he kissed me Saturday night.

But I don't want to take Savannah's shine away from her.

She talked about Will and her some more and how this coming weekend they're driving to New Jersey to visit her grandma and he's tagging along so he could meet her. And that's seriously so cute and how you know she's serious about him.

"Brendan and I are gonna be away this weekend, too. We're going to New Haven this weekend for his cousin's sweet 16 so I'm not going to Tish's party," Morgan tells us once Savannah is done telling us about her and Will.

Morgan and Brendan. They're been together since the summer before junior year so over a year. Yeah, sounds about right. And they were the cutest, ever.

She was so in love with him. "That's fun. Are you guys driving or flying?"

"Flying," she tells me as if it's not even an option to drive, "yeah, no, road trips with him are the worst. He doesn't like any of my music!"

"Wow, how are you guys still together?"

Morgan glared at Cassie, but she knew it was a joke. 'Are you guys gonna go to Tish's party?"

I wasn't planning on it. I know Char wasn't planning on it, but I don't know about Cassie. Her parents are good friends with Tish's party so I assume, maybe? Who knows. I don't know what I'm doing this weekend, actually. But I do hope I spend some of it with Troy.

Troy.

Ah, I couldn't stop thinking about him. Well, I could, but it was hard.

"I'm not going," I tell Morgan, "we just had this black and white party and in two weeks it's our annual Halloween party so no, I'm taking a break."

"Ahh, our annual Halloween party," Char perked up, "I am so excited about that. My mom has most of it under control, but we definitely need to meet together later this week to figure out who's making it on the guest list this year."

"Agreed," they all said.

And now's the perfect time to tell them about Troy. "You can add Troy Bolton to the list this year."

Savannah and Morgan looked at me, since they're the only ones that know, and their eyes widened a bit but I let them know that it was time to tell them. They don't even know that we ended up hooking up on Saturday so it'll be a nice surprise for them, too. And I'm sure they'll be happy to hear.

Our Halloween party is a big blowout. Everyone who's anyone comes, but at the same time, it's very exclusive. People we've known for years or people that are really good friends of ours. And family. Family, of course.

If it was any other party, they wouldn't even blink, but because it was this party, I knew they were going to question me.

"You guys are good friends now?" Char asks me.

"Something like that," I start to smile and look over at Savannah who seems all giddy.

Char looks at Savannah and then at Morgan who's doing the exact same thing and then Cassie wondered what the hell was going on.

So I had to spill. "I've been crushing on Troy for a while now and Savannah and Morgan knew because well, they got it out of me and I've been battling with the whole, is he into me or is he not dilemma, but finally, after almost a month of hanging out, working on our project together, he kissed me at the party on Saturday and yeah, um, we talked and I think we're gonna see where this thing goes, so I want him there."

Savannah and Morgan were all giddy and happy, but Cassie and Char were still a little taken aback by what I just said.

"Wait," Char put her hand up, I think trying to piece together everything, "you liked a boy and you didn't tell us?"

"I mean, sort of, but I didn't exactly want to tell Savannah and Morgan, either," I try to defend myself, "they just got it out of me and it wasn't even anything because I didn't know at the time if he was interested in me or not."

"But you always tell us when you're crushing on a boy. The minute you are, you tell us!"

I nod, completely agreeing with her, "yeah, because they're usually crushing on me, too, and I had no idea if Troy was. It was sort of embarrassing."

Char and Cassie seemed to lighten up a bit. I know they weren't offended or anything, and I guess it was a good reason to not tell them because they know if something did happen with a guy, they'd hear about it.

But nothing was happening with Troy so there was nothing really to tell, ya know?

"So you guys hooked up on Saturday?" Morgan tried continuing the conversation after a brief moment of silence, "how, when?"

I told them everything. From the night starting out shitting, to me thinking he was into Kimberly Jackson, to us kissing on the rooftop. Oh and of course the fact that he spent the night.

And they seemed so happy for me, which in turn made me happy about the whole thing.

"I haven't really talked to him, but I know he's not from here, so maybe this will be a good thing for you," Cassie tells me as she sips on her raspberry iced tea, "I mean, the guys here aren't for you. You dump them like there's no tomorrow so maybe change is good."

And there it is again. Am I really like that?

I really don't want to be. "You think I get really bored of guys and just dump them?"

They all looked at each other and didn't really say much, but I obviously already knew the answer by what they just did.

"Well, technically, you don't dump them since you don't get to the point of being boyfriend and girlfriend," Morgan tries to make everything seem better than it is, "but yeah, I think you do tend to get bored or be very picky."

Ugh, well, if they're all saying it, then yeah, I guess I do. I just never noticed it. But I really don't want that to happen now. I want a boyfriend. I want to be with someone and have what Morgan and Brendan have. Ryan and I never really had that. We were dating, but I feel like it was 60% friendship and 40% romance and I don't know if it should really be like that in a relationship. I'm just ready to have a serious commitment with someone.

And if that's with Troy, great. If not, well, then whatever. But it's what I want. So I'm changing my ways.

I have to be more patient, I have to realize that people aren't going to be perfect and live up to my standards.

"You guys are right," I tell them, "from now on, Gabriella Elizabeth Montez is going to give every single guy a chance and not ride them off after one annoying comment they make or have a habit that I despise."

"Yesss," Morgan smiled.

And everyone was happy with it. I guess I was a bigger bitch than I thought. Ha.

"Are you busy tonight?" A voice came over my shoulder as I was walking out of school on Thursday afternoon.

"No," I turned around and came face to face with the gorgeous Troy Bolton.

He smiled at me and he looked as cute as ever. In his school uniform with a pea coat on. So New York. "Want to get something to eat? And maybe you can come to the bookstore with me?"

That's our common interest. Books. I love, love, love reading and he loves reading, too. So it's perfect. On Tuesday, we spent almost an hour just scanning through books and it was seriously so much fun. It was out first hang out as people who are into each other and it was easy and relaxing and we were seriously laughing the whole time while checking out books. I got a couple and he got one.

"You're done reading your book already?"

"No," he shakes his head as we continue to walk out of school, "this book just came out that I really want to read so I want to go and buy it."

"Oh, well yeah, I'm always down for a trip to the bookstore," I tell him holding on to my textbooks.

I love that I'm the one that dragged him to a bookstore before he even confessed to being into me because now it doesn't seem like I'm into reading because he's into reading, you know? I would hate for him to think that.

We stopped at the bottom of the stairs and decided what we should do. Most of the time I walk to school because it's literally down the street, but when I'm late of course, I just use my driver.

But today, I didn't. We could easily go and have Martin give us a ride or hail a cab, but the bookstore is only about three blocks.

"Let's just walk," he shrugs and I really don't want to say no. I don't mind it, but today, I'm carrying textbooks and walking is the last thing I want to do.

"Sure," I tell him as I hang on tighter to my books.

We take a left and walk to the bookstore and before we even get to the end of the block, he turns to me, stops me and grabs my books from my hand, "You really didn't think I was gonna let you carry these three blocks, did you?"

Um, well, yeah kind of.

"You don't have to," I tell him trying to get them back, "they're kind of heavy."

"Which is why I'm not letting you carry them," he argues back, "you're a petite girl, so just let me."

Well, if he insists. I'm not gonna fight him on it. And to be honest, I was happy about it. My arms were hurting and I really didn't know if I could have carried them three more blocks. Textbooks are no joke. It was an incredibly sweet gesture, too.

"Thanks," I smile at him as I fix my purse on my shoulder, "but I'm carrying them on the way back to my place."

"Yeah, yeah," he waves me off.

And 10 minutes later, we're at the bookstore.

I start roaming around because I don't really have a book in mind that I want so I'm just looking while he's searching for his book. He finds it after a couple of minutes, but lets me do my thing. He also roams around for some other good books and he ends up finding a book he always wanted to ready.

So he gets both and I end up getting none, which is okay.

We left and I took my textbooks back since he bought two books and I wasn't going to let him carry them.

But instead of walking back, we hailed a cab. Thank God. It was sort of by my house by in a different direction. I don't really know how to explain it, so it would have been four blocks of walking as opposed to the three from school.

"Do you wanna come up?" I ask him. It's only 3:30 and I mean, we still have time to hang out, "we can do some homework or something."

"Yeah, you want to?"

Duh. "Yeah, I'm sure Lupe also has something good to eat. Are you hungry at all?"

It looks like he doesn't really want to say yes, but I know he is. All guys are hungry at all times. So I answer for him, "Come on,"I pulled him out of the cab and then gave the cab driver a five dollar bill, "let's go."

"I. can't. breathe," I tell Troy dramatically, but honestly, it hurts to, "stop. That did not happen."

"It did happen!"

I couldn't stop laughing. Oh my gosh. Troy and I were exchanging our most embarrassing stories and his for sure tops mine and I'm sitting here at my dining room table laughing my face off. Seriously, I think I might have to excuse myself soon.

But he stopped laughing so it calmed me down a little bit. "I'm glad you're enjoying my embarrassment."

"Sorry," I say between laughs, "but you gotta admit, that's so funny."

"It was," he laughed, "it was. And I'm happy I can tell it now and people can laugh at me, but seriously, when it happened, I couldn't talk about it for like years. I think I just started telling it last year."

Well, I'm glad, because it made me laugh so hard and it was the best break I've ever take from doing some homework. Ahh. This is nice. Us hanging out.

I thought I was done laughing, but just thinking about it again is making me crack up. Oh my gosh.

"Like I said, I'm glad me falling in a puddle in front of everyone is funny to you."

"No," I managed to get out, "no, that's not even the funniest part. It's what happened before and after that is making me want to cry of laughter. But okay, sorry, sorry, I'll stop.

And I did. For like thirty seconds before I went back to laughing. But after that, I was fine. I got it all out and I felt silly just laughing by myself when he's clearly had enough time to laugh about this. Okay, I'm back to being fine. Yeah, yeah, I'm good. I'm under control.

For the next 20 minutes or so, we focused on doing our math homework. We had the same teacher, but different periods so we'd help each other out.

Did you know Troy Bolton is like a math whiz? He gets just it.

I'm more of an English gal. I love English and everything about it- writing, reading, analyzing. Everything.

"So, are your parents getting closer to moving back here?" I ask him. He's told me a bit about them, but now that we're you know, sort of dating, I think it's only right if I know more. I mean, he knows my parents. And since I can't just meet his because they're in Chicago, I have to ask about them.

"Yeah, my dad has a new job lined up here which he starts mid-December," he looks up at me after closing his math book, "but they're still in the process of selling the house, which is a lot harder than they anticipated, I think. But they wanna be out here by November."

"Weird, you'd think it'd sell fast in a populous city," I think out loud, "I mean, these places go off the market so fast sometimes."

Troy nodded, "exactly. But it's fine, they have a bit of time, they just don't really want to leave it like that so they're making sure it sells before making the big move. We can't move into our place until November, anyway, so it works out."

I wanted to ask what his parents do, but coming from someone like me, I don't want it to come off as wanting to know for something other than genuine interest, you know?

"Well, I'm sure time will fly by," I tell him, "you miss them?"

"Yeah, definitely," he pushes his stuff away as he reaches for his water bottle, "especially my little sister."

Aww his little sister. I haven't heard much about his family because I'm sure he doesn't go around telling someone he barely knows about his family or yeah, anyone about them. But it's different now. We're into each other. We're hanging out as more than friends. I want to know about his family.

All I really know is that his mom and dad are still happily together, he has a five year old sister named Sienna and that's it. Oh, and they're pretty cool.

His words not mine.

But I'm sure I'd find them cool if I find Troy cool.

I want to know all about his life in Chicago, all about his family, his little sister who's 12 years younger than him and why she is. Their family dynamic and just everything pretty much. But I don't want to jump in and just ask right away. We JUST started dating. Maybe he's not comfortable yet.

"How old is she again?" I ask. I honestly don't know if she's five or seven. I keep thinking five, but I feel like it could be seven as well, I don't know.

"She's five," he tells me and then looks up at me, "I know it's a pretty big age gap."

Okay, so he acknowledges that, but I still shouldn't ask, huh? Nah, I don't want to impose. I want him to feel the need to want to tell me about it.

And I guess he does. "My mom had me when she was 17. She was just a kid. And my dad and her tried making it work, but when I was 3, they separated. Still both heavily in my life, but not together. They both had relationships, but somehow found their way back to each other at 25 when I was 8. They got married two years later and then had my sister, so my mom was still young. And yeah, I guess it worked out the way it was supposed to."

Oh wow. He just spilled two things to me. His parents story and why there's such a big age gap.

Okay, cool. We're getting comfortable around each other. Unless he doesn't care who knows about it. "That's really cool."

"I think so, too," he smiles, "means they were meant to be, you know?"

"Exactly," I agree, closing my folder and my textbook and stacking them on top of each other, "I mean, it would have been great if they didn't separate at all, but they found their way back to each other and that's all that really matters in the end."

Troy looked at me and smiled and didn't say much else.

He was just smiling.

And it was creeping me out a little bit. Okay, no, of course not. But I had no idea why. "What?"

"No, nothing," he shakes his head looking away for a second, "I just, it's easy talking to you. Like really easy."

Ahh he's tugging at my heartstrings. There's really no greater compliment than one that compliments your personality. Sure, the physical compliments make you feel good and stuff, but these kind of compliments triumph the others for me.

It was easy talking to him, too. I feel like I could tell him everything and anything, but of course, it was a little too early to tell. "I could say the same thing about you."

"I'm glad," he once again smiles, "I guess this is a good thing to have when you're starting to date someone, right?"

Oh God. I knew that's what we were doing, obviously. He kissed me, he confessed he was interested and we've hung out one on one since then. And have kissed. So yeah, I assumed. But it just feels so good hearing that. Confirmation. Reassurance. And it gets me all giddy inside. Way too giddy.

I couldn't stop smiling. "Right."

He got up and started putting all of his things in his backpack.

I got up, but just left my things on the table and went over to the living room and grabbed my phone off the charger and saw that I had 20 missed text messages but they were all from a group text with my friends and I could check them later.

"Tell Lupe thanks for the delicious sandwich," he comes up behind me, "I have to get going, I have a skype date with my family."

"Yeah, I'll tell her," I turn around to face him.

He smiles down at me before he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me in. We connect our lips together and we're getting in the swing of things when we hear someone clear their throat from behind us.

My mom.

We break apart and turn to look at her. She's standing there carrying some mail and a bag from Chanel.

"Oh, um, hi mom," I nervously tell her, even though I shouldn't be. She's seen me kiss Ryan so many times. "Didn't hear you come in."

"I'm sure you didn't," she puts her bag down on the table along with the Chanel shopping bag and starts coming towards us, "nice to see you again, Troy. Will you be joining us for dinner tonight?"

Troy releases his arm from around my waist and gives her a small smile, "No, I can't tonight, Mrs. Montez, but thank you."

I smile at my mom and she smiles back at me and I know she's not mad.

She stands there as she flips through the mail and opens a couple of envelopes. I know Troy might feel a little awkward and I'm probably not doing a good job of assuring him that it's fine and that my mom doesn't hate him for kissing her daughter when no one else is home with them. She's obviously fine with us if she invited him to stay tonight. He did, after all, just have dinner with us a few nights ago. Twice in one week? Well, pretty sure he has her approval.

"Maybe next time," she smiles at him before grabbing her things and walking away.

I turn to him and couldn't help, but laugh a bit, but he didn't find it as funny as I did, which is understandable.

But he did chuckle a bit about it. "It's not that funny."

"It's not," I agree, "it's just cute to see how worried you look. Like, don't worry, she's not going to kick you out. She's seen me kiss someone before. And also, she likes you so calm down."

"She won't if she keeps catching us kissing when no one's home," he points out as he picks up his jacket from the couch along with his backpack and throws it over his shoulder, "but I'm definitely willing to risk it if you are."

Duhh. I smile at him, grab him by the neck and kiss him.

And he quickly kisses back, but as soon as it starts getting to the point where it's more than a kiss, he breaks us apart. "I should really get going. I told my aunt I'd be home by five and it's 4:45. And I need to call my mom and dad before my sister takes her bath and goes to sleep."

"No, yeah," I agree, dropping my hand from behind his neck, "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yes, you will," he leans down and gives me one last kiss before turning around and walking to the elevator.

Gah, I like him so much.