"Do you want some more, sweetie? I know how much you like waffles."

I looked up at my grandma, a mouthful of waffles, and shook my head before I could give her an answer without food in my mouth. "I'm okay, grandma, thank you. I'm going to lunch with my friend in a couple hours, don't want to be too full for that."

My grandma turned around and grabbed a bowl of fruit from the kitchen counter and brought it over to the table. "At least eat some fruit."

Okay, fine. I grabbed some and put some on my plate and then passed it to my brother.

We were currently at my grandma's on the upper west side having breakfast with her. My parents are out for the day so we went to church with my grandma and now she's making us breakfast.

Well, we're almost done with it. But man, was it good.

"So how's senior year going?" she asks me as she sits down across from me, "I can't believe you're a senior."

"I know," I sometimes can't believe it either. Where did the time go? "But it's good. It's starting to get a little hard since we're over a month in so projects are coming, papers left and right, but nothing I can't handle. I have to if I want to go to Brown next year, which I'm already starting my application for."

"Oh, dear," my grandma shakes her head, "college. I can't imagine you being away, but at least you're not going out to the west coast."

I know. I thought about it. Berkeley, UCLA, but nah. Brown is my dream school and I love my family and friends. I can't just leave them. I'd get so homesick and coming home won't exactly be easy.

My brother starts coughing as something goes down the wrong pipe and he washes it down with some orange juice.

Grandma Bolton looks at him and starts patting his back, "And you mister, you better think about what college you want to go to. Your sister has had Brown on her mind since 9th grade. Do you have any idea where you want to go?"

Ugh Josh is that guy that literally is going to get to go to any school he wants because he's so smart. It comes so naturally to him and I'm so jealous.

"Nah," he shakes his head as he chows down on some waffle, "maybe Columbia, maybe Brown, I don't know yet, but I have a year."

"A year is going to come quicker than you know it."

That's for sure.

And then my brother's phone started ringing. It was his girlfriend, Molly. He excused himself from the table and got up to take her call. They've been dating since July. They were friends and in the summer when they were both in the Hamptons, they started hanging out and it became something, and I'm happy for him. Molly's such a cool girl. And nice. And Josh is happy which is all that matters.

My grandma laughs a bit as she watches Josh exit the kitchen/dining room, "He's all loved up, what about you?"

Oh no, no, no. My grandma is not going to hear about Troy before I know it's something worth telling. Until he becomes my boyfriend, if that happens.

Why, you ask? Oh because she is literally so hard on every single person we date. I brought Ryan along and she hounded him. She asked him such bizarre questions and it scared him a bit, and I think the only reason he really stuck it out was because our parents were friends. My grandma lightened up and she was nice to him afterward, but he never really liked him. She's harsh.

The guy I dated before Ryan, well, he basically stood his ground with my grandma and it backfired on him. I dumped him after that.

I honestly don't know what it is. Maybe because my mom and dad are so chill she thinks she needs to test these guys or maybe she's just genuinely looking out for me. I don't know.

What I do know is that I'm doing things differently this time. She cannot meet or know until Troy Bolton until I feel secure enough in our relationship. AKA until after he asks me to be his girlfriend.

"I'm just focusing on school right now, grandma." Well, it's not a complete lie.

"That's good," my grandma reaches over for her orange juice, "but you got to date, as well."

"Yeah, maybe."

She puts her juice down and leans forward a bit, "my friend's Godson is to die for. Anna. You love her! She won't set you up with someone who she doesn't think is worth it. Top of his class at Regis, he's off to Brown next year and he's a good guy. Plus, handsome. I think you'll really hit it off with him."

Oh fuck. She's trying to set me up. Like always. And every single time, I say no because well, I always have someone of my own.

And this time was no different. I have Troy, but she doesn't know that.

"I'm okay, grandma, but thank you."

"Gabriella," she shakes her head, "just give the guy a try. One date. Why not? If it goes bad, it goes bad and you won't see him anymore. But if it goes good, well, that'll be great and you guys can ride off into the sunset to Brown together. Wouldn't that be great?"

I couldn't help, but laugh. My grandma was 64 years old and the coolest grandma there was. She was classy, put together, but sassy when she wanted to be.

And I know she won't take no for an answer sometimes. "It's just, my friend's setting me up with someone and what if that goes well?"

"You can go on two dates," she tells me as if I didn't know myself.

I did know that, but I thought I could use it as an excuse to not go out with this guy. Regis is an all boys school and seriously, they're all arrogant jerks. I've been on a few dates with people from there and look how that ended up... not well. And I'm sure this wouldn't be any different.

But it is my grandma and if I say no, she needs a good reason. And I have one, but I don't want to share it just yet.

So I literally have no idea what to do.

"It's settled," she tells me grabbing some blueberries and plopping them in her mouth, "You'll go out with Stan Britton and that'll be that."

Stan Britton? I know of him. He's attractive, but oh my gosh, his name just sounds so pretentious. I can't do it. And I don't want to do it. "Grandma, no, I'm fine on my own. I can find someone, don't worry about it."

She shakes her head, "Do it for me, please. And for Anna, who's like a second grandma to you and has been in your life all these years. I really think you'll hit it off. He's a nice guy. Unless there's a reason you don't want to go out with him?"

Fuuuck. She's on to me. "No, no reason. I just don't really like set ups."

"You'll like this one."

No, I won't. I know I won't. Because I like the person I set myself up with. I like him a lot.

"Oh my gosh, I so needed this," Char puts her feet up as she leans back in her chair with her margarita in hand, "it's been a long day."

"You're do dramatic," I laugh as I sit next to her.

We're currently at Morgan's having a sleepover and she's arranged for all of us to get pedicures, manicures, facials, whatever we want. And this is when it's nice having really rich friends because I wouldn't dream of spending money on something like that.

I'm just getting a pedicure because my nails are painted and they're fine.

Char looks over at me and then down at my feet, "Seriously, just a pedicure, Gabriella?"

"What?" I look down at them, "I have my nails painted and they're fine. Maybe I'll do a facial, I don't know yet."

"Whatever," she closes her eyes as she leans her head back and puts her margarita down on the table beside her, "where is everyone? Morgan tells us 4 and she's not even down here."

I didn't even hear what she said because I was reading a text from Troy and it made me smile.

I don't think I've ever wanted to get back to New York faster than I do right now.

Ahhh and it was all because of me. It's been a few weeks of hanging out and he's currently in Chicago visiting his parents. He ditched school yesterday and he's there until tomorrow night and I miss him. It sounds silly because it's only been two days since I've seen him, but I do, I miss him.

And want to know the best part about his visit?

He pushed it a week forward since he knows our annual Halloween party is next week and he didn't want to miss it. How great is he? I'm sure it wasn't that big of a deal, but it's the though that counts, right? Right.

"What's loverboy saying?"

"Nothing," I put my phone down and wait a couple more minutes to reply.

"Oh please, I can tell by that smile on your face that he's texting you," she lifts her head a bit and grabs her margarita to take a sip, "you really like this guy, huh? What's it been, like three weeks?"

Yeah, about, but who cares. I like him. I liked him before we kissed and I like him even more after. Seriously, every time we hang out and he leaves, I sort of miss him and I've never been that girl. Like ever. I wanted to hang out with my friends more than the guy and now, well, it's even. Sort of.

I picked up my phone and sent a quick text back before turning to Char, "He's different."

"How so?" she perks her head up a little bit.

There are a ton of reasons I can list, but I want to keep it short and sweet. "Well, first of all, he doesn't try to show off. Like it's never about money with us. Carter was hot and all, and really fucking funny, but he always had to talk about money and his dad. It just got to a point where I found everything he did annoying so I'd have a reason to call it off. And it's just easy. We can literally just sit there and not say a word and it's nice. How often does that happen with someone you just started dating? I don't know, Char. I like him a lot and I don't think I'm going to stop anytime soon."

She looks happy for me, but at the same time, I know she's weary because of my history. I always, always run back to Ryan. "So, how is this guy going to prevent you from going back to Ryan in a couple of weeks?"

I'm not mad about her comment. It's happened a handful of times. Ryan just has this affect on me. "Well, for starters, I'm completely done with Ryan and not done like I've said before, but done, done. How could I be with someone who broke up with me to explore his options? Before it was just because we were fighting a lot not because we wanted to see other people. So this is different. It was hurtful."

"Yeah, I'm glad you realize that," she takes a sip of her margarita, "it's not like he would bail to hang with his friends and you two would get in a fight and you'd break it off. No, this was an eye opener."

"Exactly. And I will always have love for Ryan, I will. But I'm just done going back and forth. I want a boyfriend."

"And is that Troy?"

I smile because how could I not? Things with Troy have been going so well. And right now, I miss him. Quite a bit. "We'll see. I mean, he hasn't asked me, but it's definitely headed in that direction. We just have a lot of fun together. I don't know, we just have more in common than a lot of people would think."

But hopefully he'll ask me soon. I'm dying to be his girlfriend.