It had been three weeks and some change since the last time Gabriella saw Tristan but she had been keeping tabs on him through Sandra. Gabriella may have wanted to break up with Tristan because he wasn't truly the one for her in the end but she still found that she still cared about him and his well being, even if it was from afar. In the past weeks, Gabriella hadn't had the courage though to call Tristan and in return had no calls or texts from him. At first, she was worried that something was wrong with him but one call to her best friend in L.A. had told Gabriella that Tristan was alive and kicking, having been a part of the team's first wins of the season. Now, Sandra only mentioned Tristan to Gabriella if she asked, wanting to make sure that Gabriella was given the space she needed to think things through and to heal the pain she had felt that weekend.

Then again, Gabriella realized she now had Troy and her good friends in Albuquerque who had been there for her whenever she needed them, especially in the last few weeks. Troy and Gabriella never talked about Tristan after that Sunday at the ice-cream parlor but she knew that Troy was aware that Tristan was still on her mind. It made Gabriella care for Troy all that much more though knowing that he was so understanding of her and her needs.

Troy heard a soft sigh above his head and opened his eyes to stare up at Gabriella from where his head was currently resting on her lap. "What's with the sigh Brie?"

Gabriella's head snapped down so her brown eyes met his while she gave him a sheepish smile. "Just thinking about things. Thinking how wonderful you've been in the past three weeks. You really have made things a lot easier on me than you necessarily had to."

"How? Just because I don't play twenty questions with you all the time like your mom? Or is it because I'm so easy to look at?" joked Troy, chuckling as Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"Do you know how tempting you just made it for me to push you off this bench as a punishment for your cockiness?" returned Gabriella, laughing as Troy pouted. She ran her fingers of her right hand through his brown hair, smiling more as her fingers easily slipped through repeatedly as she continued the motion. "Then again, you are rather pleasing to the eyes."

Troy's eyes instantly opened again from their closed, relaxed state she had previously lulled him into with her fingers. "I knew it was only a matter of time before you admitted it to me. So how sexy am I?"

Gabriella tapped her fingers of her left hand that was resting on Troy's stomach against his built abdominal muscles, pretending to think. "I'd say that you are as sexy as you are cocky, if that is even possible," teased Gabriella.

"Unfair! Besides, it's not my fault the entire cheerleading squad wants to date me, giving me this feeling of sexy hotness," protested Troy, flexing his bicep of his right arm for exaggeration purposes.

Soon though, Troy found himself hitting the ground hard after Gabriella deliberately pushed him off of her lap and the bench all together. Before he could make a grab for her, Gabriella leaped up and over his body and ran to the other side of the roof top garden, putting the stairwell between them. "It had to be done, your ego, joking or not, was about to suffocate the both of us in this open aired space! I couldn't let that happen Troy!" joked Gabriella, laughing as she watched Troy finally stand up again, checking himself over to make sure nothing was hurt.

"Oh, you are so going to pay for that Gabriella! I mean, I was only speaking the truth after all. Every guy at East and West both would die to have my cell phone for its contents. There's pure sexiness in this phone, that's my secret!" countered Troy, slipping his cell phone out of his pocket and waving it in his hand in front of her. "Aren't you even curious what it is?"

Gabriella was tempted to run over and snatch the phone away but shook her head. "No way, especially if it means I'll end up pissed off at the fact that you have every single number of the JV squad, Varsity squad, and the dance team on that cell phone. I'd rather not be given a reason to pitch you off this roof Bolton."

Troy placed his right hand that held the cell phone over his heart and faked pain at this comment. "That hurts, so deep Brie. You may as well have stuck a knife in me."

"Okay, now I am starting to realize I allowed you to date Sharpay a little bit too long with those overdramatic moments you have every now and then, like now!" exclaimed Gabriella, laughing a little with him as she watched him drop his hand back to his side again. "So, are you still promising retribution for falling on the ground due to the size of your ego or are we calling it over?"

"Calling what over?" he asked before Troy took off and ran to his left around the stairwell perimeter.

Gabriella squealed as she got a slow start at running away from him but started moving away from him nonetheless, as quickly as possible. Her small feet though, even in her flats, couldn't carry her away fast enough as the second time around the stairwell ended in Troy softly tackling her, breaking their fall with his own body, hers landing on top of his. Before Gabriella could say anything smart, her senses were overloaded with a mixture of both a tingling feeling she had at the feel of his lips pressed right against her collarbone and a giggly feeling as Troy's fingers brushed against her sides. The laughter though ended up winning as Troy continued running his fingers up and down her sides, wrapping his arms around her tighter as Gabriella tried to squirm away.

After savoring the sound of her giggles, Troy eventually eased off of tickling her, instead flipping them over so that Gabriella was now lying on her back with his left arm cushioning her a little. "You know, you really are beautiful Gabriella, not just on the outside with no makeup and just chapstick on, but inside too with your brains and your usually sweet disposition. I still wonder how it is that you and I found each other and shared this mutual interest," commented Troy, his blue eyes wandering over Gabriella's face, pausing for a few moment on her lips that were now turned upwards in a smile, before looking back into her brown eyes.

She reached up with her right hand and brushed aside some of his bangs that flopped over onto his forehead, smiling more in response to the grin now on his face. "Don't question it, I don't. All that matters is that we're here now and we're enjoying ourselves, each other."

"See? So very smart of you," joked Troy before he leaned his head down and kissed Gabriella, deepening it a little before pulling away a little. "So, what shall we do with the rest of the afternoon? I know there's homework that is awaiting us but I want to relax for a little longer with you here in our spot."

Gabriella laughed at the thought of their spot being the rooftop of their school. "You tease me for being a nerd but shouldn't we be calling you one too considering how much time you insist on spending here? School hours, then basketball, and free time up here. Can't get away from it can you?"

Troy chuckled as his bright eyes sparkled with laughter. "School isn't so bad as long as I have you or a basketball in my possession."

She quickly sat up, pushing him off of her body, glaring at him before Gabriella slapped Troy's left shoulder, causing him to wince a little. "Jerk! I can't believe you just compared me to a basketball! I am so insulted. It's like you're pulling a Chad move here and calling me an airhead!"

"And it's like you're channeling Sharpay's dramatic tendencies now instead of me!" shot back Troy as he quickly sobered from his lighter mood from before, the words leaving his mouth before he could control them.

Gabriella felt her mouth drop open at his words, stunned that he just compared her with his ex, who Gabriella never thought she'd ever be compared to in her lifetime. She stared as Troy looked back at her, his blue eyes dulling before his whole face started showing his regret at his words. Before Troy could say anything though, Gabriella slowly shook her head and stood up, quickly moving to the bench to grab her bag before she spun around again to glare at the guy she was supposedly casually dating. Not finding the right words to express her frustration, anger, and hurt appropriately, Gabriella settled for narrowing her eyes before making her way towards the stairs.

Troy scrambled to his feet and got to the stairwell just before Gabriella could make it. "Wait, Brie, please stop. I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean it like that, it just slipped," apologized Troy, placing his arms out so he was blocking her departure. "You aren't anything like Sharpay, honest, but the way you took my words and spun it into something else was totally something I would have expected the blonde from my past to do, not the sweet girl I know in front of me."

"Get out of my way Troy, please. I don't want to talk to you all right? I just, I can't believe that you think I'm that much like Sharpay and dumb enough to be an airhead and so inanimate as to be compared to a stinky basketball!" exclaimed Gabriella, moving to the left and right repeatedly, hoping Troy would give up shifting his weight to block her. "Please Troy! Haven't you said enough?"

"No, not nearly enough. Gabriella, please, I'm begging you, don't go, don't leave like this," returned Troy, venturing to drop his extended arms while he reached out and placed his hands tentatively on Gabriella's shoulders that were beginning to tremble. "You know you mean so much to me. If I didn't feel that way about you, I wouldn't have contended for your attention with a guy who lives in L.A., I wouldn't have cut Sharpay loose with words that came straight from my heart either."

This piqued Gabriella's interest. "What did you tell Sharpay when you supposedly ended things with her in the dating department?"

"Not supposedly, I did end things with her Gabriella. The words tumbled out of my mouth, earning me quite a bit of hatred from Sharpay but I told her that you had something she would never have," replied Troy, moving his right hand from her shoulder to cup the side of her face in his hand. "You have my heart Gabriella, you have it all for the taking."

Gabriella could feel herself melting at his words, keeping eye contact with him as she continued to listen to him, seeing the truth there for her to see in those now deep blue orbs of his. When that last part was spoken with a true softening of his voice, Gabriella realized that she would never last trying to stay angry at him because her heart knew that Troy really hadn't meant to hurt her as he did minutes before and that, well, she cared for him just as much if not more.

Relief flooded Troy's body as Gabriella suddenly was in his arms, hugging him tight while his own arms circled around her body. Troy kissed the top of Gabriella's head and smiled as he breathed in the scent he would always identify as hers. "We may only be casually dating at this point Gabriella but you must know you truly mean everything to me. Comparing you to a basketball isn't a slight at all considering that basketball has been my passion since I was little, just like you are a newer passion for me now. That's all I meant Brie, honest."

She sighed as she allowed herself to relax more into his hold. "Some part of me realized that Troy but I think when you referred to me as being like Sharpay, I kind of lost it. I'm sorry, that was bitchy of me."

"Hey, I totally understand. I'd be pissed too if someone told me I was like Sharpay in any way, shape, or form," joked Troy. "Maybe that's why I steer clear of anything pink and sparkly now."

Gabriella laughed a little, shaking her head. "You are too funny. Should we head home now to get to that homework?"

"After all that? No way, I need some more peaceful time with you here with me to reassure myself we're fine, you aren't mad, and that everything is okay. Please?" pleaded Troy, giving Gabriella his best little boy look.

"Okay, okay, but no more than half an hour, okay?" replied Gabriella, allowing Troy to slip her bag back off her shoulder, placing it on the ground, and walking back to the bench. Instead of sitting on it though, Troy sat down on the ground, his back against the bench, before pulling Gabriella down too but between his legs that were spread and bent at the knees, his feet flat on the ground.

Gabriella felt her body tingle as she leaned back into his open embrace, grinning as she felt his arms snake around her waist as her head naturally found its way to its favorite spot in the crook of Troy's neck. After a few moments of complete silence and savoring of the moment, Gabriella's curiosity got the better of her. "Troy?" she asked, keeping herself tucked into his caring embrace.

"Hmm?" he answered, being pulled from his own thoughts of how stupid he was in almost losing these types of moments from his life, shared with this girl.

"Can I see your cell phone?" Gabriella asked sheepishly.

Troy chuckled as he removed an arm from around her to reach into his pocket to draw it out again. "You sure you want to know what's in here? You might be pitching me off the roof if I recall," teased Troy, dangling the cell phone in front of Gabriella's face.

Gabriella grabbed the cell phone and took a deep breath before she unlocked it to look at its digital contents. As she scrolled through the contacts list, she let out a huge sigh of relief when she found that it was mostly filled with names she recognized like nicknames for the guys on the golf team and basketball team, his family members, and their friends, minus Sharpay, whose name was still there. Gabriella liked to think of herself as not the jealous type but sometimes, having her heart involved with a guy as wonderful and handsome as Troy brought that ugly trait out of her. Feeling better yet worse after having looked, Gabriella was in the process of handing the phone back before she felt Troy's right hand close over hers. She looked up at him and saw Troy shake his head. "Don't want it back?"

"No, of course I do, otherwise how will I text and call you? More like I want you to look again. You didn't find the sexiness in that phone, what all those other stupid chumps at East and West combined would die to have," stated Troy, looking at her face with anticipation as she studiously looked back at the cell phone. "Go on, look again."

Gabriella did as she was told, noticing her hold was a bit shaky as her nerves started getting the better of her again. She stared at the main menu, not sure where to look next. After some debating, Gabriella decided to look at the web browser first. As she began to scroll through the favorites, Gabriella heard Troy's distinct amused chuckle behind her. "What? Am I not even close?"

"Nope," said Troy, letting the one word pop out of his mouth. "It's not stored favorite porn sites on my phone. Trust me, a lot of other guys have those already and I'm not that type. You know me better than that. Try again, different application."

She shrugged her shoulders as she went back to her task at hand and decided this time to look in his notes. Nothing there except an old note to remind him to pick up groceries for his mom three months ago. "Troy, did you ever do this or is your family starving for food?" joked Gabriella, finding the mood truly lighten again as Troy joined her in her laughter.

"Believe it or not but yes, I did bring home the groceries that day. Guess I never cleared that note," replied Troy, slipping his hand over hers as he leaned forward and deleted the note himself, leaving his hands over hers.

"So it isn't the internet, it isn't the notes. Guess I'll check the camera and photo album application," murmured Gabriella to herself, causing Troy to grin as he knew what she would discover there.

'Bingo,' he thought in his head as he heard the soft intake of breath. Troy peered over Gabriella's shoulder and grinned as he saw her flipping through his locked and favorite folder, a folder that was filled with pictures of Gabriella by herself throughout their time together as well as pictures of the two of them. "You've found it, the sexiness in my phone."

"These pictures? This is what is so special and makes you super sexy and the object of all the other guys' envy?" asked Gabriella, touched that he cared so much about her, about them to make sure to have the pictures in a safe place where they wouldn't get accidentally deleted.

"Well duh, what else would it be? All the numbers of every cheerleader and dance squad member in this district would never be sexier and more desirable than you. I love looking at these pictures whenever I'm sad, when I need to calm down, when I need inspiration, and mostly when I miss you," he explained, scrolling through some of the pictures with his right hand that was still over hers. Troy paused a few times on his favorites, one of him and Gabriella cheek to cheek when they were hanging out in the rooftop garden like they were now, one of Gabriella curled up and reading a book under a big tree in her backyard, another of Gabriella grinning while she held a perfect handstand in her bedroom, and the last being of Gabriella kissing Troy's cheek while she was sitting on his lap. "All of these really are my secret treasures because they really do affect me that much when I see them."

Gabriella was at a loss of what to say as she started at the beginning of the pictures again, realizing that she didn't even realize Troy took some of what he had from the past. Mid-way through, Gabriella looked up and to the side, taking in a sharp intake of air as she saw Troy's face turned not towards the phone but to her, their eyes locking, with their lips centimeters apart. "Do these pictures truly mean that much to you? What you said, do you mean all of it?"

"They do and I do mean every single syllable Brie. If you haven't noticed, I'm absolutely crazy about you," returned Troy.

"Good because I feel the same way too," she murmured before leaning in and closing the gap between their lips, leading into a series of kisses that left them both breathless minutes later.

After catching their breaths, Troy grinned down at Gabriella as he pushed some of her dark hair behind her ear. "This just seems so perfect Brie, like Destiny intended for us to be together and to really appreciate each other."

"I couldn't agree more. So, I'm your secret to your sexiness huh?" teased Gabriella, a sparkle residing in her brown orbs.

"I am only sexy because you think I am so yes. It doesn't hurt either that I nowadays always want to look good for you too," replied Troy, his voice a bit huskier at the start. "We better get going though if we want to have any time to do your favorite thing and study before dinner time with both of our families."

Gabriella nodded her agreement and got up, giving Troy a hand up shortly after. "I may find the joy in studying but spending time with you definitely ranks high on my list of things to do."

Troy quirked his right eyebrow at this while he smirked at her. "Oh, is that so Miss Montez?"

"It is Mr. Bolton, but if you ever rub that in my face, I'll adamantly deny it," returned Gabriella, giving him a cheeky smile.

"Oh man, what am I ever going to do without you?" he said, chuckling at her response.

"Why even wonder? I'm here now and that's all that matters, right?" countered Gabriella, raising herself up on her tiptoes to rub noses with Troy before placing a sweet kiss on his cheek, causing him to blush a little.

Troy reflected on her words and nodded his agreement. "That's true, we're together now, today, and that is all that matters right now."

Gabriella and Troy both grabbed their bags and headed down the stairs, their hands intertwined, before getting into Troy's truck and driving to Gabriella's house to study for the rest of the afternoon until dinnertime when Troy reluctantly left.

As Gabriella watched him leave, his muscular arm hanging out the rolled down window to wave at her until he left the street all together, she couldn't help but recognize that it seemed like she had found her match again, but this time in a guy who seemed to truly care for her and was trustworthy. A nagging feeling though crept up, reminding her that Gabriella had thought the same thing about Tristan before everything had happened but she squashed it as her gut reminded her that Troy was different, and that any possible future they could have would be different too, possibly even much, much better. 'Guess I have to wait and see…'

Sandra packed her things up and headed out of the school's library, happy that she had a successful afternoon of tutoring sessions. Deciding that her mood deserved some sun and fresh air, Sandra opted to take the route to the parking lot that went along the field where the track and football field was. Once outside, Sandra paused to savor the breath of fresh air before she started walking towards the senior parking lot. On her way though, Sandra paused as she spotted a familiar looking guy dressed in a pair of sweats and a t-shirt with his backpack slung over his shoulder with the football coach.

As Sandra watched from where she was, she realized that it wasn't just a discussion strategy but that the coach seemed to be tearing into Tristan based on his tense body language and the way he was almost looming over Tristan, which was hard to do since both males were the same height. From what she could see, Tristan didn't seem to be saying anything back, just taking the verbal beating until it finally stopped with the football coach turning around and heading back into the gym where the locker rooms were. Sandra stood entranced as she saw a brunette cheerleader she recognized as a junior run up to Tristan next, only to have Tristan just gloomily shake his head at her before pushing her away from his body, walking forward and leaving a confused cheerleader behind.

Curious now, Sandra started walking again herself, wondering what else she would learn about what was going on with Tristan as she had come to realize over the last weeks that Tristan's personality ever since he came back from New Mexico had changed. He wasn't the outgoing, confident guy Tristan usually was. Instead, Sandra saw him as much more withdrawn, even down at times, whenever she saw him in class or around school. Even when Tristan was still casually dating Gabriella, Tristan would still flirt with the girls that approached him a little but now it seemed that he steered clear of them all together.

When both teenagers arrived at the parking lot, Sandra stopped a short distance away from Tristan as he slowed his walk just reaching his car, watching as he pulled out his phone and looked at it, dropping his bag a little from his shoulder, his left hand catching it and laying it on the ground as he rested up against his car, his green eyes trained on the phone as he scrolled through it. Curious, Sandra decided to approach him, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Tristan?" she called out, causing Tristan's body to jerk as he whipped his head around to look at her. What she saw shocked Sandra as she immediately noticed what she hadn't seen from far away before. Tristan's normally bright green eyes were dull with some red in the white parts while he had dark patches under his eyes. The way Tristan's body was also slightly slouched forward instead of his normal shoulder pulled back stance indicated to Sandra that something really was going on with Tristan. "You okay?"

Tristan nodded his head, feeling a bit touched that Gabriella's best friend had actually cared enough to ask after everything he had put Gabriella through. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired is all," he replied, knowing that it was only a half truth as Tristan made sure to clear his screen of yet another set of pictures of Gabriella and Troy that Sharpay had picture texted him with the words "You sure you still want these two lovebirds together?".

He felt her eyes study him before Sandra eventually shrugged and said, "Okay, well, I just wanted to make sure you were all right. I guess I'll see you in class tomorrow."

"Yeah," he replied, keeping it simple. Tristan watched Sandra walk towards her car and called out to her before he could help himself. "How's Ella doing?"

Sandra stopped and turned around, returning Tristan's gaze. "She's better Tristan, I'll tell her you asked about her."

Tristan smiled for the first time in a long time just then, not a full on toothy smile, but a smile nonetheless. He climbed into his car and drove off, leaving Sandra to walk to her car, now wondering about the real story behind Tristan and his sudden change in character and appearance.

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