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Gabriella was the first to pull away from the kiss, smiling back at Troy with a grin that matched his own. "Wow, that was, well, just like it used to feel."
"And how's that?" asked Troy, reaching out to brush some of her hair back, savoring the feeling of being able to do this simple yet so important and endearing act.
"Like the most incredible feeling in the world, with sparks and a nice warm feeling," replied Gabriella, leaning into his embrace so she could rest her head on him again. "Troy?"
"Hmm?" he asked, soaking in this newfound blissful feeling.
"I love you too Wildcat," whispered Gabriella, her hand nervously clutching and then releasing the brown fabric of his shirt where her hand laid on his chest.
Troy pulled himself away slightly so he could look at her better. "Do you really mean that Brie? Like truly, honestly?"
Gabriella nodded her head, giggling a little at his astonished look. "Of course I do and you must have known for you to have made all the choices you have so far in the past month. I really and truly do love you Troy."
"I love you too Gabriella," murmured Troy before he dropped his head back down to share in another kiss with her.
After a few more minutes of being fully absorbed with one another, Troy pulled away after feeling Gabriella shiver a few times. "Cold?"
"A little," admitted Gabriella. "It's starting to pick up a cold wind these days."
"Well let's get you back inside then to join the rest of the gang who are probably wondering where we are anyway. Speaking of them, what do you have planned for us for the rest of the week if anything?" asked Troy as they started walking towards the stairwell door, hands naturally gravitating towards each other and intertwining.
"Oh, just hanging out between my rehearsals and the sneak peek on Wednesday night. I was thinking maybe a picnic on Thursday around the coast area," explained Gabriella, thinking in her mind as to what else was planned for this week. "Wait, Thursday sounds familiar for some other reason."
"Another performance?" offered Troy.
Gabriella shook her head, knowing that after the sneak peek they would have a few days rest before the true, real opening night on Saturday. 'Thursday, I had a free day planned right? Chris didn't mention anything and I know Emma and Paul are busy with his parents that day. What else could it be and with who?' she wondered just before it hit her. "Crap, Patrick."
Troy heard Gabriella murmur something quietly to herself before she tensed up and stopped walking with him to the stairwell door, now only four feet away. "Brie, what is it?"
When Gabriella finally looked back up, Troy was surprised to see tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry Troy."
"Sorry?" he questioned. "For what?"
As a tear slipped from her eyes, Troy quickly approached and wiped it away with his thumb, leaving his hand on her face as he began to see all the worry and confusion enter her brown eyes again. After sniffling a little, Gabriella said, "For leading you on."
"For leading me on? What are you talking about Brie?" asked Troy, feeling really confused at that exact moment.
"Troy, I really and truly love you. I don't think I've ever stopped loving you since high school," stated Gabriella. "And I know now that you feel the same way but I think there's something you should know, something that is different about my life now."
Troy nodded his head. "I get it, you being a princess changes everything. We have to be more discreet and be mindful of where we are. We have to set examples, etc."
Sadly, Gabriella shook her head, wishing that was all it was. "That all may be true but Troy, you yourself are aware that there are other men in my life right now. That I've been dating some of them consistently."
He shrugged his shoulders, not liking the feeling he was getting in the pit of his stomach, but suppressing it in order to be there for the woman who was standing right in front of him. "I know that, I came prepared with that knowledge. If that's what has you so worried, I'm fine with it. I want us to be given the chance though that we deserve, that we lost when you moved here. As long as we try, I'll die a happy man, preferably when I'm old and gray."
Instead of laughing, at least a little, like he had hoped, Troy saw more sadness creep into her facial features, most notably the downward pull on the lips that he was so used to seeing smile at him. "If only it was that simple Troy."
There was something in the tone of her voice that made him freeze, a mixed sense of heartache, desperation, sadness, and regret. "Brie, what is it? What are you not telling me?"
"I…" started Gabriella just before a group of people came crashing through the stairwell door, some of them Gabriella recognized from the ballet company. They were so loud as they stumbled around that Gabriella lost her nerve to tell Troy everything.
Troy watched as a few of the guys swayed together after a loud laugh from them all, making sure that none of them got too close to the half wall, satisfied when they all settled onto the roof. He turned back his attention on Gabriella, who managed to sweep away all the emotions that were clearly visible on her face, making Troy wonder for a moment if he had imagined it but he knew better.
"Well, shall we go down to spend time with our friends?" asked Gabriella, putting her best fake happy face forward.
"Gabriella, wait, do you want to talk still? What were you about to say?" questioned Troy, placing both hands on her upper arms.
Gabriella bit her lip before she shook her head. "Nothing, it was nothing. Come on, let's go."
She grabbed his right hand in her left and led Troy back towards the stairwell and then down the stairs, into Chris's flat. Troy followed Gabriella and found himself immediately brought back onto the dance floor where their friends were still dancing, not all that surprised when he realized his mind cleared of all previous thoughts, being filled with just the feeling of having Gabriella's body pressed so close to his and knowing that he still had a chance to make this his permanent future.
Troy barely shook himself out of the memory from the previous night in order to stop at a solid red light. He was headed to meet the gang at a restaurant Gabriella picked out that morning and gave them all directions to before she ran off to rehearsals, where she had been all morning and afternoon. Neither of them had a chance to really talk again since the rooftop and the big news of Troy moving to Louvis hadn't been announced to everyone as of yet. 'I have to do that today before they find out from someone other than me. Sharpay and Tessa will both kill me if not.'
He kept his eyes focused on the road but glanced down at the paper with the directions every now and then until he found the place, smiling a little as he realized how small and remote it was. 'Of course she would want her privacy for a low key friendly dinner,' he thought as he got out of his car and locked it before walking in, glad he wore a pair of slacks and a gray button up as the restaurant was definitely more upscale than the gang's favorite diner in Albuquerque.
"…so do you think they'll actually make it back to dating, and maybe more? Won't it hurt them even more though when he has to leave with the rest of us? What about Celeste?" asked Tessa, immediately shutting herself up as she saw Troy approach.
"Hey guys," greeted Troy, seeing Chad and Chucky both barely able to hold in some laughter while the rest of the group just looked at him with curiosity in their eyes. "Did I interrupt something?"
"Not at all, not at all," said Chucky, patting an empty seat next to him. "Come, sit with me and help keep me amused."
Troy chuckled as he sat down, relieved when the conversation picked up again but about something completely different. Seeing this as his chance to talk to Chucky about what just happened, Troy asked, "So what did I really walk in on?"
"Truth?" asked Chucky.
"Yes, the truth," stated Troy, wanting a honest answer.
"Everyone's speculating about you and Gab. Wondering if you are leading her on because as far as they know, you and Celeste are still together," explained Chucky. "They all seem happy that you two are getting along well but I think the girls, ever protective of each other, are worried you are going to hurt Gabriella, again, and by a lot."
"You two didn't say anything?" questioned Troy.
Chucky shook his head. "Not our truth to tell, although Chad almost slipped a few times. I was there to stop him though. I'm actually a bit surprised no one questioned you not hanging with us this afternoon after brunch and where you've been staying and why you have your own car. However, I think Taylor is putting the pieces together."
Troy managed a chuckle at this. "She always was the smartest one, besides Gabriella that is. Surprised Tay hasn't pulled it out of your brother."
"All I can say is, if you want to be the one to tell everyone, you need to do it soon because Chad's strength is waning and his tongue can only be held for so long," warned Chucky, looking over and seeing Chad trying to ignore the curious looks Taylor was giving him as he talked to Ryan.
A waiter came by to take Troy's drink order while Chad and Chucky placed another order with him as well. "Three beers coming right up," the waiter said before he left the table to enter in the new order, leaving the three guys to talk amongst themselves while Ryan picked up on a new conversation with Taylor.
This of course left Sharpay and Tessa talking, going back to the original topic before Troy showed up. Both being bothered with not knowing what was really going on and being concerned with Troy hurting Gabriella without thinking about it, they decided to find out the truth their way. Sharpay, never being one for discretion when there was something she was dying to know, decided that this was the opportune time without Gabriella around to quiz Troy from across the table. "So Troy, what are your intentions with Gabriella?"
Troy nearly choked on the water he had just started drinking, his eyes bulging open as he stared back at the blonde. "Excuse me?" he managed to get out.
"You heard her. We want to know what your purpose is here. Why are you here? Where is your fiancé? Why are you insistent on leading Gaby on?" questioned Tessa, joining in on the inquisition.
"Leading her on?" returned Troy, arching an eyebrow at this. "Who says I am leading her on?"
"Celeste perhaps or did you forget that she still lives and breathes and that you are engaged to her?" threw back Sharpay, getting annoyed at this dumb act she perceived Troy as having at the moment.
"Don't get us wrong, we like that you are friends again but at the same time, not at the expense of her developing feelings for you when she's started moving on and you are already committed. So, tell us, what is going on in that head of yours?" pushed Tessa.
Troy, now a bit agitated that two of his friends, Gabriella's best friends, could think of him in such a negative light, retorted saying, "I don't know, maybe I want to just screw with her mind a little bit more since I am so obviously damn evil. I get off on pain, or did you not notice that? I mean, what more could I want than to have Gabriella find happiness with some other guy only to pull her back and hurt her again, scarring her probably for the rest of her life. Maybe I want to screw up everything I have going for me with the one girl that I want to spend the rest of my life with. Yes, I am that suicidal that I want to ruin my life, at my own hands. Happy?"
Taylor, realizing that the words coming out of his mouth were from anger decided to step into the fight before it escalated. "Troy, I don't think Tessa or Sharpay mean to intend that you are intentionally trying to hurt Gabriella or that you are a bad guy. We all know that you aren't but I have to agree with them in wondering what's really going on here. You aren't exactly acting like an engaged man now."
Before Troy could say something else, Chucky placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Troy, come on, they are just concerned for Gab, remember what I just told you. Just tell them the truth and this will all be over. They just don't know what to think right now without a lot of the facts."
Troy thought on this for a few moments before nodding his head. His blue eyes scanned the faces around the table, noting that Sharpay and Tessa looked like they were about to kill him while Ryan and Taylor were just curious as to what was going on, leaving Chad and Chucky with supportive looks on their faces. He took a deep breath in before he let it back out, looking at Taylor first and then panning around the table as he talked.
"Look, I'm sorry for my extreme sarcastic side just then but you guys don't know all the facts, as Chucky just pointed out. Only two people here do and they aren't the ones glaring at me or staring at me with wonder in their eyes. I told Brie this last night and I think you should know this too," Troy said, flipping some of his bangs out of his eyes as he focused on his friends again. "Celeste and I haven't been engaged for over a month, I ended things with her and spent a few weeks on the couch in our apartment before I came here to Copanvy."
"But you came here just for the ball right? Where are you going to live now?" asked Ryan, intrigued as to what was really happening.
Taking his time, Troy scanned the faces around him again and was pleased that Tessa's face at least softened a little although it looked like neither she or Sharpay were quite ready to let him off the hook yet. "Here, I am living here in Louvis. Taylor, I have to apologize to you. I am the one that abducted Chad, he was never on a business trip. He lied for me, with Chucky, to help me move from New York to Louvis. So yes, that sums it all up basically. I am no longer with Celeste but we ended on as good of terms as I can ask for considering. I am now a citizen of Copanvy, thanks to some official help and influence to get me processed so quickly, and I am here to fight for Brie, to fight for something I dare not want to think again about losing."
Tessa and Sharpay both stared at Troy, seeing the true sincerity in his eyes while his voice betrayed no deception as he spoke. Ryan knew in his own heart that Troy finally meant it, that he was going to work to not let Gabriella get away this time. Taylor though, what she saw was a man who used to be the boy her best friend fell in love with, who had grown up into a man who knew what he wanted and would love her best friend until the end of time if given the chance.
"Aww, isn't that sweet, he doesn't want to lose you Ella," commented Chris, alerting the group that someone else was around.
Troy quickly looked up and blushed deeply as he saw not only Chris but Gabriella standing right behind his shoulder. He began to rub the back of his neck out of nervousness, worried that Gabriella would freak, but was rewarded with her placing her soft hand on his wrist and stopping his motions.
"There's nothing to be embarrassed about Wildcat, especially if you meant that little speech. That's actually really flattering," stated Gabriella, giving him a soft smile. "Gives me something to smile about after an intense day of rehearsals, trust me."
He grinned back at her as he stood up and helped her into the chair next to him, hearing chuckles from Chad and Ryan at his gesture.
"Troy, I think I need help with my chair too," teased Chris before getting slapped on the arm by Tessa.
"Stop it! I think we gave Troy an obviously unneeded hard time, we don't need you tearing into him too," stated Tessa, shooting Troy a smile which he returned.
"Thanks Tess," he said, smirking as Chris now pouted from a few seats down. Troy took his seat again and felt all eyes back on him again. "What now?"
"Aren't you going to kiss her?" asked Sharpay, getting an innocent look on her face.
Troy rolled his eyes. "Oh, so you seem to approve of me being here with her now huh?"
"Well yeah, for now, until you mess things up you idiot by not kissing her!" exclaimed Sharpay, rolling her own eyes at him.
He looked over at the brunette on his right and smirked a little as he saw the mixed expression on her face. "What do you say, should we appease the Ice Queen?"
"I heard that!" called out Sharpay.
Gabriella laughed at this and nodded her head. "I guess it wouldn't hurt and the restaurant is a bit empty."
Before she could have a second thought, Troy leaned down and captured her lips with his, smiling against them as he felt her return it with as much passion as he was giving it. After a little while, he pulled away and wrapped his right arm around her shoulders, grinning as he saw the beautiful blush grace her features. Troy also heard the laughter and cheers from their friends but chose to ignore it as he leaned his head down again, this time whispering in her ear. "You really look so gorgeous when you blush like that. I'm amazed actually at how much more adorable it is now than it used to be and it used to be pretty damn cute."
Gabriella lightly elbowed him in his side as she felt the familiar fluttering in her stomach. "I don't know what it is about you but you seem to bring that out, a lot."
"Good, because I like it," he returned, grinning more as she tried her best not to make a face at his comment.
After the group had polished off their appetizers and having placed their orders for dinner, the conversation turned to what they would be doing for the rest of the week, leaving Gabriella to take the lead in the conversation. "Well, tomorrow is the sneak peek so I apologize now that you are all attending. I protested but my parents would not hear of you guys not going so sorry about that. You have the day though to do what you want as Chris and I have final rehearsals during the day so unfortunately it is another day of not seeing everyone. Good news is though that we have all day Thursday to spend together, which I thought we could do at the coast, one of my favorite spots. Picnic and some other country like activities. Friday morning we have cleanup rehearsals for the true opening night on Saturday and then I can spend your last afternoon and evening with you all."
"Sounds pretty packed," commented Ryan. "I'm guessing Sharpay is going to want to go shopping for an outfit especially for the ballet tomorrow too."
Sharpay beamed at Ryan. "Brother, I have trained you so well!"
As Ryan rolled his eyes, Chad laughed. "Trained you or something else!"
"Hey!" protested Ryan, throwing a napkin at Chad.
Chad threw it back and chuckled. "Hey, just the truth!"
"Well if she does go tomorrow, make sure you buy something for an official dinner on Friday. I know it's been a week by then since most of you have been here but it was the first opportunity my grandparents had and I had for a formal dinner at the palace. They would like to meet all of you as they have heard at least some things about you, of course only the good," stated Gabriella, looking around the table and sensing a wave of nervousness wash over everyone. "Oh come on, I know I've told some horror stories about them but they have seemed to get better and they don't go all crazy grandparent like on anyone else but me so you are all safe."
"But do you think it's safe for us to meet them, especially Chad and his not so impressive behavior at the palace as of yet?" asked Taylor, more worried that Chad would break something else that was irreplaceable.
Instead of arguing, Chad hesitantly nodded his own head. "I am actually truthfully worried about that too."
"Don't be," assured Gabriella, smiling encouragingly at her best friend's husband. "They haven't said anything to me about you since after the vase incident and they won't send you to the torture chamber if you spill wine on your shirt."
"Hah! See, I told you there was a torture chamber!" exclaimed Sharpay as she smirked at Chucky who threw his hand up in surrender.
"Well, there's no point in that now since you all know what's going on with Troy now. Nothing left that you don't know," returned Chucky, patting Troy on the shoulder before taking another sip from his third beer. "It's all out on the table."
Troy cleared his throat at this, finding his hand was already rubbing the back of his neck. 'God this really is a bad habit.'
Gabriella eyed Troy's giveaway sign that there was something more he was hiding. "Troy, what else is there that you haven't told everyone? You announced that you broke it off with Celeste and that you moved. What else is there?"
Troy looked back up at Gabriella and found an odd sense of calm as his blue eyes stared back into her caring brown eyes. When he felt her hand cover his on the table and then intertwine their fingers, Troy knew it would be best to just tell everyone everything. "Well, there's the fact of my job."
Chris quirked an eyebrow at this. "You already have a job? How long have you been here?"
"About a week and a half. It's a deal that my manager back home struck with the team here, where I was this afternoon. I just had my first official pre-season practice with my new basketball team," announced Troy with a grin, feeling his hand be squeezed by Gabriella before looking over to see the relieved and happy look on her face. "There is a downside here though."
"What is it?" asked Tessa, confused as to what it could be.
"I'm a Knight," replied Troy, laughing at the irony with everyone else around the table.
"Well I'm sure these Knights will be truly respectable unlike the Knights back at West," stated Ryan with a smile.
"Wait, you are now playing for my favorite team? The Louvis Knights? That's fucking awesome man!" shouted Chris in excitement, calming himself down immediately as he saw a few heads turn in their direction. "Congratulations Troy! They really are a great team and if I didn't already have courtside seats, I'd beg you for them but thanks to Ella, that's not needed now."
Chucky chuckled at this. "We actually found that funny, that Gabriella chose that as one of your birthday presents. I think Chad almost blew Troy's secret right there."
Chad nodded his head. "I think I may have if Chucky wasn't around. Too coincidental huh?"
Gabriella just smiled at this. "No, just fate."
Troy looked back at Gabriella and grinned. "Fate huh?"
"Yes, fate," replied Gabriella, smiling softly as she felt his lips press lightly on her forehead. "What else do you think brought you back to me, especially now?"
Troy was so happy to hear her words that he missed the hint that something else was going on with Gabriella at the moment. "I don't know, me?" he mentioned before grinning and wrapping his arm around her shoulders, bringing her body closer to his.
"Oh, I think it had to do with you but it also was fate that guided you quite a bit. I'm just grateful that it did," said Gabriella.
"Do you really mean that Brie?" asked Troy, again finding himself blown away by this amazing woman.
"With all my heart," she returned, knowing somewhere in the back of her mind that she had to tell Troy the whole truth as to what was going on but was at the moment thinking only with her heart, which wanted to love and cherish Troy and these moments together while she still could.