"So what's up with you Troy?" I looked up to see Sharpay and Taylor walking toward me. What do they want?
"Nothing. You?" I replied pretending to not notice the suspicion. I don't need the whole lecture about how Gabriella and I are supposed to be together again.
Let me show you how we ended it all.
"Hi Mrs. Bolton," I heard Gabriella say to my mother on the exact date, April 23 2007. "Can I talk to Troy please?"
"He's upstairs still sleeping. Why don't you wake him up?" I saw Gabriella give her a small smile. My mom opened the door a little wider for Gabriella to come in and she walked in. She knew the way to my room so I ran back to my bed in my boxers. My blankets were on the ground, but I knew there was no time to pick them up and to make it look like I was actually sleeping. I laid my cheek on the pillow and closed my eyes. I heard Gabriella walking in my room and jumping over the clothes on the floor. I felt her warm gentle hand pushing my bare shoulder.
"Troy, can you get up? We need to talk." Weird, she doesn't usually just shove me and then go straight to the point. She usually kisses my lips and then waited until my eyes fluttered. My eyes shot up and I sat up quickly, curious about what Gabriella's going to say. She looked really serious.
"What's wrong Gabi? Are you hurt? Or sad? Is it your dad's death anniversary again? Wait wasn't it in March…"
"Troy…" she placed her hand on top of mine. "It's not any of that. It's…" She gulped and grabbed my hands. She looked at them instead of my face; I could tell she's going through something really hard right now. "I… I think we should see other people." My smile faded; what?!
"Wh-what?"
"I'm sorry Troy. I just feel like we don't have that spark anymore… the one when we sang together for the callbacks…" I pulled back my hands and got up. I didn't even bother to get dress in front of my soon-to-be ex-girlfriend. I turned around after running my hand through my hair.
"We can rebuild that up. Just give me one more chance." I could feel tears gleaming up my eyes, but her eyes were the same.
"I'm sorry Troy. Please don't make this hard for me." She left before I could say anything. The rest of the day, Chad and the rest of the gang heard what happened and tried to comfort me. I ignored them the whole day.
"Us too," Sharpay answered for her and Taylor. "Bye!" She waved bye at me and ran off with Taylor. Weird.
"Hoops." I slammed my locker and ran over to Chad who was hanging out with Zeke and Jason on the opposite side of my locker. They had got to the scene after Sharpay and Taylor ran off. "What was that about?"
"Shar and Tay trying to convince me to get back together with Gabs." Although Gabriella and I broke up, we decided to become friends and that's going well. But it's getting more awkward every time we see each other.
"Why don't you? You guys were East High's Wildcat couple of the year last year," Zeke said.
"That was last year. We're seniors this year; why don't we think about college and graduation, which is going to happen in a few weeks?"
"You started thinking that last summer and look what happened," Chad said. He turned really serious after starting to officially date Taylor after the staff party. They jumped in the pool after Gabriella and me and had their first kiss in the water. More romantic than our first kiss.
"I know but this time is actually the time to think about it. Last time I thought about it, but I wasn't even a senior yet. But look at us now, we're almost graduates; let's focus on—"
"Right now?" We boys know that voice everywhere. Gabriella Montez walked up to us and joined the boys. "Is Troy talking about college again?" Zeke, Jason, and Chad nodded. I glared at them for doing that. "Troy, stop worrying. You already got the U of A scholarship and you're going to be on the Red Hawks team."
"Speaking of scholarships, what college are you going?" Gabriella smiled widely; it makes me want to smile widely too.
"I got into Yale!!!" She shrieked and hugged me. She jumped up and down with her arms wrapped around me. The guys looked at me and I just shrugged. My arms weren't around hers since I knew she'd think I wasn't over her. Even though it's true. I just got to make her think that. She pulled back after ten seconds.
"Congrats," I said. She smiled. I couldn't help but smiled back, but my smile dropped. "Later." I saw her smiled drop too, but I tried to disappear until I felt someone tugging on my hand.
"Troy what's wrong?"
"Nothing. Don't worry about me." Gabriella gave me a concerned look. I gave her a fake smile; I knew she wouldn't buy it but I needed to go, to be away from her before letting my daily tears fall again.
"Okay." She released my wrist and I walked again. I wiped the tears off my face and walked into the gym.
The gym sucked. Good thing basketball season is over or the team would have been mad at me for sucking on my free throws. Ever since the break up, my mind and heart aren't in the game. The happy face shit is just an act; of course I'm not happy because I have just lost the love of my life. People say we're too young to fall in love, but there's a feeling there that I just know that it's love calling me. It's telling me to fall in love with Gabriella Montez and I just had to listen to it. Stupid me…
"Troy!" Taylor's running to me, out of breathe.
"Tay what's wrong?" I asked. I waited for her to go back to her regular breathing, but she didn't stop.
"Gabi… asthma…" Only those words could tell me what's wrong. I grabbed my backpack and ran without waiting for Taylor to follow me. I didn't even ask her what room Gabriella was in until I saw Chad lifting Gabriella from the ground. She was breathing heavily and Chad was patting her lightly on the back.
"Chad, don't do that!!!" Chad looked up at me and I ran to him. I fumbled with my backpack and finally unzipped my front pocket. I took out one of Gabriella's emergency inhalers that she gave me for when she didn't have her main inhaler. I pressed button in her mouth once… twice… I pulled the inhaler out and watched her try to get her breathing back, but she didn't.
"Chad, move!" I pushed Chad out of the way. I set Gabriella on the ground, grabbing Chad's varsity jacket to make a pillow for her and gently placed her head on the jacket. I learned CPR just for Gabriella so I knew what to do. I felt around her neck for a pulse but there was none. I did two slow breathe, pinching her nose and pressing my mouth onto hers. After that, I did 30 compressions on her chest to get her heartbeat. I was about to do two more slow breathes when I heard her cough between our lips. I pulled back and waited for her breathing to come back.
"Troy…where did you learn that?" Gabriella managed to say when she got her air back.
"I took a class for CPR during the summer. I thought that if your inhaler didn't work, I should have backup. And I don't mean another inhaler." She giggled and embraced me in a hug.
"Thanks for saving my life. You always know what to do." I felt a bolt between us.
"Sorry, I guess I've been on the rug too much at home."
"No, I think that was just a spark."
"A spark?"
"I'm just gonna go," Chad said. I almost forgot Chad was even there. He left to go find Taylor.
"Troy," Gabriella said when Chad left. "I know I broke up with you last month because there wasn't a spark anymore but every time I saw you, I just can't help but feel like going up to you and kissing you square on the mouth. I just felt lonely now that I can't rely on you to come and make me feel comfortable again. And now I know how much you do for me; I appreciate what you do for me especially with my medical condition."
"Gabi, you don't have to thank me. I wanted to do this."
"And I know why." Gabriella grabbed my neck and pulled me in. Her lips landed on mine and it wasn't for CPR. She pulled back after a few seconds. "You don't know how long I wanted to do that."
"Me too." I stood up and gave her my hand. She took it and intertwined it all on her own. I guess she just feels really bad about the break up. "You know you don't always have to make the first move just because you think it's your fault for our break up."
"I know; I want to feel useful to you. Just like you do things that are useful to me." I smiled; I haven't smiled like that since April 23 2007.
"Then I guess you start basketball training next week?" Her jaw dropped playfully and she slapped my arm. "What you said something useful for me."
"Useful, not something you love more than me."
"That's not true." She leaned in and kissed my neck. I loved the tingling feeling of her lips against my skin. I wrapped my arms around her and embraced her in a tight hug.
"You know when I said that I got into Yale?" I nodded against her shoulder. "I'm actually going to U of A." I pulled back.
"What? You're giving up your dream school; I can't let you give that up for me."
"I know, but I want to. Besides, who's going to give me CPR when I suffocate again?" I chuckled.
The spark lives; actually it never left.
A/N: I'm sorry that's short. I just thought of the idea of Troy being useful to Gabriella and saving her life, so I wanted to write this one-shot. Even though finals are coming up, I'm still typing up my stories but I can't show them in public until after February 2.
Sneak peek: My new story is called Basketball Fighting. Trailer will be coming up soon.