Part Five: Enraged

Then his mouth was on mine again- hot and hard this time, his lips melding to mine as he trailed his tongue along my lower lip lustily before forcing it into my mouth passionately. I slid my hands up his chest, firmed my grip, and shoved him away hard.

“What the hell are you doing?” I spat harshly.

He bit his lip seductively, not at all phased by my reaction, “Being honest.”

“I’m your best friend’s boyfriend! You’re dating my sister!”

“So?” was his incredulous response.

“So you can’t just kiss me! You’re meant to hate me!”

“Thin line, Ryan…”

“No!” I told him, drilling a finger into his chest. “Don’t go there! That isn’t what this is! You just can’t let him anything, can you? Troy Bolton always has to be the centre of attention, even if he crushes people who are meant to be his friends. You just want everything!!”

He looked amused, “And I always get it. So we can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”

“Or we can not do it at all,” I snapped.

“Not an option.” He stepped towards me again, “You’re creative, theatre-driven, passionate… He’s a sports guy. You won’t work together.”

“Again, that’s none of your business!”

“We would.”

A snort of contempt escaped my mouth, “Because you’re so deep…?”

“Ryan?” Chad’s voice called suddenly. “Are you two making the drinks yourselves or something…?” The kitchen door opened, and Chad walked in. He felt the tension, caught the glare I was still giving Troy, “What’s going on?”

I forced a smile, “Nothing. Give Sharpay her drink, will you, Troy? Come on, Chad. Let’s go upstairs.”

“What was that about?” Chad pressed as we started up the stairs.

I rolled my eyes, “Just giving him the ‘hurt-my-sister-and-I’ll-kill-you’ talk. He didn’t take it very well.” I reached the top a few steps ahead of him, and turned, holding his bottle up for him to see. “Come on… Don’t you want this…?”

*****

I couldn’t get my head around it.

All this time I’d thought that Troy Bolton hated me and it turned out that he had the hots for me. It was weird, unexpected, surreal, odd- a whole thesaurus of negative and confusing words. I mean, hello! I was dating his best friend! And he was with my twin sister! How much more twisted could you get…?

Well, he could forget it. I wasn’t leaving Chad for him just because of his shock announcement.

There was a scowl fixed onto my face as I cut through the water gracefully. It just didn’t add up. Why would he even want me? He could have anyone in this school. I was still suspicious that it was just a need to have everything, and not allowing Chad to be unique this once.

“Why are you always here?!” I demanded as a pair of red Vans appeared in my line of vision at the edge of the pool.

Troy crouched down as I stopped at the side, his lips curving, “Sharpay asked me to stay the night. Didn’t you ask Chad?”

“He had to look after his sisters.” I pushed away from the edge, purposefully kicking water up into his face.

He let out an outraged splutter, “Now, that’s just childish!”

I stopped where I was, treading water, “I don’t care! What you did yesterday was completely inappropriate! You had no right to put me in that position!”

Pain came into his eyes, “It was killing me…seeing you with him.”

I gave him a dark look, “You’d’ve lived.”

An expression of fury laced his features, “Yeah, like I wanted to fall for such a drama queen…!”

I swam to the side, pulled myself out, “I thought that was what you went for…”

He frowned, “What?”

“Well, Sharpay, me… And, let’s face it; Gabriella’s about as subtle as a meat-cleaver to the back of the head.” I stood up slowly, “Face it, Bolton. We ‘drama queens’ are exactly your type.”

*****

“Shar, is my cell phone in here?” I asked, strolling into her room a week later, and directing my question towards where she lay on her stomach on the bed.

“Why would it be?”

“I took it out my pocket last night when we were watching that movie. I think I forgot to take it back.” I spotted it on her bedside table, and walked over to pick it up, flipping it open to check for messages, before closing it again and sliding it into my pocket. I turned back to find Sharpay right there. “You’re in my way, Evans.”

Her grin was evil, “Then move me.” Then she laughed as I pulled her into a quick rumba position, back-stepping her across the room. I couldn’t help but laugh as well. People always assumed that Sharpay and I didn’t get on because she could be a little over-confident, but in reality there were was no-one I was more synced with. She had her quirks, and I had mine, but we gelled.

“Troy,” she suddenly gasped breathlessly, and I turned my head to look at him, not breaking the hold and commanding myself not to let the grin slip from my face.

“Hey,” he responded easily, leaning against the doorframe. It was actually like he’d moved in!

I spun Sharpay away from me, bowed to her as she gave me a jokey curtsy in return. “Right. I’m off.”

“Where’re you going?” Troy wanted to know.

“He has a date,” Sharpay said in a self-important voice that made my grin genuine again. “A weekend away. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”