Sneak Out

"I can't wait until Friday."

It was the root of all of her problems. She should have just told him that she wasn't allowed to go. She should have just said that her mom hadn't given her permission. She shouldn't have just stood there like a love-struck teenager, completely lost in his cerulean eyes, nodding along with every word that came out of his beautiful mouth. Dully, she ripped off another piece of her sandwich, popping it into her mouth. Sighing to herself as she quickly scribbled down the next answer to her history homework, she glanced sadly at her silent cell phone, sitting beside her textbook, mocking her. The message was still open, but she refused to look at it again. Slowly reaching toward it, she flipped it screen-side-down, and sighed.

"Gabriella…? Are you going to tell us what's wrong?" Looking up from her homework, she noticed all of her friends staring at her from around the table. "You've been sitting here sighing for nearly twenty minutes. Lunch is half over, and you still haven't said a word to any of us." Taylor caringly placed a hand over Gabriella's wrist. "We're worried about you, girlie. Please, talk to us?" Gabriella shrugged her shoulders, drearily dropping her pencil.

"My mom said no." Taylor's brow furrowed.

"How could she have said no? Even my mom said yes, and my mom never says yes to anything. Your mom is completely cool with everything. How is it even possible that she would say no?" Gabriella gestured tiredly at her cell phone, and Taylor grabbed for it, holding it between Martha and herself. Scrolling down to the message, she read aloud, "No." Her face dropped. "Oh, I see."

"I made the mistake of mentioning that it was slightly unsupervised, and my mom completely freaked out because she thinks that no parental supervision means that I'm going to go and get high, and then get drunk, and then get pregnant." Martha smiled comfortingly at her.

"My mom used to think that, too. But I just go for the dancing."

Gabriella nodded. "I hate how she says stuff like that. I'm not stupid enough to do all of that stuff. I know that drinking is illegal at my age, and I know that drugs are dangerous and illegal, and I don't really want to have a baby at eighteen years old. It's not like I have anyone to have sex with, anyway. So why does she bother worrying now? Why doesn't she wait to worry until there is actually something worth worrying about?"

Taylor smirked, "Well, that's why you're going. So you will have someone that she can worry about…eventually." Gabriella's eyes widened.

"It's a good thing that I didn't have you try and convince my mother to let me go. Is that the same line you used on your mom? 'I'm going there to find someone to have sex with,' I mean?" Taylor smiled, laughing off her friend's remark.

"What I meant was that you're going so that you can find a boyfriend. And I think we all know who that means." Gabriella's cheeks flushed and she glanced nervously as passers-by, praying that they hadn't heard. "Oh, come on, Gabriella. We all know that there is a certain someone, who will remain nameless, that you have a thing for. A serious thing." Praying that she wasn't quite as transparent as Taylor made her seem, Gabriella shook her head in denial.

"No, I don't have a thing for anybody." Taylor's gaze was solid. "Okay, so maybe I do. But there is no way that everybody knows that I have a thing for him just from watching me." Her friend shrugged indifferently.

"Okay, so I read your diary one time when you were in the bathroom. Sue me." Gabriella gaped at her friend, her mouth hanging open wordlessly. "What? I wanted to know, and you weren't about to tell me anything. I had no choice. But anyway, we need to find a way to get you to that party. Can't you just try to convince your mom? I mean, lay a little bit of a guilt trip on her. Try the bit about being a social reject." Biting down on her bottom lip, Gabriella shook her head slowly, once again picking up her pencil to work on her history assignment.

"I can't do that to her. My mom is pretty much all I have right now. I can't manipulate her feelings and make her feel like she'll be ruining my entire high school experience by not letting me go to a party." Taylor shook her head in slight disappointment, before returning to her own salad lunch, watching Gabriella slowly write her answer to the next question. Glancing backwards over her shoulder, Taylor watched the cheerleaders as they flirtingly tossed tater tots at the basketball team. However, one jock was too preoccupied with his phone to notice.

Gabriella's phone buzzed suddenly, and she looked up from her homework. Slowly lifting it up to her eyes, she scrolled down the menu, blushing at the words glowing on the screen.

"Maybe I could try once more…"

"Friday, you'll be there, right? You're the only reason I'm going."

"No. Absolutely not Gabriella, we discussed all of this yesterday. You are not going to an unsupervised high school party. I don't feel comfortable with it."

"Oh, mami, come on! Please, it's just one little party. It's really not that big of a deal. All of my friends are going!"

"Gabriella, it's a school night!"

"It's a Friday," Gabriella defended, "Tomorrow is Saturday."

"Did you go to school today?" Christina demanded rhetorically. "Then it's a school night. And besides, you have to get up early tomorrow to baby-sit for the Cavanaughs, so you have to go to bed at a decent hour."

"Please, mami, I'm already a borderline social reject. If I don't go… If I don't go…"

"…you won't be exposed to underage drinking, premarital sexual intercourse, and illegal drug use? The answer is no, Gabriella. Why don't you just call up Taylor, order some pizza, and have a girl's night? You two haven't done that in a while. I can take you over to the video store, and we'll rent Titanic and Casablanca and some other good ones."

"Taylor's going to the party, mom. Chad invited her. She told me yesterday." Christina ignored her. "Mom, please don't do this to me. I have been waiting for this kind of social function for… like, forever, and the one time that it comes around, you won't let me go. Please, mom, please…"

Christina leveled her stare, and threw down her dishrag. "No, Gabriella, and that's final." Gabriella sighed and pulled her cell phone out of her of her pocket as it vibrated against her leg. Clicking through the message, she felt her arms tingling.

"Should I pick you up Friday night? How does eight o'clock sound? I just gave my truck a total tune up. Let me know."

Groaning loudly and miserably, she ran her finger over the text, falling back against the counter. Glancing backwards at her mom, she set her mouth in a grim line and headed up to her room, quickly typing on her phone as she hurried up the stairs.

"Sounds great. Park at the corner and ring my phone. I'll come out and meet you. DON'T come to the door."

Thursday crawled by as Gabriella's anxiety grew, and her telltale signs of nerves began kicking in whenever she was around her mother. Her palms were constantly sweating, and her knees were always shaking, and her mouth was always dry. Several times, Christina had brought up the party, saying that she was glad Gabriella had given up the idea of going.

"I'm glad that you've seen the senselessness," she said proudly, during a commercial break once. "Fun doesn't only happen when there's alcohol and drugs. Fun can happen with supervision, too." Gabriella had made sure to remain quiet, slowly rubbing her hands up and down her legs. Guilt was clawing at the inside of her stomach, slowly crawling up her throat, but she bit down on her tongue hard as she felt the hard outline of her cell phone in her pocket. She wasn't going to blow her chance.

Once Friday arrived, she knew that she only had to survive four more hours at home before she would be able to leave. However, as six o'clock grew near, a sudden revelation struck her. She had no way of keeping her mother out of her room between the hours of – what she assumed would be – eight and one. A not quite brilliant – but desperate – plan formed in her mind. After a completely silent dinner, Gabriella retreated to her room at exactly seven o'clock sharp, turning her music up extremely loud and locking her door. Hurrying around the room, she pulled out assorted articles of clothing, and after a quick shower, dressed. She had begun fixing her makeup when Christina knocked on the bedroom door.

"Gabi, honey, are you alright?" Silence. "I know that you really wanted to go to that party tonight, but this really is for the best." More silence. "Talk to me, please." Gabriella asked softly to be left alone, hoping that her mother would take the fake hint. Once she heard her mother's footsteps on the staircase, she carefully hunted around for her bag before sitting calmly on her bed and waiting for her phone to go off. Her knees were still shaking, but it was for several different reasons. Maybe she shouldn't be doing this. Her mother had always had so much trust in her. She'd never steered her wrong. Gabriella was all that her mother had. And this was wrong.

There was a vibration.

"I'm here."

Somehow, her eyes translated that to "I want you" and she nearly broke her neck in her rush towards her balcony.

"Whoa, what happened to you? You're all scraped up. God, I mean, you look great, but you also look like you just climbed down a tree."

She smiled bashfully.

"Holy shit, you did, didn't you? What the hell did you climb down the tree for? What, is your front door broken? Or do you just like a challenge?"

She kept smiling as she buckled her seatbelt. "No, my front door is working. It's just off-limits for me tonight." His eyes widened.

"You snuck out?"

"Yeah."

"Why?" His tone was reprimanding, but he pulled away from the curb and turned the corner anyway.

"Just because."

"Because of me?" There was hope in his voice.

"Maybe."

He grinned at her. "I snuck out, too."

"This is pretty tame compared to what I envisioned my first real Wildcat house party to be like. My head was filled with humping couples and drunken morons and people snorting drugs left and right. This is not that." Troy grinned, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they stepped through the front door. Her cheeks were warm and her fingers were entwined with his. He led her immediately to the right, where she spotted several people that she recognized from school standing against the wall.

"Don't worry," he assured her, hugging her closer to his body. "It's barely begun. You may still get your dream party." Within two minutes of arriving, Troy had been tugged in every direction, each time declining politely and pulling Gabriella after him.

"I guess you're usually in pretty high demand at parties, huh?" she asked as they moved away from a group of kids in her gym class. He trailed his thumb lightly around her palm, smiling down at her.

"I asked for a night off." He guided her towards a couch, sitting down beside her and sinking into the cushion. "We're actually a little early. The thing probably won't really kick off until around nine." He paused. "Want a drink? It'd probably be a good idea to get one now, before anybody really spikes everything." He stood up again, holding out his hand for her to take.

"You seem to know your way around pretty well. How many of these parties have you been to?" she giggled, scooting around people as they made their way towards the kitchen. "I mean, I was pretty out of the social loop at all of my other schools, but I still don't remember there being all these house parties. In fact, I can't remember ever going to a house party." Troy grinned, sidestepping into the kitchen and gently squeezing her hand.

"It's not like I frequently sneak out on Friday nights to go get drunk at a friend's house party where people are sneaking off to have sex in their parent's bedroom.. But I've been to a few. It's usually the upperclassmen that had them the past few years, and I was kind of in with them because of basketball. It was kind of weird though. I never really knew too many people." She nodded slowly, her eyes scanning over the several different drinks laid out on the counter. Suddenly, a dark haired boy popped up from the other side, twirling a glass in his hand.

"What's your poison?" he asked cheerily, slamming the glass down. Gabriella smiled awkwardly before reaching for bottled water and holding it up. Troy grinned, grabbing a bottle for himself, and shaking his head.

"I think we'll avoid the poison tonight, Lee." The boy shrugged indifferently.

"Your loss, Bolton, means there's more for me. Pirelli scored some sweet stuff." Troy shrugged back.

"I've got enough sweet stuff for one night." He took Gabriella's hand and drew her back to the living room. Their previous spot on the couch had been taken, and he hesitated in front of the small upholstered chair. Grinning, she nudged him forward until he eased himself into the seat. Gently, she lowered herself onto his lap, smiling nervously and biting on her bottom lip.

"Was that comment supposed to be about me?"

He smirked playfully. "Of course."

"Is this how you're planning on spending the rest of the night? Curled up on my lap?"

She giggled, "Maybe. You don't really like dancing anyway, right? That's what you said everyday of Twinkle Towne rehearsals. Besides, don't you want to sit here with me all night?"

"Of course I do. But seeing as it is your first Wildcat house party, I figured that you'd be going Wildcat-wild and getting plowed and dancing on the dining room table and, hopefully not, making out with random guys." He took another exaggerated swig of his water before capping it and tossing it onto the end table. "It's usually the people like you that you have to watch out for. You know what they say. It's always the quiet ones. They're the ones that get really loud and go nuts."

"You left out stripping."

"What?" he squeaked, choking slightly. She smirked teasingly.

"Isn't that what gets people in trouble? They get drunk at a party, and then they start taking off their clothes. Someone takes a picture of it, and then that person is eternally humiliated at school. I thought that that was how it worked." Troy chuckled and shook his head as his hand drifted to rest on her knee. Her body warmed and her cheeks flushed, and she nervously gulped down her water. The cool liquid hit the back of her throat and she looked away from his oceanic eyes, closing her eyes tightly and attempting to breathe through her nose and calm her reddening cheeks.

"Nobody else is here yet," she pointed out softly, glancing around the room. "Well, nobody that I know personally, anyway." She leaned back against the arm of the chair, rubbing her hands nervously on her thighs. Troy's fingers gently folded around her hand, tangling their digits together tightly, intimately, and he leaned forward to rest his nose against her shoulder.

"That's okay. The later they are, the more alone-time that we get." She grinned, leaning back into him so that his neck wasn't stretching out towards her, and nuzzled into his warmth. Her forehead grazed his temple, and she giggled into his ear as she licked her lips.

"Do you want alone time?" she cooed shyly, squeezing his hand unconsciously. She could smell the aftershave that he put on earlier, and her nose trailed down the side of his face to run along his jaw, over his smooth skin.

"It couldn't possibly hurt," he murmured, pulling his head back slightly so that their noses were practically touching. "Especially not if you're actually planning on doing that stripping thing." He laughed loudly, nudging her nose, and she groaned, rolling her eyes.

"And thus…the moment dies." She let go of his hand, playfully turning his head away from her, and she brushed a few stray hairs away from her face.

"Well then," he breathed, turning his head back and staring deep into her eyes, "We'll just have to recreate that moment." Leaning up, he cupped a hand to the side of her head, tangling his finger in her hair as her dragged her lips closer. Pressing his lips to hers, he kissed her twice, swiftly, before smiling proudly to himself. "That got the moment back, didn't it?"

She gaped at him.

"It is really funny how these things work out for me. I've been trying to find the right time for this and everything, and that moment just got handed to me on a silver platter. It was beautiful. A guy couldn't ask for a more cheesy line."

"I–"

"Gabriella! You came! Oh my God!"

Gabriella flinched slightly and muttered dully, "I see what you mean about those quiet ones." Shifting to look at her rapidly approaching friend, she smiled. Taylor was a good friend. She was witty. She was clever. She was supportive. She was also a pusher. There was no 'we'll get them next time' with Taylor. It was 'we get them now or we get them now' and that was how it was. Gabriella realized that the sinking feeling in her stomach meant that things with Troy would not be moving at their own pace; especially not after what had just happened was revealed.

"How did you get your mom to say yes? And what are you wearing?" Taylor reached out a hand and yanked something out of the back of Gabriella's hair. "And why do you have a leaf in your hair?" Glancing between the two semi-guilty faces, she shook her head. "You snuck out and climbed down a tree, didn't you?"

Troy gaped at her. "How did you get that so fast?"

"She had a leaf in her hair. Leaves grow on trees. There's a tree in her backyard, which you have been rumored to climb to get to her balcony, which leads to her room. It's not rocket science, Troy. It's simple logic." Turning to her friend, Taylor grabbed Gabriella's arm and pulled her to her feet. "Come on. You need to go to the bathroom."

"Why?" she yelped as her body was painfully ripped away from Troy's. Cold flooded the veins on the right side of her body, and she felt a yearning in the pit of her stomach for his warming touch.

"I need to fix you. You look like a mess. It's simple logic."

"Why don't you just go over there and talk to him? You're never going to get anywhere with him if you don't at least cozy up to him once in a while." Gabriella silently glowered sideways at her friend as she took a large gulp of her water. "Don't be such a wallflower. It's a party, and he's the one that invited you to go with him. He picked you up. He drove you here. He should be entertaining you. Now go."

Grumbling to herself as Taylor pushed her forward, Gabriella muttered, "He was entertaining me, in a very nice way, until you showed up and dragged me off into the bathroom to have your way with my hair." Pausing just outside of the circle of howling friends, Gabriella licked her lips and adjusted her shirt. Brushing up against his side as she moved closer, she slipped easily under his arm and into the conversation, leaning lightly against him, casually laying her head against his muscular chest.

She felt the eyes that were flickering over her stance, attempting to piece together a confusing puzzle. She smiled to herself, greatly appreciative of her ability to see the gears that turned in other people's heads. Their thought processes were incredibly apparent. He hadn't kissed her when she came up, but he was holding her a lot closer than before. They were all confused, masking it amazingly with mindless conversation, but she had to admit to herself that she was no clearer on the issue than they were.

"No way in hell is that going to happen. I'd slash open all of my new tires before I ever let that newbie point center touch me again." Gabriella glanced up at Troy.

"And I see the conversation turns to basketball once more."

"Always does, baby, always does."

"It wouldn't be a party without some basketball conversations," a random boy attempted to interject, but Gabriella barely heard him. Her hand slipped around Troy's waist, resting flat on his back and rubbing careless circles. He gave her shoulders a quick squeeze before stepping back.

"Alright, we'll be back in few." He laced their hands together and grinned at her, nodding down the hallway to the backdoor. She shook her head, gesturing up the staircase to her left. "Oh, I see," he chuckled, wiggling his eyebrows at her. "I knew that I would have to watch out for you. How much have you had to drink since Taylor dragged you away?"

Playfully rolling her eyes, she slapped at his bicep. "I haven't been drinking anything. I noticed this little lounge room up there when Taylor was mauling at my head. I thought that we should go there…and talk." He nodded in silent agreement, and she led him up the stairs. Coming to an abrupt halt at the top of the staircase, she felt her cheeks flush and stepped backwards. "Well… It seems that the lounge is currently occupied."

Troy chuckled noisily, spotting the black bra hanging off the door handle. "They couldn't have been her more than an hour. You'd think they would have waiting until at least ten." Rolling her eyes, she ushered him back down to the first floor. "So, backyard then?" She shrugged, following him somewhat reluctantly into the chilly night breeze.

"It's kind of cold out here. Can't we just find a corner inside, or another chair?"

"Do you want my jacket?" he offered, smiling. She glanced at his clothes.

"You're not wearing a jacket. And I don't want you to go back inside and get one just for me. Besides, you might get ambushed."

"No," he assured her. "It's no big deal. I'll be right back."

He disappeared back into the house, and Gabriella pulled a plastic chair away from the wall, pulling her knees up to her chest as she hugged her legs. Biting her lip, she glanced out into the backyard, illuminated by the garage light. A few of her classmates were playing some sort of drinking game in the spot of light, occasionally bursting out into fits of laughter. One girl, who she couldn't quite see, arrived late, greeting her friends and plopping herself down beside a boy, who she couldn't see either. She kissed him softly on the mouth, her chest shaking with giggles as his hand tickled her side lightly. Gabriella looked away into the darkness, chewing on her lip harder.

"Look who followed me," Troy's dull voice broke though her thoughts as he slid open the door. "It's Taylor. And Chad. And Ryan." He wrapped his jacket around her shoulders, standing behind her chair as their friends settled into a circle. Bending down, he whispered in her ear, "You were right. We should have just hid in the pantry or something. I shouldn't have gone inside, especially not alone."

"Hey, Troy, man, pull out some of those chairs over there." His eyes darted up to Chad's, and he backed away from Gabriella, grabbing a stack of bright red plastic chairs. Dragging them over, Troy took one for himself and positioned it beside Gabriella's before taking a seat, his knee up against hers.

"Have you guys taken a look at Kelsi's musical script for next year?" Ryan peered around at everyone, taking a slow sip of his cup. "It's really good. I can't believe that it only took her a month to write."

Glancing sideways, Gabriella sighed to herself. Troy's head perked up and his eyes met hers. "Later," she mouthed. He nodded, letting on hand fall down between their chairs, hidden from view. Her arm slid down slowly before it met his. His warm hand encased her small fingers, and she smiled.

It was a small tight circle that they stood in, with many outer layers of people attempting to see into the center. His arm draped over her shoulders as they danced in place, howling at his best friend's attempt to break dance. After a while, he was pulled away from the middle, replaced by two cheerleaders. The music got louder and the lights dimmed as they danced up against each other and several whistles were launched into the air. Several others jumped into the center, all pressing up against each other, and the circle disappeared. The tight rings dissolved, pairs formed, and teens pulled each other close and entwined within the confined space of the living room.

Everyone around them had vanished and she blushed deeply as he stepped up behind her. He turned her around, his hands around her wrists, teasingly raising and lowering her arms. She felt tingles shooting up to her shoulders, and her knees were slightly wobbly. He smelled nice. She didn't know what it was, but she could recognize it from the t-shirt on her large teddy bear at home. He hadn't liked that she'd put it on the bear. Apparently, bears were supposed to be naked. Teenaged girls needed pajamas.

"Come on, Gabriella. Dance. Dance, right now." Frowning slightly, she leaned closer to him, gripping his shirt to pull his ear closer.

"I can't hear you," she yelled, her lips grazing against his cheek. "The music… It's too loud. I can't hear you." When she tried to move back, he held her by her waist. Forehead to forehead, he guided her backwards, never loosening his tight hold on her hips. He forced her to sway, her hands pressed flat against his chest, slowly sliding up to circle his neck. His nose trailed over her cheek and his lips brushed the shell of her ear.

"Dance," he exhaled, his warm breath tickling her skin.

Their bodies pressed close together, pulsing along with the beat of the music that was pumping through the speakers. Her knees shook as one of his hands trailed lightly up and down her back, and she twirled the hair at the nape of his neck around her fingers. His smoldering gaze locked onto her eyes, and he had a cheeky smile on his face as he nudged their noses together. His lips lightly teased her mouth, never quite making contact, and her eyelids fluttered shut as she let him lead her. Her grip tightened on him, and he stroked her back as they danced. She distinctly felt his bottom lip rub over her top lip, and her eyes snapped open, partially outraged at his blatant teasing. He was momentarily lost in the depth of the brown, and he unconsciously allowed his face to drift closer to hers.

"If you're going to kiss me," she murmured boldly, bringing one hand to the back of his head, "Then kiss me properly." She was tired of waiting, only to be teased. Pressing their lips together, she mentally cheered as his lips began sliding against hers. Neither tried to progress, drinking in the moment, and Gabriella grasped at his hair. After several exchanges, they both pulled back, and without saying another word, he turned her around in his arms. Her head fell back to rest on his shoulder blissfully, and her eyes fluttered shut.

His lips found her ear.

"I…" He stopped. "You…" He stopped again. "A date." He gulped and her chocolate orbs few open, "A date. Let's go on one. Tomorrow? Maybe next week, if you end up getting grounded for sneaking out of the house to come here with me?" Gabriella stared up at him over her shoulder, speechless, her mouth gaping and her doe-eyes wide. He had been dancing around it for so long. She hadn't even believed that he would ask her at the party.

"A date?" she questioned softly, disbelief dancing in her eyes.

His eyebrows furrowed, "What?" Rolling her eyes, she grabbed his elbow and tugged him though the crowd. Her stomach churned slowly as they slipped past groups of grinding couples, working their way towards the front door. Stepping out onto the front steps, Troy pulled the door shut behind them, and they were silent.

"That's better," she whispered, wrapping her arms around herself. "Let's sit." Lowering herself onto the top step, she hugged her knees against her chest and looked sideways at him. "Talk to me. What were you saying before?" He was hesitant, scooting closer to her.

"Do you want to go out with me? Like, do you actually want to go out with me? People keep saying that you do, and I was pretty sure that you did, but now that I'm actually trying to ask you I'm all freaked out, and I just want to make sure." She blinked. "So…do you?"

"I'm not going to answer that," she giggled, resting her chin on her knee. "You really can't guess?" He leaned back on his elbows and looked up, and smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He took a deep breath and shook his head slightly.

"So, you like me, I like you, you snuck out of your house for me, I snuck out of my house for you, I kissed you, you kissed me–"

"And you still haven't asked me anything that would effectively utilize all of the information that you have gathered tonight."

He glanced at her, and then started laughing, hard. "This is why I need you to like me as much as I like you." Reaching over and grabbing her hand, he grinned at her. "You get me so hot when you use words like… utilize," he breathed. "But my favorite is when you use the word hypothesize." She rolled her eyes and giggled, shoving his hand away before taking it again.

"If I use it in a sentence, will you take your head out of your butt and just ask me?" He grinned, and she laughed again. "The other day in science, I hypothesized that chemical A would turn blue." His eyes closed tightly and guttural moan escaped him.

"Now that's what I'm talking about."

"Tell me why you're smiling like that. Tell me right now." Gabriella yelped as Taylor grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her down the hallway, shoving her into the bathroom. "I saw you and Troy dancing, I looked away, I saw you and Troy going outside, I saw you and Troy coming inside, and now you're all smiley. Why? What did you guys talk about out there?"

Gabriella shrugged mysteriously, "Nothing specific, really. We just talked. We cleared some things up." She wasn't completely willing to spill every detail of her private conversation with Troy just yet.

Taylor eyed her friend suspiciously, "What kind of things?"

"Oh, you know," Gabriella turned to the mirror, playing with her hair, "Plans."

"Plans?"

"Yeah, my plans. For next weekend, or tomorrow, or whenever."

"Did he ask you out on a date? Did Bolton finally do it?" Gabriella giggled as Taylor bounced from foot to foot.

"Uh-huh." Squealing, Taylor threw her arms around Gabriella's small shoulders and squeezed tightly. "Taylor, I can't breathe with you hanging on me like that. Taylor, please don't suffocate me before my first date with Troy!" The darker girl leapt backwards, and there was a sudden knock on the bathroom door.

"Yeah," Troy's voice cut in, "Please, don't suffocate her before her first date with Troy. Troy won't be happy." He paused. "Troy is so sick at the thought that he's speaking in third person. Don't make Troy speak in third person for the rest of his life." The door opened and he stepped inside, smiling sheepishly at the two girls. "I have come to rescue my fair lady." Grabbing Gabriella and throwing her over his shoulder, he left the bathroom. "Come, fair lady. The raging house party with booze and grinding doth await us."

"How romantic, good sir. Now put me down-eth before the entire congregation of the party doth see-eth up my skirt."

"Guys, you two have been sitting in that tree for, like, two hours. Can you please come down now? Gabriella, I'm sure that you have to get home by now. Troy, take her home. The later she stays out, the more likely it is that Christina's going to go and find out that she's not in her room." Taylor crossed her arms over her chest and glared up into the darkness of the tangled tree braches. Tapping her foot noisily on the hard ground, she let out a disgruntled sigh. "Fine. You two can stay up there for as long as you want. It's not my ass that's going to be grounded when my mom find out that I snuck out to go to a party." There was a snap, and a small branch landed at Taylor's feet.

"We'll be down in a second," Gabriella's voice giggled. "And then we'll go home. I promise."

"Maybe."

"Troy!" High in the tree, Gabriella slapped Troy's arm lightly and he grinned at her, reaching over to reconnect their fingers. He knocked his ankle against hers and sighed.

"I guess I really should take you home soon, huh?" Biting her lip, Gabriella nodded slowly. "Do you like mini-golf?" Giggling, she nodded. "Okay, that's good, because I've never really seen the point of going to the movies on a first date. We wouldn't even be talking to each other at the movies. We could have just gone separately. And I really love the way the little monkey spins when you get to the seventh hole." Grabbing onto the thick branch before her, Gabriella lowered her foot down to the next step.

"I haven't been mini-golfing in years. I didn't even know that they had a course around here." Troy followed her lead, swinging down through the tree with surprising grace.

"Yeah, there's a pretty nice one a couple of blocks away from my grandparents' house. I went there with Chad a couple of times when we were kids, but he preferred hanging out in the junkyard. I think he just liked being able to swing pipes at me." Dropping to the ground before her, he held out his arms and gestured for her to jump. Catching her in his arms, he moved to set her on her feet, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and gently kicked her feet though the air.

"My hero."

"I know that this is a cheesy line, but I really did have great time tonight. I'm really glad that you came. I'm really glad that I came."

"Nah, you're just glad that now when the gang goes out on Friday nights you won't be the only guy there without a girl to make out with." Troy chuckled good-naturedly and buried his nose in her hair as they walked around the corner. Rubbing his hand up and down her arm, he pressed a soft kiss to her temple before looking down at the sidewalk.

"Maybe I'm just glad that now when the gang goes out on Friday nights I'll know what kind of guy you're out with."

"Yeah…," Gabriella giggled, "A red-cape-wearing superhero-ninja-spy."

"Well, you know," he whispered as they tiptoed up the walkway to her back gate, "Every red-cape-wearing superhero-ninja-spy needs a damsel in distress to save."

Nodding thoughtfully, Gabriella mused, "Well then I guess you'll just have to bring me to the junkyard one of these days and Chad can bury me under a pile of rubble, and you'll have to save me." Shaking his head, Troy dropped his arm from around his shoulder and brushed his hand against hers before taking it in his.

"Nah. You could just stand on top of a car or something and be all 'Woe is me.' That would totally work." Glancing at her house, Gabriella sighed softly, scraping the bottom of her shoe along the cement.

"Unfortunately, this is there part where I have to go," she mumbled as he slowly opened the gate leading into her backyard. Reluctantly, he let go of her hand and watched as she tiptoed through the opening in the fence. Closing the gate softly, she leaned back over it as close to him as possible.

"You know, you seemed different tonight," he whispered, gently kissing her. His hand molded to fit the curve of her neck as he pulled her closer, and she felt her foot popping up slightly, rubbing it against the back of her calve.

"I felt different tonight." His nose pressed against hers in an awkward way as he attempted to kiss her again, straining to hug her torso against his own. "I don't usually sneak out of my house, you know, and I definitely don't do it with guys. Or for guys, for that matter." They were silent for a moment as his hand brushed over the nape of her neck, up to her check, and around to the side of her head. She felt guilty again, knowing that her mother was so close, and pulled back, rubbing a finger against his arm.

"I really have to go…"

"I'll call you tomorrow," he promised into the darkness as she walked away.

"I don't appreciate being lied to, Gabriella. You went to that party last night, didn't you? You snuck out, didn't you?" Gabriella looked up from the kitchen counter at her mother. "Answer me, Gabriella. Did you, or did you not, go to that party?"

She looked back down, ashamed. "Yes." Christina looked down, placing a hand to her forehead. Looking back up, she glared at Gabriella and brushed her hair away from her face.

"Did you drink?" Gabriella shook her head. "Did you do drugs?"

"No."

"Did you…? With a boy?"

"No, mom, I didn't."

"So what happened? What made this party worth losing my respect?"

She smiled weakly, tears brimming in her eyes. "I danced with Troy. And I got my first kiss. And I got asked out on a date."

"Is he the reason you snuck out last night?"

"No." She shook her head. "But he's the reason I would do it again."

Fin.

Author's Note: ...I can explain? No, I really can. I really shouldn't have written this, and I know that, because I should have been working on Dabbles with Daddy and My Guys. (I am really sorry for the excruciatingly long waits between chapters.) However, I was looking over the ZAANGELS website a while ago and I stumbled into their Write-Off section, and I came across Audrey's category for September 22nd to October 22nd: Wildcat Party. And it interested me. And...this appeared. The only problem was that I stumbled on the category about a week before the deadline, and I didn't quite make it in time. I would have loved to enter it, and I was slightly disappointed. But I'm okay with that, because this piece caused me to do something that - I'm ashamed to say - I hadn't done in a while.

I opened up My Guys and I started writing it again. For a long time, I just stayed away from the document. Something made me shy away from it, but recently I've just wanted to jump back into it. Maybe it was the countless hours of witty banter that I've witnessed as the result of my addiction to House. Or maybe I just realized that I missed My-Guys-Gabriella. Who knows? Either way, I'm hoping to make some serious progress during the next couple of weeks. Dabbles with Daddy, on the other hand, is creeping along slowly. Steadily, but slowly none the less. (For those who would like to know, there is a poll pertaining to DwD on my profile, and your opinions would be valued greatly.)

Anyway, feedback about this piece would be much appreciated. I was a bit unsure about the ending, and getting some other takes on it would be very helpful!