TROY couldn’t help but chuckle as gabriella told him to give himself more credit. he knew he was a bit of a rarity , at least in some sense. you didn’t find many basketball stars turned musical actors. looking back , it was funny to think about. he always thought he was special just because he was good at sports , but gab showed him he was capable of so much more. it wasn’t even just musical theater , either. what they had was special in itself. “ you know i’m teasing, ” he reminded as he nudged her back. “ if there’s anyone who won’t let me forget that , it’s you. ”
he bit his lip as she continued to scold him for calling himself dumb. he wasn’t try to be self - deprecating , per se. to him , it was an accepted fact. he could be quite stupid , be it lacking in academics or making questionable decisions. it’s just who he was. if anything , it kept things interesting to say the least. “ so long as we can agree you’re the smart one here , not me , i’ll stop. ” he laughed as she suggested he’d be missing her famous pancakes. he nodded. “ okay , fine , maybe i can stay long enough for a short stack. ”
as he hugged her , he hesitated for a moment. was he making the right decision ? should he really be staying ? before he could talk himself into another spiral , he wrapped his arms around gab in an gentle embrace. he missed this. all of this. it was like a weird sense of normalcy , even if he knew it would probably be gone in the morning. he’d have no choice but to leave questioning if tonight helped fill the void she left or would make her miss even more. however, that was a problem for a hungover troy tomorrow … “ there’s no place i’d feel safer, ” he exhaled as he gave a slightly squeeze. “ you’re my guardian angel , gab. always were , and always will be. ”
SHE’D ALWAYS BEEN HIS BIGGEST cheerleader, attending all the games she could, yelling at the top of her lungs whenever he was playing well and holding him close after games if they lost (which they rarely did because he was so much greater than he even knew). whether it was on the court or on stage, he gave it his all, a bright light in a beacon of places people sometimes lost hope. “exactly, so keep that nonsense out of here.” she threatened with a soft punch to his good arm that he didn’t fall on, flashing him a sweet smile before tucking some of her dark locks behind her ear.
GABRIELLA KNEW THAT he could be a bit hard on himself, they both had pressures from their family. his being more athletics based and hers being more academic based, yet they had still found each other, relating on a level that no one else seemingly understood. “i mean, book smart maybe, but i think you have emotional intelligence that you don’t even understand is so brilliant.” the girl gave him another gentle smile, nodding her head with somewhat of a proud expression when he caved, “my mom taught me the recipe she used to do when we had those pancake breakfasts in the theater, so you can’t miss out on that.”
IT FELT GOOD TO HUG him again, to smell that familiar shampoo that he hadn’t changed in years, to sink into his strong frame and just feel the tension leave her body. there was nowhere else that she felt safer than she did when she was with troy, he was her ship in the night when she felt lost, and even if things were a bit complicated right now...they’d find their way through the storm eventually. “good.” the girl whispered into his shoulder, rubbing her hands along his broad shoulders before pulling back to look over his face, “and i’m not going anywhere, i promise. you’re stuck with me, bolton.” she reminded him, cradling his face in her hands with a soft smile, one that would always be reserved for one troy bolton.
