69Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical
Let Me Go
One Year Later...
Sharpay burst through the unlocked door in a rush of excitement, already mid sentence. "–absolutely amazing. I'm certain I got the part!"
"Where in God's name have you been?" Troy interrupted, completely disregarding both her words and her volatile behavior. He was standing in his kitchen with an angry glare accenting his rigid, anxious posture.
Sharpay looked over in annoyance and saw that Troy was dressed in his formal tux with a red carnation tucked into the button hole. 'Uh oh,' she thought, quickly glancing at the clock.
"I laid on the bed what I want you to wear. Be ready in fifteen minutes. I'm going to go start the car." Troy said stiffly as he stepped toward the door, his glower never leaving his face. He opened the door but snapped his head back around as his next thought struck him, "Oh, and do something about your hair." And then he was gone.
Instinctively reaching up to feel her hair, Sharpay growled in disgust and dragged herself back to Troy's bedroom. Tonight was another dinner party that she was supposed to charm at. Every dinner party proves to be worse than the last. All the other couples are 'happily' married and well on their way to creating families, and they certainly don't mind reminding Sharpay about what her biological clock was already telling her.
Sharpay looked at her reflection in the full length mirror on the back of the bedroom door. The dress did look great on her, there was no denying that. Sharpay just couldn't stand how controlling Troy becomes whenever he's around his work buddies.
'Now,' Sharpay thought with an unhappy sigh, 'What to do with this hair.' Looking at the dresser, Sharpay saw an assortment of hairclips neatly laid in a row. They were all the same shade of silver. The same silver that her perfect dress is trimmed in. 'He really does think of everything.' But, instead of feeling proud, she just felt irritated. Arbitrarily picking a clip, Sharpay twisted her hair into a simple knot and quickly fastened it to her head. Then, grabbing the shawl and purse that was thoughtfully filled with any possible necessities, she swiftly hobbled in her four inch heals through the apartment and out the front door.
As Sharpay approached Troy's car in the parking garage, he stepped out and gave her a small smile before running around the car and opening the passenger door. "That dress looks beautiful on you." He said before slamming the door closed. Sharpay didn't even pretend to appreciate the compliment. She knew it was more directed toward his dress buying abilities than anything else.
The drive to Troy's bosses house was a quiet one. Neither he nor Sharpay felt the need to speak until they pulled into the driveway. Putting the car into park, Troy looked over at Sharpay and started, "Before we go in, I just wanted to say –" but then he faltered. Sharpay looked up expectantly as Troy tried to work out his thoughts.
'This is it' She thought happily, a smile finally starting to reappear on her face. 'This is when he apologizes for being so controlling and explains that its because his coworkers make him so nervous that he can't act like himself. This is where he tells me that I'm the only one that knows the real Troy and he'll never treat me like a trophy-girlfriend again.'
"I just wanted to say, can you not talk about your career choice so much? It's just, my boss wouldn't really appreciate your struggle to become an actress. If anything, how about you talk about your childhood? It would be good to remind my boss that I'm dating the daughter of Vance Evans. Disregarding the fact that you two haven't spoken in years, of course." He implored, adding the last part more as an afterthought.
Sharpays face immediately fell. "Sure" she replied, emotionless.
"Great," Troy enthused with a grin. Leaning over, he gave her a quick peck on the cheek before opening his door and jumping out of the car.
Taking a deep, calming breath Sharpay placed a smile on her face and followed Troy out of the car and to the front door.
Sitting at the table, Sharpay was nearly bored to tears. The meal had finished over an hour ago, but everybody stayed to chat. The men had retired to the study for 'shop talk' which meant that they were going to get drunk. The woman remained at the servant-cleared table to drink coffee and talk about how successful their husbands were.
Sharpay, of course, was not married to Troy, harboring two responses from the three other women. Martha treated her contemptuously for being too flighty and clearly unwilling to marry. Sharpay tried to point out that Troy had never asked but she always seemed to be interrupted before she could ever finish the statement. The other two women treated her pityingly because of her apparent inability to manipulate Troy into proposing.
"Look at this stunning tennis bracelet that Jason gave me for our anniversary," Kelsi said with conceit as she showed off her very expensive diamond bracelet.
"Oh honey," Martha gasped. "How did you ever get him to buy that for you? You didn't do what we swore we would never do, did you?"
Sharpay didn't know what they had sworn not to do, but she had a feeling it wasn't anything nearly as bad as what her gutter ball mind was coming up with.
"Oh Martha, of course not," Kelsi laughed. She switched to a conspiratorial tone and continued "I'm saving that for the next time he wants his parents to stay with us." The three woman burst into laughter. Sharpay rolled her eyes but quickly substituted that with an expression of shocked amusement when she saw Kelsi watching her.
"So, Sharpay," Kelsi mused with an evil gleam in her eye. "You just had a birthday, didn't you?" Sharpay nodded, apprehension clouding her thoughts. "What did Troy get for you?"
"Oh, um, well," Sharpay racked her brain, trying to remember what Troy had done for her birthday.
"Hey Shar, I am really sorry. I know we had plans tonight, but I'm just swamped here at the office. I'm going to be home pretty late." Troy said over the phone to Sharpay.
Sharpay was sitting on her couch eating a rice cake because she didn't want to spoil her appetite. She was disappointed upon hearing this but then it dawned on her – he must be planning to surprise her with something huge and is using work as a cover. Classic Troy.
Suppressing her grin, Sharpay replied with a meek "Don't worry about it, sweetie. It's no big."
Troy let out a huge sigh, "Great! Don't wait up for me." And without even saying goodbye he hung up.
Sharpay looked at the receiver slightly taken aback before pushing the doubts aside and tossing the phone onto the chair next to her. Turning the TV on, Sharpay tuned the volume down and sat there listening to any sound coming from the hall. Every time she thought she'd heard somebody she would perk up and turn the volume of the TV back up so that it didn't look like she was expecting them. It never turned out to be anybody.
Eventually she fell asleep. She didn't wake until Troy finally arrived home. She heard him fiddling unsuccessfully with his key in the lock. This was followed by a burst of laughter. Rubbing her eyes, she looked at the clock and saw that it was three in the morning. Finally, he got the key to work. The door swung open with his hand still attached to the knob, causing him to stumble into the room after it. Putting his finger to his lip he turned to the door and dramatically shushed it just before he slammed it closed.
"Troy!" Sharpay exclaimed, sitting up and placing her magazine on the coffee table. She had fallen asleep with it on her stomach as she was in the middle of reading it.
"SHARPIE!" Troy greeted her with open arms and a wide grin. All the lights in the room were off, leaving everything to be illuminated by the soft glow of the muted TV.
"My God, Troy, how much have you been drinking?" Sharpay exclaimed as she approached him. She never got an answer. Just as she stepped toward him, he leaned over and vomited all over her feet.
The rest of Sharpays night was spent administering aid to a very drunk Troy. Which was only to be followed by a severe argument the next morning with a very hung over Troy.
"You know, Troy and I agreed to keep our birthdays simple. We just spent a quiet evening together." Sharpay lied.
"Oh," Kelsi said, fixing her with a pitying look. "Well, I wouldn't worry about it too much."
"I wasn't," Sharpay defended, but the other women didn't seem to believe the insistence in her voice. Sharpay wasn't too sure she believed it, herself.
"Maybe you should have told him what you wanted him to get you," Martha lectured. "The poor boy isn't a mind reader, you know. Besides, he probably didn't want to spend money on someone who is such a flight risk. Men only buy expensive gifts for women who are willing to commit."
"He hasn't even asked –"
"Are you on the pill?" Jackie, the third previously silent woman asked abruptly.
"Excuse me?" Sharpay asked, taken aback and expecting the other two women to be even more scandalized. Unfortunately, Sharpay was just faced with six probing eyes. "Well, yeah." She finally answered.
"You should stop taking them. But don't tell Troy! You should get pregnant. That way, he'll have no choice but to marry you. Sure it's low, but honey, you are clearly doing something wrong here. Zeke and I got engaged after six months, whereas you and Troy are working on your second year. I mean, what are you doing?"
Speechless, Sharpay stared at the three women for a couple seconds. Without a word of response, she stood up and grabbed the champagne bottle located at the other end of the table. Raising the bottle to her mouth, she prepared for a long, soothing drink of alcohol but before anything touched her lips, the bottle was yanked out of her hand.
"Sharpay! Sweetie, no more champagne for you. You know how you get." Troy said with a wink toward the other women. They each returned a flirting smile without attempting to hide it from Sharpay. Sharpay just rolled her eyes and focused her attention on the tiki warrior mask that was mounted on the near wall.
"Well, lady's, I'm afraid I have to tear Sharpay away from your delightful company." Troy said handing Sharpay her shawl.
"Oh, you're leaving already?" Kelsi crooned, standing up and stepping closer to Troy. Placing her hand on his lower back, she said "But you and I haven't even had a chance to catch up, Troysie."
Troy gave her an uncomfortable smile between his quick glances in Sharpays direction. He removed her hand as he replied "I'm sorry, Kelsi. We had an excellent time tonight. But you know how it is, early mornings and such."
"Yes, I understand. Well, let me walk you to the door." She conceded. As she stepped away from Troy she conspicuously turned and gave Sharpay an evocative glare. Sharpay was left shocked by the behavior she'd just witnessed.
The drive back to Troy's apartment was just as silent as the ride to the party. Sharpay was still digesting everything that had happened at the party. It wasn't until they were both safely in Troy's apartment that everything seemed to spill out. Sharpay felt as though that dinner party had been the final force to push her metaphorical button.
Normally, Sharpay liked to stay closed lipped about her feelings and instead she'd find a way to get past it. But as soon as that door closed, she could not find a way to stop her voice from speaking. She covered everything from his domineering attitude toward her to that last exchange with Kelsi. She told him how angry she was that he forgot her birthday, that she hated how he even tried to control her voice and most of all she hated those damn dinner parties.
Three hours quickly passed. Some of the time was spent with so much yelling, it was a wonder either heard a word from each other. China plates and glass vases were thrown across the apartment and clothing was gathered and thrown into a pile. When all the aggression was released, they both calmed down enough to sit across from each other at the kitchen table, amidst the broken glass and random belongings. A wine bottle readily passed between the two as they discussed the issues that were really causing their strong emotions. Finally, Sharpay succeeded in convincing Troy of what she hadn't even realized she'd wanted this whole time.
Somewhere in there was a second outburst of yelling and throwing, and before Sharpay knew what had happened she was standing at the doorway with a bag of as much of her stuff as she could find. Troy downed the last of his glass of wine and then slowly approached her at the door. Giving her a hug, he whispered into her ear his goodbye and then opened the door. Stepping into the hallway, Sharpay turned around to see through teary eyes as the door click shut.
Well, there it is. I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. I wrote it really quickly, but I'd finally found a short block of time and I knew I had to get something out.
Please, tell me what you think