Our Weekends

Thursday

Gabriella

Her heart flip-flopped against her ribs as she stood beside him. They both stared down at the engine as puffs of smoke expelled from the rust and metal pieces.

"Should we be standing this close?" Gabriella snuck a glance over in Troy's direction. Troy Bolton was a big deal. He was very gorgeous, very tall with sandy brown hair and the kind of head-turning confidence that came with being ridiculously good-looking.

Note to self: Stop being a hopeless romantic with high standards. This is not a scene from one of your stories.

There were many reasons to keep her distance from him. One is that he was a year older than she was, and a junior at East High. Two, he was captain of the basketball team and boyfriend of East High's head cheerleader, Sharpay Evans.

Three, for all it mattered he was her best friend's older brother. And she would never jeopardize her friendship with Christian that way. Not that Chris cared about it because it never really came up.

Note to self: Resist the urge to sniff him.

"It's not going to explode. It's just a coolant leak." Troy's blue eyes met her brown ones with amusement. "Gonna have to walk to the nearest station and get a temporary cap. Wanna stay with the truck or tag along?"

She watched as he brought the hood back down and then pulled out his phone. He began tapping away at the screen, an irritated sigh escaping his lips. Troy wasn't in the best of moods tonight. He'd been distracted earlier too, more quiet than usual.

Not that he usually confided in her. For all the years they had been neighbors, they never really talked unless it was related to Christopher or the families. Maybe a ride to and from place to place or a hand with the Christmas lights because he felt neighborly but that was about the extent of their social interactions.

A small part of her wanted to stay in the truck. She had been working on her newspaper article for the next issue and she was looking forward to only having her writing to concentrate on. Some people might call it an obsession. And even a romance substitute. But she didn't care about that, as far as she was concerned it was simple. She could trust and control her writing.

She'd just been really lucky that basketball practice also let out late so she was able to bum a ride back home with Troy when they crossed paths in the parking lot.

But now It was darker out and she'd seen enough horror movies to know that she didn't want to be alone on the road at night. But she was torn because wasn't that always the first horror movie mistake, leaving the vehicle?

Note to self: Double-check horror movie survival rules.

"I think I'll tag along." She said as she tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. She had attempted to curl her hair today, but because she'd been blessed with thick hair, her curls had lost their bounce by noon. She ended up bunching as much of it as she could into a high messy bun.

"You think?" Troy huffed, returning to the front seat of his truck, and locking the doors.

"In the movies when people leave the car. It never ends well." Gabriella said matter of fact.

Troy narrowed his eyes in her direction as he pocketed his keys. "We're walking up the street to the gas station, we're not stranded in the middle of nowhere."

"I don't think serial killers care about the logistics, it's more of an opportunity thing."

Troy's eyes widened for a moment before he muttered something under his breath and began leading the way.