Disclaimer: It's probably obvious, but I don't own any of the HSM characters or their related elements.

Author's Note: This is a sequel to Once & Again, my older Troyella fic. It just kind of popped into my head and I'm running with it. I don't think it will be as long as the other one, but you never know! Also, again because they're older things do get a bit more explicit, thus this fic will have a rating of M.

Also I guess I won't be recapping the events of O&A a lot, so you may have to read that story if some bits of this one don't make sense to you. It's available under my profile if you're interested.

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Chapter 1 - The Visitor

The phone rang in three short bursts while I stirred the pasta sauce, meaning someone was buzzing the apartment from the front door. I raced over to the living room and grabbed the cordless phone from its cradle. "Hello?"

The voice was shaky. "Is this the home of Troy Bolton?"

Whoever it was sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. "Uh… who is this?"

The person appeared not to notice my question. "Is Troy home?" asked the voice again.

"Well… not at the moment," I said. "Who is this again?"

I heard the person blow their nose, then suddenly, the voice came through much stronger. "I'm sorry. My name is Sharpay Evans."

A jolt of surprise ran through me. "Sharpay? This is Gabriella Montez."

"Gabriella?" She sounded as shocked as I felt.

"Troy's not here, but you can come in and wait if you want."

I could hear her take a deep breath. "Well… if you wouldn't mind, Gabriella. Thank you."

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I unlocked the door and she came in, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. She looked just like the Sharpay I had met at the reunion seven months ago—the same as in high school, only with a touch more puffiness in the face. She wore all white except for a pink blouse, and a large white handbag dangled from her elbow. Standing next to the front door, she looked at me tentatively. It was obvious she had been crying for a while.

I stood there, uncertain what to do. "Sharpay… are you okay?"

She nodded, then shook her head tightly and looked away, brushing a hand against her face. "I'm sorry to descend upon you like this," she said, her voice faintly hollow.

"No, it's fine," I said, suddenly remembering the sauce and dashing to take it off the burner. "I'm sure Troy will be happy to see you. Have a seat. He's just out at the store."

She sat down at the kitchen table, and I went to sit next to her. "But really, Sharpay," I said. "Are you sure there's nothing I can do before he gets here?"

Her eyes were still shiny with tears as she smiled at me, trying to sound bright.

"I wasn't expecting to see you," she said. "I just looked Troy up in the phone book before I came here. Are you and he…"

I smiled sheepishly and held up my hand with the ring Troy had given me last month. "We're getting married next June." We'd already agreed on having the wedding next summer… although truthfully, we hadn't really thought about any other details besides that.

She smiled again, but then suddenly, her face collapsed. She crumpled down over the table, buried her arm in the crook of her elbow, and sobbed. I slid my chair over quickly and put my arm around her. "Hey, it's okay, Sharpay. It's okay. Just… what's the matter?"

She spoke but her arm muffled the sound.

"Sharpay… honey… I can't hear you," I said, trying to sound soothing.

She lifted her head and her tear-stained face looked at me with desperate sadness. "Zeke doesn't want to marry me anymore."

"He doesn't?"

I stroked her hair, but felt secretly stunned. I'd read that article about Sharpay and Zeke a while back, and thought they had looked intensely happy to be together.

"We had a fight today. The biggest we've ever had." She swiped at her tears with her forearm again and stared at the table. "My lawyer finally gave me a draft of our prenuptial agreement. But he… he wouldn't sign it. He got angry, and said we didn't need one. And that if I thought we did need one… maybe we shouldn't be getting married."

She kept talking. "But I tried to explain… I thought we both agreed… I thought we were going into this marriage with both eyes open." She gulped for breath. "I had the agreement made to protect both of us. I mean, I don't believe I'm going to divorce Zeke. But I never thought I'd divorce Chris either. And now I know what can happen when a marriage does fail. And I've got Dylan and Matthew to think of. I can't take any chances."

She wiped her eyes again. "So he got mad… and I didn't know what to do. Everything I said just seemed to make him angrier and angrier. And finally… finally he shouted and I shouted, and he said he needed time to think about everything, and I said fine, and stormed out of the apartment. And then… I couldn't stop crying in the car, and I got confused about what to do next… and then I remembered Troy lived in town, so I looked him up and came here."

She took a deep breath and looked up at me. "I just wanted to see a friendly face."

The front door suddenly cracked open, and we looked up to see Troy come in backward, leaning against the door and swinging the grocery bags inside. He looked at us and did a double-take.

"Well," I said, unable to help myself. "We've got one surprised face, at the very least."

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Sharpay stayed for dinner. Troy listened sympathetically as she told him her story again, and I could tell she was feeling better just talking to us. It was kind of nice.

"I should go back to him right now and make up," she said, dabbing at her eyes. "I go back to Albuquerque in two days."

Troy crossed his arms, a look of concern on his face. "Well, just make sure you've got your head on straight before you go back to talk to him," he said.

I nodded. "Sit down and really think about what you want. So you know what your goals are, and what you really want to get out of talking to him. Then you'll know what you can negotiate and what you really can't—and what you have to talk about. Otherwise the same problems are just going to come back."

"Ohh…" She put her head in her hands, her elbows on the table, and groaned in exhaustion. "I'm just so confused. I just need a little time to think. That's all. Just a little time."

There was a silence, and then Troy spoke up.

"Well… why don't you stay here for the night?"

Instantly, I shot him a look. Much as I felt for Sharpay, I wasn't sure that we should get any more involved in her marital problems than listening to them.

But Sharpay looked up at him, her eyes watery. "I… could?"

He shrugged, flicking his eyes over at me apologetically. "Yeah, it's no trouble."

And then they both looked over at me hopefully, and I could see there was no turning back.

"Sure, Sharpay," I said. "Don't worry about a thing."