She loved him.

She knew she loved him.

That wasn't the problem. The problem came in the fact that she didn't know how to love him. No matter how hard she'd tried, Gabriella Montez could not fathom how to love him; or any man for that matter. It wasn't even relevant now, he didn't know how to love her either and it was far too late to figure it out. It was in the past, she had Callum now and she shouldn't have even been thinking about Troy in the way that she did. She just couldn't help herself. Gabriella's eyes fell to her left hand that rested on the steering wheel, the canary diamond that sat on her fourth finger stared back at her. She couldn't shake the feeling that it just wasn't right, not like it felt with Troy.

"Daddy!" The voice of her daughter halted her thoughts. She turned, seeing Troy strolling toward her car with a bright smile as he caught sight of Cassidy. Gabriella got out of the car, opening the back door to let the three year old out of her car seat. She took off running towards Troy as fast as her little legs could carry her, leaving Gabriella standing by her car alone.

Troy crouched with his arms outstretched, ready for the impact her small body would make when she reached him. "Cassie, how's my favorite girl?" He said, kissing her head and running his hand along the top of her french-braided hair. Cassidy pulled away, keeping her arms latched around her dad's neck. She was a spitting image of her mother, with slightly lighter hair (courtesy of him). The little girl's personality was that of her father's; energetic, carefree and daring.

She leaned in again and planted a wet kiss on Troy's cheek. "I missed you.." She mumbled against his cheek, her articulation showing off her mother's brains at a young age. Cassidy pressed her face into Troy's neck as he wrapped his arms around her completely, and lifted her up to settle on his hip. He finally looked up and saw Gabriella making her way towards them, carrying the purple kangaroo their daughter couldn't fall asleep without.

He examined her, letting his eyes scan from head to toe. An involuntary smile found its way onto his face, even after all the time they'd spent apart and the pain they had caused each other she was still the same Gabriella he'd met at the tender age of eighteen. She'd come waltzing into the library as his freshman chemistry tutor, so he could stay on the basketball team at their college. "Elle," He used his old nickname for her as he pulled her into a one-armed hug. "has she been good for you?" He asked her, not knowing what else to say. It had only been seven days since he'd seen her, since they alternated custody by week but he had to say something to her. He just wanted to hear her voice.

"She was her usual busy-body self," Gabriella told him, folding her arms in front of her. "but nothing that I'm not used to. Do you have anything planned for you and Cass, this week?" She questioned. Troy was admittedly the "fun parent". Cassidy would always come back to her with stories of the adventures she'd had with Daddy and all of the junk food he'd let her eat. Gabriella, while not being strict, definitely wasn't as lenient as Troy; making sure that Cassidy ate her vegetables and spent at least two hours a day doing something educational. They had a balance, it had been there since the beginning.

Troy smiled at her easily, she had always been able to read him. "Well I was thinking of taking Princess Cassie, here, to the aquarium to see the dolphin show." Cassidy perked up, pulling her head from the crook of Troy's neck and smiling at the idea. She excitedly looked between her mother and father. "Why don't you give mommy a hug and a kiss goodbye? Then we can go in and I'll make you some dinner." Troy told her, passing her off to her mother. Gabriella wrapped her arms around the smaller girl and placed kisses all over her face, exaggerating the sound her lips made when they touched her skin. She set her down, handing her the kangaroo and tapped her on the bottom and sending her up the walkway to Troy's home.

They stood, an air of tension between the pair of them. "How's Adrienne?" Gabriella asked, as nonchalantly as she could. Troy's blue eyes shifted down, at the sound of her question. Gabriella shifted, awkwardly, this was an obvious sore spot.

"We- uh decided it wasn't going to work."

"Just can't settle down, can you, Bolton?" She questioned, jokingly referring to the string of girls who he would tell Gabriella about. He didn't know why he always told Gabriella of his new partners. They never met Cassidy, so he really had no reason in bringing them up but somehow, they always came up. He felt as if he owed it to her, like he had to let her know of what was taking place in his life.

"Not since you." Troy told her, trying to sound equally as humorous as her. There was a glint of joking, but he was mostly serious. Gabriella easily picked up on it.

"How long did this one last, a week?" She asked, trying to once again, lighten the mood a little.

Troy glared at her, feigning hurt. "Haha, very funny. It was at least three." Troy told her, chuckling at the failed relationship. "But enough about me; how are the wedding plans coming?"

The brunette looked at the ground, he already knew the answer to the question. While she and Troy had broken up years ago, they still had a hold on each other. The two would spend many a late night on the phone, talking in secret. Gabriella would disappear to her and Callum's bathroom, while Troy , depending on if he had a girlfriend at the time, would sit in his kitchen to keep their conversation private. Their last phone call had been about four days ago and Gabriella had shared that she'd made a guest list and that was as far as her planning had gone.

Her eyes crawled back up from the ground, meeting Troy's once again. He felt guilty and his blue eyes only held concern. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"It's fine, Troy. I actually tried on dresses last night, none of them were right. I just couldn't picture myself marrying Callum in any of them." She told him, strategically leaving out that she honestly couldn't see herself marrying Callum at all. The dresses had nothing to do with it. It just hadn't felt right in general.

Troy nodded, trying to seem understanding. Inside, he was dancing for joy.

"Dad-dy!" Cassidy's high pitched voice came from the front door of his house. "I'm hungry!"

"Daddy's coming, baby." He called, quickly. "You can join us for dinner, if you'd like." His voice was hopeful, but he already knew the answer.

"You know Cal wouldn't like that."

"Call him. He can join us, too." Troy mumbled, taking a step forward. His hands reached for her waist.

"No." She closed her eyes, needing to block him out. "Troy, we can't."

"Why not? It won't be the first time." His lips found her neck. "Give me three reasons."

"Cass is older now, she understand things Troy."

He kept nipping at her collar despite, the protests. "She's in the house, Elle."

"You can't settle down."

He paused to look into her eyes. "I can with you." Troy's arms were still wrapped around Gabriella's waist.

"I'm taken." She held her hand up to make her point. The bright yellow diamond reflected light into his blue eyes.

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him. He never found out before."

"We had just started dating, then. We're engaged now. He's going to be my husband, Troy."

Troy lifted a brow at her, not removing his grip on her waist. "Cheating is cheating, no matter how long you've been with someone."

Gabriella's eyes nearly bulged out of her head at his audacity to call her out. "You'd know all about cheating, wouldn't you? You're pretty much an expert, don't you think?"

He sighed dejectedly, stepping back from her. It always went back to his biggest mistake, the one that drove her away for good. No matter the argument, she brought it up. He just couldn't bring himself to call her on the times that she'd hurt him, too.

"Gabriella, I'm sorry for that. I was drunk and pissed at you. It was years ago and we got back together afterwards. Can you stop throwing it in my face?"

"I'll stop throwing it in your face when you stop giving me a reason to bring it up. Insinuating that I should cheat on my fiance, who is waiting at home for me, is a reason to bring it up." She said, pushing him off of her and stepping back. She crossed her arms across her chest and stared at him.

"Remember that movie you always had me watch, with the one rain scene?"

Gabriella furrowed her brow, not seeing where he was going with this. "The Notebook?" She questioned, despite the fact that she knew that it was the exact movie.

"Ah, yeah, The Notebook. Isn't it your favorite, or has that changed?" He stepped closer a second time. "The girl in that movie was engaged until the guy fucked her brains out one good time. Then she came crawling back to him. Don't let art imitate life, Elle." He said, twirling a lock of her hair around his finger.

"Go feed my daughter, Gilipollas!" Gabriella said before she spun around, not wanting to have this conversation with him. They shouldn't have been having the conversation anyway. She was engaged, she was sick of running in circles with Troy. Their relationship strictly revolved around Cassidy, now. The attraction between them would always stand, but she could no longer act on it. It would only come back around to bite her in the ass, just like forcing Troy to watch The Notebook had.

"Gabriella!" He called, but he didn't come after her. His feet were glued to the concrete of his driveway, because he knew it was his fault. She didn't turn around, she didn't even glance at him. She just continued marching to her car. He turned and went back inside his house, where Cassidy stood with her arms crossed, her stuffed animal hanging from under her arm. "What took you so long, Mister?" She questioned, tapping her foot.

"I was talking to your mommy." He told her, bending down and carrying her in the kitchen. "Now what does Princess Cassie want for dinner?"

"Dino chicken nuggets!" She exclaimed, as Troy sat her on the counter. He gave her a look that meant she had to pick a vegetable to eat, too. Gabriella always got mad for him just feeding her junk. "...and asparagus."

"That's my girl." Troy told her, running his hand along the curls that had slipped from her braid. He set out to work, keeping his best smile on his face while he talked to Cassidy, but his mind was still on Gabriella and how she'd stormed away from him.

Once she was inside, Gabriella wasted no time taking off. If she sat on his street, she'd change her mind. She was weak when it came to Troy. She'd successfully made it four minutes away from his home when she had to stop on the side of the road and let her emotions out. It didn't bother her that he'd made a move on her; that was Troy just being Troy. What was going to gnaw at her was the fact that she nearly reciprocated. If she had an ounce less self control, she would have had to make up some excuse as to why she'd skipped out on her movie night with Callum and she couldn't say it's because she was fucking her ex-boyfriend, that was for sure.

Thoughts of her near slip up and having to go home to her fiance began to brew in her head. Her mind also went back to Troy and why their relationship could never work. His mother being one; she had never approved of her, calling her a "bastard Mexican whore" the first time they met, but that was the very least of their problems when she and Troy had been a couple. While his problem stemmed from his mother (just like her problem stemmed from her parents), they couldn't completely blame it on their upbringing.

They'd learned to love from the examples they were shown growing up: their parents. Troy had been raised solely by his mother, the daughter of one of California's most well known politicians. Troy Bolton, like his mother, had the world presented to him on a silver platter from a young age. He went to the best schools, had the best clothes, and drove the best cars. It was his mother's way of showing her love; a trait Troy took away from her. He had the mentality that material goods could make up for any mistake. Gabriella chuckled thinking back to all of the gifts he'd bought her. They had only been together for five years, but he had to have spent thousands of dollars trying to make up for his mistakes, including times that he hadn't even done anything wrong. She'd never told Callum where it came from, but the necklace that she wore everyday was his gift to her after he'd cheated. It was a medium length platinum chain with two diamond-encrusted angel wings at the bottom. The only time it left her was when she was showering or swimming and even then, it wasn't far away.

Angela and Marco Montez's relationship dynamic was not that of a typical married couple, something that Gabriella picked up on when she was still a child. Having both been devout Catholics, when they found out they were expecting Gabriella, marriage was the only option. They didn't love each other and it was obvious. Their marriage was out of necessity, rather than out of love- meaning that Gabriella didn't even know what love was supposed to look like. She didn't know how to communicate with Troy, causing many unnecessary disagreements between the two.

Gabriella wasn't even sure that she had loved Troy, until she met Callum and accepted his proposal to marry him. She knew because she'd backed away from marrying Troy with the fear of hurting him. Knowing that if she married Troy, she had so many possible times to fuck up a good thing made her apprehensive. Gabriella couldn't see herself being okay with having hurt Troy. When Callum asked her, she said yes with every intention of never having any intimate contact with Troy again, eliminating the possibility of hurting him. Going into her marriage with Cal, she didn't necessarily want to hurt him, but she didn't exactly have any thoughts on how she would affect him if she screwed up the relationship. She cared for him deeply, just nowhere near as much as she cared for Troy.

And that scared her, she and Troy hadn't worked out. She had found a good thing in Callum, a stable home where he loved her without the aid of money. Gabriella just didn't know if what Callum had to offer was enough. It killed her being stuck between Troy and Cal. Callum loved her, but she didn't love him- at least not like a fiance should. Troy loved her and she loved him, but their relationship had been near toxic. Lastly, they both deserved so much more than she could offer.

Gabriella finally mustered up enough strength to put the car back in drive and go back to she and Callum's townhouse. Inside, he was already prepared with Netflix up and wine and popcorn laid out on his coffee table. He opened his arms, welcoming her into a hug before pulling her down onto the couch with him. She pushed herself back into his chest, melding their bodies together. Cal trailed a few quick kisses down her neck, giving Gabriella absolutely nothing. She didn't have the electricity buzzing that she had when Troy held her waist earlier. Her heartbeat didn't quicken as it had when he'd twirled her hair. And he sure as hell, didn't ignite a fire between her legs like Troy had when he'd kissed her neck. With the movie starting and Callum running his hands up and down her sides, Gabriella couldn't help but wonder what Troy and Cassidy were up to.

"You all ready for bed, sweet girl?" Troy asked poking his head in the bathroom. Cassidy nodded at her dad, motioning to her Rapunzel nightgown.

"Teeth?" Troy questioned, and she smiled brightly, showing off two freshly brushed rows of baby teeth. "Face washed?" She nodded her head vigorously. "Now go pick out a bedtime story and daddy will be in there in a minute."

Cassidy reached up to pull Troy along with her. "Daddy?" She questioned, looking up at him hopefully. "Instead of you reading, can you tell me my favorite story again. The one about how you and mommy met? Cause, you were mommy's Prince Charming."

"Anything for you, Cass, but you have to go to sleep right after. Come on, get in bed." He told her, holding her pink tiara-printed comforter open for her to crawl underneath. Troy pushed the sides of the covers down, tightly, just the way Cassidy liked it. "You ready?" She nodded, smiling up at him.

"Okay, let's see…" He'd told Cassidy the story so many times, she could probably recite it herself. "It was my first year at USC and chem was not my subject. I was doing really bad and I had to pass the class."

"So you could play basketball!" Cassidy interjected.

"Yep, so I could play basketball."

"Are you Gabriella Montez?" Troy questioned the short brunette standing outside of one of the study rooms in the library.

"Yes." She said, looking him up and down before checking her phone for the time. "Meaning that you're Troy Bolton and you're late. I don't have to do this, you know. This is volunteer work. Helping some rich pretty boy cabrón."

"I suck at chemistry, not spanish." He told her, smirking. "And I was just about to apologize for being late. I was at basketball practice and I stopped to get you some Starbucks." He said, holding up the brown paper bag and cup holder in front of her face. Gabriella rolled her eyes, ignoring the gesture and opened the door to the study room. She turned without a word and plopped down at the table in the middle of the room. She reached into her bag and pulled out a thick basic Chemistry textbook. "Are you just going to stand in the doorway and look pretty?" She called, flipping to the page they were going to start on.

Gabriella sighed, throwing her head back as Troy just couldn't grasp the concept she was trying to teach him. She pulled her hair into a bun on her head and looked up at Troy. His eyes were locked in on her collar. "How about I explain it in a way you'll understand? You like basketball, right?" And he nodded. "So think of each family on the periodic table as a team in the league. Or as how good the players are. Noble gases are going to be your heavy hitters. There are six so think of them as Kobe, Dwyane Wade, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Pau Gasol, and Kevin Durant."

"Wait, you watch basketball?" He questioned, in disbelief. She was smart, hot, and an NBA fan- girls like her came once in a blue moon. She nodded, rolling her eyes. People were always shocked when they found out she watched the sport.

"And since you put Nash, Gasol and Kobe in there, I'm guessing you're a Lakers fan?"

"Is there any other team in the league?" Gabriella questioned, with a smirk on her face.

"Fuck yeah, there is! Ever heard of the Bulls?" He raised his eyebrows at her.

"Let me guess, you like them for Jordan. How many number 23 jerseys have you tried to wear, how many pairs of Jordans do you have?"

Troy looked down at his feet and moved his bag over the black and white Jordan slides he'd thrown on after practice. She'd just read him like a book, but could she really blame him for loving the best player who'd ever played in the NBA? A blush graced Troy's cheeks and Gabriella couldn't help but smile. He was cute when he was embarrassed. "We can both agree that my head's not in this, today. Do you want to grab a bite to eat?"

She was skeptical, Troy could tell by the look on her face. "As tutor and tutee. I'll pay and we can talk about basketball." Honestly, he was hoping that more would transpire between the two of them, that this dinner would be the start of something more.

He took her out for pizza at one of the campus favorites. They sat and talked about basketball, what brought them to USC and everything else that may have come up between them. They butted heads on so many topics, but there was something that clicked with them. As much as Gabriella didn't want to admit it, he had something that she liked. And when he invited her to a party that Friday night, she agreed. She also let him walk her back to her dorm.

"I'm going to take you to a Bulls game and convert you from a Lakers fan."

"Oh will you now?" Gabriella asked, pushing her key into the door of her dorm room. She was about to walk in when she felt Troy's hand cover her's on the doorknob. She turned and looked at him, her eyebrow hitched upward.

He nodded at her with cloudy eyes. "You lose so many points for being a Laker, but I think I can change your mind." He pulled her closer to him, watching her carefully. Troy couldn't quite guage if she was feeling like he did.

Gabriella scoffed, looking up at him with a mischievous smirk. "How are you going to do that?"

"I have my ways." He told her, leaning in and kissing the smirk right off of her face. She still had one hand behind her, holding on to the key but she used the other hand to play with the hair at the nape of Troy's neck. While the kiss wasn't long, there was something between them and they both felt it. When they pulled away, Troy was looking down on her smugly. "And I will do everything in my power to change your mind."

Gabriella leaned close to him, putting her lips right next to his ear. "Well you're gonna need to learn to do a little better than those lackluster kisses." She whispered, making sure her lips brushed against his ear with each word.

Cassidy eyes had drifted closed, but she was still clinging to the last bit of consciousness in her body. "Mommy was 'Hontas..." She mumbled, snuggling with her kangaroo. "...hard to get." She reached up and put her hand on Troy's cheek. She opened one of her eyes to look up at Troy. "John Smith got Pocahontas, just like you got mommy. You and mommy have to have a happily ever after. Night-night, daddy."

Troy kissed her forehead, making his way to his own bedroom. He smiled thinking of his baby girl snuggled into the her bed down the hall and what she had said. He felt the same way; the only thing keeping their happy ending away was Gabriella. Troy had to prove to her that they were ready now, he believed in them and she had to, too. He picked up his phone and scrolled to Gabriella's name. He stared down, debating whether or not he wanted to call her. Deciding against it, he sent her a text instead:

Elle, I'm sorry. Cass thinks we should have a happy ending b/c you're Pocahontas and I'm John Smith (Callum is Kocoum, in case u were wondering). Anyway, I think so too. Goodnight beautiful. I love u. I've clearly watched 1 too many movies with Cass and I was an ass to you, so we could both use some sleep. Text or call me back 2moro?

He read over, seeing it was three messages all together and prayed that something would change between them. That night he didn't get a call or a text back, but he had made Gabriella smile. Unbeknownst to him, as she lay next to the man she was set to marry a smile played on her lips.

A/N:

This stories going to be short; less than 5 chapters. I just hadn't written in a while and wanted to make sure I still had it. Anyway, reviews are always welcome. Thanks in advance, y'all!BTW this is super unedited.

love as always,
dev.(: