I Love You

Troy sat at home thinking about his girlfriend of six months, Gabriella Montez. In two months, the two of them would be starting their sophomore year at the University of Albuquerque. They had met nearly a year ago in a history class they were taking together. Troy had been confused about a topic that was being discussed in class and had leaned over to ask the girl next to him to clarify it for him. Little did he know that the one question he asked would lead to a new friendship for them.

Troy was impressed by the answer Gabriella gave him and could tell right away that she was smart. So every time he needed help, he went straight to Gabriella for help. They began to spend quite a bit of time together just studying or Gabriella simply explaining things to Troy. The more time they spent together, the more the two of them realized just how much they enjoyed their time together. A friendship started for them, and they quickly became inseparable. Many students in their classes or on campus thought they were dating. When this was first mentioned, they both thought the idea was ridiculous. But the closer they got, the more they both wanted it.

When the two were separated for a few weeks for winter break, they both realized just how much they wanted to be with the other. Gabriella was from New York, so she had gone back there for the holidays to spend time with her family. Troy, however, was from Albuquerque, so he stayed there with his family.

When Gabriella came back from break, Troy had everything planned. He was going to ask her out. He was a little afraid of what she would say; afraid she didn't feel the same way for him. But if he never tried, he would never know. The day she came back, he took her out to dinner and asked her to be his girlfriend. She immediately said yes.

The two have been together since that day and their relationship has been getting even stronger. Now it is summer break and each is feeling the pains of the separation even more than it was during their winter break. They have yet to say 'I love you' to one another, but as Troy sat and thought about Gabriella, he realized he needs to tell her. He can't wait for two more months when she comes back to Albuquerque to start classes again, but he doesn't want to tell her over the phone either.

Instead, he decides to call her family. He had met her family over spring break when he went home with her for the week. He had gotten to know her parents and her sister and formed a connection with them immediately, feeling like they were another family for him. He dialed her mom's number.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Maria. It's Troy."

"Oh, hi, Troy. What can I do for you? Gabi's not here right now. She's at work."

"I know. Actually I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh, ok. What did you need to talk about?"

"Well I was wondering if it would be possible for me to come out and see you guys."

"Oh, you want to see Gabi. I understand."

"Well…yeah. I miss her so much."

"She misses you, too. She has a countdown on her calendar of how many more days until she gets to see you."

Troy laughed. "I'm right there with her. Well, if possible I would like to surprise her."

"When would you like to come?"

"Is tomorrow too soon?"

Maria laughed. "No, she's working tomorrow, though. But she has the weekend off."

"Perfect. I have something I need to tell her and I don't want to do it over the phone."

"Ok. What if we let you guys have the house for the weekend? Gabi has to be at work at 9 and doesn't get off until 5:30. We could pick you up at the airport and drop you off here at the house and let you have it to yourself until she gets home that way you can prepare your surprise."

"That would be awesome. Are you sure this isn't a problem?"

"None at all. Actually this might help all of us. Maybe this will keep Gabi from moping around all the time."

"Thanks, Maria. I really appreciate this. I'll call you later with my flight information."

"Ok. Bye."

"Bye."

Troy was so excited. He was going to get to see Gabriella again. He went to his room and started packing the things he would need for the weekend and called to book his flight. He started planning everything he would do tomorrow to prove to Gabriella just how much he loved her. He wanted it to be perfect, and if he had his way, it would be.

The next morning, Troy arrived in New York at 10:30. Maria was waiting there to pick him up. She had told her husband and daughter the plan and they had decided to go out of town for the weekend so that Gabriella and Troy could have some time together while Troy could be in town.

When Troy got to Gabriella's house, he used the time he had to make his surprise perfect for her.

When Gabriella got home from work, she noticed that all the lights in the house were off and she didn't hear anything. That's weird. Usually everyone is home by now. But the closer she got to her room, the more noise she heard. But it wasn't just any noise. It was soft slow music playing. I didn't turn my radio on this morning. This is getting creepy. Where is everyone and why is my radio on?

Gabriella slowly opened her door, afraid that someone was in there. She gasped at the sight. Sitting all around her room were lit candles, the only light source in her room at the moment. She looked down at her feet and saw a trail of roses leading to her bed. She followed the trail and looked at her bed. On it was a big heart made of rose petals. In the center of the heart were more rose petals spelling out 'I love you'. Gabriella had tears come to her eyes. She couldn't imagine who would do this. Why would her family do this for her? She knew they loved her, but why make it so special?

She whipped around when she heard a soft, familiar voice behind her. "It's true, you know."

Gabriella stood there shocked, her eyes big. "W-what?"

"What the roses say." Troy paused to walk over to stand in front of Gabriella and take her hands in his. He looked into her eyes. "I love you, Gabriella, so much. This past month of not being able to see you has been torture. But it made me realize just how much I do love you and that I want more in this relationship. I'm in this forever. I want you to know that."

Gabriella had a steady stream of tears rolling down her face now. Troy tried to wipe them off with his thumbs. "I love you, too, Troy. I have wanted to say that to you for so long now, but I was so afraid you didn't feel the same way."

"Well I do, and I'll say it again because it feels amazing to say it. I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you!"

Gabriella laughed before quickly leaning in and kissing Troy. Troy immediately responded, loving the feeling of her lips on his once again.

Gabriella pulled back and leaned her forehead against Troy's. "Is this why my family is gone?"

Troy nodded. "Yeah. They are gone for the weekend. We have the house to ourselves." Troy wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Well, then we should take advantage of that." Gabriella giggled before leaning in again to kiss Troy.

Well there it is. I have had this on my computer for several months and just hadn't posted it. I hope you liked it. Leave me a review and let me know what your thoughts were. I'm going to be reposting some stories that I had deleted from my account...a bunch of one shots. I'm also working on finishing a story that I had started posting and finally deleted because I had writer's block.