She lay in bed staring at the ceiling. It was now a habit. He hadn't been coming home on time for months now, so she hadn't been going to sleep until he got home for months. When he got home, she pretended to be asleep. She woke up before him and was gone before he had opened his eyes. They hadn't truly talked in months. Their anniversary hadn't been celebrated. If they had spent time with their friends, they still didn't talk to each other. The perfect couple wasn't so perfect anymore.

Her eyes went straight to the red LED numbers on the alarm clock sitting on her nightstand as she heard the front door close. Three fifteen AM. She turned over so she was facing the wall and not the door and waited to hear him open the bedroom door before closing her eyes and attempting to fall asleep. Not like it mattered if she got to sleep anyway. She hadn't slept well in months. One night wasn't going to make much of a difference.

He sighed as he opened up the bedroom door and noticed she was asleep again. What had happened to their perfect relationship? She obviously didn't love him anymore. Why were they still together?

He walked into the closet and changed clothes, watching her as he did. He couldn't imagine not living without her, but what was the point anymore living with her? They hardly ever talked. He always worked late and she got to work early. They hadn't had a real conversation in the past half year, only arguments if they talked at all.

'At least there aren't any kids.' He thought grimly as he got in the bed and pulled the covers over himself, a foot between the two of them. He sat staring at the ceiling for awhile before getting up and finding some paper and a pen.

Dinner, tonight at home? 7?

-Troy

Gabriella stared at the note left on her side of the bathroom counter. She didn't even get a love, Troy? Just a dash? She was afraid of what this was about and a few tears leaked out of her eyes as she wrote back.

Okay

One of the tears fell on the paper. She didn't bother to wipe it off. She doubted it would make any difference to him anyway if she was crying, dying, or falling apart at the seams since the love of her life didn't care anymore. She changed her clothes, grabbed a granola bar, and headed off to work.

"I really do have to leave early. I wasn't kidding." Troy said, putting all of his paperwork in his brief case so he could try and work on it after dinner tonight. He doubted he would be able to, but it was worth a try.

"We have a presentation to do tomorrow that we haven't finished!" Lorrie responded, astounded that he was refusing to stay until two like they usually did.

"I have an important reason to leave early." He replied, now getting up from his desk.

"What? Have to get home to the little lady or are you going to dump her or something?" Lorrie asked snottily, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, she and I have some things to discuss if you must know. Now excuse me. I will see you tomorrow." He said closing the office door in her face as she followed him. She opened it back up as he continued to walk away from her.

"Do this again and you're fired!" She yelled after him.

"Right, whatever." He muttered in response. His life couldn't get much worse at this point anyway he thought as he looked thoughtfully at his wedding ring.

"Hey." Gabriella said quietly as Troy put his briefcase down on the kitchen counter.

"Hey." He replied back looking around. "Where's dinner?"

"I thought you were taking care of it since you're the one that asked if I wanted to have it." She replied irritated. She had quit making food for him three months ago since she always ended up eating his dinner as leftovers. "Plus you apparently don't like my cooking anyway." She scoffed.

"Fine, let's go out then." He replied, not even arguing the point about her cooking, and grabbing his keys. She followed him out to the car, trying not to cry, sensing that she was right about what was about to be discussed.

Gabriella glared at him as they pulled up to a diner that she had told him on numerous occasions that she hated. She glared even more when he didn't hold open the door to the diner for her as she walked in. He had always done that.

"Do you want to order first or talk about what I have on my mind first?" Troy asked as the two of them sat down and looked at their menus.

"Well since I'm gathering that I'm not going to be hungry after we discuss this, let's order later. Save the money." She replied, folding her arms across her chest.

"Okay. Well I'm going to get something to drink first at least." He replied, now wanting to stall a bit. They both sat in silence, waiting for the waitress to come back to take their drink order.

"Hi, my name is Clare. What would you two like to drink?" She asked, peppily, smiling at the two of them.

"I'll take a water please." Troy responded, closing his menu.

"You ma'am?" The waitress asked Gabriella.

"Everything I want, you can't get me. Thanks though." She replied quietly. Troy and the waitress looked at her strangely, but didn't say anything.

"I'll be back to take your orders in a bit then."

"So?" Gabriella asked, wanting to get it over with.

"Well, things haven't been going so great for us lately." Troy responded, not being able to look her in the eyes.

"Mmmhmm." She replied, watching him intently, still doing her best not to cry.

"We haven't talked in a really long time, unless it was arguing…" Yup, this was harder than he thought. He looked up to see what her reaction was. He could tell she wasn't trying to cry. All the more harder. "I was thinking that…maybe… we should separate." He couldn't bear to use to word divorce at this point, after looking at her face.

She looked down at her the table, not really seeing it.

"Is there another girl?" She asked, still looking at the table.

"No." He replied, quietly and truthfully. Well, just an annoying boss who made him work insane hours and who was insane….

"Hm." She responded, afraid that if she looked up, the tears would betray her.

"So, um, just think it over and write me a list so we can figure out what we both deserve. I already have somewhere else to stay… Chad said I could stay there for awhile if I wanted."

She shook her head as she grabbed a napkin.

"So are you two ready to order?" The waitress asked, placing Troy's water in front of him.

"Could I borrow your pen?" Gabriella asked, looking up at the waitress as a tear rolled down her cheek. The waitress looked surprised, but handed her pen to Gabriella, and left, realizing that they didn't need to be disturbed.

Troy watched as she started to write, but looked down once she glanced up at him. He put his elbows on the table, and his head in his hand as he listened to her furiously writing down what she wanted. He thought about all the things she would want. Probably their new van… they had bought it right before they had quit talking in hopes that they would someday have a family to put in it. Never should have bought it. No purpose now. She would probably want the house too… he probably would let her have anything she wanted anyway. He would miss her so much, but it seemed so pointless to live with someone you never talked to or saw. Who would get to keep their friends? Surely they wouldn't be able to handle being around each other after this. There were so many things to consider. He wouldn't be surprised if she moved, just to get away from him. She hated moving, but this would probably be too much he guessed.

He didn't even notice she hadn't stopped writing until she slipped the folded napkin under his eyes. He looked up at her.

"You know, this isn't easy for me." She replied, crying freely now.

He nodded as he opened the napkin and began to read.

Honesty

Sincerity

Tenderness

Love

Less time for the rest of the world and more for just the two of us

Kisses each morning

'I love you' at night

Just like it use to be, the way life was when you were still in love with me

She watched as he too tried to fight back the tears, but failed. They fell on the napkin, just like hers had this morning, on his note. She watched him read it twice before he moved. He put his hand over his face and closed his eyes, trying to breathe normally.

"I don't know where to start." He replied, picking up the list with one hand, and wiping away the tears with the other hand. He couldn't even look at her, too overcome with emotions.

She reached across the table and placed her hand over his hand that held the napkin. Her hand wet from her own tears.

"Everything on that list in your hand is written somewhere in your heart." She said, moving her hand so that she could hold his. He dropped the napkin, and complied. He couldn't believe that he had been willing to give the incredible woman sitting across from him up. He pulled on her hand.

"Come here." He said as she got up, his grip on her hand tightened, afraid that she would let go. She couldn't have, even if she wanted to. She sat down next to him, as close as humanly possible.

"What was I thinking…" He muttered, hugging her tightly. "Letting the best thing that ever happened to me go."

"Well I wasn't about to let you go." She muttered back, releasing her grip on him so that she could wipe the tears off his face. He smiled and chuckled a bit.

"Do the 'I love you's have to be at night?" He whispered into her ear as he hugged her again.

"Definitely not." She replied, hugging him like her life depended on it.

"I love you Gabriella Bolton." He said, placing a kiss on her neck.

"I love you too Troy Bolton." She replied releasing him slightly again to kiss him. It was almost as if they were kissing for the first time.

"I think I'm going to quit my job." He said when they broke for air.

"What?" She asked, confused.

"That stupid job almost made me loose what I live for." He replied smiling slightly. He watched as her eyes lit up.

"We have enough money for now, if you want to." She replied happily as he tried to get her even closer to him.

"Sounds perfect. How about we eat and then go home?" He replied as her stomach growled.

"Okay." She replied laughing slightly. She now didn't have a problem whatsoever with this diner.

"Can I take your order now? It's on the house." The waitress asked, tearing up herself.

Gabriella laughed slightly realizing that the waitress had been listening. Normally she would have been furious, but she was too happy at the moment to be mad about much of anything.

"Thanks for letting me borrow your pen, you really have no idea how much it helped. We'll take two club sandwiches and a water." Gabriella replied, not taking her eyes off of Troy as she held out the pen.

"I'll get that right out to you." She replied, smiling widely and taking her pen from Gabriella.

"Thanks Clare." Troy said, also not taking his eyes off of Gabriella.

"You're welcome."

"I have an idea." Troy said between bites after they had gotten their food.

"What? Gabriella asked, still holding his hand. It made it rather difficult for them to eat, but they didn't want to let go. Not after six months.

"Want to come with me to work after this? I'd like to quit now. Lorrie will love it." Troy replied smiling.

"You're going to try and find another job, right?"

"Yes, but not this week. We have some catching up to do." Troy replied, kissing her once again.

"You know I was never asleep when you came home late, right?" Gabriella asked when they broke apart to breathe. Troy kissed her again.

"I think if we have a child and it's a girl, we should name it Clare." He whispered when they broke apart to breathe once again.

So for part of this story when I was writing it, I actually almost cried. So sappy, huh? I wrote this within about an hour since my muse wouldn't shut up, even though I had 100 more math problems to go before I went to class… yeeaaahh they didn't get done. However the story did :) Based off the song Honesty – Rodney Atkins. Now since I've listened to the song 27 times today, I think I'll go listen to something else. Thanks for reading!