A/N: HSM? not mine. Peter Pan? Bahahaha...
Never Say Goodbye
She laid back softly on her fluffy couch and leaned against the armrest. Only hours ago she had graduated from college. But that's not what brought her the sorrows of leaving.
Today was the day. The day that it all had ended.
In her left hand she grasped her high school yearbook, from only four years ago. Positioned in her right hand a regular, ordinary telephone. Every other second she glanced at the phone and pondered the thought of actually picking it up and giving it another chance.
For what seemed to be the one-hundredth time, she peered down at the phone.
"No." was all she mustered as she laid it down on the side table sitting next to her. Gently, she opened her yearbook and scanned the signatures, looking for one in particular.
As her eyes stared at his signature and the silly smiley face that laid next to it, her mind took her back to the day.
There they stood.
Solemn, quiet, and scared.
They may not have been saying anything at all, but yet, it was just enough. Words could not even begin to express the moment. The emotional capacity of both her and him was incredible. He locked her into a loving hug and she cried into his shoulder.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye." he had said, looking down at his shoes.
"No. Never say goodbye because 'goodbye' means going away. And going away means forgetting." Her tone was hush and her voice shaky.
"That's from Peter Pan." he responded, finally glimpsing up from the ground. She only nodded, for that was all she could do. Her voice was gone, speaking was a thing of the past. "Gabriella, you know, it will all work out. We'll be okay. There's always vacations and summer break."
The voice she had prepared ears to hear had finally come. And yet, she wasn't prepared at all.
"Flight eight-nineteen, to Southern California, now boarding..." the voice blasting loudly over the speaker had faded out, she had forced it to go away.
Tears slipped down her cheeks, even though she urged them not to.
Be strong, dammit. She had thought to herself.
"Well, that's my flight. Be good at Harvard, don't doing anything stupid." he spoke with a smile, locking her lips into a meaningful, but frightening kiss. "I love you, Gabriella." He waited a second. Then seconds turned into minutes and then finally, after a awkward but comforting silence he said, "It's not goodbye."
As he began to walk away, she reached for his hand and wrapped him into another affectionate hug.
"I love you too, Troy." she muttered, gripping his back with all of her strength.
"Last call for flight eight-nineteen." the voice blared once more. He let her go and walked away, away to his plane. The plane that would ultimately be taking him away for what seemed to be an eternity.
The sound of the harsh rain pounding against the windows abruptly brought her back to reality. The spring rain slithered down her window panes, covering her entire home in a wet liquid sheet.
It will all work out. We'll be okay. His voice replayed over and over again in her head.
Together they had faced reality. It didn't work out and since then, things had not been okay.
She looked over at the phone that laid solo on the table.
"You can do it, you know you want to." she said to herself.
With that she picked up the phone and dialed his number. It had been three and a half years since they had even seen each other, much less spoken.
It rang once.
Then twice.
And twice turned into three times,
just as three times moved to four.
"Hey, you've reached Troy. Since I can't pick up the phone, why don't you leave a message and I'll consider getting back to you." She grinned at the sound of his voice.
Then suddenly her happy moment was interrupted by the sound of the beep, signaling her to leave a message.
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Say something! She mentally shouted at herself. But still, nothing came out. Her voice wouldn't make a sound, not even an awkward 'Uhh'. Absolutely nothing. It was as if her very own voice had walked right out of her throat.
She pressed the 'off' button on her phone and through it against the couch.
Pacing back and forth she eyed down at the phone, laying soberly on the couch. Continuing to pace and continuing to stare at the phone. Back and forth, she almost eroded a whole into her living room carpet and burned a hole into the back of the telephone.
"Oh for God sakes, Gabriella you idiot, just do it!" she yelled at herself. Her hand reached down and picked up the phone but her mind tried to make her stop. It was no use, she was going to do it.
Holding it close to her face, she pressed 'redial'.
To her surprise, he picked up on the first ring.
"Hello?" was her long-waited for reply.
"Huh?" she mumbled.
"Uh, you called me." he said, a slight chuckle to his tone.
"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. I just, I didn't think you'd answer."
"Gabriella?"
"Well, no. I mean yes! Wait, no. No, no, yes!" she stuttered.
"Hey." he said once more.
"Look, um..." she paused, took a deep breath and let it all go, "Troy, I love you. Not maybe, not tomorrow, not someday, right now. At this very moment, I realized something. I need you, I trust you, I admire you. I want you.
And you can be wrong a lot of the time, and we can fight, and get mad at each other, but nothing, nothing in this world can change the fact that I love you."
Just as she began to recite the words she had locked deep in her mind for so long, a knock echoed from her doorway. She merely ignored it, assuming it be the rain slamming against her hard wooden front door.
"I really missed you. I missed talking to you. Knowing that you give me that feeling that everything will be alright scares me to death. And every time I try to move on and see someone else, it just reminds me how much they don't. I love the way you use to look at me. How when I would say something stupid you would look like you were mad, then suddenly smile." she continued.
As she spewed out her thoughts and memories, the knocking strengthened and soon turned into full-on pounding. But just as it had suddenly started, it suddenly , like seconds before, she ignored it.
"I'd rather have bad times with you than good times with someone else. I'd rather be beside you in a storm than safe and warm by myself. I am sick of– " she began but was interrupted by Troy's voice.
"Gabriella," he said, the noise in the background overthrowing his own sound.
"What's all that noise in the background? Oh, I'm sorry, you're busy, aren't you? And here I am, babbling on about– well yeah. Look, I can call back later. Goodbye." she rambled, her words all coming together like one long run-on sentence.
"Gabriella!" he answered, loudly.
"What?" she shouted.
"Open your damn door." he replied.
With that she dropped the phone and ran hurriedly to the door. Swinging it open only to reveal a soaking wet Troy. He grabbed her hand and pulled her close to him by the waist.
"Never say 'goodbye'." he declared, leaning down and kissing her lips softly.