As/n: So yeah, this is a oneshot I thought up after I saw James Bond.. odd huh? R&R please!

A Shower Door

A shower door and a rush of water.

That was the only thing keeping her from reality. The water flattened her curls and ruined her make up. The tears only made things worse. She had turned on the water to muffle the sobs but this only increased curiosity.

It was the Father-Daughter/Mother-Son dance. The party at her house was raging. Everyone was having a blast. But one little buzz was floating through the air. Gabriella batted her hand at the question.

When's your dad coming?

Soon. He was coming soon. He said he'd be there and he'd be there. He said he'd be coming. Her stomach hollowed when her cell phone rang an hour and thirteen minutes after he said he'd be there.

He wasn't coming. He had to do some work. No surprise. He always had to do work. If it wasn't work, he was in a different state. If he wasn't in a different state, he was sick. If he wasn't sick, he would come up with every excuse possible not to see her.

Four hours. He couldn't spend four hours with his daughter but he could spend seven years with his girlfriend and not call. Not for ten minutes could he sit down and say, "Look, Gabi, I don't want to know you anymore. I want to erase you from my memory." Not that she cared. She didn't want him. She didn't need him. She spent her entire life without him and she turned out okay. He wasn't there once and she was the smartest person in the school. She didn't need his help.

So why was she crying? Why was it that she, Gabriella Montez, could not let go of her father? She didn't even care about him! But she did, the more he ignored her, the more he would leave, she cared about him more and more.

The glass shower door was her barrier. It blocked out the cruelty in the world. Her red dress, which she and Taylor spent hours looking for, was soaked and ruined. This made Gabriella even more upset. Not about the dress but about the fact that she had tried so hard just to be upset again.

The bathroom door opened and Gabriella sobbed, "Go away!" and pulled her knees up to her chest. She buried her head into her legs and cried harder.

The click of the shower door, the barrier, made Gabriella realize that she was not alone anymore. She felt a presence beside her. A light brown haired, blue eyed, presence that only pulled his knees next to his chest and rested his arms on his knees and said, "His loss."

"I just don't see why," Gabriella began. "He doesn't care. I don't see why he doesn't love me."

"Me neither," The presence sighed. The music downstairs was loud and clear, even from the bathroom with the water on.

Gabriella looked at him. He was in a baggy pair of black dress pants. An untucked white button down with the sleeves rolled up and a loose tie that were all getting soaked under the hot water.

The warmth of the water only seemed to make Gabriella's heart colder. Troy pulled his arm around her and said, "If I were him, I wouldn't leave you. If I were him, I would never blow you off like that. He doesn't know how good he has it to have you as a daughter."

Gabriella nodded, tears slipping down her face. Troy's blue eyes shone in the dimmed light of the candles placed around the bathroom. They were placed there for scent but now they seemed placed there to open Gabriella's mind. Troy's eyes, so full of innocence, so full of love, mesmerized her. She found herself on her feet, the tiles cool under her bare, soaking feet. Troy was with her. His arms slipped around her waist, her around his neck. A song lulled through the floor under their feet.

They moved slowly, the time ticking bye, the water still pouring on their heads. Their dancing was the only movement, it seemed, in the house. The music seemed to calm their restless minds as the wordlessly swayed back and forth.

Slowly, he leaned his face forward, planted a kiss on her lips and whispered, "I love you."

Then he stopped. He pushed opened the shower door, her barrier, her protection from reality, and beckoned her forward.

"We have a dance to attend to," Troy said with a smile.

Gabriella grabbed his outstretched hand and realized, that shower door wasn't her protection. She didn't need a barrier from the world. Reality doesn't mean anything. Her protection was holding her hand. He was smiling and bringing her down to a party which she earlier had despised. Her protection was his love.

Not a shower door.

As/n: So tell me what you think! Thanks! CoCo