Gabriella walked into her senior class homeroom and ducked her head down, barely looking up to where she was walking not paying attention to the glares she was receiving from Mrs Darbus for arriving in her class right before the warning bell.
Her entrance in the room caught everyone's attention and the conversations in the room drastically slowed down like everyone was watching her while she walked to an empty seat in the back of the large room.
When she sat down, Gabriella ducked her cap lower on her brow and pulled her hoodie up, over her head, overcastting her face.
She didn't want anyone to see her, she didn't one anyone to ask her what was wrong with her, let alone think about her.
It was hard though when you made in entrance in a school all dressed in black when you have been dressing up in hot colors all year long and having a smile on your face nearly every day.
People were starting to whisper as she passed by in the halls and she decided to not make a stop by her locker like she would do usually, but then directed herself on purpose to the west side of the school to go to the ladies' room there, where she knew was not crowded.
But that move cost her to walk more and of course to get to Mrs Darbus'class late while it was in the opposite side of where she was.
She could still feel eyes piercing through the fabric of her hoodie and she knew they belonged to a certain blue eyed boy, the only one in a pile of boys that meant more to her than a million of dollars on Earth.
She rested her hands on her arms and put them on the cold wood of the desk not paying attention to morning announcements. You cared about those any ways?
Sharpay, Taylor and Ryan were seriously worried about how their friend got to school today.
She was all dressed in black, her hair in messy little curls, a cap and hoodie on like she just wanted to sink inside of her clothes, like she wanted to disappear.
The girls were less clueless than Troy and Ryan thought who had no idea as to what was going on in the teenager's life so much that it would break her this much.
And of course when the bell rang, Gabriella was the first one out the door quickly taking her sheet for detention later on the week on Wednesday.
Like she cared.
She was out the door before any of her friends could stop her. She made a quick stop to her locker and quickly ran up the set of stairs that opened into the roof.
She needed to escape and suddenly inside of the school seemed claustrophobic.
She sat on a bench of the roof and looked around, up to the sky feeling like she could really scream right now, the pain eating her alive.
She couldn't believe what had just happened.
Instead of the scream, tears started pouring out fast from her big brown orbs.
She was shaken and within a few minutes she was trembling with sobs.
Of course, realizing that Gabriella wasn't in her AP geometry class, Troy had skipped his class periods to look for the love of his teenage high school years.
What was going on with her?
Troy was so worried.
He had been encouraged by Sharpay and Taylor that only told him one thing "go find her, she's hurting and you're the only one that might be able to mend her. We have no power here"
He didn't ask for more information, he just ran to what he knew was Gabriella's next class of the day only to not find her in her usual chair.
Making a quick text message check with any of his friend to if she were in any of the restrooms but none of them saw her.
There were only two spots left to visit and Gabriella sure was not in one of them: the library because the librarian doesn't let kids skip their class to come to visit the world of books.
So she only had to be there, where Troy knew was her escape.
When he found her on the roof, hands wrapped around her chest like to keep it in place, he back moving rapidly up and down with each sob that escape her body.
It broke him even more to see her like that.
He moved fast, not thinking of what to say but just knowing that she needed him.
He sat right next to her and she didn't acknowledge his presence until he wrapped his arms around her.
It startled her and she looked into his eyes for reassurance but only saw their pain and suffering too and when she buried her face in his chest she was suddenly angered at the one to the cause of so much pain and tears.
She draws her fists to his chest and abrutantly hit them there. It didn't hurt Troy much but he let her continue until she finally surrendered in his arms "He left Troy, He left!" She managed to say in a muffled voice, she was really angered and sadden.
"He left while he promise it was the last time! He left us!"
Troy suddenly understood what all of this was about and he felt more sadden for his girlfriend but more importantly best friend. He frowned at how weak all of this left the strongest teenager he knew.
And he pulled her closer, moving his hands up and down from her back trying to soothe her, and somehow that soother him too.
He needed strength too to handle her. It pained him so much to see her in that state of mind. It killed her, he felt like throwing a fist but for her sake he couldn't.
She attached herself to his chest, climbing on his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck, still burring her face on his chest.
She needed to know that something was balanced in her life still, even if it was temporary.
She had done all she could to stop him from walking out of the door, but nothing worked and this morning he really did leave, telling her good bye and throwing his bags into the taxi that picked him up to get him to the airport.
He really walked out of her life again.
Why was it so hard being the daughter of a well-known singer?
"He promised he wouldn't leave us anymore after 8 months of being gone and now he's left for another 6 months."Gabriella whispered after calming down a little, her eyes still filled with tears but playing her fingers with his. "His going to a Europe tour now. I can't believe he walked out of this door this morning after all of the begging both mom and me did."
The other hand of Troy freed itself from her back and pulled her hoodie down and cap off so that he may play on her hair even when she winced when she came into full contact with the sun.
"Mom told him that if he walked out of the house, he really would be leaving everything behind and that we could totally forgets about us after the six months."Tears rolled down again but Troy let them roll down and let her speak about her pain, figuring that it would help her more than if she left it inside of her.
"Don't worry Brie. He'll be back and maybe then he'll realize how much he has missed both of you and he'll stay by your side."
Gabriella shook her head, stunning Troy.
She unfolded her other arm from around Troy and sit up, Troy watching her as she slipped one of her long sleeves up her arm and turned her wrist so Troy could see.
He gasped and looked and her before grabbing her hands and kissing the still red bruise there, now tears streaming down his eyes.
He looked furious.
"Don't you ever, ever do that again you hear me?" He exclaimed, looking straight in her eyes, still holding her hands in his. "You don't know in what much pain you would have put all of your family and friends if you were gone so suddenly. You would crush me."
"Well maybe then, dad would realize how much he lost and how much it cost to love him so much and see him walk the door leaving us."
Troy tightened his grip. "Stop talking non-sense Gabriella. Don't you ever try to kill yourself again you hear me? It's not reasonable for you to grieve right now. I know that your dad hurt you and left you and your mom broken out of your souls but it's his lost, not yours. It'll take time to mend, but I'll be there. We all will be. Please don't torture yourself.
"it pains me to see you in so much pain" Troy whispered as he leaned in and rested his forehead on hers and kissed each orb after the other, loving the feeling of knowing that she was still there with him.
"You would kill me alive if you killed yourself."
And suddenly, Troy broke out into a little melody that sounded like a lullaby at first but when Toy sang out the lyrics, Gabriella immediately recognized the song.
It hurt her at first but when she heard the lyrics of the new hit song her dad wrote, she realized that it addressed to her and it was the perfect description of what she should do, what he wanted her to do.
"And when I'm gone, just carry
on, don't mourn
Rejoice every time you hear the sound of my
voice
Just know that I'm looking down on you smiling
And I
didn't feel a thing, So baby don't feel no pain
Just smile back"
Tears spread down of Gabriella's face more at the sweet melody and Troy's voice.
It was like her dad was talking to her straight from the song.
"We will be gone out of his life, that's all he wanted. He liked his audience better than us…"
"Be strong now. It may be stormy now but it can't rain forever…He won't be gone forever."He sang silently, adding his own lyric to the melody…
DISCLAIMER:
The lyrics of the song are from Eminem's 'When I'm gone'. I don't own anything but the plot and nothing else.
This is a song fic based on the song mentioned. I don't own High school musical nor anything associated with those two and Disney.