Hello all!

Here is my new Troyella Story, I hope you enjoy it!

Please comment if you want to read more.

A Long Time Coming

Everybody wants to be loved
Every once in a while
We all need someone to hold onto
Just like a helpless child, yeah
Can you whisper in my ear
Let me know it's alright

It's been a long time coming
Down this road
And now I know
What I've been waitin' for
And like a lonely highway
I'm tryin' to get home
Ooo, love's been a long time comin'

You can love for a lifetime
You can love for a day
You can think you've got everything
But everything is nothing
When you throw it away, yeah
Then look in my eyes
And I have it all once again

It's been a long time comin'
Down this road
And now I know
What I've been waitin' for
It's like a lonely highway
I'm tryin' to get home
Ooo, love's been a long time comin'

Didn't know I was lost
Til you found me, uh huh
Didn't know I was blind
But now I see

Can you whisper in my ear?
Let me know it's alright

It's been a long time comin'
Down this road
And now I know
What I've been searchin' for
Oooh, been a long long highway
And now I see
Ooo, love's been a long time
Oooh been a long time
Love's been a long time comin'

***

"What's your name?" A pretty dark haired girl asked a six-year-old Troy as he kicked a tree stump in the playground

"Troy. What's yours?" He asked as he stopped kicking and frowned at her.

"Gabriella. Let's play sandcastles," she said and took his hand as she led him to the sand pit and he began stubbing his toe into the soft loose material instead.

"You're angry." She said intuitively and Troy folded his arms, sitting down and crossing his legs too.

"I hate it here." He said and Gabi looked surprised, her tiny mouth pursing in confusion

"Why?" She wondered, not able to think of anything that she didn't like about school or Albuquerque

"I just do." He said and she had giggled

"You are a funny boy. Here…" She handed him a spade so he could help her fill her bucket with sand.

He shoveled some sand in and watched as she carefully turned it and created a sand castle with a proud beam.

Troy got up and kicked it over and Gabi's lip quivered before she burst into tears. Troy looked around him and not knowing what else to do, grabbed her hand.

"I'm sorry," he said, his blue eyes wide as his bluntly cut brown hair fell on his forehead.

Gabi whimpered and sniffled but her brown eyes had met his and they walked back to the classroom hand in hand as the whistle was blown for end of break.

***

Troy sat with his back against the huge tree in the yard of East High College and propped his forearms on his knees as he cast his head back and lost himself in his music.

He opened his eyes every few moments to check his surroundings and surveyed the students around him.

Some of his school friends had come to the same College but he didn't see many of them. With a basketball scholarship, his sport took up most of his time and his team-mates seemed to be the only ones he hung out with lately.

It wasn't that he wasn't popular. He was the captain of the basketball team and considered 'the man' by his team mates. He knew that girls got giggly around him and he'd been told several times he was a good-looking guy, but he tended to keep himself to himself and he liked it like that.

Troy Bolton was hiding a big secret and it was easier to avoid friendships of any kind than get close to people and have them find out the truth. And it would only be a matter of time before they found out the truth because he wouldn't be able to hide it much longer. And there was only one person that he actually would have told, but he couldn't.

He flicked his lashes up and caught sight of Gabriella Montez about twenty feet away, chatting with her friends Taylor and Nancy. It was like he had summoned her with his thoughts.

He chewed his lip as he watched her. Her long, curly, dark hair shimmied down her petite shoulders as she laughed and chatted animatedly. Her brown eyes were wide with expression. She wore a cute little denim hot pant suit that she managed to make sexy with calf boots and fishnet tights. Her eyes were dark with eyeliner; adding to her sex-kitten look.

He rolled his head down and propped his forehead with his fingers as she walked off, not even noticing he was there and he sighed, folding his arms across his knees and planting his face in them as he hid from the world and the memories that haunted him every time he saw her face.

***

"Why are you crying?" Gabi asked her best friend Troy as he sobbed into his arms, propped up against the tree in his garden.

"I'm not crying." Troy sniffled from beneath the safety of his sleeves.

Gabi placed herself next to him and pressed her little lips together, a frown marring her smooth forehead as her mind worked overtime.

"I cried when Mr. Teddy got trapped in the washing machine and almost drowned," she offered

Troy twisted his face in his arms then looked up at her "It's a teddy bear. It won't die." He said flatly.

"Made you look," she smiled, resting her arm on his knee as her tiny body curled toward him. "Do you still hate it here?" She wondered.

His blue eyes studied hers for a moment. "I hate my parents." He said.

"Oh." She said, considering him, not knowing why he might feel like this. She only had her mom but she loved her. "You can share my mom if you like?" She suggested, sucking her lower lip.

Troy nodded "Okay, deal."

***

Gabi laughed with her friends as they went into college through the grand main entrance and she glanced over her shoulder at Troy, who was sat against the tree in the front yard with his head in his arms.

Her heart twisted at the sight, wondering what was wrong. She remembered when they had been inseparable and they'd told each other pretty much everything. She missed his hugs and his easy advice and she missed being the one he talked to. She had loved being that person.

She moved into the hallway, following her friends as she thought about the argument they'd had at the prom. And how they'd not spoken since. And although she still cared about him deep, deep down, she couldn't forgive him for ruining her prom night. The argument hadn't been their first, but it was the first time they hadn't made up.

Gabi sighed as she opened her locker and stashed her dance kit. She had enrolled in dance and drama classes at East High College and it took a lot of work to keep on top of it all along with her academic classes.

Right now she was struggling with balancing the work load and it seemed impossible to have some kind of social life and it was at times like this she would have gone to Troy without even thinking about it. But she couldn't and she wouldn't and she knew he wouldn't make the first move either, because that night had changed things irrevocably between them and there was absolutely no going back.

She dreaded passing him in the hallway because he would duck his gaze and it reminded her starkly that he was just as hurt as she was. The 'perfect moment' for them to talk had passed, leaving them like two bereft dinghies in the sea, buoying ever closer to each other, but never quite meeting.

.