Title: It's Not Over
Pairing: Ryella
Fandom: High School Musical
Based on Daughtry's song and mostly the video for "It's Not Over"
Ryan Evans walked the dark Albuquerque streets around midnight.
He was searching for a purpose, some meaning to his life. Heck, he knew why he was here, he just needed to know where to go from this point in time.
He had lost everything it seemed. His dad went bankrupt, his sister had gotten shot, he had been accused of stealing from his best friend, and then his girlfriend of four years had left him.
Ryan thought he was going to lose himself eventually, but then, she came along.
Gabriella Montez saved him, she brought him back from the dark depths of his own soul.
Then he went and screwed it up.
He had found himself lost in a whirling ball of madness. He had started drinking and she couldn't take it anymore.
Now, he was left alone, walking the streets like a drifter.
He stopped in front of a pawn shop and saw a gorgeous ring that he had seen months before staring back at him.
Ryan had always pictured himself proposing to Gabriella with the same ring, but oh well, the dream was gone.
He shrugged his shoulders and continued his walk.
He stopped dead in his tracks, he knew he was just lying to himself if he kept on going.
So many thoughts rushed back to him in that one moment.
He walked until he came to a small town house.
He took a deep breath and walked up to the door.
Ryan rang the door bell and knocked on the door.
A girl with neck length, curly brown hair answered the door.
She looked at the blonde with a look mixed with malice and confusion.
"Ryan?" she said curiously, before a roar of memories hit her, "Get out."
"Gabriella, please!" he exclaimed, grabbing the door, preventing the girl from shutting it.
"I said get out now!" she said angrily.
"I'm serious Gabby, please." He said, falling to his knees.
"Give me a reason I should let you into my home after all the things you have done!" Gabriella yelled.
"Because, I'm sorry, I blamed you for the things I had no control over, and then I let the things I had control over go and my life was a wreck, I pushed you away when all you wanted to do was help, I've changed Gabby, and this time I mean it, you may have said we we're done, but please, I need you." He said.
Gabriella looked into his eyes. They were full of sorrow and hurt.
She leaned against the door frame and looked at the blonde.
She slid down at his level and lifted his chin to face her, "Ry, you don't know how much you hurt me, after all I did for you, you would come home running off at the mouth to me about how much you have always hated me from the moment you saw me to the present moment in time, I tried to blame it on your drinking, but I knew it wasn't a good excuse, Ryan, I knew that what a person says when their drunk is really what they think sober, It was hard for me to deal with, and I couldn't take it. I am willing to forgive you, but it's the fact that, I don't know if you're serious, Ryan, I can't, not tonight, maybe in time, but not now."
Ryan put his head in his hands, "I love you Gabriella Montez, you just can't see it can you, after all I say, after all I've done."
"Ryan, that's the point, after all you've done." She said, "Goodbye Ry."
She shut the door gently, leaving him staring at the white door.
He got up and looked at his watch. That gave him an idea.
The next morning, Ryan headed over to that same pawn shop.
He opened the door and headed to the counter, "If I trade you this gold, originally worth $600 watch, can I have the ring in the window."
Later that night, he headed back to the small town house.
He knocked on the door again.
Gabriella came to the door.
Without having any second thoughts, he got down on one knee, "Gabriella, I hope this is enough to prove how sorry I really am." He opened the velvet box to reveal the ring, "I love you, I mean it with every part of me, I've given up my old self, please Gabriella."
Gabriella felt hot tears pouring down her face as she bent down and wrapped her arms around him, and whispering in his ear, "Ry, It's not over."