AN: My birthday is in 18 days. May 16th. Remember that! Okay, so this is based on a '70's Show episode by the same name. And yes, I'm aware that that particular episode was based on the movie of the same name, but my story is more similar to the episode. This only took me like two days to write and I love it! I hope you understand the point I try to make at the end – I have a source (thanks Megan) that says she does so I hope it's really easy for you to get as well. But if you're like "what the hell I'm so confused" let me know and I'll try to explain it better. :-)
Title: It's A Wonderful Life
Rating: T
Author: MadiWillow
Summary: Troy can't sleep the night after he and his girlfriend have a particularly unpleasant break-up. He finds himself thinking what it would be like if they never met, and realizes that you must be careful for what you wish for. OneShot.
Genre: Drama
Chapter: OneShot
"Wait... are you breaking up with me?"
"Yeah... yeah, I think I am."
Those thirteen words were constantly being replayed in Troy Bolton's mind, as often as a broken record. No matter how many times he turned over, how tightly he pressed his pillow over his ears, or how loud he played his iPod, he could still hear those words. Those fateful words, spoken by his girlfriend – well, ex-girlfriend – just a mere few hours before. The two had been having problems lately, but Troy thought their problems would be solved when he pledged to be with her forever. However, that turned out to be the worst thing he could possibly do.
"I want my space, Troy."
"I don't want to be tied down for the rest of my life."
"You understand, right?"
Understand? No, he didn't fucking understand. He loved her, damnit. She was his whole life; his only reason for waking up in the morning. She was the sun to his moon – as his drama-obsessed friend might say. She'd wanted them to stay together, but without his pledge. She wanted them to just date; have an exclusive relationship but with him aware that once they graduated, they would be no more. He thought what they had was real love. But apparently not.
"I wish I'd never met her," Troy mumbled miserably, turning over in his bed.
"Are you sure about that?" came a voice at the foot of his bed.
Troy jumped about a foot in the air and opened his eyes to see a stout, red-haired woman dressed in bright white robes standing with her arms crossed across her chest.
Rubbing his eyes, Troy murmured, "What the hell?" He sat up and blinked a couple times, trying to focus on what he was seeing. "Who are you?" His eyes shifted. "How did you get into my room?"
"I'm an angel," the woman said flatly. "I just appeared."
He raised an eyebrow. "An angel? Ha!" he laughed. "Do you think I'm an idiot?"
"Yes," said the woman shortly. "If I'm here, then you're an idiot."
"You're kinda insulting yourself, did you know that?" he asked.
The woman stepped forward and hit Troy's chest with her pointer finger. "No, I'm insulting you."
Troy rubbed at his chest. "Okay. If you're an angel, where are you wings?" he asked snidely.
She rolled her eyes. "I don't have time for games. You made a wish, and I'm here to show you what would happen if it came true."
Throwing the covers off his bed, Troy stood up and folded his arms suspiciously. "What wish?"
"I'm pretty sure it was this one," the Angel started, and then waved her hands. Suddenly Troy's voice boomed bizarrely over them: "I wish I'd never met her."
"What the hell?" exclaimed Troy again, looking around wildly. "Did you do that?" he asked Angel.
Angel nodded. "Now, I'm going to take you back in time to when you met her, and change the course of events."
"You're going to take me back in time?" scoffed Troy. "Well, this I gotta see."
She snapped her fingers, and suddenly Troy and Angel were at a ski lodge in Colorado. Gabriella Montez was sitting in her hotel room, curled up on a bed with a very large book on her lap. The digital clock next to her was blinking 11:59 P.M.
Troy yelped at the sight of her and tried to hide behind Angel, as he was only wearing a white wife-beater and a pair of boxer shorts. Angel sighed. "She can't see you. Don't you watch TV?"
"She can't?" whispered Troy, but Gabriella remained still. The clock next to her changed to 12:00 midnight, and distant cheers could be heard. "So, she didn't go to the party? That's it?"
"Neither of you did." Angel snapped her fingers again and they appeared in the ski lodge gym. They could still hear the cheers, and the clock on the wall also read midnight. Troy watched for a minute as he eerily saw himself shooting a basket. "You decided that you'd rather continue your basketball practice, and Gabriella wanted to finish her book. So you never met at the party."
"Great," said Troy dully. "So Gabriella and I never met. My problems are over now."
"Not so fast," Angel said. She snapped her fingers again. They were in Miss Darbus's homeroom class that first day of school, all the students listening disinterestedly as she ranted about her musicals. After a few moments the bell rang, and they all shuffled off to their next classes.
Turning to Angel, Troy asked, "What was the significance of this?"
"Since you and Gabriella never met, you never exchanged phone numbers and you didn't cause everyone to get detention that day with the phone call," Angel explained. "So your dad never got mad at you."
"Okay," said Troy slowly. "So basically, everything is better?"
Angel just shrugged and snapped her fingers again. This time they were in the theatre. Sharpay and Ryan Evans were on stage rehearsing for Twinkle Town. Kelsi was sitting at her piano, her face long, as she watched the twins dance to their sped up version of the music. Miss Darbus was clapping merrily.
"They got the leads in that musical!?" Troy blurted out. "But --"
"You and Gabriella didn't go to the New Years Eve party, so you never realized you were talented singers," Angel reminded him. "Everything is as it's supposed to be: you led the Wildcats to victory against the West High Knights, Gabriella joined the Decathlon and led them to victory as well, all whilst Sharpay and Ryan got the leads in their eighteenth school production."
Troy eyed the stage. "What's up with Kelsi?"
"You and Gabriella never helped her stand up to Sharpay and Ryan," Angel told him. "So she just has to sit on the sidelines and watch as Sharpay and Ryan control her show."
"But Jason --" started Troy, but Angel interrupted him.
"She never got together with him," said Angel. "He never instilled the confidence in her that she has now."
Troy bit his lip. "Wow," was all he said. "But everything else is right, isn't it?" he asked. "I mean, I'm on the basketball team and Gabriella is on the Decathlon team. It's where we belong, isn't?"
Angel shrugged again. "You tell me." She snapped her fingers yet again, to show both Troy and Gabriella in the library, although at different tables. Both of them looked miserable.
"I guess we're not that happy, huh?" asked Troy quietly.
"Troy, baby!" came a crooning voice from the entrance of the library. Both Troy's looked up to see Sharpay standing in the doorway, smiling widely. She strode over to the younger Troy and planted a kiss on his lips. Automatically the older Troy looked over at Gabriella, but she was still doodling in her notebook sadly.
"Why doesn't she care that I'm dating Sharpay!?" asked Troy angrily.
"Why should she?" asked Angel. "She doesn't know you. She's spoken to you maybe once, and that was probably to say 'excuse me' in homeroom."
"Oh," said Troy quietly.
Another boy entered the library, a red haired guy with thick glasses. He was holding a small bouquet of cheap flowers and he strode purposefully over to Gabriella. "Here Gabriella, these are for you," he said nervously, holding out the flowers.
"Oh!" said Gabriella, surprised. While anger boiled up inside of Troy, Gabriella smiled and accepted the flowers. "Thank you, Walter."
"So, Gabriella, I was wondering..." Walter started. "If you'd like to accompany me to the movies on Friday night?"
Troy knew Gabriella so well that he could spy the ever-so-slight fall in her face before she beamed. "Of course, I'd love to."
"She doesn't wanna go," said Troy automatically.
"Well, you don't care," said Angel, pointing.
The other Troy and Sharpay were currently making out, arms tangled around each other. However, Troy's eyes were slightly open and he could tell his mind was somewhere else.
"Okay, how the hell did I end up with Sharpay!?" he burst out. "I mean, yeah, she's nice and she's my friend... but I could never date her." He shuddered. "What about Zeke?"
"Haven't you caught on yet!?" asked Angel impatiently. "Zeke and Sharpay aren't together. She rejected him. Since you didn't audition for the musical, Zeke didn't have the courage to confess his passion about baking and he didn't win Sharpay over with his cookies." After a minute she added, "And before you ask, Taylor and Chad didn't go out either. Since no one was trying to stop you and Gabriella from auditioning for the musical, Taylor and Chad didn't get to know each other."
"Whoa," said Troy. "So were Gabriella and I, like, the glue that held everybody together?"
Angel nodded sarcastically. "Now you're getting it."
Troy thought for a moment, before shaking his head. "I don't care. None of that matters. All I know is that I had Gabriella, and then I lost her, and that hurts. It hurts a lot." His voice broke.
"So you still think this life is better?" asked Angel, and Troy nodded. Angel sighed. "Well, okay..."
Snapping her fingers yet another time, the two appeared in a large ballroom. A banner with the white words "Welcome back class of '08" print-screened onto it was hanging from the doors.
"My high school reunion?" said Troy skeptically. "What are we doing here?"
"You'll see," said Angel vaguely. They were standing next to the buffet table, where a much-older looking Troy was picking up a piece of barbecue chicken and placing it on his paper plate. Next to him, but apart from his line of vision, was Gabriella, scooping some corn onto her plate. They turned and came face-to-face with one another. "Troy Bolton?" asked Gabriella slowly.
Troy watched himself pretend to think, and then say, "Gabriella Montez, right?"
"Wow, I can't believe you remember me," said Gabriella shyly, blushing.
Older Troy gave an arrogant half-shrug. "So how are you?"
"Oh, I'm good," said Gabriella. Younger Troy could tell she was lying, but Older Troy never got to know her so he didn't notice. "I'm a reporter for the news in Miami," she added.
"That's cool," said Troy, nodding.
"What about you?"
Troy cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Oh, well, uh... I'm a car salesman."
"Oh," said Gabriella.
"I'm a car salesman?" hissed younger Troy to Angel. "I'm 28 years old!"
Angel brought a finger up to her lips and pointed back at them.
"So how's life treated you since high school?" Gabriella was asking.
Troy shrugged nonchalantly. "Just, you know, college and... selling cars..." he trailed off. "And yourself?"
"Well, I've been married for a few years now." She held up her left hand and flashed a diamond wedding band from her ring finger. However, younger Troy could tell from the way her smile didn't meet her eyes that she really wasn't happy.
"Hey, you know," said the other Troy suddenly. "I had the biggest crush on you in high school."
"Really!?" exclaimed Gabriella. She giggled, and for the first time her whole face lit up. "I liked you too!"
"No way!" said Troy, laughing. Younger Troy could see the happiness in his own face, but it was also stalled. "What could've been, huh?" he said slowly.
"Yeah..." she said softly, staring at him. They looked away, knowing it was too late.
"Wait, I thought you said we didn't know each other?" Troy asked Angel.
"You didn't. You were attracted to each other," Angel corrected him. "Just because you never sang together doesn't mean you didn't think she was, as you once described it, the 'most beautiful girl in New Mexico.'"
Troy shook his head from side to side, trying to clear it from all the questions zooming around. "Okay, wait a minute. So are you saying that since Gabriella and I never got together, we're miserable? And I'm a loser?"
"Yes," said Angel bluntly. "Gabriella's a loser too, though. You see, what you two had was true love. Real, true love."
"So why am I here and not with her?" he growled.
"True love isn't enough sometimes," said Angel sympathetically, showing for once that she had emotions.
"So isn't this going to be my life anyway?" asked Troy angrily. "We broke up. So maybe we'll both be miserable losers anyway."
Angel let out a breath. "Work with me, Troy." She explained, "In this world, you and Gabriella liked each other but never acted on it. You two are miserable because you were supposed to get together. Since you didn't, your life wasn't lived to the fullest and didn't turn out as one would hope."
"Why didn't I just ask her out?" he groaned. "I've never been afraid to ask out girls before."
"You'd never liked a nerd before," Angel reminded him. "Again, you and Gabriella never got the confidence to do what you want because you never tried out for the musical. You were afraid of what your friends would think, so you never made a move."
Troy ran a hand through his hair. "Okay... so since I actually dated Gabriella but we broke up, how does that make our life better?"
"Because you actually dated her," Angel said. "I don't know how to better explain this. You dated her, but broke up. You had the confidence to do what you wanted, and after your break up you were able to live your life to the fullest. You and Gabriella were meant to be, and you fulfilled that."
Troy shrugged. "I'm still confused. Were we meant to be together forever or just a little while?"
"It doesn't matter. You two were supposed to get together, that's all."
Thinking over for a minute, Troy said slowly, "I think I get what you mean now. It doesn't matter that we broke up, but because we went out and loved each other, no matter how little time it was, we turned out okay."
Angel nodded.
"Is there still hope though, that we get back together?" asked Troy pleadingly.
"That I can't answer." Angel snapped her finger one last time, and the two were back in Troy's room. She folded her arms and said, "So, are you taking back your wish?"
Troy nodded. "Yeah. It's better to have had her once than never have had her at all, right?" He looked up, waiting for an answer, but Angel was gone. He looked around in confusion, but she was no where to be seen. Smiling a little, he climbed back under his covers and let his mind ponder the night's events.
It had taken him a while, but he finally understood it. He and Gabriella were good for each other. They complimented each other, and if they'd never been able to do that life wouldn't have turned out the right way. He knew that now. All the pain that had come with losing Gabriella was mandatory – he couldn't wish it away, or he would be screwed. After all, it was better to have love and lost, than to have never have loved at all.