Disclaimer: The only thing that belongs to me is... Nicole. She's a figment of my imagination. Otherwise everything belongs to James Morrison, and Disney.

"Well I can't explain why it's not enough, Cause I gave it all to you.
And if you leave me now, oh just leave me now.
It's the better thing to do,
It's time to surrender,
It's been too long pretending.
There's no use in trying,
When the pieces don't fit anymore, Pieces don't fit here anymore."
- James Morrison. "The Pieces Don't Fit Anymore"

Daisies. A simple white petaled flower, clean, fresh, common and Gabriella's favorite flower. They had only become her favorite flower once Troy had began to give them to her every Friday starting the junior year they started going out. He had described that the daises represented their relationship, always fresh, simple and sweet, and since Troy was able to find daisies anywhere, his love for her would follow her anywhere she went and vice versa. And in freshmen year of college, Gabriella had traveled across the country to hand deliver Troy a single daisy on one of her very rare visits. She had not known that this would be the last daisy exchange in their relationship.

"Gabi!" A grin automatically made its way onto Troy's face as his front door opened and his girlfriend appeared in front of him.

Her face was tired, her hair falling out of the bun that she had just previously tied it in, the distance was taking a toll on her, and on him as well. She could tell in the tone of his voice, yes he was definitely happy to see her but, it had been five months since they'd last seen one another. Two weeks since they had last talked on the phone and had a real conversation. There were so many things happening in their lives at once that it was becoming more and more difficult to share your life with someone who was thousands and thousands of miles away.

She smiled weakly, dragged her feet and launched herself into his arms. Breathing in his scent, a tear nearly escaped her eyes as she reveled in how much she had missed his touch, his smell, his everything. Troy allowed them to drop to the floor together, a tangle of arms and legs in a heap on the floor. Silence filled the room, and thoughts of their straining relationship began to fill both their minds.

"I brought you something." She whispered into his neck. Pulling back, she reached across the floor to her purse, and pulled out a single daisy from the front pocket.

Seeing the flower in her hand, he took it from her and kissed her lips gently before brushing the flower petals across her face sweetly. She chuckled softly at his actions. Finally, after a long moment of silence had overcome them he stood up and took her hand leading her to the living room. There, they laid across the couch and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning Troy awoke to find Gabriella's bags at the door, and the smell of coffee making its way from the kitchen. Stretching briefly he looked over at the clock, 6:53 am. His feet padded softly against the cold floor as he walked into the kitchen, Gabriella was seated at the counter, a cup of coffee resting in between her hands. Hearing Troy's footsteps she looked up, Troy was surprised at the puffiness in her eyes, the redness in her face. She sniffled and quickly began to wipe her face with her fingers of any remaining tears.

"Are you leaving?" Troy asked hesitantly. She couldn't leave, she just got here.

"Yes."

"Why?" He asked, slightly put off by her blunt answer.

"I have to go back to New York Troy. I have to go back to school." Her eyes flicked quickly to his face, then back down to her coffee.

"I know. But, I thought you were staying for a couple days."

"I have a paper due." She said quietly.

"You have a laptop, you can do it here." He snapped. Why did she want to leave, they rarely had any time together and here she was leaving... early.

"I have a paper due. I have to leave." She rose from her seat stiffly and put her cup into the sink.

"What difference does it make if you write it here or you write it there?" Troy spoke loudly, why was she giving him some half ass reason?

"I just-- I have to go." She rushed past him, walking out of the kitchen. He heard her opening the front closet looking for her coat. He ran after her.

She was grabbing her bags, her hand on the doorknob. He swiftly pulled her bags from her hands and watched as she span around, fresh tears falling from her eyes.

"Troy. Give me my bags." She said quietly.

"Not till you tell me why you are leaving." He said sternly.

"I SAID I HAVE A PAPER TO WRITE."

"BULLSHIT GABI!" He threw her bags to the floor, and held her arms tight against her sides.

She began to sob, "I have to go Troy." He heard between sobs. Her crying became worst, she slid against the front door curling her knees into her chest. "I can't do this anymore." She whispered once her breathing had begun to become even once again and her tears had slowed down.

"What?" He whispered, as if scared of what he had heard her say.

"I said I can't do it anymore." She pulled herself up, her brown eyes meeting his.

"Do what?" He spoke quickly, he knew what. He just didn't want to admit it.

"This. Us." She said quietly, he watched her begin to shake as new tears began to form. She grabbed a hold of one of his hands. "I love you. But, I... it's not working. I can't handle seeing you for five seconds then having to say goodbye all over again. I hardly talk to you anymore, and if we do talk it's for a minute, while one of is walking to another class. You don't know what's going on in my life anymore, and I don't know what's happening in yours. You talk about these people in your class, and majority of the time I have no idea who you're talking about. My dreams and aspirations are changing and so are yours, I'm making a life for myself out there in New York, and you're making one here in Albuquerque. And once the both of us have jobs, careers, do you know how difficult it'll be to be together then? When we have stable jobs in different parts of the country? I miss you all the time, and I can't function properly anymore. I just... it's too much. I can't do it." She said softly, each sentence ending with a sob. She was breaking his heart, she could see it in his eyes, and she couldn't do anything about it. No matter how badly they wanted this relationship to work, it wasn't working. Waiting for his response, she felt him slowly prying his hand out of her own.

"So you're giving up on us." He stated, his broken heart shielded with a rude and cold hearted attitude.

"No. I'm---"

"That's exactly what you're doing." He spoke evenly, his eyes never once breaking contact with hers.

"I still want to talk to you, I still want you in my life. We... someday." She spoke softly, scared of his reaction.

"You still want to be 'friends'?" He spat the word friends, as if there were acid on his tongue.

"Yes."

"You think we can be friends after this? After you just give up on us? I LOVE YOU AND YOU JUST WANT TO BE FRIENDS?"

"I should go." Gabriella walked swiftly towards her forgotten bags on the floor. And made her way back to the front door opening it quickly she was half way out before Troy spoke.

"Goodbye Gabi. I hope you're happy." Troy spoke with a coldness she had never seen in him before. Letting another tear drop down her cheek, she met his eyes one last time and spoke quietly. "Goodbye Troy. I love you." And she walked out of his life, and he didn't run after her.

----------------------------------

Things had gotten considerably better since that fateful day in Albuquerque. They had bumped into one another at a homecoming party the Evan's had thrown a few months after, the beginning of summer break and they were able to be civil to one another. Saying a quick and awkward hi to one another, then an equally quick and awkward bye at the end of the night. The day after, Troy left for a coaching internship in Chicago, destroying any chance of them running into one another before Gabriella went back to New York. Then, there was the Christmas break senior year of college. The Montez and Bolton families thought it would be an inspiring idea to have Christmas dinner together. Dinner was quiet, and Gabriella and Troy were forced to wash dishes together. Small talk was made, and their hands briefly touched under the bubbly water, shooting still existent sparks through both their bodies. Eye contact was made, then the doorbell rang. Gabriella's cab to the airport had arrived. And that was the last time they saw one another.

Four years later at the age of 25, Gabriella Montez sat quietly at a local bakeshop in a seat right across from the cake displays, a slice of coffee cake and the day's newspaper were laid out in front of her. She had finally been able to take a break from the piles and piles of research she had been doing less than 15 minutes ago, assisting a university professor with his research at the time had sounded like the perfect opportunity especially with the large amount of money he and the university were offering her. But, she wanted to get on with her life, do something new, she wanted to find a job that used the degree she had earned to its worth.

Sighing she ran a hand through her long brown curls, and straightened out her newspaper before taking a sip of her coffee. Suddenly something tapped her toe softly, startled she swept the newspaper off the table and looked down at her feet, only to find a silver cell phone sitting next to her left foot. Reaching down she picked up the phone, lifting her head she searched around for it's possible owner when a petite blonde woman in a light cardigan and jeans approached her.

"God, I'm so sorry. I don't know how many times I've dropped my phone today." The woman's cheeks were flushed slightly, she stuck her palm out and Gabriella placed the phone into her hand giving the woman a smile.

"Don't worry, it happens to me all the time." Gabriella chuckled. The woman started to walk back to the cake displays before she turned back around quickly.

"This might be a really stupid question but..." The woman shook her head in disbelief. "Those are the cutest black peep-toe pumps I've ever seen. Where did you get them? I've been looking for a decent pair for... forever actually." She laughed as she brushed a stray hair from her face.

Gabriella laughed and took a quick glance at her shoes. "I... well there's actually this shoe store just south of here, it's on the corner right before the lights. And I'm sure they still have them, I just bought them yesterday."

"Serious?" The woman asked.

"Dead serious." Gabriella said, a large smile spreading onto her face.

"Thank you so much..."

"Gabriella."

"That's a beautiful name, it's not as common as mine. Everyone's name is Nicole." Nicole extended her right hand, and the two women shook hands politely. "Well I better get back over there before my boyfriend thinks I've been kidnapped."

"It was nice meeting you Nicole." Gabriella smiled warmly, and picked up the newspaper off the floor. Gabriella briefly lifted her eyes from the newspaper to check the time. Deciding that it was probably a good time to get home she stood and straightened out her black pencil skirt and threw on her large beige cardigan. Folding the newspaper neatly she packed it into her purse and took a final sip from her coffee. Walking towards the exit she heard a woman's voice. "BYE GABRIELLA! THANKS!" Gabriella turned her head to see Nicole waving happily from the table located not too far from where she was standing. "No problem!" Gabriella called back and before she could push open the door, the young man sitting across from Nicole who Gabriella assumed to be her boyfriend turned his head around to look at her, his blue eyes meeting hers in surprise.

"Troy." She whispered to herself, her eyes not straying from his deep blue ones. She felt her face heat up and she quickly pushed the door open and walked out into the warm summer air, and she walked as fast as her black peep-toe pumps could carry her, tears building up in her eyes with each step she took.

------------------------------------------

A/N: Obviously, this isn't how it ends. Unless I was super cruel I'd end it like this. It is a three shot. The second part is done, but I'm not totally satisfied with it. Actually I don't think I'll ever be totally satisfied with any of my work. LOL, ANYWAYS. Review and read, or whatever, hahah either way it'll be much appreciated. The second part will probably be up tomorrow!