Hey... if anyone is reading this. So clearly I didn't get any feedback on the first chapter. I'll be honest, I was disappointed. It's not like I expect people to comment all the time - I know better than that - but I was hoping to get some kind of advice. Even if it was telling me that my story was crap and that I should just quit while I'm ahead, at least that's something. I've decided that I'll post this next chapter and if there continues to be no comments I'll probably just delete the story. Although to be honest it would be nice to hear that someone likes what they've read so far.
Anyways here's the next chapter, I really hope you guys like it! --Kay

The following morning Troy woke up first since he had gotten the most sleep during the night. Being entirely used to Chad's house, Troy marched up the stairs and went straight to his kitchen. Not knowing how to cook much, he pulled out a box of pop tarts, and some toaster strudels and threw them into the toaster before going to the fridge to find some juice. He poured three glasses, drank one, and then poured another. He crept downstairs once again to see if Chad or Gabriella had woken up, to find that neither of them had. He climbed up the stairs again and retrieved the pop tarts and toaster strudels just before they began to burn. He looked at the clock to find that it was already 11:07 am. Thinking it was about time that the other two get up; he went back downstairs again to wake them up. He walked over to Chad and gently pushed him awake and told him "Pop tarts and toaster strudels are already done and waiting upstairs."

He walked over to where Gabriella was laying down, and gently brushed away her hair from her face. He leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead and told her to wake up. He saw her small body turn over onto her back as her eyes fluttered open.

"Troy?"

"Yeah Brie. It's time to get up," he responded.

"I don't want to."

"Come on baby, I made breakfast."

From across the room Troy heard Chad getting up off the couch. Troy said hello to him and repeated what was made upstairs as Chad nodded his head and made his way upstairs to the food.

"I don't want to eat Troy. I just want to lie here," she said in a monotone voice.

"Brie, please get up. You have to eat something," he tried again.

"Troy, just let me be."

Reluctantly Troy stood up again and nodded his head. He wasn't sure what to do about his grieving girlfriend.

He went back upstairs to go talk to Chad to see how he was feeling.

"Thanks for making food Troy. Where's Gabs?" he wondered.

"She won't eat. She says she's not hungry and all she wants to do is lie there. I don't know what to do," Troy said.

"She's hurting. Tay was her best friend. As much as I'm hurting and I know that you're hurting it's not the same. Plus neither of us could ever lose our appetite. I guess we'll just have to try to get her mind off of things, if that's even possible."

"Yeah, I guess," Troy responded picking up a pop tart and taking a bite out of it.

Once the two boys were done eating dinner and cleaning up relatively well, they headed back downstairs. Troy walked over to where Gabriella was laying down, now finding her sprawled out on the big couch that Chad was once sleeping on.

"Gabi?" he whispered. "Are you asleep?"

No response.

"I guess she's gone back to sleep. Do you think we should wake her up?" Troy asked turning back to Chad.

"No, just let her sleep it off some more."

The boys headed up to Chad's room where they began to play Chad's Xbox. While they were in the middle of a race they both turned to look at each other.

"I can't do this," Troy stated.

"Me neither. I want to take my mind off it so badly, but it seems like no matter what I do, I can't get her out of my mind. I should have known, I should have seen something," Chad said as his eyes began to get watery.

Troy opened his mouth to speak but Chad beat him to it once again. "I mean something that bad doesn't happen overnight. There must have been signs, and I never even noticed. I wish I could have done something, anything."

"Me too," came a quiet voice from Chad's doorway. There standing there was a red-eyed Gabriella with messy hair and more tears streaming down her face.

Troy stood up from his spot on the bed and walked over to where Gabriella was and immediately pulled her in close to him, engulfing her in a hug.

"We all wish that we could have seen something, or done something more guys. But when it comes down to it, no matter how much we wish we could have changed something or go back in the past and bring her back, it won't work," Troy's voice raised at the end as he turned to notice that all three of them now had tears falling down their face.

They all sat on Chad's bed for a few minutes while they tried to compose themselves again. After a few moments, Gabriella finally spoke up.

"Guys, I think I'm going to head home now. I want to have a shower, and change. And I still haven't told my mom…" she said trailing off dreading having to go through the horror all over again when telling her mom.

"Okay Brie, I'll drive you. You gonna be okay here, Chad?"

"Yeah I'll be fine. Stay strong Gabs," Chad responded and stood up going over to give Gabriella a hug.

"You too Chad. Love you," Gabriella told him. Despite the fact that she knew Chad was aware that she loved him like her own brother, she felt the need to tell him once again after the recent events.

"Love you too Gabster," Chad said with a small smile.

Troy and Gabriella began to descend the stairs and head out of his house. Once outside, Troy grabbed her hand and gave it a small squeeze. The drive back to her house was silent, as neither of them knew what to say. When Troy pulled into her driveway they sat still for a few moments.

"Will you stay with me when I tell her?" Gabriella asked.

"I will if you want me to."

Gabriella nodded her head in response. They both opened their doors to Troy's truck and hopped down. Gabriella made her way around the truck to Troy where she laced their hands together. She stopped walking just before she reached the door.

"I can't believe this happened," she whispered aloud.

"I know baby, neither can I. We'll deal with it though okay? All of us together, we're all gonna be okay," he responded.

"I sure hope so Troy."

"We will. Come on, let's get this over with."

Troy pulled Gabriella into a quick hug then kissed her forehead before pulling back. He gave her an encouraging smile and a squeeze to her hand to let her know that she could do this because he was right there with her. Gabriella attempted to smile back to him. She turned her body so it was once again facing her house before taking a deep breath and walked to her front door and clicked it open. Troy and Gabriella both slipped their shoes off in the front hall.

"Mom, are you home?" she called around the house

"Be down in one second!" the two teens heard from upstairs.

They headed into Gabriella's yellow living room and sat down on one of the suede brown couches. Gabriella kept her head down while Troy rubbed her back in an effort to comfort her.

Her mother came down the steps a few minutes later and spotted them both in the living room.

"Troy! Hello, I didn't know you were here too," the energetic mother immediately greeted.

"Hi, Mrs. Montez. I came with Gabriella."

Gabriella's mother nodded in understanding before picking up on the couples' mood. "Is everything alright?" she questioned.

"No," Gabriella stated simply.

"What's going on Mija?"

Gabriella felt Troy take one of her hands in his while the other hand remained on her back continuing to move up and down. Gabriella unconsciously squeezed Troy's hand a little bit tighter as she began to tell her mother what happened the previous night.

"Mom, last night when I was just leaving Troy's house Taylor called me. She was blabbering on about stuff… I couldn't really understand. Basically in the end I was sitting in the hospital by myself -" She saw Troy flinch from the corner of her eye and she squeezed his hand tighter in hers – "And there was this doctor there saying they did everything they could but they were too late. There was nothing more they could do for her," she stopped to take a shaky breath, willing herself not to cry just yet.

"What do you mean they were too late, there was nothing they could do for her? What happened to Taylor, Mija?" Mrs. Montez asked.

Gabriella looked down as she quietly stated, "She killed herself last night mami."

With that Gabriella turned her head so that it was resting up against Troy's strong shoulder. She let a few more tears escape her still swollen eyes and felt a small drop of liquid fall onto her head. She looked up to find tears rolling down Troy's cheeks before turning to her mother. There was shock written across her face as her mother searched for any words to say to make the pain disappear. Gabriella saw that tears had formed in her mothers eyes as well. Taylor had been like a second daughter to Mrs. Montez since she and Gabriella moved here in Gabriella's freshman year of high school.

"How could this have happened? There must be some mistake. Taylor would never do such a thing, she had far too many people that cared for her," Gabriella's mother stated, all the while knowing this new information was true. She looked to her daughter and daughter's boyfriend to see tears running down each young face. They were so young, all of them. They had their whole lives ahead of them, as did Taylor. Why had she done this? How had no one suspected it?

Gabriella stood up from the couch and from Troy's arms and headed over the where her mother was sitting. She sat down and Troy saw the two Montez women wrap their arms around each other as they cried. No one said anything for what seemed like hours, they all just sat merely thinking their own things about this tragedy.

Nearly an hour later, Troy stood up from the couch and addressed the two women.

"I should get going home now. I need to tell my parents too," he said solemnly.

Gabriella nodded her head in understanding as she stood as well. The two walked to the front hall together before enclosing each other in a hug. They stood hugging each other for a few minutes before finally pulling away. Troy placed on hand on her face, cupping her cheek.

"I love you okay?" Troy told her.

Gabriella nodded, "I love you too Troy."

The two hugged again once more before Troy leaned down to kiss Gabriella with all the emotion either of them could muster.

"I'll call you a little later on," Troy told her as he reached for the door. "Stay strong baby girl. And remember what I told you before… we'll all get through this together."

Gabriella nodded her head in response before giving his hand one last squeeze.

Troy walked out of Gabriella's house and headed to his truck. As he climbed in he saw Gabriella in the window and waved one last time before pulling out of the driveway after she waved back. Gabriella headed back into the living room where her mother was still sitting.

"Why didn't you call me Mija? I could have been there with you, you shouldn't have had to go through that alone," her mother stated quietly.

"I wasn't really thinking about it I guess. I mean… when I first realized something was wrong, I just wanted to get to her. Then to call 9-1-1 to make sure she was going to be okay. After that I couldn't really think. I was just sitting in the hospital only thinking about her and praying she would be okay."

"But after that… you didn't think about telling me then?"

"After I found out, I was heading home when I just felt like I needed to be with the guys. I knew that Troy would take care of me and that he would say all those things to try to convince me that everything would be okay. I knew that he would do exactly what I wanted without me being able to tell him, and I just needed that. Then when I got to Troy's, I realized that I had to tell Chad. I thought it would be better if he heard it from me, or even Troy instead of hearing it from someone. Then we were all just hurting about it and we didn't want to be alone so we just all stayed at Chad's."

"I guess that makes sense. But I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you."

"It's okay," Gabriella said quietly.

"Do her parents know?" Mrs. Montez asked after a few moments.

Gabriella shook her head. "They were out of town for the weekend, visiting Taylor's grandparents' new house. Taylor couldn't go because she said she had too much homework to finish."

"Oh no. Do you know when they get home?"

"Tomorrow night. But Taylor wanted to get all of her homework out of the way the first weekend of Spring Break so that she could enjoy the rest of the week. Or that's what she told us all," Gabriella whispered the last part.

"I'll have to go call them. If they've been trying to call her from wherever they are, they'll be worried sick. They're going to have to find out sometime," Mrs. Montez reasoned.

"Don't do it over the phone though. Just tell them to come home and you need to talk to them about Tay. But don't do it over the phone," Gabriella stressed.

"Okay Mija, I won't. Go on up and have a nice bath to relax and then change into your pajama's," Mrs. Montez said to her daughter before giving her a hug.

Gabriella started up the stairs where she passed a picture of her and Taylor at their first trip to the beach together the summer of freshman year. Gabriella started the water in the bathtub while she let out a few sobs for her best friend.

She spent about half an hour in the bathtub before noticing that the water was getting cool. Grabbing a towel, she stepped out and wrapped it around her petite body. She headed into her large bedroom where she pulled out a comfortable pair of pajamas and changed quickly. She laid down on her bed feeling very tired – despite the fact that she slept in at Chad's - and thought about Taylor before slowly drifting off to sleep.

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