A Change of Plans

Chapter Two

Saturday 16 November

It was ironic that not until the morning after informing her daughter she had finally thought of a possible way out of the contract. Troy's reaction to the news had given her hope. Maria knew that Troy was the type of person that didn't let any obstacle get in the way of what was truly important to him, and she could see in his eyes the night before that he had by no means accepted that his relationship with Gabriella was over.

She didn't want to push him or Gabriella into anything they would later come to regret but if their relationship was as strong as it seemed the night before then maybe there was hope after all. She went to the courthouse first thing in the morning and obtained and signed the required documents before hiding them somewhere she thought Gabriella should be able to find it only with a concerted effort. If this was to work at all then it had to seem like she hadn't been involved in planning it.

In fact she was still in two minds whether she wanted Troy and Gabriella to find and use this solution. She didn't know if her daughter would be any better off with this solution than she would be married to Eduardo.

Eduardo was a nice boy, she'd known him and his family well before she'd left Alejandro. If it wasn't for Gabriella's feelings for Troy she believed that her daughter could be happy with him though she didn't approve of her daughter not having the freedom to choose her own husband. Eduardo had a beautiful home and a successful business. He was well respected in the community and was definitely able to take care of Gabriella financially, it was quite a good match as far as arranged marriages went Maria told herself knowing she was trying to convince herself it was true rather than actually believing it.

Troy was also a very nice boy, but he was so young, there was no guarantee that the feelings he and Gabriella had for one another would last. Most high school relationships were very short lived and she had no way to clearly tell the potential depth and longevity of their emotions. Statistically the chances of her daughter being at least moderately happy long term may be better with Eduardo no matter what short term heartache it caused. Maria then hid the document more carefully, it would now take an extreme effort for the young couple to find that there was a possible choice other than to let Gabriella marry Eduardo.

Gabriella spent the day lying in bed crying on and off. She didn't even have the energy to fight with Maria about the contract or about her having banned her from seeing Troy. Maria tried in vain to get her daughter to talk to come downstairs and eat. Gabriella refused to even talk to her mother and when Maria took food up that evening it sat on her bedside table untouched.

Gabriella lay staring at the ceiling for hours as the day and night slowly passed, almost catatonic with grief. She felt like her life was over.

Troy on the other hand had spent the day trying to work off his anger at the situation. He'd run ten miles that morning and pumped weights until all of his muscles ached. While his parents were out shopping he'd attempted to practice free throws but had been unable to sink a single basket. He collapsed beside the backyard court crying in frustration, rage and grief.

Jack and Lucille came home to find Troy lying beside the court unmoving. Thinking he'd been injured they raced over to find him sleeping with tears still running down his face. Quickly running her hands gently over his scalp searching for lumps while visually looking for signs of injury she was relieved to find nothing and to feel him stir under her touch. "I can't find anything" she whispered to her husband, "I think he's just exhausted himself."

Jack nodded and bent to place his hand on Troy's shoulder with the intent of shaking him awake.

Knowing that Troy had spent most of the night crying and had been up in the middle of the night pacing around his room Lucille shook her head and intercepted Jack's hand preventing him from waking the clearly distressed teenager. Instead she sat quietly running her hands through her son's hair hoping he would settle into peaceful sleep.

When he awoke Troy just lay there half asleep enjoying the feel of his hair being played with for a moment. Waking up fully and realising that it was his mother and not his girlfriend broke his heart all over again.

"Do you feel like talking about it?" Lucille asked gently knowing he was awake.

"No" Troy answered with a sob, refusing to look at her.

"Troy is this something I need to know whether you want to tell me or not." His mother said firmly forcing him to look at her directly.

"No Mama, I'm not in any danger or in trouble in any way" he replied in an emotionally deadened voice.

"Promise me Troy" Lucille demanded unconvinced.

Troy rolled his eyes half-heartedly "I promise Mama, I'm not in trouble, I haven't broken the law, I'm not about to be expelled or kicked off the team. I'm not sick or hurt. There's nothing you can fix this time Mama."

Lucille backed off now she knew that Troy was alright other than being upset. "You're sure there's nothing I can do?" She asked trying to talk calmly.

"No"

"Is there anything anyone can do to fix this?" she asked hesitantly.

"No"

Troy's monosyllables and avoidance of her gaze finally convinced his mother to leave him be, he clearly wasn't going to tell her what the matter was. She slowly got to her feet "Please Troy if there's anything you need you will let me know wont you?"

Troy didn't answer, and his mother stood there hesitating unsure what else to say, Troy gave no indication that he noticed her standing there so she sighed and slowly returned to the house where Jack stood in the doorway waiting. She shook her head, silently telling him that she didn't know what had upset their son.

Troy pulled his cell-phone out of his pocket and hesitated before dialling Gabriella's number. He'd been calling her all day and she hadn't responded at all. Troy was hoping that the lack of response meant that her mother had confiscated her phone to prevent them from talking. The idea of Gabriella not wanting to talk to him nearly made him physically ill. Sighing he returned the phone to his pocket without calling, maybe if Mrs Montez had Gabriella's phone she would give it back to Gabriella if she thought he'd given up calling.

Taylor frowned as she hung up the telephone. She had called Gabriella that morning trying to organise to get together that day. They hadn't spent much time lately just hanging out, between classes and college applications, the yearbook committee and her student body president duties Taylor had been incredibly busy these past few weeks. But today her homework was all done and the family commitments she'd had had fallen through she wanted to relax and catch up with her best friend.

Her best friend who wasn't answering her calls.

Taylor was annoyed, it really wasn't like Gabriella to be so rude and thoughtless, unless she and Troy were enjoying some alone time but Taylor didn't believe that their relationship would actually reach that point for quite a while yet the pace things were progressing. Thinking her friend may be having trouble with her cell phone she decided to call the house.

"Hi Mrs Montez, this is Taylor, may I please speak with Gabriella?"

"Oh Hello Taylor, Gabriella isn't too well. I'll go up and see if she's awake and feeling like talking. Excuse me for a moment." Gabriella's mother said putting the phone down and going upstairs to Gabriella's room.

"Gabi, Taylor's on the telephone" Maria said softly.

Gabriella lay there ignoring her mother.

Thinking she was asleep Maria gave Gabriella's shoulder a gentle shake "Gabi, Mija, wake up, Taylor's on the phone for you."

"I don't want to talk to anyone" Gabriella answered listlessly.

"Gabriella please, you need to get up and out of this room. Go down and talk to your friend. It will make you feel better. You're only making yourself more depressed by lying here doing nothing, feeling sorry for yourself." Maria tried to encourage Gabriella to act.

"No, I can't talk to her yet. I need time to think this through" Gabriella protested.

"What's to think through? You will finish the semester with your friends, graduate early and then we go to Cuba for Christmas and the wedding" Maria said plainly.

"And my life ends" Gabriella concluded. "I need time to come to terms with that before I face everyone."

"Stop being so melodramatic. Your life isn't ending. Now come downstairs and speak with Taylor. She's waiting for you." Maria said exasperated.

"No, I can't" Gabriella said stubbornly not making any attempt to get up. "The life I know is ending. Nothing will ever be the same again."

Maria hesitated then left the room angrily.

"Hello Taylor, Gabriella's not feeling well enough to come to the phone right now. She will call you later."

"Thank you Mrs Montez. I'm sorry for disturbing you" replied Taylor as politely as she could. She was a little puzzled. Clearly Gabriella hadn't been asleep because her mother had been gone to long not to have had a conversation with her, and Mrs Montez had sounded upset when she returned, almost angry. Either Gabriella was very sick indeed or she had refused to come to the phone or had an argument with her mother and not been allowed to speak with her. Each of these possibilities seemed equally unlikely. Taylor didn't like being kept out of the loop like this. She decided to keep trying Gabriella's cell and hopefully get an answer. In the mean time she called Martha and Kelsi to see if either of them was interested in a trip to the mall.

At nine thirty that night Troy asked his parent's permission to go out for a bit. He jogged over to Gabriella's and carefully tried to let himself into the back yard. Fortunately he remembered that he hadn't fixed the hinges on the gate leading to the back yard recently and it would make too much noise to open. He reached into his back pack and lubricated the hinges with cooking spray he'd liberated from his mother's kitchen last year and kept hidden in his room for this purpose. He knew that the spray wouldn't fix the hinges for anywhere near as long as proper metal lubricants could, but didn't want to risk Mrs Montez noticing the distinctive smell of WD40. Holding his breath in anxiety he slowly opened the gate and entering the yard closed it behind him.

He made his way up the tree to Gabriella's balcony being extra careful to make sure he didn't make any noise. He climbed over the railing onto the balcony and tiptoed over to peek thought the French doors to see if Gabriella was in there alone.

Maria was standing beside the bed with her back to the window and Troy quickly moved out of sight leaning against the wall of the house. He could hear Maria speaking.

"Gabriella you must eat something. Please Mija, don't do this. It won't be so bad. Eduardo is a good man, and you really liked him the summer we spent in Cuba."

Gabriella just lay looking at the wall choosing not to respond in any way to her mother's comments. There was no point, her mother wouldn't listen to her arguments when she'd tried earlier anyway.

Troy was upset that Gabriella didn't argue about the upcoming marriage. He snuck a quick look through the window and saw that Gabriella was lying facing away from him and thought that maybe he hadn't heard whatever she had said but then realised that her mother was acting like she hadn't heard anything either.

"I'll leave these here in case you feel like eating later then" Maria said putting a plate and bottle on the bedside table before walking to the window and closing the curtains, almost giving Troy a heart attack.

He froze and luckily Maria failed to notice him standing outside on the balcony in the dark.

Minutes passed and Troy realised that he had no way of telling whether Gabriella's mother had left the room until he saw the light from her bedroom come on. As quietly as he could he took the key from around his neck and unlocked Gabriella's French doors and stepped into the room hoping that Gabriella was not getting changed. And that she would be happy to see him.

Gabriella was still lying facing the wall and either hadn't heard him come in or was pretending that she hadn't. Not wanting to startle her Troy softly called her name.

Gabriella rolled over to face him with a look of astonishment on her face. She jumped up and threw herself into his arms.

"Troy how on earth did you get here?" she asked.

"You gave me a key last year." He reminded her holding up the key which he then slipped back over his head and tucked it into his shirt.

"Oh! I forgot about that."

"You forgot something!?" Troy said half teasingly half worried. Gabriella never forgot anything normally.

Gabriella didn't answer but buried her face in his chest and hugged him as if she'd never let him go.

"I didn't think you'd want to come back" she said uncertainly.

"Gabriella?" Troy cupped her face with his hand gently pulling it up so he could look into her eyes. The sadness he saw there made his heart ache.

"I tried to ring you all day but you've had your phone turned off. Your Mum told me last night that I wasn't allowed to see you outside of school, otherwise I would have been here before this."

"I haven't seen my phone all day I think Mum has it. She said you'd told her that you agreed that it would be best not to see each other anymore so I'd have a chance to get over you before the w-we-wedding" Gabriella sobbed starting to cry.

"No, she told me that it would be best for both of us if I didn't see you anymore but I refused to agree. She threatened to ring Mom and Dad if I didn't leave. So I went but I love you Gabriella, I want you in my life forever even if we can only be friends." Troy tried to reassure his distraught girlfriend.

"You're breaking up with me?" she wailed.

"SHHH! I don't want to break up, but how can I date someone else's wife? The way I see it I can be your boyfriend until you get married or I can be your best friend for as long as you want me to be. I mean it when I say that I love you Baby and I want to be with you, but if I can't I don't want to lose your friendship as well" Troy told her sadly.

"You will lose me either way, Troy. I won't be coming back to Albuquerque after the wedding. Mum's being transferred again too so I won't even be able to visit" Gabriella told him sadly.

Troy sighed plopping down onto the bed with Gabriella still in his arms. "What are we going to do then?" he asked dejectedly.

"I don't know Troy. I want to be with you. Please don't break up with me" Gabriella begged.

"Oh baby!" Troy said kissing her ardently. "I love you."

Gabriella kissed him back more passionately than normal and they lay there kissing for quite some time.

"Make love to me" Gabriella asked breathlessly.

Troy sat up suddenly inadvertently almost pushing Gabriella off his lap. "What!?" he croaked.

"Please Troy make love to me. I want you to be the first" she pleaded.

"Gabriella?" Troy breathed.

"Please Troy"

"We need to think this through properly." Troy said though part of him was kicking himself for not taking her up on that offer.

"You don't want to?" Gabriella asked incredulously, hurt by his rejection.

"Baby please. This is too big a thing to do on the spur of the moment. There are good reasons we haven't had sex before this" Troy reminded her.

Gabriella started to cry again.

"Baby please don't cry" Troy begged. I'm not saying no I just want to be sure you've considered all the reasons not to do this first."

"What reasons Troy?" Gabriella asked almost angrily.

"Well for starters I don't have any protection. And your mum's in the next room if she caught us she'll tell mum and dad and they'll make sure we don't see each other again." Troy listed his biggest concerns.

Gabriella slumped in Troy's arms "You're right she conceded sadly.

"That doesn't mean that we can't though, just not here now. I'll buy something tomorrow and we could find a place to be alone in the next week or so if you truly still want to, but I think you should really think about it carefully. This guy your dad has set you up to marry will probably be angry if you aren't a virgin. He might treat you better if we don't..."

"I don't care I want my first time to be for love" Gabriella argued.

Troy sighed "But would it really be for love Gabriella? I mean we've never even really fooled around and if we had sex now it would be out of desperation and anger that we're about to be separated not because we really feel that we are ready to take that step in our relationship. I love you and I know you love me, but you're not choosing to have sex because you love me. You're choosing to do it because you're angry, and scared." Part of him couldn't believe he was trying to talk her out of this.

"You really don't want to make love to me?" Gabriella asked devastated.

Troy gave her a disbelieving look "Gabriella I'm a teenage boy in love with one of the hottest girls in the world. Of course I want to make love. I've known for a long time that I wanted you to be my first when we were ready, and I'd hoped you'd be my only. But I just want what's best for you. I would hate myself if he punished you for making love with me, or used the fact that we had been lovers to prevent you from seeing me after you married him." Troy begged her to understand.

"Maybe you're right, but I want at least once in my life to make love with someone I truly love and who really loves me instead of a man who arranged a marriage contract with me to improve his career opportunities" Gabriella said stubbornly.

"If you still feel that way next September, and if I'm still the person you love then I'll come and visit you one weekend at Stanford and we can make love then" Troy compromised.

"You promise?"

"I promise I'll come wherever you are and do whatever you want. If you want to make love we will, if you just need a friend then I'll be the best friend that I can be. I love you Gabriella" Troy said hugging her tightly

"Okay but I don't want to break up yet. I want to spend as much time with you as possible before we leave" Gabriella demanded, deciding not to tell him that she didn't know if she would be going to Stanford.

"That I am happy to do. I love you Gabriella and I'm going to miss you like crazy."

Tears ran down his face as Gabriella began sobbing again and he held her tightly rubbing his hand up and down her back trying to give her comfort as he cried with her. They sat like this for about an hour before Troy remembered that his parents knew that he was out and would be expecting him home. He offered to sneak out again and come back later but Gabriella told him not to. She knew Troy was exhausted and wanted him to stay home and sleep, and didn't want to risk having her mother hear him coming and going. She was already sleepy and thought that she would probably be able to sleep now that they'd talked. She promised to call him from the house phone if she couldn't sleep and he would come straight over, then he quickly kissed her goodbye and left locking the French doors behind him.