The next day, Troy called Chad to tell him the big news.
"Hey man, what's up?" Chad asked picking up the phone.
"Chad, you won't believe it!" Troy shouted.
"Uh, I can't believe it if I don't hear it!" Chad said.
"Chad, Gabi is my new neighbor," Troy said.
"What?" Chad asked.
"Gabi lives two houses down from me," Troy said.
"Dude, this is great! You and her can make up now!" Chad said.
"Chad no, she doesn't seem to happy to see me. You should have seen her face at the ski lodge," Troy said.
"Ski lodge; what ski lodge?" Chad asked.
Troy explained what had happened when he went to get Rae.
"Whoa man, that was harsh of her," Chad said.
"Her son is starting at East High next week," Troy said.
"Gabi has a son? I thought she'd never get over you!" Chad exclaimed.
"She found another guy, but he's really nice. His name is Carlos Armando," Troy explained.
"Wow, so Gabi moved on…" Chad said, obviously trying to process the meaning of it all.
"Yeah, but so did I, and now I have Rachelle and Rae and the life I always dreamed of," Troy said.
"Except Gabi isn't in it the way you want her to be," Chad said. He had always known that Troy still liked Gabi because she had been his first true love.
"Chad, stop it. I'm married now. I can't like another woman, especially since she and I are at distance now," Troy said.
"At distance; what are you talking about? She's starting teaching at East High when school starts back up next week!" Chad shouted into the phone.
"WHAT?" Troy asked.
He knew that Gabi's son was starting at East High, but he didn't know that she was going to be teaching there.
"How did you know that and I didn't?" Troy asked.
"Well, Gabi called Taylor two weeks ago and said she was moving back because Matsui offered her a teaching job. Apparently, she accepted," Chad shrugged.
"And you didn't bother to tell me this before?" Troy asked in an irritated tone.
"Hey, you can't blame me. I… I forgot ok. You know I have a short attention span!" Chad shouted angrily into the phone.
Troy chuckled; Chad was always forgetting things.
"Sorry man, it's just, this is happening so fast. Gabi moves next door, I find out she's a wife and mother, and now she and I will be working at the same building. It's going to be awkward Chad, and I just want to patch things up with her," Troy confessed.
"Well then what are you waiting for? Go over there and start… patching," Chad pressed.
"Chad, I don't know if I can, I mean, I want to, but then again, it would be so weird," Troy sighed.
"Well man, you can either take it, or you can leave it. The choice is yours," Chad said before hanging up.
Troy hung up the phone, thinking about the last thing that Chad had said.
Later that night at the Bolton residence during dinner, Chad's words floated through Troy's mind again, 'You can either take it, or you can leave it. The choice is yours…'
"Dad, Dad, are you ok?" Rae asked, noticing the blank expression on her father's face.
"Oh, yeah; I'm fine," Troy lied.
"Are you sure Troy? You've barely touched your dinner," Rachelle said with an uncertain tone.
"I'm fine, really; I'm just… fine," Troy gulped. He hated lying, especially to Rachelle and Rae.
He'd only done it once before, but that had been about something completely different; nowhere near Troy's high school sweetheart.
At the Armando residence, Gabi and family were chatting about how East High was starting up in a week.
"So mom, I was thinking about joining the Scholastic Decathlon," Bryce said before taking a bit of his dinner.
"That's my boy," Carlos said, ruffling his son's hair.
When Bryce had told his parents when he was eight that he wanted to be a teacher, they encouraged him to do his best.
"Sounds great Bryce," Gabi said softly.
"You ok mom? You seem a little… off," Bryce said, his voice brimming with concern.
His mother was usually so talkative and bubbly, but ever since Troy and Rae had come over that afternoon, she'd gone quiet and dull; in other words, very un-Gabi-like.
"I'm fine Bryce, just a little nervous," Gabi half-lied.
"Gabs, there's no need for you to be nervous; you're a great teacher! Besides, Taylor is working there and Chad's the assistant coach. You already have two friends there," Carlos said.
"You're right Carlos, it's just, I haven't seen that school in ages. I'm nervous that the kids will be disrespectful or something," Gabi said.
"How could anyone be disrespectful to you?" Carlos asked.
Gabi smiled softly as her husband placed a sweet kiss on her cheek.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A/N: I know it's been forever since I've updated this, but since Lissical came out with her newest story "Time Flies" it inspired me to update this story! More updates will probably be coming soon.