Gabriella had moments in her life where she knew everything had turned to dust. Moments where she had felt like everything she had ever worked for or everything she had ever believed said or heard had been a complete and utter lie and it had all been shredded into pieces. There was a moment where she had broken her arm falling out of a tree house her and Chad had spent days building, and his mother had had her back turned answering the phone and Chad had dared Gabriella to climb up it. She did and she had fallen out of the tree, anyways, her mother and father had shouted at her so much and she was so upset that she had thought at the time she had been heartbroken. Another moment was when she had been told her father had cancer three times, every single time she had felt like her whole world had broken down. The other times were when her and Troy had broken up and her body had even rejected food from her system and for two weeks she was like a walking shell. One of the last times was when she had found out her father was dying and had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and in the heat of the moment she had ran to Troy's house needing him to comfort her and he had been with another girl.
The pain she had felt was unbearable.
She was embarrassed that she hadn't called, she hadn't accepted his calls, she hadn't replied to the texts he had sent her. She was embarrassed that she had just bolted out. But she didn't know what else she could have done. She didn't even know what she had wanted. Well deep down in her heart she had wanted him to have walked in alone, and for him to have took her into his arms and held her while she cried and told him that he loved her and he wanted to get back together with her.
Gabriella thought that she was strong. She thought that she would have been able to make it through it all, through her father's illness and a break up with Troy. She really had underestimated how strong she was as a person because her father's illness she handled for a few months and then the break up with Troy just destroyed her. It was because she had had him there to protect and care for her every day for two years and a half years and he wasn't there after that. She had felt all alone. Like he hadn't cared. Like she had been abandoned. So she had come to a place where nothing seemed like that.
Her legs and arms were floating through the water as if she was attempting to get away from it all. It was something she loved to do. After the breakup with Troy this was somewhere that she would be found. Just swimming, away from it all. She knew that it wouldn't work.
It had been so sunny, so warm that morning but now there was no sign of it. When she had left the house she had just been wearing a vest, the weather had been so warm for the end of January, beginning of February. But when Gabriella looked out of the pool window she just saw grey skies. The small innocent drips of rain had turned into furious droplets, growing in speed and size and Gabriella could hear the bang of them bouncing from the floor. It was apparent that a storm had brewed up the heavens and released its burden onto the world. The thunder was causing loud bangs that Gabriella was trying to ignore and the lightning was illuminating the pool where she was at.
Gabriella had always been terrified of storms since she was a young girl. She had always hated the loud bangs and the rumble of the thunder and she hated the way the lightning illuminated the sky. It was like somebody up in the heavens wanted to punish the world by cleansing it with a storm. Gabriella had always hated it. She had never had any bad experiences of anything like that she just hated the way it made her feel. The last time there was a storm was around 8 months ago. The same weekend where she had gone camping with her friends at the beginning of the summer. It had been so peaceful, the air had been so hot and Gabriella had been sitting in her bikini, she could remember it perfectly because it was also the day that she found out about her father's cancer making a vengeful return. And consequently the day after they had arrived it had stormed.
Gabriella had instantly been afraid, and fortunately she had had Troy to protect her and keep her safe. But now she didn't have that. And that's what was hurting her the most. She sighed deeply and climbed from the pool, immediately feeling cold air brush over her olive skin. She shivered slightly and walked over to where her bag was sitting. She pulled out her cell phone to see a small envelope illuminated on her cell phone. Opening the text she felt familiar butterflies that she knew should have gone by now, and only one person could cause them. That person being Troy Bolton. But her dark brow furrowed a little at the content of the text.
Where are you?
Gabriella re read the text message a few times before she typed in her voicemail number to listen to the voicemail that he had left her. He had called her a few times and texted but this was the first time she had ever responded or even thought about what he could begin to say. She held the phone to her ear and pressed her passcode into the cell and listened to the hypnotic sound of his voice.
"Hi it's me. Look Gab I really need to talk to you. Just call me when you get this. Bye."
Gabriella felt tears cloud her vision and she felt the need to listen to previous voicemails he had sent her. When they hadn't been 'friendly'. Gabriella knew that if she had just met a stranger and they would have listened to that message, then they would have just immediately thought that they would have been friends. No-one would have guessed that they had a 2 and a half year relationship where Gabriella had been so in love that she didn't know how she would begin to live without him. And now they had broken up she felt completely alone. She didn't feel like she was living, just existing. She listened to a voicemail he had sent her around 8 months ago.
"Baby, it's me. Look I'm running a little late. I slept through my alarm like a total douche. But I'll be around 15 minutes. Love you."
Gabriella couldn't actually bring herself to delete the voicemails or the texts he had sent her. Nobody had known that Gabriella still had a folder in her cell phone with some of the texts that Troy had sent her, telling her how brave she was and how much he loved her. But she didn't have that security anymore; she didn't know how well she was doing at anything. Infact if she were to say anything she would say that everything was falling apart around her. She knew that she should have been at home at that moment in time, spending all of the time that she could with her father. She knew he was getting weaker day by day and she knew that death would come to him inevitably, weather it was in two weeks like the doctor had informed or whether it was after or before that.
Reluctantly Gabriella took the next half hour to take a shower and get dressed again before she walked outside into the roaring storm. The wind was howling against the trees and Gabriella couldn't remember when she'd seen a storm this bad. But then again she couldn't remember a time when she had felt this bad. Gabriella took a deep breath and began to fight her fear as each leg carried the other into the vengeful storm. The downpour was thrashing down on Gabriella's small frame, making her even more soaked than what she was when she was in the pool.
"GABRIELLA!" A husky voice boomed into her ears, she turned around quickly and had to narrow her mocha orbs. And then realization dawned on her. It was him. He was here. She couldn't deal with that. Gabriella attempted to pretend that she hadn't seen his flawless face. His head was shielded by a grey beanie which she guessed that it would be so it didn't get wet, she had always made fun of how much of a girl he was with his hair. His black leather jacket which gave him a ragged look was zipped up to the top and he was wearing dark jeans as he ran towards her. "GAB!"
Gabriella still attempted to walk away while the rain was still pelting down and thunder crashed in the sky causing her to jump as she still continued walking away. "TROY JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" She yelled back over the sound of the heavy precipitation.
"GABRIELLA WE NEED TO TALK!" Troy roared, around 2 feet behind her now. "Gab come on." Troy's large hand grasped Gabriella's shoulder and turned her around. It seemed as though lightning was striking through his own orbs at the desperation that was circled around his irises.
"What do you want Troy?" She shrugged her petite shoulders as lightning thrashed down onto the ground, causing Gabriella to jump again in fear under Troy's arm. Troy gave Gabriella a knowing look.
"Gab, come on I know you don't like storms and I just wanna talk to you. We can take my car and I'll bring you right back here, okay?" Troy attempted to reassure her. Gabriella looked up into his cyan orbs and she could have sworn that she saw the slightest hint of love in there but it was soon replaced by desperation. But she knew she would have imagined it anyways.
"Fine." She replied bluntly and walked over to the black Chevrolet corvette and placed her belongings in the trunk of the car. And reluctantly she opened the door and sat down in on the cream leather seat. Troy opened his own door and sat inside and she was greeted by the musky homely scent that belonged to Troy and had made Gabriella fall in love with him all that time ago.
"You cold?" Troy asked as he rubbed his large hands together to produce some warmth.
Gabriella shrugged her small shoulders. "A little." She commented before Troy reached over to the dial to crank up the heat which caused Gabriella to shiver a little. "Where are we going?" She asked in a timid voice.
"Somewhere we can talk." He commented and turned the key in the ignition making Gabriella hear the roar of the engine. Troy expertly drove through the streets the rain was still pelting on the windscreen of the car so he was leant forward with his eyes scrunched trying to see through the treacherous conditions.
"I always told you, that you needed glasses." Gabriella commented, smirking slightly before she turned away again and focused her mocha orbs on the window which was drenched with water, she heard Troy chuckle slightly before his azure orbs drilled into the side of his head. But she couldn't look at him. She felt like if she looked at him then she would break. That she would finally succumb to the pain that had been haunting her for the past 24 hours, but she couldn't.
"Yeah but I told you I wouldn't look hot with glasses as I do without them." He replied cockily, she still couldn't fathom how the two of them had been broken up for just over 6 months and she could still talk to him like they were still dating, how she would always throw playful jabs at him and he would reply cockily about the way he looked.
Gabriella giggled a little. "Funny." Gabriella shivered slightly as droplets from her hair were forming and dripping onto her skin, she reached around to warm herself.
"And I told you that you have cold blood." Troy chuckled a little before reaching over to the dial again and turned it up slightly.
Gabriella was happy that she was here, with him. After all after the break up they had spent little time together just the two of them. It was too awkward and even though they had said that they would still be really close well best friends it was still hard for her. Chad had warned her that he thought it wasn't really a good idea them spending alot of time together because they were in a relationship for two and a half years and they needed breathing space to get over each the other one.
"Troy where are we going?" Gabriella asked in a timid voice. She was afraid of what was going to happen. What Troy was going to do, was he going to tell her that he hated her? Or was he going to tell her that there was absolutely nothing between the two of them anymore because she knew that there was no way in hell that she could handle that. Not on top of everything else.
"Here." Troy replied finally, as the black car took a sharp left into a car park. Gabriella looked around aimlessly. "Coffee on me?" Troy gestured before Gabriella looked into his cyan eyes. Gabriella then looked down to her hand and began twiddling her thumb and forefinger around her little finger on the other hand. "Come on Gab please." Troy's hand reached over to her thigh giving it a slight squeeze causing electricity to flow at the impact point. Gabriella looked up into his pleading eyes. "Please?"
Gabriella nodded agreeing slightly before opening the door and stepping out into the pouring rain. And timidly following Troy into Starbucks, normally when they were dating times like this he would have put his arm around her while walking somewhere or taken her small hand into his and their steps would have fallen into sync. But she had to keep realising that they weren't a couple and the reason he had probably brought her here was because they never would be again. She stood next to him as he looked up at the board. God why wouldn't he just spit it out? His stunning head turned to look at her before she blurted out the first thing that came out of her mouth, "Mocha double latte, no foam." The two of them spoke in unison before Gabriella turned away bashfully smirking.
"Go sit down, I'll be there in a minute." Troy instructed her. Gabriella nodded slightly and bit down on her bottom lip, anticipating what was going to happen. What was he going to say to her? And then it was as if she was deaf to every other sound not the music that was playing in the coffee shop, or not the freshmen girls who were talking next to her, talking about things that they probably shouldn't have even known about at that age let alone spoke about. She could just hear his footsteps echoing from the ceramic floor. He sat down next to here in the booth and smiled tightly at her.
"There..." Troy slid the coffee towards her before taking the lid from what Gabriella knew was a frappucino, as they were Troy's favourite he dipped the green straw into it and started to eat the whipped cream that covered the liquid.
"Thanks." Gabriella responded and lifted the coffee to her lips. She couldn't take it anymore. Every single time she was around him she felt a physical pull to him, like a magnet and it was as if she craved physical contact with him, just a small touch. Back when they were together it was what she needed to get through the day, and even throughout the time they were broken up sometimes he would give her a small hug or brush his lips against her forehead, but the time that she had been with him since he picked her up he hadn't done anything of the sort. And Gabriella knew that whatever was coming, it was bad.
"It's storming." Troy commented, maybe he noticed the awkward nature too.
"Is that why you came for me?" Gabriella asked before he halted his current actions with the green straw in his mouth and stared right in Gabriella's eyes. "Because there's a storm?"
Troy placed the green straw in his mouth again before pulling it out in a sexual way, which made him look so desirable to Gabriella. "I won't lie, if I say that I didn't think of you when it started storming and our first date, but I wanted to talk to you anyways."
Gabriella remembered their first date, it was probably one of the memories with Troy that stuck out the most. The one that she loved the most. Because it was storming and she had been afraid. Gabriella shrugged, wanting to make it hard for him. Gabriella had played games with Troy before they started going out by playing hard to get a little and making him jealous at times but as soon as he had asked her out she found herself completely and utterly susceptible to the infamous Troy Bolton charm. "What about?"
"Gab come on you know what about." Troy replied bluntly, he took another gulp of his drink before pushing it to the side and placing his hand on her thin arm causing Gabriella to stare down at the impact point, her glance then shifted up to his eyes. "About last night."
Gabriella immediately began to babble. "Look I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been there and then your mom, started talking and then you came in. I just, I apologize. Really."
Troy again placed his large hand on Gabriella's arm again causing her to stop rambling. "Gab, stop. You're babbling." He then flashed her, his million dollar smile. "You know I hate it when you babble."
"Right, sorry." She apologized. "Are you?" She began before taking a deep breath, she was sure she could feel her heart breaking inside of her. "Are you dating her?"
Troy reached up to the back of his neck and he started to scratch it uncontrollably, the thing that he did when he was most uncomfortable. She knew everything about him and from the body language that he was submitting; she knew that it wasn't good. "No I'm not."
"Oh." Gabriella responded before running her fingers over the rim of her latte. "Um." She felt tears cloud her vision. She knew this was the end. It was like their break up all over again. "Are you gonna?" Gabriella couldn't look up from her latte, which she had barely touched, she was so sure she could see her own reflection and she mentally kicked herself when a tear fell from her face into her cup. This went unnoticed by Troy.
"I don't know." Gabriella let out a deep shaky breath. This was something she hadn't wanted to hear. Inevitably she knew Troy was going to move on, he had proven that he had gotten over her quicker than she was getting over him, the break up had still felt raw to her. She had depended on him with her life and he wasn't there. And she knew that Troy was going to start dating, she knew what he was like she knew that he had needs and she knew that Troy was a sexual kind of guy so a part of her thought that he had already been sleeping around. She knew she had to let go. But it was just hard. "I really don't know. I just thought I should talk to you about it."
Gabriella let out a sad laugh before looking up at Troy; fortunately no more tears had fallen so he hadn't known about the stray ones that had fallen. "What is there to say?" She asked not meaning to be rude to him. She just didn't want him to hurt her anymore than he already had.
"Gab, why were you at my house?" He asked her bluntly and took a drink. "And if I know you I know that you're gonna say something like why am I not allowed to be at your house? But Gabriella it's been 6 months and you haven't been to my house once. Why?" There wasn't any anger or maliciousness laced into his voice, she had just known Troy for so long that they were honest with one another he didn't need to 'beat around the bush' with her.
"Um, well last night. I found out that my dad has less than two weeks to live." She added a small laugh, not that it was anything but funny but sometimes she had found it funny that so much had happened in her life in such a short amount of time. "And I didn't know what to do. I just, Chad wasn't there and I didn't want to go to Chad not Sharpay not anybody else. You were the first person I thought of and I just. I really don't know what I was hoping to accomplish. Clearly I didn't accomplish anything."
Immediately Troy circled his arms around Gabriella's shoulders and pushed her head against his chest, as if he was comforting her. His chin rested on the top of her head but she vowed to herself that she wouldn't let the silent tears fall. She couldn't. There was no point. Crying wasn't going to bring Troy back to her and it wasn't going to cure her father. "Gabriella, I'm so, so sorry."
Gabriella brought her head from the safety of Troy's chest to see him staring at her with concern and sympathy. "I tried to call you." He answered.
"I know. I just, I couldn't answer it. I just, I felt like I needed you and then I saw you with the new girl and I just, I didn't know what to think. I didn't even know if I wanted to talk to you." She replied honestly.
"I'm sorry." Troy said sincerely. The inferno in his sapphire spheres was overpowering to Gabriella. He then smiled sadly at Gabriella; she knew that he didn't know what to say to her. And she knew that he would probably be thinking of what he could possibly say or do to make things better. "I'm here you know that though right?" Gabriella nodded. "You just call me and I'll be there. I've told you I'm here throughout everything. I promise."
Gabriella smiled a watery smile. Promises were a lie Gabriella believed that. "I know. Thanks. Did Chad not tell you?"
Troy shook his head intensively. "Not a word. He seemed bugged when we talked this morning but he said he was just tired, but nothing like that. Haven't you talked to him?"
Gabriella shook her head, and looked to the floor almost in shame. "I um, I got home this morning talked with my mom and dad this morning I woke up and went to the pool and here I am with you."
Troy was looking down into his drink as if he was searching for something. But instead he looked back into Gabriella's mocha orbs. "And how are you feeling about all of this?" This was the thing that made things so hard for Gabriella, the fact he was kind and sincere towards her and he showed a caring nature towards her, made it hard for her to even think of getting over him. How had he done it so fast? Was she doing something wrong? Something different?
"I don't know. I just, don't know." Gabriella shrugged pushing away the coffee that was now probably freezing cold. "So when I know, I'll let you know." She added trying to lighten the situation.
Gabriella suddenly felt a small buzz erupt against her thigh, causing her to jump a little. Her thin eyebrows narrowed at the text that had been sent before they became wide and she jumped out of her seat, hearing Troy run after her but she didn't care. She ran back out into the bouncing rain. Tears were streaming down her face and they blended in with the rain.
"GABRIELLA! WHAT IS IT?" Troy called as he ran after her.
"It's my dad. You have to take me home."