Thank you so much for the love from all my reviewers. I don't own anything, even though I wish I did, now without further ado, East High Chronicles.

Happiness and Fear

Troy walked out the school that day in a daze. He couldn't believe what happened, Gabriella completely ignored him the rest of the day and ran out of the building soon as the bell rang. He tried calling after her but she completely ignored him and made her way off of school grounds as soon as possible. 'Kinda like what I did to her, when I found out Taylor's mom had passed' thought Troy to himself.

He had made the decision weeks ago to break up with Gabriella, even before Taylor told him they couldn't be friends anymore. He knew in his heart that he had to be true to his feelings about Taylor; it was the only fair thing to do for everyone involved. Troy made his way to his truck, hopped in and tried to call Taylor on his phone, but all he got was her voice mail: Hey it's Taylor! I'm not here right now but leave a message after the beep and I will think about getting back to you when I get a chance. Until then, God Bless.

Troy couldn't help but smile when he heard her voice; it was like an overwhelming since of warmth and love went through his entire body. He knew what he had to do, it was now or never. Troy turned the ignition on, and made his way out of the school's parking lot. He traveled the path that had become so familiar to him over the past couple of years, the path that lead straight to Gabriella's.

Gabriella was in her room curled up in a ball. She had cried so much there were no more tears coming out of her eyes, but her body was still experiencing the motions. 'You should have seen this coming' she thought to herself. 'Troy started becoming distant months ago; you just didn't want to accept it' she thought to herself. Gabriella grabbed the bear that Troy won her when they had gone to the local fair on one of their first dates. She clutched the stuffed animal to her chest with extra force, her heart hurt so badly, and all she wanted was for the pain to stop.

"Gabriella" she heard someone say her name softly. She turned her head immediately to the door and saw Troy standing there with a solemn look on his face. Without waiting for her to say anything he just walked in, closed the door behind him, and sat on the edge of the bed with his back turned away from her.

"I guess you made your decision than" said Gabriella sitting up in an Indian style, while still holding the bear to her. She looked at the back of Troy's head and she heard him starting to cry silently.

Troy shook his head yes, but didn't turn around to look at Gabriella. He was embarrassed about the display he was putting on, but it was like he couldn't control his own body or emotions. There was an awkward silence between the two, not to mention there was a physical and almost tangible emotional distance that seemed to be growing with every passing second.

"Just get it over with Troy" said Gabriella with a trembling voice. "Do what you came to do".

Troy stood up and wiped the tears from his eyes; he turned around and looked directly into to Gabriella's eyes. "It's not that simple" he said quietly.

"It is that simple Troy, you made up your mind…..so let's hear it".

"I…I have to explain why. Can you let me do that?" he said.

"Fine." said Gabriella, clutching the bear more tightly. She watched as Troy started to pace around her room, she could see he was trying to find the right words to use, but the words really didn't matter to her. She knew her heart would break no matter what he said.

"Gabriella, I love you" he started off, "I love you so much that it hurts for me to do this,…this way. You were the best thing to ever happen to me, you opened up this new world of possibilities I never knew existed and these feelings and emotions I didn't even know I had inside".

"Then why are you breaking up with me" she said with a quivering voice, not daring to look at him.

"Because the love I feel for you now, is totally different from how I use to feel about you" he said.

She looked at him questioningly. She really didn't understand how his love for her seemed to decrease over the years but her love for him only increased with each passing day.

"Let me explain…..Gabriella you are all I thought about when we started dating, it was like you took over my life in a good way. All I wanted to do was make you happy and seeing you smile, seeing you sing, always bought joy to my life. Knowing that you were happy, made me happy and it made me love you" she said.

"Then what changed?" she asked looking directly into his eyes.

"I kissed Taylor…and something inside me changed, it was like I woke up from a daze. For the first time in my life I felt….I felt….alive. It's like in an instant she changed me" said Troy with unfocused eyes.

"Like I use to do for you" said Gabriella breaking Troy out of his trance.

"Yeah….like you use to do for me" said Troy looking sad again, "but magnified times a hundred, that's what Taylor does for me."

There was another awkward silence between the two. Gabriella was trying to compose herself after listening to what Troy had to say. "This hurts more than what I thought it would" she thought she said to herself but she ended up saying it out loud.

Troy sighed out loud. "I know it hurts Gabriella, but you have to know that it was never my intention to hurt you…not like this. I wanted to be honest with you but I was still trying to figure out my feelings for you and Taylor. Once I knew what I wanted and what was best for me, I was trying to figure out the best way to go about telling you…and then everything just blew up".

"So what is the best decision for you Troy" said Gabriella quietly.

"I have to break up with you Gabriella, or else….or else I can never know what could be between Taylor and me" said Troy.

Gabriella took a deep breath as tears started to fall down her eyes. "Well I guess you made your decision then, see it wasn't so hard" she stated quietly.

"Look Gabriella, I just want to know that we can still be friends, and I want to know that one day you will forgive me….."

"Troy there just words. Once your done here your gonna run straight to her, your gonna run straight to Taylor!" yelled Gabriella, getting off her bed to stand in front of Troy.

"Gabriella please listen…." said Troy.

"No Troy you listen! I love you….I love you so much, that even though you're hurting me more than you'll ever know,…. I want you to be happy. If…..if….Taylor is what makes you happy…. then go for it Troy. I would rather see you happy with her, than see you miserable with me" said Gabriella while she wiped tears away from her eyes.

"Do you mean that?" asked Troy starring into her eyes intently.

"Yes, I can't stand the fact that I know you don't want to be with me anymore, but you deserve happiness, and a shot at true love, and it's obvious I can't give that to you, and I think I've known that for some time. That's probably why I was fighting so hard to keep you" she said quietly.

Troy just suddenly grabbed Gabriella into a tight embrace. He placed his head against her and breathed in the smell he had come so use to smelling. "Thank You, so much Gaby" he whispered.

She hugged him back just as tightly, it was gonna be hard to let him go, but she knew it was the right thing to do. Besides she was tired of being seen as the school bitch. "Troy can you try to do one thing for me" she asked pushing away from him.

"Sure, anything." he replied.

"Can you try not to…uh…to parade your new relationship around? I mean,…..this isn't coming out right" she said.

"I get it Gabriella, I will try to be considerate of your feelings, only if….you can be a little more considerate of Taylor's" said Troy.

"I will try my best Troy" she replied. She walked to her bedroom door and Troy knew it was his hint to leave. He couldn't believe that his relationship with Gabriella was over, just like that. But any feelings of sadness were clouded by his feelings of realizing that he was about to be with Taylor. He was free. He was free to love, trust, and cherish a girl who deserved happiness just as much as he did.

Troy walked out of the door but came back; he looked at Gabriella one more time and thanked her again for understanding his choice. "You know Gabriella you deserve happiness also" he said.

"Yeah….I guess so. Goodbye Troy" she said closing her door while tears began to stream down her face again. She didn't wait for him to respond; she just shut the door and shut Troy out of her life forever. She ran over to her bed and began to sob heavily. The worse pain she had ever felt in her life was happening to her and it was nothing she could do about it, but lay in her bed, curled up in a ball, and cry.

Troy heard her crying from the other side of the door and he couldn't help but to feel bad about the situation, but he knew he had to follow his heart, and his heart was saying Taylor all the way. Troy looked at Gabriella's door one more time, "Goodbye Gabriella" he said, and he walked out of the Montez house forever.

Troy ran to his truck and was headed for the Evans house. He looked down at his phone that he left in the car and noticed that he missed five phone calls, and they were all from Sharpay. 'That's odd, Sharpay never called me, not unless it had something to do with Taylor' thought Troy to himself while trying not to panic.

Troy redialed the number and waited for Sharpay to pick up the phone.

"Troy finally you picked up your phone!" he heard Sharpay say before he even got a chance to speak. "I've been calling you for like the last half an hour!" she said.

"Is everything alright? Is something wrong with Taylor?" he asked concernedly.

"Well she hasn't come home yet, and she's not picking up her phone. Ryan and I have been calling her since we got home and noticed she wasn't here. We wanted to make sure she was okay, because of everything that happened in school today" he heard Sharpay say. Troy could tell that she was trying to keep her voice steady.

"Alright, well I will try her phone again…."

"We've already tried that Troy! She's not picking up!" yelled Sharpay into the phone.

"Okay…okay, I have an idea where she might be, I'll go there and see if she's there" said Troy trying to calm Sharpay down, as well as himself.

"If you're talking about the park, we've already tried. I sent Ryan over there but she was nowhere to be found" she said with her voice quivering a bit.

"Did you try down by the lake on the hill?" said Troy getting increasingly nervous.

"Yes Troy, we tried there! Look I'm getting worried, it's starting to get dark!" yelled Sharpay.

"Okay look, I'm gonna go around and look for her. I will try all her favorite spots. I suggest you and Ryan do the same! We will update each other every half hour okay" said Troy.

"Alright, Ryan and I are on our way" said Sharpay, hanging up the phone.

Troy couldn't believe this was happening! It was like he could never catch a break! If something happened to Taylor he would never forgive himself. 'Taylor baby, where are you' he thought to himself as he drove out of Gabriella's driveway and onto the open road.