Disclaimer: I do not own the High School Musical franchise
Chapter Ten: Sympathy
And stranger than your sympathy
And all these thoughts you stole from me
And I'm not sure where I belong
And nowhere's home and no more wrong
And I was in love with things I tried to make you believe I was
And I wouldn't be the one to kneel before the dreams I wanted
And all the dark and all the lies were all the empty things disguised as me
Yeah stranger than your sympathy
Stranger than your sympathy, mhm
- "Sympathy" Goo Goo Dolls
Gabriella stared at the clothes in her hand. Instead of tossing them in the washing machine, she crammed them back into the dirty clothes bag. They smelled almost familiar. Picking up the bag, she darted back into their room and shoved them into a large purse in her closet. I have to talk to Taylor. Now.
When she came out of the closet Ryan stepped out of the bathroom, "So baked ziti?" He asked as he dried his hair.
Gabriella nodded, "Yup, but I need to run an errand. I'll be back in a few minutes." She grabbed the large bag without any further explanation and ran into the living room, fishing her phone and wallet out of the purse she'd carried all weekend she grabbed her car keys and left. She pulled into the hospital parking lot ten minutes later. Glancing at her phone she saw four missed calls from Ryan. "Fuck." She muttered under her breath.
Walking rapidly into the hospital, she moved straight to the nurse's station, "I'm looking for Dr. Taylor McKessie." She told the nurse rapidly. The nurse yawned and picked up the phone, paging Taylor.
Within a minute Taylor was walking towards her, "I need to talk to you now." Gabriella grabbed her best friend's arm.
"What is it?" Taylor asked, "Are you okay? Please don't tell me you're pregnant."
Gabriella shook her head, "Where can we talk?"
Taylor sighed and grabbed Gabriella's hand, leading her down the winding hallways to the empty break room, "What's going on Gabs?" Gabriella pulled out the dirty clothes bag and opened it, dumping it on the conference table. "Gee thanks, dirty laundry." Taylor rolled her eyes.
"Smell it." Gabriella directed.
Taylor laughed and shook her head, "No way in hell am I smelling Ryan's dirty laundry."
"Taylor." Gabriella whined.
Sighing in resignation, Taylor picked up a shirt and put it to her nose. She'd been expecting it to smell either like sweat or Ryan's cologne, which made her faintly nauseous. Instead it smelled like a woman. "Gabriella, did you change perfumes?"
Shaking her head she said, "I still wear Chance by Chanel." She held up her wrist for Taylor to smell.
Taylor sniffed the shirt again, "I know that smell, why do I know that smell?"
"I recognize it to." Gabriella sat down in one of the chairs, "Does that mean I know the girl?"
"Okay," Taylor pulled the chair next to Gabriella out, "look just because his clothes smell like her doesn't mean he's cheating. Someone he was working with could've given him a hug. She could've easily drenched herself in the perfume."
Gabriella nodded, "That makes sense, I mean it's perfectly common to hug a guy's ass while he's only wearing boxers." She held up his underwear.
Taylor held up her hands, "I'm not smelling those, I'm just going to take your word for it."
"What's going on in here?" Taylor and Gabriella both looked up at the sound of Dr. Preston Burke's voice.
Taylor sighed, "Investigative work apparently." She crossed her arms and looked at Gabriella.
"I'm sorry I'm distracting her," Gabriella apologized, "oh you're a man, maybe you can tell me why a man's underwear would smell like a woman's perfume."
Dr. Burke stared at the two of them, shook his head and backed slowly out of the room. Taylor laughed, "There's one way to clear a room." She looked at Gabriella sympathetically, "You have to ask him honey. You'll never be satisfied until you do."
"I just wish I could come up with a logical explanation." She sighed.
Taylor patted her hand, "I know sweetie, just ask him."
Gabriella stood up and collected Ryan's dirty clothes, "First I need a reason why I ran out of the apartment in the first place."
"Tell him you had my pager." Taylor hugged her, "No harm in one white lie if he's telling a whopper."
"I hate lying." Gabriella muttered as she opened the door, leaving Taylor alone in the break room.
HSMHSMHSM
"Gabriella?" Ryan's voice was frantic as she opened the door. She smiled at him as he said into the phone, "Yeah she's here. Thanks Troy, sorry to bother you, I need to call Kelsi and Miley back now." He hung up, "Where the hell were you?"
Gabriella set her bag on a chair and slipped out of her sweater, "Taylor left her pager here. It was going off for an emergency, I panicked and had to get it back to the hospital as soon as I could." She shrugged, "Sorry."
Ryan ran a hand through his hair, "You couldn't even bother to answer your phone?"
"On silent." She replied as she walked into the kitchen, "Hungry?"
Ryan glared at her, "No, pissed is more like it."
Gabriella pulled two plates out of the cabinet, "Then you don't have to eat." She put one plate back, "I'm not going to fight with you tonight." She pulled the ziti and bread out of the oven and spooned some on her plate. Pouring a glass of wine she went and sat on the balcony.
Ryan stood, arms still crossed, in the kitchen. "Fuck." He grabbed his coat and car keys, slamming the front door behind him.
Gabriella watched him leave and sighed, pulling her own cellphone out of her pocket, she dialed Troy's number, "Hey Troy. You busy tonight?"
"No Shar's out with people from the movie."
"Wanna come over for dinner? I think Ryan's so mad, he's gone for the night."
"I'll be there in a few minutes." Troy hung up the phone.
True to his word, he was knocking on Gabriella's door fifteen minutes later. When he arrived she opened the door with a glass of wine in hand. "In case you were wondering," she spun around with a goofy smile on her face, "this is glass three in about twenty minutes."
Troy chuckled, "Hey, as long as you give me a little time to catch up I'm good."
"More wine it is!" Gabriella danced to the kitchen and pulled a fresh bottle out. She topped hers off with the remaining in the previous bottle and poured Troy a fresh glass. She held her glass up, "Here's to cheating bastards who are stupid enough to leave evidence around."
Troy didn't even have a chance to take a sip. He just stared at her. "What?" Gabriella downed her glass, before she could pour another he took the glass from you, "Did Ryan cheat on you?"
Gabriella looked up at him, "I don't know. I think so."
Troy ran his hands through his hair, What kind of an idiot cheats on Gabriella? Seriously? What the fuck was Ryan thinking? He took a deep breath, "Why do you think that."
Gabriella pulled out Ryan's laundry from her purse and held up a t-shirt, "That's not my perfume." She sighed, "It's even on his boxers. I was getting ready to start the laundry when he got home and it just wreaks of another woman's perfume."
Troy laid the shirt back down, "I don't recognize the scent."
"I do." Gabriella sighed, "I just don't know from where."
Troy pulled Gabriella into a hug, "It's going to be okay Ella, I promise. You have to ask him about it. Or let me beat the shit out of him."
Gabriella shivered as she kept the tears in, "No cause if I'm wrong I'll feel bad."
"I don't think you're wrong though." Troy whispered in her ear. She just shrugged.
HSMHSMHSM
"So where was he if he never came home last night?" Taylor handed Gabriella a cup of coffee.
Gabriella shrugged, "I don't know." She looked around, "Where are Miley and Kelsi?"
"Miley," Taylor grinned, "spent the night with Jason Cross." She giggled, "And I haven't seen or heard from Kelsi."
The door opened at that moment and Kelsi came in, wearing a man's button down. Gabriella and Taylor both stared at her, "Oh morning girls." Kelsi blushed.
She dashed towards her bedroom and Taylor called out, "Walk that shame proudly girl!"
Gabriella's eyes followed Kelsi as she ran to her room. She recognized that shirt. She'd given it to the owner. And the perfume was now unmistakable. "Oh my God," she whispered, "it's Kelsi."
HSMHSMHSM
XOXO
MAS