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Chapter 10

"Thank God you're alright," Sharpay exclaimed as soon as the door opened. She crushed her best friend in her arms, tighter than usual. That was expected. Sharpay had every right to go over the top after what Andy had obviously just disclosed to her.

Gabriella laughed lightly and pushed her friend away. "Shar, calm down. I'm still suffering from a hangover."

"What were you thinking, Gabs?" Zeke asked softly.

Gabriella shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I wasn't thinking. You know that yesterday is always hard for me. And I guess, I don't know. With Addie and everything, I took it that much harder."

In the silence that ensued, Troy touched Gabriella's shoulder. "Maybe I should go."

Gabriella shook her head. "No. You can stay."

Troy looked at Zeke and Sharpay. "Well, why don't you all sit down and I'll make some coffee?"

Gabriella nodded thankfully and sat down on the settee, between Sharpay and Zeke. "I guess Andy told you what happened last night?"

"About you getting drunk?" Zeke whispered.

"Yeah," Gabriella muttered. She swallowed the lump in her throat, trying desperately to sooth the fire that was still burning in her stomach. "Don't worry, Troy knows. I told him."

"You mean even about..." Sharpay gasped as she gestured to Gabriella's left wrist, wrapped in the usual bandana.

Gabriella frowned. "Hell no. Just my...problem. He's been helping me, talking to me."

Sharpay nodded slowly. "So how do you feel?"

How did she feel? For that moment before Sharpay and Zeke had interrupted, she had been thinking about something other than alcohol. She'd been consumed by a desire she hadn't experienced in over twelve years. In that moment when she'd actually prayed that he'd kiss her, he'd made her forget her demons. She hadn't had to resist the temptation to drink alcohol. She'd just had to resist the temptation to kiss him, to sleep with him, to love him. And she wasn't exactly putting up a willing fight for that.

She shrugged. "I don't know. My head hurts, I know that. You guys know that I don't like that question. I promise you both that I'm fine."

Troy came in, carrying a tray of four mugs, a jug of milk and a bowl of sugar. "I wasn't sure how you took it."

Sharpay and Gabriella glanced at each other. "Total opposites," they said together.

Gabriella laughed at Troy's puzzled face and pointed at Sharpay. "She has it way too milky," she exclaimed as she reached for one of the mugs.

Sharpay scoffed. "And she doesn't ever have milk in hers," she protested.

Troy turned to Zeke who shrugged. "You get used to it."

Sharpay poured a generous amount of milk into her mug. "Gabs, why don't you go and phone your mum, tell her you're okay?"

Gabriella paused. "She doesn't know, does she?"

Zeke shook his head. "She doesn't know you drank, but I think you should still reassure her."

Gabriella nodded and stood up. "Will you guys be okay?"

"We'll be fine," Troy murmured as she headed to the kitchen.

"You looked after her," Sharpay stated once Gabriella was out of earshot. It wasn't a question, she wasn't angry. She was stating the obvious.

Troy shrugged. "What was I going to do? Kick her out when she was at her most vulnerable? I'm not that kind of guy. Give me some credit."

Zeke sipped his coffee. "How'd you find her?"

Troy shook his head. "Andy found her at The Duchess. He'd gone there with his best friend and they didn't know what to do so they brought her to me."

Sharpay sighed. "Troy, I like you. I can tell you're good for her and, from what she's told us, she's good for you, too. But, don't press her for anything. Just let her be for a few days."

Troy frowned. "I wouldn't ever pressure her. Why would you think that I would?"

Zeke shrugged. "Precautionary measure. We're her friends, we protect her, we look after her, we interrogate every person that enters her life." He gestures with his eyes to Sharpay.

"Hey," she protested, hitting Zeke's arm.

Troy smiled. "Well, I might be a man and I might be a dad but I'm not oblivious. I know that whatever is so bad about yesterday is not something she's overreacting about. I'm not going to pressure her for her to tell me what it is, though. As long as she's okay and as long as she knows that she can talk to me, I don't care whether she tells me or not."

Zeke frowned. "Troy, I want you to answer me this very honestly. What do you feel for her?"

Troy paused. "I know why you're asking. And before you worry any further, I'm not stringing her along. Andy's mother isn't around anymore. She's not in any of our lives. But, honestly? I don't know. I care for her but other than that?" He shrugged. "I wish I knew."

Gabriella came back in and paused when everyone else fell silent. "Were you talking about me?"

Troy shook his head. "I was just saying that you don't have to go to work tomorrow if you don't want to."

"No," she whispered. "I want to. Less tempting."

Gabriella lifted her head from her book. She was sat, cross-legged on the table in the garage. It was unusually quiet today. Andy was at university, Jamie hadn't yet come in and Troy had offered for her to have a break while he fixed an electric problem on a Ford Fiesta. He hadn't exactly wanted her back to work yet but when she explained that if she was working, it was easier to fight temptation, how could he refuse?

"Hey, Troy?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah," he replied as he looked up from the bonnet.

"Can I ask you a question?"

Troy straightened up and moved his shoulders to relax his tense back muscles. "Sure."

She looked across at him, dressed in one of his usual off-white shit and a pair of tattered jeans, resting loosely on his hips. For the short time between yesterday and today that they'd been apart, Gabriella had been confident that the desire and the lust and the want that she felt for him wouldn't affect her at work. But she was wrong. She had watched his fluid movements as he worked on the car. She had admired his pronounced eagle wings and his slim hips. Even when she had been working, she hadn't been as focussed as she'd liked to be.

She looked down at the pages of her book. "Where's Andy's mother?"

Troy frowned. "Why do you want to know about her?"

Gabriella looked up at him and shrugged. "No one talks about her and I'm curious. I'm sorry, you don't have to tell me."

Troy paused and walked over to her, sitting on a chair in front of her. "You've told me one of your secrets, I'll tell you one of mine. Well, it's not a secret, exactly. I guess a more accurate description would be a part of my life I choose to ignore." He took a deep breath. "Andy's mother was a mistake. Andy wasn't. If there was some way that I could get Andy and never have had her in my life, I'd have it that way. We met at uni and everyone told me not to go out with her, but that frustrated me and made me want to go out with her even more. So we did."

She watched him curiously. He was sat back comfortably in the chair, legs apart in that typical masculine way, and his arms were folded loosely across his chest. To an outsider, he would look as if he was doing nothing more than watching TV. But, in the few weeks that Gabriella had known him, she knew it was a lie, nothing more than a facade. She could tell by his eyes. He thought if he sat the way he was, she wouldn't see how much this story affected him. But, she could see.

"We were only nineteen, not even in our second year. At first, it was a novelty. We were proving to people that we could be together. But, after a while, her true colours shone through and she was demanding and selfish and a drama queen." He looked at her with a crooked smile. "Ironically, she was a drama student."

Gabriella smiled but let him continue.

"So just before we broke up for the summer holidays, she told me she was pregnant with my baby. She said it so matter-of-factly, like she was commenting on the weather. She didn't sound like she'd just told me that I was a dad, that there was my baby inside of her," he exclaimed.

There it was. In the final few words, anger laced his voice, the first emotion for him to show. Gabriella gave him credit. He was braver than she was. He was telling her something about his past. So far, all he knew about her was that she was an alcoholic. She wasn't exactly willing to tell him why she was one. Still, he hadn't asked.

But, as Troy talked, speaking of how he felt when he found out he was a father, Gabriella could feel that familiar prick in the back of her throat. She wasn't fighting the temptation to drink; she was fighting the urge to cry. He'd unknowingly unearthed memories she had no wish to re-visit. But, it was okay. As long as she didn't cry, he wouldn't know.

"She was going to abort, you know," he muttered. "I didn't really think about how I was still at university or how I had no money. All I knew was that I wanted that baby."

When he paused, Gabriella asked, "What did your parents think?"

He shrugged. "What could they think? I mean, I was nineteen. I couldn't even make toast without setting the smoke alarm off."

Gabriella hid her smile behind her hand.

Troy quirked an eyebrow. "Miss Montez, what's so funny?"

"I hope Andy hasn't been living off burnt toast for twenty years," she murmured.

"Suffice to say that my mum, Taylor and Kelsi gave me a crash course in cooking over nine months," he muttered. "But, my mum and dad sat me down and said that no matter what I decided, they were there for me. So I spent an entire week convincing her not to get an abortion. Eventually, she reconsidered. She continued with the pregnancy. Andy was born. She didn't care. She didn't hold him. It was all me. But, I didn't care. He was mine. All mine. No one else's. After all of the parties and messing around with friends, I finally had a reason to grow up. It was a good reason, though."

Gabriella couldn't help the smile that tugged at her lips. Despite how his story had unintentionally hit a raw nerve for her, she could see how much his son meant to him. All of the banter and insults which passed back and fore between the two were just their way of appreciating each other. She knew from experience that family could be a pain in the ass at times. But, despite that, maybe even because of it, you still loved them. And throwing insults at each other just seemed like part of Troy's and Andy's daily routine.

"So after she'd given birth, she had all of her medical checks done and then she left. She dropped out of uni, she left Scarborough, she might've left the country for all I know. I haven't heard of her since." He looked at her, then, a morbid look on his face. "I'm glad she didn't even try. I would never wish for Andy to meet her."

Gabriella frowned a little bit. "Didn't you even try for her to be in his life?"

Troy shrugged. "I wrote her one letter every year on his birthday. The only address I knew was her parents and they could've left along with her. I honestly didn't know. Still, I never quite got around to posting them. I might have been scared that she'd come back and be in his life, I don't know. But, before I knew it, he was eighteen and I knew that it wasn't my choice anymore. If he wanted to find his mum, he was more than welcome to do it. Thankfully, he hasn't chosen to do that."

After Troy had finished, a lengthy silence ensued. Troy had told his story and Gabriella couldn't think of anything to offer him. He'd just told her a story that was obviously very painful for him, despite his best efforts to hide just how much the story affected him. But, still, she didn't know what to say. As selfish as it sounded, she didn't want him to know anymore about her life than he already did. He knew she was an alcoholic and that was as much as she wanted him to know. But, as she looked him in the eyes, all she saw was relief. It was relief that he had told her because he knew she wouldn't judge. But laced with that relief, she spied what she could only describe as guilt. What he had to be guilty about, she didn't know. Troy was one of the most honest men she'd ever met.

Unless...

"You shouldn't feel guilty, you know," she whispered.

He frowned. "I'm not guilty."

"I may not have known you long but I know your eyes. You feel guilty. And if it's about Andy growing up without a mother, you haven't got a thing to be guilty about. Andy's a great kid. He couldn't have asked for a better dad," she said softly.

Troy smiled brightly at her. She had just said something that a lot of people would have said without really thinking about the meaning. Saying something like that is often said just to make the other person feel better. It's like saying 'It'll be okay' when everybody knows that it won't be. It's meaningless, simply an act to make the other party feel better. But, Troy could tell by the small smile she gave him that she meant it. She truly believed he was a good father.

"Thank you," he murmured. He paused, twiddling his thumbs, avoiding her eyes. "I don't think I've asked: do you have anybody?"

Gabriella shook her head slowly. "No," she muttered. "There's nobody else. Just me. I like to think that if I had a boyfriend, I wouldn't try to seduce my boss, drunk or sober."

Before he could respond, she slid off of the table and looked down on him. "Andy's mother...she sounds like she was a lot of things. But, to me, the biggest thing she was, was a fool. I don't know how she could leave you and Andy behind. A woman would be lucky to have you both in her life."

She walked away, then, heading towards the Fiesta that Troy had been working on.