Right so I know that I said this chapter was going to be the after party but I sat down trying to write it for days and made no progress and I figured you guys would probably want an update so I changed the plan slightly…I hope that hasn't made anyone crazy mad because it wasn't like there was a cliffhanger or anything lol So this chapter will not be the after party lol Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the newly planned chapter. Don't forget to review!!
Troy looked over at Gabriella, who was sat in the passenger seat of his car fast asleep. He was beginning to get worried about how much she was sleeping recently, he knew that the weekend in Santa Fe, which was just coming to an end, had taken all of her energy but she didn't quite seem herself.
It was another half an hour before Troy pulled into the driveway of his house. He looked over at Gabriella for what seemed like the 1000th time and noted that she hadn't moved an inch since they left the hotel 4 hours ago.
"Come on sleeping beauty" He whispered as he slipped his arms around her and lifted her gently from the car. He walked up to the house and awkwardly rang the doorbell with his only free body part, his elbow.
"I was wondering what time you guys would be home, when did she fall asleep?" Lucille smiled happily at her son as he walked hurriedly into the house.
"Since we left Santa Fe, I'm kind of worried about her, she'd been sleeping a whole lot the last few days" Troy laid Gabriella down on the couch gently and kissed her forehead.
"Does she have a fever?" Lucille asked and she came and knelt down besides Troy in front of the couch. She placed her hand softly on Gabriella's forehead and frowned slightly.
"She's awfully warm, I'll just run and get the thermometer" Lucille made her way to the medical box that sat in the kitchen, grabbed the thermometer and walked back into the living room.
"Gabriella sweetheart, I just need to take your temperature. I'm going to pop it in your ear ok?" Gabriella groaned letting everyone know she was aware of what was going on around her.
"102, Gabriella sweetheart can you open your eyes for me?" Lucille asked as she touched Gabriella's forehead one more time.
"I feel so tired" Gabriella's voice sounded strained, she forced open her eyes and looked at everyone around her.
"I think you have the flu sweetheart, Troy would you take her upstairs and make sure she gets some rest" Troy nodded and placed his arms around Gabriella again and lifted her into his arms.
"You don't have to carry me," Gabriella whispered in his ear as she snuggled her face gently into Troy's neck.
"Yeah I do, your really sick. I couldn't have you walking around now could I" Gabriella decided it was probably best that she didn't complain and just enjoy being cared for by such an attractive guy.
"I love you" Troy smiled, nothing else seemed to matter when he heard her say those words, it was like they created a bubble around them that no one could break.
"I love you to babe, come on let's get you all tucked in" Troy gently laid Gabriella down on the bed and pulled back the covers so that they could crawl underneath.
"I'm so cold" Gabriella moaned. Troy pulled her closer to him and wrapped the covers tighter around her but nothing seemed to be making any difference.
"Your skin is so hot babe, are you sure your so cold? I don't want to wrap you up too warm in case it makes your fever worse" Gabriella tried so hard to snuggle herself closer to Troy but so matter what position she put herself in the ache in her joints made comfort impossible.
"I'm freezing, I hate this so much" Gabriella began shivering as hot tears ran down her cheeks, the frustration of not being able to breath and the pain in her joints was beginning to make her angry and upset.
"I know precious and I'm going to do anything to try and make you better. Can I get you anything?" Troy thought that he should know what to do in this situation being a perspective medical student but when he looked at Gabriella suffering, the way that she was, his mind froze and all he could think about was holding her close and making sure he was there for her.
"No, if you move I'll just be even more cold, can you just hold me for a while?" Troy pulled Gabriella up from her side of the bed so that she was lying completely on top of him; he then wrapped his arms tightly around her and placed a kiss on her forehead.
After an hour of struggling; Gabriella finally let sleep overcome her, she hadn't dared move from the position on top of Troy at which she had found comfort because the though of having to wriggle around again to get comfy made her feel worse.
Gabriella had been asleep for 3 blissful hours before a stabbing pain in her stomach forced her eyes to shoot open. She moved around slowly and gently mindful that if Troy woke up he would be so worried about her that he wouldn't get any sleep either and that would be no good for anybody.
Gabriella moved herself off Troy slowly so that she could make her way to the bathroom to take some Tylenol, but before she even made it out of bed Troy's strong arms wrapped tightly around her.
"Where are you going?" Gabriella groaned, the last thing that she wanted was for Troy to wake up and be worried.
"I have the worst stomach ache, I was going to get some Tylenol" Troy took Gabriella tightly in his arms not caring that she was sweating from head to toe and kissed her nose lovingly.
"Stay right where you are" Troy said softly as he got up off the bed and walked into the bathroom. He returned 5 minutes later with 2 tiny pills and a glass of water.
"Thank you so much" Gabriella struggled to get her words out as she swallowed the pills and collapsed back down onto her pillow.
Troy got back into bed and pulled Gabriella closer to him once again. He manoeuvred her so that she was lying on her back comfortably and he was lying on his side facing her.
"Do you want me to rub your stomach" Troy brushed one of Gabriella's delicate curls behind her ear and watched as she nodded slowly.
"That would be awesome" Troy smiled, lifted Gabriella's shirt over her head and began rubbing gentle circles over her stomach.
"That feels so good" Gabriella sighed happily as the pain in her stomach began slowly slip away.
The sun began to shine through Troy's window letting everyone know that Monday morning had arrived. After managing to get only 5 hours sleep in total Gabriella still wasn't feeling any better; but she soon realised, that even though he had fallen asleep, Troy had continued to rub comforting circles on Gabriella stomach.
Throwing back the covers Gabriella decided that she should take a shower and get herself all ready for school, but as she went to move her legs she found that she didn't even have the strength to sit up.
"There is no way I'm letting you go to school today. I'll stay home and take care of you" Troy pulled Gabriella back close to him and snuggled her gently into his side.
"No, you've skipped way to much school because of me, I wont let it happen again" Gabriella said sternly. Troy let out a deep sigh as he began to sit up in bed.
Once Troy was showered and completely ready for school, he sat down gently on the edge of the bed and placed a delicate kiss on Gabriella's lips.
"I'll be home as soon as school is over I promise. Try and get some more sleep, mom is in the home office if you need anything. I love you" Troy kissed Gabriella one last time before getting up off the bed and walking towards the door.
"I love you to" Gabriella mumbled a semi-conscious reply as she tried to get comfortable in bed once again.
3 days had passed and Gabriella was beginning to feel better, she was now able to get up out of bed but had not yet made it to school.
"Can I get you anything to eat Gabriella?" Lucille asked as she poked her head through the living room door.
"No thank you, I still don't have much of an appetite" Gabriella sunk herself deeper into Troy's warm comforting embrace and smiled over at Lucille.
"Babe you need to eat something so that you can get better quickly," Troy mumbled into her hair before placing a kiss on her temple.
"Fine, I'll just have some toast if that's ok" Troy smiled and squeezed Gabriella tightly, he was glad she was eating again, for the last 2 days the most she had managed to eat was 3 wheat thins and half an apple.
"I'm feeling so much better now Troy, you know that you don't have to worry about me" Gabriella pulled back from Troy slightly so that she could look into his eyes.
"I always worry about you baby, you're the most precious thing in my world. I know if I didn't worry about you and something happened I would never forgive myself for not looking out for you properly" Gabriella couldn't believe that in the 3 short months that she and Troy had been together she had found someone who truly care for her and who loved her like she couldn't even imagine.
"Do you ever think that our relationship is moving too fast?" Gabriella wasn't sure if she had meant for those words to come out of her mouth or if she had just meant for them to stay enclosed in her mind for only her to know about, but what she did know is that she didn't want Troy to take them as her saying that she wanted out of the relationship.
"What do you mean?" Troy asked; he had tensed slightly at words he had never expected o hear.
"I just mean like we've only known each other 3 months. I always imagined that I'd meet someone, fall in love and then do all the stuff that goes along with it after that. But with us it just kind of happened really quickly" Gabriella wasn't happy with the way she had phrased her explanation, it had sounded so much better when she had heard it in her head.
"Are you saying that you think we moved too fast? That we wrecked what we have because we moved to quickly? Do you regret all of the stuff that's happened? Is there someone else?" Troy had just asked all of the questions that Gabriella had been hoping that he wouldn't. She knew that Troy meant the world to her but she couldn't find a way to properly explain what was going on in her mind.
"No, no there will never be anyone else, I guess what I'm trying to say is, does this ever seem like it's much to beautiful to be true? Good things never happened to me and when I met you all of my dreams just started coming true" Troy adjusted Gabriella's position so that she was facing him with her legs either side of his waist.
"I love that we trust each other enough to move our relationship quickly, I love you so much. I don't care if its been 3 months or 3 years that will never ever change" Gabriella snuggled her face comfortably into Troy's neck and sighed happily.
As the days rolled by Thanksgiving drew ever closer. Gabriella was excited to be spending it with Troy's family, for a really long time it had just been her mother and herself at home for the special holiday.
"Troy? Would you and Gabriella go off and pick some cranberries for me? The wild ones are the best ones?" Lucille called from the kitchen. Cranberry picking had always been a Bolton tradition; Lucille hated to use the ones that had been packaged up weeks before they were sold.
"This is family tradition, its usually all of us but it looks like its just going to be me and you this year" Troy said happily as took Gabriella's hands and pulled her up from the couch.
The walk to the meadows took about 15 minutes and Troy took the opportunity to talk to Gabriella about how she was feeling being away from her mother for the holidays. It wasn't something they had really had chance to talk about recently, but Troy wanted to make sure that Gabriella was the happiest that she could possibly be.
"How are you feeling about being away from your mom for all of the holidays? Because you know you it's ok to miss her" Troy put his arm loosely around Gabriella's shoulders and placed a soft kiss on her head.
"I don't miss her all that much, I'm still kind of mad that she's away for so long. She promised once we moved here she wouldn't be going away anymore but she did. Sometimes I think I might as well not have a mother" Gabriella had never said such harsh words before but she was beginning to wonder if her mother would ever spend as much time with her own daughter as she did with her patients.
"You know that she loves you and she does this because she wants to give the best that she possibly can" Gabriella nodded, she knew all of that but it didn't make up for having her mother miss out on all the important events.
"You know its not just gonna be six months that she away, she'll be gone way longer. I doubt she'll make graduation. I'm so worried that once the 6 months is up your mom wont want me living with you guys anymore because I love being with you every single day." Troy stopped as they arrived in the field that was surrounded by cranberry bushes; he sat down on the crisp straw like grass pulling Gabriella down with him.
"That will never happen; you know that you can stay forever if you wanted to; I know I want you to stay forever but I also know once your mom gets home you'll want to go home to" Gabriella sighed and placed her head against Troy's shoulder.
"Let's not think about this now, let's just have some fun" Gabriella picked up the basket and ran happily towards the cranberry bushes.
3 hours later Troy and Gabriella had filled up 3 baskets filled with perfect cranberries and were comfortably lying down on the grass again with Troy's arms wrapped tightly around her.
"You know your gonna be welcome at my house for as long as you want. You could move in forever if that's what you wanted" He gently moved a soft curl from Gabriella's cheek and placed a kiss where it had been.
"I know, I just might take you up on that sometime soon" Gabriella smiled up at Troy, so relieved that she had found a boyfriend whose family she loved just as much as she loved him.
"I love you" Troy whispered gently against her cheek, he pulled a piece of the dried grass from the ground and brushed it softly against Gabriella face causing her to giggle hysterically.
"I love you to" Gabriella smiled; she knew that if she had Troy by her side for the rest of her life, nothing would ever knock her down.
So well this chapter sucked! It took me so long to write and it really frustrated me but hopefully the next one will come more easily. Don't forget to review. xxx