Chapter 11 - Why Me?
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
Troy and Gabriella began making wedding plans. They finally decided they wanted to get married the following summer. They slowly made plans, not wanting to rush things anymore than they already had been. Gabriella brought in the help of Taylor, who was to be her maid of honor. Between the two girls and Maria, the plans came together quite nicely. It wasn't going to be a big extravagant wedding, just a smaller gathering of their family and friends where they could celebrate finally coming together.
As the big day approached, Troy and Gabriella found themselves becoming nervous, though neither of them would admit it. But even with all the nerves they were feeling, they couldn't have been happier.
A few days before the wedding, Gabriella was lying in bed with Troy, watching him sleep. She had so many thoughts going through her head that she couldn't sleep. She laid on her side, observing Troy. As he slept, she heard him whisper her name. She smiled. How had she ever gotten so lucky for someone like him to fall in love with her? She who had always been one of the more plain girls growing up, never one to wear lots of makeup or wear extravagant, revealing clothing. Out of all the girls in the world, why did he choose her? Why her, when he could have had any girl in the world?
Did she really deserve to be marrying him? No…of course not. She didn't deserve him. He was way too good for her. As she laid there, these thoughts running through her head over and over, she started feeling tears running down her face. She closed her eyes as the tears started coming faster. What was she doing here? Wouldn't she just be preventing him from finding someone who was so much better for him…someone who actually deserved the love he had to give?
As she started to sob, she sat up in bed to go to the bathroom so she wouldn't disturb Troy while he was sleeping. When she sat up on the edge of the bed, though, she felt Troy's strong arm wrap around her waist and bring her back down to lay against him, her back to him. He nuzzled her hair as she heard him inhale. Having him close at this moment only made things harder. Why hadn't she realized all these things sooner?
She waited until she knew Troy was asleep once again and he had loosened his grip before she tried to get out of bed once again. She walked into the bathroom, shutting the door and sitting on the cool floor, bringing her knees up to her chest as she leaned against the wall. She sat there quietly, tears still coursing down her cheeks.
A few minutes had passed when she heard a knock at the door. She let out a gasp at the sudden noise before quickly wiping the tears from her face.
"Brie? Baby, you okay?" she heard through the door.
Gabriella swallowed, wiping a few more tears from her face. "Yeah," she said, trying to make her voice sound as normal as possible, but it came out strained.
Troy peeked his head in the door, concerned by the sound of her voice. What he saw concerned him even more. "Brie…baby, what's wrong?" he asked, quickly making his way across the bathroom to take her in his arms. As he held her, her sobs only got worse. "Brie?" he whispered. "Please talk to me. You're scaring me."
Gabriella finally calmed down and wiped her tears away. Troy looked at her, waiting for her to say something, anything, to let him know she was going to be okay. When she didn't say anything, he tried again.
"Brie? What's going on? Why are you crying?"
She took a deep breath before removing herself from Troy's hold. She walked over to the sink, leaning against the cabinet while looking at herself in the mirror, studying her reflection. "Troy, why are you with me?"
"What?" Troy asked, shaking his head, thinking he had to be hearing her incorrectly.
"Why are you with me? Why are you marrying me?"
Troy got up from his place on the floor and walked over to her, placing his hands on her waist as he looked at her in the mirror. "Are you seriously asking me that?" She shrugged as another wave of tears began to course down her face. Troy reached around and wiped them away, leaning down next to her ear to place a kiss on the side of her neck. "I thought you knew…I love you, and I don't want to live any part of my life without you."
"But why? Why do you love me? Why me when you can have any girl you want?"
Troy finally understood what she was getting at. "Brie, we've been over this before." Gabriella had become self-conscious once before not long after she moved in with him when she showed up to his office with lunch one day. He had been talking to one of the married woman in the office when she had walked in and she had felt intimidated after that. "Brie…I love you more than anyone in this world. I don't know what I'm supposed to do to prove that to you anymore than I already have. But until the day I die, I will continue to tell you that I love you so much that it hurts sometimes. In three days, you are supposed to make all my dreams come true by becoming my wife. That's all I want. I just want to be able to wake up next to you every morning knowing that you are my wife and that I will never have to go another day without seeing you next to me." He paused for a moment, rubbing her side as he continued to look at her in the mirror. "And I hope that's still your dream, too," he said in a quieter voice than before.
Gabriella gave him a small smile, taking a breath before speaking. "You know that's my dream. It has been since I met you. I want nothing more than to be able to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you."
"Then what's the problem? What do you want me to say to make you believe me?"
Gabriella turned around and hugged Troy to her, her tears finally having stopped. "I just don't want you to wake up on Sunday morning realizing that you just made the biggest mistake of your life. I want you to have the opportunity now while you can still get out. I don't want you to feel any obligation to me. I guess I'm just afraid that you're going to wake up one of these days and wonder why you married me. I mean…I'm not like all those other girls who look like models when they first wake up of a morning. I don't wear makeup a lot of the time and I don't dress up all the time."
"But don't you see…that's what I love about you. I love that you're comfortable not wearing all that makeup. I love how you look without any on much better than I do if you were to wear tons of it. Truthfully, I don't think it does anything for girls. I know you wear a little, and I think you're beautiful either way, but why cover up the natural beauty that you've been given? And the dressing up? Who cares? I think you're beautiful in whatever you're wearing…whether it's a dress or a pair of sweats…or even my clothes, or nothing at all." Troy smirked and wiggled his eyebrows at her.
This caused Gabriella to finally let out a laugh.
"There's my beautiful girl," Troy said, pulling Gabriella's chin up so she could look at him. He leaned down and kissed her briefly before pulling back and staring in her eyes. "I love you, Gabriella Maria Montez, much more than you will ever know."
Gabriella smiled. "I love you, too, Troy Alexander Bolton." She pulled him down for another kiss before grabbing his hand and pulling him back to the bedroom. They climbed in bed, Troy pulling Gabriella close to him as he placed a kiss on her forehead. "I'm sorry for acting so stupid."
"Hey, you are not stupid. If anyone is, it has to be me for not showing you properly how much I love you." Gabriella shook her head, but Troy continued. "What brought this on so suddenly?"
Gabriella thought back to earlier in the day.
Taylor and Sharpay had gone to the mall with mall. They were there to help her pick out something sexy for Gabriella to wear on her wedding night. She wanted something really special, something unlike anything she had ever had for Troy. The girls were giving her some helpful tips and their opinions on certain pieces of lingerie that Gabriella picked out.
Gabriella had been looking at a red outfit that she knew Troy would love since his favorite color was red. Plus, he had always said he loved seeing Gabriella in something red, no matter what it was.
Sharpay was looking a couple of racks over at some outfits when she looked up and saw a woman that looked vaguely familiar. She stepped over to Gabriella. "Hey, Gabi…do you know who that is?" she asked, pointing to the woman.
Gabriella looked up at the woman, but couldn't pinpoint who she was. She didn't look familiar. "No. Should I?"
"Hmm…maybe not. She just looks so familiar." Sharpay thought a few minutes while she kept looking through the outfits, occasionally glancing at the woman, knowing that she knew her from somewhere. Suddenly she gasped.
"What?" Gabriella asked.
"I finally figured it out…" she said.
"Who is it?" Gabriella asked, frowning. Why did it matter anyway?
"That's…" she paused, realizing what she was about to say as she looked over at Gabriella. "Uh…never mind."
Gabriella shook her head. "No…who is she? You've got me curious now."
Sharpay hesitated. "Uh…well…umm…that's Troy's ex-girlfriend."
Gabriella looked over at the woman. She was Troy's ex? It must have been someone Troy dated while she was away at college that she never met or even knew about.
"Oh…" Gabriella continued to casually glance at the woman, noticing how beautiful she was. She was tall, blonde, perfectly straight hair, makeup done perfectly, dressed in a red sundress. She was everything any guy could ever want. Why had Troy and her broken up? She had to have been the one to break it off. Why would Troy ever want to get rid of her? But more importantly…why was Troy with her now instead of this woman? Gabriella was exactly the opposite of this woman.
Not really feeling in the mood for looking at the lingerie anymore, not feeling that anything would be good enough to make her look appealing, she told Taylor and Sharpay she wasn't feeling too well and just wanted to go home and she would come back tomorrow to look again.
Taylor and Sharpay shrugged and took her home, not really thinking anything of it. But Gabriella couldn't seem to think of anything but that woman the rest of the day.
When she went home, she took the time while Troy wasn't there to really inspect herself in the mirror. What was it exactly that Troy found appealing about her? She wasn't tall and beautiful like that woman. Her hair was short and curly instead of long, blonde, and beautiful. She hardly ever wore makeup, only wearing it on special occasions. She hardly ever wore dresses and usually wore sweats if she could get away with it. She was exactly what guys usually tried to stay away from, which was why Troy was the first guy she had ever been with.
As soon as Gabriella described the woman, Troy knew exactly who she was. "Amber," he said. Gabriella watched his expression as he realized who she was talk about. He pulled her in even closer than she already was. "Brie, I broke up with Amber because…well…with no better way to put it…she was a bitch. She was high maintenance. I mean yeah…she had her good qualities. Sure, she was pretty. But she doesn't even compare to you. She's a plastic surgery type of girl. Her beauty doesn't come naturally. She has to work to make herself the way she does. You, on the other hand, can roll out of bed and look your best just by walking into a room. Your beauty radiates out of you and lights up the entire room. I love you, Gabriella soon-to-be-Bolton." Gabriella smiled. "I wouldn't want you any other way than you are right now."
Gabriella leaned in and kissed Troy, melting further into his embrace. "I love you too, Troy," she said as she pulled back. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "You always know exactly how to make me feel better."
Troy reached up to brush some hair out of her face. "If I ever make you feel like you aren't good enough, slap me, punch me, do something to make me realize. You are more than enough for me and if anyone here doesn't deserve the other, it's me. I don't know what I ever did to deserve someone as perfect as you are, but I'm glad you thought I was good enough for you." The couple laid there staring into each other's eyes for a few moments. "Oh…and about the other guys…" Troy reached up and scratched the back of his neck, showing Gabriella he was nervous. She raised her eyebrows at him. "I…uh…I may have had something to do with that…"
"What? What are you talking about?"
"Well…uh…you see…you know I've been in love with you for a long time. And there have been a few guys who showed interest in you…"
Gabriella smirked at Troy, interested to learn this new information. She swatted his chest. "What did you do, Troy Bolton?"
"Well, let's just say that they knew you were off limits."
"When was this?"
"Uh…" He trailed off, looking everywhere but at her. Gabriella grabbed his chin and forced him to look her in the eye.
"When was this, Troy?" she asked, raising her eyebrows at him again and gave him a serious look.
"Well…it's happened a few times. The first was back when you were in high school. And then again right after you graduated. Then there was once during one of your breaks during college when you were home. And it's happened a couple times since you graduated college."
Gabriella's jaw dropped open. "Troy Bolton! I'm appalled that you would interfere with my dating life! How could you do that to me? Do you know how many opportunities you probably made me miss out on?"
Troy looked at her, embarrassed having told her the one thing he had wanted to keep hidden from her. He always knew he wanted her to be his and he didn't want anyone else to have a chance. So he had always kept the guys at a distance at the first sign they were interested, telling them she had a boyfriend or just threatening them to get them to go away.
"Are you mad at me?"
"Mad? You think I'm mad?" she asked, raising her voice slightly as she sat up in bed and looked down at him before smiling. She leaned down and kissed him. "I'm the furthest thing from mad right now. I'm flattered, really, that you cared that much for me to keep me all to yourself."
Troy smiled. "I couldn't stand to see any other guy touch you or look at you in a way that was anything but friendly."
Gabriella laid back down in Troy's arms, a bright smile on her face. "How did I never know about this?"
"I always made sure you had no clue what I was doing, always making sure you either weren't around or paying attention."
Gabriella laughed, thinking about it all. "Troy Bolton…what ever will I do with you?"
"Well…I can think of a few things…" he said as he captured her lips with his own, rolling her over so he was straddling her. He pulled back after a few minutes. "Now…about this red lingerie…"
Gabriella laughed. "Uh uh, Mr. Bolton. Not happening now."
Troy groaned. "You're seriously going to tease me like that? You can't just tell me what you were contemplating and then not get it!"
Gabriella smiled. "Well whatever I get has to be a surprise and that definitely wouldn't be a surprise would it? I'll just have to find something else…"
As Gabriella finally drifted off later in the early morning hours, she finally felt at peace. She knew that she and Troy would be okay. She knew without a doubt that Troy loved her for who she was. And to him, she would always be beautiful. She just needed to show herself that, make herself feel beautiful.
Thanks for reading. Leave me a review. There's only a couple more chapters left. I'm currently working on the epilogue, so if there is anything you want to happen in this story, let me know what you think. I'm have a pretty good idea of where the story is headed, but I'm always open to new suggestions!