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A/N: Well here I am with yet another chapter right now I want to thank my reviewers; dreamer 3097, Yellow-queen18, HelloLish, xoSuperstarletxo, CuteANDSexxxy17, Angel, k, look at the stars, RubyRedMorena, and AyaneC. Well I hope everyone enjoys this new chapter, and please go and read my new story Conquests. So enjoy the new chapter and please remember to Review.
Baby S
Chapter Eleven
I just don't know about this…I mean what if something goes wrong. What if Chad and the gang only get us there to call us names and stuff? I mean there are so many ifs and well I just don't feel like subjecting myself or my family to something like that. Taylor thinks everything well be okay. I know I should think the same way, but now that we have Aisha my mind is wired a bit differently. I want to protect my wife and child, and I damn sure don't want to put them in harm's way, be it emotional or physical that's just something I'm not going to let happen. Moving on, my time at home with Taylor and Aisha is almost up, and to be truthful I'm not happy about it. But I know I have to go and work so we can have money especially now cause I've been doing a lot of thinking, you know. Taylor and I are both about to graduate, and in a few months I'm going be nineteen. So I was thinking about moving out of her parents' house. I mean…I don't want to become a burden, and knowing her parents if our family was one, they wouldn't say anything at all you know. I still don't know how to break it to Taylor, but I'm working on it. In the meantime I need to focus on this Chad thing, maybe by the end of the summer I can have my old friend back.
Taylor came downstairs and paused in the doorway of the living room smiling she looked at her husband and their daughter resting quietly on the living room sofa. Walking over she brushed her hand along her daughter's back before picking her up. Almost immediately Troy's eyes shot opened and he looked up at her. "Hey baby." He mumbled hoarsely, as he moved to sit up allowing Taylor room on the sofa to sit down. Moving to sit beside him, Taylor carefully lowered herself down with Aisha still in her arms.
"Sorry I woke you up?"
"No…it's okay I needed to wake up anyway so…um…I called Chad earlier this morning before he headed off to school you know so I could tell him that we wanted to talk too, and he said that everyone wanted to talk to us." Troy said as he looked at Taylor who had bit the inside of her cheek. "They are coming by after school."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"You were tired…and then you fell asleep, I didn't want to wake you so you could spend all day worrying," he said. "Oh don't look at me like that cause we both know that is exactly what you were going to do." He stated knowingly. She smiled and looked down at Aisha for a moment before replying.
"You're right."
"Of course." He replied with a chuckle as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side. "They're coming here by the way…I wanted it to be here because if things got a little out of control…I can just kick them out." He said with a snap of his fingers.
"Well, let's hope that doesn't happen."
"Where's Mama Elle."
"She had to go to the store, so we have the house to ourselves." Troy wiggling his eyebrows at her and Taylor shook her head and stood up. "No…no and again no, the doctor said six to eight weeks…it's only been five." She replied with a smile as Troy groaned and laid back against the sofa trying his best to look wounded.
"Well he wouldn't know how I'm feeling right now…I mean I don't remember seeing a ring on his finger so he doesn't know what I'm through."
"You are so nasty, Troy." Taylor replied as she headed up the stairs, "You better try so lotion or something cause I'm going to do what the doctor said ring or not."
A little while later after Taylor had put Aisha in her crib; she went looking for Troy and found him sitting on the patio in the backyard. Opening the sliding door, she walked out there and moved behind his chair and started to massage his shoulders. Troy allowed his head to drop as she continued to massage him. "Did you get the monitor?" he asked.
"Of course I did." She said with a chuckle as Troy pulled her from behind and then pulled her into his lap. Smiling Taylor laid her head on his shoulder, as he gently rocked the two of them.
"You know I was thinking about something earlier?"
"Oh really and what would that be?" she asked not moving her head from his shoulder. Troy sighed and pulled her closer to him.
"I was thinking about moving out…getting a place of our own." He stated bluntly, Taylor lifted her head up and looked at Troy silently for a moment before shaking her head and looking away from him. "Are you even going to listen to my reasons?"
"No…we don't have enough money, and we just had Aisha."
"I don't want to move now at least not immediately but I wanted to have our place by August." He replied softly as he continued to hold her. "We have a family now and I do not want us to become a burden to your parents Taylor."
"We aren't…my Mom and Dad would have said something if it was the other way around." She said as she looked down at her hands. Troy sighed and rubbed her back, while looking at her.
"Taylor, I just think that's the next step for us…I know you might be scared but I promise I can take care of you alright." He replied as he looked at her. "I want to do this alright, I was thinking about moving into a three bedroom apartment…I know it isn't a house but it would be our own place." He replied softly as he looked at her, Taylor pushed herself up from his lap and went over to the other chair.
"Don't you like it here?"
"You're parents have been great…wonderful, but Taylor I will not be comfortable living under your parents roof twenty-four seven for the rest of my life. I want a place of my own to raise my family and to be with my wife." After he finished his statement Taylor looked down at her hands and nodded her head in understanding.
"I get it, Troy…I really do alright." She whispered as she looked at him, "Fine we will make the move…we just have to find a place."
"Good. Taylor I'm telling you right now baby you won't regret doing this." He said softly as he looked at her for a moment. "Taylor…come here." He said as he reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her up out of the seat and back towards him. Standing up, he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her softly on the temple. "I love you baby…and I promise you won't regret this."
"I love you too, Troy." She said as she snuggled deeper into his embrace.
"They should be here by now shouldn't they?" Taylor asked as she tapped her foot on the floor as she sat on the sofa, Troy who was causally flipping through the television channels paused and looked over at her for a moment before replying.
"Well, if Chad's driving you know how that can be?" Troy said with a shrug, "besides…I'm sure you don't want them here now. I mean you're all nervous and what not. And I know that can't be good for your nerves."
"Well I can't help it; I mean they've been hating us for nearly the entire school year. Of course I'm nervous." She replied as she wrung her hands together. "I just don't understand how you can sit there all calm."
"Because I know I'm not really in a position to lose anything…I mean look at it this way, things will either get better or remain the same with all of us. I mean before today they have like you said hated us. But things can change…I mean they can either come here we sort out our differences and then try to fix our broken friendships or things just remain the same. I really can't get worked up about something like that."
"You're right."
"As usual." Troy said laughing as Taylor threw a pillow at his head, "Hey!"
"You better watch yourself…my parents aren't here and I can beat you up and they aren't here to stop me." She said playfully as she waved another pillow in his direction. Rising his hands in surrender, he chuckled and pointed upstairs.
"My little girl won't let you beat up her daddy."
"Oh yeah you want to see well let's just-." Taylor's comment was interrupted by the doorbell ringing. They both looked at one another; Troy stood up and headed towards the front door with Taylor on his heels. Opening the door, he paused as he saw Chad, Gabriella, Zeke, Sharpay, Ryan, Kelsi, and Jason. Stepping aside he motioned for them all to come inside. He and Chad shared a look, before the afro headed boy stepped inside.
"Let's talk in the living room?" Troy said as Taylor led them towards the room. Once everyone was seat, Troy and Taylor took a seat in the armchair by the stairs. Troy sat in the seat while Taylor sat perched on the arm of the chair. "So Chad why did you guys want to talk to us?"
"We all thought we should try to move on from what happened…we are about to go off to college and move on with our lives so we wanted to come here and talk to you guys." He replied as he looked from Troy to Taylor and back again.
"We all used to be friends…and well we miss you guys…even after everything that happened." Kelsi said softly from her position at Jason's side. Troy looked at the others who remained silent and sighed.
"Is that how you all feel?"
"Yes." Sharpay, Zeke, Ryan and Jason said together. However Gabriella remained stubbornly quiet, as she continued to look down at her hands. Finally looking up she caught Troy's glaze and nodded her head.
"Yes, that how we all feel?"
"Are you all sure?" Taylor asked. "I mean I hate to be like this…but I'm certainly not in the mood to be dogged out again, and I'm sure Troy isn't either. I know how we got together was foul, but we're together. There's nothing that can change that and I really want all of you to be sure because I would really like to be friends with you guys again."
"That takes time, Taylor." Chad blurted out, as he looked at his ex-girlfriend.
"And nearly the entire school year wasn't enough time for that." She snapped back, Troy looked up at her and shook his head before looking back at Chad.
"We aren't going to fight here alright…so let's just steer this conversation in another direction." Gabriella looked at him for a moment and then sighed.
"Fine…um is there-."
"I told on you guys." Chad said as he looked at Troy and Taylor. "I told on you, and got Taylor kicked out of school." He said as he looked at the shocked expression on his ex-girlfriend's face. Troy felt fury rise up in him immediately; he remembered the pain Taylor felt at being kicked out of East High. Jumping up to his feet, he looked at Chad and pointed a finger at him.
"What did you say?" Chad stood up as well, and looked at Troy before replying.
"I said I told…alright…I told Principal Wall. I was angry. I was hurt. And I wanted a why to get back at you both." Troy moved to take a step forward, but was restrained by Taylor who had grabbed his hand and forced him to standstill.
"So this is why you asked to meet us." Taylor asked after realizing that Troy was now in no mood to talk.
"Cause the guilt has been eating me up. Since half the year wishing forcing myself not to care and the other half of the year I was wishing the guilt would just go away." He stated simply, Troy chuckled humorously at his words and sat down.
"So you want us to sooth your guilty conscience?"
"Look, I just want to get that off my chest…I'm not looking for you to sooth nothing alright." Chad said as he looked at Troy and then over at Taylor who was watching him silently.
"Then why even bring it up." Taylor finally said unable to keep silent any longer. "What was the point in that, Chad? You knew it would upset us…and the only reason I can think of that would make you even say anything is because you were hoping we would forgive you."
"Taylor, I really wish you would stop trying to read my mind okay." Chad exclaimed as he looked at her for a brief moment. "I really would like it if you would just stop it. I told you and that's it. There's nothing else…no hidden agendas nothing."
"You do realize the problems you've caused me and Taylor don't you." Troy snapped as he looked at him. "But we overcame them…so you're little chance at revenge failed." Chad sneered at him for a moment before Gabriella broke into the conversation.
"This is not why we're here…we didn't come here to fight alright. We came here to hopefully fix our broken relationships. We were all such good friends before this happened. And that is why we're here. To see if we can save those friendships." Closing his eyes, Troy nodded his head and spoke.
"Gabriella's right…you guys didn't come here fight…you came here to see if we could fix our friendships."
"So you're not mad." Chad asked from his spot on the sofa. Troy looked at him and chuckled for a moment before nodding his head.
"Of course I'm mad…I'm livid, but I'm just going to set those feelings aside for the greater good of this visit or do you want to come over there." Troy stated coldly, Chad held his glaze for a moment before looking away and shaking his head. "Good, so um…what else do you want to talk about?"
"Are you guys going to come to the graduation?" Sharpay asked. Troy and Taylor both nodded their heads.
"We were planning on it." Troy answered. "Principal said we could walk, and you know Taylor is the Valedictorian." Troy exclaimed proudly as he looked at Taylor who was smiling. Shaking his head he leaned back against the seat. "Why do you ask?"
"Cause we were wondering if you and Taylor wanted to come to a party with all of us."
"I don't think that would be a good idea…I mean we just had Aisha, we shouldn't be leaving her alone." Taylor said softly.
"What about your parents can't they watch her?"
"We're Aisha's parents." Troy said calming even though his voice left little room for argument. They all looked at him for a moment. Zeke cleared his throat and looked at them for a moment before speaking.
"Well if you can come we would really like to see you there." He replied, softly as he looked at them. "Just let us know alright."
"Sure we will, but as of now the answer is no." Troy said as a small cry came from upstairs; Taylor didn't even wait for anyone to say anything she just went upstairs soon her voice could be heard on the baby monitor as she soothed her daughter. Troy rubbed a hand over his chin and looked at them for a moment before speaking.
"Is there anything else you guys want to talk about?" he asked looking at all of them; Chad and Gabriella met his glaze, but didn't shake their heads. He sighed and looked at them for a moment before standing. "So I guess this conversation is over?"
"Are our friendships?" Gabriella asked as she looked at Troy whose glaze was shifting between them and upstairs where Taylor and his daughter currently were. At her voice, he turned around and shook his head.
"No…our friendships aren't over. We're just gonna have to work on them." He said flashing her familiar smile that immediately relaxed her mind. "We're just gonna have to work on them a…lot." He said. "So um, let me show you guys out alright." He said as he made his way towards the front door. Opening the door, he said good-bye to everyone and even hugged Gabriella who asked if she could go upstairs and see Taylor. After she headed back into the house Troy watched as Chad came up both men looked at one another uneasily.
"I don't know how else to say it…but I really am sorry for telling, and you can tell Taylor she was right about everything she said…she could always read me." He said with a small smile. Troy looked at him for a moment not cracking a smile. Chad's face fell at that and with a sigh he moved towards the door. "I hope one day you can forgive me for telling, Troy…I really hope you can do that."
"So do I, Chad…but if you're willing to work on forgiving me for doing what I did to you this summer than I can work on forgiving you for what you did to Taylor." He replied calmly as he looked over at Chad who had his head bowed in thought.
"I'd really like that, Troy…I mean I would really like that. Maybe after all that's done we can be friends again."
"Well, I was hoping we could be brothers again man." Chad looked at Troy in surprise and then a bright smile went across his face immediately, and before Troy could blink he was being hugged tightly by Chad.
"Man, that's what I want to man…shoot I missed ya man. No matter how many times I acted like I didn't I still missed you." Troy smiled and returned the hug, when Chad stepped back they quickly acted out the handshake they made up all those years ago when they were in elementary school, and Troy knew as he finished the handshake that he and Chad were finally patching up their relationship. He smiled and continued to talk with Chad as they patiently waited for Gabriella to return from talking to Taylor.
It didn't take long before Gabriella found Taylor in the nursery silently rocking her daughter to sleep. Knocking softly on the door, she waited for Taylor to look up at her. "Hey, Gabriella." She said acknowledging her as she moved deeper into the room.
"I just came up here to see, your baby and hopefully talk to you." Taylor nodded her head and looked and then motioned to the sit by the window. Gabriella quickly moved and sat down.
"Her name is Aisha by the way." Taylor replied softly as she looked at Gabriella. Smiling and nodding her head, she watched Taylor rock Aisha for a few more minutes before speaking.
"She's beautiful, Taylor really."
"Thanks…so what brings you up here." She asked as she looked at Gabriella for a moment who was still looking at her daughter. "Is everything okay?"
"No it isn't…I haven't spoken to my best friend in months." Gabriella stated bluntly. "I'm tired of holding grudges Tay," she said using Taylor's nickname. "I just want things to go back to the way they were."
"That can never happen, Gabby…I mean I'm married to Troy. I've had his daughter…so things can never go back to the way they were."
"I didn't mean that, Tay. I meant when things were cool between us. When I could call you to talk and you could do the same. I really miss that, Tay." She stated truthfully. "I want my best friend back cause frankly me and Sharpay sometimes don't even speak the same language." She said with a giggle, Taylor soon joined in. They both stopped when they saw the little girl stir and then snuggle deeper into her mother's arms.
"I think, I'd like that a lot, Gabby…and maybe I can introduce you to Jasmine Arroyo. Her husband works with Troy and we've all become good friends." Gabriella smiled brightly and nodded her head as well.
"You still have the same number?"
"I never changed it…I guess I was hoping you'd call." Taylor answered truthfully as she looked at Gabriella who sighed and nodded her head in understanding.
"Well, I guess I better go if, but I will be calling you soon." She said with a chuckle as she looked at Taylor. Standing up she walked over to her and pulled her into a tight hug being careful of Aisha who was still sleeping soundly. "Alright girl I gotta go, but I will be calling."
"And I'll be answering." Taylor said as she looked at Gabriella, soon she walked out of the room. Once she was gone, Taylor stood up and placed Aisha in her crib reaching down she picked up the stuff Tigger that her daughter seemed to be attached too, and set in the crib beside her. Smiling she looked down at her daughter as the door reopened. Not bothering to turn around she spoke. "Is everything okay with you and Chad?"
"We'll be working on that." He said as he came up behind her, smiling he looked at her for a brief moment and came to stand beside her. Reaching down, he brushed his daughter's hair back smiling he leaned over and kissed Taylor's cheek. "How was your conversation with Gabriella?"
"She and I want things to be like they were between us before you and I got together." She said softly as she looked at him for a moment before continuing. "And to be truthful I'm glad…I really missed having her as a friend."
"I missed having Chad as a friend as well." He said as he looked down at her. "I'm glad your father talked me talking to them."
"So am I…," she trailed off as she looked down at her daughter. "So are you serious about moving out."
"Yeah, I am…I mean I really am thankful that you're family took us in you know, but I think in order for us both to grow we need to move out." Taylor turned around and looked up at Troy as he circled her waist with his arms. "So what do you say?"
"I guess I say," she paused as she looked down while playing with his collar. "I guess I say… when are we going apartment shopping."
A/N: Please remember to Review and go and check out my new story Conquests.