To my faithful readers, thank you. :) It really means a lot to me, and I'm sorry about the confusion with the whole Latino and Latina thing. I truly didn't know. :) And it might not change within the next couple of chapters because I've written them in advance. I have the next four chapters written, so except updates to be more frequent. And I know that people are wondering about Gabriella's disorder. Just give me time, and I'll let you know what happens. Trust me. :) Oh and things are going to start picking up now. :) ENJOY.
Almost a month had gone by since Gabriella had been caught by Troy in the bathroom. Her eating habits hadn't gotten better. The ulcer in her stomach was growing even larger day by day as she saw Troy walk down the halls of East High with someone that wasn't her.
In that month Troy and Gabriella hadn't spent much time together. Troy had canceled on Gabriella numerous times for their Monday's together. And that seemed to break her heart. She noticed how close Troy and Marissa had grown. This made Gabriella hurt, literally. She didn't know how to cope with it. So she ran, binged, and then vomited it all up in that simple order. She hated herself for it, but she didn't know how to handle anything that was being thrown at her. She turned to the only thing she felt she had control over.
The morning of November 17th was spent quietly between the two Montez's as they had at the kitchen table, eating their breakfasts before splitting off into their own daily headquarters. Gabriella would go off to school and Carlos to his hardware shop twenty minutes from their two story house.
The silence that was set nicely between the two, was broken by the sweet voice of Carlos, interrupting Gabriella's thoughts.
"Have you lost weight, sweet pea?" The words that left the mouth of Carlos Montez scratched the inside of Gabriella's mind, claws contracting with every scrape.
"Only like five pounds, I've been training for track again, you know, I always lose a little weight," She lied softly, pushing back the dark hair that fell into her face. She'd lost over eighteen pounds within the start of the school year. Slowly, gaining the weight that she vomited out every night back. She hated it.
"Don't over do it, I don't want you getting hurt again," The voice was stern as a piece of toast was taken a small bite out of. Gabriella's eyes watched the toast she craved being put into someone else's body. She fought the constant want of food her body longed for.
Carlos Montez was referring to the day Gabriella had passed out on the track the first day of track practice. He had gotten a call from Jack Bolton, the father of the boy she had been in love with for so long, and a friend of her fathers.
"Daddy, I'm fine," She reassured the man she loved so much. Glancing towards the direction of the clock that sat above the stove that would be used later on in the day to cook dinner for the small Montez family. She heard a familiar honk of a car that seemed to pick her up daily now. "But, right now, I have to go to school," She rushed to grab the bag that say on the counter.
"Have a good day at school, Gabriella," Carlos said with a small smile, pointing to his side of his face, anticipating his morning kiss as Gabriella would make her way out the door of their home. She placed her lips on the side of her father's cheek. The slight stubble brushing up against her lips.
"I love you Daddy," She said giving her father a quick squeeze before she stepped in the direction of front door where Sharpay's pink car say outside waiting for the small Latino to make her way out.
"Love you too, sweet pea, have a good day," Carlos' voice was sweet and calm, something she loved about her father. The nickname he had given her when she was just a small girl never seemed to wear off even if she was almost eighteen years old.
"You too, Daddy," She called off into the distance as she stepped onto the wooden porch her father had built. The brisk New Mexico air hit her. It was almost time to bring what she called her winter coat. She could remember when she had stepped onto the same porch when she had gained the confidence to finally tell Troy how she felt about him.
As the brunette looked up into the still warm New Mexico sky, her heart stopped. The pink car that usually picked her up wasn't there. But the blue truck that haunted her sat in her drive way. She was beginning to panic.
"I called Sharpay and told her I was picking you up this morning," The chestnut colored hair blew in the wind as Troy's towering figure stepped closer to the small Latino that stood still in her spot. Her eyes scanned over the figure in front of her. The basketball player was wearing a East High basketball shirt, paired with dark jeans that hugged his body perfectly.
"Oh," She managed to squeak out. The rubber band that Gabriella had started wearing lifted slightly from her tiny wrist with the help of her left hand. Forcefully it hit her right wrist, almost as thought it was on purpose. But it was. It relived her or something. Anxiety? Stress? Her case of bulimia?
"So, do you want a ride or not?" The smirk that spread across the face of the towering Bolton sent chills down Gabriella's back. The blue eyes of Troy seemed to captivate Gabriella in a way she didn't and wouldn't understand.
"I guess, I really don't feel like walking to school," The brunette retorted with a small shrug. She was allowed to be pissed at Troy. She was allowed to not want to talk to him for the simple fact he canceled their dates. The snapping of the rubber band stopped. Her nerves calming down, slightly.
Gabriella strolled past the tall basketball player, not giving into small flirting that Gabriella would usually pray for. She didn't bother to look in the direction of the boy who stood still on the wooden porch.
"What's wrong?" Troy's worried voice filled the air as Gabriella stood rigid on the edge of the small addition of the two story house. What's wrong? The rubber band snapped again against her tiny wrist.
"Nothing, I don't wanna be late to school, Troy. Can we leave?" The back of the Latino tensed as she closed her chocolate eyes, snapping the elastic against her skin again.
"When you tell me what's wrong first, Gabriella," The voice that left Troy's mouth reminded her of her father when he was giving her a punishment. A small sarcastic laugh left the mouth of Gabriella as her full body turned to face the basketball player. Her brown eyes raged with something that Troy had only seen a couple of times.
"Fuck Troy, do you really except me not to be pissed at you for the simple fact that you've ignored me for weeks for Marissa? Ha, and don't think because you use my full name I'm going to become scared of you, Bolton," The brown eyes narrowed again, as Troy's blue orbs grew wider. The pent up anger that Gabriella had held in for a while, was beginning to release on someone she believed deserved it.
"Is this about Marissa?" He stepped closer to the Latino, his smooth hand reaching for her tiny arm. She denied it, walking in the direction of the old beaten up truck that sat behind her father's truck.
Everything was about Marissa. Everything seemed to revolve around the tiny girl that Troy held daily.
"No, this isn't about her Troy," She stated sternly, her feet stepping down onto the paved driveway of her yard. Her back was turned toward the boy she loved, and she felt the tears on the brim of her eyes beginning to form. She needed to stay calm. Control, she reminded herself.
"Then what is it, Gabriella?" He asked angrily, catching up with the girl that was chasing after her. She wished he would chase after her in a romantic way, then they would share a kiss. A kiss that meant something so much more than just a cheesy movie ending.
The brown eyes darted toward the flowers that had been planted for the winter months in New Mexico. It hadn't rained since the day that Gabriella and Troy laid in his backyard, the last date she remembered having with him.
"It hasn't rained in over three months," She stated quietly as she stopped in her tracks. Her brown eyes staring at the plants that laid dead in the flower bed. Her mind flashed back to the beginning of the school year, to the moment where she laid beside her best friend on the grass, looking at the clouds.
"What?" The voice of the basketball player softened as he stepped closer to the brunette. His hand touched the bare skin of her arm.
"It hasn't rained in so long, Troy," As the small Latino mourned for her dead flowers, she leaned down to touch the plants. She looked up to the blue eyes of the basketball player. His eyes read a sign of confusion, something he didn't understand.
"What does that have to do with why you're mad at me, Gabi?" The smell that wafted off of muscular basketball player entered the small nose of the brunette as he bent down to the level she was now placed at.
"Everything Troy, don't you understand? Everything." She whispered as a small tear fell from her dark eyes, it hit the small leaf of the flower that she held helplessly in her hand. The tear soon slipped off of the flower and into the soil that was beneath it. The dry soil that laid under the flower receiving the salty water from Gabriella's eyes.
"Common, we better get to school, Gabi," The pull that Gabriella felt on her arm was Troy pulling her towards the old truck that sat in the driveway.
To Gabriella, the rain meant a sense of new life. Anything new.