Gabriella was doing her Math homework when her cellphone started to ring. She put down her pen and searched for her cellphone. Finally she found it underneath her jacket on her bed. She looked at the screen and saw that it said 'Ryan'. She answered the cellphone as she walked towards her balcony

"Hey Ryan" she smiled and looked at the balcony. The place where she and Troy had spent many a night together watching the stars and the sunsets. They would often hold hands and gaze into each other's eyes not saying anything because nothing needed to be said. But now that would never happen again. But she wasn't mad. She was happy that Troy was happy and she couldn't understand why Chad and Jason weren't supportive of Troy when they were supposed to be his 'best friends'.

"Hi Gabriella" Ryan replied.

There was an uncertainty in his voice that Gabriella didn't like. He usually only sounded that concerned when something was seriously wrong. Gabriella began to get worried now. Maybe it was something to do with Troy. He hadn't coped well with going back to East High the day before.

"What's wrong Ry?" Gabriella asked calmly with a hint of concern in her voice also. She and Ryan had become good mates since he hated started dating Troy so she knew when he was upset.

"It's Troy…He's missing"

Those two words hit Gabriella hard. She loosened her grip on her cellphone and gasped. Missing? How was that possible. She had seen him yesterday. School. He had left school early so he must have ran away after that. She couldn't believe that he had ran away. She didn't think that he could do that.

"W-what?" Gabriella stuttered. She couldn't believe this. She felt the tears pricking at the back of her eyes. 'This has to be some sick joke' she thought to herself as she went and sat down on her bed. She shook her head. Ryan wasn't like that and neither was Troy. They liked a joke but that would have been a sick joke to pull. And even Ryan, who was an amazing actor, couldn't fake the concern and worry that was in his voice.

"Troy ran away yesterday. We don't know where he is"

Gabriella dropped her cellphone and didn't hear anything else that was being said. She was in shock. How could this happen? Why Troy? Life didn't seem fair.

"Gabriella?" Ryan shouted down the phone concerned. When he got no answer he began to become worried. He decided to tell Gabriella because she was so supportive of their relationship and one of the only people that would not treat them any different because of who they were.

Gabriella finally found the phone from the floor and placed it back to her ear. "Hey sorry Ryan. I kinda was in shock. I mean…but why?"

"Because of how he was going to be treated at school" Ryan knew how it felt to bullied and hurt because of his sexuality and he never wished that upon Troy.

"It's so sad"

"I know"

"Did he leave any ideas as to where he would go?"

"No all he left was a letter saying that he had to do this and not to look for him and he would soon be in contact with us" Ryan stared at the letter again and couldn't help but let out a small sob. He missed Troy so much and he was scared about what would happen to him. There were parts of Albuquerque that Troy didn't know about and that Ryan didn't want him discovering. The world was a cruel place and there were horrors on the street that Ryan wished Troy would never have to see. He just hoped that Troy hadn't turned to the streets because maybe they wouldn't be able to find him and if they did they might not be able to save him. He shook that thought out of his head thinking that Troy was smarter than turning to the streets. He let the tears roll down his eyes and he thought about where Troy was and what he should be doing.

Gabriella sighed. This was too much to handle. "I will be over now. Does Sharpay know?" Sharpay was also the other person who had been supportive of Troy and Ryan's relationship and didn't care what others thought all she cared about was her brother's happiness.

"Yeah I called her before I called you. She is on her way over" Ryan remembered the conversation that he had had with Sharpay. She was so dramatic and she insisted that she would come over and help…as soon as she had gotten dressed. Ryan couldn't help but giggle when she said that. That was so Sharpay. She wouldn't go out anywhere unless she was dressed up.

"Ok see you soon Ryan" Gabriella said as she hung up her cellphone and closed it. She grabbed her jacket and went downstairs to the kitchen where Mrs Montez was cooking the dinner. She looked over and smiled at her daughter but the smile soon faded when she saw the worry, the concerns and the tears. She suddenly stopped what she was doing and went over to her daughter.

"Hunny what's wrong?"

"Troy…he's gone missing" she told her mother between oncoming sobs. Mrs Montez took her daughter in her arms and pulled her into an embrace after she told her what was wrong.

"Why? What happened?" Mrs Montez was shocked. She knew Troy and thought that he was such a kind, caring, polite young man and she was happy in whatever he decided. She didn't see what could be so bad that it would make Troy run away. He had always been so strong and always seemed to handle whatever was thrown at him.

"Well remember I told you that he realised he was gay and that he started to date Ryan Evans?"

"Yeah" Mrs Montez replied. She was a little disappointed when her daughter had told her that Troy had broken up with her because he was gay but she realised that Gabriella was happy for Troy and supportive and this made her happy. All Mrs Montez cared about was making Gabriella happy.

"Well Troy went back to school and people started pointing and staring and making snide comments and Troy couldn't handle it" Gabriella pulled away from her mother slightly and looked at the floor.

"That's bad. He shouldn't have had to go through that"

"I know and now Troy has run off and no one knows where he went. Oh mum I'm so scared. What if he gets hurt. Or worse?" Gabriella was now in tears. She hadn't thought of what could happen before but now her mind was filling up with ideas that began to scare her. She tried to shake the thoughts off but they wouldn't go. She closed her eyes. She didn't want to think that anything bad would happen to Troy. It couldn't.

Mrs Montez was again pulled her daughter into a hug and her hand down her back to help comfort her "He's going to be okay. This is Troy we all know how stubborn and strong he can be" Gabriella nodded weakly and looked up at her mother

"I'm going to Troy's. We need to try and think of where Troy could have ran off to and we need to try and find him. And quick"

Mrs Montez nodded with agreement "Go and let me know if you come across anything" Gabriella nodded "Sure mum" she replied as she pulled away and left the house. It was a 15 minute walk to Troy's so she decided to run. She would make it there in 6-7 minutes.

Xxx

After Sharpay had hung up the phone to Ryan she went and got changed. She couldn't go round there in her pyjamas. She grabbed a tracksuit and quickly got dressed, cleaned her teeth and put her hair up. She wasn't going to bother getting done up like she usually did because this was an emergency. She couldn't believe that Troy had run away. She couldn't believe that her brother hadn't told her until the day after. She was pissed off and angry at Ryan for that but she wasn't going to get on at him for it because he had just found out that his boyfriend had run away.

She grabbed her car keys and went outside. She jumped into her pink Cadillac and spun out of the driveway. She made her way as fast as she could to Troy's house. On the way she tried to think about the places that Troy could have gone but she couldn't name any. She knew that he didn't have any relatives living closely and as far as she knew he wouldn't have left the state which meant that he was still in Albuquerque. The only problem was finding out where in Albuquerque.

She pulled up outside Troy's at the same time as Gabriella came huffing and puffing up the driveway. She looked at the girl and noticed that there was worry in her face and she could tell by the tear-stained cheeks that she had been crying. She got out of the car and went to Gabriella giving her a hug. Gabriella hugged back and the two went into Troy's house.

Mrs Bolton and Ryan were on the couch just staring into space. Mrs Bolton was holding the letter that Troy had left and rocking back and forth gently, small tears rolling down her cheeks. Ryan, on the other hand, was holding a mug of coffee that hadn't been touched and was staring at the pictures of Troy on the wall.

"Awww Hunny" Sharpay went and hugged her younger brother. Gabriella went and hugged Mrs Bolton. Neither responded, they just stayed in their zombie like phases. It scared Sharpay and Gabriella who had not seen them in this state before. Not that she didn't blame them. She would have been the same. She had been the same when Ryan had told her the news.

"Can I see the letter please?" Gabriella asked. Mrs Bolton nodded and handed the letter to Gabriella. She read over it and once again felt the tears beginning to sting at her eyes. Sharpay saw this and calmly asked

"What does it say?" Gabriella read it out:

"Dear Mum and Ry,

Thanks for being there and supporting me the last week. It means a lot that you care enough to help me through everything that has been going on but I just cannot continue to do this. I need to get away from here. I am unable to handle the hurt and the pain and the looks that are being given every time I enter a room.

Please do not come looking for me. I will keep in touch I promise. I just really need to do this.

I love you both to pieces and are the only people that I can rely on. I will get in touch soon I promise. Please do not worry about me I will be fine.

LOVE YOU LOADS

Love Troy

Xxx

"I can't believe this is happening" Ryan mumbled as he looked into his sisters eyes. Sharpay could see into his soul and saw all of the hurt and all of worry that he was bottling up inside. It pained her to know that Ryan was like this. She hated seeing her brother hurt. When he was down, she was down. She slipped her arm over his shoulder and pulled him into an embrace.

"Let it all out Ryan" Sharpay said calmly flicking a part of Ryan's hair out of his eyes. "It's fine" So Ryan did. He broke down and started screaming Troy's name. Screaming why did that have to happen to him. He let himself go and cried into Sharpay's shoulder. Sharpay was there to hold him and comfort him. She was there to wipe away his tears, to hold him as he shook, to hug him when he needed it.

Mrs Bolton on the other hand didn't cry. She wanted to. Oh how much she wanted to but she couldn't. She couldn't bring herself to cry. She thought about where Troy could be but came up with blanks everytime. She needed to find her son.

"Maybe he is living on the streets" Gabriella mentioned. She knew that they were all thinking it and the quicker they figured things out the quicker that they could find Troy and bring him home safely

"God I hope not" Mrs Bolton replied. Everyone looked at her. "Life on the streets here is the worst. He wouldn't have a chance if he was living there" Mrs Bolton started to cry again thinking that her baby maybe the one that was living in an alleyway, no food, no shelter.

"We can go and look for him tomorrow but now we all need some rest"

Sharpay nodded in agreement "Gabriella is right. We need some sleep and then tomorrow we will start looking for Troy so that we can bring him home safely".

Ryan, Gabriella, Sharpay and Alison got up and made their way upstairs. Tomorrow they would begin their search. Tomorrow they would look for Troy.

Tomorrow.