Life in a Glass House

Chapter 12: Like eating the last piece of pie

Her corner was dark and secluded. The only sound that filled the air was the sound of soft sobs. Her cheeks were stained with the salty tears that had yet to stop. Sitting in a ball, her head between her knees, is how he found her.

"Gabriella?" Troy exclaimed. He dropped his book bag and ran down the hallway of books. Falling to his knees, he sat next to her. "Gabriella, what's wrong?"

She sniffled up her tears and slowly lifted her head off of her knees. "I blew up and I can't take it back."

"When did you blow up?" he asked softly.

"A few hours ago. Kevin, he confronted me and he couldn't handle it which set me off and…" her voice trailed off as new tears started to fall out of her deep eyes. "He's my little brother and I yelled at him. I questioned his character and his morals. I told him to leave me and my life alone. I'm a horrible sister."

Troy put him around Gabriella and pulled her in close to him. "You're not a horrible sister and I know you didn't mean any of the stuff you said."

"But that's the thing. I did mean it. I meant everything I said." She blubbered out.

"Wow, you really are a horrible sister." Gabriella let out a light cry and put her back between her knees. "Okay, bad time for a joke. Gabriella you're a great sister and sometimes sisters get mad at their brothers and say things that may not be the best stuff to say."

"It's not like I don't want to take it back! I meant to say it at the time, but I'm totally regretting all of it, from the second he came up to me in the hallway." She told him softly. "God, I really hate Chad sometimes." She looked back up at Troy.

"Did he start the fight?"

She shook her head and whipped away the tears on her face. "No he just left when Kevin got there. If he was there it wouldn't have happened."

Troy let a small, soft smile escape onto his lips. "You know it's not Chad's fault." Gabriella gently nodded her head. "What was the fight about?"

"Well, you." Troy's mouth fell, as he wanted to say something but nothing came out. "Well, it started out about you and you being a jerk, but a good hearted one. And then you and me and the possibility of a you and me. But then it morphed into this huge argument about how he and my other brothers are over protective and…and…and…" tears, once again, began to form and fall.

"Shh, it's okay. Don't worry. You don't have to tell me what happened." He said tenderly. Troy gently stroked the hair out of her face. "I'm sure he knows you were just blowing off steam."

"Oh really." She reached into her jean pocket and handed Troy her phone.

He flipped her open and looked at the black screen. "It's off."

"Turn it on." She sniffled.

He turned the phone on and the screen lit up with white messages. "Fifteen missed calls and twenty-four new texts." The phone started to vibrate in his hands. "Whoa, more texts and calls coming in."

She snatched the phone from him and turned it off. "All from my brothers who have cell phones." She peered over at Troy with curious eyes. "Why are you here?"

"Because you're sad and need a shoulder and some company. And I want you to know that I can always be that guy for you." He took her hand in his hand gently stroked him thumb over her knuckles.

She smiled. "That's really nice, but what I meant is why are you here? In the East High history and old yearbooks section of the library."

"Oh…" Troy slightly turned pink. "I uh, came in here for class and got lost…" Gabriella giggled, which in turn put a smile on his face. "Why are you here?"

"Well," she took a deep breath. "I don't have a car, so I can't really drive anywhere. My foot still hurts a lot, so it probably wouldn't be good to walk too far on it. And I thought it would be a really bad idea to ride the bus somewhere when I'm in a pretty bad mood."

Troy nodded. "Yeah, that would probably be a bad idea."

"And it's just my natural nerd instinct to come to a library when I don't when I don't know where to go."

"You're not a nerd…"

"You've called me a nerd!" Her eyes started to swell. "And my brothers call me their little nerd."

Troy pushed himself off of the ground. "Okay, we are getting you out of here." He grabbed her hands and pulled her onto her feet. "You can't just sit here and mope all day."

Gabriella watched Troy gather up her books as well as his own bag. "Why not?"

"Because," he grabbed her hand and led her down the hall. "No matter how smart you are, moping is bad for you. And you could find all the evidence in the world, but it still won't be able to prove that moping around and feeling sorry for yourself is good."

"But-"

Troy cut her off. "No, Gabriella. You just have to trust me."

She whipped a hand across her face. "Yeah, that's fine. But the exit is this way." She pointed in the opposite direction.

"Oh... Yeah, right…." He spun around and pulled her out the exit.

"Troy we can't leave school." She complained. "You have practice."

"It won't kill me to miss a day. Plus it's not like I don't practice at home. Coach has got me running drills for three more hours." He told her.

"…Coach?" she asked softly.

Troy let out a heavy sigh. "He doesn't know I exist if it doesn't have to do with basketball. I could be doing hard drugs and be a stripper and he wouldn't notice just as long as I showed up on time for practice." He watched her eyes widen. "Oh, I'm not doing any of that stuff." He saw her lightly exhale a breath. "He hasn't been a dad to me in years. So he's just coach."

"And your mom?"

"She's too busy at work or buying stuff to notice half the time. I swear if we didn't leave at the same time in the morning she wouldn't know she had a son."

"And Angela?"

Troy smiled. "Angie's the only family I've ever had. She used to live on the other side of town and go to West High, but when her parents decided to move to Africa to take care of sick kids she moved in with us. She's the only reason I haven't moved out yet." He finally reached the library exit and let go of Gabriella's hand. "But this isn't about me. It's about you."

Her eyes swelled with tears. "I'm the worst sister in the world."

She started to slide down the door, but Troy pulled her up. "Oh, no. We're not doing this anymore remember?" They started to walk slowly out to his car. "Where do you want to go?"

He opened her door and she slid into the passenger seat. "Oh I don't know. I've only skipped school once." Her bottom lip started to quiver. "Cole and Luke called me out of English last year. They said it was because of an emergency, but they just wanted me to have some fun." She took a deep breath. "They took me to the county fair in Las Vegas."

"They took you all the way to Nevada? In a school day?"

She shook her head. "Las Vegas, New Mexico. It's about two hours north east of here."

He slid his hand onto her knee and rubbed it gently. "It's all right. Siblings fight. Especially brothers and sisters."

"Not us." She said sternly. "I mean, I yell at them for stupid stuff. Like eating the last piece of pie. Or messing with my room or listening in on my phone calls, but we've never fought. It's always been one sided."

"So all that stuff about them getting in your personal life…?"

She sniffed in the tears. "Sure, it bugs me and it's a little unfair that I can't really have a relationship because of their over protectiveness. But I don't hate it as much as I put on. They're my brothers and that's what their supposed to do."

"So you still want them to let up on you?"

"No." Gabriella shook her head. "I want a guy who won't care about them and their threats. A guy who knows that what we could have is worth the three weeks of crap." She looked over at Troy and smiled. "And I think I found him."

Troy took her hand in his. "I think you did too." He brought her hand up to her lips and gently kissed her knuckles.

A tingling sensation flew up and her arm and drew a smile to her lips. She blushed and laced her fingers in with the boy sitting next to her.

&&&

Troy looked over at the sleeping girl next to him. A smile spread across his face as he remembered back to the last time he saw her sleep. They were lying in bed together and her eyes had drifted shut near the middle of the movie. He had observed how graceful and childlike she looked, and before he knew it, he too had fallen into a deep asleep.

His ring tone sounded, snapping him out of his trance. He took another sweet look at her as he reached for his phone.

"Hello?" he said in a husky voice, trying not to wake Gabriella.

"Troy!" Chad exclaimed into the phone. "Where the hell are you?"

"Obviously you can tell I'm not in school." He said with a small smirk.

"Obviously." He repeated bitterly. "Coach flipped out when you didn't show up for the free period work out."

"Yeah, well…" Troy sighed. "That's couch for you."

He heard his friend sigh on the other end of the two phones. "He's seriously considering not playing you during the state games if you miss another practice."

"Let him. See what I care. Besides, some of the seniors need more playing time to get a scholarship. I'm only a junior, I have plenty of time to impress the scouts."

"Look, just show up for the rest of the practices, okay? I don't want my best friend to be benched right before state just because he skipped school."

Troy sighed. "Okay. I'll be there. Is that the only reason you called?"

"Actually, no." Chad said. "Your absence at practice sparked another freak out."

He groaned. "Oh great…"

"Gabriella never showed for first period. Luke says all of them have been trying to reach her all day and she's not answering. Apparently she and Kevin had a fight or something before school." Chad told his friend. "I'm kind of worried about her. Me and Taylor have tried calling her a couple of times too, but she's not answering us either."

"That's because her phone is off." Troy informed him. "There's probably a hundred missed calls by now…" he muttered.

"Troy, you know where she is?"

"You could say that."

"Troy!" he screamed into the phone.

"Chad, chill out." He said in a hushed voice looking back over at Gabriella. "She's sleeping right next to me and I don't want to wake her."

A moment of silence hung between them. "You didn't."

"So what if I did?" he asked. "What's the big deal?"

"Troy!" Chad groaned. "I…just let me know where she is so Taylor can stop freaking out."

"I can't really tell you." Troy muttered.

"Why not?" A sharp rumbled came form the other end of the phone.

"Troy!" a voice yelled at him.

"Taylor?" he questioned the voice.

"Of course it's Taylor! Who else do you think it would be, the Easter bunny?" she asked redundantly. "Where is Gabriella?"

"She's right next to me."

"Troy!" she yelled again.

"Look Taylor, she's alright. In fact she's great and I'm just trying to let her get some sleep. When she wakes up I'll have her give you a call.

"But-"

Troy hung up the phone and turned it off as it started to ring again. He looked over at Gabriella and smiled softly. "Even when you're asleep you can still put a smile on my face."


Author's Note: Snow days rock. I get so much done.

I hope everyone liked the chapter!