Chapter 09
Gabriella and Sharpay walked into the bustling high school on a sunny morning. "I'm thinking maybe we should start enrolling you in those baby classes. I mean you don't know anything about babies and you're going to have one. And shit what are you going to do about classes?" Sharpay voiced her genuine concern.
"Shit, Shar. Can you be any louder? I mean people don't know I'm pregnant yet." Gabriella whispered quietly. "I mean how hard can this be? Having a baby isn't like the end of the world." She walked down the hall with her best friend before running into a familiar pair of blue eyes.
"Hey girls." Troy smiled at them before turning his attention just towards Gabriella.
Sharpay smirked at the two before distancing herself from the two. "I'm gonna go check on my makeup." She winked at Troy and Gabriella before walking towards the restroom.
"So I see you're still alive." Gabriella started walking with Troy by her side. "How did it go?"
"She's furious. But what can I expect. I mean, I am in the wrong here." Troy sighed and looked at Gabriella's back to find her backpack weighing down her back. She adjusted the backpack on her shoulders which caused Troy to notice just how heavy the books inside must be. "Give me your backpack." He stopped walking and demanded.
"Excuse me?" She looked behind her in confusion. She always wore her backpack in this manner, there was nothing different about it today.
"Are you carrying bricks in there?" Troy shook his head before removing her backpack from her back and flinging it over his shoulder. "You're carrying a child now, you shouldn't carry such heavy weights."
Gabriella was taken by surprise but let him help her anyway. He was right, she needed to change her lifestyle due to her pregnancy. "Thanks…?"
"Where's your class? I'll walk you there with your stuff."
They began walking slowly again towards the science hall. "140A Chemistry with Mr. Mason."
"So about that afternoon in the café…" Troy broke the short silence between them. "I'm sorry that I came off as uncaring. But I really was thinking about the best options for the both of us. And after thinking, I realized that the best option for the both of us would be trying to keep this baby."
Gabriella bit her lip nervously. She stormed off on him without even considering those options and then even accused of him of only caring about himself. He was right. Raising this child would be hard but it can't be any worse than anything she had already went through in her life, right? As long as they were on the same page, they could make this work. After all, this baby was theirs.
"Gabriella, I'm willing to really try to be the best father and I know you will be the best mother." He smiled at her before placing a strand of her hair back behind her ear. She was beautiful. Even more beautiful than the night he met her. Her effortless curls and the way she smiled at him. But it was that beauty that got him to lie about his relationship status. Those inviting eyes that made his knees go weak. He couldn't tell whether she was a blessing or a curse.
"Okay." She nodded at him with confidence. "I believe you. And I apologize as well for storming off on you like that. I know you were just trying to figure out what's best for the three of us."
The two of them stopped walking as soon as they reached 140A. Gabriella pulled out her phone and checked the time. They still had ten minutes left until class officially starts.
"I'll carry this in for you." Troy motioned for Gabriella to walk in front of him before they both stepped foot into the classroom.
As soon as Gabriella stepped into the classroom, she saw a taller brunette walk up to her. "Hi Gabriella." The taller girl greeted her with a fake smile.
"Hi… Sandra, right?" Gabriella bit her lip and looked down at her feet. She had never felt so ashamed in her life. She slept with her boyfriend and was now pregnant with her boyfriend's baby. How could she have the guts to look her in the face?
"What are you looking at the ground for, Gabriella? I'm talking to you." Sandra tilted her head and crossed her arm after releasing a small chuckle.
"Look Sandra, I—" Troy actually didn't know what to say but he wanted to say something before this got worse. Sandra was furious and he could see it through those eyes he used to love so much. And the last thing he wanted to see was the mother of his child getting injured.
"You've done enough damage already." Sandra looked directly in Troy's eyes and swallowed while trying to hold back the tears. Her attention shifted back to Gabriella.
Gabriella looked up at Sandra and sighed while tears of her own started to well up in her eyes. "Sandra, I'm sorry. It's my fault this whole thing happened. It was one night that became irreversible. And I'm really really sor—" Before she could finish her sentence, she felt a hand smack right against her left cheek. Her head was smacked towards the right before she brought her hand up to hold onto her red cheek. She didn't say anything. She was speechless. There was nothing she could say. She was the other woman in this situation. She was the one that hurt Sandra.
Troy couldn't hold it in anymore. He had to say something. He couldn't bear seeing Gabriella being slapped in public. The classroom grew silent when the sound of the slap echoed in the classroom. All the other students all directed their attention towards them. He stood in front of Gabriella as he stood face to face to his ex-girlfriend's anger. "Sandra, it's my fault. None of this is Gabriella's fault. It's one hundred percent my doing."
"Troy, it takes a penis and a vagina to have sex. It takes the sperm and the egg to make a baby. Stop trying to bend the truth and protect that man-stealing bitch." Sandra bit her lip and let a tear drop roll down her cheek. "I want you to enlighten me on how this would not be her fault the least bit."
Troy sighed. This was the moment of truth. The moment when Sandra would be stabbed one more time in the heart. "I didn't tell her I had a girlfriend. Gabriella didn't know anything about us. She thought I was single so it's not her fault."
Sandra looked at Troy for a second and realized everything about their relationship was a lie. He may have loved her but it sure wasn't enough. How could he consciously cheat on her? How could he lie to Gabriella that he was single? Did their relationship mean nothing? All their dates, their kisses, their intimate moments mean nothing? The anger and anxiety was building up inside her waiting to just erupt. She started to breathe more heavily before clenching her fists and storming off with tears dripping down her face. She could feel herself getting light-headed. Her oxygen was running low and the next thing she knew, she was trying to walk out of the classroom with her knees wobbling and the light brightening.
Sandra's body collapsed on the floor and her head hit against the floor while everyone rushed to her side. The teacher walked into the classroom and quickly called the ambulance. Gabriella's hand was up to her mouth, she was in complete shock as tears rolled down her face. This was what she got for being the other woman. Sandra was emotionally unstable. She heard rumors about her having many mental health problems. And because of her pregnancy, Sandra might fall ill again. How could she let this happen? How could she be the other woman to such a fragile girl who needed Troy so much? She hated herself for this. She hated herself for ever sleeping with a man with a girlfriend.
Troy rushed towards Sandra and shook her body to try to call her back to an awake state. He'd seen this before. Sandra's anxiety was an ongoing problem. She recently got better but when he met her, she was constantly having anxiety attacks. This might just be the worst one he had ever seen.
Later on that night, Troy tried visiting Sandra at the hospital. But when Sandra's mother heard about why her daughter collapsed from some of Sandra's friends, she threatened to kill him if he didn't leave the hospital. She also demanded Troy to never speak to Sandra again. He understood why her mother would be so furious. Any mother wants to protect her daughter. Troy obviously hurt Sandra possibly even more than her stepfather's abuse. Troy was Sandra's world and to hear that he lied to get laid was absolutely painful.
Although Troy was worried about Sandra, he was also equally as worried about Gabriella. After being assaulted today, she must be feeling horrible. That public assault probably also caused the news of her pregnancy to spread like wildfire. And seeing Sandra collapse like that must have been hard on her. He decided to pay her a visit. If he couldn't make it right with Sandra, he could at least make it right with the mother of his child. He put his car on park before exiting the truck and ringing the front door bell. There was no answer. He tried again and waited a few seconds before Gabriella opened the door. Her cheek was still red from Sandra's slap and her face was free of makeup. Her curls cascaded down her shoulders and her oversized East High T-shirt covered her shorts. She looked effortlessly beautiful but her expression was anything but happy. "What are you doing here?"
"I was worried about you."
"Save it for Sandra. Go visit her in the hospital. I'm fine. I can take a slap in the face. The red will fade by tomorrow." She tried to shut the door but his hand pushed it back open.
"Hold up." He invited himself in and shut the door behind them. "Why are you being so standoffish? I wanted to come in and check up on you."
Gabriella walked away from him and grabbed her mug of hot chocolate from the coffee table. The TV was on and a reality TV show played in the background. "I'm fine."
"No you're not." Troy sat down next to her on the couch. "Listen, I'm really sorry about what happened today. All of this was obviously my fault. I fucked up my relationship with Sandra and put you in a horrible spot because I lied to you. I'm honestly the world's biggest asshole. I know it and I don't know how to fix it. I can't fix things with Sandra because what we have is irreversible. All I want to do is be there for you, that's the only thing I can do right. And right now, all I want to do is what's right. I don't want to fuck up anymore. I've done too much damage because of my own carelessness and recklessness."
Gabriella sipped some of her hot beverage and looked at Troy while he spoke those words. She knew he meant it. She knew he wanted to be the father to this baby. But a part of her couldn't help but feel immense guilt for even being pregnant with this baby. This baby ruined Sandra. And she had a part in this baby too. "Troy, I appreciate it. I really do. But I don't know what to think right now. I am the other woman, Troy. I keep thinking about how I would act if I was Sandra and honestly, I would slap the other woman too. I would hate that woman too. I would hate that baby too. Sandra loved you so much and I can just see it in her eyes the way those tears rolled down her face today. She couldn't even look at you without breaking. I'm the other woman and I'll always be the other woman who ruined everything."
"Gabriella, why are you hating yourself when you really should be hating me? I'm the one who lied to you." Troy couldn't bear to hear all those words Gabriella just said. She shouldn't hate herself for not knowing the truth. "You're not the other woman if you didn't know about my relationship. I lied to you. Why can't you hate me and not yourself, Brie?"
"Because you're the father of my child. Because I slept with you that night willingly and because we were careless. It was both of our faults. Girlfriend or no girlfriend, we should have used protection." She looked away from him as tears started to form yet again. Today was just a day filled with tears.
"Stop." Troy suddenly felt the need to reach out and grabbed Gabriella's hand which caused her to look at him in small surprise. Her hands were much smaller than his and he knew at that moment, she needed him to say these words. She needed his hands to protect hers and his words to comfort her. "I'm the one with the penis. I should have wrapped it up. I should have told you about my girlfriend. But all of that shouldn't even matter so much right now. What matters is that we will be having a baby and this baby might have been an accident but I don't want to think of it as a mistake anymore."
Gabriella stared into his eyes and shifted her hands while he grasped onto them tenderly. Was this how he treated Sandra? Being his girlfriend must have been nice while he was faithful. He was so gentle and caring and she could see why Sandra could love him so much. But what made him cheat? What was it about her that made him lie? What was so enticing about her that his girlfriend would cry over him for days and weeks but he could be here right now holding her hand and comforting her? She felt a tingle run down her spine as his thumb brushed against hers. This wasn't like the night she slept with him but the feeling of the night they kissed in his car.
Gabriella quickly snapped out of it before she moved her hands back into her lap. "Okay." All she could let out were two syllables.
"Okay…?" Troy raised an eyebrow at her simple reaction and looked down at their now separated hands.
"Look, it's getting late. My parents will be home soon and I really need to rest." Gabriella got up from the couch as Troy followed her towards the door. "Thanks for stopping by."
Troy nodded and turned the door knob. "Goodnight, Gabriella." He leaned down to plant a kiss on her forehead before heading out the door.
"Goodnight." She shut the door and touched her forehead at the very spot his lips landed. She shook her head and snapped out of the trance she was in. He just cares a lot about the mother of his child, that's all.
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