Gabriella looked down the empty dark hallway as she could see the reflections of the happy, cheerful, joyous pictures in the mirrors outlining the walls of the seemingly never endless hallway. Gabriella took small steps making the travel of just heading downstairs like a twenty day trip. Gabriella took a deep breath as she turned her head and stopped to look at herself in the mirror.
She had big puffy red eyes as she knew that they weren't blood shot from allergies, but from crying and getting lack of sleep. Her nose was stuffy as she would involuntarily shake every now and then. She felt like she had a million things going through her head for years now, although it had only been a week since his death. She had just attended his funeral two days ago as her family all left and had traveled back to their own homes out of state.
Gabriella sighed as she ran her 13 year old fingers through her hair that cascaded down her back in a messy heap as Gabriella hadn't come out of her room since the funeral as the maids that her mother hired brought her the food that she was supposed to eat, but ended up throwing away due to the lack of taste.
Gabriella looked up into the mirror as she thought about the main thing on her mind pushing the death of him out of it. Gabriella turned on her heal and started walking down the seemingly long hallway again. Gabriella slowly crept downstairs as she knew that it was only herself and her mother in the house, but she still had no taste left in her body to make her want to talk to her mother, especially after her mother sent away the family that wanted to stay in town to help them through their hard times.
Gabriella swallowed hard as her small petite figure walked down the bright, cheerful hallway as Gabriella could hear her mother running the faucet water as she had the radio playing loudly knowing Gabriella wouldn't be able to hear it upstairs due to the fact her room was on the other side of the house practically in another wing. Gabriella walked further down the hall as she stood in the doorway to the stainless steel kitchen clutching the wall while holding back a sob.
What Gabriella saw shocked her as she saw her mother actually cleaning the dishes by hands. Anna Montez was leaning over the counter as the water ran with steam seeping up due to only having the hot water on as the radio blasted some sappy love song while she cried her eyes out with sobs racking her body. Her hair was up in a messy bun, unusual as people only saw her with her hair perfectly placed.
Gabriella's knees were shaking as she bit back another sob as the water shut off and Anna Montez turned around while in the process of drying off her hands with a dish towel. Anna froze in her spot as this was the first time in seeing her daughter since the funeral a couple of days ago.
The daughter and mother just looked at each other as silent tears ran down both of their faces. Gabriella shut her eyes as she didn't exactly know how to feel towards her mother at the moment, but the next ten seconds told her all as Anna Montez cleared her eyes with the towel and narrowed her eyes at her daughter.
"Glad to see that you're finally out of your room." Anna said sharply as Gabriella stood up straight knowing that her mother and her never had the best relationship as Gabriella merely saw her as an adult that lived with her rather than someone to ask advice from, and to think Anna would be around forever.
Gabriella opened her mouth to speak but closed it again as she took another shaky breath knowing she wouldn't…couldn't break down in front of her 'mother.' "Mom--mother…I…" This is it, this is what Gabriella knew that she had to do. This was the reason why she was at the movie theatre with him, this was the choice that made him get hurt and quit on their family by dying, this was the choice Anna and her had been fighting about seven days ago, that led to Carlos Montez taking Gabriella to a movie to calm her down ending up with him being shot and never waking up again, and this was her 'future'. "Mother, I want to model." Gabriella choked out.
Anna's face lit up knowing that she had just won a month long argument. "I'll call your manager." Anna said rushing past her only daughter and to the phone to plan Gabriella's future…
Gabriella groaned as she stared at the ceiling. She had just woken up from one of those awful dreams, you know the non-fiction kind that is stuck in the back of your head as you try to think of other things, anything else, but you end up thinking about it anyways. Gabriella looked at her clock and saw that it was six o'clock on the dot on a Saturday nonetheless, but Gabriella didn't care as she always almost seemed to get up at six every morning, and if not then she would get up sooner. She was the type of person where she would wake up early in the morning and once she was up, she was up and no matter how many hours of sleep she got, it didn't matter.
Gabriella put on her gray cotton robe along with her soft gray cotton slippers and walked downstairs to her kitchen. It wasn't until Gabriella heard the water running to her kitchen sink that she remembered her uninvited guest that was staying at her house for a whole week. Gabriella counted to ten silently as she closed her eyes and tried to fill her head with happy thoughts. It wasn't working as Gabriella walked to the archway going into her kitchen and saw her mother's back facing her as Anna was actually washing dishes! Why? Gabriella had no idea, but something was definitely going on.
The water shut off as soon as Gabriella walked further into her kitchen and opened the freezer and Gabriella knew that the only reason Anna was stopping was because Gabriella was in her presence. "So you've finally gotten up?" Anna asked.
Gabriella turned around and put the waffles in the toaster. "Mother, it's only six in the morning. Most normal people would say this is early, especially for a Saturday." Gabriella said.
Anna just rolled her eyes as she brought a coffee mug up to her lips to take a sip of the hot steamy coffee. Gabriella now knew for sure where she was willing to bet her life on it that something was up with her mother. Usually in normal circumstances, Anna would have bitten her head off for saying something like that to her.
Anna clicked her tongue as the daughter and mother pair just stood looking at each other from across the room. Anna lightly leaning her back against the counter as her two hands cupped her coffee mug in her skinny long fingers and Gabriella had her back against the cool counter top waiting for her waffles to pop up.
Anna looked at her daughter and still believed 100 percent that Gabriella, her only daughter still looked like Carlos Montez. No matter how much and how many times people would see pictures of Gabriella and go up to Anna and tell her just how much Gabriella looked like her, Anna would always politely nod and give a fake smile as she knew Gabriella might actually look like her in some ways, but she looked more like her father as each day passed.
Gabriella might have the hair curls her mother possessed, but Anna knew her hair was a few shades darker which would match Carlos's color. Gabriella might have the same color skin tone as her mother, but Anna knew that Gabriella had a birth mark on her right upper arm that Carlos had in the same identical spot. Gabriella might have the modeling face, but Anna knew that Gabriella preferred to smile and have fun in life as Carlos would've wanted it.
Anna took in her daughter as Gabriella just stared back with a distant look on her face. Anna knew she loves her daughter, there was no doubt about that to her at least, but as others saw their relationship, it might look like Anna actually thought of her daughter as a burden…it was just hard.
"When did that boy…Tr…" Anna trailed off as she knew that the guy's name started with a TR and then she couldn't exactly pin point his full name, Trevor? Travis? Tristan?
Gabriella raised her eye brows as she watched her mom try to figure out Troy's name. "Troy?" Gabriella offered as Anna looked at her daughter again.
"If that's his name, yes. When did Troy leave last night?" Anna asked as pure curiosity got the better of her as she knew her daughter and Ryan weren't dating anymore since it was all over the news.
Gabriella looked away from her mother and down at the ground with narrowed eyes as she thought she knew what her mother was trying to do. She was trying to find out as much information about him as possible and then she would point out all of his flaws to Gabriella. "He helped carry in your suit cases." Gabriella gave as an answer as she turned around and put her two waffles on a plate as she knew that that wasn't the answer her mother was looking for.
"You two seemed like you knew each other well." Anna said referring back to the half naked daughter she walked in on and the shirtless Troy.
Gabriella sighed as she put peanut butter on her waffles. "Well…I guess…" Gabriella muttered as she knew exactly how many days Troy and her had known each other…23 days. Which to some people didn't seem like much as it wasn't even a month long, but Troy and Gabriella had spent at least two hours talking to each other together over the phone and if not two hours, then they would see each other in person.
Anna couldn't blame her daughter for not wanting to have a longer conversation than possible with her as she knew there was a lot of problems to work out with their relationship, but Anna came here for only two reasons: one being to meet with a huge company and to seal the deal with their signatures on paper, and the second one being telling Gabriella very important news, and it was due to this second fact that Anna was wishing their relationship was a little better.
"Does he…come around here often?" Anna asked innocently as she tried to at least figure out her daughters life.
Gabriella sighed as she slammed the butter knife down on the counter harder than intended to as she turned around and started to walk out of the room. "That's great mother, let's play the mother card now when I don't need it." Gabriella said with a glare as she walked past her mother.
Anna sighed as she called after Gabriella. "Don't you dare turn my simple questions into a problem that blames me." Gabriella froze in her spot as Anna sighed again. "I tried being there for you, and it was you that pushed me away back then." Anna said with her own glare.
Gabriella turned to face her mother again. "You say that, but do you ever wonder why I pushed you away?" Gabriella asked and received no answer as she turned around to head towards the stairs again. But before she headed up the stairs, Gabriella stopped in her spot. "I'm gonna be out today. I have a meeting so I won't see you until probably late tonight." Gabriella said as she started up the stairs again.
Anna watched her daughter walk up the stairs as she knew the reason why Gabriella never confided in her anymore, it was because of Gabriella's teenage years and how Gabriella always resented her as the years went on after her father's death. It was hard on the both of them as Anna liked to believe that they were both still dealing with the death and Anna completely forgot about the news she was going to tell Gabriella which just so happened to be about Carlos Montez.
"TWO YEARS!?" Chad exclaimed as if Taylor was crazy.
Troy sighed as he rubbed his forehead as he had been sitting in the same spot for an hour and a half now. Troy looked up and saw that Gabriella was sinking lower and lower in her chair as she too had her head in her hands.
"Yes, what's wrong with two years?" Taylor asked with raised eye brows and a somewhat kind of attitude as she looked at Chad to make her point.
"It's two years, we could plan ten weddings in two years." Chad exclaimed as he and Taylor were discussing wedding dates.
"Well then what's your ideas, I don't hear you saying your opinion other than complaining to whatever I suggest." Taylor snapped.
"Well, what about in a couple of months?" Chad asked and all three of them all groaned as the wedding planner Missy just wrote down notes as she was going over a lot of paperwork Troy didn't have a clue about.
"A couple of months?!" Taylor exclaimed as her jaw dropped. "A couple of months?!" Taylor's voice rose a couple of notches.
"Yeah, a couple of months. Like maybe a nice spring wedding…April…or May?" Chad suggested in a smooth voice as his hand reached out and connected with Taylor's. "Or maybe an early summer wedding, sometime in June?"
Taylor seemed to calm down a bit as Troy and Gabriella were brave enough to raise their heads and share a tiring look as Taylor thought over Chad's idea. Troy was praying with all his might as he promised God that he wouldn't do another bad thing as long as Taylor just agreed with Chad seeing as they had only decided on…nothing so far in this meeting, although Troy was thankful that Chad and Taylor came back with some things checked off the list of what they had to do which seemed to be growing fast as they would check off one thing and add two more.
Taylor sighed as Troy was thankful for Chad that he could calm Taylor down so quickly. "June?" Taylor more asked herself as she nodded her head slowly. "Can we do that in five months?" Taylor asked with new excitement.
Missy's head shot up and gave a big warming smile. "That we can do. Your wedding is on one of our top priorities. Anything is possible for you two." Missy said as Taylor turned towards Chad.
Taylor nodded her head as Chad squeezed her hand and turned towards Missy more. "June it is." Chad confirmed as Gabriella and Troy mentally did a happy dance in their heads.
"Okay, now that we have a time of month to work with, we can check that off our list." Missy said confidentially. "So far you guys have the colors picked out for the dresses, the groomsmen's attire, the accessories for the bridesmaids, the priest, and the church site." Missy read over her notes. "I think the next step should be putting together the guest list and sending out invitations." Missy suggested.
Troy tried to drown out what Missy was explaining to Chad and Taylor as he looked around the room which was very spacious. It was large with wooden tiled floors as the walls were all white and the wall that looked out into the city consisted of a huge window.
"Then here's a checklist of things that you probably want to start thinking about by next week so that when you come back here for the next appointment, I can start arranging and ordering things." Missy said handing Taylor a long list of things.
As Missy was leaning over her desk and pointing at something on the list out to Chad and Taylor, Troy looked at Gabriella who had her eyes glued to the TV that was on mute with the subtitles playing with the news channel showing. Gabriella's eyes were glossed over as she took in a shaky breath that didn't go unnoticed by Taylor as Taylor whipped her head around and looked at Gabriella.
"Gabi, what's wrong?" Taylor asked but got no answer as she followed Gabriella's gaze and she turned back to Missy. "Can you give us a moment please?" Taylor asked.
Missy nodded her head in trying to understand what was happening, "I'll be back in ten and then we can discuss the topic of food and then you'll be free to go." Missy said as she got up and hurried out of the room.
Taylor reached for the remote and turned the volume up as Gabriella gasped a little when police officers were shown on the screen rushing around with paramedics rushing someone on a stretcher out to an ambulance. "What's going on?" Chad asked as he watched the TV.
"This is footage from two days ago at Anderson Institution where one of the patience for a little over a decade decided to take his life." The announcer reported. "It appears here that the man, Jacob Brien was sentenced to the institution as he was found unstable 11 years ago when he took eleven people hostage at Lakesville Movie Theatre."
Taylor gasped along with Gabriella as she reached for the remote and turned it off. "Tay!" Chad exclaimed as he wanted to see more. Troy looked at Gabriella and saw that she was as frozen as a statue with tears building up in her eyes.
"Chad, knock it off." Taylor hissed in a whisper as she turned to look at Gabriella. She placed a hand on Gabriella's in a comforting way as Gabriella slowly turned her head to look at Taylor. "Hey." Taylor said in a hushed tone. "Everything's going to be okay now." Taylor knew the monster that has been haunting Gabriella for a decade now was gone.
Gabriella's bottom lips was quivering and Troy wanted nothing more than to just stand up and engulf her into a hug. Gabriella's voice came out in a shaky, small, vulnerable voice, "Do you think he's in heaven?" Gabriella asked.
Chad and Troy shared a curious glance with each other. Taylor's heart broke at hearing how her best friend was sounding. Taylor pulled Gabriella into a hug as she rubbed her back and Gabriella closed her eyes just wanting to go home and forget about this day now. "I don't know Gabi." Taylor said softly.
"I mean he couldn't be, could he? He's in heaven, so that bastard couldn't possible be, could he?" Gabriella asked as Taylor knew exactly who he was without having Gabriella coming out and saying his name, so that Chad and Troy didn't figure it out. Gabriella shut her eyes tighter now as tears threatened to fall. Gabriella didn't care if she looked like some weirdo in front of Chad and Troy as they just watched. Taylor had no idea what to say to this as Gabriella just wanted to go home to peace and quiet, and then she remembered, her mother was there. Her mother, who didn't tell her that Jacob killed himself. How could she not tell her only daughter that the man that killed her father, killed himself in the end? Gabriella was slowly turning furious as she pulled away from Taylor and stood up abruptly while grabbing her jacket. "How could she not tell me?" Gabriella demanded as Taylor stood up also.
"Who Gabs?" Chad asked before Taylor could say anything.
Gabriella threw her jacket on while wiping the tears away furiously with the back of her hand. "How could she keep this from me?! It has been two fucking days! And she knew, she must have, they live…lived in the same city!" Gabriella said.
"Gabi, maybe she didn't know." Taylor said softly and Gabriella was thankful for Taylor that she knew right away who she was talking about.
Gabriella laughed sarcastically. "She calls herself my mother." Gabriella stated as her blood was boiling. "She's far from it." Gabriella hissed as she stormed out of the room.
The three friends looked at each other not knowing what to do. Troy now knew it had to have something to do with Gabriella's past, and he wondered if he would ever get answers as it was clear to anyone with eyes that Gabriella did not want to bring up her past anytime soon. "What the hell was that about?" Chad asked.
"Nothing." Taylor said as she knew Gabriella just needed to work this out by herself.
"Should we go after her, I've never seen her that upset before?" Chad suggested.
Taylor shook her head sadly. "She just needs to be by herself." Missy came back five minutes later as Troy just sat there for another half an hour without talking. Troy didn't know what he was going to do, it wasn't everyday that you saw and heard something like that.
"I'll see you guys later, and good luck with…that." Troy chuckled a bit as he motioned to the list that seemed to be growing which Chad was now holding as all three of them were standing outside of the wedding planners building.
"Troy…" Taylor called out as Troy stopped and spun around to look at the couple. "She needs to be by herself." Taylor said softly.
Troy tried to play dumb. "What do you mean?"
Taylor raised her eye brows as she looked at Troy and knew that he knew exactly what she was talking about. "Just…give her time." Taylor said.
There was a pause as Troy thought about what Taylor said, but what could it hurt if Troy went over to see Gabriella and just hang out with her without bringing up the afternoon events. "Bye guys." Troy said with a wave and started for his car.
Troy was now standing outside Gabriella's house as he had just rung the door bell considering the fact that after last night and Chad just walking inside her house while getting hit with an umbrella and almost getting pepper sprayed wasn't on Troy's list to do. Troy sighed as he saw someone on the other side of the door and he heard the door unlock as the door swung open and he came face to face with none other than Anna Montez.
Anna's eyes pierced through Troy as Troy shifted nervously in his spot. Anna did not look happy, she looked far from it and it kind of scared Troy. "May I help you?" Anna asked in a tight voice as she was trying to calm down still from another fight Gabriella and her just had and this time, Anna knew that it was her own fault for not coming right out and telling Gabriella that Jacob Brien committed suicide.
Troy swallowed and nodded his head slightly. "Um…I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Troy Bolton…" Troy offered his hand to Anna as she just stood there with her arms crossed. Troy took his hand back slightly. "I was here last night." Troy said weakly.
Anna huffed. "I'm forty, not eighty."
"Right…" Troy scratched the back of his neck. "So you do remember." Troy said quietly as his voice was dying out while he could feel Anna looking him over with her cold dark eyes. Anna huffed again and Troy mumbled, "Yeah…"
There was a silence as Troy avoided Anna's gaze and peeked behind her shoulder to see that Gabriella was no where in sight even though her car was in the driveway. "Do you need something?" Anna asked as she saw Troy peering over her shoulder at something.
"Yeah…is Brie here?" Troy asked as his fingers played with each other nervously.
"Who's Brie?" Anna asked eyeing Troy up and down as Troy sighed.
"I mean Gabriella. Is Gabriella here? It's very important." Troy said quickly.
"She's very tired right now. She had a long day, but I'll tell her you stopped by and maybe she'll call you back." Anna said as she shut the door on Troy. Troy just stood there trying to comprehend what just happened, had Ms. Montez really just shut the door on him? Troy walked off the porch trying to figure out some other way into her house, and then he thought about Taylor.
Gabriella sat on her bed in short shorts that showed off most of her legs and a tight fitting sweatshirt on so it still showed that she was as skinny as a twig as she sat on her bed with her blue notebook propped up trying to think of something to write. Gabriella had come up to her room after having another fight with her mother and Gabriella didn't know exactly why she was getting so upset, it was just the news of hearing about her father's killer killing himself and her mother knew about it ticked her off and Gabriella had to hear about it on the news.
Gabriella sang a line of words that came to her mind as she sang them in different pitches, trying to find the right tune. This was another reason why she loved music so much, it was because whatever she was feeling, she could put into words and share it with other people. Gabriella sighed as her mind wandered away from her to think about all the things she had to do this week, on Monday Troy had a basketball game and she was supposed to have a meeting with her people again, and then her and the gang were going to go out to a club together since they haven't done anything like that for a while now. On Tuesday she had a couple of interviews for two different magazines, on Wednesday she had a photo shoot scheduled with Troy so that wasn't going to be so bad, and Troy's parents come on Wednesday, then on Thursday Gabriella had another interview while recording time as she was recording a song that reminded her of Troy, and then on Friday there was another wedding meeting, her mother was leaving, and that was her weekend.
Gabriella sighed again as her head came back to Earth and she concentrated on the task at hand by trying to find the right pitches. Gabriella was pulled out of her thoughts again by a tapping on her window. Gabriella got up and a small soft smile took over her features as she saw Troy. But she was on the second story? Gabriella rushed to the window and opened it as Troy fell through. Gabriella jumped back as Troy stood up quickly with a nervous laugh as Gabriella saw that Troy climbed a ladder that Taylor used the other night to get up and into her room, but unlike Taylor, Troy had the decency to knock.
Gabriella chuckled a bit and set her closed notebook down on a side table. "Oh God, I interrupted something, I can just come back." Troy said as he realized he interrupted Gabriella.
"No, that's okay. I couldn't concentrate anyways." Gabriella said as she sat on her bed while events from last night flashed through her mind and Troy running his fingers up and down her arms as his mouth pressed warm open mouth kisses on her skin.
Troy sat down next to Gabriella taking her out of her thoughts. "You want to talk about it?" Troy asked as Gabriella sighed and fell back as she landed softly on her back as she stared up at the ceiling.
She wouldn't tell Troy why she got so upset before, she wouldn't tell him what Jacob Brien meant to her, she wouldn't tell him why no one except Taylor knew about all of her past…even though she knew she should, but they weren't even official boyfriend/girlfriend yet so why should she tell him all about her past, shouldn't she wait to see if they would work out, but Gabriella already knew the answer to that, of course they would, she knew she never felt like this for anyone else.
Gabriella glanced at Troy with a small smile on her face as Troy copied her actions and soon enough he too was looking up at the ceiling. "You know I used to be afraid of the monster in the closet." Troy said nonchalantly as Gabriella looked at him confused. "I also am terrified of clowns." Troy said with a chuckle as he thought of how ridiculous he sounded blurting out his fears as a child to make Gabriella feel better right now.
Gabriella grinned as she turned on her side and her elbow propped her up. "I used to be afraid of spiders." Gabriella joined in as Troy turned his head now not expecting Gabriella to add to his nonsense fears. "I mean like really terrified where I would start hyperventilating and pass out." Gabriella said with wide eyes as she sounded so dramatic.
Troy laughed lightly as he too turned on his side to face Gabriella as he put a stray curl behind her ear. "I was scared of vacuums."
"Gray used to be my favorite color." Gabriella admitted.
"Gray?!" Troy exclaimed with more chuckles as both of them were realizing maybe they didn't know each other as good as they thought, sure they knew the outlines of other's personalities, but now they were learning the details.
"And what was your favorite color?" Gabriella asked as she too laughed at how weird gray was for a favorite color.
"Orange." Troy answered simply.
Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Let me guess, a basketball?" Gabriella said.
Troy nodded. "However did you know?" Troy joked.
"Well…" Gabriella drew out the word. "It just so happens you look like the extremely cute LA Lakers Captain, Troy Bolton." Gabriella said.
"Oh really?" Troy asked in a husky voice as he rolled over and caged Gabriella in with his arms on either side of her head and brought his lips so they were millimeters away from her own mouth. "Tell me more of this Troy Bolton guy that you seem so wrapped in." Troy said as he started pressing kisses under Gabriella's ear lobe working his way around her jaw line.
Gabriella sighed as her arms went around his neck. "He's really good at basketball…" Troy continued to press kisses on her face moving his way down her neck. "He's sweet…kind…handsome." Gabriella said.
Troy pulled back with an amused smile on his lips. "I'm handsome now, not cute?" Troy joked.
"Both." Gabriella answered simply as she leaned up and connected their lips again. They both felt at peace with each other as they got lost in the moment and continued to make out. By now all thoughts and memories of that Saturday was pushed to the back of their minds as Gabriella allowed Troy's sweet lips to take over her own and calm and comfort her.