We pulled up to the apartment and got out of the car and made our way inside where everyone was already waiting.
"HEY!" everyone yelled in unison as we walked through the door. I started giggling at everyone, I swear if you weren't at the fight and you didn't see everyone's bruises you would have no idea something so huge happened. Then I remembered Hayley and my spirit plummeted. I was in a room with everyone that cares about me while she is dead sitting in a morgue. I guess Troy could sense my change of mood because he stopped walking and turned to look at me.
"Are you ok?" he asked with worry filling his voice.
"Hayley." I whispered.
Troy pulled me into a hug while everyone just started at us with confused looks, but nobody had the heart to ask what was going on. I pulled back and looked at Troy with a small smile.
"You always know how to make me feel better." I said with a sigh.
"I try." He said with a smirk.
I shook my head with a smile as I walked back to everyone. I decided to push the current thoughts from my head and concentrate on my 'family'. Troy sat on the recliner and gently pulled me onto his lap being careful to not touch my stitches.
I excused myself to go get some water in the kitchen. I slowly walked into the kitchen and grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water. I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped in surprise and dropped the glass on the floor. I turned around to see Chad.
"God Chad you scared the crap out of me." I hissed at him with my hand over my heart.
"Sorry." He said guiltily.
I could see Troy's worried face from across the room, "He just scared me Troy…I'm fine." I reassured him with a smile. Troy nodded his head and turned back to his conversation with Jason, but I could tell her still kept his eyes on me. Chad had already grabbed a towel and started cleaning up the spilt water I bent down slowly to help.
Chad held out his hand to stop me from crouching down, "Don't…I got it." he said finishing cleaning up the mess. He stood back up and tossed the hand towel into the sink.
"Thanks." I said patting him softly on the back, "so what did you need before you scared me?" I asked turning back and grabbing a water bottle out of the fridge to be safe this time.
"I wanted to apologize for yesterday." He said with a sigh. I furrowed my brows in confusion when I took a quick glance at him. "Whatever I did to set off your panic attack yesterday and today. I feel horrible and I'm sorry." He said fiddling with his fingers.
I froze while grabbing the water bottle out of the fridge, while the flashbacks from the dream flashed through my mind. I closed my eyes tightly.
"It wasn't real. He's here with me. It wasn't real." I whispered to myself over and over again for reassurance.
I slowly pulled my head out of the refrigerator abandoning the water bottle on the shelf and turned to the living room with my eyes still shut.
"Gabbi are you ok?" Chad asked worriedly.
"I'm fine." I whimpered with my eyes still closed. I needed to gather up the courage to open my eyes so I could see Troy.
"Then why are your eyes closed?" he asked cautiously.
All of the conversations in the living room stopped and I could just feel everyone's eyes on me. I felt a pair of familiar arms wrap around me as I felt their forehead against mine.
"Brie open your eyes." Troy said in a worried voice. I opened my eyes and looked into Troy's, "I told you I wasn't going anywhere." He said kissing my forehead. I relaxed into Troy's arms and noticed that the gang was looking at us.
"I'm going to go to bed, I'm tired." I said swiftly walking away from Troy and into the bedroom. I couldn't take everyone's gazes on me. It felt as if they were judging me, but they wouldn't judge me like that because they care about me…right? I walked to my dresser and grabbed some pajamas. I put the shorts on and I tried to put my tank top on but each time I tried to raise my arms over my head my side would hurt. I sat on the bed with my shirt half on for about 15 minutes until Troy walked. He stopped when he saw the position I was in.
Troy laughed and walked over to me, "Need some help baby?" he asked with a smile.
"Yeah." I said with a sigh.
Troy helped me finish putting my shirt on and gave me a small kiss on the lips. Troy stripped down to his boxers and we both climbed into bed. Troy pulled me close to him as we both got situated to go to sleep. After about 30 minutes of silence I decided to break it.
"Do you think the gang thinks I'm weird?" I asked quietly.
I felt Troy shift beside me, "What do you mean?" he asked.
"About what happened at the hospital and what happened in the kitchen." I said burying my face in Troy's body.
Troy lifted my chin up to look at him, "No they don't. I explained everything when you came in here. They all understood and they don't think any differently of you." He said giving me a reassuring squeeze. I cuddled in closer to Troy and closed my eyes while listening to his heartbeat.
I woke up due to the lack of heat that was once against my body. I turned over slowly and saw Troy sitting on the side of the bed with his head in his hands I saw his shoulders moving rhythmically as if he was crying.
"Troy?" I called to him softly.
I saw Troy tense up, "Just go back to sleep Brie." He said softly but getting up off the bed and walking into the living room. I sat up quickly to follow him completely forgetting about my stitches and the soreness.
"SHIT!" I screamed out in pain clutching my side as tears invaded my eyes.
Troy came running into the room, "What happened?" he asked frantically. He saw me holding my side, he walked over to me and pulled my hand away so he could look at it. When he pulled my hand away I saw blood on my hand.
"I'm going to take you in the kitchen so I can get a better look." He said picking me up bridal style and carrying me into the kitchen and sitting me on the counter. He took my shirt off in one swift moment, he grabbed the towel from earlier and ran it under the water and brought it to my side as he cleaned the blood away. He took a closer look, after a few minutes he looked at me. I could see the tears stains on his face.
"You didn't rip the stitches so you should be ok." He said throwing the towel back in the sink. He turned to help me off the counter but I stopped him by cupping his face in my hands.
"Troy what's wrong?" I asked while looking him in the eyes.
"It's nothing Brie, let's just go back to bed." He said trying to pull away from me.
"Troy." I pleaded, "Please tell me."
"Gabriella just let it go." He snapped at me in a tone that I couldn't recognize. I was taken aback not just because he snapped at me but because he called me Gabriella. He has never called me by my full name, even when we first met. It shocked me, but most of all it hurt. I just nodded my head and slid down from the counter.
"Goodnight Troy." I said calling to him over my shoulder. I walked to the bedroom and climbed in bed pulling the covers up around me. I closed my eyes and waited for sleep to overtake me. I felt Troy climb into the bed, I could feel his eyes on me but I refused to open them. I felt like I was laying in bed forever, just as I was about to fall asleep but I felt Troy's hand start stroking my cheek.
"I want to tell you Brie, I really do." He sighed, "I just don't want you to think I'm weak, I want to be your everything. The person you go to when you sad, mad, and happy. I want to be able to make you feel safe, I wish I could be your knight in shining armor and for once I wish that I could protect you." I felt Troy still stroking my cheek but he wasn't saying anything. "I love you Brie." He said as he took his hand away from my cheek and turned over. I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling. Maybe the way he is acting is about what Sharpay said in the car. I turned my face to look at Troy and sighed. I turned on my side slowly and went to sleep.
I woke up and looked at the clock that read 7:30 AM. I got out of bed and went into the bathroom to get ready for school. I closed the door and turned on the shower. I brushed my teeth while waiting for the water to heat up. I got into the shower and started washing my hair and body when I heard the bathroom door open. I heard the faucet turn on so I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair and popped my head out of the shower.
"Troy did you get the notes from the hospital?" I asked him.
He turned around with his toothbrush hanging out of his mouth but nodded his head. I gave him a small smile and went back under the showerhead and rinsed my body. I turned the shower off and grabbed the towels, I wrapped my hair in one and the other one around my body. I stepped out of the shower as Troy finished brushing his teeth. He turned to face me and grabbed my hips and brought me closer to him.
"How are you feeling?" Troy asked with a loving tone.
"Really sore but other than that…a lot better." I said with a smile.
"Look Brie I wanted to apologize for last night, I shouldn't have snapped at you." He said with his head hung low.
"I forgive you Troy, but just promise me you will tell me when you are ready." I said lifting his face to look at me.
Troy had a small smile on his face, "I promise." He gave me a sweet kiss before he ushered me out of the bathroom so he could take a shower. I got my clothes out of the closet. I pulled on my jeans and adjusted the belt. I tried to put my shirt on by myself but I could raise my arm over my head. I groaned in frustration.
"Need some help?" Troy asked coming out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist.
I nodded my head. Troy walked over to me and grabbed the shirt from my hands and started to help me put it on. He stopped midway and looked me in the eyes, "You're so beautiful you know that?" he asked as he finished pulling my shirt down.
"Yeah right, I'm covered in bruises and I have stitches everywhere." I said twirling around slowly for added effect.
"You are beautiful bruises and all." He said giving me a sweet kiss that made me blush like crazy.
I dug my face into his chest so he wouldn't see me blush. "Let's get to school beautiful." He said pulling away and grabbing both of our bags. We walked out to his truck hand in hand. I noticed that since last night Troy has been acting different, not in a bad way. I want to ask him about it, but decided against it.
We pulled into the school parking lot. We got out of his truck and headed into East High. As we turned down the hallway to my locker I saw the gang waiting.
"Hey guys." I said walking up to my locker.
"Hey Gabbi. How are you feeling?" Taylor asked.
"Better." I said with a smile while getting the stuff I would need for my next couple of classes in my bag that Troy was holding.
"What about you Troy?" Sharpay asked.
"I'm doing pretty good." He said with a small shrug.
"What about all of you?" I asked while slamming my locker shut.
"We're good!" They all replied in unison which made me laugh.
"Let's go before Darbus has our head." Chad said as he started walking to homeroom with everyone following him.
As we reached the door Troy gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. We walked through the door and everyone got quiet. Me and Troy walked up to Ms. Darbus and handed her our notes. I started walking back to my seat but I stopped as I made eye contact with Wyatt.
"Miss Montez, is there a problem?" Ms. Darbus asked from her desk.
I turned to look at Ms. Darbus and shook my head, "No." I turned back around avoiding Wyatt's gaze and sat in my seat. Troy kept looking back to check on me, but each time I gave him a smile telling him that I was fine. Ms. Darbus left the room to go to the office, we all sat in our seat waiting for the bell to ring. The bell finally rang, I got up to walk out of the room but I was pulled back by Wyatt. Before I could even think about doing anything Troy was right beside me.
"Get your hands off my girlfriend." He said in a dangerously low voice.
"Lover boy won't always be here to save you." He said dropping his hold on my wrist and started walking towards the door but as he got about a foot in front of us he turned around, "Wait…what am I saying she is the one that always saves you." He said with a smug smile.
Troy grabbed Wyatt by the collar and slammed him as hard as he could into the wall, "STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY GIRLFRIEND AND GET THE FUCK OUT!" He bellowed at him. Wyatt ran out of the room. Nobody moved everybody was shocked at how Troy reacted, except for me. I knew as soon as those words left Wyatt's mouth that Troy was going to lose it. I walked over to Troy and gently placed my hand on his arm.
"Troy." I said softly.
"Let's get to free period work out." He said grabbing my hand but not making eye contact. I bent down and grabbed my bag as we walked to the gym with the gang trailing behind us.
We walked into the gym and saw the cheerleaders in a group off to the side talking about something. They started walking over to me and Troy. Troy squeezed my hand in reassurance as they stopped in front of us.
"Hey Gabriella." Jenny said.
"Jenny." I said with a polite nod.
"So the squad was talking. You see Mandy is out for the rest of the season because of a broken leg. So we need a flyer. We were wondering if you would join the squad." Jenny said with hope.
"I don't know." I said sheepishly.
"Please, you led West High to 3 National Championships. You were voted Captain your freshman year. We need you. Pleeease!" She begged.
"Can I think about it?" I asked her.
"Of course. Can you just give us an answer by the end of the week?" She asked.
"Yeah of course." I said with a polite smile.
"Ok well we got to get to our practice in the small gym. See ya." She said with a wave as the rest of the squad followed her out.
Troy turned to me with an eyebrow raised.
"What?" I asked.
"Who knew I was dating a celebrity." He said with a laugh.
"Shut up!" I said jokingly as I lightly shoved him. I looked into Troy's eyes, I could tell that what Wyatt said was really bothering him. I need to find a way to show Troy that it doesn't matter to me as long as I have him with me.
AN: Hey everyone! Can you tell me what you think, I liked this chapter personally. REVIEW!