So now that I have officially run out of valid ideas for this story, I can officially tell you it has 23 chapters. I knew how I was gonna start and end this story and I just had to write the in between. So hopefully the ending doesn't feel too rushed. 2 more chapters to go. I hope you all enjoy and please be sure to leave a REVIEW when you are finished reading because although I am always super busy, I do get a chance to at least glance at my emails once a day and I enjoy seeing review notification emails (:
First Bad Habit
Previously
"Be honest with me, what were you really doing?"
"I already told you!"
"And that's bullshit!" Taylor counted back, stalking over to her friend and pushing her out the way before inspecting the place on the sink where she had been standing moments before.
"Taylor…"
Taylor was quick to run her hands on the counter and pulled her hand back up to her to find the same white substance Gabriella had failed to completely remove, coating her hand in a thin layer. "Is this…?"
"It's not what you think…"
"You're doing cocaine?"
"No!"
xx
"Can you just drop this?"
"No, I will not!"
Gabriella groaned and attempted to move around her to leave, but Taylor blocked the doorway. "You're blowing this way out of proportion, Taylor."
"Please tell me how Gabriella. Tell me how you don't see this as a big problem?"
"Because it's my life! And I can do whatever the hell I want with it. I can smoke weed, do crack, be a prostitute, and anything else I so choose. Don't think that you have some sort of control over me and that I'll just do whatever saint Taylor thinks is best. You don't know me as well as you think you do anymore, so do me a favor and mind your own fucking business McKessie."
xx
"She's not…"
"She is! I guess she's keeping up with that guy, I…I caught her doing cocaine in the bathroom during 4th period yesterday. And she acted like nothing was wrong, I just…I don't want her to get caught up in something that I know isn't her."
"Taylor…"
"No! Troy, you know what. This is the least you can do! Because it's all your fault!"
"My fault?"
"YES! If it weren't for you playing your stupid fucking games with her, she would have never went to that party and she would have never done what she did. And I don't know what you said to her last week, but it's gotten even worse. So if you have any once of dignity in yourself or if you actually care about my best friend, you would just consider doing this. To help her, save her from herself. Believe it or not, she thinks a lot more highly of you than most people do, so why don't you prove me any anyone else who ever doubted her about you wrong?"
Love is a friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.
~Ann Landers
Chapter 21
His hand was situated on her thigh. He was making attempts to move up higher, feeling around, testing the waters. Normally she would have slapped his hand away, told him to fuck off, and maintained her dignity by walking away, but she was way too high to really comprehend the situation enough to care.
Gabriella sat on the dirty couch at some abandoned house in some unknown part of time with a bunch of unfamiliar faces. The only face she knew happened to be the one right beside her and it was Darius, who was currently as much out of his mind as she was, heavily feeling her up.
She wasn't quite aware what she had taken, she'd just trusted Darius when he said he'd scored and they showed up at the house hours later to 'hang' with his so-called friends. He'd handed her the bong as well as the pills and she took care of both of them, chasing it with whatever was in the red cup that ended up in front of her. She wasn't sure of anything anymore and being high gave her the best sense of her life than anything else could right now, so she wasn't hesitant to enjoy it. But was it enough to make her forget all together?
Staring ahead watching as some girl who seemed just as out of it as she did, she observed the girl give some too skinny, sick looking bald guy a lap dance. She had a cup of something in her hand, barely had on clothes, hair disheveled, eyes red, and makeup caked and running off her face. Somehow, Gabriella was conscious enough to look at the girl and pull herself out if it.
She stood, wobbly on her feet, effectively making Darius' hand drop as he leant sideways on the couch in her absence. "Gabr… where you going babe?"
Gabriella attempted to steady herself, but the room was spinning. "I need the bathroom," she mumbled before turning and disappearing, stumbling down the hallway, bumping into the dirty brown walls she could see with the wallpaper peeling off, surprising herself when she finally did find a bathroom.
She entered the room and shut the door locking it and falling to the floor. The bathroom was past dirty. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years – which was probably an accurate statement – and there was residue of too many different substances than she could keep track off. The variety of colors decorating the bathroom would have concerned and grossed her out in a sober state of mind, but she was fucked up and the only thing she could actively consider was that she was indeed fucked up.
She sat on the cold, dirty floor, staring at the toilet, wondering in the back of her mind if she was seeing blood of feces and trying to figure out whether she had enough energy and stableness to make it out of here. She needed to go, that she knew. She didn't need to be here right now, that she also knew. However, with the in between of normal Gabriella and drugged up Gabriella at odds, fighting herself, she didn't know how she would accomplish anything.
Gabriella would have loved to put the blame of her current position on anyone but herself, but she knew better than that. She'd made these decisions on her on. She'd decided to seek out Troy Bolton what seemed like all that time ago. She'd also decided to get involved with him more intimately that she should have, knowing the many consequences for the choices she was making. So when she'd gotten her heart broken by that same Troy Bolton she'd been warned so many times about, she didn't have anyone to blame but herself for her misfortune and unhappiness.
She'd wanted so badly for him to change. She'd wanted to be the one he would change for. She'd wanted to take a leap of faith with him, walk on the wild side with someone she wouldn't normally be with and someone that people wouldn't want her around. She hadn't expected to actually fall in love with him or that this would be the way things would turn out in response to his rejection of her attempts to get that same love in return.
Maybe it would have been heathier to just shut people out and cry and just have one of those teenage girl moments, but here she was, becoming a totally different person. She though she liked it. She needed to get out.
There was a banging on the door and Gabriella looked up at it, not making any efforts to go to it. "Fucking hell baby, what are you doing in there?" Darius' voice came through the frame. She sat and chose to ignore him, head falling back against the side of the tub as she contemplated her life in reference to her surroundings. "Open the door girl," he spoke again, the door knob ratting in conjunction with his hand shaking it from the other side. Gabriella was somewhat thankful she'd had enough thought to lock it.
"Open the fucking door, bitch."
Gabriella could only sit on the floor and laugh at the fact that she'd got herself in this situation. It wasn't funny, but this was the only way she could honestly react.
"Fucking…baby…Gabriella…you gotta…fucking open the door! You're playing games with me! God, I just…I want you so much and you just keep….open the door!" He was banging now with emphasis and Gabriella, slightly sobering up, prayed that he couldn't get the door open.
"Leave me alone," she called out.
"I can't! I can't do that. I…you owe me you fucking tease! I been supplying you and you haven't paid your debt yet."
"Go away," she moaned in desperation.
More banging ensued, harder now. Gabriella had curled herself into a ball against the toilet, wrapping her arms around her knees as tears started to fall at the realization of just how much trouble she'd gotten herself into.
The banging continued as she rocked herself, unable to control her heightened emotions as she kept crying, silently pleading to get away from it all. There was another bang, followed by a crack that was deafening, sending Gabriella spirally.
"Just stop!" She screamed, but continued to hear him banging, shouting expletives and threats at her, and the wood slowly but surely giving way to his force.
It was another few seconds of noise, before all that Gabriella could hear was herself crying. Realizing that Darius' seemed to have stopped, she looked up, seeing the door practically in shambles, but somehow stilled attached to its hinges and locked, blocking her in.
One more bang would startled her and have her screaming before she saw the figure who'd broken the door and stood in the bathroom before her. "Troy?" She cried in surprise, tears staining her cheeks as they flowed freely from her eyes still, her body still shaking in shock.
Troy walked into the bathroom, not bothering to try to get a good look at Gabriella. He knew for a fact what this experience does to you and he did not want to focus on that with her. He wanted her out. He reached for her, pulling her up off the floor and into his arms, but she immediately fought him.
"Stoppit! Don't touch me!" Her hands, balled into fists came out and flailed towards his chest.
"Gabriella…"
"Get off me! You don't want me! Don't touch me!" It seemed as if her words became louder, but her movements weakened. "Please," she pleaded, hands giving up as they fell to her sides, knees giving out in the same moment, but Troy was quick to make sure she didn't hit the floor. "Please, help me."
As he held her up, it took a lot for Troy to keep his demeanor as he took in hers. It took a lot to really upset him, nothing had done so for years, but having this frail girl in his arms who he'd grown to care for, despite what anyone else thought, begging for help, help from a situation he knew that he'd ultimately had part in putting her in, and he broke.
"I got you," he said, a single tear slipping down his cheek as he grabbed hold of her more securely and brought them out of the bathroom and out of the house. "I'm so sorry, Gabriella, but I've got you now."