Need You Now
Need You Now
Hey guys, sorry that I haven't been able to update for so long, but my internet's still broken, so I'm still having to beg my brother to let me use his. Anyway, thanks for your reviews on the last chapter, and I hope you like this one, but I wont be able to update again until the 2nd or the 3rd of August because I'm going on holiday for two weeks tomorrow, anyway please read and review this chapter, hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 25
"Finally!" Troy exclaimed as he slammed the front door shut to the girls apartment behind Sharpay and Zeke, locking it and turning towards Gabriella who was giggling on the sofa, "We're alone," He grinned, wiggling his eyebrows up and down suggestively at his fiancée, and chuckling as he heard a fresh peel of laughter escape from her heart shaped lips.
"Troy, you can't say that, it's their place just as much as it is mine and I'm sorry if I didn't feel like spending the night in yours and the guys apartment with that smell wafting around my head the whole time," Gabriella giggled, facing Troy as she lay on the sofa, still being told to rest as much as possible, although she had now been out of the hospital for a further three months and had restarted her classes at UCLA, one of the guys somehow magically appearing to walk her between her classes, usually Chad, Ryan or of course Troy.
"Are you insinuating that our apartment smells Miss Montez?" Troy asked, looking shocked as Gabriella merely nodded, still giggling as he crossed the room in only three strides, and Gabriella suddenly found herself pinned to the sofa, Troy straddling her waist as he tickled her mercilessly, and she started to laugh so hard that tears were rolling down her cheeks as she squirmed beneath Troy and he just laughed, continuing to tickle her.
"Tr-Tr-Troy s-st-st-stop, I wa-wa-was always tol-told n-not to l-l-lie," Gabriella gasped in between laughs, but Troy just raised his eyebrows at her and continued to tickle her beneath him, even as she rolled onto her front, still giggling and struggling.
"Uh-uh Miss Montez, there's no way you're getting away with that insult being thrown at our apartment," Troy laughed, as she rolled herself back over, eyes shining happily as they met his own twinkling ones, he momentarily pausing his fingers as he thought something over and gave Gabriella a minute to recollect her breath, "Mind you," his brow crinkled in thought and Gabriella eyed up his now still fingers that were still resting on her hips, "All of the other girls only promised to give the two of us this apartment tonight if the guys each hired hotel rooms and they didn't need to go within twenty feet of our apartment building," Troy frowned and sat back slightly, giving Gabriella the chance to push him quickly, so that he fell to the floor, before standing up and running off as fast as she could herself, still laughing as she turned around at the doorway, sticking her tongue out at the slightly dazed Troy on the floor before turning back around and racing down the hallway as she heard Troy's feet behind her.
Troy caught up to her in seconds and Gabriella's laughter reached a new height as Troy grabbed her waist, picking her up and spinning her round before throwing her over his shoulder, carrying her back into the front room as she kicked her legs and stuck her own hands into the back pockets of his jeans to keep her balance.
She was still laughing as Troy let her fall onto the sofa, before sitting down himself and flicking his hair out of his eyes, throwing her a grin as she crawled across the sofa towards him and snuggled into his lap, her head resting in the crook of his neck as she wrapped her arms around his torso and sighed contentedly, feeling his strong arms wrap tightly around her still fairly fragile body and pull her as close to him as humanly possible, planting a tender kiss to the top of her head as she smiled softly and buried her head tighter towards him, placing feather light kisses to his neck and grinning against it when she felt him vibrate with a laugh, before she pulled away and looked up at him, her eyes still sparkling as they caught on his twinkling sapphire ones.
"Well Elle-Belle, we finally have a whole night to ourselves, so what would you like to do?" Troy beamed at her cuteness as Gabriella's brow furrowed, her eyes half closing in concentration, holding up a finger to her mouth as she hummed and tried to decide on what to do.
"We can watch Chicago!" Gabriella squealed after a good five minutes, diving off of Troy's lap as he groaned and she pulled the DVD from the wrack, knowing exactly where it was kept.
"Oh man Ella when I asked what you wanted to do I did not mean watching Chicago, again…or any other musical for that matter, why couldn't you choose an action or at least a thriller?" Troy protested, desperate to not have to be subjected to the storyline of the jazz dancer/singer and the wannabe jazz dancer/singer getting thrown into prison for murder…again.
But Gabriella only pouted and turned to Troy with her big, sad eyes, who was trying desperately to stare at the ceiling, so that he could put his foot down and show his friends once and for all that Troy Bolton was not whipped, but Gabriella obviously had no intentions of making that even slightly easy for him.
"Please Troy, please, please, please, you know how much I love this movie, and we haven't watched it in ages," Gabriella pleaded, and Troy looked at her with raised eyebrows as she quickly backtracked, "Okay, okay, I know that I made you watch it last week but that's really not the point here, please can we watch it?" Gabriella begged once more, her puppy dog pout going through the full works as her bottom lip trembled, her curls fell slightly over her face and her eyes became big, round and sad, the one thing that Troy hated to see them, as she waved the front cover featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere in his face.
Troy sighed, running his hands over his face as he figured that it was probably time to finally admit to himself that he was whipped, through and through, even if he had been denying it for nearly six years by this time, but to Troy, hearing Gabriella's excited squeal and giggle were enough to make being whipped worth it as she saw his slight nod, and he watched as she rushed over to the DVD player, before running into the kitchen and coming back through to place the bowl of sweets in his lap, before curling into his side and resting her head on his shoulder, pressing play to start the movie that troy knew she loved so much.
"I'll watch it Elle-Belle but I swear to G-d if word that I watched this or any other musical for that matter happens to find its way back to the guys I will never watch another movie with you again," Troy threatened, whispering huskily into Gabriella's ear and smiling when he felt her shiver and cuddle further into him.
"Yeah, yeah Bolton whatever, now shut up, the movie's starting," Gabriella muttered back, her eyes never once leaving the screen as both knew that Troy's threat was a completely empty one.
Troy just chuckled and prised the remote away from her hand as he gently squeezed her fingers with his own, holding her as close to him as possible, and gently breathing in her scent, as his eyes left the top of his fiancées head and found that the first number 'All that Jazz' was already nearing completion.
Just over half an hour away from the end of the film, halfway through Roxie Hart's trial, Troy could feel a pair of eyes burning into the bottom of his head, and looked down to see Gabriella's mocha brown eyes concentrated on him, her eyes filed with tears that made Troy instantly stop the film and drop the bowl of sweets to the ground before scooping Gabriella up into his arms, holding her tightly as her body began to shake with sobs, and Troy rested his own head on top of hers, occasionally whispering soothing words, or kissing the top of her head as Gabriella slowly started to calm down, before looking back up at him, biting her bottom lip, her eyes still wet with unshed tears.
"What's wrong baby girl?" Troy murmured, resting his forehead against Gabriella's as he held her gaze, neither daring to look away, each needing the strength that they knew they would find in the other.
"The court case Troy," Gabriella whispered so lowly that Troy had to strain himself just to hear her, but he did hear the break in her voice, "It's next week Troy, and I don't know if I can face him again, I can't do it, I just can't," Gabriella sobbed softly, the tears now streaming down her face as Troy gently kissed her tears away as they fell, before kissing her closed eyelids, and then her lips, affectionately.
"Baby girl, you can do this, it's like I told you when you were trying to walk again Gabriella, you can do this, I know you can Elle-Belle, as much as I wish that they didn't need you to be a key witness, but they do Ella, and hopefully, this scumbag will get what he deserved a hell of a long time ago and will be locked up forever and ever, finally, but for that, they need you Ella," Troy spoke softly, the loving tone evident in his voice, a long with how proud he was of his fiancée.
"But, but what if he doesn't get what he deserves Troy, what if he ends up free and comes after me again, I'm just so scared, I really just want him out of my life," Gabriella sobbed quietly, and Troy's heart was instantly filled with sorrow at how distressed the love of his life sounded.
"He will be out of your life Ella, make no mistake, between your evidence, and Mike's evidence, and even Joanie's evidence, I mean, I know that she was your worst enemy in high school, but she's also his niece, they are going to lock him up for good, there's no way that they couldn't, and even his lawyer doesn't believe that he didn't do it, there's endless amounts of information that will put Rick away, but your testimony will be the biggest piece, and I know that you can do it," Troy smiled softly, and kissed Gabriella's temple as she rested the side of her face against his.
"But what if I screw up?" Gabriella questioned, terror seeping through every word she spoke, "You know how much I hate being in front of people, what happens if I completely freeze up and Rick ends up walking, it would be all my fault!" Gabriella cried, the sensitive subject bringing out most of her weaker qualities as Troy closed his eyes momentarily, trying to think of a solution to her problem, before smiling and snapping them straight back open, turning Gabriella to face him when he knew he had the solution.
"That's an easy one baby girl, I'm going to be right there in that room, there is no way that I am letting you go through any of this alone, no way whatsoever, so what I want you to do is to just look at me, ignore your lawyer, ignore the judge, the jurors, the other people in the room, even ignore Rick, just look straight at me, just like that first time on stage at East High together, just like the first time we sang together, just like kindergarten," Troy whispered, watching Gabriella the whole time.
"Just like kindergarten," Gabriella breathed out quietly, her eyes fluttering closed before reopening to look straight back into Troy's as she nodded slightly.
"Besides," Troy grinned, "If Rick walks next week, which we all know he won't, you may have to come back to court," as he grinned again, Gabriella looked at him confused, and he chuckled slightly, kissing her lips gently before looking at her once more, "You don't really believe that Chad, Ryan, Zeke, Jason and I or the girls for that matter would ever let him walk out a free man do you?" Gabriella's mouth dropped and Troy chuckled again as she hit him over the shoulder, before giggling herself.
"Troy Bolton, don't even joke about that, I don't know what the hell I would do without you or any of the rest of the gang for that matter, but mainly you," Gabriella blushed slightly, and Troy grinned as he realised that he still had the same affect on Gabriella as he did in high school.
"Good Miss Montez, I wouldn't have it any other way," Troy beamed, his smile widening as he saw Gabriella desperately try to hide a yawn, "Nice try Ells, but you're going to bed, now, you look exhausted."
"I'm fine Troy really," Gabriella started to say but was cut off by another yawn as Troy laughed and picked her up, Gabriella's arms and legs instinctively wrapping around his neck and waist as Troy stood up, bending over only momentarily to turn off the DVD player and the TV, before carrying Gabriella into the bedroom, and depositing the already pyjama clad Gabriella onto the bed, stripping down to his boxers and climbing in beside her, pulling her tightly to him as he gently kissed her, feeing her arms snake up around his neck, both of them smiling into the kiss, and each deepening it at the same time.
Ten minutes later, they really were ready for sleep, and as the tiredness overcame her, Gabriella buried her head into Troy chest, gently kissing his chest as she moved so that her body fit perfectly against his, her arms snuggled up to his chest as Troy winded his around her waist, drawing her closer as he heard her humming the Abba song 'Dancing Queen', chuckling slightly, as he now knew all of the Abba songs off by heart, due to Gabriella's recent addiction after going to see Mamma Mia! with the girls.
"I love you Mr Bolton," Gabriella murmured into his chest, Troy feeling her eyes fluttering closed against his chest as he gently kissed the top of her head once more and the all important ring on her right hand flashed in the light from the streetlights, causing Troy to grin once more.
Bending his head slightly, he whispered into Gabriella's ear, "And I love you too future Mrs. Bolton." Each of the pair now realising that their June wedding was only eight months away, to the day…
Well guys, that was Chapter 25, please tell me what you thought and I'll try to have the final two chapters of Need You Now out as soon as I can.