"What the hell happened back there?" Chad asked Troy as they walked up to Chad's house after the basketball game that night.
Troy shrugged as he looked off into the distance. He knew that he played a horrible game, and he truly believed that half the reason was because Gabriella wasn't there, and the other half was because Gabriella was mad at him. He knew that he messed up when he didn't tell her, but it happened almost ten months ago when Gabriella wasn't even in the picture, she was still over in England.
Troy shook his head knowing that it didn't matter if Gabriella was around at the time or not because V was still Gabriella's cousin and Gabriella had a right to know. She probably had a right to know even before her and Troy got serious. He knew that if his cousin and Gabriella had some type of pregnancy scare that he would want to know right away because having a baby is a serious thing and Troy now understood that, he had to learn it the hard way and just got lucky in the end that V wasn't really pregnant.
"I don't know." Troy muttered to Chad as Chad looked at him skeptically.
"Whatever, but I think you do know." Chad said calling Troy on his lie. Troy shot him a look and Chad shrugged. "You and V, God, who would've thought?" Chad had a smirk on.
"Shut up Chad." Troy growled already feeling guilty about it.
"No but seriously, were you ever going to tell Ella?" Chad asked knowing how upset his sister was right now.
Troy scratched the back of his neck as they reached the porch. "If it ever came up…again." Troy muttered the last part.
"Again!?" Chad exclaimed and then gave a dry chuckle. "You mean that it came up and you avoided it?"
"Well relationship stuff came up, and I just avoided the V part." Troy said putting his hand on the doorknob. "So what is it that your parents need us to for?" Troy asked remembering Anna saying that she and Eric needed the boys home right after the game.
Chad shrugged, "She told me the same thing as you. I wonder if I get a new car?" Chad asked with a smile.
"Chad, you just got a new car at the beginning of the school year." Troy pointed out as they both walked in and turned to go to the living room. Chad and Troy both froze in the archway of the living room and entry way seeing Anna and Eric sitting on one of the two couches and Gabriella sitting on the other couch across from them with her head turned away from the door.
Troy only needed to see half of Gabriella's face to tell that she was keeping a blank face with sad eyes. Troy could tell that she was hurt, pained, and angry, and Troy couldn't blame her. He knew what he did was wrong, keeping her from the truth, but he just didn't want to hurt her, even though a sliver of Troy just kept it from her to save himself from getting in trouble with her.
Chad sat down by Gabriella on the couch and Gabriella didn't even flinch as Chad made himself comfortable. Troy saw that Eric and Anna were holding packets and pamphlets of something and they looked anxious, probably anxious to get whatever they wanted to tell them over with.
"Come on Troy, this affects the whole family." Anna said motioning for Troy to take a seat on the couch right by Chad.
Gabriella turned her head once she heard Troy's footsteps coming nearer. She turned her head and saw Troy looking down at the ground in shame, sadness, embarrassment, Gabriella didn't know which one. Troy looked up and his eyes met Gabriella's and they shared a quick second. And even though it was only for a second, Gabriella felt like it was going in slow motion as she still had time for her breath to hitch in her throat as her blank face she was working hard on showing, faded to a sad painful expression.
Gabriella put her hand up to her cheek and rested her elbow on her knees as she pulled her legs up on the couch. She looked away from Troy and shut her eyes blocking out the memories of that day. She tried not to think about it, but it was hard not to think about the one that you love even if they disappointed you.
Gabriella walked into the cafeteria. No, not walked, but more like stormed into the lunch room with tears going down her face, but not just tears, silent tears. Gabriella made a bee line for the table. Chad and Zeke were the first ones to see her as Shar and Tay had their backs to her.
"Ella, how come you--" Chad paused for half a second as he saw the look in Gabriella's eyes. "didn't tell--" Chad missed a beat again as he saw the tears. "Me?" Chad finished weakly.
Shar and Tay turned around and saw the disheveled Gabriella. Gabriella came over to the table and slammed her hands down on the table top causing the four to wince. "DID YOU GUYS KNOW?!" Gabriella demanded as both of her hands were leaning on the table and she glared at everyone with tears filling her eye sight from everything. She wiped furiously at her eyes.
"Know what?" Tay asked cautiously not knowing what could get Gabriella this upset.
"Did you guys know?" Gabriella more liked whined in a pleading voice.
"Ella, know what?" Chad asked standing up and taking a slow step closer to Gabriella as Gabriella straightened up a bit and looked at Chad. "Where's Troy? Did he find you, he was worried." Chad said.
"I mean, it would make sense if you knew, he is your best friend." Gabriella said in hysterics as she was thinking out loud.
"What? Where's Troy Gabs?" Shar asked.
Gabriella shrugged. "I don't know…I don't…I don't know anything anymore." Gabriella said as she backed away from them.
"Gabs, you're scaring us." Zeke said. "What's wrong?"
Gabriella shut her eyes taking a step back just as V came into the lunch room looking frantically all over the place for Gabriella. She finally saw her and came rushing over as the gang noticed Gabriella sending her daggers.
"Gabs…we didn't mean it. I didn't mean it…please forgive me." V begged grabbing Gabriella's arm as Gabriella ripped it away from her.
"Gabs, what is going on?" Tay asked.
"Ask her and Troy." Gabriella said pointing towards the glossy eyed V.
"Please talk to me Gabs…" V waited for a reply as Gabriella snapped her head over to the cafeteria doors that just slammed shut and a miserable looking Troy walked through as people started whispering and talking about this situation. "Please say something." V begged as Gabriella turned to look at V now as Troy approached the standing confused Chad.
"Gabi...please, just listen. I'm sorry." Troy said taking a step closer to Gabriella only to have her back away and her wipe furiously as her eyes again to clear them.
Gabriella glared at V and again swatted furiously at the tears building up in her eyes just looking at Troy and V. "Fine." Gabriella snapped. Gabriella walked up to V and said in a calm voice, "I hope you have a good pregnancy…I hope you have a wonderful child…I hope you burn in hell." Gabriella spat in a disgusted tone she knew that was uncalled for but she really didn't care right now as she stormed out of the cafeteria and Shar and Tay hurried after her and caught up to her in the empty hallway and engulfed her in hugs as V just stood there looking after her saddened cousin. Gabriella cried harder as she heard Chad and Zeke both yelling at Troy and Troy calling out her name and stopping after a minute after realizing that she wasn't going to come back to him right now.
Shar and Tay rubbed Gabriella's back as Gabriella cried into their shoulders because of the stress that was building up from keeping V's secret which wasn't there anymore, to fighting with Troy, to finding out about Troy's past, and she was disappointed herself for talking to V like that. Shar and Tay didn't ask her anymore why she was upset, but Gabriella ended up spilling everything to them, and they cried with her.
"Gabs! Gabs!" Anna was waving her hand in front of her daughter's face. "Gabriella Marie Danforth!" Anna exclaimed and Gabriella shook her head and looked at her mother.
"What?" Gabriella asked coming out of her train of thoughts and memories. Gabriella looked around the room to see that everyone was staring at her and she looked away at the blank wall again.
"Okay, so we have some news for you guys." Eric said ignoring Gabriella's short word question.
"What is it dad?" Chad asked getting a weird feeling that something was up or wrong.
"Well there's no easy way of saying this, but just don't freak out like teenagers normally would do. Okay?" Anna asked sitting back down on the ground.
"…" Gabriella wasn't really paying attention as Chad just nodded his head and Troy was busy wondering if he was supposed to be hearing this.
"Well my company is opening another head quarters and they put me in charge of it." Eric said.
"That's great Dad." Chad said as Troy just smiled at the beaming Eric.
"Well, it's over in England." Eric continued quietly and no one spoke.
Gabriella jolted her head forward and looked at her two nervous parents and she stared wide eyed at them, did they just say England?
Chad laughed nervously. "Okay, how long are you going to be gone?" Chad knew the answer to it, but he didn't want it to be true.
"Chad, please just listen to us and the whole thing, please?" Anna asked. Chad nodded and sighed as he listened impatiently. "Your dad and I are moving to the United Kingdom." Anna explained.
Again no one spoke and Gabriella cleared her throat. "What about Chad and me?" Gabriella asked quietly and this was the first full sentence Troy had heard Gabriella form since lunch time.
"See, I think you guys will find this as a relief or something, we're giving you two an option. Either you can stay here in this house because we do think that you two are responsible and almost 18." Eric said in his deep business voice. "Or you two can come with us, we already have a house which is about two hours away from the boarding School you attended last year Sweet Pea." Eric said.
"What?!" Gabriella and Chad exclaimed at the same time.
"You seriously are giving us an option?" Chad asked excited since he already knew what he was doing, Troy looked at Gabriella as she looked down at the ground with narrow eyes and a hurt expression as she mulled over the decision some more.
"We think you two are very responsible, and we're keeping this house, so why not use it." Anna said. "What do you two think, because I hear that it's a great school over there in the UK." Anna said.
No one talked. Chad and Gabriella had a huge decision to make and Chad looked up from Troy to his parents to the sad stricken Gabriella. He looked his parents dead in the eye and said, "I have to stay here. All my friends, basketball, Taylor. I have to stay." Chad said with confidence.
Anna and Eric both nodded their heads understanding, they both figured Chad wouldn't want to go, but they weren't too sure about Gabriella. Anna turned towards Troy now and Troy's head snapped up, "Troy, you have a choice too, you can either live here with Chad or move in with your grandfather across town."
Troy looked over at Gabriella again and saw her slumped body shake a little. "Um…I'm going to stay here. There's no way that we could leave Chad by himself." Troy laughed a little as Anna and Eric both smiled gratefully at Troy.
They all turned towards Gabriella and Chad nudged her as she looked up startled. "What about you Sweet Pea?" Eric asked.
Gabriella looked around and shook her head, "How long?"
"How long what?" Anna asked.
"How long until I have to decide?" Gabriella asked and Chad looked at her like she was crazy, he was just expecting her to stay.
"Um…" Anna looked at her husband with worry, not realizing Gabriella would consider this. She knew that she would take a little longer to decide than it would take Chad, but Anna didn't actual think Gabriella would consider it.
"Um…you have six days. The plane leaves next Wednesday afternoon." Eric confirmed and Gabriella nodded her head as she looked distant and tapped her fingers uncomfortably on her jeans.
"What do you think?" Anna asked touching one of Gabriella's hands.
Gabriella swallowed hard and looked up with tears forming in her eyes. This was her out, this was her easy way, this was a decision that could affect her life if she let it. She could either stay and work through her hard problems with Troy and see if they could get back on track, or she could just go to England and then head off to college. It was the easy way, and Gabriella should've been braver and just said 'no', but she wasn't in the mood to bulk up her courage and work through her problems just yet.
Chad saw that Gabriella was actually considering this. He couldn't believe that she would actual consider leaving for England again for a third year of her life. He remembered what it was like the first couple of weeks she was gone, and he didn't like it, but then she came back after two years and for some holidays, but then he finally gets his sister back and she decides to almost leave again.
"Of course she's not going!" Chad exclaimed and everyone looked at him alarmed. Chad got off of the couch and looked at his sister. "You can't just leave again Ella. What about the promise you made me in seventh grade?! Huh, you said that you wouldn't leave and it's gonna be senior year, and what about basketball?!" Chad exclaimed and everyone in the room felt it tense up with the little bit of anger Chad put in his voice.
"Honey…" Anna said soothingly.
"Chad…" Eric scolded.
"Man…" Troy said looking at Chad weirdly.
"…I think….I need some time to decide." Gabriella said getting off the couch and walking up stairs.
Chad sighed and looked at Troy. He knew what Troy did and at first Chad was mad at lunch when he heard about it, but he was his best friend and best friends just don't leave at a time in need. "Is someone going to go talk to HER!?" Chad exclaimed pointing upstairs at Gabriella. "You guys can't just let her do this!"
"Chad, we gave her the same choice as you. Why are you getting so upset by this?" Anna asked.
"Because…" Chad looked around for an answer and his eyes landed on Troy. "Because she's…and he's…" Chad pointed at Troy who shifted uncomfortably on the couch. Anna and Eric looked at Troy sensing something was up between Troy and Gabriella, they normally would've been all over each other, and now they let Chad sit between them on the couch. "…and she's running!" Chad sputtered out with a sigh.
"Running?" Eric asked confused.
"Yes running." Chad spat.
"Honey, we don't know what you're talking about." Anna said as her and Eric shared a confused look.
Chad groaned in frustration. "She's fucking running…leaving…going…fleeing… deserting! What ever the hell you want to call it, but she's trying to run from her problems!" Chad exclaimed.
"Chad don't talk like that." Anna said even though she knew that he wouldn't listen. It was just a habit teenagers picked up on.
There was a silence as Eric finally spoke up. "Chad, she'll be back, you don't have to be scared about missing your sister. It'll be just like it was when she left before." Eric said.
"I'm not scared about missing her!" Chad said in frustration. "I'm scared for her. No matter if she admits it or not, she's has a broken heart whether it was intentional or not, she's hurting and she's using this as an excuse to leave." Chad said.
"Chad, I hardly think Gabriella would do that. She didn't even say if she wanted to go, and if you ask me, she didn't look to happy with the whole England thing." Anna reassured him as her own doubts filled the back of her mind.
Chad sighed as he looked at Troy. "I'm going to bed. Good game tonight Troy." Chad said as he looked at him and gave Troy a look that said you-better-fix-this. Now it was just Troy sitting on the couch with Eric and Anna sitting across from him. Troy cleared his throat as he stood up.
"Um…I think I'm going to go to bed too." Troy said as he started for the stairs Chad just went up a minute before.
Eric and Anna looked at him funny, "Troy, dear, your room is down the hall." Anna said as Troy stopped and chuckled nervously.
"Oh yeah, thanks." Troy said turning around from the stairs and starting for the hallway.
"Troy, just give her time." Anna called as Troy pretended not to hear her and continued walking knowing that he screwed up and he was slowly losing his second chance.
Troy awoke to the alarm clock going off indicating he had an hour before school started. Troy groaned as he rolled over and slammed his hand down to shut it up. He was not in the mood to be going to school today, not after all the events that happened the previous day. Troy reluctantly got up and decided that today was the day that he would try talking to Gabriella at least. He loves her and he would do anything for her, and suddenly his day looked a lot brighter than mere minutes before.
Troy threw on faded blue jeans and an orange shirt that had some saying on it in bold black letters. Troy flipped his head so that his hair fell perfectly in his face, barely covering his deep crystallizing blue eyes and falling swiftly in perfect form on his fore head.
Troy walked out and instantly felt the mood change again. He looked around and saw Anna Montez leaning against the counter with her elbows resting on the green counter top as one of her hands held the spoon handle lazily as she stirred her coffee. She was looking her coffee dead in the eye and all Troy could do was feel the coldness. He found it strange since it was spring time, but yet, there was coldness. He heard his bedroom door slam shut behind him and Anna stirred awake and looked up at Troy with sadness in her eyes.
Troy didn't know what to do as Anna's eyes looked him over and nodded her head and just went back to stirring her coffee lazily, deep in thought. Troy didn't know what to do as he heard nothing in the house, no clock chiming, no Chad scurrying around in the morning begging him for his homework to cheat off of, no coffee pot running, and no Gabriella playing her loud music. Troy heard nothing and it was making him nervous.
"Uh…I thought that you would be at work already?" Troy asked knowing that Anna usually was never home in the morning.
Anna sighed, her mind couldn't stop thinking about what Chad had said last night, it just kept playing over and over again in her head, and she didn't blame Troy nor V after Chad filled her in later that night about Troy and Gabriella's fight, but she was a little disappointed and no matter how many times Anna kept trying to get her mind to think about something else, she kept thinking back to what Chad said the night before…she's using this as an excuse to leave.
"We have some packing to do before we leave." Anna said.
"Oh…well, if you need any help I'm sure Chad and I can help with the furniture and stuff." Troy said as he mentally cursed himself for the good side of him showing through at a time like this, when he really didn't want to help his second family move none the less to another country.
"Thanks, but…it's just clothes, we're leaving everything else for you, Chad, and…Gabs if she stays. We're buying a whole new house with new everything over in England." Anna said.
"Oh…that's…nice." Troy finished lamely as he stuffed both of his hands in the deep pockets of his faded blue jeans. Troy looked up when he felt Anna's eyes looking at him. "Um…is Gabs upstairs?" Troy asked carefully.
"I think, I didn't see her come down here, but I might of missed her, it's almost too quiet for her to be here." Anna said and Troy chuckled slightly knowing Anna was true. When it came to mornings, especially on school days, Gabriella liked waking people up, mostly Chad and Troy since they were usually the ones home by blasting her music.
"Uh…thanks?" Troy more like questioned as Anna stared down at her coffee once again. Troy didn't wait for Anna to say anything as he walked out of the cold feeling kitchen and ran up the stairs and saw that Chad's door was still closed meaning he was asleep or he just never came home from Taylor's house last night after they had the discussion and he told his parents that he was going to bed only to sneak out once they were asleep. Troy was guessing that is where Chad was right now, in bed next to one of his friends and Chad's girlfriend and Taylor knew all about England and how Gabriella was still thinking about actually leaving again.
Troy came to Gabriella's door and knocked thinking about all the other times where he never used to knock on her door because she just expected him to enter without permission, but now…everything just seemed different and it wasn't for good.
Troy was about to knock again when Gabriella opened the door and they nearly collided as Gabriella ran right into Troy. Gabriella stumbled backwards as they both looked at each other and Troy then realized that Gabriella couldn't hear him knocking since she had ear phones in plugged into her ipod, which was a first.
Gabriella just stared at Troy who was now standing in her doorway, wasn't this what she wanted, him apologizing? But yet, Gabriella couldn't get the image of her cousin and Troy sleeping together out of her mind. Gabriella tentatively took her ear phones out and shut off her ipod and tossed it behind her. Her eyes connected with Troy's again and she just wanted him to hold her after the news that she was going to bring her parents, but she knew that she couldn't, not while the thoughts of Troy's past kept running through her mind.
"Um…hey." Troy said quietly.
"Hey." Gabriella said looking down at the ground and away from Troy.
"Um…" Troy realized that he had no idea what to say. Somehow he went to not wanting to wake up, then having hope, next to that was running into a distressed Anna, and now his mind went completely blank. "I…yesterday…went horrible." Troy said.
"Yeah…" Gabriella said looking down at the floorboards at Troy's feet by his white and black sneakers.
"I…ah…didn't see you at the game." Troy said weakly.
"I was busy." Gabriella said coldly.
"Right, with V?" Troy asked.
"No, she doesn't need me." Another flash of Gabriella's imagination got the better of her as she pictured her cousin and Troy together.
"Oh…" Troy said as he to stared down at the ground. He knew he was bad at the apologies, but in all fairness he never had to apologize to anyone before. Sure there were times where he should've said 'sorry,' but he never did, that's how deeply he cared about Gabriella. "Look, I'm not good at this." Troy said bluntly walking into Gabriella's room a couple of steps as Gabriella continued to stare down at the ground.
"At what?" Gabriella asked.
Troy sighed and ran a hand through his hair, and he put on a small smile for the sigh he just gave off which attracted Gabriella to look up at him again.
"At this." Troy said motioning between the two. "I've never actually…um…been in this…situation before."
"You think I have?" Gabriella spat.
"No, it's just you always know what to say, and…I don't. I have no idea what to do, just tell me what to do to get things back to what they were before." Troy said taking a step closer as he went to interlace their fingers together, Gabriella put her hands down at her sides, away from Troy knowing that if he touched her right now, she would give in.
Gabriella looked away and swallowed hard as her bottom lip quivered and a flash from yesterday ran through her head with Troy and V. Gabriella knew what she has to do, she knew what she has to do to protect her heart again.
Gabriella looked back up at Troy's pleading eyes and gave a watery smile. Troy matched her smile as Gabriella allowed him to take her hands and just hold them as she gave no response. Troy smiled even more with hope in his eyes as he tried to read Gabriella's facial expressions. "See, everything can work out again. Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it. Just tell me what to do Gabi, that's all I'm asking and I'll make it right." Troy pleaded.
"I'm going to miss you." Gabriella said and once those words left her mouth Troy's body instantly stiffened as he dropped her hands coldly. His lips were slightly parted as he took in a small gasp and looked at her with his slowly turning cold gray eyes. He took a horror step back with his shaky legs, he had just tried to make things better right? Shouldn't she be helping him patch things up, not leaving him?
"Don't bother." Troy said looking at Gabriella as if he didn't even know her and in a distant voice repeated, "Don't bother." Troy turned on his heel not being used to someone actually not liking him, not listening to him, not meeting him halfway, but then again Gabriella was always different to him. She always had something other people didn't have and Troy knew that she wasn't the kind of girl that would meet him halfway, she was the type of person to meet him one fourth of the way. He knew that he would have to work even harder for her, but if she was willing to leave, then why should he? Suddenly as Troy heard Gabriella's door slam shut behind him he realized he loves Gabriella Montez-Danforth more than he thought he did, and he was just letting her go, and there was nothing he could do about it. She made up her mind, and she didn't allow him to be apart of the decision process. And that hurt more than Gabriella refusing him.