This was a problem that no one could help Gabriella with. Not even talking to her dad would make her feel any better because she was going to have to make a choice that'll either hurt her or hurt him. She didn't want to do either but there was something inside of her that was telling her to let go. She knew she should let go because everything was going to be okay. Maybe she could deal with going to college somewhere near there even though her dream college was somewhere that had fashion like FIDM or NYU and she knew she was going to be able to get into one of those schools. Gabriella has never tried the long distance relationship so she didn't know why she was freaking out. If they're in love as they say they are then they are able to live miles away from each other. Gabriella knew Troy was already okay with the choice but Gabriella was still holding onto him for dear life. If she really loved him, she'll let him go.
Right now, she didn't want to think about that anymore; it made her depressed even thinking about the fact that he was going to be gone. All she wanted to do was sit on her couch and listen to soft music to make her feel better. Gabriella listened as the slow music flow through the whole house; it was peaceful and calming until footsteps walked through the door. Matt walked in with a friend of his and they were bouncing a basketball which ruined Gabriella's calmness. "Matt, do you mind?" Gabriella yells out to him.
Matt turns around and faces Gabriella, "What?" he asked. "Oh, what are you doing?" he went over to sit next to her while his friend went to use the restroom in their house.
"Thinking," Gabriella said. Gabriella remembered that Troy gave Matt the scholarship to go to Texas and Gabriella had a feeling that Matt turned that in this morning, "so you're going to Texas huh?"
A smile grew on his face when Gabriella brought up Texas, "yeah, I'm so stoked. Give your boyfriend a thanks from me, they're excited to have me for next season," he said as his friend came out of the bathroom. "Hopefully he doesn't regret it but if I was him, I'd regret even giving someone else the scholarship...i wouldn't give it up for anyone," with those last words, he got up and left with his friend.
Gabriella sat there as she began to feel even more worse. There were just signs everywhere telling her to give him up. She knew she couldn't live the rest of her life knowing that she was holding people back just to make herself happy.
She dialed Troy's number into her cell phone and waited for an answer so she could tell him something that could decide their future...
Troy sat on a log and stared out into the distance. He wasn't sure if there was anything wrong with Gabriella or if she was just tired. Earlier, she seemed just fine and everything was great and then all of a sudden she felt tired and wanted to go home. He wasn't sure if Taylor said anything to her or if she had heard something. She just wouldn't go home after she planned on having the gang to hang out together. It just didn't seem to fit all together; Troy approached Taylor and took her aside from the others. "Did you say anything to Gabriella?" he asked her nicely.
Taylor looked from side to side and then back at Troy and said, "Maybe just a little..."
"What did you say to her?" he asked. He knew there was something going on besides being "just tired." Over on the side, Chad was watching them because he had a small feeling that he knew what was going on. He didn't want to tell Troy anything because he knows that Troy will flip out and go find Gabriella to say something.
"I might have told her to let you go to the college that you want instead of holding you back and stuff..." her voice trailed off.
"Why in the world would you say that to her?!" Troy began to flip out now, he knew that situation was a big deal to Gabriella and she would take that extremely serious. Troy didn't want her thinking about that because that wasn't until months later, he just wanted Gabriella to relax but Taylor had to go and say something about it.
"What's going on here?" Chad said immediately after he saw Troy flipping out. He stood by Taylor's side and watched Troy.
Taylor held onto Chad and sighs, "I kind of told him what I told Gabriella and stuff...now he's freaking out." Taylor had a reason to tell Gabriella all this stuff and she knew it, she knew Troy would realize that too but not right now at least.
Chad shakes his head and tries to calm Troy down, "Troy, calm down don't start yelling at people okay?" he says to him.
"Look, Gabriella is kinda a big deal," he said. "I don't want her thinking about this after I already decided not to go to Texas."
"Well, she's at home right now...probably crying still," Chad said. Chad wanted to tell Troy that he made a stupid decision but it was his best friend and his girl best friend and it was their issue so he was going to stay out of it.
"She's crying?! Why didn't you tell me-" he was cut off by the sound of his cell phone. He paused his voice and then picked up his phone, "What?!" he yelled into the receiver. He wasn't sure who was calling but he was not in the mood to talk. His face was tensed up and full of anger but it softened a bit when he heard a soft voice that belonged to Gabriella, "oh I'm sorry, no I'm fine..." he said and sighed, "I didn't mean to yell."
"Oh...well I need to talk to you...can you come over soon? Or do you want me to meet you somewhere or come get you?"
Troy had a feeling he knew what Gabriella wanted to talk about but there was no turning back now was there? When he swallowed there was a lump in his throat, he didn't want this conversation to end in a break up. He didn't know what to expect from this at all. "No I'll meet you at home, I'll have Chad take me..." he looks over at Chad and Chad nods at him. "Alright, I love you Gabriella," he said before hanging up the cell phone. Troy and Chad went to Chad's car and he took him all the way to Gabriella's house. Chad eventually told Troy what Gabriella said to him in the car when she went to go see what was wrong with her. Troy took it like it was nothing but inside he was hurting as much as she was because he didn't want her to be thinking of this stuff. They arrived at the front of the house and Troy got out of his car and went to the front door where he was let in by the butler; once he was in he headed up to Gabriella's room and slowly he entered seeing her on the bed watching TV. "Hey you," he said quietly.
Gabriella turned her head away from the TV and saw Troy. She turns off the TV then sits up in her bed and smiles weakly at him, "Hey," she said and patted the spot next to her, "Sit."
Troy sat down on her bed and looked at her, "what's up?" he asked her.
Gabriella shrugged her shoulder, "not much just been watching TV...is the hanging out thing still going on?" She did feel bad for planning it but then leaving minutes later because of issues. She'd apologize to them for that later but right now there were more important things. "I'm just going to get to the point...no sugar coating..." she began to say to him. Gabriella tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and then she faced him. "I want you to go to Duke," she said and put a finger up before he could say anything. "I know it's not Texas U, but it's the next best thing...I mean they want you since you were a freshman Troy. You'd do great at the school," her voice began to crack as she held back her tears.
"Are you sure?" he asked as he pulled her over to sit next to him. He wasn't sure if she was just saying this because people told her that she was doing him wrong for holding him back or if this was what she really wanted, "Gabriella if this is what people said, don't listen to them."
Gabriella nods her head, "yeah I'll be fine," she told him. "I'm taking one step at a time and I think I can do this; its only for another year before I go off to college..." her voice drifted off as she turned her head away from him. Just let him go. It was as simple as that but it was so hard to say to him. Her mouth shut close before she would say something to take everything all back.
"Gabriella, I don't wanna go. I don't want to leave you," he said to her as he placed his hand on her cheek.
She turned her head away so his hand wouldn't be touching her face, "I don't want you to go either but both you and I know that you should...it's the most important thing for you right now," she said softly. "I love you okay? Just do this for me...and for yourself."
Troy wasn't sure what to say to that, he wasn't going to turn that offer down after she already made him leave the scholarship. "I don't know what I should do..." he said to her.
"Basketball, you're meant for that," she forced a smile and then she rolled out of bed and stood up, "I think I'm gonna go shower now so I'll call you later or something...give Duke a call, they'll be thrilled to have you," she said before heading into the shower. She could feel his eyes on her as she walked into her bathroom, she knew that he was either happy or sad inside that she decided this but she shouldn't have been the one deciding his future he should have. If he had to make a choice she wanted him to do the right thing and be happy, even if it means hurting her in the process...
It was as simple as that. Basketball. It was what he's meant for; it was his dream and destiny to play basketball. He was born with this skills for a reason and he wasn't going to let it go to waste, but Gabriella was his destiny too...
Troy had went straight home after Gabriella's and went up to his room to look at the Duke sweatshirt that he had received from the team. He knew that this team was going to be the team he was going to end up with, he just wasn't sure how it was going to happen. He stared at the big four letter and thought about how his future would go there. There was a knock on his door and Jack walked through the door and saw Troy looking at the Duke sweatshirt. "Hey son, what's going on?" he asked as he walks to look at the sweatshirt too.
"I gave up Texas," Troy simply said without looking at his dad.
"You did what? For what?!" His dad roared. He was already mad enough that his son didn't want to go to Duke but to reject Texas was another story! "Why in the world would you do that? What did you do with the scholarship then?"
Troy shrugged his shoulder, "I don't know, I wanted to...for Gabriella," he said and for a fact he knew his dad was going to blow up. "I gave it to Matt Montez," Troy shrugs his shoulder again after he said that, "he deserves it dad, he's better than me."
"Don't even say that, no one in the Montez family will ever be better than us...nobody," his dad boldly said to his son. "I can't believe you'd give the scholarship to a dirt like him!" his dad yelled.
Troy stepped away from his dad and narrowed his eyes, "dad, what is your problem? Why do you have so much hate after what they have gone through!? Don't you understand what's going on?" Troy asked his dad. He couldn't believe his dad, he was the most arrogant person Troy has ever met.
"You're a traitor son if you think you'd be with that Gabriella girl forever," his dad said coldly and there was nothing in his tone to make it sound like he was just kidding. "Well what now? Where are you going to go school now huh son? Did you ever think of that?"
"Of course I thought of that!" he said to him. Obviously he kind of thought this through when he gave up the scholarship. Scholarships were important to Troy these days, even though his family was like a billionaire, a basketball scholarship was important because he had an opportunity to play basketball.
His dad shook his head, "You don't know anything son," he yelled back at him. He couldn't believe his son would do something like this.
"Apparently I don't because I'm your son," Troy said coldly.
"Don't ever talk to me in that tone!" he roared, "This is that little devil Gabriella's fault that we're arguing! This is why I made you break up with Nichole! It interferes with your life and makes you choose bad decisions...I would rather have you with Nichole than that Montez! She made you lose something so important!"
Troy couldn't talk to his dad anymore, it was just going to get worse and worse, Troy might even end up throwing a few punches. This was the only time Troy usually had a temper problem.
Troy literally wanted to punch his dad when his dad said he'd be a traitor if he will be with Gabriella forever, his dad should never think that. "Leave Gabriella out of our conversation dad, and you know what? I am going to Duke so shut up and don't say anything to me," Troy said and left his room since he didn't want to be in the same room as his dad. Troy went down to find the Duke's coach number and he dialed it, waiting patiently for an answer or the machine. Eventually he gotten through in the call and the coach was actually excited to have him be in their program for next year. Well that was it, Troy was going to Duke University to play basketball; and Gabriella was going to stay behind and go to school here.
"I did it..." She said out of nowhere.
"You did what?" They both asked at the same time.
"I let Troy go, I let him go to Duke," Gabriella said to her two friends. She sat in her balcony with Chad and Taylor since she called them over because those were the two who knew what was going on right now.
Chad looks up from his hand and straight at Gabriella, "You did?"
Gabriella nods her head at Chad, "Yeah, I figured that is what probably is best for the both of us," she said to him,. Gabriella then managed to turn her head to Taylor, "Tay, I'm sorry for being so mad at you...you were right, just to let you know."
Taylor shrugs her shoulder up and down at Gabriella's comment, "Oh well, I don't care if I was right or not...I'm just hoping you'll be okay with your decision. Don't worry girl you'll have me next year," she hugged her best friend from the side and then the three of them continued their conversation. Taylor and Chad told Gabriella about how they were going to maintain a relationship from a long distance. She didn't know how they could do it, she wasn't sure if she could. It was hard for her, it was already hard for her to go to boarding school and that was only a couple of hours away.
"Well what are you and Troy going to do?" Chad asked. Troy and Chad haven't talk about those two because Chad knew that he wanted Gabriella and Troy to know first. He just hoped whatever they decide would be better off.
Gabriella stared out into the distance- the ocean view wasn't too far from where she lived, behind that was a beautiful mountain that covered some of the sun as it was beginning to set. People were walking along the beach on a nice day like this and from up here they looked like little ants. That question ran through her mind as she was gazing out into the distance, it almost looked like she didn't hear Chad but she heard him loud and clearly. She herself didn't know what was going to happen in the future, she didn't want to know what would. All she wanted to do was be with him for the time she has and whatever happen, happens. Gabriella shrugged her shoulders gently finally as she respond to Chad's question, "I don't know, I guess only time will tell right?" She stood up from her chair, "You guys want to go grab something to eat? I haven't eaten all day," she said, "I'm starved."
The two others looked at each other before looking at their friend. They were worried about her because they didn't know what she'd do without her boyfriend. She already seemed recked when they first came over- Chad knew Gabriella was hurting inside and Taylor knew that as well; they just didn't know what to say to make this all better. "I'm not hungry, but I'll go with you," Chad said as he stood up but was stopped by Taylor.
"I'll go with her, you can go home," she informed her boyfriend. "I want to spend some quality time with my best friend..." she said and then the two girls went into the house. "We're not going to talk about all this college stuff okay? Let's talk about how fun it's going to be on our senior year..." Taylor tried and comfort Gabriella. They went into Gabriella's car as Gabriella promised Taylor that she wouldn't think about it anymore, but really...that was the only thing she could think about.
REVIEW PLEASE!
PREVIEWS FOR NEXT CHAPTER:
"So, what are we going to do?"
Gabriella shrugged her shoulder as she didn't make any eye contact with Troy. "It's not what I want anymore; it's what you want Troy. I'm tired of making all the decisions, you're the one going and I want you to decide, please. But know this; I will never ever let you go that easily if I made this decision myself."