A/N: Get this! The reviews for the last chapter were so awesome, seriously, they made us laugh and smile so wide! Thanks! 3
Yes, this story is getting long, yes it seems to be always the same, but you just HAVE to understand this! We went over this already right? It CANNOT be shortened. And you as readers should have understood Troyella's relationship by now…no? It's….complicated! Just bear with us ok?
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Speaking of shout outs, here are the people who picked up on that little thing: 1st, thanks for reading and 2nd congrats! :D
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Disclaimer: We don't own anything, like anything at all ok? Except for the words written.
Chapter 28
Previously:
"Mr. Evans, we need you to sign this consent before we can publish this story."
***
"Postpone the divorce for me. For him."
***
"You know how much I hurt because of the divorce?"
***
"We decided to give your role to Chad Dylan Cooper."
Surely everyone knows the expression "quiet before the storm". If you know what reality means, you also must know that nothing ever lasts. You can never be content for a long time. There is always something that disturbs it after a while.
Contentment, Google would define this word to you as "happiness with one's situation in life" and that is exactly how Troy felt at the moment. Holding Gabriella in one place while the sun shone through and the aroma of 105 roses floated around them. However, as we already know, nothing lasts long.
A glass breaking could be heard from the door. Both Gabriella's and Troy's heads shot up right away towards the door and Gabriella gasped. There stood Sharpay with a shocked face, the noise produced from the, now broken, bottle of red wine that Sharpay dropped at the sight in front of her.
"Sharpay…" Troy started, but as soon as he said her name, Sharpay turned on her heels and ran out towards her car. Troy immediately shot out after her, leaving Gabriella standing there alone still trying to figure out what just happened. But damn, for wearing a pair of Manolo Blahniks, she was sure fast! Troy didn't even get out of his driveway when Sharpay was already in the car starting the engine.
"Sharpay! Stop! Sharpay!" Troy yelled while knocking on the passenger seats window of her car. However, ignoring him, Sharpay stepped on the gas pedal and with tears sped away from the house. Grabbing his hair and looking up the cloudless sky, Troy wondered how something could go from a dream into a nightmare in mere seconds.
"Troy?" Gabriella came out of the living room with one vase of roses when she heard Troy slam the door shut.
"Yea." He just nodded. "What are you doing with those?" he pointed at the vase.
"Oh, these." Gabriella blushed. "I am going to put each vase into a different room so I can see them everywhere and so the house smells like them too." She told him in a shy voice.
"Ok." He just said and went into the living room to sit. Gabriella frowned and looked at where he sat with a far off look. Quickly setting the vase on the dining table, she came back into the living room and sat down next to Troy.
"Are you ok Wildcat?" Gabriella asked while putting a hand on his arm. Troy's head snapped up at the nickname.
"What did you just call me?" he asked in shock and Gabriella blushed again and lowered her head.
"Wildcat." She mumbled.
"Why?" Troy asked with wide eyes.
"Uhm, I just…it just slipped…I didn't mean to…the name of you school…is all…" Gabriella mumbled and Troy merely heard few words.
"Right…" he nodded, still quite surprised. She did call him wildcat once before but that was all. It was the time when she told him they went to rival schools so she was a Knight and he was a Wildcat. But this time, this time the nickname came out from her lips differently. Almost….lovingly dare he say.
"You know, when I was young I decided to run away." Troy suddenly opened up and told her. Gabriella's eyes widened in surprise.
"Why?" Troy was quiet for a while, deciding what to reveal and what to leave out and if it was wise to even tell her anything.
"I hated my father so much after my sister died." He decided to say. "I blamed him for her death and I hated him for making her last days so bad and miserable." He said with pain in his eyes and Gabriella just squeezed his arm supportively.
"If it wasn't for Sharpay I would have really ran away." Troy said looking into Gabriella's eyes.
"Did she tell you not to go?" Gabriella whispered suddenly feeling that a normal voice would somehow be too loud and destroy the moment.
"No." Troy shook his head. "The money I had to run away, I used up to buy Sharpay ice-cream." He told her and Gabriella suddenly moved away from him, grabbing a cushion, she hugged it tight and looked at Troy. Speaking of destroying the moment…
"Why?" Gabriella asked with a hurt voice.
"I told her I would run away and she started crying." Troy said. "How could I leave her crying like that?" Gabriella didn't say anything and continued to listen.
"When we were nine, I made a promise to Sharpay that I would protect her for the rest of my life and never make her cry. If I left, I would have broken my promise and so I stayed." He explained while Gabriella just wanted to throw something at him and scream that he is an idiot. "What about me?" she wanted to scream into his face.
"But you, you make me feel so happy you know?" Troy said as if reading her mind. "With you, I seem to be a different man. With you, I even forget Sharpay." He continued while looking at her features.
"So what is the problem?" Gabriella asked in a soft voice.
"The problem is…" Troy started but hesitated. "The problem is that now I have to go to Sharpay and take care of her because I already made her a promise."
Thank God for make-up. Thank God for this invention that helps women all around the globe to cover up some of their imperfect skin. Gabriella couldn't be more grateful for it, especially today. The swollen eyes were partially masked by eyeliner and the bags under her eyes were covered too. Overall, she didn't look like she felt… like shit.
This was like a nightmare. Her body screamed for rest and she could barely move her body around, but when she tried to fall asleep and grant her body its wish, nightmares started to occur and the scene from the night before started to flash behind her eyelids. This guaranteed her next to zero of sleep the whole night and now she was meeting with Ryan for lunch. Wonderful, just wonderful.
"Brie?" Troy called her just when she was reaching for the doorknob to go for lunch.
"Yes?" she looked at him expectantly.
"Uhm…" he started and nervously rubbed the back of his neck, a habit maybe.
"What is it?" she asked him impatiently. She was tired and she was hungry.
"I…I will be moving out sometime next week." Troy said quickly and closed his eyes. After he realized Gabriella wouldn't say anything, he slowly opened his eyes to see her staring.
"Brie?" he asked carefully but all he got was her opening the door and slamming them again as she left the house.
Lunch. Everyone you ask would tell you it's a meal time in between of morning and afternoon. Basically the most important meal during the day.
What people don't realize though, is that there are many kinds of lunches. Business lunch, lunch with friends, lunch with acquaintances, quick lunch, leisure lunch, luncheon, brunch and many others. The are way too many to name but the one Ryan was on right now couldn't be classified under any of these groups. There was no food but it was noon and they were sitting in a restaurant. By 'they' he meant himself and a crying Gabriella. Yes, Gabriella was crying.
When they met up, Ryan asked where she wanted to go but she just told him she didn't want to eat anything, only drink.
So there they were sitting, each with a glass of wine and even though it was just 20 minutes from when they arrived, a bottle and a half were already consumed.
"Can you believe that?" Gabriella sobbed while sipping her drink after telling Ryan the whole story. He just sat there looking at her, not saying anything.
"I mean, what kind of a person keeps promises made when you were 9?" she exclaimed and let out a big sob. Her sobbing and not too quiet voice grabbed the attention of more than one customer around. A lot of them were looking at Ryan and Gabriella while some glared at her for disturbing them, others looked at her sympathetically, shook their heads and clicked their tongues.
Ryan mentally sighed and reached over the table for Gabriella's hand. Why was he always the one to comfort her when Troy hurt her? However, that reminded him of his plan that was going just great. Soon enough he wouldn't have to comfort her anymore because she would be with him and he wouldn't let anything hurt her. Simple as that.
Where the hell was she? She was out through the lunch and didn't even leave any food for him! Nor did she cook breakfast for that matter, but that was already in the contract so whatever. It was about 5pm now and Gabriella was nowhere to be seen yet and it was almost dinner time! Troy was starving and he wanted to show Gabriella this cool movie she would surely like.
Suddenly, Troy heard the front door open and then slam shut. Going out to the hallway to great Gabriella, he was met by drunk Gabriella stumbling around, trying to take her shoes off.
"Hubby!" she suddenly yelled out when she spotted him.
"Gabriella, are you drunk?" Troy asked even though that was the stupidest question at the moment seeing her like that. But that was the best he could come up with. Understand him ok, he never saw Gabriella come into the house in the middle of the afternoon drunk. Moreover, calling him hubby.
"Me? Drunk? Noooo! Why would you think that?" Gabriella laughed and wrapped her hands around Troy's neck.
"Come on, let's get you some water." Troy rolled his eyes and took her to the kitchen table to sit down.
"I don't want any water, but you know what? There was this really cute kitty on the road and I really wanted to take her home. Now I know I am allergic to them, but that is not such a big problem right? So when I wanted to go and take her, I sneezed so hard the kitty cat ran away!" Gabriella started to laugh hysterically and Troy put a glass of water in front of her.
"Drink." He ordered and sat down on the opposite side, watching her gulp down the water as if she haven't drank for weeks.
"Come on, let's get you upstairs." He said after a while. Standing up, he went around the table and picked her up bridal style. Walking up the stairs, Gabriella suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer.
"Don't go to Sharpay. I won't let you." She said while tears streamed out of her eyes. Troy just stood there on the stairs in shock. Did she just…?
"You don't know what you are talking about come on I will help you get to bed." He said with a nervous chuckle and continued to walk upstairs into her room. Putting her down on the bed, Troy noticed she was already asleep with her mouth opened a bit.
"I will take care of you." She suddenly mumbled and shifted on the bed a bit. Starring at her, Troy thought back about the past couple of days and what happened. How did everything suddenly get so out of control? Whenever they were happy and tried to live normally as a married couple should, something jumped in and ruined everything. He had never seen a girl cry so much in his whole life. And he was causing all that? She said she loved him, he told her to get lost. She said she will go to another guy just for his sake, he told her that it was completely fine! She said he could go to Sharpay because she knew how much he loved her; he said he will be moving out in a week's time! Even thinking about all that broke his heart. How could he be such a jerk? He didn't know…
"Don't get hurt just because of me…" he mumbled and with tears in his eyes touched her cheek gently before going outside and closing the door. Leaning against it, he closed his eyes as if in pain. How could he treat her like that? Why was he causing her so much pain? He didn't do it on purpose but the guilt was still the same. There was only one way to stop all that pain that he was causing her. Nodding his head, Troy headed to his own room with a set mind. If he was causing her pain because she was close to him, the only way to avoid it would be as far away form each other as possible.
Gabriella suddenly sat up which was not the best decision she made. In fact, it was the worst decision she had ever made in her whole life. Not only did the light killed her and probably blinded her for life, she also felt like the whole weight of the world was on her head at the very moment. If she ever had a hangover, this was exactly how it would feel she imagined.
Getting slowly out of bed, she put her hand to her forehead and moaned. Why did God hate her this morning? What was she doing yesterday night anyway? She couldn't remember a thing! Walking slowly down the stairs, she came into the kitchen and plopped down onto a chair.
"Ah, I see you are up. How are you feeling?" Troy smirked while sliding a cup of coffee over to her side. Gratefully, Gabriella lifted the cup and took a long sip.
"Like my head was run over by a steamroller." Gabriella mumbled and took a bite out of the croissant that somehow appeared right in front of her as did the coffee before.
"Guess the hangover had arrived." Troy chuckled and folded the newspaper he was reading just before Gabriella came down.
"What hangover? I don't have a hangover." Gabriella said.
"Keep telling yourself that and it might go away." Troy looked at her amusedly.
"Shhhhh! Why are you so loud! You voice is like a hammer on my poor head!" she frowned and took the eggs from his plate.
"If that's not a hangover, then I did not star in Camp Socks!" Troy snickered.
"Nonsense." Gabriella said with a full mouth of bread. Man she was hungry!
"Listen," Troy started with a serious tone. One that would unnerve Gabriella if she had picked up on it but she was too busy looking for butter and salt. "What do you think about going back to the place we honeymooned at?" he offered. This made Gabriella stop chewing and finally focusing on his tone and what he was saying.
"As in a trip for us?" she said slowly, unsure.
"No, I meant only you. Take a week, maybe two of vacation that you deserve. What do you say?" Troy shook his head and looked at her expectantly.
"Why?" she asked with wide, innocent eyes that made Troy want to scream 'just take it!' at her. Instead, he closed his eyes for a second before opening them again and looking straight into her eyes.
"Because…because reports will be coming out on us and the marriage soon and I think it would be better for you if you stayed out of the city for a while." He said and Gabriella returned to chewing.
"What do you say?" he asked when no answer came his way, instead Gabriella kept eating.
"No. I am not going to go." She answered simply. "Would you pass the milk?"
"But why?" Troy asked, confused while lifting the jug with milk and handing it to her.
"See, I think that if bad things are supposed to come our way, I ought to stay here with you, right by your side." She answered as if it was obvious and poured milk into her cornflakes.
"No, no, no, no!" Troy said while wincing. "See, you don't understand! I am a jerk ok? And you just keep being all nice and innocent! Don't you see you shouldn't be here?" he screamed and Gabriella pushed her chair back a bit.
"I order you around! I yell at you! I am moody!" Troy started listing off, he was getting more and more furious by the minute. It was supposed to be so easy and simple! She should have just said yes and get a free vacation! Standing up, he started pacing around the kitchen while Gabriella just watched him.
"You know what? Pack your bags ok? Take all your stuff and get the hell away from here!" he said while pointing outside.
"No." Gabriella answered firmly.
"No? How dare you say no? This is my house you know that? I have the right to kick you out whenever I want!" Troy screamed and glared at her.
"Who are you kidding Troy? You might be a good actor but I wont buy this." Gabriella said in a calm voice. She was used to Troy being bipolar.
"Who am I kidding? I am not kidding anyone! I am serious! I don't even want to see you! I want you to get the hell away." Troy said. This was not working! He was supposed to get her as far away from his as possible! Yet, she saw through his game and she was being abundant! Damn it why didn't anything work? He would have to step up his game if he wanted to stop all that pain.
"And I want a huge walk in closet with brand new clothes inside, but you don't see me getting all upset over it and going all bipolar bitch!" Gabriella exclaimed while rolling her eyes.
"You know," Troy said coldly "all the promises I made to you? They mean nothing! Nothing at all." He hissed. "In fact, you mean nothing at all to me. I was just lying! That's right! My acting is not so bad after all is it?" Gabriella froze in shock and Troy saw he got what he wanted, but at what price? From her eyes, he could tell he had gone over the line. That was too much.
Wordlessly, Gabriella pushed the chair back and stood up.
"Gabi, wait…" Troy started but Gabriella turned around quickly and headed upstairs, but not before Troy could catch a glimpse of those tears flowing. The exact same ones that he started all this bullshit for. The exact same ones that he wanted to stop and never see again. Guess, it didn't work.
"Damn it!" he yelled and hit the table with his fist.
A/N: Hit that green button right below! The next update will come faster if you do! :P It's already written! Oh and did anyone notice another "subtle" refference to SWAC? LOL...sorry but we just couldnt help but to put it there! Shout outs to those who tell us! 3
