Chapter 37

Eventually Gabriella stirred and said hesitantly "Troy, can you go and let me finish getting clean. I'll see you downstairs soon."

Troy nodded and immediately got out of the shower and wrapping a towel around his waist left the bathroom. He realised that he still needed to clean up so he walked down the hall to the bathroom in his parent's room and cleaned himself up before pulling on a t-shirt and sweats and lacing up his trainers. Writing Gabriella a quick note so she wouldn't panic when she came downstairs and didn't find him he went out for a run. For the second day in a row he pushed himself as hard as he could trying to outrun his feelings of guilt. He ran his usual circuit in less than half the time it normally took arriving home with his legs and lungs burning but otherwise feeling better than when he set out.

Noticing the bedroom and bathroom were now empty he quickly showered and dressed before going in search of his wife.

Troy arrived downstairs as Gabriella was dishing up bacon and eggs. "I'm sorry" he said quietly standing in the doorway uncertainly.

Gabriella looked at him relieved that he didn't seem to be too upset with himself again. She smiled warmly and said "Breakfast is ready. Let's put off all discussion about our relationship while we eat."

Troy smiled back and walked over to hug her affectionately. "I love you Gabriella" he kissed her quickly then reached up to brush a lock of hair from her face searching her eyes trying to see what she was really feeling.

"I love you too Wildcat" she said turning and handing him a plate, "Now come have breakfast"

Troy complimented Gabriella on her cooking as they ate and then cleaned the kitchen while she went up to finish getting ready to go out. Finishing that he sat and watched a repeat of the basketball game played the night before.

"You should have told me there was a game on, we could have watched it." Gabriella commented entering the room.

"It wasn't important. I love playing but I'm not as obsessed as dad. And you'll see far too many Basketball games when you're living here with Dad" Troy said almost apologetically turning off the television.

Gabriella laughed at that she knew Troy was right, Coach Jack Bolton lived and breathed basketball. In fact she wouldn't mind betting one of his first reactions to learning about their marriage will be to consider how it will affect Troy's basketball future.

"Do you want to talk about this morning?" Troy asked uncertainly not wanting to spoil the comfortable friendly atmosphere between them.

Gabriella sighed before sitting down next to Troy on the couch. "Not really Troy but I guess we should. I don't want us to misunderstand each other again."

"This being married is not so easy is it?" Troy asked ruefully.

Gabriella looked up at him in shock "Do you regret getting married?" She asked anxiously.

"What? No! I didn't mean that... it's just... it's more complicated than I thought it would be... I'm glad we got married... I just feel like I don't know what I'm doing... I feel out of control... I'm afraid of getting it wrong... I want to make you happy and I don't know how." Troy sounded vulnerable and scared.

Gabriella hugged him. "Yeah you're right this weekend has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster hasn't it. But we'll get through this Troy" she attempted to reassure him.

"I never thought that a honeymoon would be something to be got through. Everyone always says they're supposed to be wonderful." Troy said sadly.

Gabriella sighed, "I think that a large part of the problem is that it is all happening so fast. Most people go out for years before they get engaged and then are engaged for months at least and go on honeymoon for two or three weeks. We met less than a year ago, got engaged eleven days ago and we know our honeymoon will be over once your parents get home this afternoon. It takes time for a relationship to grow and it's like we've forced our relationship to grow up before it was ready. We've been in such a hurry to get married before anyone could stop us that we didn't have time to prepare ourselves for the emotional consequences" she tried to explain.

Troy thought about it for a minute then nodded. "Yeah in two weeks we've gone from the type of relationship that is normal for a couple of seventeen year olds to the type of relationship that would be normal for people in their mid twenties but even though everything's changed we're not really any older than we were two weeks ago."

Gabriella thought about this for a moment then nodded. "Under the circumstances I think we are doing pretty well" Gabriella told him.

"You do?" Troy was surprised, yesterday had gone great but this morning had been a disaster in his opinion.

"Yes Troy, I know things haven't gone perfectly but we are still sitting here together calmly discussing what happens from here. We haven't fought at all and neither of us regrets getting married" Gabriella stated "Sure it hasn't all been wonderful, but I honestly think that we've made a good start." Gabriella said firmly.

Troy smiled at her "Well I guess when you put it like that we are doing all right."

"We need to talk about this morning." Gabriella said quietly. Troy went to say something but Gabriella put her finger to his lips. "No more apologies Troy. We need to talk about what happened but I don't want you beating yourself up over any of this."

"Okay" he whispered.

"All right, you woke up aroused – we talked about that yesterday there's nothing wrong with that and it's okay that it will probably continue to happen. Then I teased you and you lost control – That was as much my fault as yours so you don't need to feel bad about it. I guess I should ask do you want me to promise not to do that again."

"I don't know, I liked it but it was embarrassing to lose control like that and I didn't mean to. I felt like I violated you by turning it into sex."Troy blushed and stammered his response.

"You weren't the one who made it sexual Troy. I may have been a virgin until two days ago but I'm not quite that naive, I was turning you on deliberately. I could feel your erection growing as I squirmed against it and I chose to keep going. I should be the one feeling guilty about this morning. You were trying to be considerate and not push me into doing anything sexual and I took advantage of that by teasing you. I'm sorry I never thought that making you lose control would disturb you like that."

Then you got upset with yourself and ran off outside – that was all a misunderstanding there was no need to feel guilty. All I can say about that is that I want you to try and talk to me next time you feel that way instead of running away" she asked him.

"I'll try Gabi but I can't promise, I was too upset to think clearly" Troy replied embarrassed.

"Yes I know running outside in your boxers in this weather..." she trailed off then decided to tease him a little in attempt to lighten the situation, "That's the second time you've been outside without clothes on this weekend, tell me Mr Bolton are you a closet nudist?"

Troy spluttered denials causing Gabriella to laugh. Realizing he was being teased he chuckled.

Okay we talked about all of that earlier and you know I'm fine with it, but are you okay with what happened after that."

"I really enjoyed what we did in the shower" Troy admitted shyly "but I was worried when you asked me to leave. Did I do something wrong? Did I push you too far? I'm sorry."

Gabriella cursed inwardly, she should have known that Troy would react that way to her request for privacy. She kissed his cheek and then rested her head on his shoulder. "No Troy you didn't do anything wrong. I really enjoyed what we did in the shower too."

"Then why'd you send me away?" he asked uncertainly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that." She tried to explain "I just wanted to be able to take my wet clothes off and clean up. I don't know if you're going to be able to understand this Troy but I'm not comfortable with being naked the way you are. I just can't strip off in front of you. It's not that I don't trust you because I do but I feel too self conscious."

Troy nodded his acceptance and understanding, "Like yesterday morning when you were okay being naked in bed when we first woke up but then wanted a shirt to put on before you got out of bed?" he clarified.

Gabriella blushed and nodded shyly.

"Okay I can respect that though I don't really understand why you feel like that. You do know that I think your naked body is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen."

"Only one of?" Gabriella tried to hide her blush and pretended to be upset. "What else is the most beautiful thing?"

"Yeah well... you're smile, the way you look at me when you tell me you love me and the way you looked at our wedding" Troy started to ramble.

Gabriella gave him that beautiful smile he loved so much and hugged him. "Troy you said that you're afraid that I'm not happy. I am happy Troy. You've always made me happy, I love spending time with you. Being together all this weekend has been great. Highly emotional at times but still mostly wonderful."

"So our honeymoon has been wonderful? Even though I'm sure it wasn't anything like what you dreamed it would be before this."

"There are some things that are exactly the way I'd dreamed they'd be."

"Oh?" Troy enquired curiously.

"It was with you Troy" she admitted bravely "ever since New Year's Eve all my dreams of weddings and honeymoons and future children have all included you. Even in those first few days before we came to Albuquerque when I didn't know if I'd ever see you again I was dreaming about you. So even though this isn't the most glamorous location and it hasn't been at all relaxing, a lot of my dreams still came true because I married you."

Troy kissed her deeply starting another make out session which lasted the rest of the morning.