Crash Into You

Chapter 38: I Forgot to Remember to Forget

It had been a week since Troy had seen Gabriella kiss another man and nothing else could occupy his mind. His friends had tried to make him forget about it, but the image of Gabriella's mouth pressing against another's was stuck in his mind.

He slowly lifted up the slab of wood that he was supposed to be getting. With a heavy sigh, he heaved the wood over to his co-worker.

"What's up Troy?" Danny asked as he handed Troy a water bottle. "You should be thrilled to have gotten this job. It's going to pay big."

"Yeah, I know." Troy said with a small sigh. "It's just that there is one thing that I can't get off my mind and it's really starting to bug me."

Danny took a seat on a stack of wood. "Lady Troubles." He said bluntly.

Troy took a seat next to him. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"When any guy says he has something on his mind it's either food, sports, or girls." He told him. "We just got back from lunch break; you're not really playing any sports at the moment; so that has to mean that you're thinking about a girl."

"How do you know this?"

Danny chuckled. "I got six sisters."

"Ah." Troy let out a small laugh. "But yeah, it is about a girl."

"So who is it and what did she do?"

Troy sighed. "She is my ex-girlfriend and last week I saw her kissing another guy. A guy that I didn't even knew she knew."

"You still like her, don't you?"

"No." Troy shook his head. "I love her. I probably always will."

"Well then you have to do everything in your power to get her back."

Troy shook his head again. "She's barely speaking to me and even when she does, it's like her head is somewhere else. And I practically had to trick into saying that we were friends. I don't think she wants anything to do with me."

"Well, since I don't know the whole story, all I can say is this: If at one point she had feelings for you like you do for her, chances are they are still there. Stuff like that doesn't just go away and it is your job to find it and bring it back to the front of her mind."

Troy nodded his head slowly. "Thanks man." He lifted himself off of his seat and went back to work.

Troy knew that he still loved Gabriella. He loved her with every bone in his body. And he knew that a few months ago, she had those same feeling for him. Danny was right; love doesn't just go away. It just gets pushed to into the background. It was his job to get Gabriella to start thinking about him again. About the way that she loved him.

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Gabriella mindlessly tapped her pencil on her desk as she stared blankly at the chalk board. She could hear the teacher droning on about the solar system, but for once in her life, she could care less. Her mind was focused on the fact that two weeks ago, she kissed another guy. She had kissed Dean, Tom's brother. And since then she had kissed him a dozen more times.

Sure, she liked Dean. He was sweet, nice, and absolutely charming; every quality she had ever looked for in a guy. She had found it in Tyler. Then in Troy. And now she had found it in Dean. But something was missing. The spark wasn't there like it had been before. Yet she continued to go out with him and kiss him back at the end of the night.

"Gabriella!" A finger snapped in front of her face. Her mind was snapped out of her daydream and found Taylor standing in front of her. "Class is over."

Gabriella blinked a couple of times. "Oh…right." She slowly picked her books up and hugged them to her chest and she followed Taylor out of the classroom, dodging paper airplanes as they flew around them.

"So what should we do at practice today?" Taylor asked. "I know that we should be prepping for the match against Jefferson, but we might need a break from all of the studding, you know?"

"I can't make it tonight." Gabriella told her friend. "I have dance."

Taylor narrowed her eyes at Gabriella. "I didn't think you had dance on Thursdays?"

"My schedule changed." She said bluntly. "I'll see you tomorrow."

She hurried away from Taylor, not wanting to see the reaction to her obvious lie. In no time at all, she reached the school entrance and slouched against the open doors. Closing her eyes she listened to the hum of the students filing out of the school.

"Hey." A soothing voice murmured in front of her. "Hard day?"

Gabriella nodded her head gently before opening her eyes to reveal a very good looking Dean before her. "Just a lot of stuff running through my mind right now and it's not exactly all happy thoughts."

"Want to talk about it."

She shook her head. "No. I'd rather try and forget about it if you don't mind."

He smiled softly at her. "Of course I don't."

She smiled back at him before leaning in for a hug. As she laid her head on his shoulder she realized that was one thing that bugged her. He always agreed with her. There was no excitement of an argument, no matter how stupid it may be.

As she pulled away from him he leaned in close and gave her a sweet kiss.

"Let's go." He laced his hand with Gabriella's as he started to lead her out of the school.

She took one last look back into the hallways and saw Troy standing in a nearby doorway. She waved at him and gave him a small smile. He returned the favor and turned her attention back to Dean.

As he watched Gabriella leave the school, he slammed his head back against the door frame. That was his chance. That was his chance to get her to realize that she still loved him. But obviously those feelings are gone. She has a new guy and he has to move on.

"Hey, uh, CT, can we talk?"

Troy looked over to see Tyler standing next to him. "Sure." He walked into the empty classroom and turned back to Tyler. "What's up?"

"Look, I know that we had some pretty crazy moments this year with the whole Gabriella thing, but I just wanted to say: no hard feelings." He stuck him hand out for Troy to shake.

He shook his hand and smiled. "No hard feelings. Looks like we both have to move on."

Tyler nodded his head. "Yeah, but it's hard you know?"

"Oh, I know." Troy nodded his head.

Tyler smirked. "She change your life too?"

Troy chuckled. "You have no idea."

After reading a lot of the comments from the last chapter, I have to say this. This was never meant to be a 'Troy and Gabriella' story. It was (and still is) Gabriella's story and Troy's story and for a while their stories were interlaced with each other. I know exactly how this is going to end (I've known since before I write the first chapter) and I feel safe telling you that their stories will interlace once again in a very big way very soon. I hope you all are willing to stick with this story.