Later that night, Troy was in his room when there was a knock. "Come in." His mom came in and sat on the edge of the bed. "Hey Mom, is everything ok?"
"I'm more worried about you Troy."
"I'm fine."
"I know Bud, but I know you spent a lot of your night reassuring Gabriella about college and I want to know how you feel about it."
"Honestly Mom, I'm just as scared as Brie is."
"Come here Baby Boy." He went over to his mom and laid his head in her lap, she started playing with his hair. "What are you worried about?"
"Going to U of A, Brie was saying that she made a lot of decisions to make her mom happy and it makes me wonder if I've done the same thing."
"Ok Troy, where have you gotten offers from."
"I've been offered scholarships from U of A, UC Berkeley, Duke, University of New Mexico and some others but those are the ones I've been considering."
"Ok, let's go through those, why would you want to go to U of A?"
"Well I'd be in my hometown with family and attending a university I've grown up with and Chad would be there."
"Ok, UC Berkeley?"
"I'd be so close to Brie, there's only 32.7 miles from Stanford to Berkeley, the Bears are as well of a known team as the Red Hawks and there's a great sports medicine course that I'd want to take along with basketball."
"Duke?"
"Well they're a great school for basketball but I'd be on the other side of the country, away from you, Dad, Brie, Chad and everyone. No, Duke is out."
"I figured as much Bud, UNM?"
"Honestly Mom, it's U of A without any of the benefits."
"Ok so you've got U of A and Berkeley, can I tell you what I think?" Troy nodded. "I know which one you want to choose and you know it too, you're just scared to say it aloud for whatever reason. It's clear that you're really considering Berkeley, you've done a lot of research into it and you've built more reasons for it than U of A."
"I guess I have subconsciously chosen Berkeley, but how do I know I'm making the right choice?"
"We'll try something Troy, aside from yourself, who are you thinking about when making this decision?"
"You, Dad and Brie definitely and Chad a bit I guess."
"Ok, if we took Gabriella out of the picture, where would you go?"
"U of A."
"If you took your father and me out?"
"Berkeley, no question."
"Ok Bud."
"Please don't tell me I have to choose between you and Brie."
"There's no point in that because no matter where you go, you'll always have us and I have a strong feeling that you would have Ella as well. But does that help you choose where you're going?"
"Yeah I'm going to Berkeley."
"Are you happy with that decision?"
"I'm really happy." He sat up and hugged her. "Thanks Mom, I love you."
"I love you too my Baby Boy. I'm so proud of you, I hope you know that." He nodded. "Ok Troy, should we tell your dad now?"
"Yeah I guess so."
Lucille called out. "Jack, can you come to Troy's room?"
Jack came up after a couple of seconds and sat down. "What's up?"
"Jack, Troy and I have been talking about college. When we were with Maria and Gabriella, Ella had told Troy that a large part of her decisions was to make Maria happy. So Troy and I spent the past while discussing his college options to make sure he's making decisions for himself."
Jack turned to Troy. "What offers did you get?"
"U of A, Berkeley, Duke and UNM, for scholarships at least."
Jack patted him on the shoulder. "Those are really good schools Bud."
Lucille spoke up. "So Jack, we went through his reasoning for each and how different people impact his decision, he came down to the college that he wants to go to."
Jack turned to Troy and the boy continued his mom's statement. "I'm going to UC Berkeley next year for basketball and sports medicine."
"That's great Troy... You aren't just basing this on Gabriella, are you? You know I love her and think of her as a daughter but I don't want you to regret it if something happens."
"I know Dad and yeah a big part of it is because it's so close to Brie but the Bears are always in the playoffs against the Red Hawks and their sports medicine program is awesome."
"Ok Troy, as long as you're happy, that's what matters."