Chapter 14

"Sorry Troy. You're going to have to wait outside." Dr. Luczak told me.

"But she's my girlfriend. I can't leave her. I promised." I retorted. I can't believe this is happening. All these machines are beeping in my ears. I just wanna scream.

"Exactly. Now if you want us to help her you're going to have to leave." I hung my head in defeat.

"OK. I'll be waiting." I hurried out of the room. My poor Gabriella. I can't believe this is happening. I walked to the waiting room and sat down on a blue padded chair next to a guy with a long beard. He kinda reminded me of the guys from ZZ Top. I took my cell phone out of my pocket to call my mom. She answered after the first ring. I explained to her what was going on and she said that she and Dad would be over in a minute.

"I hope your girlfriend's alright." the ZZ Top man spoke up. He must have been listening to my conversation with Mom.

"How'd you know she was my girlfriend?" I don't remember saying the word 'girlfriend' when I was on the phone.

"I just figured the way you talked about her." he explained.

"Oh," I said, "Thanks."

"No problem. I'm Rick." he told me.

"Troy." I replied.

"Nice to meet you." Rick said. He stuck out his hand to shake mine. I returned the gesture and we shook hands. Rick must be a construction worker or something like that because he has the roughest hands I've ever felt.

"Nice to meet you too."

"I suppose you're wondering why I'm here." he said. Wow he's good. I was actually thinking that. "My daughters got in a car crash. Sarah's in critical condition, and Mary's just getting a few stitches."

"I hope their OK." I spoke sincerely. "How old are they?"

"Sarah's 18 and Mary's 14. They're really close."

"I'm 16." I informed him.

"Troy Bolton?" the nurse from the reception desk called my name.

"That's me. I got to go. Maybe I'll see you later. Good luck with you're daughters."

"Thanks man. Nice talking to you. I hope Gabriella's OK." Rick said back to me. I got up and walked to the reception desk shaking.

"You can go back in Miss Montez's room now." the nurse grinned. Does that mean she's all right?

"OK. Thanks." I hurried as fast as I could with out running to my girlfriend's room. Dr. Luczak was standing waiting for me when I walked in.

"Troy. There you are." He said to me.

"Troy! You promised not to leave me!" Gabi cried.

"I–"I began but was cut off by the doctor.

"I told him he had to leave or else we couldn't treat you. He tried to argue, but we made him wait in the room down the hall. It's not his fault." Dr. Luczak calmly explained to Gabi.

"Oh, OK." Gabriella spoke softly.

"Gabi's fine. She just experienced vasovagal syncope." Dr. Luczak informed me.

"Bagel what?" What does food have to do with any of this? Dr. Luczak and Gabriella both laughed at me.

"Vasovagal Syncope." he said real slow. "It's not a real serious thing. Actually most people get this at least once in their lives. It's a fainting or black out for a brief period of time. Syncopes are caused by a great deal of things. In Miss Montez's case it would be resulting from an injurious and shocking incident. She's going to be fine and the surgery is still going to happen."

"So she's OK then." I said mainly to myself.

"Yeah Troy." Gabi laughed. "I'm OK other than that surgery coming up in a couple hours."

"Yeah."I blushed. I didn't mean to make her think about her surgery. I just meant about he vaso- vasova- vasovab- whatever it was she had. I remembered that I have school tomorrow. What about Gabi? How long is she gonna be here? What about the gang? "Dr. Luczak? How long is Gabi's surgery?"

"It's going to take about three hours. She wont wake up until about four though."

"OK. Then, how long will she have to be in the hospital after?" I asked him.

"Well, we can't release her until her mom is here to sign some more papers. Depending on how the surgery goes, she should be out of here in about two or three days."

"That's quick." I thought out loud.

"Yes it is." Dr. Luczak agreed, "Do you have any more questions or should I leave you two alone?"

"I don't have any more questions. Do you Gabi?" I said turning toward my girlfriend.

"Nope. I think we're set." Gabs smiled.

"All right. If you need me holler." He said and turned out the door. The second he turned down the hall toward the other patients my parents came in from the other side.

"You're here!" I ran up to Mom and hugged her tight. Then I repeated the same procedure to my dad. "Is Aunt Marti here?"

"No. I called her and told her to come next weekend because we were having family troubles." My dad said. I silently rejoiced in my mind.

"Oh. Good." I smiled.

"Thanks for being her Mr. and Mrs. Bolton." Gabi chimed in. "I really appreciate it." After the whole singing thing and the championships my parents really warmed up to Gabi. Now, they treat her like their own daughter.

"No problem Gabs." My dad walked over and sat on Gabi's bed. "We wouldn't let you be in this scary place by yourself." He winked at her. She laughed. As my dad and Gabi had their own conversation, I asked my mom if I could talk to her outside. I wanted to tell her about Gabriella's dad and why she's here in the first part. The truth. I took her hand and pulled her out the door and down the hall.

"Jesus Troy. What's going on?" she asked.

"Mom I have something to tell you."

"Is everything OK? What's going on baby?" she inquired. I could tell she was really concerned. I bet anyone could tell.

"Uhh...Gabi's dad had the same type of cancer that Dad does. He died too. That's why Gabi came out here to Albuquerque."

"Oh my gosh." my mom said and hugged me. "I had no idea. Does Dad know that Gabi knows?"

"No. That's not all."

"There's more? What else could you possibly spring on me?"

"Well...uh...hm...Gabi's actually here because she's been using cutting to deal with her pain since her dad died. This last time she cut too deeply and severed her tendon. That's why she's having surgery. I promised not to tell her, but I figured now its really serious. I think that she'll thank me for all of this later though." My mom just stood there with her mouth open staring at me.

"I cannot believe it. When did you find out?"

"Friday night. I wanted to tell you, but I just couldn't."

"I understand Troy. I think we should talk about this later since Gabi should be leaving any minute for surgery prep. I think she would want you to go with her until they make you leave."

"Sounds good to me." I was thankful to get out of that situation. I was at a loss of words for that whole conversation. I grabbed her hand and we walked back to Gabi's room.

It was a good thing we left when we did. Nurse Madeline was just about to wheel her out to prep when we got in the room.

"Troy! Where were you? I thought you weren't going to leave?" Oh no not this again.

"I had to talk to my mom. Sorry. You'll understand when you're done with the surgery." I turned to the nurse. "Can I go to pre-op with her?"

"Sure." Madeline said, "Only one person though. All you people can't come. We don't want a circus in there you know." There she goes again with her smart alec comments.

"All right. Lets go. See you guys. Are you gonna wait in the room down the hall?" I asked my parents.

"Yeah. We'll be right there waiting for you." my dad winked at me. I grabbed Gabi's good hand and we were wheeled off to pre-op.

A/N: I really wanted to write more, but I'm literally falling asleep on the keyboard. Review the story and I'll update. Have a nice nite.

This chapter is for the Riley Class of 2006. GO US! YAY! We made it. Our class graduates on Wed. May 31. I'm excited. Anyway- review!