Chapter 7: Why?
"Oh God," Taylor said when she saw Gabriella. She rushed over, and wrapped her arms around her friend. "You should have told us!" she said sternly.
"I didn't want to make a big deal about it," explained Gabriella.
"We're your friends, Gabi, this wouldn't have been 'making a big deal about it', it would have been stopping something that's wrong," said Bri. Everyone sat down on the floor or on chairs, and waited in silence for Troy to get back. Taylor had taken a seat next to Gabriella, and her arms were still around her.
"My parents said yes," Troy said as he walked into the room. Taylor moved over so he could sit next to his girlfriend.
"Yes what?" Gabriella asked him. Everyone noticed that her voice was quieter than usual and less confident too.
"Everyone's going
to stay here tonight if their parents say ok," explained Troy. He
turned to everyone else. "You guys should probably call your
parents soon."
"We already did," Bri replied.
Chad said, "We had a feeling that your parents would say yes, so we went ahead and called them."
Everyone moved downstairs, where they put in a movie to watch; completely forgetting about going swimming. The whole night, Troy kept a protective arm around Gabriella, who curled up next to him on the couch. Around midnight, the girls fell asleep, while the guys stayed up and talked. Gabriella's head was resting on Troy's lap.
"I don't get it," Jason said. "Why would any man do something this horrible to someone as sweet at Gabi? It just doesn't make sense."
"It doesn't make sense to any of us," Ryan said. Gabriella muttered something incoherent under her breath, and rolled over. Troy gently brushed a strand of hair out of her face.
"They better keep Ian as far away from me as possible, or I might kill him or something," Troy said.
"You'd better not, or else you'll land yourself in jail, and then Gabriella will be really pissed off, and not just at Ian," Chad said. Troy shrugged.
"Good point." The guys talked about sports and school for another hour, before they too went to sleep.
Troy woke up the next morning confused about why he was in the basement, and with something heavy covering him. In less than a second, the events from the evening before came rushing back to him. Gabriella was draped across him, with a blanket over the both of them. She had never put a sweatshirt back on, so he could clearly see the wounds on her back. Smiling slightly, he laid his arm across her back, and fell back asleep.
Anne and Jack had called Rosa the night before. She was deeply upset about what her fiancée had done to her daughter, but her flight wasn't until early the next morning, and the airport couldn't put her on a sooner one. When Anne and Jack explained this to Gabriella, she seemed upset too that her Mom couldn't make it right away, but knew that she'd be with her soon.
When Gabriella woke up, she was lying on top of Troy in her bikini top and his sweatpants. She also had a chiffon blanket wrapped around her, along with Troy's arm. Gabriella ran her fingers through his wavy hair, and began to kiss him lightly on the lips. She was startled when he began to kiss her back.
"Good morning," he mumbled when they finally broke apart.
"Good morning yourself," she replied. "How long have you been up?" Troy stopped to think.
"About thirty seconds before you started to do this," he replied before kissing her again. Troy was about to deepen the kiss, but he heard snickering. He looked over, and found Chad sitting up.
"I'm not even going to go there," he said to his best friend and his girlfriend. "You two need to take it down about fifty notches, and get a room!" Gabriella blushed, and buried her face into Troy's chest.
"How much of that did you see?" Troy asked, slightly embarrassed too.
"Everything after, 'Oh, Troy! I love you so much!' 'Oh, Gabi! I love you too!'" Chad said in a high-pitched sarcastic voice while bating his eyelashes. Taylor, of course, had been awake for a while too, and swatted Chad from where she was lying down. "Hey! No fair! I didn't know you were awake! Do you know how low that is attacking a guy while he thinks you're asleep?" Gabriella stiffened. Ian had attacked her while she was asleep, and nobody had been there to save her. Chad saw Gabriella's reaction, and immediately began apologizing. "Oh, Gabi, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean anything by it."
"It's okay," Gabriella said as she looked up, and wiped a stray tear from her cheek. "I'm glad I told you all."
"You should have told us earlier," Taylor said as she sat up.
Anxious to change the subject, Troy said, "Let's go and see what we have for breakfast." Taylor rolled her eyes.
"That's such a guy comment. 'Let's go get some food'!" she said, causing Gabriella to laugh. She looked at Jason, Kelsi, Ryan, Bri, Sharpay, and Zeke who were still asleep.
"Should we wake them?" she asked. Troy shook his head.
"We'll go and get some food and bring it down here. I'm sure that'll wake them up." Gabriella got up, and pulled Troy to his feet. Chad and Taylor stood up too. They went upstairs, and began digging around for something to eat. Finally satisfied with the limited food supply that they found, they dumped it all in the middle of the room in the basement, and began to eat.
"I hope you plan on sharing that," Sharpay said as she walked out of the bathroom. Troy shrugged.
"Depends on quickly you get over here. Looks like Chad's about to eat all of it," he replied. Sharpay sat down lightly next to Gabriella, and picked out a bagel from the bag.
"What time did you guys go to sleep?" she asked Chad and Troy.
"About 1 in the morning or so. Why? Did we keep you up?" Chad said between bites of his apple. Sharpay shook her head.
"No, I felt Zeke wrap his arm around me; I was only half awake, and didn't feel like looking at my watch."
Slowly, the rest of the gang woke up, and began to make a breakfast out of the random food supply that Troy, Gabriella, Taylor, and Chad had provided. The talked all morning, but soon had to leave. Gabriella was to stay at the Bolton's until her Mom came home. When they were finally alone, Troy pulled Gabriella close into a passionate kiss.
"I want you to remember that I've always been here for you, and I always will," he whispered to her as he pressed his forehead against hers.
"I know," she replied.
A/N: Short I know, and I'm sorry! The next chapter will be the last one. Alas, all good things must come to an end. . It's going to take place a few months later. I guess that's it. I feel horrible about skipping so much time, but there's not much to write about there. After this, I'm going to start a new Harry Potter one, so if you like Harry Potter, look for it in a few days. It doesn't have a title yet, but it'll be a drama…definitely! So, push the magical review button, and let me know what you think!
