A/N – I'm sick, so I'm not sure how much I can write of this story or when it'll be posted. If it's really long time from now, I'm sorry. Sneezes
Chapter 5
"Come here, Julie," Troy Bolton, former basketball star and the coach of the Lightning Bolts, called out.
"Can't you just call me Max?" her daughter asked as she made her way to the bar, behind which her father was standing. He only grinned at her request, before his face sobered. Max noticed that and asked,
"Dad, what's wrong?"
Troy looked into her brown eyes and smiled slightly. He was going to do this; he wasn't afraid of anything. He was just…scared. But he had to do this. She deserved it.
He took a deep breath and reached into his pocket. "I'm giving you your birthday present before the party starts," he explained as he pulled out just a tiny piece of paper, "I was going to give it to you for your fifteenth birthday but…"
The mystery was breathtaking as Troy opened her palm and put that piece of paper into it. She took a deep breath and read it.
"0-3-2-7-9-1?" Max asked, bewildered. She stared it for a moment, before asking, "What do I do with this?"
Troy chuckled at her facial expression. "It's the combination to the safe in my bedroom. The safe where I hold everything personal."
"You mean the tests and stuff I bring home from school?" Max asked.
"Yes, but there are other things in there. Things concerning your mother – pictures for example."
Max's facial expression changed in a split-second. When before that piece of paper had just been a piece of paper with numbers, then now… Now she looked at the paper like it had been made from gold.
"My party starts in thirty minutes," she said, distraught.
"Yeah, it does," Troy agreed.
"We've finished everything that needs to be done, right? Food, drinks, music, stuff like that."
"Yeah, all done," Troy said. "Now we have to wait until guests start to arrive."
Max nodded, still staring at the paper. "There are pictures of mom in there?"
"Mhmm," Troy answered, nodding. Suddenly Max's phone rang. She quickly picked it up.
"Oh, hey," she greeted the caller. "What? What do you mean, late?"
"Your work was supposed to start on the 1st of September, wasn't it?"
"…"
"Alright, but try to get here as soon as you can, okay?"
"Yeah, see you."
Max hung up and looked at her father, "Ms. Black," she answered and Troy nodded. He glanced at his watch "About 25 minutes to go – Do you have any ideas to spend the time?"
Max shrugged, before she smiled slightly, "I can tell you a sad story, if you want me to."
"Why a sad one?" Troy asked.
Max shrugged, "I liked it and it's not that sad at start. It's just the ending."
Troy shrugged, "Go ahead."
"Alright, but first you have to promise not to interrupt before I'm finished, okay?"
"Why?"
Max shrugged, "I was made to promise and it did good, because the questions got pretty much answered in the story later on."
"Fine, I promise."
Troy regretted that promise as he almost fell off the barstool, when his daughter started to tell him about Ella and Michael Colton. His face was full of disbelief when she described the summer after the year she had met Gabriella in such details. He almost fainted when she told him about how Michael found out about Ella's pregnancy [Max had wanted much more details the next morning and Gabriella had told her everything she wanted to know and then his hopes that either Sharpay or Ryan had told her the story were crushed.
Max told him that Ella had had leukemia and she had to leave town to find some match in her relatives. She told him that she had found one and it had been a long recovery. She told him that Ella had returned to the city she had lived in just to find her fiancée and her daughter gone. She told him about how she had looked for them, but soon given up.
Troy's heart was beating three times faster than normal and his breath was coming out in rapid intervals. Guilt kept washing over him and he thought he might cry.
"Max!"
Max stopped her story and looked towards the door where Bill stood with Karen and some of her classmates. She grinned and started to jump up when a hand stopped her. She turned around to face her dad.
"What's wrong?"
"Max, why didn't she tell him?" Was all that he got out, but Max didn't need the explanation. She had asked the same question from Gabriella the next day and she gave him the same answer she had given her.
"He was the perfect marrow match."
Then she jumped up and hurried to her friends, leaving Troy sit behind the bar, completely stunned.
"The perfect match," he repeated. If he had been the perfect match why had she left? Why hadn't she let him give her his bone marrow?
For a few minutes Troy wasn't able to think of the answer, but it came finally. There was always a chance that the donor could die on the operating table. Nowadays the chances were tiny, but fourteen years ago? Gabriella already thought she was going to die and if he had risked his life…
"DAMN!" Troy yelled. The kids in the room turned their heads to see Troy Bolton banging his head against the counter. After a few more hits, he stopped and hid his face into his hands. If he had always felt guilty about taking Julie and leaving, then now… it was unbearable.
Julie… Someone had to tell her that story, because the chances that she made it up were nonexistent. It couldn't have been Sharpay or Ryan, that's for sure. Julie knew too much details about well, everything and she also knew what had happened to Gabriella after she left.
There were two chances, either someone, who was very close to Gabriella after she started her new life, told her the story or it was…
He had to track her down. Not that he hadn't tried before, but then he had told himself that he didn't even want to find her, but now, now he did. He banged his head against the counter once again. How could things go so wrong. He loved her and yet he had left. What the bloody hell was he thinking?"
"Troy."
Troy jumped a good feet high on the table. He turned around to look at the face of concerned Sharpay.
"Are you alright?" she asked, "Max told me that you've gone crazy."
"Sharpay," he breathed out. She had told him that Gabriella was looking for her once. Maybe she knew…
"What?" Sharpay asked, confused.
"Do you know where Gabriella is?" he asked, hopeful look on his face.
The look of concern was wiped off Sharpay's face. Instead her face looked cold, "I haven't spoken to her after she moved. Remember, I told you she was looking for you and you…" Sharpay shook her head, "She was there when you told those things and I'd be surprised if she even continued to look for you. I couldn't bring myself to speak to you for weeks."
Troy threw his head back and groaned loudly, "I'm the biggest jerk in the world. I'm such a moron! I should have gone after her, note or no note!"
Sharpay didn't respond for a while, before she said, "You should forget her."
"I've never forgotten Gabriella," Troy answered, "And right now, I want to find her. I need to find her. I have to tell her that I know. I need to ask for forgiveness."
Sharpay shook her head, "You need to let go. She's well, unavailable."
"What?" Troy asked, his head snapping up, "You said you haven't spoken to her in years. How do you know she's taken? Who told you? Who is she with?"
"I haven't spoken to her and I don't know who she's with, but some years ago, I got a letter from her. Her career was doing great and well, she had gotten married."
"She's married," Troy said, his voice breaking. "She's married."
Sharpay waved to Ryan, her brother, who had entered.
"I helped Taylor and Chad with their baby. He's so adorable," Ryan said with a grin, before noticing their expressions. "What's wrong?" he asked.
Troy didn't respond. He was still ingesting the fact that Gabrielle, his Gabrielle, was married and probably had bunch of kids with his new husband. Wordlessly, he walked to the other side of the counter, which now was filled with Cokes and other drinks the kids could want and opened the locked cupboard.
"Troy…"
He didn't listen, he filled the glass with the white liquid and gulped it down.
"Alright, I think that I missed something," Ryan said, "What happened?"
"Gabriella," Sharpay said, "For some reason Troy wants to find her now."
Ryan seemed to have similar thoughts about the way the last conversation around Gabriella had ended as he scowled at Troy.
"Man, you're one of my best friends out here, but Gabriella," Ryan took a pause, "I honestly don't think you deserve her anymore."
"She told you why she left, didn't she?" Troy asked. When both Sharpay and Ryan went quiet, he nodded, "Why didn't you tell me? WHY?"
"She wanted to tell you," Ryan started, "So Sharpay called you and put you on the speaker and then you… You said those things about her and she ran out, crying. Sharpay went after her, while I hung up on you. You didn't let Sharpay say a thing in her defence. You didn't let her even explain!"
Sharpay took over, "I went after her and comforted her in the best ways I could… She stopped crying and on that moment, I think she stopped caring. She was just so determined in the end and she told me she was moving. Going out of state, away from Albuquerque, which was filled with bad memories for her."
"She made us promise not to tell you," Ryan said, glaring at the counter, "Because she was completely sure that you meant every word you said. We tried to tell her, but she didn't listen. The next time we heard about her was in that letter she sent to us years later."
"Troy, the two of us love you like another brother," Sharpay said, "But with the thing with Gabriella, you were a big jerk. She loved you. It was so damn oblivious, but when she left you were sure she ran away with another guy and was having his lovechild."
"If we had to take a side about you and her…" Ryan said, but left the sentence unfinished. On this moment, Troy hated himself more than he had ever hated anybody.
Still Sharpay moved next to him and hugged her. Troy hugged her back and a tear fell from his eye as he pulled away.
"I still need to find her. At least for Julie's sake. Both of them deserve to at least meet each other."
Sharpay smiled slightly and nodded, "If you think you can handle it, then go for it. Just don't get your expectations too high. She might not be that thrilled about seeing you again."
Troy looked at the opened bottle, but luckily Ryan got to it first. He quickly shoved it into the cupboard and locked it. Then he took the key and pocketed it.
"You don't want to mess up your daughter's party by getting yourself drunk, do you?"
Troy looked at Julie, who was chatting with her friends, while throwing a rather worried glance at Troy every now and then.
"You're right. But as soon as the party ends I'm going to ask her who told her the story about Ella and Michael and then I'll get myself wasted."
"Ella and Michael?"
"Yeah," Troy chuckled, "It went basically like this…"
He gave them a quick overview and when he ended Taylor and Chad, alongside with their one year old son, Jonathan, had joined them.
"So, who told it to her?" Sharpay asked, intrigued.
"No idea," Troy answered, "But who ever it was knew our life together pretty darn well."
"You don't think…" Taylor started. Gabriella had been her best friend in high school and a good two years after that. Sharpay had told her why she had left and she had understood, though keeping her mouth shut around Troy had taken some willpower.
"It could be," Troy answered, "I mean she might've wanted to meet her daughter, while keeping her distance from me. I wouldn't blame her."
The five adults near the bar all went quiet, as they all remembered Gabriella.
"Hello, Aunt Taylor."
The adults, all as one, turned around to face Max, who was looking them all concernedly.
Taylor smiled at the girl as she gave little Jonathan to Chad and reach out and gave Max a hug. "Happy fourteenth birthday party!"
"Fourteenth birthday party?" Max asked, with a sceptical look.
"Well, it's not your real birthday is it?" Taylor asked back.
"True," Max agreed, smiling. "So how's Jonathan?"
"He's going to be the best basketball player ever!" Chad said, throwing his offspring up a little. Taylor quickly took her son and held her close to herself, while giving her husband the evil eye. "Do not do that!"
Chad grinned at her, as he crouched down and messed up Max's hair, "So happy birthday… party?"
Max laughed as they hugged and after that she hugged Aunt Sharpay and Uncle Ryan. "I think I got to go back there," she said, gesturing to her friends, "By the way dad, your chance to shine will come in about ten minutes."
Then she ran away, leaving Troy stare at her. "Oh no."
"What?" Ryan and Sharpay asked together.
"That stupid promise I did…" Troy said, "She's going to make me sing something on the stage!"
For a few minutes his four friends looked at him, before smiles spread over their faces.
"This ought to be good," Chad said and Ryan nodded. "I haven't heard you sing for a good while."
"That's because I DO NOT sing," Troy said.
"Yeah, that's what Gaby and you said in high school," Sharpay pointed out, before gesturing at herself and Ryan, "And we've always sang and look what happened. We got kicked from the musical and you pretty much owned the talent show. You also beat us at the duet competition."
"Yeah, good times, good times," Ryan said with a grin. "I'll always have fond memories of Sharpay screaming in the pool, when Gaby was hired as the lifeguard."
"What about you dancing at the baseball pitch?"
"Yeah, that was hilarious," Chad answered, before Ryan reminded him that he did that too.
"Remember Prom night? Taylor asked, "And all that crap about who will be the prom queen? It was so…"
"Ingenious," Sharpay ended, "If anyone but her had beaten me, I would have gone on a killing spree."
"With those puffy sleeves of yours?" Ryan chocked out. "That had to be the best dress anyone has worn to prom night."
"I told you that those three maniacs ruined my real dress," Sharpay answered, folding her hands.
"After what you did to those cupcakes," Taylor said, shaking her head, "You could have had worse."
"She didn't even want to enter," Troy answered, shaking his head, "But Taylor and Kelsi managed to talk her into it."
"I knew it," Sharpay yelled, pointing at Taylor, "It was you!"
"Well, can you blame me for wanting to see a pretty face on the walls for once? After staring at your face for weeks?"
Troy grinned and Ryan laughed. The two women glared each other for a moment, before they started to laugh as well.
Troy smiled fondly on that memory and Taylor couldn't help but comment, "It feels good to be finally talk freely about her, doesn't it?"
Sharpay nodded, while Chad and Ryan gave Troy a look, before they shrugged together.
"What do you think she's doing with her life now?" Troy asked from his friends. Ryan shrugged again,
"Probably teaching something we couldn't even pronounce in some high level school, where only people with bigger brains than most peoples head can get into."
Sharpay grinned, "I'm with you on that. She could be the headmistress in a school full of small Einsteins and Einstenettes."
Taylor nodded, "Something like that or she's a doctor, who makes up medicines as she goes. Probably working for a medicine against cancer as we speak."
"Dad, come on," someone suddenly yelled. They all looked left where Max was waving frantically.
"She called! She's almost here, so get ready!" She then ran off, leaving Troy look after her again…
"Who's almost here?" he asked, bewildered. His four companions shrugged.
Max went to the guy, who was taking care of the music and told him what she needed and how she needed it. The guy, who Troy had hired, got it and then Max hurried back to the crowd. As she noticed Gabriella enter, she grinned wickedly and climbed onto the stage.
"Hey," she said into the microphone, just to make sure it worked. It did and so she continued, "Since this is a karaoke club, I've gotten somebody to sing the stage in for tonight. So, yeah, the two who were stupid enough to promise me a song, get yourself up here."
"I'm not going," Troy said to Chad, who was grinning at him.
"Oh, yes you are," he said, "Now go on, before I drag you up there."
Troy got up grudgingly and made his way through the crowd of teens in front of the stage. In the meanwhile Max was hurrying to get Gabriella.
She was standing just in front of the entrance when Max reached her.
"So are you ready?" she asked.
"You know, I just changed my mind," Gabriella replied, "I'm just going to do something else…"
"You can't do that," Max said simply, "A promise is a promise… Now come on."
For a tiny moment Gabriella seemed to weigh her options – To flee or not to flee?
"Alright," Gabrielle finally gave in, as she gave Max a hug, from which the girl quickly pulled away from.
"Ah, you're all wet," she exclaimed, taking in Gabriella's look. She was wearing a long, black raincoat with a hood and she was dripping wet.
"Yeah, why do I think I hugged you?" Gabriella asked and Max scoffed at her. Gabriella only grinned and gave her a small box, "Happy birthday."
"…party," Max ended quietly, but Gabriella didn't seem to hear. "Here," Max said, giving her the wireless microphone, "You can take off the coat and put it on the chair by the wall in the far end of the stage."
Gabriella took a deep breath and climbed onto the stage and went straight into the farthest point of the stage and started to take off her coat, thus not noticing how a man climbed onto the stage and faced the crowd.
Max nodded to the guy behind the computer-thingy. The music started and on the screen in front of Troy words appeared.
Gabriella just took off the coat when she heard the melody. It took her exactly two seconds to recognize the song and she chuckled softly into the microphone she was holding. "That's low, Max," she whispered quietly enough for nobody to hear.
Troy froze as the melody started and for a moment he just stood there, with no readable expression on his face. Then he smiled.
"Why did you choose that song?" Taylor asked from Max, who grinned in response.
"She told me it was the song that changed her life and besides, it was already made for two people, so it worked out." Max looked as her father looked weird and asked, "Has dad heard this song before?"
"You can say that," Taylor answered wryly.
And then the words started.
Troy took a deep breath and started to sing, "Living in my own world…"
Gabriella's heart stopped beating and she almost dropped the microphone. Her whole body tensed up and she couldn't breathe.
'I'm imagining it,' she told herself, 'I'm just making myself hear things because of the song.'
And yet, she didn't believe what she told herself.
In the crowd Ryan was looking at that girl on the stage carefully. She was still standing towards the crowd with her back and yet he thought he recognized her from somewhere.
"Did you see her tense up?" he asked from his sister who was filling her glass with Coke.
"Who?"
"Never mind," Ryan replied, looking at the girl carefully. Sharpay shrugged and drank her Coke.
His lines were over and Gabriella was still in state of shock, so she did the only thing she could think of. She sang back.
"I never believed in, what I couldn't see. I never opened my heart, to all the possibilities."
Time froze for Troy and four other adults in the room. For Gabrielle, the time had already frozen when she heard the male voice. Sharpay and Ryan were staring the girl harder than they had ever stared anyone.
Chad, who had thrown his son up, barely caught him and Taylor was too busy looking shocked to yell at him.
The couple on the stage was obvious to the melody as neither of them sang anymore.
Troy's mind was all over the place. It couldn't be. It wasn't possible. He so wanted for it to be her. What would he do? What would she say? How would she react?
Slowly both of them turned around on their spots.
"Oh god…" Gabriella spoke out as she saw Troy. Just a second later, the microphone from her hands was dropped. Then another microphone hit the ground, as Troy whispered, "Gaby..."
In the crowd, Sharpay Evans dropped her glass with a cling as she stared the couple on the stage in disbelief. Ryan was just plainly gaping alongside with Chad. Taylor kept patting her son, obvious to the fact that her son had moved a bit and she was patting her own knee.
Nobody else existed for Troy but the woman who was standing in front of him. He had promised to find her and here she was, just a few metres away. Almost in his reach. "Gaby," he breathed out again, this time louder.
Gabriella couldn't take her eyes off Troy. It was definitely him and he was looking at her. Her breathing was getting louder and her knees felt weak. She had dreamt of this happening, but usually it involved Troy yelling at her for leaving. Why wasn't he saying anything?
'Why isn't she saying anything?' Troy thought. She must hate me for what I did, for what I said. He wanted to move towards her, but his legs were rooted to the spot.
"What's going on?" Max whispered to her aunt Taylor, "Do they know each other?"
"Well, kind of," Taylor answered, not taking her eyes away the stage, but stopping the patting movement, "I can't believe it's Gabriella."
"You know her too?"
Taylor nodded in distraught, "She used to be my best friend."
Max was even more confused than before, but movement on the stage caught her eyes.
Gabriella was standing, frozen, as Troy started to move towards her. Here it comes, she though. She mentally prepared herself for the yelling.
"Gabriella," Troy said, standing barely a foot away from her.
"Troy," Gabriella answered, hating how vulnerable her voice sounded with him so close to her. She wanted to be tough, she wanted not to care about what he was going to tell her and yet, she'd never feel so weak in a long time. "Please let me explain."
"I don't need your explanation," he answered, his voice hoarse. Sharpay was this close to run up there and hit Troy with something big and heavy if he hurt her again, but well, she lost that wanting in a few seconds.
Before Gabrielle could say anything else, Troy's lips were on hers. For a split-second she wanted to pull away; to find out why he was doing this, why wasn't he doing what he was supposed to do? But she really didn't want to pull away, not for the world. All the feelings for Troy; feelings she had tried so hard to suppress, were surfacing and she didn't ever try to fight them.
In the crowd, five people were more than stunned. After a wolf whistle from a boy in the crowd, Taylor asked, "Should we break them up?"
Sharpay looked at her sharply, "Try and I'll murder you."
Another wolf whistle.
"Here, I had an idea," Sharpay said, "Ryan take this end of this and I'll take that end."
The siblings made their way onto the stage and stood in either ends of the stage a humongous tablecloth spread out between them. It didn't take long for the weird teenagers to move to the sides of the stage, so soon enough Chad and Taylor both took another spare tablecloth and gave one end to either Sharpay or Ryan and stood in the two other points of the stage, thus shielding the couple completely.
"What's going on?" Max finally managed to ask, previously being too stunned to speak.
Sharpay looked onto the other way and Ryan peeked over the tablecloth, before answering, "You might not want to know."
"I want to know what they are doing," Max demanded and Ryan fidgeted a bit, before starting, feeling really uncomfortable, "Well you see, they're doing a thing which involves putting your lips together and well…"
"I KNOW WHAT KISSING IS," Max yelled out, "I want to know why the two of them are doing that!"
"Well, you see…" Ryan started, "Aunt Sharpay knows about that."
Sharpay looked quickly away from what was happening inside of those tablecloths and answered, "I'm sorry, I'm too busy grasping the fact that Troy and Gabriella are in there… together… kissing… each other… When I finally do, I might be able to string together a thought or two."
"Yeah…agreed on that…" Taylor said distraughtly.
"You know Gabriella?" Max asked from Ryan, who was the only one not looking cheesy.
"Well of course we knew her. Ever since she came to the school, she was the brain of East High."
"East High?" Max asked, "She went to the same school with you and dad?"
"Uh-uh," Ryan said, "The Brains meets the Muscle, we said when the two of them hooked up. They were the two most unlikely persons to hook-up and then Blam in our faces."
"Ryan," Sharpay admonished, "You have the emotional range of a teaspoon, honestly."
"Wait Gabriella dated dad?"
"Yeah, never understood why she did something stupid like that," Ryan agreed.
"You're just jealous, because you had a crush on her," Sharpay snapped.
"You had a crush on Gabriella?"
Ryan gave Sharpay the evil eye, before replying to Max, "My sister here is trying to play the blame game, because she herself had the biggest crush on Troy, but then again Gabriella was always a whole block ahead of her. You should've seen one of their showdowns."
"Would the two of you zip it," Taylor asked, "You're interrupting my gushing over these two."
"Still haven't broken it off?" Ryan asked, peeking over the tablecloth again, "Ugh…"
"Yeah, my words exactly," Ryan heard from the corner diagonally opposed to his. "I swear, seeing my ex teammate and best friend smooch like that with an ex friend…"
"Wait, you were also friends with Gabriella?" Max asked, moving to the side where Chad was holding up a corner of the tablecloth. "I mean you told me that you were only friends with the cool guys and well you just said that Gabriella represented brains, so how's that cool?"
Chad scoffed at her, "Hey, she was so not not-cool. She was brilliant in high school. Taylor and she managed to delay a whole basketball game. They were two the most brilliant girls in the school. Besides she wasn't that bad in basketball and she did the best gingerbread men in town."
"What's going on?" Max asked, more confused than ever. "I mean how come you all seem to know her, but yet you had no idea she lives in L.A?"
Chad looked at his son, while Ryan found sudden interest in his shoes. The two women were still gazing smilingly into the tablecloths.
"Don't they need to breathe?" Ryan asked, rolling his eyes. "I still don't think Troy deserves her after what he said, but then again fate doesn't seem to agree. Well, who am I to argue with fate, right?"
This seemed to bring some sense of reality into Gabriella and Troy, who stopped and started to pull away slowly. Taylor and Sharpay were giving Ryan the evilest eyes in the world.
Their breathing was short and shallow and they were both feeling really hot. Their eyes locked and for a while neither of them spoke.
Troy did the first move, as he gently said, "Forgive me, please."
Gabriella, who had been gazing at the floor, looked up sharply, "What? What should I forgive you for? It's me who should be asking for forgiveness right now!"
Outside of the tablecloths, everybody was holding their breath, including the kids, who were now trying to listen in what was happening. The four adults in the corners of the cloths, were staring intensely.
"No, it's me," Troy repeated, "Please, I'm sorry for running away. I'm sorry for those horrible things I said to you and I'm sorry for not trying harder to find you. I'm sorry for hiding myself and Julie and I'm sorry…"
He didn't get farther, because Gabriella's finger was on his lips. She shook her head and some tears were in her eyes,
"It's my fault, Troy. I need to tell you why I left you. I want to tell you."
"There's no need," Troy replied, "I know. A rather talkative girl told me a story about Ella and Michael."
Gabrielle chuckled slightly, "She told you then?"
Troy nodded, his forehead touching hers, "You could've told me, I would've at least tried to understand and I would never had left. I swear, Gabby, I'd have tried."
She nodded; her forehead still against his as Troy's hand came up to her cheek to wipe away a stray tear. As he did so, he noticed something. Gently and slowly, in a way that made Gabrielle gasp, his hand slid from her cheek to her collarbone and then few more inches lower until he gently tugged at the silver chain he could see. Out came a golden ring with an emerald on it.
They both looked at the ring in silence for a few moments. "You kept it?" Troy finally asked. Gabriella smiled slightly and nodded again.
The engagement ring reminded Troy something and he gently let his hand travel down to her hand where it caressed her ring finger. Her empty ring finger.
He sighed out in relief and Gabriella knew why. She explained, "Orlando died… two years ago… heart failure."
Troy looked up at her, feeling just a slightly bit hurt that she had married to anyone other than him, but then again… the phrase Blonde Screecher surfaced and he nodded.
Gabriella finally looked around to see her old friends from High School look at her with slight smiles on their faces. She felt more tears coming up and she shook her head.
"I don't belong here anymore," she said quietly, trying to step away.
"Oh yes, yes you do," Troy answered, reaching out and taking her hand to stop her from moving away from him. He put her hand on his chest, "You've always belonged here."
Gabriella felt his heart beat against her palm as he continued, "You've always belonged with me, with Julie."
Julie. The realization hit Gabriella like a ton of bricks. "Oh god… Max… Julie Maxine…" She felt close to faint for the third time that night. "Troy…she's ours… she's…"
"Out here and looking a bit… uh…" Sharpay quietly said. Troy and Gabriella looked at her.
"Let her in, won't you?" Troy snapped.
"Jeez, try to do anything nice for them…"
"He didn't mean it like that," Gabriella said, wiping her eyes into her sleeves, "Just…"
"Yeah, I get it," Sharpay, "One short person coming in."
Max had stood out there for the whole time, tying the loose ends together as she heard more and more. It didn't take long for her to put the puzzle together and for the rest of the time, she stood there, paralyzed.
"One short person coming in," Sharpay said, looking down at her, "Max, your dad needs to talk to you about…something."
She climbed in, while most of her guests started to fling questions at Sharpay, who just scoffed at them before saying, "You know, the party got just a bit more private… So scatter! The party will be rescheduled to happen in a water park or our country club or what ever weird places the kids go nowadays. Just go away for now!"
A few minutes later, the room was pretty much empty, other than Bill and a couple of more close friends.
"Please, go for now. This is something that they need to sort out," Taylor said and luckily the guests did as asked. Bill, before he left, asked,
"Max, are you alright?"
"Fine," the girl replied, "I think… I'll call you later…"
Bill bit his lip but followed Karen and Rose out onto the streets.
"Fine, I think. I'll call you," Max said weakly looking at her dad, whose hand was entwined with Gabriella's and both of them were eyeing her carefully.
Suddenly her aunts and uncles dropped the tablecloths.
"Listen, we'll go and sit by the bar," Sharpay said, "Give you some privacy."
The three of them nodded uncertainly and the four adults changed a glance before trailing to the bar, with a sleeping Jonathan in Chad's arms.
Gabriella was looking Max with a completely different look. She was her daughter. Her one and only daughter. Their daughter. Gabriella looked at Troy, who gave her somewhat encouraging smile and squeezed her hand in a comforting manner.
"Max…" Gabriella started, her voice breaking, "I…" that's how much she said before she realized – she had no idea what to say. Next to her, Troy was having a very similar situation."Well," Troy said, "You see…"
He fell quiet and looked at Gabriella, who was thinking of things to say. Finally she started, "Remember I told you that story, about Ella and Michael?"
Max nodded wordlessly. She knew exactly what was going on, she just didn't know how to feel about it. Ten minutes ago it had been she, her dad and her good friend. An adult but a friend nonetheless and now it was she, her dad and her… mom?"
"Well it was fairly obvious that I was Ella in that story," Gabriella continued, biting her lip, "and well…"
"I was Michael," Troy took over quietly, "Everything you told me before the party really happened. Almost exactly as you said it did."
They didn't know where to continue, but they didn't need to.
"Yeah, I put that one together a while ago," Max said, looking intensely at something in the left, as not daring to look at the two of them, "And well, if I got this correctly and I think I did, then..." she looked slowly up and moved her eyes over Troy and onto Gabriella until their eyes locked, "…my mum."
Whatever defences Gabriella had put up to defend herself from the pain, which thinking about her family used to cause, came crumbling down as the word escape Max lips. She had wanted that moment for so long and all she could do right now was to give her a small smile.
XxXxXxXxXx
A/N – Oh yeah, I'm done – finally! You will not believe what happened to me! I went with my mum to get myself some medicines when bang; our car was pulled to the side by a police car. We almost got a ticket, because I didn't have my seatbelt fastened – How dumb am I, huh? Now we have to go to a meeting on Thursday to listen about car safety or we have to pay a ticket.
Here we come boring police lecture!
Anyways about the story, how did you like Troy/ Gabriella reuniting. I wanted to make it something special, not like this – Gabriella entered the door and a man looked at her. They recognized each other and stormed into each others arms and started to make out in front of the door! WOHOO!
About one, maybe two more chapters to go. Wish me luck and good health… I need it for the lecture. By the way that was the first time I've actually been close to have a ticket. It was also the first time I got to sit in a police car – Good for me.
How come I have more alerts than reviews? I need to feed myself! How happy would you be if after almost four days of hard work, you get a payment of 19 bucks?
Sorry for the long chappie and author note!