A/N: Hello wonderful readers! I'm really trying to update faster but again, I can only type so fast! And my last update was about five days ago... which I think isn't that bad. But that's just me. Anyway, thanks for reading and reviewing! Luv ya guys!
lol925: Yeah, I feel bad for Gabriella and Ryan too! Don't worry, things will go right... eventually... I hope.
Vanessa Turner: I think so too! And thanks for reviewing! Here's an update for ya!
megan: Here's an update! But don't worry, everything will turn out fine. I hope.
Anyway, thanks again for reviewing! Here's chapter 15!
This Is War
Chapter 15: Undying Love
"I'm going to Albuquerque."
"What?" Ryan exclaimed.
"Are you deaf? I said I'm going to Albuquerque." Gabriella repeated herself.
"But… that's… you're… why?" Ryan stuttered on the other end of the line.
"Look, I don't have time to explain, I'll tell you some other day, if I have time. But right now, I have to find a substitute teacher to replace me while I'm gone and I have to get home to Troy, Zeke, and Jason to tell them something. All right? Bye. I love y- I mean… bye." Gabriella said as she flipped her phone closed.
Ryan heard Gabriella flip her phone close.
"Bye." He whispered to the phone. "I love you too." Ryan said as he flipped his phone close. He sighed and started thinking for a while. He then stood up and went to the girls' bedrooms.
"Girls?"
"Yeah dad?" The girls answered.
"I'm going over to Gabriella's house. I'm leaving you at the Danforth's. Come get dressed."
"Why?" Rachelle asked.
"Because I need to do something important, now come on and get ready."
The girls sighed reluctantly but they gave in. They changed their clothes and a few minutes later, they were ready to go.
"Dad, we're ready!"
"All right, get in the car. Let me get my keys!" Ryan shouted to the girls while they got downstairs and got in the car.
"But dad, why are you going to go to Gabriella's house?" Roxanne asked.
"Because I need to straighten things out with her."
"But I thought she already likes you." Rachelle asked.
"Well, we… we… kinda… got into this fight. And now, she hates my guts." Ryan explained to his girls.
"Ooh, daddy's in trouble." Roxanne teased.
"I'm not in trouble." Ryan said as he started driving. The girls looked at him with doubt. "Okay, maybe I am in trouble." For now. He added as an afterthought.
After a few minutes of driving, they arrived at the Danforth's house. Ryan released the girls from their seatbelts and held their hands as they walked to the door. Ryan rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer. After a few seconds, little Devon answered the door.
"Hello Mr. Ryan! Hi Rachelle! Hi Roxanne!" Devon greeted.
"Hey Devon!" The girls greeted back.
"Devon, is your mommy or daddy home?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah! I'll go get them!" Devon said as he took one of his hands and leads him inside.
"Mom! Dad! Mr. Ryan is here!" Devon said, a few moments later, Taylor and Chad came racing down the stairs.
"Hey Ry!" Taylor greeted. "Hi girls!"
"Hey man, what's up?" Chad said as he did the one-armed hug with Ryan.
"I was just going to ask if you could look after the girls for a while, while I go to Gabriella's house." Ryan asked.
"Why are you going to Gabriella's house?" Chad asked.
"I kinda need to straighten things out with her." Ryan explained.
"You got into a fight?"
"…Well… kinda." Ryan said. "So can you do it?"
"Of course we'll do it! Why not!" Taylor said.
"I'm coming with you. Just incase there's some blood involved." Chad joked around as he went to the closet to get his coat.
"I owe you guys big time." Ryan said as he led Chad to his car and drove off in the direction of Gabriella's house.
"Ryan? What are you doing here?" Jason asked as Ryan and Chad got out of the car.
"Are you guys here to help Gabriella move her stuff?" Troy asked.
"Oh no, it's worse than I thought." Ryan said.
"What's worse than you thought?" Zeke asked him.
"Gabriella's hatred for me." Ryan answered.
"Why does she hate you?" Jason asked.
As Ryan was about to tell them about what happened on New Year, a car pulled up into the drive way. A woman with dark curls came out of the car and came straight to the boys.
Oh Lord. Ryan thought as he took a deep breath as Gabriella came closer.
"Gabriella I-" He started, but Gabriella cut him off.
"What are you doing here?" Gabriella asked rather sternly.
"Listen, I just wanna explain! I've been trying to tell you something but you just won't listen!" Ryan said. The rest of the guys were dead silent. They have never seen Gabriella mad at anybody like this before. Especially with Ryan.
Gabriella sighed inwardly. "Okay. If I have time at the end of the day today, I'll sit down and talk with you and listen to what you have to say."
"Thank you!" Ryan said as he came in to hug her but Gabriella held her hands out in front of her and pushed him away.
"But… don't expect me to just forgive you just like that. You've changed Ryan. You've changed and I still have to get used to it." Gabriella said as Ryan's smile faded and was replaced with a small frown.
Gabriella went inside followed by the boys. The guys gave Ryan reassuring looks and pats on the back, saying that it'll be all right, and she'll come around. What if she doesn't? Ryan asked himself. Ryan sighed and walked to his car and got in. He would wait for Gabriella in his car. He certainly didn't want to go inside because of the awkwardness and he certainly didn't want to help her pack.
"Okay guys, you can start at the basement. Just bring the boxes up and I'll take a look at them and sort them out." Gabriella said, turning to the front door, opening it to get the mail. But before she could step out, the guys began to talk.
"Gabby, why are you and Ryan fighting?" Troy asked.
"Yeah, I've never seen you guys like this before. And I don't like it." Zeke said.
"What did Ryan do to you? Ryan isn't a bad person." Jason said.
Gabriella turned to all of them with tears forming in her eyes. Every time she thought about it, it depresses her. "I'd really rather not talk about it." Gabriella said then stepped out of the house to get the mail.
A few minutes later, Gabriella came back from getting the mail. The guys have successfully taken up one HUGE box from the basement and they're down there to get more.
She continued looking at her mail to see if there was anything interesting.
"Bill… bill… bill… bill… advertisement… advertisement… letter from-" Gabriella said, as she took a white envelope with no return address. The handwriting looked extremely familiar.
Gabriella quickly tore the envelope open and read the note.
Gabby,
Please protect the girls. They need you right now. Ryan's too clueless, and the girls are too little to figure out what's going on. All I'm saying is, Leslie's doing something evil. You better watch out.
From,
A friend
Gabriella immediately got worried. It was the same person that sent her the package. She still doesn't know who keeps sending here these messages.
She put the letter back in the envelope and hid it with all the other mail that she got. She put the stack of mail on the coffee table. She then turned to the kitchen to get something to drink for the boys.
When Gabriella was in the kitchen, the boys got out of the basement carrying yet another HUGE box.
"What does Gabriella have in here?" Troy asked as he opened the box. The whole thing was full of books, books, and more books.
"No wonder she's so smart." Zeke said.
"And strong since she probably hauled all of this when she moved." Jason said.
"I need a break, I think my arms are gonna fall off." Chad said as he took a seat on Gabriella's couch and put his feet up on the table. Jason, Troy, and Zeke did the same thing. Soon, they spotted the stack of mail on the coffee table. Troy snatched it and took a look at it. All he saw were bills until he got to the letter addressed to Gabriella but had no return address. He saw that it was opened so he took it out and read it.
After reading it for quite some time, he put it back in the envelope and secretly smiled to himself.
Hopefully she read it and took my advice. I don't want Leslie to hurt the girls. He thought just as Gabriella went in to check on them.
"Guys, I'm making lemonade. Do you guys want anything else?" Gabriella asked.
"No, I think we're good." Zeke answered for the group. Everybody agreed.
"Okay. You guys look like you've been working all day, which boxes did you guys move?"
"Your books." Chad answered.
"Oh, you didn't have to move those books! I've already read all of them so it wouldn't make sense to take it with me to Albuquerque.
The guys groaned. "So you mean, we have to take those two HUMUNGOUS boxes downstairs again?" Jason asked. Gabriella giggled. "No, I'm just teasing you guys. You can just leave it here. I know how heavy they are." Gabriella said. The guys sighed a sigh of relief.
"The lemonade will be ready in a few minutes. So, if you guys want to take a break, they'll be right here in the kitchen." She said.
After about two hours of box moving, the guys finally finished and now they're on their lemonade break.
Gabriella went to the garage and signaled to Ryan that he can come in now. Ryan sighed, thinking of the right words to tell Gabriella. He then got out of his car and went inside Gabriella's house. He sat on the dining table right across from Gabriella.
"Okay, I'm all ears." Gabriella said.
"Okay, first of all, I don't like Leslie, not in that way, or in any other way. Second, she set me up. When I was setting up dinner for the New Year's Eve party, she set up the drinks. She put drugs in one drink and gave that drink to me. I drank it and my head started to hurt really badly. I went upstairs to my bedroom to take a rest for a while and I fell asleep. When I was asleep, she went into my room, took her own clothes off, including mine, got into bed in me and slept there for the night. I swear to God I didn't do anything with her." Ryan said, all in one breath.
"Okay." Gabriella said.
"Okay? S-so, you forgive me now?" Ryan asked hopefully.
"No, I didn't say that. I said 'okay'. Which means 'okay, you told me your story'. Now what?" Gabriella said.
"So, do you forgive me?" Ryan asked.
Gabriella sighed and looked right at him. "Ryan, I don't know if I should believe you or not. I don't know if you just made that story up. I have no proof. If I have proof, then that's a whole other story. But, words can't change everything." Gabriella said. "I'm sorry."
Ryan sighed. "Okay. When are you leaving for Albuquerque?"
"Early February, most likely."
"You gonna move there for good?"
"No. I'm coming back. I'm just gonna help my mom recover from her surgery and stuff then I'm coming home."
"How long do you think that's gonna take?"
"I don't know. But I'm staying for as long as it takes." Gabriella said. She saw tears form in Ryan's eyes. Maybe he is telling the truth. She thought.
By this time, the tears fell from Ryan's eyes. Then he said something inaudible.
"Excuse me?" Gabriella asked.
"I said 'I love you'." He repeated himself. "I just want you to know that before you left. I've loved you since I first met you. You can never be replaced in my heart. I don't care if you believe me or not. I don't care if you marry someone else. I will never stop loving you." Ryan said. Then he got out of his seat, came over to Gabriella and kissed her smack-dab on the lips. The shocking part was, Gabriella didn't care. She didn't stop him. She took it all in and accepted the fact that Ryan loves her.
As they pulled away, both Ryan and Gabriella's eyes were full to the brim with tears. "Goodbye Gabby. I love you." He said before he zipped his coat up and went back to his car.
Gabriella went to her window and watched Ryan start his car.
"Ryan wait!" Gabriella shouted. Ryan got out of the driveway and drove to the Danforths' house to pick the girls up.
"I love you too." Gabriella whispered to herself.
By the kitchen's doorway, the guys have witnessed everything. From Ryan's explanation, to the kiss, to Gabriella admitting that she loves him. They all turned to Troy.
"What?" Troy asked.
"Dude…" Jason started.
"Your girlfriend…" Zeke continued.
"Is a friggin'…" Chad continued.
"Slut." All three of them said at the same time. Troy sighed. "I know."
"So why don't you break up with her?" Chad asked.
"Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea what she could do to me? I might not wake up one day because she killed me in my sleep!" Troy exclaimed.
"Good point." Jason said.
Meanwhile, at the Danforth resident, Rachelle and Roxanne are talking to Leslie over the phone.
"Okay girls. Here's the plan. At early February, I'll have someone pick you up from school and take you to the same place you guys went at New Year's. Okay? Ryan would never know it and more importantly, you'll be with me! How does that sound?"
"It sounds great!" Rachelle said.
"And smart because Ms. M won't be here early February, so the sub won't know who our dad is!"
"Exactly!" Leslie said. "So you guys in?"
The girls looked at each other for a while. "We're in!"
So what do you guys think? What do you think will happen? Oooh, I'm curious too! LOL but I already know what's going to happen since I am the author and all... well, now go and read and review! I know the email alerts aren't working right now. I know this because I saw some of the story's I have alerts on, updated, and I don't have the email alert. So I forgive you if you don't review right away. But I won't forgive you if you review! LOL Kidding! But, please review! Thanks! And there's more drama to come! So get your tissues ready!
Oh yeah! I'm planning on writing my first oneshot. It's based on one of my fantasies with Mr. Sexy Lucas (All of my fantasies are PG13 so no need to worry). I was wondering if you guys think I should make it a Lushley or a Lunessa. What do you guys think? Oh, and which person do you guys think should be the main character? The guy or the girl? Some input would be appreciated! I'll be taking it from the first five reviews (if I make it to five. If not, I'll choose on my own). So watch out for that!