Need You More Than Ever
Hiya guys, sorry that it has taken so long to update this again, but I've been completely swamped with more schoolwork, because I have exams coming up soon. Anyway, here's chapter 11, and hopefully Need You More Than Ever should be finished sometime in the next week as there's only about 4 chapters left and two of those are already written. So please read and review.
Chapter 11Troy slowly sunk down to his knees beside Gabriella and placed one hand on her back, soothingly rubbing it to show that he was there for her, even though he was still shaking and was completely speechless.
Gently, he tried to pry the sobbing girl off of her mother's lifeless form. Gabriella's head whipped up and she turned to glare at Troy, "Get off of me! Just leave me alone, she hasn't left me, she promised, she promised that she would never leave me," she howled, as the rest of the girls wept with her and the guys tried desperately, and unsuccessfully, to wipe away their own tears.
Gabriella suddenly released her mother and flew into Troy's waiting arms, pushing him backwards, so that he was lying on the floor, holding his sobbing girlfriend tightly to him, as he cried tears of his own, not for the woman that Ms. Montez had become, but for the woman that she was before she started drinking. The woman that would always make them brownies when they were all at the Montez household. The woman that would invite the whole gang to stay overnight in a heartbeat, and then would put up with their loud talking into the very early hours of the morning. But most of all, the woman that was Gabriella's last living relative, the one who had been strong and stuck by her for years, up until a few months ago.
Tenderly, Troy lifted Gabriella into his arms and she wrapped her legs tightly around his waist as he carried her from the room that held both horrible memories and amazing memories at the same time, and down the stairs. The gang all took one last look at the woman who had been so kind, yet had turned so malicious and followed Troy down the stairs and into the front room.
Jason, who was the last one in the room, gently took the sheet from Gabriella's bed and covered over the still form, before looking at her one last time and walking out of the room, closing the door softly behind him.
Once they were in the front room, the gang all found a space and sat down, each one just staring into space, trying to contemplate what had just happened, and listening to Gabriella's sobs, as she sat on Troy's lap, her legs still wrapped firmly around his waist and her arms around his neck, her head buried deeply into the crook of his neck and his arms wrapped tightly around her tiny waist, as if he was never going to let her go.
Slowly, Taylor made her way over to the entwined couple and sat down next to Troy, causing him to look up at her as she gave a small, sad smile, which he returned and she gently started to rub Gabriella's lower back in comforting circles.
Sharpay and Kelsi looked at each other, before imitating Taylor's actions, Sharpay sat on the other side of Troy, with her hand soothingly resting on Gabriella's shoulder and Kelsi sitting in front of the couple on the floor, taking over from Taylor in calming the devastated Gabriella slightly, as she started to hiccup through her sobs, her cries intensifying.
Soon enough, the guys also navigated their way over to the group sat on the couch and sat down. The group all clung together, desperately comforting each other, whilst trying to get comfort themselves.
As dusk was setting in, Troy looked down, noticing Gabriella was sleeping peacefully and finally decided that they had to do something.
"Guys, come one guys, wake up," he whispered, his voice still incredibly hoarse, as he tried to wake up the rest of the gang, but leave Gabriella sleeping, figuring that to wake her up after the day that they had all had would be an dreadful thing to do.
One by one, the rest of the gang started waking up, each looking at Troy with big, round, scared eyes, obviously expecting him to be the leader and tell them what to do.
Troy sighed and looked back down to Gabriella, before his eyes found Ryan's and silently begged him to take charge.
Ryan nodded slightly, understanding what Troy wanted him to do. After Troy had figured out that Ryan wasn't going to take Gabriella away from him, the two had become increasingly close, and Ryan was now one of Troy's 'brothers', along with Chad.
Ryan took a deep breath, glancing over all of his friends, their eyes red and puffy from crying, before starting, "Okay guys," everyone jumped at the sound of his voice and Ryan winced slightly. "Shar, Zeke," the two looked at him, giving him their undivided attention, "I want you to call the cops and the paramedics, explain everything that happened, and get them here pronto, we've waited too long already to call them."
The two nodded and Sharpay looked to her brother, "Why do we need the paramedics?" She asked, her face scrunching up in confusion.
Ryan smiled softly at her, "Because Shar, we may all be trying to fool each other that we're all fine, but we're not, we're all still shaking badly and unless you've forgotten, Gabriella has a bullet hole in her foot, and G-d knows what else wrong with her." Troy and Chad both winced at Ryan's words, each feeling guilty for allowing Gabriella's pain to get that far and with the fact that they had not protected their girlfriend, or sister, respectively.
"How could I forget that," Sharpay whispered as she looked at her brother one last time, before meekly turning and walking out of the room and into the kitchen, Zeke giving the gang a minute smile before following his girlfriend, knowing that she would not be able to get through the phone call without breaking down.
Ryan then turned his attention to those left in the room. "Chad, Taylor, Kelsi, Jason," their heads all snapped up to look at him, "I want you to call all of our parents, they're going to be worried and will want to know what the hell has been going on tonight."
The others all nodded, before hurrying out of the room, each shuddering as they passed by the bottom of the stairs.
"Thanks man," Troy murmured, burying his head in Gabriella's hair and breathing in deeply.
"No problem Troy, I'm just glad that we got here in enough time to save her, G-d knows what would have happened if Chad hadn't managed to stop her wrists bleeding, or if her mother had come home to only Gabriella in the house," Ryan stated softly, gently placing a hand on the back of Gabriella's head, looking at her with brotherly love written all over his features.
Troy looked up at Ryan, the tears threatening to fall from his eyes again, "Don't you see Ry? We didn't get here in time, if we had gotten here in time, Ella would never have had to resort to slitting her wrists," he shuddered as he thought about the scene in the bathroom earlier, "If we'd gotten here on time, or paid any attention to her in the past six weeks, none of this would have had to happen in the first place and she may still have her mother around who was sweet and nice to her. If we'd really been here for her, we would've known that her dad had died and we would have tried to help her and her Mom, before Ms. Montez resorted to this," he waved his hand all over Gabriella's cuts and bruises, the tears now flowing freely down his face.
Ryan's face softened as he looked at his newly found best friend, "Troy, you can't blame yourself, as much as any of us may want to blame ourselves, we can't. Gabriella hid this from all of us she was just to damn good about it Troy, there was no way that any of us could have known what was going on. It was not your fault," Ryan finished firmly with a slight shake of the head.
"Then why do I feel like I let her down so badly?" Troy asked, looking disgusted with himself.
Ryan opened his mouth to talk again. "You didn't let me down, you could never let me down," Gabriella muttered, looking directly into Troy's eye and gently taking his face in her hand and forcing him to look at her again when he tried to look away. "You protected me, you're always there to protect me when I need you, if I hadn't pushed you away this time, you would have never left my side, like I said, you're always there for me," Gabriella finished softly, a small smile gracing her features, as she softly leant her forehead against Troy's.
Ryan smiled softly at the pair, unnoticed by them and silently left the room to find the rest of the gang, closing the door quietly behind him and pulling Sharpay and Zeke into the dining room where the others were waiting.
"So?" he questioned.
"The police and the paramedics are on their way double speed," Zeke said quietly, eyeing up each of his friends in turn and noticing how each and every one of them looked completely shattered, which he didn't blame them for, he felt like he could go to sleep right where he was standing, it had been a draining day for all of those involved.
Ryan nodded before turning to the other four, "What about our parents?"
"They're all on their way here," Chad started, finally finding his voice.
"They've got no idea what's going on though, it didn't feel right to tell them over the phone," Jason finished for him as the girls nodded in agreement.
"Okay then," Ryan murmured, taking a seat beside Kelsi at the table and offering her a small smile, before putting his head in his hands and rubbing his eyes.
"Ry," Sharpay started quietly, and Ryan looked up at her, smiling gently for her to continue, "why did you just keep me and Zeke from the front room?"
Everyone turned to look at Ryan as the small smile dropped off of his face once again, "Gabriella's just woken up," immediately everyone's faces lit up, "but she caught the end of Troy and me arguing over whether what happened was his fault, or whether or not he could have prevented it."
The gang's mouths all dropped in shock.
"But there was nothing he could have done! If anything, Troy's always been there for her!" Kelsi said loudly, the shock evident in her voice.
"I know that, you know that, but the only one that can convince Troy of that is Gabster, Kels, so I think that we need to leave them alone for a little bit," Ryan smiled softly as the rest all nodded in agreement and settled in a comfortable silence around the table.
"I didn't protect you this time though Ella, I should have been there for you and instead I broke up with you," Troy's voice cracked halfway through and the tears started to flow freely again.
Gabriella gently leaned in and kissed away his tears before placing a soft, lingering kiss on his lips and looking him directly in the eye again. "The only reason that you weren't this time was because I wouldn't let you be there, I thought that I could do all of this on my own, and looking back, that's one of the biggest mistakes that I could've made, if I'd told you guys earlier, this could have all been stopped before it got anywhere near this stage."
Troy smiled softly and leant his forehead back against hers, "If I can't blame myself Ella, you can't blame yourself either. Deal?"
She smiled slightly and closed her eyes, "Deal."
The two of them sat that way for a while, each trying to figure out the events of the day, and trying desperately to keep their promise to the other and not blame themselves.
After a few minutes, the rest of the gang came in and joined them, the whole gang just sat around, each enjoying the fact that they had the others company. They all looked up however when blue and red lights started to flash across the wall opposite the window, signalling the arrival of the police and the paramedics.
Well guys, that was chapter 11, please review and tell me what you thought, hopefully I should be able to post again tomorrow.