Need You More Than Ever
Hiya guys, thanks for all of your reviews, here's chapter 15, please read and review and Chapter 16, the last chapter, should be out sometime this week.
Chapter 15Gabriella stood in the same space. Staring straight ahead of her, blinking only every so often, as she had done for the past fifteen minutes, feelings and thoughts rushing through her at the place that at one time she had called home, excited about returning, and at others, she had called hell, terrified of returning.
The gang all stood just a small way behind her, each shivering in the cold air, but knowing that they had to let Gabriella do this by herself and they had to just let her know that they were there to support her forever, and that they weren't leaving her side. So far, they had watched the trembling girl manage to walk ten steps off of the sidewalk and onto the property, each silently encouraging her to walk a little further, and eventually reach the house.
They watched on as Gabriella bravely took a deep breath and marched closer to the house, turning around to look at them when she reached the step. Her eyes scanning them all as they nodded at her, each smiling, supporting her as she made the frightening move, until eventually her eyes connected with dancing blue ones, perhaps the one who was the most proud of her out of the whole group.
Her eyes bore into his and he ultimately got the message, walking over to her and wordlessly placing one hand around her waist, smiling at her again and kissing the top of her head gently as she also turned around, and reached her hand up towards the door, pressing the handle down so that it swung open lightly, jumping when the door let of a squeaking noise and Troy's arm tightened around her waist.
Taking another deep breath, Gabriella edged towards the house, pulling Troy with her and closing her eyes as she entered the front hallway.
"Ella, it's ok, I promise you that you can look and nothing bad will happen," a reassuring voice whispered to her, and Gabriella opened her eyes, so that she was directly looking into Troy's cerulean ones, as he flashed her one of his winning smiles, meaning that she couldn't help but smile back.
Breaking his gaze and looking around the bottom floor of her house, Gabriella gasped, her eyes widening as she brought her hands up to her mouth in astonishment.
"But…but…how?" She stuttered, glancing back at her grinning friends, before looking around the rooms again, the rooms that now looked exactly as they had when Gabriella and her Mom had lived in the house in harmony together, without the empty alcohol bottles littering every single available surface.
Chad walked forwards and slung his arm casually around Gabriella's shoulder as she looked up at him, still in shock, "Well Briella, we really can't take much of the credit, our Mom's did a hell of a good job tidying out, while we were at the hospital with you, helping you recover," he grinned at her cheekily and laughed when both she and Troy raised their eyebrows, remembering how Chad spent the whole of Gabriella's hospital visits picking at her hospital food, and then ending up battling out games on the Xbox 360 with her, definitely not letting her get any rest.
Taylor rolled her eyes and pushed Troy away, gently linking her arm through Gabriella's as the young girl turned to look at her. Taylor grinned at Gabriella, "Of course Chad can't take any of the credit for any of this, but the rest of us can," she grinned again as Gabriella looked at her in confusion, "the rest of us all helped our Mom's to tidy out the house, and as for Troy, it was his idea in the first place." Taylor smiled at Troy, before unlinking her arm and standing next to Kelsi again.
Chad looked at Taylor in horror, "I did help to, thank you very much," he stuck his tongue out at Taylor, as he finished his childlike statement, "I kept Briella busy at the hospital, so that she wouldn't figure out what you guys were up to," Chad grinned triumphantly as the gang all rolled their eyes, laughing good naturedly.
Gabriella walked up to Troy and stood in front of him. "You thought of all this?" She questioned him, as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "For me?" She finished, her eyes sparkling with wonder. He nodded his head slowly. Gabriella grinned and stood up on her tiptoes, capturing his mouth with hers as her arms snaked up around his neck, grinning into the kiss, Troy wrapped his arms securely around her waist.
"Awwwwww," Troy and Gabriella broke away quickly, blushing and looked at the gang, the girls with pearly white smiles, who looking like they had been eating sweet things for hours on end and the guys with scrunched up faces, looking as though they were going to throw up from the couples cuteness.
"Can we please get to work before you two make us all throw up already?" Ryan queried, his face still scrunched up as he looked at the pair, who laughed as he gasped when Sharpay hit him over the back of his head. "Owwww," he whined, glaring at his sister who just smirked at him smugly while the rest of the gang howled with laughter.
"Well then G, you're gonna have to tell us what to do, we need to know what you want kept and what you don't," Kelsi said softly, her eyes connecting with Gabriella's as she nodded slightly and the laughter died.
"Ummm, well then…" Gabriella trailed off, her eyes glancing around the rooms as she felt Troy squeeze her lightly. "Right, well Jason and Kelsi, can you two please look at the kitchen, and umm, can you please pack up to move any pictures and my Mom and Dad's wedding china, which you'll easily be able to tell apart from the rest, other than that, everything can just be packed into the charity boxes, food included," She finished with a slight smile as the two nodded and she turned to Taylor and Chad, who was currently eyeing Taylor up and down, and not paying any attention at all, "Tay, Chad."
Chad jumped about a mile in the air and turned to sheepishly look at Gabriella, blushing slightly as she smirked at him.
"Can you two please tackle the front room, save any pictures, ornaments, DVD's, CD's and books, other than that, the rest is for charity," Gabriella thought for a minute, "Ooh but save the pillows as well!" She yelled as an after thought, blushing as everyone just laughed slightly and the pair nodded.
"Okay ummm," She turned to look at the remaining four, gripping Troy's hand tightly, "Ryan, can you please do the hallways, all I want is the pictures, and I think that that's all there'll be there anyway, and can you please do the same for the dining room, only take the good glasses from there as well," she grinned at him as he nodded, "Pay, Zeke, can you two please just do my room, I obviously want to keep everything, so can you please just package everything up for me?" The two nodded and she beamed at them.
"Gabs, what about the bathrooms?" Zeke asked.
"Umm Zeke, this was an all girls house, so my suggestion would be that the girls empty out the bathrooms later," The girls all crowed with laughter as the boys looked at the ground, shuffling their feet in embarrassment.
However, the mood was suddenly turned ominous with a quiet question from Taylor, "Brie, who's going to look at your Mom's room." Everyone drew in a sharp breath as they turned to Gabriella, who had her eyes closed to stop the tears, which were now threatening to fall.
"I want to do it." She stated in a strong voice that shocked them all.
"Ella are you sure that you're up to that, I mean…" A tugging on his hand instantly cut of Troy and he looked down to Gabriella.
"I. Want. To. Do. It." Gabriella stated evenly, her eyes never leaving Troy's, "but I want you there with me," she finished, her voice wavering slightly towards the end and Troy just nodded, never breaking eye contact with his girlfriend.
The gang quickly spread out to do their separate chores, leaving Troy and Gabriella to gradually edge their way closer to her Mom's room, each fairly terrified over what they would find in there. Although the house had been cleaned from top to bottom while Gabriella was in hospital, everyone had made the unanimous decision to leave her Mom's room alone.
Troy leaned on the wall halfway along the corridor, watching as his girlfriend slowly, but steadily reached out a trembling hand and turned the door handle, bracing herself against what might be inside of the room, before letting out a startled gasp and hurrying inside.
Troy's eyes widened in shock and he rapidly followed Gabriella into the room, he too gasping at what he saw, letting his eyes wander around the room in wonder.
The room looked like the safe haven that Gabriella had always thought of it before her life had turned to torment. The pictures of her whole family were still up all over the room, her Mom's favourite ornaments still standing were they always had been, each and every time they moved, they always ended up in the same position and the room looking picture perfect, not even a pillow out of place, except for the thin layer of dust that covered almost every surface.
Gabriella let a smile light up her face as she wandered around the room, her hand gently running over the many surfaces of drawers and cupboards, picture frames and weaved baskets, before lowering herself onto the bed and breathing in her mothers scent.
Troy smiled at her before sitting down next to her, "So, where do we start?" His eyes slowly wandered around the room again, but his attention was quickly brought back to Gabriella when he heard a small sniffle from the girl currently sat beside him. "Hey baby girl, what's up?" He asked tenderly, pulling her onto his lap, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes and lovingly kissing her temple.
"I… I just don't think… don't think that I… can get rid of their stuff," Gabriella sobbed, burying her head in the crook of his neck.
"Elle Belle, didn't the Danforth's tell you that you could take over as much stuff as you want?" He smiled when she mumbled something incoherently into his neck, "Well then, let's pack everything up then!" She looked up at him, shock emanating from her delicate features, making him laugh gently, "Ella, I would be able to understand you with just one look, never mind if you're only mumbling, and you obviously want to keep all of this stuff," He finished by kissing her lips and she grinned at him.
"Well, let's not get too hasty, I can't take everything with me, maybe just the pictures, ooh and the ornaments, but what about the bed throw? And I definitely need the pillows…" Troy chuckled and moved to find the boxes, as Gabriella kept listing everything that she needed to keep and couldn't live without.
Eventually, they had packed up the whole room, except from the major furniture, such as the bed and drawers, Gabriella eventually deciding that she would keep most things, except for the curtains, the bed duvet, though she did keep the throw, some of their paintings, and only keeping one jumper of each of her parents clothes, deciding that the homeless and other charities could use them a lot more than she could. Troy had had to smile at his girlfriend, even in times of distress, Gabriella was showing just how caring she was, thinking of others, when she was clearly in pain herself.
However, the one thing that Gabriella was determined that she was keeping of both of her parents was their perfumes and colognes, respectively, so that she could always have their scents with her, wherever she went.
When they had finished with the room, Troy and Gabriella stood just outside of the wardrobe, each hoping that the other would go in first, and each scared to death of what they would find.
After a game of rock, paper, scissors, to decide who would go in first it was determined that Gabriella was the chosen one. So, shooting one last death glare at Troy, she slowly walked into the wardrobe, turning on the light, Troy close at her heels.
Each breathed out a sigh if relief when they just saw more clothes, along with a couple of boxes, which seemed to be filled with precious memorabilia. When the cupboard was empty, Troy bent down so that Gabriella could sit on his shoulders, and then lifted her up, so that she could see right to the back of the top shelf.
Frowning, she reached forwards and picked up the lonely pink book, covered in dust, before motioning for Troy to put her back down. As he did so, she blew the dust off, which set them both of coughing, and eventually laughing, before running her hands over the front cover.
"Gabriella," She slowly breathed out as Troy watched her trace the glittery pink lettering on the front cover and sit down on the floor opening the book.
Gently, Troy lowered himself so that he was sat cross-legged beside her, and brought her onto his lap, so that he could see the book as well. Gabriella slowly skimmed over all of the pages, taking in her parent's detailed accounts of her first steps, of her first words, right down to the first time that she was rushed to the emergency room for swallowing a block of Lego when she was 15 months old. She carefully turned each fragile page, running her fingers softly over the laughing faces of her parents in each picture, that littered every page, and her own little baby face, full of innocence and wonder.
Troy smiled seeing all of Gabriella's baby pictures together on one place, and seeing how contented that she was just trying to remember some of the past.
As she turned to the last page, a spare photograph fell out of the back. Slowly leaning forwards, Gabriella picked it up, letting out a laugh, her eyes sparkling as she remembered what was going on when the picture was taken.
The rest of the gang took that moment to enter the room, telling the other two that they were finished with their jobs and smiling when they saw Gabriella grinning at the picture and Troy gesturing for them all to come and join the pair on the floor.
"Tell us the story Ella," Troy whispered into his girlfriends' ear as the rest of the gang sat around them and she turned the picture so that they could all see.
They all laughed seeing a Gabriella, aged around four, sitting in between both of her chuckling parents, grinning wildly with chocolate sauce and whipped cream all down her front and all over her face, a massive stack of pancakes sat in front of her, covered in the same ingredients.
Gabriella smiled, turning the picture around so that she could see it again, "it was my fourth birthday," her face creased into another smile, "My parent's decided that they would finally give into my request to go to the new pancake restaurant in town. When we got there, the waitress gave me a kids menu, of course, but I wasn't exactly pleased with that and I started to argue with her that I was a big girl and I could handle the big menu," The gang all laughed, imaging the young Gabriella arguing with someone four times her age or older. "In the end I won, obviously because I pulled the fake water works, which got my parent's every time," the gang all laughed again, "and I decided that I didn't want the breakfast pancakes, instead I wanted the sweet ones, somehow I managed to get my own way again, and when they came, they were enormous, or at least they were to me at the time, and I managed to get them everywhere, as you guys can obviously see," she laughed, showing them the picture again, "and I told the waitress that she hadn't put enough chocolate sauce on my last pancake, of course I annoyed her even more, she already hated me by that point, Michelle, her name was, she was also my babysitter, and I hated being left with a babysitter when I was little, or rather I hated being left with Michelle, basically cause she would yell at me if I made any tiny little noise, while she was constantly talking to either her boyfriend, or just her friends, so that day at the pancake house, I decided to get my own back…" Gabriella trailed of, a twinkle forming in her eyes as the others all laughed.
"Briella, what did you do?" Chad asked, sounding slightly scared, considering that he was going to have to live with her soon.
Gabriella grinned at them, "As soon as Michelle gave me the chocolate sauce bottle, some of it may have just happened to end up on her nice clean designer clothes, bringing me the sauce was the last thing to do for her shift, so she'd already been changed, and let's just say that her nice shiny blonde hair weren't blonde no more…" Gabriella trailed off, her eyes still twinkling as the others all laughed so hard Gabriella was sure that something was wrong with them.
"Gabs that's just pure priceless," Zeke finally managed to choke out and Gabriella sent him a beaming smile.
"Hey guys," she started, about twenty minutes later, after reminiscing for a little longer, "I think I'm ready to get out of here." The others all nodded and each grabbed one of the remaining boxes in her parent's room, before heading down to load up their cars, Troy stopping to give Gabriella a quick kiss.
Gabriella stood and studied the room for a little longer, her eyes shining with memories of the year that she had lived in this house, both good and bad. She hugged the pink book to her chest, gently placing the free photograph from the pancake house on top of the table beside the front door, taking one last look around.
"I'll always love you Mommy, and I'll always love you Daddy," She whispered, taking one last look at the photograph, before smiling and walking out of the front door, closing it behind her.
The gang all stood leaning against their cars, just looking at the house as Gabriella came to join them, Troy wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
"Seems different somehow," Sharpay murmured, her eyes still fixated on the house as everyone else nodded in agreement.
Kelsi smiled, "I guess we'll always have good and bad memories of this place." The others all murmured their agreement, before Troy flashed them one of his smiles.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get this show on the road, we've still gotta get all of this stuff unloaded in Ella's new room, so lets go!" He yelled and the others all laughed.
Zeke and Sharpay pulled away first, Jason and Kelsi shortly after them, Ryan close behind.
"See you at the house," Taylor grinned at Gabriella, giving her one last hug and whispering in her ear, "You're so damn brave Brie, I wish I was as brave as you are," before slipping into Chad's car and they too pulled away.
"Ready to go baby girl?" Troy asked, holding Gabriella's door open for her as she nodded, and he helped her into his truck, before running around the other side and starting up the truck, flashing her a grin, which she returned gladly.
Gabriella watched out of the back window of the truck as the house disappeared from view, knowing that she had finally, for good and for bad, closed the chapter of her life that was living there with her Mom.
Three and a half hours later and the whole gang had finally just left, except for Chad, obviously as he now lived with Gabriella, who had wandered downstairs in search of food.
Gabriella looked around her new room and was proud of the way that it had been a group effort to make it how it was. The gang had all painted it three days after the funeral, each having different ideas of how it should look, so now Gabriella had parts of all of her friends all over her room, as they had ended up getting into a massive paint fight, each wanting the room to be their favourite colour, so it was now littered with yellow spots, as that was what she had wanted, orange spots, courtesy of Troy, blue spots, thanks to Zeke, silver spots, due to Ryan's new obsession, cream because Kelsi thought that Gabriella suited natural colours best, purple spots, as Taylor thought that the colour somehow 'summed' Gabriella up, green spots, pure and simply as it was Jason's favourite colour, red spots because Chad thought that she needed to show some Wildcat spirit, and of course, pink spots, because who could live without pink? according to Sharpay. But Gabriella wouldn't have it any other way, in simple terms, she loved her new room, it summed the gang up so well, best friends, yet people who were each completely different from each other.
Gabriella smiled and paused and the task she was currently doing, turning around only slightly.
"So you've learnt that you can do that trick here to then, huh?" Gabriella smirked at Troy, watching as he leant on the side of her balcony doorframe.
He laughed and walked over to her, "Mmm maybe I can, actually, that tree's a lot easier to climb than you're old one," He grinned and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder as she finished sorting out her stuffed toys'. "Besides, you're my next door neighbour now, so that's just gonna mean that I can increase my visits," he grinned as she straightened herself upright, pleased with her work and nodded, squealing as he suddenly picked her up, carrying her towards the bed while she wriggled in his arms, giggling as he dumped her and crawled onto the bed beside her, wrapping his arms around her petite frame. "So then Montez," he grinned when she shifted so that she was lying on top of him, both now facing the ceiling, "Do you think that you're gonna like living here?"
She rolled over so that she was facing him and beamed. "With you right next door Bolton, what's not to like?" She smirked again and leant down to kiss him.
A sudden crash from downstairs, followed by Mrs. Danforth yelling at Chad to stay away from the food until dinnertime quickly broke the couple apart, due to laughter, "And with that for entertainment, I can definitely get used to it!" Gabriella grinned at Troy, gently leaning her head on his chest and falling asleep to the sound of his heartbeat, more glad than ever for her friends, or as she now thought of them, her family.
Well that was chapter 15, please read and review and the last chapter should be up soon.