Well, thank you guys for the wonderful reviews. I love you guys! :)
Troy's gorgeous eyes stared back into the intoxicating pools of blue. He was going to see his father today. After twelve years, he was talking to his dad for the first time. See the man that tore their family apart. The dying man, that lived in an apartment by himself as he slowly withered away.
Sighing deeply, Troy's muscular hands straightens his wrinkled shirts slightly, "So, this is it," Speaking out loud to himself, he was preparing to see his father. The blue eyes that matched his. "You can do it Troy," He reassured himself, checking his hair in the mirror.
Troy could remember the night he came home from Chad's party after kissing the girl he had a crush on for over a year. As he stepped onto their paved walkway, he felt the tension building in his veins, as his piercing eyes looked around to see his fathers belongings lying across their green lawn.
"Jack, we're not going to work this out!" Hearing his mother's voice scream in anger towards Troy's father.
"We can work this out, Lucy, I love you," Jack pleaded with the love of his life, tears falling from his cobalt eyes. Reaching out towards her shaking figure. She snapped her arm back from his grasp, rejecting him completely. Her chocolate eyes raging with anger.
"No. It's over Jack. Fucking over!" Her voice shouted towards Troy's father who stood in front of her, his once beautiful blue eyes, drained with sadness. Lucille's brown hair in a mess as she fought with her husband.
As soon as the front door opened, revealing Troy's tiny figure, Lucille looked in the direction of their son. Her brown eyes widening slightly. "Troy," She gasped, rushing towards her twelve year old son, pulling him into her arms as she pushed past her husband.
"Mom, dad? What's going on?" Troy wondered still being pulled by his mother, as she rushed to get away from her husband.
"Your mother and I are getting divorced, Troy," Jack said regretfully, swallowing the regret, reaching out for his family members. Lucille pulled Troy and herself away from the wanting touch again.
"Is it true?" Troy asked, looking at his mother, his blue eyes that were filled with hopefulness less than an hour ago at Chad's party now filled with tears. She nodded, looking at Troy's father again with a slight disgust.
"Your father and I are separating," She said softly, pushing back the brown hair that fell into Troy's blue eyes that matched her husbands. Tears seemed to fall from both of the beautiful blue eyes. Something that broke Lucille's heart. "I packed your bags. We're leaving in the morning."
"What about school? And my friends?" Troy's blue eyes widening slightly, wondering about the girl he had kissed earlier that night again.
"You'll make new friends," His mother tried, pushing her son towards his room.
"I like the friends I have now," He retorted, turning to face his mother, his blue eyes staring at her with a slight hint of anger.
"This is all your father's fault," She scoffed in the direction of the batter Bolton man that stood at the bottom on the steps. Her voice traveling towards the lost man.
Troy remembered those words even now. Twelve years later as he mentally prepared himself to see the man who had ruined their family. The man that caused for much grief and heartache.
Stepping out of the rental car, Troy shut the door. His blue eyes drifting up towards the apartment building his father was living in. He scanned the neighborhood, his bright eyes looking for any familiar memories.
Could he turn back now? Was it too late? No and yes because his father was waiting outside of the building, wanting to see his only son. The only son he had ever had. The blue eyes caught each other, bringing the pair back to the final morning when they saw each other. The final moment when Troy hadn't quiet understood why he was moving away from his father. Why he was moving away from his best friends. From his school. From his crush, Gabriella.
"Troy…" Jack's once manly voice was now softened, his once lively eyes dying as he did. But they seemed to brighten when they met his sons for the first time in over twelve years.
Clearing his throat, he looked at his father who was getting closer to him. His old body clad in a pair of roomy sweat pants and an oversized sweatshirt that seemed to hang off of his body. The once full head of hair was gone. His shiny head reflecting in the sun light. "Dad," The words seemed to struggle as they left his mouth, hoping he grab them and stuff them and put the three letter word back.
"Hi son," He greeted Troy, pulling his muscular body close to his for an embrace, something Troy didn't expect. Troy once remembered his father towering over him, now he was only a few inches shorter than the sick man. Slowly, Troy wrapped his arms around his father, letting the embrace over come him. "It's so good to see you Troy, I've been waiting so long," Jack said softly, pulling back from the long embrace.
"Yeah…" Troy's voice trailed off as he scanned his sickly father up and down. "Aren't you warm?"
Jack let out a small laugh, which seemed to sound the same when Troy let out a small laugh. "This medicine they have me on always seems to make me cold and tired." Jack sighed, his sad eyes closing as Troy stared directly at his father's figure. "More tired than cold," He said almost as if he had told a million people this before.
A silence fell between the two. Troy didn't think his father would be in so much pain, given the fact that his doctors told him he had up to a year to live. Even if he didn't like his father very much, he still felt terrible. "Thanks for coming, Troy," Jack's voice low as his dark eyes met his sons. "I know you said you couldn't stay long, but thank you," He repeated, pulling his son in for another long embrace.
"You're welcome dad," He let out a exasperated sigh, letting his strong arms wrap around his weak father, taking the sick man into his embrace. He did miss his dad, even if he thought he ruined what was left of the Bolton family.
"So you guys hugged?" Chad's voice filled Troy's ears as they made their way over of an unfamiliar part of Troy's past.
"Twice. Where are we?" He questioned, as his blue eyes scanned their surroundings.
"Tay and Brie's,"
"Brie? As in Gabriella?" His heart fluttering at that thought of the beautiful brunette who he had talked to only three days prior.
"That's the only Gabriella I'm friends with," Chad reminded lightly, pulling into the parking building of the apartments that seemed to have plenty of attendants. "These apartments are pretty nice. You should rent from here,"
Chad was bringing up the simple fact of moving out of the small one room place he had now simply because he was getting married in two and a half weeks and Troy was still crashing on his couch.
"Yeah I'll look into it," He said interested only in the fact a beautiful brunette would be living in the same building as he was.
"Gabriella's single," Stated bluntly from the source himself, it caught Troy off guard as he looked at his best friend who had parked his old car in his regular parking space. Furrowing his eye brows as his best friend, he seemed confused at the sudden outburst.
"Okay? And?" Seeming uninterested in the information Chad had just given him, he made mental notes, writing down every single detail about his first kiss.
"Well, you just seemed to stare at her ass A LOT the other day. I just figured I'd let you know she's not seeing anyone,"
"I'm not interested," Troy stated in a matter of fact way, pushing his car door open, removing himself from the old beat up car Chad's dad had given him.
"Really? You're gonna tell me that you're not interested in Gabriella Montez?" Raising his eye brow towards his attractive blue eyed friend, he didn't believe a word that would escape his mouth.
"Yup, cause I'm not. I don't date man," He reminded his friend of something he never did. Something he swore he'd never get himself involved with. Love. "Or love," He added quickly, his cool voice sounding so cold.
"Just because your parents didn't work out doesn't mean that you and Gabriella won't," Chad fought back with Troy as they made their way into the unfamiliar apartment complex Taylor and Gabriella lived in together.
"It's not just that my mom was fucked over, dude. I just don't believe in love. And I mean, if I know something doesn't exist, why even try proving it?" Shrugging his shoulders, he left his bushy haired friend to retort to his question.
"You'll never know unless you try," He commanded him softly, reminding him about the advice Troy gave him the first time he wanted to ask Taylor to the Spring Formal at East High. A school Troy wanted to go to. "I mean look at me and Taylor," Chad grinned, letting a groan escape Troy's lips as Chad's fiancé was brought up again in a conversation. "If you never would've told me that in ninth grade, I never would've had the balls. And I could still be bumming it with Papa and Mama Danforth. My parents thank you everyday dude," Chad joked, as they reached the shared apartment.
"It's different for you, you're optimistic, I've seen what love can do. And I promised myself the night I came home and saw all my dad's shit spread across the front yard that I'd never attach myself to someone," He confessed as Chad dug his right hand deep into his pocket, fishing for key to Taylor and Gabriella's apartment.
"I can't change your mind, Troy. It's gonna take the right person," The dark skinned boy sighed, turning the key in the hole to open the door to the two bedroom apartment.
"TAYLOR! BRIE!" The bushy haired young man yelled loudly, catching Troy off guard, causing him to jump slightly. This caused a small giggle to escape an unknown mouth. Troy's blue eyes searching for the laugh he heard. His beautiful eyes met the brown of a certain beautiful Latina. A small smirk on her face.
"Did Chad scare you?" Her soft voice erupted from her mouth as she looked directly into Troy's breath taking eyes. A small chuckle left Troy's mouth as he inched closer to the small brunette, his eyes never leaving hers for a second.
"No, he's just… crazy," Troy said lightly, his voice low. "Unexpected," He finished, standing in front of the brunette, as her small body was leaned against the wooden counter of the small kitchen.
"Yeah, he's crazy," Her low voice mimicked the young man's as she locked eyes with him. No more words were said between the two as their eyes seemed to pierce the other. Minutes passed that seemed like seconds to the two., lost as the blue stared into the brown.
"Okay guys," Chad announced loudly entering the small kitchen area, breaking up the small stare between the two, Taylor following suite behind him as they all gathered in the kitchen. "Do you guys wanna head out to eat?"
"Yeah…" Troy said softly, looking in the direction of his bushy haired friend, looking sideways at the girl who smirked lightly at the twenty-four year old in front of her.
"Let's go, I'm starving," Gabriella let out a small giggle, pulling the arm of Taylor towards an unknown room, her dark brown curls falling down past her shoulder. Troy's blue eyes seemed to linger as the two friends left the room.
"I know you're not staring at Taylor's ass," Chad snickered, as Troy's eyes shot his friend a look.
"Shut up," Troy snapped lightly, his blue eyes closing softly. He tried to erase the moment the two just had from his mind. He didn't want to remember the intense stare down the two had just had. He wanted to forget his attraction between the two. But he couldn't, even if he tried.