Troy. Now.

I woke slowly, my body sitting up in bed. I glanced to the neon red lights of my alarm clock.

4:47.

I let out a world-weary breath and took my head in my hands. I wasn't set to wake up for another hour, but it had been another sleepless night. Her face was everywhere, but it was never haunting. Gabriella could never be haunting. She was almost always smiling, waving her hands at me, like nothing was wrong.

My throat tightened. Everything was wrong!

I twisted in bed, grabbed my pillow and threw it against the far wall of my room. "God Damn it!"

But nothing happened. She didn't appear magically in front of me like I wanted her to. My parents didn't come bursting into to scold me on my use of language. Only silence greeted my anger and I was so annoyed because that's all I had been getting.

Nothing was new. No one was telling me anything about the investigation. No one was talking to me. Even my friends were avoiding me because they were afraid to say her name in front of me. Every time I entered the kitchen and my parents never made eye contact. Their heads were always bowed and they talked in soft voices. The confidence around me was completely extinguished.

And if the confidence was gone, there was nothing left. I always had confidence in myself and in Gabriella, that's what kept me running, but now that both of them were gone, I had nothing. I was nothing without them. I clenched my jaw and my hands went to tight fists, my nails cutting into my palms.

Technically, I knew the world wouldn't stop turning if Gabriella was never found—if she—died. I knew that Albuquerque would mourn—for a little bit—and then life in the town would continue as it always had. Some folks would look back over their shoulders at what could have been—'oh, they were so young.' Or 'they had so much potential together.'—But most would just move on with their lives.

I knew life would go on technically……

……But what kind of life would it be without Gabriella?

It wouldn't be a life, I decided.

It would be a nightmare.

Gabriella. Then.

I didn't know whether to laugh or to take the threat seriously. My head jerked back in confusion with my indecision and incomprehension. "I'm the message?" I repeated, tilting my head at Dillon. He just raised his eyebrows; face straight.

I laughed. I couldn't help it. Okay, come on. We were juniors in high school for crying out laud! Threatening to hurt me because he didn't like Troy sounded so childish. And it was stupid. Didn't he realize that if he hurt me, things would not go well for him in the future?

But when he took a controlled step towards me, the hairs on my arms stood up. And with a dawning realization, I knew that he was completely serious.

My bad luck was beginning to get epic.

"You've got to be joking." I let out a hesitant laugh, looking over his shoulder. Why the hell were Troy and the others taking so damn long!

His eyes flashed with the smallest and briefest hint of sympathy. "I'm sorry, but in your case," he took another step towards me. "I'm dead serious."

Someone up there really didn't like me.

I had enough time to take one short breath before he was on me. His crude hands bit into my shoulders and he picked me off the ground, throwing me to the dirt. I rolled and then frantically got to me feet, grabbing some dirt while I stood. My chest heaved for the air that I lost in the fall.

"Don't make this harder than it already is." He was relentless in his steps towards me.

"You're so full of shit!" I bit out. "You know that?"

He let out a choked laugh, stopping his advance. His pause gave me the time to catch my breath. "I beg your pardon?"

"You've had everything handed to you!" I was pissed. What gave him to right to decide that he was going to kill me? I had as much a say as he did, considering it was my life he was trying to extinguish. I continued with my staling. "Basketball! College! Money! Cars! Everything's been so easy for you to get! But the moment you see two people who have worked so hard to be with one another, you try to end it just because you cant have it. Let me tell you something, what me and Troy have is a feeling you will never experience in your lifetime!"

I stared him down, my back four steps from the edge of the cliff. "Are you done?" He threw me an evil smile right before he sprinted forward.

Out of pure reflex, I threw the dirt into his eyes, blinding him. His hands went to his face as I ducked under his arms. He tried to stop, because I could hear his sneakers slip on the unsteady ground. I turned just to see his half open, teary eyes looking back at me. Then his body was flying over the edge.

My feelings mixed with my reflexes and in pure instinct, I reached out to grab his desperate, outstretched hand. I could never kill someone, on purpose or on accident. Neither could I watch someone die if I could do something to prevent it. So my grip around his wrist tightened as he went over the edge, as did his when he realized what was happening.

I wasn't expecting the shear force of his body weight when it met nothing but air and I was almost dragged over with him. With a surprised and annoyed roar, I went to my hands and knees and then to my stomach when I almost fell over. I was sliding towards the edge when I heard a sickening crack, and the grip around my wrist went completely slack. I dug my feet and my left hand into the sand around the edge when the side of my face went over. The sight below me made me roll my eyes.

The dumb bastard had smashed his head into the side of the cliff!

First he tried to hurt me. And now, he's making it even harder for me to save his worthless ass! But none of that really mattered because I was still sliding, ever slowly, towards the edge. Now that I could see my doom—my death—I was beginning to regret ever trying to save him in the first place.

To make matters worse, my shoulder slid out of socket. It was such an awkward feeling, having nothing but muscle and tissue holding something of important into place. The weird feeling lasted for only a couple of seconds before the pain surfaced. It was a burning sensation that was gradually numbing my shoulder, crawling its way slowly down my arm. Dillon slipped a little in my grip. I screamed out of pain and desperation.

"HELP!"

Troy. Then.

The ice cream was on the forest floor before I ever realized that I was running. My breath burned hot in my chest as I sprinted at full force towards her scream. She was hurt. And I hadn't been there to protect her. Chad and Taylor weren't calling to me or yelling my name. They were right behind me; I could hear their fast breathing.

I burst from the trees, sliding to a halt when my eyes found the cliff.

"Gabriella!" She turned her head to look at me, that small movement creating her downfall, literally. Her eyes went big, chocolate full of fear when her body started sliding more rapidly over the edge. I was faster than lightening, grabbing her left hand when everything else went over.

She was heavy. I started sliding as soon as her hand tightened around mine. But Chad grabbed my stomach and Taylor grabbed onto Gabriella's wrist. Together we started pulling. Gabriella screamed again, the sound hurting my ears. It turned into a choked sob when she was pulled more than halfway over to solid ground.

The moment I saw her hand wrapped around someone's wrist, I saw her shoulder. It was awkward. That was the most fitting word I could think of to describe the injury. Chad and Taylor rushed past me to grab the arm of the person still hanging over the edge while I pulled Gabriella farther away. As soon as the pressure was relinquished from her arm, I heard a loud 'pop' and Gabriella's breath choked in her throat.

"Baby, are you okay?" My hands were on her cheeks as she took deep breaths.

She nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm fine." I helped her sit up, her head swiveling around. "Where is he?"

"Where is wh—" the moment I saw his unconscious carcass, my jaw clenched. The side of his face was covered in blood. But there wasn't enough for my liking. Gabriella's hands tightened around my wrists.

"It's fine." I looked back to her, my blue eyes not understanding. How could it be fine that he tried to hurt her?

"Aw, damn it!" Dillon grumbled. My gaze flickered towards him at the sound of his annoyed voice. I could just see his bright eyes around Gabriella's elbow, focused on her, irritated. "She didn't fall!" he complained.

I lunged forward, away from Gabriella. With a loud smacking sound, my fist hit Dillon's face. I felt it, my knuckles against his jaw, and pushed harder into the blow. This man—boy—would regret trying to hurt Gabriella. I would see to it personally.

Dillon's eyes rolled back in his head, and his mouth fell slack, broken jaw sliding out of place. The clearing we were in grew very quiet for a few seconds.

"Uhh," Chad said in a mild voice breaking the silence, "medically speaking, I'm not quite sure that was the most helpful thing to do for his condition at the moment."

"But I feel better," I answered, sullen, resisting the strong urge to kick the unconscious boy in the stomach for good measure.

Chad's firm mouth fell open into a grin. "Well, maybe a few more minutes of unconsciousness won't kill him." He paused, eyes turning firm. "Regrettably."

"What do we do with him?" I asked, standing up and whipping my hands on my shorts.

"Nothing." I glanced back to Gabriella. She was standing, her left hand gripping her right shoulder.

"What do you mean 'nothing'? He just tried to hurt you. Hell, he might have even killed you, given the chance!" I argued.

She shook her head. "That would make us no better then him." She shrugged her shoulder softly. "Besides, I'm fine."

"So," Chad scratched the back of his neck. "Who's going to carry him?"

I gave him a sidelong glance, rolling my eyes.

His finger shot up to his nose. "Nose game!"

"I said we weren't going to do anything to him." Gabriella interrupted. "That doesn't mean we have to do anything for him."

"What are you suggesting?" Taylor asked, breaking her silence.

"We leave his ass here." Gabriella walked forward and put her toe under Dillon's stomach, rolling him over to his back. "He's not going anywhere anytime soon."

I smiled. She continued.

"He'll wake up, know that he failed in what he wanted to do, and that for some reason, when he went over that cliff, he didn't die." She turned and started to walk away. "The realization will dawn on him that he was saved by the very person he wanted to hurt. And that, I have been told, is the worst feeling ever."

I started to follow her, Chad and Taylor close behind me. She stopped and waited for us to catch up, her left hand falling to her side so that I could grab a hold of it. She still hadn't moved her right arm, whether she could or couldn't, she wasn't letting on. Halfway through our walk through the woods, she stopped and turned to look at me.

"Where's my ice cream?"

Author's Note: Graduation. State Soccer Game. Beach Week. That's all I have as an excuse.