Author's Note: Please review! This might be sort of an odd chapter.
Disclaimer: Baby-M-xo and I don't own anything except the drive to write this. We also don't own the song "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis, which is Gabriella's ringtone.
Everyone Has a ProblemChapter 2: The Other Side of Gabriella
By musiclover94 and Baby-M-xo
I just keep bleedin', just keep bleedin' loveYou cut me open-
Gabriella flipped open her phone. A flickering box read 'Troy Bolton'. She smiled.
"Hi Troy!" she grinned.
"Er, hi Gabriella," he said seriously.
"What did you want to tell me?" Gabriella asked, some of her zest gone.
"Well, it's basketball season, and I'm not going to be able to see you a lot, with practices and all…" began Troy.
"And?" Gabriella asked, a definite note of panic in her voice.
"And I think we should see other people," he said.
Gabriella felt the horrible sensation of her insides melting. She turned a sickly sort of pale and her throat was suddenly clogged up and as dry as the desert.
"Oh-okay. Bye," was all she could stammer out. She hung up the phone with shaking hands.
Her mind was racing. She couldn't think straight. He had promised that, even with basketball, they would still be together. Troy had been her crutch through the years. Now that she didn't have it, she was falling.
She ran to the vacated kitchen and looked for the reliever of her pain. She grabbed an especially sharp knife and a half-drunk bottle of vodka and ran to her bedroom, her mind still in hyper-fast mode.
She took a huge swig of the vodka. Although it tasted disgusting and made her feel worse, it seemed to be doing a good job of taking the pain away. Out of the corner of her eye, a gleaming silver object caught her eye: the knife she had brought up. She knew that this was never the answer to solve problems, but it would help her forget about Troy. She dragged the knife across her wrist multiple times and before she knew it, the once gleaming knife blade was covered in a scarlet liquid.
Gabriella came back to her senses as if a hand had slapped her across the face. She looked around. Her bed sheets were drenched in blood. Her eyes widened in panic and she felt hazy from blood loss. I can't let my mother see this, she thought frantically. She ran to the bathroom and ran the blood-soaked knife under the sink along with her wrist. She winced at the pain the water caused her. She hid the vodka bottle under her bed, making sure no one could see it. She looked at her wrist and was horrified to see four deep gashes in the naturally tan skin. She hastily opened her closet and picked out a long sleeved shirt. She glanced out the window: a perfect day with the sun shining brightly. She would have to think of a good cover story for her apparel choice. She looked at the clock: 5:56 p.m. Her mother would be home at 6 p.m. She had just made it. She relaxed her unknowingly tense muscles. She dug under her bed and finally found what she was looking for. The I-don't-care attitude started to flow through her veins. The muscles relaxed. Her room started to go blurry…
Creak. The front door opened. "Hija, I'm home!" her mother called, putting down her car keys.
Gabriella quickly stuffed the bottle under her bed again and stumbled downstairs.
"Hi madra!" she said slowly, so as not to slur.
"How was school?" she asked, starting to unpack the groceries, which included another bottle of vodka.
"It was okay. Didn't get a lot of homework. What's for dinner?" she asked.
"Chicken," she said, holding it up before setting it back on the counter to thaw.
"That was really good!" Gabriella said, putting her plate in the dishwasher and pushing the Power button.
"No problem, sweetie," she replied, putting away the leftovers.
Gabriella faked a huge yawn. "Well, I think I'm gonna turn in. See you tomorrow morning!" She stumbled up the stairs to her room.
Flashback:
"Er, hi Gabriella," he said seriously.
"What did you want to tell me?" Gabriella asked, some of her zest gone.
"Well, it's basketball season, and I'm not going to be able to see you a lot, with practices and all…" began Troy.
"And?" Gabriella asked, a definite note of panic in her voice.
"And I think we should see other people," he said.
End FlashbackNo, I can' think of that, she mentally shook herself. But the same thought kept creeping back to her: Why had Troy broken up with her. She knew what he said wasn't true. Last year, there was no problem with them dating during basketball season. So it must be something about my looks, she thought sadly to herself.
She pulled her cell phone out of her shorts pocket and went to the Pictures folder. She selected a picture of her and Troy on the last day of school. Ugh, my thighs are huge in this, she thought glumly, and my hair looks like a rat's nest.
She stumbled to her bathroom and rummaged through the topmost drawer until she retrieved the gleaming knife. She dragged it crookedly once, twice, three times across her already scarred wrist, reopening the wounds. It hurt a bit, but it relieved her real pain.
She started to turn a ghostly shade of white. She looked down at her wrist, her vision going in and out of focus. Her old wounds were bleeding profusely and the new ones were bleeding as much, if not more. The globs of scarlet dripped onto the tile floor. Gabriella's eyes bulged and she looked around for a Band-Aid of some sort. She saw a towel hanging on the rack. She nearly fell over getting it. She hastily applied it to her wrist, but it didn't do much to block the blood flow. Her am was an almost paper white and the color was quickly spreading to the rest of her body. The room was spinning in and out of vision. Gabriella's head lolled to the side as the world went black.
Author's Note: Well, I told you this might not be the most logical chapter. I had a lot of help from Baby-M-xo, my writing sister, so big big thanks to her! And I'm not the best at writing self-harm scenes, so bear with me. The next chapter will be about Sharpay and going into more depth into her problem. Please review!