Author's Note: Please review! Sorry for the long wait, I've been busy.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Everyone Has a Problem
Chapter 11: Unexpected Visitor
By music is happiness and Baby-M-xo
Last Chapter…
She was just going to pick up the blade again when she heard a frantic tap on her porch window. A voice that sounded like it was horrified, worried, and frantic at the same time, said loudly enough to be heard through the thick glass and over the loud music, "Gabriella?"
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Her lank curls bounced against her back as she turned her head to see her unexpected visitor. He was easily identifiable by his bushy afro.
"Chad? What're you doing here?" she slurred. Realizing that he couldn't hear her through the thick panes, she got up, swaying on her feet. She leaned over and paused the music. She slowly walked to her balcony doors, her vision going in and out of focus. It took her several tries to open the door. When she succeeded, without any preamble, Chad burst.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Gabriella was unfazed. "What are you doing here?" She concentrated on every word, making it distinct, but she slipped up in some places.
"I heard loud, death metal music coming from your room and came over to investigate."
"How'd you hear it?" Another slip.
"We're neighbors, Gabriella." He looked at her strangely for not remembering this fact.
Gabriella nodded blearily.
"But what's going on here?" He looked over her head and she stupidly went on her toes to try and hide the evidence. Chad looked like someone had punched him in the gut when he saw the empty bottle of vodka and the bloody blade. He looked at her, demanding answers.
"I was…" Her mind worked into overdrive, trying to unearth a somewhat plausible excuse. "recycling used bottles." Nice. Real nice. She clamped her teeth together.
Chad rolled his eyes disbelievingly. "What about the jagged piece of metal?"
"I…couldn't get the cap off one of the bottles." She wanted to take back the words right after she said them. You probably didn't need to take the caps off the bottles before you recycle them.
"Ever heard of a set of hands?"
She didn't respond to the rhetorical question. Chad saw her exposed wrist and his expression of horror, if possible, increased.
"Why are you doing this to yourself, Gabs? Are you suicidal?" It was a rhetorical question, but Gabriella replied to it anyway.
"No, I'm not." Her words were clipped, filled with anger.
Chad looked at her, horror-struck. She realized the impact of her own words and she grabbed the door handle instinctively.
"I have to go." She started to close the door on him. She might as well have had a huge sticker on her forehead that said 'Lie' for all the good her action did her. He pushed back against the door frame, hard.
"This is about Troy breaking up with you, isn't it?"
She nodded, unaware of the action.
Chad's murderous glare didn't need words to back it up. She succeeded with closing and locking the doors, pulling the blinds down in one swift motion. She turned around, tears falling down her cheeks. She wiped them away angrily. She needed to be in better control of her emotions.
She felt a kick in her stomach. A reflexive hand went down to the small bump and she sighed. Deciding she should take a test and end the mystery, she grabbed her car keys from her nightstand and headed out the door.
She should have just walked, but was too much a coward to have a chance, however slight, of facing any of her friends from East High until absolutely necessary. The vodka she had drunk was effecting her driving profusely. It was a sheer miracle that no cops had pulled her over.
The main door to Walgreen's tinkled an optimistic jingle, the complete opposite of Gabriella's pessimistic outlook on life. She quickly did a scan on the shoppers: no one she recognized.
She took a breath and went to the Personal Health aisle. She grabbed the first test box she saw and half-ran to the checkout. There were a few people in front of her, with a lot of items in their hands. A wave of impatience shot threw her and she looked at the white ceiling, tapping her foot quietly.
Finally, the old lady with three bags of cat litter walked to the door. Gabriella almost tripped in her haste to pay and leave. She was getting her wallet out of her purse when she heard her name called by the cashier. The voice belonged to the person she really didn't want to see right now, when she was buying a pregnancy test.
"Gabriella?" His voice sounded a little breathless, like he had just been punched in the gut, hard.
She looked at him, feeling like a bucket of ice-cold water had just been poured over her head. Her breathing stopped for a moment, then started at rapid speed. She dug a twenty out of purse, slammed it down on the counter, took the box from Troy's frozen hand, and bolted out of there before he could say anything else.
Author's Note: Please review!