WARNING: This story contains themes of depression, SI (self-injury) and suicide.

I appreciate all the story alerts and the adding of TWLOHA on to favorite stories but I'm espessically thankful for my reviewers. =) Thank you, again, for all the sweet reviews from: coolio1260, pumpkinking5, EP, MissIndependentlyPerfect, Bluebell140, AlamancexGurl, yogaluva, and Clembo29.

Enjoy!

"You're going to be late!"

Gabriella buried her face into the pillow beneath her as she tried to block out the sound of someone knocking on wood. Her body tensed as she felt an arm tighten around her waist and heard grumbling from behind. The harder she tried to pull away, the tighter she was held. When she stopped resisting, she turned in his arm slowly to see his peaceful face. She hesitantly lifted her hand to sweep his bangs out of his eyes.

"Good morning," he mumbled, making her withdraw her hand quickly.

"H-how long have you been awake?" she stuttered as her cheeks warmed at the thought of him holding her tighter as she pulled away.

"Not too long. How did you sleep?"

Before she got a chance to speak, another knock sounded on his door. She stiffened in his arms, her dark brown eyes becoming the size of saucers.

"Troy," they heard through the door, "are you up? It's almost time for you to leave?"

"Be out in a minute," he yelled, as he remained completely calm and locked eyes with her. "I'm just running late."

"Okay, in that case, I'll fix something for you to eat on the way there."

"Thanks mom!"

The minute he called out his thanks, Gabriella frantically slipped out of his arms and rolled out of bed. She spun around in a circle as she tried to locate her shoes.

"Where do you think you're going?" Troy asked as he casually rolled out of bed and stretched like he did every morning.

"School," she said as she slipped on her shoes from the night before. "Get ready faster. We need to swing by my house before we go to school."

"You're not going to school."

"Excuse me?" she snapped as she spun around, only to come face to face to him.

"Gabriella, you were in a car crash lest than 6 hours ago," he said in an exasperated tone. "You need to rest."

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and took a step back, only to bump into his dresser. "I got checked out last night. If there was something wrong, then I would of been brought to the hospital."

"You drove your car into a tree!" he screamed, startling her with not only his tone but with his understanding of her situation.

"It wasn't intentional!"

"Then why did you feel the need to lie about why you were on the road at that hour?"

Gabriella remained stunned as she tried to fabricate a reason. She felt her heartbeat race and her palms began to sweat. Her gaze dropped to the floor as she leant back onto his dresser for support. She was beginning to think that it was a mistake to call Troy.

"Son, who are you talking to?" a maternal voice said through the door, but they made no effort move. Only when his mother repeatedly knock did he turn away from her. "Troy, open the door this instance!"

"Sorry, ma," he apologized as he slipped out of his door and closed it behind him.

"Why are you still in your pajamas?"

"Can you lower your voice?"

"Lower my voice? Why would I do that?"

The brunette's head snapped up as she heard his request. Despite her better judgment, she inched closer to the door to hear the conversation between mother and son.

"Please, mom, just lower your voice. I'll explain," he pleaded.

"Troy Alexander Bolton, start explaining things to me now."

"My friend got into an accident last night and she's staying in my room."

"She? You snuck a girl into your room and she spent the night?"

"Mom, it's Gabriella."

"The girl you were telling me about the other day?"

"Yeah, that one."

"You said that she was in an accident last night. Is she okay? What happened?"

"She drove into a tree and-"

"She drove into a tree? Oh my goodness! Where is this girl's mother?"

"Ms. Montez is out of town. She's a flight attendant, remember?"

"I think I should have a word with her when she gets back."

"No, mom. You can't get involved."

"Troy, she needs help. From what you've told me about her, I can't just standby and do nothing."

"Please, let me handle this."

"Sweetheart, I know you want to help but-"

"No, mom. I need to do this. I need to do what none of my friends did for me. She needs to know that someone cares."

If Gabriella had heard Troy's admission, she might have started of crying right in the middle of his room. But she wasn't listening on the other side of the door. The moment she heard Mrs. Bolton mention Troy talking about her, she backed away from the door and made a dash for Troy's backdoor. She didn't want to know what he had been telling his mother about her.

She did what she always did.

She ran.

-TWLOHA-

Impulsive. It was a terrible flaw of hers. Sometimes she just didn't give things a second thought and gave into her urges. That's why Gabriella stood on her balcony with a paper towel pressed to her inner forearm. It was the first thing she did after she sprinted through her neighbor's yards and to her house. She hadn't intended it for it to be that deep but she had little control of her actions at that point.

Never had she felt so lost.

She had failed last night. Perhaps that's what disturbed her the most. There were many things that she had failed at during the past couple of year. Time management for club activities. Projects for school. Math and Science Lessons. Being the perfect daughter and student. All she had to do was drive her car into a tree. How hard was that? But she still had failed.

Gabriella walked back to her room and sat on her bed. She placed the towel she had pressed to her wrist onto her side table, next to her blade. With much difficulty, she slid her bangles off one-by-one and also discarded it on to her side table. She examined her marred forearm as she lay down on her bed. Running two fingers across the top of her forearm, she could feel the divot that her bangles created in the muscles there from the countless time she forced them towards her elbow to cover her cuts. It disgusted her that the muscles in her forearm felt deformed and that the bottom third of her arm, just before her prominent wrist bone, was lighter than the rest of her body.

Her eyes drifted shut as she tried to clear her mind.

From inside the confines of her room, she heard the rustling of leaves and branches snapping. She didn't care that an intruder could be entering house right now. If anything, she had hope that they would do what she failed at.

"I didn't think you would run."

Her body went ridged as she heard the familiar voice. The possibility of him standing less than two feet from her frightened her.

He's not really here. She tried to convince herself.

"I mean, you literally ran. By the time I noticed that you were gone, I couldn't find you walking along the streets."

Gabriella took several deep breaths before she had the courage to sit up. She remained stiff as she became highly self-conscious at the fact that her wrist was exposed to his prying eyes. Her eyes locked with his for only a second before she adverted them her feet dangling inches about her floor. "W-what are you doing here?" she managed to spit out.

"Basketball practice," he said sarcastically as he plops down beside her. "I came to see you. Why else would be here?"

"To annoy the hell out of me," she muttered as she hopped off of her bed and walking towards the railing of her balcony. She knew that she should have offered him some explanation for her presence but she just doesn't feel like talking. "I'm fine. I'm sorry that you came over here for no reason."

"You're obviously still in shock or something. This isn't a normal reaction!"

"Yeah, well, I'm not exactly like everyone else," she said nonchalantly.

"Noted," Troy said as he positioned himself beside her. "I meant what I said last night. I'm glad that you're still here. I don't know what I would of done if something happened to you."

"Oh, don't be so dramatic!" she scolded as she turned to face him. "You're Troy Bolton. Your world would of kept turning."

"What's that suppose to mean?" he asked and took a defensive stance. "Do you really underestimate your role in my life?"

"Stop it! Stop pretending that I have sort of impact on your life! You would be so much better without me."

He looked taken a back for a minute by her outburst. "Do you really believe that?"

"Please, just leave. Thank you for everything that you did for me last night but please just leave me alone."

"Is that really what you want? To be in this huge ass house alone? Especially after last night, the last thing you need is to be alone."

"Last night was nothing," she said before taking a step back from the railing and towards her balcony doors. "No offense Troy, but you don't know what I need." Just as she was about to lock him out, he had caught her left wrist in his grip. Her eyes widened as she looked down and saw that his hand was enclosed just centimeters away from her fresh cut. "Let go of me," she gritted through her teeth as she tried to pull away.

"You're an only child, right?"

Her heat pounded furiously against her chest but she paid no mind to it. She nodded slowly, confused by his sudden calmness, and tilted her head in his direction to look at him peculiarly. She quickly realized that he wasn't even looking at her, so she reiterated her response in a soft voice. Troy had his back to her but his arm was bent slightly backwards to keep her from moving away from.

Gabriella tried to pry his hands off of her wrist but his grasp remained firm. She gave up and walked closer to him, noticing the way his grip loosened slightly with each step she took. Now standing side-by-side, his hand remained around her wrist but he was no longer holding her against her will. She hardly noticed as she was preoccupied by the distant look in his eye as he stared straight ahead. She had never seen him this serious before. The Troy Bolton she knew was the jokester, who always wore a charming smile.

"Doesn't it suck? I hate how the house is so quiet now."

"Now?" she echoed, confused by his word choice.

"I wasn't always an only child," he said after what felt like hours to her. "My sister passed away in August of Sophomore Year. She was just barely 10-years-old." He chuckled a bit to himself before turning to her. "You know what's funny? Krystina was 10.11 pounds when she was born and when she died, she was 10-years-old and 11 days."

From the moment their eyes met, her mouth seemed to have dried. Maybe it was the glare of the mid-morning sun but his blue-eyes seemed a bit glossy. Seeing him serious was one thing but seeing him so vulnerable was another. She found it hard to breathe, let alone speak. How does one respond to such a revelation?

"Troy," she begun softly as she placed her free hand on his arm, "I am so sorry. I had no idea that you even had a sister."

"Don't be sorry, it's not like it was your fault. You didn't even know me back then. Besides, it was her time."

"Do you really believe that? She barely lived." As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them. Her apology was cut short as he placed a hand of hers on his arm.

"Gabriella," he said, matching her tone, "you're entitled to your opinion. Yes, she was young but you don't know the whole story. Krystina had been sick for a very long time. She was born a very healthy and bubbly baby but when she was 1-years-old, she had a liver transplant. Everything was just up and down from then on. Name a holiday and we probably spent it at least once in the hospital."

"I can't imagine how hard that must have been on you and your family. Your sister especially."

"Yeah, it sure ass hell wasn't easy. That's why I like to think that it was her time to stop suffering. She never complained about her illness- whether it was chemotherapy or dialysis for her kidneys. Her veins in her arms were so bruised from the many times that they had drawn blood. I can still hear how she'd cry and scream when they'd poke her with the needle. She never fought against them but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt. In the end, there was only so much that her body could take."

There it was again. That guilt that had built up inside of her was now at its all time high. How could she act so selfish when there are people like Troy's sister that are truly suffering? She felt like crying now, but knew that it was out of the question in Troy's presence. "She sounds like such an amazing person," Gabriella finally managed to get out.

"She definitely was," he said grinning and affectionately squeezing the top of her hand. "I was a wimp compared to her. That was one reason among the many that I felt so guilty sometimes. I wasn't the best brother that I could be."

"I'm sure that you tried your best."

"No, that honestly wasn't my best. That's what I regret the most," he said as he adjusted the hand that held her marred forearm, causing her to tense again. "I'll show you mine one of these days."

Before she question what he was referring to, Troy flipped over her left arm. His grip was firm, as if warning her that it would be useless to try and pull away. He pulled a red marker from his back pocket and uncapped it using his teeth. His fingers resting against her forearm brushed against the blood red cut.

By that time, she was completely petrified. Her eyes remained fixed on his calm facial expressions. The red cap of the marker remained perched between his teeth and his eyes met hers briefly before pointing downward. Questions filled her mind, but she found it hard to speak once again. She felt the soft tip of the marker against her wrist. Despite the soreness that surrounded the cut, whatever he did to her wrist didn't hurt in the slightest.

With the marker still in hand, he retrieved its cap from between his teeth. He bent down and blew against the inside of her wrist before placing a light kiss on it. He drops her wrist and met her gaze. "Gabriella," he said softly, "it does get better. Please remember that you're not alone." He dropped a kiss on her cheek and then begun to climb over the balcony's railing.

Gabriella remained frozen in her spot as she watched him maneuver himself down the branches of the tree. Some part of her thought it was a dream. It definitely didn't feel real to her. But then she looks down at her naked forearm. There- over her thin lines of release -was the word LOVE written in all caps.

Who could blame her for being just as confused as ever?

A/N: I know, it's kind of a short chapter. But, I felt that it was appropriate to end it here. I'm a bit late with the update but what started as a sore throat earlier in the week, turned into a full-blown cold. It was terrible. Especially when I still went to school. But it's whatever. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Yes, that was a reference to the title but that doesn't mean this story's almost over. It's far from it, actually. We're forgetting that they are in high school and in high school, there's a tendency for drama among friends. =)

Thank you for reading and please review!

Much Love,

Kae xx

Anonymous Review Reply:

to EP:I'm so glad that you loved everything about the last chapter and thought it was nicely written. =) lol the scene where he spun them around in public was inspired by my friend. He spun me around in the middle of class and it was sooooo embarrassing! =P Thank you for the review and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! xx