Not Everything Changes

People stared and whispered as the tiny brunette tried to lead the dirty, semi-conscious, barely upright, sopping wet man towards the elevator. "Come on Troy! Work with me here," she muttered. He responded with a grunt and stood a little straighter but that was it. Finally, reaching the doors, she leaned him against the wall and pressed the up arrow.

"What was I thinking?" she groaned aloud. Was he drunk, high, totally nuts. Something was wrong, she knew that much, but what was it? It's not like she could just ask him. On the twenty minute ride back to her apartment he'd turned into Zombie-Troy. She knew then that she couldn't just take him to his house, not that she'd planned to do that to begin with. This was the perfect opportunity for her to get some answers out of him, while his guard was down. She knew it was wrong, but she deserved to know didn't she?

"I deserve this much," she huffed. Then, behind her, something fell to the ground with a thud; it was Troy of course. "UGH," she sighed as she grabbed his feet and drug him into the elevator.

"Oww," a voice complained. Gabriella's head shot up to see the doors trying to close on his head. "Oops," she giggled pulling him farther into the room. "You know you could have just asked me to get up," he chuckled rubbing his bruised skull.

"Probably," she shrugged.

Troy laughed. "You really haven't changed have you?" he smiled.

"We've both changed Troy," she sighed. "Everyone changes."

"But not everything," he added with emphasis on the last syllable.

"No, not everything," she agreed as she slid down the wall to sit by him. They stayed that way for a few minutes. It was nice to just sit there in the silence. It was a soothing, relaxing, and companionable silence that neither one wanted to break it. But a question hung in the air that was bugging Troy.

When it got to be too much, he looked over at her a said, "Gabriella?" She gave him a nod to continue. "What floor do you live on?"

It seemed like a weird question to her but she answered, "The third." When he didn't say anything else she asked, "Why?"

"Doesn't it seem weird to you that we've been in here," he checked his watch, "for three minutes and twenty-six seconds when you only live on the third floor?" The air left the tiny room as both pairs of eyes flew to the control panel. It flashing and a was making a now very noticeable clicking sound.

"Please tell me it's suppose to do that," Troy groaned.

"I wish I could," Gabriella said.

Pause

"Got a cell phone?" he asked.

"Left it in the car. You?"

"Threw it off a roof."

"Great, so we're stuck," she said.

"Seems that way," he agreed. After another pause he added, "How many people use this elevator?"

"There's only three floors to the building Troy, we're in Albuquerque remember. No one needs to use the slow, lazy, stupid elevators. Not when there are stairs!" she huffed.

"So we're pretty much screwed?" he asked nonchalantly.

Gabriella choked back a sob, "Pretty much," she said, and covered her face with her hands. After a moment of quiet sobbing she asked, "What are we going to do?".

Another moment of silence ensued as Troy seemed to think it over. Finally, he broke the silence with, "We'll talk. I'll start. After I graduated from East High, Chad and I went off to U of A....."

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S GONE? WHERE COULD HE BE?" Kelsi screamed as she ran towards the closet. Grabbing clothes out by the handful she looked for the missing body. "Five hours ago, he was practically comatose and now you tell me he's gone?" she yelled. Giving up on any hope of finding him in the closet she moved on to the bathroom.

"I'm telling you Kelsi, I looked everywhere. I can't find him. Nothing's missing either!"

"Just Troy," she fired back as she stormed into the hall.

"Yeah well there's that," Chad admitted. "But get this! This might be good news!" he said excitedly.

"Good news," she retorted. "How is this GOOD NEWS? This is TERRIBLE news. WE LOST TROY BOLTON! HOW COULD ANYONE THINK OF THAT AS GOOD NEWS???"

"I think I know where his is!"

"What? Where?" she demanded. "Did you check there? And why did you call me at 11:42 PM to say you lost Troy if you know where he is?" Kelsi sighed exasperatedly.

"Because I don't know where she is," Chad said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Don't know where who is? Why does she matter? Why would he go after her? Why now?" Kelsi badgered.

"Gabriella. Gabriella Montez. They used to date in high school. Their break-up was the cause of his psychosis," Chad said smoothly. Kelsi's jaw dropped. "What?" Chad said innocently. "That's what Taylor said."

Kelsi recovered from her shock and turned towards the study, "You said her name was Gabriella Montez?" Chad nodded. "Great I'll Google her. Have you told Taylor?"

"Yeah, she's out looking for him on the streets."

"Good, call and tell her we're going to track down Gabriella. See if she knows anything." Chad nodded and ran off call Taylor. "Love, what a crazy crazy thing it is," Kelsi murmured as she typed in the name and pressed search.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Troy leaned back against the wall and looked up at the ceiling as he tried to catch his breath. Beside him a certain brunette was still shaking with laughter. "That's just one of those scenarios that only you and Chad could get yourselves into," she giggled wiping a tear from her eye.

"According to Chad, those mooses had it coming," Troy replied.

"Troy, you know that the plural of moose is moose right?" Gabriella asked worriedly.

Troy gave her a confused look. "Didn't you hear me? I said according to Chad." The two both dissolved into another fit of doubled-over, side-splitting, cheek-aching laughter. "Alright your turn," Troy said sitting back up. "What have you been up to? "Gabriella looked down at her hands and twiddled her thumbs. "Don't get all shy on me now," Troy said in a half-laugh, trying to make her feel more at ease.

"Why would you think I was..."

"Your thumbs. You always twiddle your thumbs when you're nervous or self-conscious. It's your tell," he said casually.

"Oh!" she said in mild awe. "I never noticed that before. How did you..."

Troy sighed angrily. "Some on Brie, give me some credit! We used to know each other pretty well," he said.

Gabriella's eyes brightened at the nickname. "You called me Brie! I haven't heard that name since..." They both turned away at the uncomfortable memory and fidgeted nervously. "But that's not important," she coughed uneasily. "Anyway, after East High I moved in with my Dad in New York and finished school there. After graduation I moved to California to attend Berkeley and majored in music and composition and all that jazz. Pun intended. I got hired right out of school to play in an orchestra. I traveled around with them a little while and somehow found my way back to Albuquerque. Sadly, that's my life pretty much my entire life in a nut shell."

"You make your music career seem like no big deal, I saw the reviews critics did on you...Brie.... you were good. No, phenomenal is more like it. Even the toughest, meanest critics were in love with your playing. Why'd you stop?" He felt her questioning gaze on him and added, "I did some research on you while I was trying to set you up with Ryan."

Gabriella nodded. "I see. Well, I guess it was because I wasn't happy. I had everything I wanted and wasn't happy. So I guess it really wasn't what I wanted after all. So I threw it all away and moved back here. A part of me has always sort felt that this is where I belong, here in Albuquerque. This is only place I've ever truly feel at home, the only place I've ever been happy. So I came back. For the sun, the warm temperatures, wide skies, starry nights...." Feeling brave she added, "and you."

She stole a glance at Troy who seemed to be in shock, but not in a bad way. Encouraged, she continued. "I missed you. I tried to convince myself that I just needed a change of pace, that this was only temporary, and that a walk down memory lane was all I needed. But that day I met Ryan and saw you again, my lies became incredibly transparent. By the time I saw you again, I knew that the real reason I'd come back was to see if I could find you. I was hoping that you'd still be here, I didn't think you would be, but there you were. It was like I'd never left, like nothing had changed. Even though EVERYTHING'S changed."

Gabriella waited for Troy to respond but he didn't. She turned to see him staring at the doors, deep in thought. "I can wait," she thought. "I've been waiting a long time already. What's a few more seconds. No big deal." But her heart was pounding against her rib cage. What if he didn't feel the same? Was that possible? No.... she didn't think so, but the What If's always got to her. Her heart was beating so hard she could hear it in her ears. But wait... it couldn't be that loud could it? Then the real source of the pounding registered.

"Someone's out there!" she screamed jumping up. "HEY!!! HELLLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME? HELP!!!"

"Hello?" a voice on the outside yelled back.

"Yes!" Gabriella cried in relief. "We're stuck! HELP!" she yelled back.

"Oh shit," the man cursed. "Bob! There are people trapped inside! Is anyone hurt? Are you ok?" he yelled back.

"We're fine! Just get us out. PLEASE!!!" Gabriella shouted.

"Hold on, we'll have you out in a few minutes." True to their work, maintenance had the doors opened several minutes later and Gabriella practically ran out.

"Thank you so much. I'm taking that as a sign to get more exercise and I'll be using the stairs from now on!" After assuring several workers that she was okay, she was home free. She turned to talk to Troy only to see that he wasn't beside her. "Troy?" Someone cleared their throat and she turned to see him leaning against the wall. Gabriella slowly walked towards him and tried to read his eyes. But they were unreadable. Her spirits fell slightly. "I was going to ask if you wanted to finish our talk but it's been a long day and I understand that you probably want to go home. So I'm just going to go...." she said slowly backing down the hall. He followed without a word.

Not a sound passed from his lips as they walked towards her apartment. He stared at the floor as she unlocked the door. He didn't thank her when she held the door open for him. He stood by the wall and stared into space as she closed the door behind them. He didn't respond when she asked if he wanted anything to eat or drink. He didn't move from his spot next to the door until she'd settled herself on the couch. Then he quickly walked over to her and placed one hand on the arm of the couch and the other on the back. Leaning down he whispered, "Not everything changes," and kissed her.