Side bar time!
So I don't know if anyone noticed, but Ask a Bitch as been taken down. I made a mistake; the word Bitch in the title was a violation of the rules so they did remove it. So in fear for Porn struck I changed the title to Love Struck. As for Chapter posting I've been trying to stick to Saturdays today I'm posting again because I'm actually really far into this story so why not?
As for me, I am doing fine these days. Hanging out with friends and enjoying the weather. I got a new car because the breaks went out on my 1992 Ford Explorer aka Big Red. I was able to avoid other cars and death! My new car is a 2001 Ford Taurus I call him Moon Doggie because he's maroon and reminds me of summer. So from my favorite late 50 suffer classic movie, Gidget, I named my car after the male lead character.
In case you're wondering the origins about this current story Reborn came from the movie Gone with Amanda Seyfried. Not that the plot of this story is the plot to that movie but the concept of the character after a tragic event is. I wanted to go inside the life of a victim way after the crime and drama, see what's it's like for someone trying to go back to "normal."
I want to thank everyone for the reviews my boyfriend is always asking me what the count of reviews are because he finds my story telling hobbies adorable. He urges me all the time to submit something for publication but I don't feel ready yet. So thanks for reading and keep the reviews coming! I love hearing input and it helps when I'm molding the story to hear what you guys think. I'm always typing 5 or 8 chapters ahead of you guys. I am very happy that everyone is enjoying this story, and now I will shut and let you get back to it.
Story time!
After about two week of working in the game room Gabriella had come to the conclusion that she (as she knew she would.) hated her job. Most night she sat at the desk doing her homework and occasionally conversing with a few students as they checked out equipment. She hadn't really been presented with a case of fear, other than just her routine habits of safety checks she went through about 50 times a day to prevent fear. Kelsi was nice; she didn't judge Gabriella with the same fleeting annoyance that her roommate had developed, her roommate who had decided that she was going to be staying with her boyfriend, rather than in her room. Forcing what little chances of friendship Gabriella had hoped for down the drain.
Against everything she wanted she lived alone, she went to classes alone, she walked to her appointments alone and participated in her kickboxing classes alone. These days the only time she wasn't alone was when her and Kelsi were trading shifts. Kelsi would stay a little longer to help her settle into her comfort before running off to leave her alone … again. They would talk about classes, Kelsi crush Ryan Evans or Kelsi friend Kimberly who dated a guy named Jason she met once while giving him equipment to play ping pong.
Gabriella raced across campus her feet tapping along the pavement in the evening heat. Once she got to the student center she let out a sigh of relief as she hurried through the main hall past the café and down to the lower section where the Game room was. Coming to the window she expected to see Kelsi and was very stunned to find Troy instead.
"Your late." He muttered staring up at her from his book. He blue eyes were angry and presented dark circle around the bottom of his eyes suggesting that he wasn't getting much sleep. He wore a short sleeve green shirt with Khaki shorts, his hair was ruffled and his facial hair was more unkempt than she could remember.
"I'm sorry." She said. "I lost track of time," something she rarely if ever had done these days. After her appointment she'd been instructed to go to a random park bench outside her comfort zone and work up the courage to ask some random man for the time. A task that was supposed to be helping her work on her anxiety, however this task took an hour and forty minutes, which she shook and mumbled through horribly.
"Right." Troy rolled his eyes.
"Where is Kelsi?" she asked still on the outside of the service window not daring to go in just yet. The wall between them provided a certain kind of comfort she didn't want to give up just yet. Not after the afternoon she had.
"Well she had a doctor's appointment so she called me to fill in for her." Troy said with a small hint of annoyance. "Which means that I will be coming back here in" he paused to look up at the clock. "3 hours to work the late shift."
"I didn't know." Gabriella said looking away from him afraid that he might continue to start to yell at her.
"No you didn't, because this number?" he held up a sheet with their schedules and cell phone numbers on it. "This number you wrote down is a disconnected number." Troy slapped the paper down on the desk and got up from his seat.
Gabriella flinched at the sound."I must have written the number wrong." Gabriella said knowing that she had; she'd given Kelsi her real number and of course Mr. Ward but on the sheet that hung in the game room office for all eyes to see. She'd written down an old number she knew was disconnected. More unresolved trust issues to work on at another time.
"Yeah, you must have." Troy lifted his bag and he looked at her with another level of annoyance. "Are you going to come in or what?"
The tone of his voice made her jerk again. "Yeah," she said looking away from him and at the floor. After a moment hesitation and an extreme pushing aside of her gut that told her to stay put she walked to the door and swiped her badge to let herself in.
"I'm leaving I have to get something to eat and then shower before I turn around and come right back here." He said as he shuffled his way towards her. "That's the thing about you women, I'm always bending over backwards, jumping through hoops and damn near killing myself but for what?" Troy tossed his hands up. "So you can say I'm not interesting enough and move on."
Gabriella took her time card from the small shelves and slipped it into the machine to punch the time onto her card for the day, then quickly moved out of the way so that Troy could punch out next. Awareness of fear, Gabriella closed her eyes her awareness was being in this back room with a guy she didn't know who seemed to have all the authority and a sense of frustration pointed at her was enough to cause fear. She opened her eyes to watch him look at his watch and then pluck his card form the case beside the machine."Troy?"
The sound of the machine punching the card rang though the air and he turned around slipping the card back into its spot in the case beside the machine on the wall. "What?" he said his book bag slung over his shoulder and the book he was reading in his hands.
Gabriella pulse skyrocketed, what the fuck was she suppose to do next? Gabriella stared at him her mouth agape as she tried to think of something to say. Trying to focus on a conversation at hand and not the end result of getting him to leave or at least not be mad at her. Time, she had to make use of her time. She closed her eyes again and grabbed for the idea of generosity. The last step, "You don't have to come in tonight, I'll stay until 2." She said with a stiff stance. Her eyes opened again to find him staring at her with an arched brow.
Troy took a step further and she instinctively took three back. The sudden movement brought them both to a standstill. Both of them stared at each other in examination as though the other one was an alien with three heads. "You alright?" Troy asked breaking the silence.
"I'm fine." Gabriella said tucking her loose strands from her ponytail back behind her ears and trying to look as though she was a normal teenage girl conversing with a normal teenage boy. If he even wasn't a teenager.
"Aren't you hot?" he asked looking at her sweatshirt and jeans.
"No," she lied. If anything living here had caused her to drop weight with the amount she sweated off daily.
"Where are you from? Arizona or something?" he asked shifting a hand through his hair.
"Albuquerque, New Mexico." She said taking a deep breath; her eyes looked out into the game room of student center, not very active for 5 o'clock on a Thursday evening.
"So I know that Taylor isn't really staying in the room anymore." He said with a grim smile.
Fear in overwhelming waves rushed through her, he knew she was alone. It was as if he threatened her world as it existed with a nuclear weapon. "What do you mean?" she said quickly as she began to fidget with the sweater.
"I mean she's been sleeping in Chad's room for the last two weeks," Troy said crossing his arms now. "I know it must be hard to be in a new school so far from home and not seem to have anyone to talk too-"
"I talk to lots of people." Gabriella protested. The doctor and Kelsi, they were people. Troy was quiet for another moment as he examined her, she could feel her inside shaking her breathing becoming quicker and she could sense that he was noticing all these changes as well. She could feel that voice inside her head that was screaming at her to do or say something, anything. "How's your girlfriend?" He flinched. Gabriella reacted to his flinch by taking another step back.
"We broke up." Troy said now shifting his weight to his right side of his body.
"Oh," Gabriella nodded slowly as she dared to bring her eyes back up to his. On contact a rushing sense of stillness came over and her breathing slowed. His blue eyes moved in tiny shifts as if trying to take her all in at once. "I'm sorry," she said in a low voice.
"It's alright." Troy said his eyes now resting on hers. "Better to have loved and lost than not to have known love at all, right?" he said with a small chuckle.
The sound of his laugh caught her off guard and she forced her lips to pull up.
"You don't have to stay till 2." Troy said with a soft voice, "And I'm sorry if I pointed any of my suppressed anger at you." He said now looking down at his hands as he thumbed through the pages of his book. "Just not all that friendly these days, but I'm working on it."
"Then I'll stay later," Gabriella said smoothing her hands out on her pants.
"What if I just come back at 10?" Troy said with a soft smile.
"Fine," Gabriella agreed nodding slightly.
"Alright it's settled, I'll see you again at 10." Troy held out a hand towards her.
Gabriella stared at it with caution.
"I forget," Troy said pulling his hand back. "You're not the touchy kind." He said bringing his hand back towards him and shrugging his shoulder. "Right then, I'll see you later."
"Later," Gabriella heard herself say. She watched as he left the room the metal door closing behind him and then as he passed by the service window disappearing into the barrage of students coming down the stairs. A breath she hadn't been aware she was holding left her lungs and she felt her entire body slumped in response. It was over.
Troy turned around when he got to the top of the stair case his eyes watching as she finally set her bag to the side and then pulled the sweatshirt over her head, his breath catching as a little sliver of bronzed skin appeared under her gray shirt.
"YO!" Chad voice caught his attention and he turned in time to catch the basket ball sailing through the air. "Got a little free time, want to shoot some hoops?"
"Can't man," Troy tossed him back the ball as they fell into step next to each other. "I got to get something to eat then shower." Troy said lifting his arm to unleash a musk smell. "Going on day two and let me say I don't think day three is going to be any prettier."
Chad fanned the air in front of him. "That's just nasty dog."
"So how's life with your new roommate?"
"Can't complain." Chad said spinning the basketball on his finger. "I mean the reason I got a single was because we wanted the freedom of privacy so it all works out."
"So Gabriella's on her own, huh?"
Chad shrugged his shoulders, "Hey the way I see it, everyone got lucky. Gabriella got a single without evening putting in the paperwork. Most people would kill for that man."
Troy glanced back at the Game room Center below, "Somehow I don't think that's how she feels about it."
"So what do you want me to do, kick my girlfriend out?" Chad said catching the ball in his other hand as they came up to the cafeteria door way.
"No, let me see what I can do first." Troy said reaching in his back pocket for his wallet with his free hand.
"What are you gonna do?" Chad said with a raised brow taking out his wallet as well to retrieve is Id. Both boys were quite as the lady by the door scanned their Ids.
"I don't know yet." he said with a frown as he put his wallet away.