That Monday was almost over as the gang noticed that Tuesday was slowly creeping up on them, the three exhausted from their entire day of driving and only one stop to eat.
"Taylor, it's getting late. Maybe we should pull into the nearest town here in Arkansas and get a room for the night. Besides, we're all tired and deserve a rest." Gabriella said as she peeked in between the driver and passenger seats to be greeted by Chad's snoring.
"You're right. By the looks of it, Chad isn't going to be grabbing the wheel and we're both tired. Let's drive in and see what we can find." Taylor said as she scrunched her face when her eyes noticed the trail of drool traveling along Chad's jaw.
The girls couldn't resist the sight and giggled. Gabriella deciding on being mischievous grabbed her camera and took pictures of the young man sleeping.
"This would be perfect for blackmail someday." She stated with a smile. Gabriella pressed the 'review pictures' button on her camera as she silently laughed to herself.
"Yeah, as long as we don't let him find out about those pictures because if he does, I know he'll delete it. Oh look! There's a little motel right there! What do you think Gab?" Taylor asked.
"It's the first one we saw and I'm exhausted. If we drive any longer I just might get carsick. So whatever…let's take it." The brunette said. Taylor pulled into the motel parking lot and looked over at Chad, trying to decide which was the best way to wake him up.
"Perhaps poking him with a stick might work," said Gabriella, as she instantly knew what her best friend was deciding. "If not, we could just leave him here in the car."
"Nah, we just can't leave him here. And although I think the stick idea might work, I'm going to have to resist that urge this time. Let's just shake him." Taylor replied, gripping unto his arm to lightly shake him when Chad suddenly began to stir. Moments later, he opened his eyes and noticed both females staring at him with slight disgust.
"What did I miss? Why are you guys staring at me like that?" he asked groggily. Gabriella gestured towards his chin as he felt his saliva beneath his fingertips. It dawned on him that he was drooling and quickly wiped it off with the sleeve of his shirt. "Sorry about that."
"It's okay, we could have woken you up at a worse state. Anyways, I'm sure you're tired…well obviously if you were asleep but that's not the point. Taylor and I are also a bit tired and we think that its best if we each rest for a few hours before hitting the road again which is why we're in the parking lot of this motel." Gabriella explained slowly knowing that it was necessary since Chad just woke up.
"Fine with me ladies."
"Well then, Gabriella and I will get a room while you grab the suitcases." Taylor stated quickly. Both her and Gabriella rushed out the car before Chad could protest.
Once inside the motel, the girls cringed from its appearance. The lighting was dim and the red carpet was stained from unknown substances. The walls were painted a shade of beige with very few pictures. The receptionist at the other half of the room was practically asleep at her desk, a newspaper beneath her head as she had it down.
"Gabs, are you sure we should take this one? Maybe we could drive further along the road and see our other options." Taylor suggested, looking at Gabriella with unsure eyes.
"Don't worry Tay. This place might look run down and all but I'm sure we'll be fine. So what if this place might give us the creeps? We're only going to be here for a few hours, and besides, we're going to be asleep. Look at it this way; if anything is going to happen, Chad's here to protect us." Gabriella said trying to make her friend feel secure.
"I suppose you're right…" Taylor said still feeling uneasy about the place. The girls walked towards the reception desk and stood there waiting for the young girl behind it to attend them. After about a minute of standing there Taylor became impatient and rang the bell, which scared the young girl awake.
"Jesus! Oh gosh. I'm so sorry. Didn't mean to fall asleep, it's just that I have the late shift and this was the only job I could find to help me out a bit with my college tuition…not like you guys care or need to know. I'm rambling aren't I? Sorry. Well, welcome to Motel Delight. My name is Patricia, how may I assist you?" the receptionist stated in a dull manner. She noticed that the girls seemed to still be processing everything she said but chose to ignore it as she waited for their reply.
"Um, hi. It's nice to meet you. Can we have a room for three please?" Gabriella asked since Taylor seemed a bit taken aback.
"Sure thing miss. Would you like it with one or two beds?"
"Two would be fine." Gabriella figured that her and Taylor could share a bed while Chad slept alone…unless Taylor decided to sleep with him. At that moment, Chad stumbled towards the girls carrying Gabriella's duffle bag and rolling his and Taylor's suitcases in both arms.
"Are you sure you want two? I don't know but it seems like one would be enough for the three of you…don't get me wrong but a lot of folks come here to have a good time, if you know what I mean…"
Chad smirked at the thought of having both Taylor and Gabriella in one bed with him. Taylor looked over at him and noticed his smirk and realized he was having dirty thoughts.
"Chad Danforth, if you don't wipe the stupid smirk off your face, then I'll handle taking it off myself!" Chad removed his smile at Taylor's threat.
"Excuse me, but you have the wrong idea. We're not into that kind of thing. We're just here to sleep and continue on our trip tomorrow, got it?" Gabriella said firmly while glaring into Patricia's eyes.
"Suit yourself lady. You guys have room 105. That will be $100.00." Patricia replied as the girls paid $33 each, leaving Chad to pay $34. "Enjoy your stay. Here is the room key."
Gabriella grabbed the key and grabbed her duffel bag from Chad. She felt sympathy from watching him carry so much. Taylor figured that Chad should man-up and left him to pull hers behind. They made their way through the motel and located their room. Once opening the door, Taylor felt relieved that the room had a better appearance than the lobby.
"See Tay, its not going to be so bad after all." Gabriella stated as she took notice to how the room looked. The carpet was a shade of brown, which contrasted with the teal walls while the sheets on each bed were beige. Between the beds was a night table with a small lamp and alarm clock. Directly in front of the bed by the door, was a table that had an antique styled television with a picture hanging above it. On the other end of the room next to the other bed, was the closet and bathroom.
"Well, I don't know about you guys but I'm going back to hitting the sack. I'll grab the bed by the bathroom in case you girls want to watch TV before going to bed. Goodnight Gab and Tay." Chad said before pulling the covers back on the bed, not even bothering to change his clothes.
"Alright Chadykins. Goodnight. I'm setting the alarm for 8:30 AM so that gives you a few hours to get that necessary and proper sleep. See you when you wake up." Gabriella said while walking towards the bathroom with her duffel bag in hand to shower.
In the meantime, Taylor watched Chad fall asleep. She was so lost in her thoughts about her previous memories with Chad that she failed to notice that Gabriella came out of the bathroom ten minutes later.
'By the way that she's looking at Chad, anybody could notice that she still feels for him. Taylor's a smart girl and I'm sure she notices how she might be feeling…this trip should be interesting then.' Gabriella silently thought to herself as a smirk spread across her face. Gabriella realized that Taylor's eyes still didn't move off of Chad's sleeping figure so she coughed to catch her friend's attention.
"Bathroom is all yours Tay." Gabriella said still smirking at her friend.
"Oh, um…thanks. I'll be back in a jiff." Taylor replied while rummaging through her suitcase and grabbing the few things that she needed. She knew she was blushing as her mind filled with embarrassment, avoiding Gabriella's gaze.
Gabriella flopped down onto the bed and turned on the television, settling on the news but not paying much mind to it as her mind was elsewhere.
'I wonder if this whole trip was a good idea. I know we're all dying to see Troy but maybe this wasn't the right time. Who knows what's going on with his life right now…maybe he's happier without us. I mean he did decide to go without really saying much to any of us…just that he wanted to fulfill his dream. Oh gosh, I'm so selfish for that remark! Who am I to want Troy to be held back from his future all because of me being selfish for wanting to have stayed and tried to work things out with me? Get a grip Gabriella. What am I going to do if I see him - face to face? What will I say? Would he even want to see me? He hasn't been heard about in so long that I don't even think he wants to be found. Are we just wasting our time then?' she thought of all the possibilities as she couldn't come up with any answers to her own questions.
At that moment, Taylor came back out and studied Gabriella's expression. She noticed her friend was deep in thought and figured it was her questioning this trip…again. Taylor decided to leave the topic alone since she was too tired to even bother.
"I'm off to bed Gabs. Goodnight, see you in a few hours." Taylor said, knocking Gabriella out of her own world and back into reality.
"Yeah, so will I. Goodnight Tay." Gabriella turned off the TV and settled onto her side of the bed and focused her eyes on he ceiling until they slowly drooped into a deep slumber.
Hours later after the girls fell asleep, Chad woke up to use the bathroom. As he switched on the light, his sleepy eyes widened and focused on the floor.
"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! HELP!" he yelled and ran back into the main room and climbed on top of his bed. The girls shot up from hearing him scream at the top of his lungs, terror in each of their eyes.
"Chad what is it? What happened?" Taylor asked, extremely scared yet confused.
"In the bathroom! A huge water bug! It's so big and disgusting!" he rambled.
"That's it, a water bug? Chad, you have got to be kidding me you big baby…" Taylor said as she scoffed at his silliness.
"Well considering that the man here isn't mainly enough to take care of the problem himself, I'll just go handle it so we can go back to sleeping…in peace." Gabriella was the one to take charge as she marched towards the bathroom. Chad noticed the annoyance in Gabriella's tone as she sleepily left him alone with Taylor.
"I'm not that much of a big baby…at least not all the time. I mean, what did you expect, it was huge!" Chad exclaimed trying to justify his actions.
"Chad, it wasn't that big. You can use the bathroom now. I flushed it down the toilet so it's safe…unless you're scared that it survived the flush and worry that it's going to creep back out…" Gabriella teased when she stepped back into the room.
"Ha ha, very funny. Now if you ladies will excuse me, I'm going to handle my business." Chad said while before hopping off the bed and into the bathroom. In the meantime, the girls went back to bed. Chad came out moments later and fell back into his slumber,
Before they knew it, 8:30 AM came and the gang was awoken by the alarm clock. Each of them showered and got ready for the journey ahead before checking out at the receptionist's desk by 9:15 AM.
They stepped into the parking lot and loaded the back of the Explorer with the suitcases. This time, Gabriella decided to drive.
"What do you guys want to have for breakfast before we hit the highway?" she asked while sitting into the drivers seat.
"Let's just find the nearest McDonalds and go through the drive-thru." Chad suggested, looking over towards Taylor so see if she agreed.
Gabriella looked through her rearview mirror and saw Taylor nod her head in agreement as she was sitting in the backseat.
"Mickie D's it is then." Gabriella said as she turned on the ignition and drove out of the parking lot in search of the nearest McDonalds.
Across the US before the night was over, Troy stumbled into the apartment that he shared with Pamela, noticing that the only light that was on was the light of the dining room. Suddenly the aroma of steak hit his nose and he followed it towards the light. Upon stepping into the room, he found Pamela sitting there smiling at his shocked expression of the candlelight dinner that she set up for the two.
"Welcome home my Broadway star!" she said as she got up from her seat and greeted him with a quick peck.
"Wow, this looks great babe! I see you went all out for this surprise dinner, what did I do to deserve this?" Troy asked admiring his wife's work.
"Just by being the greatest husband is more than enough." she replied lovingly. "Have a seat and dig in!"
Troy sat at the seat opposite of his wife and began to devour the delicious meal she made. Once they were both done eating, Pam looked at Troy waiting to bring out another surprise.
"How did you enjoy your dinner?" she asked with hopes of it being good.
"Awesome! I loved it." he sincerely replied.
"Good! Well Troy, since your show has been nothing but a success and you and I are stronger than ever, I'd though I would grace you with yet another surprise…"
"What do you have in mind?"
"Troy, we've discussed kids for awhile now. I know you want children and hopefully in the future we could try…" she said taking in his expression. Troy seemed to have found an interesting spot on the table as he avoided her gaze. Pamela knew Troy wanted to make a family as they have talked about it before, but she wasn't ready for it. She noticed his face become emotionless, his way of trying to hide he was upset.
"But, in the meantime I bought us something that could train us for when we do decide to have kids." She smirked as his head suddenly looked up, confused.
"What do you mean?" Troy asked.
Pamela walked towards the living, leaving Troy sitting there alone and dumbfounded. She appeared again holding a box that was wrapped with paper but had holes in it. She placed it on the table and giggled, as Troy looked a bit scared as the box began to move.
"Open it silly." She ordered. With that said, the young man leaned over the box as his hands tore at the paper. Once opening the lids of the box, a puppy greeted him.
"SURPRISE! He's a Golden Retriever! Troy I would like you to meet the newest addition to our family, our new baby boy named Mugsy!" Pamela said excitedly when Troy lifted Mugsy out of the box and held him. Troy began to admire the puppy's features, taking a liking to his blondish colored hair and tiny ears, with big brown eyes. Looking at the eyes of Mugsy, Troy's mind went to flashback of Gabriella's eyes. 'How did I just compare a dog's eyes to Gabriella's? I know they're the same color but that's just a weird comparison altogether…' he thought to himself.
"Hey there Mugsy, I'm your new daddy. Welcome to the family boy." Troy softly said, caressing the dog's side. "Pam, this is one of the best surprises that you could have given me. I always wanted a Golden Retriever, how did you know?"
"Lucky guess. I'm glad you like him babe", she said and kissed his cheek. "I figured that if I couldn't give you what you wanted right now, then we could at least bring in a new member that would probably be just as much work as a baby."
"You might be right, but I could wait for kids now, besides we would have to now since we have to raise this little fellow." Troy said, not taking his eyes off of the puppy, showing Pamela that he seemed to have gotten attached to Mugsy in such little time.
"You're right about that one. But don't worry Troy, one day we will. Now, go have fun with little mister Mugsy for a bit while I clean this up." She said.
"No sweetie, you cooked and got me a dog. You've done more than enough, I'll get the dishes." Troy protested.
"No, no, no. I'll do it. It's not a big deal at all. Just relax and enjoy the rest of the evening while I take care of everything else here, k?"
"Fine, you win. Thanks again Pam." He said as he gave her a quick yet tender kiss. Still holding onto Mugsy, Troy walked towards the living room and played with his new pet.