Hey everyone! Thanks for the reviews, I'm glad to see that everyone stuck with me after all of the time away from my computer. Here's the last chapter! I have three oneshots to post, so keep your eyes open for those! Also, a new story from me should be appearing in a couple of weeks...

Loving Love

Chapter sixteen

Loving Love

When Ms. Montez came home from work the next day, she set her bag on the kitchen counter and as she neared the stairs so that she could go to her room to change out of her work clothes she heard her daughter crying in her room, causing her to become instantly concerned as she neared the room where the door was cracked open slightly.

Pushing the door open, the crying from her daughter became louder as she stepped into her room, seeing Gabriella in sweats and a pony tail pulling her hair up into a messy bun. She was lying on her bed limply, holding a book close to her chest.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" Ms. Montez asked quietly as she sat down on her daughter's bed, placing her hand on her arm as she rubbed it softly.

Gabriella simply handed her the book, one that she had found hidden among the pile of books and papers that Chad had given back to her. Apparently, Troy had left the book 'Thank You' by Tom Tee in her locker before school that day Chad had decided to sabotage her stuff and she didn't find it until today. Ms. Montez opened the book slowly, running her hand carefully over the message written on the inside of it with navy blue pen.

"Gabs—" Ms. Montez started reading from the page. "I'm sorry it took a while for me to find this. I actually read it before I gave it to you since I've never heard of it before you mentioned it. It definitely is a good read. Ha."

"I guess this would be the appropriate time to thank you for giving me a chance, considering the title of the book is oddly thank you. I guess you can never judge someone without knowing them. I won't say much… I'm sure I'll be talking to you soon, so I'll save other things to say to you for later. 'L' word, Troy."

Ms. Montez smiled as she finished reading the message from Troy.

"It's too bad you let this one go." She said as she handed the book back to her daughter, who was now looking at her offended.

"I didn't let him go, Mom. I agreed with him that being apart would be easier for the both of us."

"And now you've realized differently." Ms. Montez stated as she looked down at her daughter.

"All that I've realized since we broke up is that hating love really sucks." She cried softly, feeling her mom's comforting hand on her arm again.

"Change that then." Ms. Montez replied. "Love love. Go talk to him."

"Why do I have to go talk to everyone? Why can't other people take the initiative and come after me?" Gabriella asked in a whine.

"What is this 'A Cinderella Story'?" Ms. Montez asked. "In the real world, the girl can't wait on the guy to make the first move."

"Mom!" Gabriella cried from her spot on her bed. "You're not helping."

"I'm sorry, Gabi." She smiled softly. "I'm going to make dinner and you should really think about this, okay? Once you find someone who loves you as much as you hate love, you have to keep him around."

Gabriella sighed as her mom left slowly, realizing that if you wanted to feel better about certain things, you definitely shouldn't go to your mom, because they never make you feel good about things that you have no intention on changing…

***

Troy slipped on his black converse at the kitchen table, feeling the warmth of his black hoodie as it rested over his head. Every room in the house was lit with candles because his mom had decided to clean out their candle cabinet and wanted to use them all up before she went to buy new ones. Now, Troy was escaping the vanilla scented house to take a much needed trip to his tree house.

"Where are you going?" He heard his sister ask from the stairs by the kitchen, when he stood up to go to the back door.

"Tree house to think." He replied simply as he opened the door.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you." Bailey said with a sigh, walking over to him cautiously.

"Did Dad tell you to say this to me?" He asked.

"No, I realized when I was in the tree house that I have no idea what love is and that I shouldn't be telling you about it. I'm sorry." She whispered as she looked down at her fidgeting feet as she stood by her brother.

Troy tilted his head back as he sighed, looking up at the ceiling momentarily before feeling his sister hugging him tightly around the waist. He smiled softly as he knelt down in front of her so that he was at her level and hugged her back with one of his signature bear hugs.

"Don't feel bad, sis." He said while hugging her. "I don't know what love is either, anyways." He chuckled.

"Is that why you were singing 'What is Love?' in the shower?" She smiled as they pulled away from each other.

"Bailey…" He groaned.

"Sorry." She giggled softly. "Go to your tree house already." She told him as she began to walk back towards the stairs by the kitchen.

Troy smirked as he stepped out of his house, closing the back door behind him before he began to make the walk to his tree house. There were twinkling lights lighting up the backyard and the glow of the house added with the glow of those lights definitely gave the backyard a romantic look, one that he could have lived without seeing.

He climbed the length of the ladder and easily got into his tree house, sitting against the side of the back wall, hitting his head against it softly as he closed his eyes, not wanting to look around at the familiar memorabilia in the house.

A barking dog could be heard in the distance and crickets were barely audible as he inhaled the cool night air. When he heard the movement of the tree house's ladder, he sighed, shaking his head.

"Bailey, I know we had a moment in there, but I'm trying to think." He called out.

"Is it okay if I come up then?" He heard a soft voice say, causing him to open his eyes quickly.

Gabriella was standing in the door of the tree house, her hair still in a lazy bun from earlier that day. She was wearing no shoes which on a normal day would have made Troy smile, but today it wasn't anything worth smiling about. She had on dark skinny jeans and a dark grey East High hoodie.

"I guess." Troy shrugged.

Gabriella hesitated before sitting down in front of him, leaving a good amount of space between them. Troy glanced at her for a second, before turning his head away from looking at her, blocking his view somewhat with the hood of his hoodie.

"Your eye looks better." Gabriella said quietly again, noticing his lighter bruise.

Troy nodded as he slowly pushed his hood off of his head, feeling somewhat more vulnerable as he did so. He rested his arms on his knees as they bent in front of him.

"So." Gabriella said with an awkward nod, feeling like she was in third grade again, not knowing what to say as she sat in the kiddish tree house.

"Why are you here?"

The coldness in Troy's voice felt like a stab in the heart to Gabriella and she cleared her throat before answering his question.

"My mom advised me to stop by."

"Why?" He asked quietly.

"She read the message in the book you left me." Gabriella answered in a whisper, feeling her eyes watering now that she was seeing him angry again.

"Oh, so you got the book?"

"Just found it today."

Troy shrugged, glancing at her again because looking at her directly was still difficult now that they were no longer together.

"Yeah, well." He replied shortly, not knowing how to respond. "I heard you talked to Chad about me."

Gabriella nodded silently as she kept her eyes on him.

"I had to."

"No you didn't." He answered quickly.

"I was the reason why you both stopped being friends. It was my responsibility to fix what I ruined."

"You didn't ruin it." Troy said to her, looking at her now that she was glancing away from him. "I lied, I messed up."

"Maybe." Gabriella shrugged.

They didn't say anything after that, both of them just stared at the floor of the tree house, trying to think of why they were even giving the other the time of day. Gabriella's sniffling brought Troy from his thoughts, saying something that had been on his mind.

"You didn't say you loved me back that day at the book store." Troy said quietly as he watched Gabriella's gaze lift to meet his own. "Why?"

"Troy, you have to understand that…" She stopped mid-sentence shaking her head, not knowing what to say to his hard question.

"Gabriella, I've never told anyone that before and when I do, the person who finally got the word out of me runs away. How do you think that made me feel?" Troy asked her, feeling his voice cracking slightly.

Tears were streaming down her face when Troy looked up from his focus on the floor and he was surprised as he watched them steadily stream down her face. It was the first time he'd ever seen her cry and it made him want to pull her close to him and to tell her that she would be okay.

"I loved loving you. I loved you and it scared me." Gabriella admitted as tears stained her cheeks, her eyes burning with hot tears as she felt a sob stuck in her throat. "We weren't meant to be together and at the time I really believed that… I believed that Chad was right in hating me and you for dating. At the same time, I couldn't help but realize that with you, I loved love."

Troy swallowed the lump in his throat as he nodded, watching as she stood up from her spot on the floor.

"But I know that I screwed up and that not telling you this sooner was my fault, so I'll just leave you to think." She nodded, turning to go towards the door of the tree house, but she felt Troy grab her hand as he stood up too.

She turned around to look at him, feeling her breath catch in her throat as he pulled her towards him into a kiss, his hand keeping her securely against him as it rested on the back of her neck. She slowly brought her arms around his neck as they kissed roughly. Troy pulled away first, looking into her eyes sincerely.

"I love you, Gabriella." He smiled softly, rubbing her cheek with his thumb as his hand still rested on her neck.

"I love you too." She said with a soft giggle, feeling better now that she could finally say it to him.

"I was hoping you'd say so." He replied as he captured her lips with his again, pulling her closer as they stood in the middle of the tree house, laughing quietly as they thought of their eventful week without each other.

***

Troy held Gabriella's hand as they walked carefully down the row of comfortable chairs, both of them trying not to step on anyone's feet as they maneuvered their way back to their seats.

"Come on, dude! That was my foot!" Zeke said to Troy as Gabriella giggled loudly from behind Troy, seeing that her boyfriend had in fact stepped on his friend's foot.

"You're blocking our view!" Brian, one of Troy's teammates said as he sat behind the row Zeke was in with the rest of the team, laughing as they all shoved Troy over to his seat so that the scene they were watching wouldn't be blocked.

Chad laughed as he sat next to Taylor who was sitting next to Zeke and Sharpay as he saw that Troy was being harassed by the team. It was currently half time at the NBA Finals, and after weeks of begging and making it up to the girls after years of teasing and fighting, Sharpay decided that she would take the rest of the team with her to the game.

Gabriella leaned against Troy as she laughed while her hand was still in his as they sat in their seats next to Sharpay and Zeke. Troy gave her a happy smile and he winked at her, thinking her Lakers jersey made her look even more beautiful than usual. He looked around at his team as they gladly watched the Lakers dance team out on the floor and he chuckled as they all too matched in the same Lakers jersey that Gabriella was wearing.

Minutes later when the dance team was filing off, the large screens above the center of the floor blinking obnoxiously as the Kiss Cam came on, embarrassing unexpected couples as it landed on them, forcing them to kiss in front of the crowd of people lucky enough to be there in the first place.

The team hooted and hollered when the Kiss Cam landed on Taylor and Chad, and Taylor shook her head in protest as she looked over at Chad with a shaking finger that indicated that he better not kiss her.

"Don't even think about it, Danforth." She said quickly, seeing him laughing as his teammates sitting behind him patted him on the back and messed with his crazy hair.

"Come on, Mckessie, I can't even think about it?" Chad asked in response, seeing that they were still being broadcasted on the Kiss Cam.

"No, Danforth. There's no way I'm going to let you—"

Taylor was cut off as Chad shrugged quickly, leaning over the arm rest in between them so that he could kiss her and when he did, the crowd cheered, causing both Taylor and Chad to pull away laughing.

"Looks like they were routing for us." Chad chuckled as he looked at a blushing Taylor.

"Haha." She replied in a monotone, shooting a look over at Troy and Gabriella who were laughing loudly together as they saw that their friends were in the same position they were in when they first started dating.

The team's attention turned back to the game which was starting again and most of them forgot about the kiss because they didn't see the big deal about it, but as everyone got to their feet to cheer loudly because the Lakers got another basket, Taylor looked over at Chad, laughing as he jumped up and down with a complete stranger next to him, seeing now that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't that bad of a guy… and that since Troy and Gabriella closed the gap between jocks and nerds, she wouldn't have a problem being with him if that is how it turned out.

Once again, the groups of friends were screaming and cheering a good amount of time later as the Lakers jumped around on the floor together because they had just won the NBA Finals. The couples hugged each other tightly and Zeke exclaimed his happiness to Sharpay in excitement.

"You are the best, do you know that?!" Zeke asked his girlfriend who was responsible for getting them all tickets.

Sharpay laughed and before she could respond, Zeke was kissing her excitedly, laughing with her too as he pulled away, hugging her again. The team sitting behind them, jumped down to the row they were sitting in, joining the couples as they all continued to scream in excitement.

"Thanks, girls!" A few of them said, knowing that it was because of them that they got to go.

As the three girls laughed, realizing now that they had a few more friends than they started with, everyone joined in on a group hug, one that was extremely tight, she slowly looked up at him, seeing that he was now happier than ever since his team was accepting his girlfriend and her friends.

Troy kissed Gabriella softly as they stood in the center of friends, and as they looked into each other's eyes they loved that love wasn't so bad when they were loving each other. considering they were all sharing a space only meant for six people. Gabriella's face was buried against Troy's neck as she was squished by the excited team.

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Much love,

unknownbyhim22