Chapter 11

Gone

Gabriella stretched and squinted at the sunlight streaming through her window. She felt groggy. Again. It had been a while since she had gotten a good night of sleep. In fact, she really hadn't had a good night of sleep since Troy showed up in Nowhere.

Troy. That was why she couldn't sleep again. Just last night he had asked her to leave with him in the night. Gabriella spent the night tossing and turning, wondering if she should have accepted his offer and left.

Gabriella tried desperately last night to convince herself that she was making the right choice. She wanted so badly to come to terms with the fact that she was going to be a housewife for the rest of her life. So many women had done it, no questions asked.

Gabriella knew that keeping a house clean, cooking, and raising children were all imperative parts of a marriage, and she had the utmost amount of respect for the women who had done it. It wasn't that Gabriella didn't want to do those things. She really just wanted to have a chance to do other things first.

Suddenly, Gabriella heard a panicked knock at her door. Before she could even let the person in, Ryan came flying into her room.

He stopped and looked at Gabriella, who was still in bed. Gabriella could see panic in his eyes. Her heart rate quickened.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"How can you still be in bed at a time like this?" he asked, grabbing her hand and dragging her out of bed, ignoring her protests.

"Get your shoes on. We have to go."

"Wha-What's going on?" Gabriella asked, trying to regain her composure. Any bit of grogginess she had felt a few moments ago was replaced with panic.

"Sharpay's gone," Ryan said. "And so is Troy."

Gabriella could feel her heart stop. She sat down on her bed. This was all her fault.

"Gabriella, we have to do something!" Ryan said, frustration coating his words.

"What can we do?" Gabriella asked. "How do you even know that Sharpay is with Troy?"

"Read this," Ryan said, his hand shaking as he pulled a pink piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Gabriella.

As she scanned the words on the paper in Sharpay's handwriting, tears began to slip from her eyes. By the time she was done reading Sharpay's letter, tears were flowing down her cheeks.

Gabriella looked up at Ryan. "This is all my fault," she whispered.

Ryan looked at Gabriella. He looked awkward almost. Finally, he sat down next to her and hugged her. "No it's not," he said gently.

Gabriella wanted so badly to kiss Ryan at that moment. He was being so…manly.

"How are we going to find out where they went?" Gabriella said, deciding against kissing him.

Ryan slouched. "I have no idea," he said, sounding defeated.

"I'm not sure. I know that Sharpay wanted to see the ocean really badly, so that might narrow it down some."

Ryan gave her a wary look. "You're not saying that just because you want to see the ocean."

Gabriella stood up. How could Ryan be so sweet one second and then so untrusting of her the next?

"Dam it, Ryan!" she exploded. "Your sister just ran off with a boy, and I know you don't trust him. You should want to hang the guy from the nearest tree, but instead you're too busy accusing me of being some sort of coy bitch." She put her hand over her mouth in shock. What had she just done?

At first Ryan looked angry, then offended, and finally sad.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Let's just find my sister."

Gabriella was beyond relief that he had chosen to avoid the subject. She also felt incredibly guilty of what she had just said, but she just didn't have enough strength to apologize.

"So you said she wanted to go to the beach?" he asked.

Gabriella was shocked at Ryan's simple question. Had he just listened to her?

"Yeah," Gabriella said. "Do you have any ideas of where she might have gone? I have no idea where Troy is from, but he said that he had been to the beach several times too, affirming our suspicions about that."

"Okay," Ryan said. "Now the question is what beach? Did you hear either of them talk about going to any specific region in the United States?"

"No," Gabriella replied. "We're never going to figure this out. Let's face it. They could be anywhere."

"Gabriella, we can't just give up. I need to make sure that my sister is okay," Ryan said. "This may not have to do with anything, but when we were little, Sharpay loved to dance and perform and stuff. We even found this stage, well a rock actually, on the top of a hill near here. We would dance and sing for hours."

Gabriella gave Ryan a surprised look. "You used to dance and sing?"

Ryan blushed. "Well, uh…it was good exercise and Sharpay needed a back up."

Gabriella smiled. "That's so neat. Why didn't you ever tell me?"

Ryan turned an even deeper shade of crimson. "I- Well-," he stuttered. "That's not what's important right now. The point is that maybe it's a clue that can help us find Sharpay. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if she went somewhere where she could dance and sing."

Suddenly Gabriella's eyes lit up. "I know! She went to a place where she could dance and sing on the ocean. They're headed to Los Angeles!"

Ryan grabbed Gabriella's hands in excitement. "You're a genius!" he exclaimed.

Gabriella's heart swelled. She was sure that Ryan had no idea how much it meant to her that he had just told her how smart she was.

Still holding onto one of her hands, Ryan pulled Gabriella out of her room.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"We have to go find them."

"Right. Can I at least brush my teeth first?"

Ryan looked a little bit annoyed, but he agreed. "But make it fast. We have to find my sister."

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Ryan's nerves were quickly fraying. The past week had not been an easy one. He and Gabriella had not gotten along, and that Troy kid seemed to be causing trouble in Nowhere. Ryan couldn't prove that Troy was causing problems, but he didn't like the kid from the moment he met him.

Now his sister was missing, and Troy had something to do with it.

He and Gabriella were currently in his parents' living room.

Mrs. Evans was wringing her hands and Mr. Evans was pacing the living room.

"I hope she knows that I am missing work for her little spectacle," Mr. Evans grumbled.

"Ryan, do you and Gabriella know anything?" Mrs. Evans asked.

"Actually, yeah," Ryan said. "We think that she left with Troy and went to Los Angeles."

"Great. My daughter has run away with another boy to sin city. Our family's reputation is going to be ruined forever," Mr. Evans said.

"Um, actually, sin city is Los Vegas, and who cares about our reputation? We have to find her," Ryan said.

"What? So she can work at the grocery store for the rest of her life?" Ryan's dad asked him.

Ryan was shocked. Didn't he want to find his daughter more than anything?

"Ryan, honey," his mom said. "We really want to find Sharpay too, but that's just not an option."

"What?!" Ryan could feel himself getting heated. "She's your daughter!"

"Let's just come back to earth for a second," Mr. Evans said. "Even if we know that they went to Los Angeles, which we aren't even sure of, the chances of finding Sharpay are tiny."

"So you're just gonna sit here and let her ruin her life?" Ryan was getting really worked up. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Listen, son, I called the police. They can't do anything because she's 18, which means that she's technically an adult. So once we find her, we can't even force her to come back home with us."

Ryan stood up, infuriated. "So the whole reason you don't want to waste your precious time searching for your daughter is because you're afraid that when you find her she will deflate your already shrinking ego by not coming home? What kind of parents are you?" He looked at Gabriella. "Let's go," he commanded.

Gabriella got up and Ryan grabbed her hand as the two left the Evans' house.

Ryan could feel hot tears in his eyes threatening to cascade down his cheeks. He was walking fast and Gabriella was almost jogging to keep up.

"Where are we going?" she asked, out of breath.

"I don't know," he said, afraid to say more in case he started crying.

Ryan kept on walking with Gabriella until he found himself on the top of the hill that he and Sharpay used to sing and dance on.

He helped Gabriella onto the large flat rock and then climbed up himself. He sat down and looked over the town of Nowhere and the houses just to the left. Even on the hill, it was impossible to see any form of life outside of Nowhere.

Gabriella must have been thinking the same thing because she said, "It's so hard to believe that there's anything beyond this place when the only evidence of life beyond this place is in stories and photographs."

Ryan looked at Gabriella. "I just want to see my sister again. She didn't even say goodbye to me," he choked.

Ryan was tired of trying to put up a manly façade in front of Gabriella anymore. She had known him since he was in diapers. She hadn't missed a single embarrassing moment of his or a single mistake he had made, and yet she had still agreed to marry him.

Tears began gushing down his face, his hands balled into fists. He was so angry and so upset.

Ryan closed his eyes, praying that Gabriella wasn't witnessing his break down.

He felt her sit down next to him. She took his hand that was closest to her and gently pried his fingers loose of the tight fist. Then, she put her hand in his and put her head on his shoulder.

She didn't have to say anything. Just her actions affirmed Ryan that she still cared. He had never felt so much love for her before.

"Then let's find her," she whispered.

Ryan took a shaky breath and roughly wiped his tears with his free hand.

"Yeah," he agreed.

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Gabriella was nervous. She and Ryan had just spent the rest of daylight up on that hill, planning how they could discretely leave to find Sharpay.

They decided that they would leave in Ryan's car at 11 that night. Ryan had just received the car as an early wedding gift, so he could start his job in a couple months.

Gabriella quietly packed a small suitcase. She didn't know how long she and Ryan would be gone, so she had to pack enough for a while, but she didn't want to pack so much that it would bog them down.

As she was finishing up folding some shirts to put into her suitcase, she heard a light knock on her door.

"Who is it?" she asked in a small voice.

"It's your mother. Can I come in?"

Gabriella panicked. "Uh…one second. I'm changing," she lied, throwing her suitcase under her bed. "Come in," she said as soon as the suitcase was hidden.

Mrs. Montez opened up the door. She looked confused. "Weren't you wearing that earlier today?" she asked, referring to Gabriella's outfit.

"Uh…yeah. I, uh, was trying on some clothes I thought might not fit anymore." Gabriella mustered a fake smile.

Mrs. Montez frowned. "Where are they?"

Gabriella looked around her room. It was perfectly neat.

"I-uh…" Gabriella stuttered, stalling while she tried desperately to come up with an excuse. Nothing was coming. "Why are you acting so paranoid?" Gabriella asked.

Mrs. Montez sighed and sat down on Gabriella's bed. Gabriella gulped. She was practically sitting on her suitcase. "I'm sorry, sweetie. I guess Sharpay leaving just kind of has me on edge. Anyways, I was looking through our luggage just now and noticed that one of our suitcases was missing. Have you seen it?"

"Mom," Gabriella gulped. "Why would I have it? I'm engaged. I don't need to run away."

Gabriella prayed that her mother didn't notice how guilty she sounded.

"Well, let's talk about last week. I just got rather concerned. You were sleeping in every morning, you were super groggy, and you and Ryan just didn't seem to be getting along. This doesn't have to do with this Troy boy, does it?"

Gabriella felt like her mother was a cop shining a flashlight in her eyes to make sure she wasn't lying. Or even worse, her mother knew everything and was just trying to get Gabriella to fess up.

"Mom! I'm fine. Ryan and I are fine. I just haven't been feeling well. And what does Troy have to do with anything?"

"Sweetie, calm down. I just want to talk to you."

"No! You just want to blame me for everything that's happening. Well, I have a news flash for you. I'm just as upset as anyone that Sharpay is gone. She's going to be my sister-in-law in less than five months for goodness sakes. Just…just leave me alone!" Gabriella marched over to her door and held it open for her mother to leave.

Mrs. Montez sighed and walked towards the exit. "You just haven't been yourself lately. I really just want to help, dear."

"Well, you're not," Gabriella said as Mrs. Montez walked out of her door and down the stairs. Gabriella shut her door firmly and then leaned up against it.

She felt guilty for treating her mother that way. Gabriella just hadn't been a very nice person the past few days, and she didn't really like herself at the moment. Maybe if her nerves weren't so shot, she wouldn't feel so mean.

She walked back over to her bed and pulled out the suitcase. She closed it and slid it back under her bed.

Her life was such a roller coaster right now. One day she was kissing a total stranger, the next she wasn't so sure that she loves her fiancé, the next she decided to stay in Nowhere, and the next she was leaving. Why did everything have to be so complicated?

A pang of guilt shot through her as she thought about Troy. She couldn't hide what they had done from Ryan forever, could she?

A/N: So...did you see that coming from Ryan? Let me know what you thought of his break down. Is the old Ryan starting to show some because I know that I butchered his actual character for this story (kind of on purpose, sorry)? Be HONEST!!!
I have another question for you guys. Were the links I posted on my profile of the Evans' house and the song "Let Me Take You There" helpful? Did you even check them out? I'm curious because I want to know if it's worth doing again in the future. Thanks! And keep on reviewing. I know that you have something going through your head right now about this story, and I would simply love your insight!