"So this is the living room which is extra clean today because grandma wouldn't have it any other way, this is the dining room which was first used over the last week when grandma said eating at the kitchen island counter was a very, very bad habit which will lead to other shortcuts in life, cheating on tests, getting caught, too many detentions, dropping out of school, and then becoming a drug addict." Gabriella looked back at her mom as she lifted her mom's duffel bag full of clothes on her shoulder again as she held back a laugh at her mother's expression.
It had been three days and two nights since her mom woke up and she was finally allowed to come home on this Monday afternoon after school. They got Gabriella's car back as her grandma, Ms. Darbus drove them home from the hospital still since Gabriella didn't want to drive yet.
Anna stiffened a yawn as Gabriella became on full alert and dropped the duffel bag down on the dining room cherry wood table and turned to her mother. "Someone's tired. You should probably sit down or something."
Anna let out a small laugh but didn't complain as they both walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. Anna stretched her hands over her head as Gabriella just smiled at her mother. Everything was going to be okay, it just had to be.
"So…I know that you said you didn't want any of that cheesy 'get well soon' balloons and flowers but grandma and I came up with something better." Gabriella started as she sat up a little bit and took out a crinkled white envelope from her back pocket of her jeans as Anna just gave her a stern playful eye.
"You better not be sending me away." Anna joked lightly as Gabriella sunk back lower into the couch knowing that was exactly what she was doing. Anna took in Gabriella's face as she became serious. "What?" She gasped as Gabriella held out the envelope with a small smile on her face showing off her nervousness.
"So let's just say hypothetically grandma and I got you a plane ticket to France, what would you do?" Gabriella asked in a small voice as Anna ripped the envelope from Gabriella's hands and opened it, as if not believing what Gabriella just told her without seeing it.
"Gabs? What is…you didn't…oh my God." She stammered as her eyes went wide and inspected the ticket that on Saturday in five days would take her almost halfway across the country.
"It wasn't just me." Gabriella defended herself quickly as her mom's hands were shaking slightly from just holding the envelope. Gabriella watched her put it down slowly as if deciphering if she really wanted to go. "Mom…" Gabriella pleaded with desperation in her voice as she latched onto her mother's arm. "I know you still think about him and he thinks about you." Anna sent her a pointed look that told Gabriella she didn't believe her. Gabriella scoffed at the ground as she looked up with a sly smile. "The walls aren't that thick, I can hear when he calls at eleven o'clock into the night."
Anna smiled weakly at her daughter and for the first time in a long time she saw true nervousness on her mother. Sure she had seen her cry and break down New Years Eve day, but she truly looked nervous and scared now.
"And if it makes you feel better grandma tracked him down over in France and told him everything." Gabriella added as she heard her mom swallow hard and look at her like she was crazy. Gabriella fidgeted in her seat as Anna picked up the envelope in shock. "He wants to see you. And it's only for a month. If it makes you feel better I'll stay with dad." Gabriella offered.
Anna nodded slowly, not saying anything for a while. "Plus I really don't need you for dance anymore." Gabriella said nonchalantly knowing that would get her attention.
"What?" Anna spat out in surprise.
"Grandma's my new coach. And I'm gonna win this while you're thousands of miles away eating some of the well known bakery foods over there."
"I raised you right kid." Anna said as she pulled her into a hug and just held her, rubbing her back every so often. "But the reason why I didn't go in the first place wasn't because of your dance, it was because I didn't want to be away from you for two months. That was way too long, I don't even know if I'll be able to last one month."
Gabriella pulled away and smiled sheepishly at her mother and shrugged, "I'm a missable person. It's just part of my charm." She joked as her mother rolled her eyes.
Anna let out a heavy breath as she stared at the envelop again and then back at Gabriella as Gabriella gave her hopeful eyes. "If I go you have to promise me something." She said slowly as Gabriella was nearly at the end of her seat with anticipation of what her mother was going to say.
"Anything."
"Promise me you aren't just dancing for me." Gabriella looked down at the ground right away as her mother spoke those words. She could lie and tell her mom that she promises and then her mother would leave for France with no problems, or Gabriella could be selfish and tell her mom that she couldn't and end up having her mother stay without getting a second chance with Eric.
"Yeah, of course." Gabriella said a little too excitedly as she looked up and Anna raised one perfect eye brow in a skeptical way.
"Mom." Gabriella stressed. "I want to dance. I want to win. And I can't do that unless you're over in France." Gabriella said as Anna rolled her eyes at her daughter's light heartedness.
"Gabs…if you don't want to dance then don't dance. I'll support you with whatever you choose. If you want to become some crazy old cat lady then I'll be the pet sitter, but if you want to dance then I'll support you in that too." Anna told her and Gabriella decided that this was getting too emotional and any more of this deep talk with the serious tone in it then she was sure to break and say that she didn't want to dance anymore.
Gabriella stood up and out of her mother's reach as she took a couple of hurried steps back so she was in the archway of the living room and close to the steps that led upstairs. She had convinced herself since the car crash that her mother wanted her to dance, and that's what she was going to do. It was weird hearing other wise what her mom wanted for her, and she just felt like she couldn't accept it right now. She broke things off with Troy for a while because of this dance and had avoided his phone calls over the weekend as she couldn't get his hurt filled eyes out of her head as she told him to go to his game on Friday night at the hospital. And since she gave Troy up and stopped dancing right now, it would be like it was all for nothing when she did it for her mom in the first place. It wasn't right. None of it was.
"Mom. I want to dance." Gabriella finalized as Anna looked at her with curiosity and Gabriella took one more step back so all she had to do was turn the corner and run up the stairs.
She heard her mother sigh as she was being looked at through saddened eyes. "If you actually mean it then I'll support you."
Gabriella knew those words were forced. She nodded dumbly, "I do." She whispered before turning on her heel and running up the stairs and away from her mother who knew Gabriella was lying deep down, but Gabriella was convinced and determined and nothing was going to change that. She just hoped that Troy didn't make it any harder on Gabriella by trying to talk to her in school.
"Don't some of these high school parties seemed played out?" Gabriella asked in a less excited tone as she got out of Jake's car and waited for her blonde haired friend to walk around his mustang and sling his arm over her shoulder before their walk down the sidewalk and to the house that was going to be trashed in the morning.
Jake didn't answer for a minute or two as Gabriella looked at the long line of cars knowing that they were going to have a hard time getting the police called on them since the closest house was down the street in the newly made subdivision, which was a good thing.
"What do you mean?" Jake finally asked as they passed a guy who was already puking in the curb while his friends were sitting on the hoods of their cars laughing their drunken asses off.
Gabriella sighed as the steps to walk up to the house were coming closer and closer. "I mean, these parties all just seem the same. You go, get drunk, dance, kids go from one person to the next, and the next day you don't remember anything." Gabriella said. "It's all just the same, don't you ever get sick of it?"
Jake sighed as he stopped them from walking up the walkway to get to the brightly lit house with music blowing out of it each time the door opened, and kids walked past them each with their own amused smiles ready for a night of partying for no apparent reason.
"Where is this coming from?" He asked in a serious tone that made Gabriella look past his shoulder to not meet his eyes that bored into her.
She knew exactly where this was coming from. By now almost the whole school had known that something was up with her and Troy and she once again had guys hitting on her, while she had seen Troy trying to get rid of the couple of dense girls that didn't realize he told them to leave him alone along with the rest of the female population.
She was just tired of people, most likely kids, expecting just because she was popular that she had to have a boyfriend who was also popular. It wasn't right, but most importantly what she wouldn't admit to anyone was that the real reason she was making a big deal out of this was because people kept wanting to know what happened between Troy and her and it hurt her every time they asked that, making her remember that she was the one who wanted the break, causing Gabriella to take every short cut around school to avoid him the past week.
"Just…wondering I guess." She said with a small shrug of the shoulders and she shivered a little as a breeze picked up and she was only wearing a red halter top with dark blue jeans that were low on her hips, hugging her curves perfectly.
Jake must have seen her shiver as he rolled his eyes playfully before unzipping his football varsity sports jacket and putting it around her small shoulders as she looked at him with gratitude. "Well even though this party is for celebrating the Wildcat's victory of finally making it to the Championships again after a long season, I guess I can see where you're coming from."
Gabriella smacked his arm slightly as he made it seem like it took a lot of effort to agree with her. "You're only agreeing because you love the parties seeing as half of them thrown are because of the football team and you're the captain." Gabriella retorted as Jake flashed her a smile.
"True, but I know what you're talking about." He said in a much serious tone again. "My dad already talked to me about cutting back on parties already for college since I have a scholarship now and I can't jeopardize that."
Gabriella faked concern, "Oh no, what has the world come to?"
"Let's go Montez. I told Haley I'd be here ten minutes ago." Jake said as he pushed her forward slightly before falling into step with her.
"So has Haley applied to colleges yet?" Gabriella asked as Jake didn't make eye contact with her.
"I think we have to break up soon."
Gabriella froze in her spot as Jake stopped two and did a double take on her. "What?" Gabriella asked and even though she hadn't talked to Haley in a while now, she still liked her. "Why? Did something happen?"
Jake shrugged, "It's just…like you said, played out."
Gabriella looked at him through skeptical eyes, but couldn't trace an ounce of hurt. "Don't try to analyze this Montez, I've been thinking about it for a while now." Jake said as if it was nothing.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Gabriella asked as Jake stepped closer to her considering he was a few paces in front of her.
"You were busy, not to mention you had a concussion and a whole lot of other crap on your mind." Jake said. "AND you didn't tell me you were thinking about breaking things off with Troy, who this party is for right now, but yet you still showed up even though it's played out." Jake teased.
Gabriella rolled her eyes and sighed, sucking up the teasing knowing Jake was right though. However, hopefully Troy's and hers relationship was still fixable, and Jake was talking about permanently.
"Are you okay?" Gabriella asked softly as she decided against retorting against what Jake just said.
He sighed as he gave her a small smile, "I'm gonna be okay. I was just thinking maybe I'd do it this weekend."
Gabriella nodded her head slowly. She liked Haley as a friend, but as Jake's best friend she felt like she had to side with him. "Okay." Gabriella nodded to confirm again as Jake wrapped his arm around her and they starting walking up the porch as the music got louder and the smell of alcohol got stronger.
Jake reached for the door handle, but the door jolted open followed by Troy who was just walking out of the house. All three of them froze as Gabriella's brown chocolate eyes locked with Troy's shocked blue ones that still held hope as a small subtly smile over came his face.
He was holding a red cup of some alcohol they were handing out inside as he was just going outside to clear his mind. It seemed too many people had been congratulating him when it wasn't even him that got his team to the Championships in the first place. Sure he had helped out and was the team's main scorer, but everyone on the team helped out too and they wouldn't be there if they didn't work together. It was just too overwhelming sometimes having everyone come up to him and ignoring some of the other players.
"Hey man." Jake greeted as Troy covered the surprise on his face as he would've thought that since Gabriella and him were on a break he wouldn't want anything to do with him.
"Hey." Troy replied back as they did the guy handshake as Troy stepped outside, the door closing behind him by some person in the inside walking by. Gabriella takes a small step back as no one noticed, and she felt all of a sudden warmer and almost suffocated with Jake's jacket on her.
Jake sensed the awkwardness in the air and cleared his throat as he withdrew Gabriella's safety net in the form of his arm from around her shoulders. She couldn't hide forever and he knew that her situation with Troy was a lot different than his with Haley's With him and Haley, they were just two high schoolers who had fun together in a relationship, but with Gabriella and Troy, they clicked together. They were almost the perfect couple.
"You leaving so soon man?" Jake asked with a smile on his face, making the situation less tense.
Troy looked around as he took in the cooler air than from inside the house where he already had to turn down three girls that couldn't take a hint, but he didn't care because no one could compare to Gabriella. He was just hoping that Gabriella would come to her sense already.
"Nah, just out for a walk." Troy said.
Jake's eyes perked up as Gabriella just watched the two. She took in Troy's appearance and it looked like he hadn't slept much, his hair was damp a little probably due to the shower he took after the game, and the twinkle in his eyes that made them look so intense and powerful was gone.
"Really? Because Gabs was just telling me how she wanted to go on a walk and I told her that I had Haley to attend to, so have fun you two." Jake said hurriedly as Gabriella's eyes nearly bugged out of her face and Jake pushed open the door and the two people on the porch just stood there shuffling their feet, and peering down at the ground.
Troy was the first one to look up and he offered her a small smile. He sensed the uncomfortable feeling Gabriella was giving off and it hurt him a little, but he would never say that. "I'll see you around Gabi." Troy said as he started walking down the porch steps and Gabriella made a quick decision.
"Wait!" She called out as Troy froze as he was already down the porch steps with a smile on his face.
She spun around and ran down the steps, crossing her arms around her stomach to keep the warmth of Jake's jacket surrounding her. They fell into sink together as neither one said a word until they were down the walkway and already walking down the street.
Gabriella couldn't take the silence as she didn't know why she agreed to go, but she did and it would be pointless if they didn't say anything right now. "You played really well tonight."
Troy's head perked up as surprise and happiness echoed through his voice, "You came?"
Gabriella looked straight, not being able to see what his reaction would be with her next sentence, "Jake told me." She didn't need to say where she was as they both knew now that she was at the studio with her mother and grandmother.
There was a silence as they turned the block's corner. "So when's the big game?" Gabriella asked.
"When's your competition?" He asked back.
Gabriella stopped in her spot as Troy did the same and they looked at each other. "I asked you first." Gabriella said.
"Fine then." Troy said as there was a silence again and at the same time they both blurted out "February 9th."
Both faces showed shock as Gabriella all of a sudden felt guilty for not being able to make it to any of his play off games and now she was planning on going to the Championships as she told herself that it wasn't just for Troy but for other people too, but now she couldn't.
"I hope you do well." He said stiffly as he had no idea how to respond to this. He was planning on her being there, he wanted to go to her dance, he wanted to be back together with her as if he had to pick between winning the championships or getting Gabriella back he would pick the later of the two and he was now thinking Gabriella didn't understand that.
"…you too." She said softly as he nodded his head, flicking his hair off to the side. "Um…" There was nothing else to say as all of a sudden she just felt guilty, ashamed, and regretful and it was all because she couldn't go to one basketball game. "I'm gonna head back."
"Yeah…I guess I'll see you around." He said awkwardly and Gabriella nodded turning her back around and walking down the street and away from the blue eyed boy who could still make her miss a heart beat. "Gabi!" His voice called out from twenty feet away, making her stop in her spot. She didn't say anything as he continued, "Knock the judges dead!"
Gabriella smiled to herself as she held Jake's jacket tighter to her body, keeping in the excitement Troy's voice just sent through her. It reminded her of the tone he used when everything was great between them. It had happiness and encouragement in it as Gabriella continued walking down the street and away from the blue eyed basketball captain who was watching her every move.
Author's note--So Chapter Countdown--2 MORE LEFT! Review please and if I get a nice amount I'll have this story done with it's final 2 chapters this week seeing as I already have them written.