Chapter 8 - In Need Of Comfort
When Gabriella woke up the next morning, a smile was plastered all over her face. She turned her head in the direction of her bedside clock to find it was 12:00pm.
"Only 12:00pm, A few more hours..." She whispered to herself.
Suddenly realising the time, she shot up out of bed.
"12:00PM, OH MY, IM SO LATE!!!"
Then a thought came into her head.
"Saturday - no school." She laughed at herself, and collapsed onto her bed, wrapping the duvet covers around her.
She lay there for a while, just thinking about the day, well afternoon, to come. She hoped the date would go well. It was almost like someone was giving her and Troy a second chance. Gabriella knew she would never be truely happy unless she was with him. She had dated some guys after Troy, but they had never had the same connection that Gabriella could feel when with Troy.
After a couple more minutes, Gabriella dragged herself from the comfort of the covers and went downstairs to make herself breakfast.
She sat quietly on the breakfast stool, waiting for the toast to pop out the toaster.
"POP"
She grabbed her toast and made her way to the couch, flicking the television on. It was 'Homes Under The Hammer'.
Susan on the television started to talk.
"Hello, and welcome back to Homes Under The Hammer. Now today we have Mr & Mrs Harper looking for a house, we've shown them 2 houses so far, but now we have another house to show them, I think they're gonna like it!
A picture of the house flashed up on the television screen. Gabriella gasped in shock.
"Now this house is right in the centre of Albuquerque. Its a fabulous house. White, large bay windows and balcony, its sure to be our buyer favourite!"
"Thats my old house" Gabriella said, pointing at the television. One single tear strolled down her face, and landed on her pyjamas.
She had lived some of the happiest and saddiest moments of her life in that house. But the memory that stuck out in that house more than anything else was that her mum had died in that house. Tears and tears were falling from her eyes now and she needed comfort. She hadn't thought about her mum for a long time now, it had been years since her death. The only problem was that there would be only one person who would be able to comfort her, because only he knew the story.
She sat there for a moment, the only sound her whimpers.
The doorbell rang.
"Who is it?" Gabriella shouted to the door through tears.
"It's me, Troy"
Gabriella quickly tried to wipe her tears away as she got up to answer the door. It unlocked and swung open. There was Troy.
"Homes Under The Hammer?" He said gesturing to her tears.
She nodded, and he stepped forward giving her a comforting hug. She closed the door, continuing to hug him. She felt warm and secure. They sat on the couch.
"I turned on the telly and saw what you saw, probably. I just wanted to make sure you were ok, i'm the only one who knows what really happened"
"Thanks you, its great to have you around, you always look out for me... even when we had broken up."
He blushed.
"About that, I'm really sorry"
"I dont wanna talk about that right now, not really in the mood" He nodded. "Besides" She continued " it was in the past, and we have to let go of these things at some point, it took me a while, but I did it in the end".
She smiled and looked him in the eye. Her eyes were red raw from crying, and Troy hated seeing her like this, it broke his heart. They just sat there for a while, looking into each others eyes, like they were searching for something.
She broke their eye contact, and stood up.
"I'm... I'm not very comfortable, being in my PJs with you, im gonna get changed, help yourself to something to eat or drink, just make yourself at home, ill be back in a sec".
He watched her walk up the stairs and he smiled. He walked over to the kitchen, opened the fridge, and pulled out a Coke. He then made his way back through to the lounge and sat down on the sofa, flicking through channels on the TV with the remote.
10 minutes later, she came downstairs, fully dressed in crop jeans, flats, and a yellow vest top. "You suit yellow" Troy said pointing to her top. "Thanks" she replied, grabbing some water from the fridge, and coming, sitting cross-legged on the sofa, next to Troy.
She looked at her water, and his coke, and laughed quietly. Troy noticed this.
"What"
"Nothing"
"Seriously"
"Its just we are so different, I mean, its first thing in the morning, im drinking water, and you're drinking Coke"
"Ok, I have 2 things to say...1- you call this morning, its nearly 2pm!" She laughed and nodded.
"And 2- opposites attract" He finished his sentence, making Gabriella blush, as he got up to put his can in the bin.
The rest of the afternoon was fun. They sat a chatted for what seemed like forever catching up on everything they had missed since high school. The watched some movies, and just generally had a great time.
It was 7pm, and the Grandfather clock woke Troy from his nap. He tried to move, but noticed that he was being held down. Gabriella's head was right beside his, and he could smell her shampoo. She looked so peaceful, and Troy didn't want to wake her up. He stroked her hair gently.
"Hmm, what?" She opened her eyes, to see Troy's blue eyes, looking back at her.
"What time is it?" She asked.
"7pm"
"Oh"
"Listen, if you dont feel up to going out, we dont have to"
"No, we can, ive been looking forward to it!" She said sitting up from leaning on Troy.
"Ok, well, I'll go back to mine, get changed, then ill pick you up in 15 mins"
"Sure"
Troy left, and Gabriella went up stairs to her bedroom to change. In the end of a long fight with herself trying to choose what to wear she decided on a strapless black dress and black heels. She reached the end of the stairs just in time to hear the door bell go. Grabbing her purse, she opened the door to see a very smart looking Troy standing in her doorway.
"Wow" He said "Thank you"
She took his hand, and he led her to his car.