Well, here it is! chapter 20! i am so sorry for the wait. But, i wanted to make this chapter fugging awesome and wildly dramatic! I think i met my goal of that! any way, i would like to also say that, there are only like a couple chapters left to write of this story. So, please offer some ideas. thanks and enjoy!

Chapter 20

The taxi was one of many cars that were stuck in the congested traffic lanes. The sound of horns honking and radio's blaring were deafening; even though Troy had the windows rolled up, he still had to cover his ears. And, the fact that the cabby was also screaming obscenities out the driver's window of the cab.

Troy wanted to die right there, his face and neck grew red from embarrassment. He groaned, "Hey man, do you really have to yell—"he was interrupted when the cabby leaned out the window—with half a stogie sticking out of his mouth—and yelled more obscenities. "The light is fucking green!" he yelled, "What are you? Color blind or something?" Troy sunk down lower in his seat, wanting to disappear at the current moment. But, then he remembered something; Angie hadn't told him where she lived exactly but, when he first met her—the memory still ever so clear in his mind—she had said that she and Gabriella lived in a penthouse.

All he had to do was find out how many penthouses there were in upstate New York, go to each and search the grounds until he found the right one. Then again, the only fallback in this plan was that there were also penthouses in upper Manhattan; so…that was going to surge a problem. So, he had a plan—with a slightly major setback—all he had to do was put it in action.

Lord, help me. He thought, sighing from the frustration that he was undergoing that day.

# # # # #

The sound of the ball missing the basket and bouncing off the backboard rang throughout the school's gym. It was after school hours and Angie was shooting—actually, more like ricocheting—the ball everywhere but the net. She knew should be home, but she couldn't go there. It was depressing. It was better to be alone in an empty smelly gym than being alone, but with your mother saying sweet nothing's in your ear, hoping it'll take effect.

# # # # #

Gabriella honked the horn of her Toyota Corona—the traffic sucked like hell. She needed to get home, she had work to do there as well as finish filling out some paperwork her boss had given her. Possibility of her being up until 5 A.M. was greatly high.

The traffic was always chaos at this time of day. People were rushing home for dinner after a day at the office or whatever people did for a living; Gabriella sighed as she pulled out her phone to call Angie and let her know that she's running late and will be home later, but decided quickly against it when the sluggish red light finally turned green.

# # # # #

When the line of cars finally started moving forward it seemed like the commotion had stopped. Troy unclenched his teeth and relaxed, leaning back into the back seat of the taxi, "Hey, um, how many penthouses are in this city anyway?" Troy asked, trying to sound non-chalant. The cabby noticed, "That depends," he said, flicking his stogie out on to the pavement. "You want upstate or Manhattan?"

"Upstate…?" he said, nodding, sounding a little unsure of himself.

The cabby focused his eyes on the road and traffic—which was moving sluggishly, but still moving. "Well, in upstate—that's here—there are at least two penthouse buildings one on 7th and the other on Broadway. The one on Broadway is pretty pricy." The cabby stopped to take a puff of another stogie that he had lit, "then there's Manhattan, there is more than twenty-five over there..."

Twenty-five? Oh, lord, please let them be living in upstate...Please, oh please! Troy begged. "Thanks, that's all I wanted to know," his face was the perfect picture of serene tranquility, "hey, um, can you give me the addresses of the two?" he asked, digging around in his pockets for a scrap piece of paper and writing utensil—but, finding nothing. He cursed silently, the cabby heard nothing. "Sure, I can give you the addr—oh, fuck!"

The traffic had stopped again, and the honking resumed, along with the blaring of at least 10 different radio stations—from what Troy could hear, and the cabby had resorted back to yelling his obscenities out the driver's window. Troy sighed heavily, and commenced to looking out the window in sheer boredom.

His eyes completely dragged over the different sizes of different cars, and then going to observe the people on the sidewalk; finally his blue orbs rested on a medium-tall, light-haired brunette wearing black basketball shorts and a red tank top with a white camisol over it. Troy squinted his eyes, surely they were just playing a trick on him; they had to be. But, when he strained his eyes enough to see her clearly, his eyes widened. It was Angie; taking his wallet out of his pocket and pulling out a couple hundred dollar bills, he tossed them at the cabby who was caught off guard when the bills hit him. He turned back to only be able to see Troy's back as he chucked the door open and took off running.

# # # # #

The cold air that was thick with smog felt good against Angie's flushed and heated skin. Her backpack felt like it was filled with bricks and her basketball bag that she swung from her fingertips felt heavier than normal. "Stupid janitor..." she grumbled, angrily cursing the janitor that had told her-very rudely- to exit the gym. Would it kill anyone to at least say 'please' just once? oh, come on...

The noise was louder than normal, but it also sounded muffled and it buzzed. Liked, Angie had cotton stuffed in her ears, or like someone was dunking her head in water and not letting her thrust her head up so she could breathe. Drowning; that's how she felt, like she was drowning. "Angie!" and to add to the blissful feeling of her numb shell, she kept hearing a buzzing that sounded like her name; but, she kept walking without turning. "Angie!"

The buzzing sound came again, Angie didn't want to deal with any of this. So, she continued walking. It wasn't long before she heard-surprisingly, over the sounds of the congested traffic-running footsteps behind her. Panicking; she started to run, the footsteps picked up speed as she did, so she ran faster.

# # # # #

Troy had to hand it to her, Angie was damn fast. He picked up speed, and she ran faster. Troy felt a little out of practice a bit, he considered himself fortunate that he'd even spotted her. He just didn't expect her to run away from him...okay, she probably thought that he was some creeper that started chasing her or something. It was a good excuse, he didn't blame her for running.

# # # # #

Two blocks, she only had two blocks to her house and she'd be safe. Just a bit more running steps, she thought. The panting breaths of the chaser were getting heavy, but he was also getting closer.

"...Angie..." It was male, that was for sure. She had to keep running just a bit longer. Almost there-oof! "Angie." she felt hands on her shoulders; she didn't know that she was slowing down; "please, I have to tell you something..." wait a minute, she knew that avoice! she just either couldn't believe it or didn't want to. She began struggling and kicking, but he held on tightly.

Good news and bad news, the good news is that Troy caught up to Angie did seh know that she was slowing? The bad news is that she would not stop kicking! He didn't know she had that much fight in her. "Angie...I...just...want to-ow!" he screeched, she had kicked him in the shin. But, he didn't let go; he grasped on tightly. Damn, she was strong for age-and petite size.

"Let me go!" she screamed, people were looking, but neither of them cared at the moment. "My mom's a cop!"

Troy chuckled, "Angelina, your mother..ah, is...a...big shot lawyer." Angie stopped kicking, 1) her legs were getting tired, and 2) she couldn't believe her ears. "H-how do you know that?" she asked, breathing heavily.

"She told me..."

And like that, at the moment, she turned around and looked into the aqua blue eyes of her father, "D-dad?"

Troy nodded, himself holding back tears. Angie closed the space and wrapped her small arms around his waist. "I love you..." she said as small tears rolled down her cheeks as she buried her face in Troy's stomach. The same way tha Gabriella used to bury her face in my chest, he thought as his arms wrapped around her shaking frame; he hugged her back as it was his turn to let his teras finally fall, "I love you too." he said.

They stood like that. Hugging and crying. Angie's body shook with quiet sobs as she began to pull away, Troy knew he had something to say to her; he owed her so much as an apology. It was now or never to say it. "Hey, I'm sorry..." he said, using his thumb to wipe her tears; and catching Angie off-guard, "w-what?" she asked, sniffling as she tried wiping away tears that she thought had stopped.

"I'm sorry-for making you cry, hor hurting you...for saying things that I didn't mean-hurting your mother. Everything; sorry for everything." his voice was thick with tears, in a few places it cracked.

Angie felt fresh tears prick the corners of her eyes, and a smile break out on her lips, "y-your forgiven." Troy smiled back, then cleared his when tears had gotten stuck there, Angie cleared hers-but, it was to speak not cry. "Come on, dad" she said, grasping his hand tightly.

"Where are we going?" he asked, squeezing her hand and following her.

One word, that's all it took to make new, fresh tears fall freely from his eyes. "Home."

# # # # #

Traffic was hell. Start then stop, start then stop. That was the down fall of living in New York. But, when she did get through the traffic and passed the congested freeways, she pulled into the parking lot of the penthouse. Angie's probably going to be asleep, she thought.

TGTGTGTGTGT

The elevator door slid open slowly and Gabriella stepped off and hung her shoulder bag across her chest as seh walked in. It was quiet, too quiet. The only sound came from the TV in teh family room. She followed the sound and stopped when she saw the one thing that she had never expected to see in her life. Troy and Angie; crashed out on the floor, surrounded by empty soda bottles and a half-empty bowl of popcorn and an empty pizza box with two plates piled next to it. Both of them were snoring in perfect sync.

In spite of herself, Gabriella smiled. Not wanting to wake them, she walked the short distance to the leather couch and pulled off the quilt that was a little worn, and flopped it down on the top of them. She let out a yawn as she smiled down at them one last time and then walked towards the double doors of her bedroom. It was to be an interesting day tomorrow. Very interesting indeed.

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