Mistakes
Hey guys, I am so so so sorry for not updating in so long, my computer has been breaking down and because all of my stuff has already been saved, I couldn't get to it, anyway, it's fixed now, so hopefully updates should be more regular again, anyway, here's chapter 5, I hope that you like it, please read and review!
Chapter 5
"Dad, I'm home," Lilly-Ella yelled, wincing as she heard the squeal of brakes outside, signalling that David had definitely left, "Dad?"
"I'm in the kitchen Lila," a voice yelled out, and she grinned, dropping her schoolbag at the foot of the stairs and skipping to the kitchen, freezing when she saw her Dad sat with a very familiar face.
"But…but…but, you're my teacher," Lilly-Ella stuttered out, her finger pointing at Ryan as both he and Troy chuckled at the wide eyed young girl stood before them, her bag having unconsciously fallen to the floor in her shock at seeing her new drama teacher sat at her breakfast bar in her kitchen, with her father.
"Yes Lila, he's also my best friend," Troy chuckled, his daughter still looking stunned in the doorway as Ryan grinned at her and turned to Troy.
"She's still as beautiful as ever then," Ryan beamed, and Lilly-Ella blushed as he turned back to look at her, "I may have only actually met you a few times when you were just a kid Lilly-Ella, but it was always obvious that your Dad was going to have a fun time when it came to the teenage years and boys," Ryan laughed again, and this time, Lilly-Ella joined in, while Troy crossed his arms in a huff and started to mutter slightly under his breath.
Still giggling, Lilly-Ella made her way across the room to Troy, and gently pecked his cheek, before wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug, "Anyway, hiya Daddy," She grinned, and Troy chuckled, kissing her forehead softly, as he hugged her back, "Love you," she beamed, pulling away.
"I love you too Lila," Troy smiled, leaning forward and grabbing his car keys from the bench top in front of him, "But right now, I have to get back to work, so behave yourself, and don't do anything that I wouldn't."
Lilly-Ella smirked slightly as she glanced at her Dad, heading straight for the fridge, "So what, you want me to set the cooker on fire, blow up the microwave, leave the garden hose on but rolled up in one spot, consume as much alcohol as physically possible and refill the bottles with water, oh and let the dog run lose with a paint brush covered in red paint," Lilly-Ella glanced at their little husky puppy Oreo, who glanced back up at her, before returning to wrecking one of Troy's shoes, and then she glanced up at Troy himself, who had gone physically paler, causing her smirk to grow as Ryan roared with laughter beside him, "Oh yeah, Grams talks," She snickered slightly, and Troy slowly regained some of the colour to his face.
"All right then smart aleck don't do what I would do," he chuckled softly and leaned over to drop a kiss to the top of her head, before turning once more to Ryan, "Ry, you can either leave now, but feel free to stay for as long as you want, just don't become a bad influence on my daughter," Troy smiled at the two once more, before heading out the door as Ryan rolled his eyes.
"I don't think that it's possible to be a bad influence on someone who has you for their Dad, Bolton!" he yelled after Troy, grinning when Lilly-Ella started to giggle and Troy yelled something indecipherable back, before the slamming of a door was heard.
Opening the fridge, Lilly-Ella dived straight for the bottom shelf, and beamed as she found the chocolate milk, instantly pulling out a bottle, and standing back up, only to see Ryan with his eyebrows raised as he flicked through the paper, his coffee mug still stationed in front of him, "What?" She asked cautiously, eyeing her new teacher turned one of her Dad's best friends up and down.
"Chocolate milk?" he questioned, his eyebrows raising even more, "What are you five?"
"Yep," She beamed, "want one?"
Ryan considered her question for a good five seconds, before nodding his head eagerly, and catching the new bottle as she threw it at him, "You know, you forget how good this stuff really tastes."
Lilly-Ella nodded in agreement, before sitting on the stool opposite Ryan and looking at him curiously, "Mr Evans?"
Ryan glanced back up from the paper in wonder, before smiling an easy smile at me, "You know that you can call me Ryan at home right Lilly-Ella? Seriously Mr Evans makes me feel old," just as Lilly-Ella opened her mouth, Ryan jumped back in again, "And don't say anything about that."
Grinning, the teenager just nodded, smiling slightly at Ryan, as she tilted her head, trying to place him, "How come you knew me as a child, but I don't remember you?"
Smiling softly at her, Ryan closed the paper and sat up, looking her directly in the eye, "For the most part, when we met you were very young, and it was on very rare occasions anyway, and then as you got older, you would stay with friends while your Dad and I met up, although that was rare as well, given that the two of you lived in L.A. and I lived in Albuquerque, where your Dad refused point blanc to come to. I do remember the first time I met you though, you were two going on three, and you definitely made a lasting impression on me that day," Ryan chuckled as Lilly-Ella leaned in to listen closely to the story of the first meeting between the two.
Flashback
Ryan glanced at the scrap of paper in his hand, before heading straight into an apartment building, taking a deep breath as he took the lift to the third floor and found himself standing outside of the apartment of a man that he thought he would never hear from again.
Sighing slightly, he raised his hand and knocked on the door of his old best friend who he hadn't seen in almost three years, and who had broken Gabriella's heart. Remembering that fact, Ryan felt the anger once more build up in his veins, scrunching up the tattered note in his hand, as the door to the apartment swung open, revealing Troy Bolton.
Ryan's mouth fell open as he looked up at Troy Bolton, yet not as he knew him, the Troy Bolton that he had once known would have rather lived in a room with week old meal dishes and rubbish galore, rather than listen to his Mother and actually tidy his room, whereas this Troy Bolton was stood before Ryan, a dish cloth in hand as he held a freshly cleaned plate in his other hand, and beyond him, Ryan could see an extremely clean apartment, minus the amount of children's toys that seemed to litter the place, causing Ryan's confusion to grow even more.
"Ryan," Troy murmured, a stunned expression on his face, before a grin broke out, and he pulled Ryan in for a quick hug, which the blonde man quickly reciprocated, before remembering his anger and abruptly pushing Troy away again, his eyes studying his old friend.
"You've got some explaining to do Bolton," Ryan muttered harshly, a glare fixed onto his face as the fire danced through his eyes, and Troy winced slightly.
"Yeah, I guess that I deserve that," Troy sighed, opening the door wider and directing Ryan to the living room, where both men sat on the couch and just stared at each other for a time.
Troy was trying to figure out a way to explain the events of the past two and a bit years to Ryan, when he noticed Ryan's face twist up into a smile, before he burst into laughter, and Troy looked at him bewildered, before he realised that Ryan was looking at something over his shoulder, and turning around slowly, Troy watched his about to turn three year old daughter frowning in concentration as she tried to get the DVD player to shut once more, a ham, tomato and cucumber sandwich wedged in the disk drive as Troy watched in panic at the beam that crossed her face as the DVD player finally shut once more, before making a horrific whirring noise and emitting a puff of smoke, making Lilly-Ella laugh and pet it as though it was an animal, before tottering to her feet and looking up, smiling at Troy and Ryan from where she stood in her bright pink t-shirt and denim dungarees with the butterfly on the front pocket, that had come unclipped at one side (picture in profile), her almost black chin length curls swept to the side with a tiny pink studded clip, as she held her arms up to Troy.
"Daddy!" She squealed, a beam lighting up her face as she waved her tiny arms at him, and Troy strode across the room, feeling his heart melt as he picked her up and she snuggled into him, before pulling away and kissing his cheek, sending him a toothy smile, which instantly melted away any of Troy's remaining anger and he resigned himself to buying yet another new DVD player.
"Lilly-Ella was that your lunch?" he questioned as he tried to pry open the DVD player with one hand, keeping the other wrapped securely around his baby girl, while Ryan sat back down on the couch, smiling at the pair.
"Yes," Lilly-Ella muttered innocently, folding her arms across her chest and looking up at Troy with wide eyes, "Yucky cwumber."
Troy laughed softly at her attempt to say cucumber, and kissed the top of her head lightly, although he could feel his heart wrenching, remembering the time that Gabriella had said something along those lines about hating cucumber.
Finally, Troy managed to open the DVD player, the force of it sending both himself and a giggling Lilly-Ella tumbling to the floor, as Ryan watched on in amusement as Troy tried to keep both Lilly-Ella and the sandwich from being crushed into the carpet.
Sighing, Troy stood up once more, smiling quickly at Ryan, before exiting through the door that Ryan had watched the young child come through, and returning moments later with the young girl still clutched in one arm, the sandwich now no where in sight.
Glancing once more at the ruined DVD player, Troy shook his head slightly, returning to the couch and sitting beside Ryan, bringing Lilly-Ella onto his lap and smiling at her softly as he refastened the side of her dungarees that had come unfastened and kissed the top of her head lovingly, as he folded his arms back around her tiny body and she leant back into him, a small sigh exiting her mouth as her eyes fluttered closed and she snuggled tightly into Troy, her minuscule hands running the material of his t-shirt through them, Troy slowly rocking them from side to side as his daughter entered the world of sleeping.
Troy glanced up to see Ryan watching the pair in utter confusion, catching Troy's eyes, Ryan raised his eyebrows slightly, "Explanation please," He managed to squeak out, all of his anger gone once more, as he desperately tried to decipher why Troy had a child, much less a child who looked so much like Gabriella, yet Gabriella was no where in this child's life, no pictures of her even hanging on the walls which were covered in picture of Troy and the little girl, both together and apart, covering from when she was a tiny baby right up until present day.
Sighing softly, Troy glanced down at Lilly-Ella, before looking back up at Ryan, "Would you like anything to drink Ryan?" He asked, desperate to get away from the subject of Lilly-Ella and why he left Albuquerque in the first place.
"Troy," Ryan muttered sternly, raising an eyebrow as Troy cringed slightly.
"Jeez Ryan, you make me feel like I'm back in Ms.Darbus' room and I've done something wrong," Troy thought for a minute, and then grinned, "Again."
Ryan just chuckled, grinning back at Troy, "Yeah, cos you were and absolute angel in high school," Troy grinned as Ryan rolled his eyes, "Seriously though Troy, what the hell happened? Why did you leave? Why do you have a child? How do you have a child? Who is she? Why does she look so much like Gabs? Why did you phone me and not the others?"
"Full of questions today aren't we Ryan," Troy muttered darkly, and Ryan shot him another stern look, causing Troy to sigh softly, "Ok, starting with the easiest, I called you because I know that you can keep a secret, Chad will blab to Taylor who will tell Kelsi, who will tell Jason, who will tell Zeke, who will tell Shar, who will then tell Gabriella, and neither me nor my daughter are ready for her back in our lives once more," Troy smiled slightly at Ryan, who nodded looking confused, and opened his mouth to say something, before Troy cut him off, "It all started nearly three years ago now on the eighth of August two thousand and eight, Gabriella was pregnant, but her bump was so small that it was impossible to actually tell, most people just thought that she had gained a little weight, so we decided not to tell you guys, in case we ended up putting the baby up for adoption, because our parents, of course, well they weren't happy at all about the entire thing," Troy sighed, planting a kiss to Lilly-Ella's head, as Ryan's mouth dropped open in shock, "Ella and I decided that the baby was our responsibility, and that we were both going to raise him or her together, no matter what our parents thought, or however hard it would end up, we would always have each other, a family," Troy sighed again, and Ryan watched his friend closely, noticing the hurt and pain that seemed to flicker throughout his eyes as he talked about the events of that summer, "the day that our baby was born, the eighth, something happened with Gabriella, she basically threatened to put our little girl up for adoption if I didn't take her and leave, I don't know what happened to Ella, but she said, that she'd never loved the baby and that she no longer loved me, so I took our baby and I left, but I couldn't stay in Albuquerque, so after one quick little stop off at home, we were off down here to L.A., where we stayed with my aunt for a couple of weeks, before actually moving in to this apartment. I figured that Ella would need you guys around as friends, so I never contacted any of you ever again, and now I'm guessing that you all hate me," Troy finished, closing his eyes slightly, before reopening them and connecting them with Ryan's sympathetic ones.
"I hate to say it Troy, but yeah, the majority now hate you, since I now know the full story, I obviously don't, and Kelsi has never said a bad word against you, she won't say a word against you for that matter, her reasoning being that we don't have all of the facts about you leaving to make a judgement," Ryan smiled softly at Troy, before his eyes flickered down to Lilly-Ella, "She's adorable Troy, and obviously a well behaved kid, minus her vendetta against DVD players, what's her name?"
Both Troy and Ryan chuckled softly, as Troy shifted the now just woken Lilly-Ella in his arms so that she could see Ryan, "Ryan this is my baby girl Lilly-Ella Anne Bolton, and Lilly-Ella, this is your Uncle Ryan," He smiled at the small girl as she eyed Ryan up curiously, before breaking out into a massive toothy grin and crawling across the couch to Ryan's lap, starting to tell him all about her and her Daddy as both men grinned at her.
End Flashback
"And that was the first time I met you," Ryan chuckled softly as Lilly-Ella smiled back at him, "I ended up staying with you and your Dad for a week, taking over your bedroom while you stayed with him, and you were a right little character, in that week I was lucky if I went anywhere either without you following or without you asking where I was going and why."
Lilly-Ella grinned back at him, "I don't remember any of that, but I do remember Dad telling me that I managed to break something like three DVD players by using them for stashes of things I didn't want."
"Yeah, well after that, I talked to your Dad on a daily basis, but I didn't get to see you guys' again until the December like five months later," Ryan grinned as the memory resurfaced in his mind, "You were a right little argumentative child, you never wanted to do anything that your Dad wanted you to do, or you just point blanc ignored what he had just told you not to do and did it anyway."
"Some things never change then," Lilly-Ella giggled slightly as she brought back two more chocolate milks for the pair.
"Yeah well you certainly knew how to wind some people up, and you weren't afraid to say what you thought either," Ryan chuckled softly, smiling at the teenager as he began to relive yet another cherished memory with her.
Flashback
Ryan looked up as the bell above the restaurant door dinged, signalling that someone else had just opened the door. A grin curled onto his face as he saw two faces that he had not seen in five long months, since his first trip out to L.A. to see them in July.
Lilly-Ella's tiny hand clutched tightly onto Troy's larger one, swaying slightly to her own music as Troy's eyes wandered around the restaurant, eventually catching on Ryan's, as he smiled and bent down next to his daughter.
Ryan watched intently as Lilly-Ella listened to Troy, her spare hand's fingers in her mouth as her little head bobbed up and down, her curls flying, even though they were held back by a thin red hairband with a bow on it. Grinning once more as her electric blue eyes shot up to meet his, Ryan opened his arms, and she came racing across the restaurant straight for him, as Troy stood up and rolled his eyes, chuckling slightly, obviously having just told her not to do that.
Dodging waiters and other diners, Lilly-Ella sprinted across the room, her red cardigan and just above knee length grey check skirt with red trim flowing out behind her as her shiny black Mary-Jane's slapped against the floor, her cream tights and cream blouse (picture in profile) creating contrasting colours, Troy following slowly behind her in his blue button up shirt and black dress pants, apologising to customers and staff alike as Lilly-Ella hurtled through them.
"Uncle Ry!" She squealed, leaping up onto his lap and wrapping her tiny arms around him as he wrapped his around her in a tight hug and Troy slipped into the other side of the booth, smiling at the pair.
"Hey there kitten," Ryan chuckled softly, kissing the top of her head as she clambered out of his arms and sat between him and Troy in the booth, "How've you been then?"
"I'm gwood," Lilly-Ella beamed, picking up her menu to read as Troy smiled at his daughter, wondering how many words she would actually be able to pick out, although knowing that even as a three year old, she could probably read most of the menu herself, "Daddy and I went Chwistmas swopping, but all of the pwesents have bween twaken to Santa now for Gwams and Gwampa and wu, he alwedy has mwine though, and wu?"
Ryan grinned at the young girl, who was so easy to make conversation with, even at such a young age, as she began to twirl a strand of her dark hair around her fingers, watching him closely, "I'm very well thank you Lilly-Ella, are you looking forward to Santa coming?"
The three year old nodded ecstatically, before returning to her menu, as Ryan chuckled once more and turned to look at Troy, smiling at the proud look on his best friend's face, and still unable to believe that this responsible twenty one year old father was once the East High basketball God that he knew.
"Hey Troy," Ryan grinned at him as the young Lakers basketball star finally snapped out of his trance and looked back to Ryan.
"Nice to know that you finally notice me Ryan," Troy grinned back, and Ryan couldn't help the small chuckle that erupted from his mouth, "And I told you that you'd be a bad influence on my daughter Ryan, the minute that she sees you, she does something that I just told her not to." Troy glanced back to Lilly-Ella, whose brow was furrowed in concentration as she tried to read the menu, before glancing back up to Ryan with a grin.
"Hey I'm not the one that lives with her twenty four seven," Ryan defended, holding his hands up as the waitress came over to take their order, eyeing Troy up and causing him to shuffle uncomfortable as Ryan tried to control his laughter.
"Hi, I'm Amber, and I'll be your waitress today, are you ready to order?" The waitress asked in a high-pitched voice, causing both Troy and Ryan to wince and Lilly-Ella to raise her eyebrows.
"Lady, you gots a squeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaky voice," Lilly-Ella told her, pointing a finger at her as she dragged out the word squeaky causing the waitress to turn crimson, a murderous expression covering her face as she glared at Lilly-Ella, gritting her teeth as the guys' smothered their laughter.
"Awww, aren't you such a sweet little angel, I bet that you just love spending time with your older brother don't you?" Amber smiled sickly sweet at Lilly-Ella, as the young girl pulled a face, and Troy decided to intervene before an argument could break out, figuring that Lilly-Ella was probably smarter than this waitress anyway.
"Actually Miss, she's not my little sister, she's my daughter," Troy smirked slightly as the smile dropped from Amber's face, and she quickly ran off, causing both of the Bolton's to roll their eyes, well used to the same reaction by this point, and Ryan to sit, watching after her, looking fairly stunned.
A few minutes later, a red head appeared at their table and smiled at the trio, "Hey, I'm really sorry about Amber, she's a little," the girl rolled her eyes into her head slightly as she tried to figure out a word to describe Amber, "dramatic." She finished as all of the occupants at the table laughed, "Anyway, I'm Maisie, are you ready to order yet?"
"I'll have a bwig swice of twocolate cwake wif extwa whipped cweam thwank wu," Lilly-Ella beamed, placing her menu down in front of her and folding her hands on the table as Ryan and Maisie chuckled softly and Troy looked at his young daughter with raised eyebrows.
"I think not Lila, if you have room after dinner than you can maybe have that, now pick something proper," Troy instructed, trying his best not to laugh along with Ryan and Maisie.
"Fine then," Lilly-Ella sighed, picking up her menu again momentarily and studying it, before a beam flew across her face and she dropped it once more, looking straight back at Maisie, "I'll have twocolate cwovered pantakes pwease."
"Think again," Troy muttered, looking sternly at his daughter as she sighed once more, picking up the menu again.
"A tweeseburger then, but I dwon't want the kwids one cause I'm nwot a bwaby anymwore, I'm a big gwirl," Lilly-Ella smiled, and Ryan bit down hard on his lower lip in an attempt to stop the laughter that was threatening to burst through.
"Lilly-Ella, you'll never eat the adults one, so you have to have the children's one," Troy informed his daughter as her bottom lip started to quiver and her eyes widened, and she stared straight back at Troy, as Maisie looked between the two, a small smile gracing her features as she turned to the little girl.
"Hey Lilly-Ella," She smiled and immediately, Lilly-Ella turned to look at her, "You know that nobody else has ordered a kid's cheeseburger today and so yours will be the first one, making you one very special little girl because the kid's cheeseburger is chef Michael's special."
"Really?" Lilly-Ella questioned, excitement dancing through her blue orbs as Troy breathed a sigh of relief.
"Uh-huh, so what'll it be, are you gonna be special, or not?" Maisie beamed back down at her as Lilly-Ella nodded her head enthusiastically, "Good, and I'm sure that the chef will be pleased too."
After finally finishing at the restaurant, including Lilly-Ella's big slice of cake, that was then shared between the three of them, the trio headed back to the Bolton's, where the two guys' were forced into watching Sleeping Beauty, with their daughter/goddaughter, respectively.
End Flashback
"After that meeting, I used to meet up with your Dad two or three times a year, but I only ever saw you at the most once a year, although I always sent you Christmas and birthday presents," Ryan smiled sadly at her as Lilly-Ella nodded softly, "Your Dad and I decided that it was better for me to have as little contact with you as possible, for fear that his old friends would find the two of you, and they were mad at him for leaving, so everything I had for you guys' was under Parker Smith, the phone numbers, the address, and if my friends asked if I knew the Lakers star, I just laughed and said no that it was only a coincidence that the names were the same."
"Uncle Ryan?" Lilly-Ella asked timidly, and Ryan smiled at her, happy that she had started to call him uncle again as he nodded for her to continue, "Did you or do you know my Mom?"
Ryan closed his eyes, having been dreading this question ever appearing, "The quick answer to that is yes I do know your Mom, Kitten, but I don't think that it's such a good idea that I tell you about her, that's got to come from your Dad," Ryan smiled at her and gently placed two fingers under her chin, lifting her face to look at him, and smiling sadly at her when he saw the tears swimming in her eyes, "You will find out about her eventually Kitten, it might just take some time, your Dad still loves her, you know that though, don't you?"
"Yeah, I do," Lilly-Ella sniffed quietly, wiping furiously at her eyes, "But I have homework that I've got to do Uncle Ryan, so can you please excuse me?"
"Sure thing, Kitten, anyway I better go, I have to be at my sister's for dinner in twenty minutes and she will kill me if I'm late," Ryan grinned as Lilly-Ella giggled softly, kissing the top of her head in a protective way, before smiling once more at her, "If you ever need any help though Kitten, I'm right here, ok?"
Lilly-Ella smiled and nodded, waving goodbye to Ryan as she closed the door and headed up the stairs to get a start on her homework…
Well guys, that was chapter 5, I am so sorry once again for the long wait, but please leave me a review and tell me what you thought, hopefully chapter 6 should be out soon as well.