Trust and Love

Chapter 5: You and me

The door of the pizza was opened and Alex took a look if it was his mom but no luck, it wasn't his mom. It was a family of four walking in and all happy. He sighed. A lot of people had been walking pass him and had entered and exited the pizza house. It was already 8:30 and he was hungry. He dug into his pocket and saw that he still got $5 left. He put his money back in his pocket because he was saving money for something. He sighed and stood up. As he was heading for the door, someone called him that made him stop and turn.

Troy arrived at the Danforth household around 5 pm; he was just an hour late in babysitting Chad's children. The office took a hold on him.

"Hey kids, I'm so sorry I'm late." Troy apologized as he got inside the house.

"It's okay Uncle Troy. Anyway, what are we gonna do today?" Cassie asked Troy.

"Umm… I don't know. What do you wanna do?"

"Pizza! Pizza!" Max screamed.

"Usually, we go shopping and then to Uncle Peter's Pizza House to have dinner." Cassie simply said with a mysterious grin.

"Shopping?" Troy asked.

"Yeah, at the mall."

"Oh, umm… come on, let's go shopping!" He grabbed their hands and went to the garage where he parked the car.

Cassie looked at Troy's car. "Umm, Uncle Troy?"

"Yeah?"

"That car is not child safety." She pointed at Troy's two door Mercedes CL (picture on my profile) car.

"This is one of the safest cars in the world, even though it looks like this."

"But the problem is there are three of us and that is only a two door car."

"Then what do want me to do?" Troy asked.

"We always use the other car when dad goes out with us." Cassie pointed at the car beside Troy's Mercedes. It was a Subaru Legacy Tourer (picture on my profile).

"Oh…" Troy replied and Cassie handed him the keys and they drove off.

They took a stroll at the park before going to the mall and doing shopping. Troy knew how hard it was to shop with women but he didn't that it was harder to shop with kids instead of women. he was now carrying a cart full of toys and clothes. Paying for them was not easy when Cassie starts to ask Troy which color of the same shirt was better to wear.

"Uncle Troy, which color is better, the yellow or the purple?" Cassie asked, holding two shirts which were exactly the same but different in color.

"Umm…" Troy scratched the back of his neck. "I think the yellow one is nice."

"No, I think the purple one is nicer. I'll take the purple one." Cassie said as she handed the shirt to the cashier.

How does Chad put up with this kind of things? Wait, it's his children! He doesn't have a problem. Troy thought.

Eventually, he didn't have a problem with Max, only if he was going to run somewhere and you don't know where he went. They looked for him for about 30 minutes until they found him outside the restroom calling, "Uncle Troy!"

After the mallarziness (mall craziness), the trio went to Uncle Peter's Pizza House at 8 o'clock and their stomachs rumbling for pizzas. Troy quickly ordered a cheese pizza because as Cassie said, Maxwell doesn't like anything else on top but cheese.

As they were eating their dinner, Troy spotted someone who looked familiar to him. He looked like as if he already saw him in his life. He felt a connection. He looked around and looked back at the kid, and saw that he wasn't with someone and he also wasn't eating. What was he doing here then? This is a crazy, crowded and noisy place to think, so he wouldn't be thinking. The kid stood up and was headed for the door when…

"Alex!" Cassie shouted.

The boy turned and it was indeed Alex Montez who Cassie saw. She was thrilled because she had a little crush on Alex once when he saved her from the playground.

Flashback

Chad and Gabriella were at the Playground with their 7 year old boys and Chad's 5 year old girl and 2 year old boy. Will, Alex and Cassie were playing at the jungle gym while little Maxwell, stayed with Chad and Gabriella.

"Hey Alex, can you do this?" Will asked as he hanged upside down from a bar.

"That's easy." Alex said as he did the same trick.

"How about this?" Will showed another trick and Alex copied.

As the two were showing off, they didn't know that Cassie was looking at them and observing them. Cassie was a 5 year old girl, a stage of a child where they like to copy what they have observed.

"Well, can you jump from here to the ground?" Will pointed the ground.

"That is so old school, Will." As he ended his statement, both boys took a jump and landed on their feet with satisfied smiles.

All of a sudden, Cassie was amazed by what she saw, so she copied it and she was now screaming when everybody looked at her. Chad handed Max to Gabriella as he ran towards the jungle gym. The timing was right when Troy ran towards the jungle gym and Cassie landed on his hands and arms.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked as he put her down on the grass, making her sit up.

She looked at him and hugged him before saying, "Thank you."

End of Flashback

"Come over here!" Cassie called out. Alex sighed and walked over at their table.

"Hey Cass, I'm not really in the mood." Alex said as he scrunched up his face and not paying any respect or attention to the people who she was with.

"Are you okay? Why are you alone?" Cassie asked worriedly.

"Yeah, mom didn't show up. We were supposed to meet here at 7 to have dinner but… yeah." Alex said.

This caught Troy's very attention. "Why don't you join us? I bet you haven't had dinner yet."

Alex turned around and saw Troy Bolton, his idol. "Hey, Wow… Troy Bolton." He said simply surprised and gave Troy a man hand shake. "Nah, I think I'll just go home."

"Come on, man. Pizza's delicious. You can't decline this. Plus, I've been looking at you and you are seriously hungry, man. From the look in your eyes, you're hungry and the way how you spoke earlier. I've been through hunger, Alex." Troy said as if he knew Alex for a long time.

Alex smiled and just sat down beside Cassie. "Thanks." With that, he took a bite of the delicious pizza.

After an hour of having fun and eating, Troy, Cassie, Alex and an energetic Maxwell, took a walk at the park.

"So, you're a basketball player at your school, right?" Troy asked.

"Yeah, captain actually. How'd you know I was a basketball player?" Alex asked.

"The kicks and the body. That was how I looked back in high school. I was always with my kicks, never took them off during day, but at night, I take them off."

"That's what I also do." Alex said surprisingly.

"Really? Man, you really remind me off my high school days." Both men chuckled.

"The only difference is, I'm not yet in high school."

"True, true."

As 10 o'clock stroke, they were all home, except for Alex. He was still at the Danforths household. After cleaning and tucking in Maxwell, he went downstairs and walked up to Alex.

"Come on, let me take you home." Alex nodded.

"Where do you live anyway?" Troy asked.

"Just a few houses away from here." Troy nodded and shrugged.

"Cassie, you know my emergency number, right?" He called out.

"Yup!"

"Call me if something is wrong and please lock the door. I'll be back." Troy said as he took the keys from the counter and waved at Cassie before going out with Alex.

At the hospital

It was about 7:45 in the evening and Gabriella was getting ready to take off her scrub suit when a doctor called her out. She was going to call Alex to inform him that she won't make it, but the doctor already pulled her and they went in to the O.R.

After the surgery, she looked at the time to see that it was already 10 o'clock in the evening. Alex is probably mad at me right now. I better get home fast and make it up to him. She thought. Upon arriving at their house, she saw that there were no lights on. Maybe he's already sleeping. She thought. But as she went in and looked inside Alex's room, there was no 10 year old boy lying down on the bed. She was so worried.

Gabriella Montez had never been scared in her entire life, except the time when she got pregnant and there was no more Troy to ease all of life's difficulties and pain. Troy was her strength when they were still together and were so happy. As she knew about the pregnancy, she became very scared and Troy wasn't there to be her knight in shinning armor.

As she got downstairs, she took a hold of her bag and took out her phone to dial his son's number but unfortunately, there was no answer because he was out of reach. A million things that might've happened to Alex by now, was running through her mind. She was like a computer on over drive that couldn't stop working. She went to the living room and grabbed the phone to ring in the police.

"Hello?" Gabriella asked as someone picked up.

"Yes. Hello. How may I help you, Ma'am?"

"Can someone please come here over at my house? My son is missing. I don't know where he went and this is the first time that something like this happened."

"Okay Ma'am. May I know your name and address please?"

"This is Dr. Gabriella Montez." By that statement the officer got alarmed.

"Dr. Montez? Why didn't you say so? We know the address like forever. We'll be there in 5 minutes and… I hope dear Alex is okay."

"Yeah, me too. Thanks." With that, they both hang up.

Gabriella was at the porch waiting for the police to come. As soon as she heard sirens, she saw her friend Peter, a police officer. She rushed to him and hugged him. They have been friends for years and Peter was like a father to Alex but he never approved. He just like Peter by being his mother's friend.

"Thanks for being here, Peter." She said as she released from the hug. "Chad couldn't be here because he is in NYC right now with Will."

"Yeah, with all the custody and stuff." Peter said as Gabriella just nodded in response. "Anyway, when was the last time you saw Alex?"

"About 7 o'clock this morning. I needed to go to the hospital early so I left him but he knows the drill when I'm out."

"What is that drill exactly?"

"Umm… He takes the spare house keys with him and goes to school. After his school, he can do his homework or whatever he wants and stuff. When 7 o' clock in the evening strikes, we meet at Uncle Peter's Pizza House. That's the usual thing routine." Gabriella explained.

"Uh huh. So, did you arrive at the Pizza house?" Gabriella fell silent at the question and just looked down. "I'll take that as a no." she just smiled weakly and looked at Peter. "I say, we better check the Pizza house, maybe he was waiting for you. Or he might be around the corner, going home."

"Do you think something happened to him?" Gabriella asked worried about her son's safety.

"Nah, he'll be fine. The streets are full his night shift police men." Peter just smiled cheekily at her.

"You know, I wish I had a dad like you, you know." Alex smiled and suddenly chuckled. "You're Troy Bolton, who wouldn't want you for a dad. But the great thing is that even though you are Troy Bolton, you are still down-to-earth, you know."

"Really? Gee, thanks. So, umm… where is your dad anyway? If you don't mind me asking." Troy asked with curiosity.

"Well, I never knew him. My mom didn't tell me any stories about him, just a bunch of little bit info there and here; some of them just slip unnoticed. I think she didn't want me to know. But you know what she told me?"

"What?"

"That it wasn't a one night stand and that she loved my dad so much that she just had to leave him because it would affect his future if she told her about the baby thing… the 'ME' thing. But the thing was that she said that at the day I was conceived, it was the greatest night of her life and she never had anything like it. So yeah, I want to know my dad."

"Wow… I wish that's how my ex-girlfriend felt when we had the night of our lives. But we didn't conceive anything though."

"Oh… what happened? You broke up or something? As I heard it from the news that you haven't dated anyone yet. The last one you dated was your classmate back in high school."

"Yeah, well, she left me without even saying a proper goodbye. She just sent me a letter without her address on it. It said that she needed to go because her mother needed to move because of work and stuff, but I didn't believe it. She wasn't like that. She was that kind of girl that you would want to spend the rest of your life with."

"You're in love, man." Troy just shrugged and wrapped his arm around Alex.

"Anyway, that is our house." He pointed at the house with police cars at the front. "That's my Mom." He pointed at a brunette with a very cute figure and very beautiful eyes. When the woman that Alex called Mom turned around, his heart stopped beating and he didn't know what to do. He was just hanging out with his ex-girlfriend's son. He couldn't believe it.

When Gabriella turned around, she saw none other than Troy Bolton with his son. She froze like ice and just looked at those piercing blue eyes that always gave her the chills that no other man can give. She didn't know what to do. She was just staring at his son with Troy. She never thought this day would come. Never.