Chapter Eight: Happy Ending

Troy scrambled to his feet, slipping his shirt on over his head with fumbling fingers. He let the cloth slide smoothly down his back and tugged it over his battered torso, masking the bruises behind it. Gabriella still sat on the ground, numb with fear and shock. Troy held out a hand. Instead of taking it, Gabriella just gaped slack jawed at Mr. Bolton. Troy, frustrated, grabbed her hand and pulled her off the ground.

Gabriella gathered herself as quickly as her frozen body would allow. She leaned against Troy, waiting to regain support from her weakened legs. Troy put his hand in hers and drew circles on her hand with his thumb. The pressure, weak as it was, was almost unbearable to Gabriella. She gasped and pulled her hand away. Troy looked at her, fear lined in his eyes. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her… especially in a physical sense.

Mr. Bolton pulled himself heavily off of the doorframe and walked over to the two teens. He circled them, much like a bird of carnage circling its prey, and chuckled lightly. Gabriella could see in Troy's expression that he was scared but his demeanor showed nothing of the sort. She slipped her hand in his, causing him to wince in his fear.

"So, Troy," Mr. Bolton chuckled. "Have you told everyone?"

"He hasn't told anyone!" Gabriella stated boldly. "They all figured it out!"

"He hasn't told anyone but you, you mean?" Jack asked. Gabriella hesitated. "How do I trust that he hasn't told anyone else, when I just watched him tell you?"

Gabriella remained silent for a moment and Troy squeezed her hand a bit harder. It was obvious that he was loosing his calm demeanor and he was starting to panic. Gabriella looked at Troy's face and turned to Mr. Bolton, fire igniting her anger, "I'm not letting you get away with this! Look at him! Look at his face! I have never seen him so scared! And because of his own father? You're a sick man."

"You aren't letting me get away with it?" Mr. Bolton laughed. "Sweetheart, if I can make Troy keep his mouth shut most of the time then what makes you think I can't keep you silent?"

"Because Troy doesn't want to lose his father," Gabriella said gravely. "I could care less about what happens to you as long as Troy is okay."

"But," Mr. Bolton said, walking closer to them. "Troy cares about what happens to you, doesn't he? And you about him?"

"Exactly why I would get rid of you!"

"But what would happen if someday, maybe- just maybe- I went a little haywire?" Mr. Bolton asked rhetorically. "What would happen if I hit his-say… neck? What would you do then?"

Gabriella remained silent, appalled. She looked at Troy who wouldn't look her into the eye, which Gabriella was afraid of. He was hiding something in them that he didn't want her to see: he was hiding fear- pure undeniable fear, desperation, and misery. He wanted nothing more then for Gabriella to be quiet for everything she said would make him pay tenfold what was already coming to him.

"Why are you doing this?" Gabriella whispered, mortified. Tears filled her eyes like water fills a cup and they threatened to overflow quickly and one look at Troy's face made them spill. Mr. Bolton leaned into Gabriella's horrified face and whispered in her ear, "Because…I… can."

Mr. Bolton raised his arm in rage and Troy tugged mercilessly at Gabriella's arm. She was almost yanked off her feet and tugged behind Troy. His strong arms locked her behind his back and Troy growled, "Don't touch her."

"Again with the nobility, Troy," Mr. Bolton said. "I'm touched. But do you really think that's going to help?"

"I think that if you touch her, I'll call the police."

"I think I'll beat the crap out of you if you do."

"That's not going to make the police forget what I said."

Mr. Bolton and Troy stared back at each other with the same looks: hatred, but something in between the stare was different. Troy looked at his father with a genuine look of pain or his face. It contorted his handsome features until Gabriella new that she was surely going to cry.

"Just let Gabriella leave," Troy snarled. "Or I will."

"You can't scare me, Troy," Mr. Bolton said. "Tell me, if I'm gone, where are you?"

"Anywhere without you is fine with me!" Troy shouted.

"Don't speak to me that way!" Mr. Bolton shouted back.

"Dad, please. She hasn't done anything!" Troy had tears streaming down his cheeks. "Let her go!"

Mr. Bolton shook his head and smiled evilly. "Troy, let go of the girl."

"No!"

"Troy, now!"

"Make me!"

"Fine!"

Mr. Bolton reached out to grab Troy and Troy's fast hands reached out and grabbed his father's fist. Troy smiled and said, "I don't think so. It's not going to be that easy anymore. I'm not going to let you just beat me up anymore."

Jack then used his other fist to punch Troy square in the jaw. Gabriella let out a scream and covered her mouth with her hands. Troy staggered and came back up, rubbing his jaw. "You can do better than that, can't you?"

Jack let out a howl of rage and punched again. Troy fell at this. Gabriella went to the floor after Troy, screaming. Troy wiped a bit of blood off of his lip and looked up at Jack, horrified. Gabriella was on her knees; Troy's head had fallen into her lap. Gabriella looked up at Jack, anger lining her face, "You monster."

"I'm the monster here?" Jack yelled. "I've been taunted and fooled and made into a mockery by my son but I'm the monster?"

"You are beating your son!" Gabriella shouted. "How is that excusable?"

Mr. Bolton howled in anger and grabbed Gabriella by her wrists. He wrenched her off the floor quickly and Gabriella yelped in fear. Mr. Bolton shook her and yelled, "What do you know, you little slut? You don't know anything!"

"Don't touch her!" Troy got shakily to his feet. He stood his ground and said, "It's not her you want. It's me."

Mr. Bolton stared into Gabriella's terrified eyes and let her go, pushing her so that she fell to the ground heavily. Mr. Bolton paced over to Troy and whispered into his ear, "You don't want to do this."

"Yeah," Troy whispered back with a smirk. "I do."

Mr. Bolton raised his fist and Gabriella shouted, "Wait!" Mr. Bolton and Troy froze and stared at Gabriella. "I'll make a deal."

"I don't need to make a deal!"

"You don't beat Troy," Gabriella started, ignoring Mr. Bolton. Tears were forming in her eyes. "But you can have me."

Mr. Bolton started to mull it over and Troy shouted. "No! Gabi, don't!"

"I want to do this, Troy."

"I can take this, Gabi," Troy said, straining to see Gabriella over his father's body. "You can't! Go! Get out of here!"

"Oh, no, you don't!" Mr. Bolton lunged for Gabriella and Troy grabbed the back of his father's shirt. Mr. Bolton growled and flipped around to Troy. Gabriella pressed herself against the wall and began to cry silently.

Gabriella realized that Troy wasn't going to let himself off the hook and that he wasn't going to let Gabriella get hurt. But she was stuck in a horrified trance… watching…

As Troy got beaten.

---

The television was turned on, the lights flashing around the room. The sound rolled around the room in a rickety roll as Gabriella flicked through the channels as quickly as she could. She heard the buzz of her microwave and the door pop open as someone pressed on the button. Gabriella smiled as the smell of popcorn filled her nose.

"Crap!" She heard a yell from the kitchen. Gabriella whipped around on her spot in the couch and said, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine!" She heard Troy say. "I burnt my finger on the popcorn!"

"You dork!" Gabriella called laughing. Troy walked in, popcorn bowl in one hand, his finger stuffed in his mouth. He popped it out and waved it around wildly. "Hmm… That looks interesting," He said as he looked at the burn. Gabriella looked at it and gasped. The skin had been burnt until it was slightly purple; the skin around it bright red.

"Oh my gosh! Let me grab something!" Gabriella scrambled off the couch and towards the bathroom medicine cabinet. Troy grabbed the back of her shirt, pulled her backwards, and said, "Don't worry about it. I've had worse than this."

Gabriella tried to shake Troy off but his strong hands stayed clamped on the back of her shirt. She turned around and tried to pry it off but only succeeded in hitting Troy in the face as she came around. Troy backed up, terror filling his eyes.

"Troy, I'm so…" Gabriella said through her hands, which she had slapped to her face in embarrassment. Troy stopped her. "You didn't mean to. No big deal." He sat on the couch heavily and put his hand to his cheek gingerly.

"It is a big deal!" Gabriella said, sitting next to him and gently taking his hand. She felt Troy flinch. "Troy, you have to tell someone."

"What?" Troy asked. "No way!"

"Troy, you just flinched! All I did was grab your hand!" Gabriella shouted angrily, throwing Troy's hand in his lap. She stood up in her fit of anger. Troy stood up next to her and shook his head. "It's a just reflex, Gabi!"

"It shouldn't be a reflex, Troy!" Gabriella shouted. "Most people wouldn't cringe in fear if I held their hand!"

"Well, I'm not most people, Gabi!" Troy shouted back. "I'm me! I'm Troy Bolton. I'm not most people and I'm not going to act like most people!"

"If you don't tell, I will!"

"Gabriella, you wouldn't." Troy's tone had changed from angry to afraid at the drop of a hat. Gabriella looked at Troy dead in the eye and said, "I would. I'm not going to see you get hurt anymore!"

"You don't have to see it if you don't pay attention!" Troy shouted, his angry demeanor returning.

Gabriella shot Troy an angry look before retorting, "Ignorance may be bliss, Troy, but at some point you're going to have to face the facts and realize that it'll only get worse the longer you wait… and the worse it gets, the harder it'll be to let go."

Troy opened his mouth to retort back but was cut off by the ringing phone. Troy sighed; Trivia Night had begun. The group had trivia night once a month. Each of the gang would call another pair or people and they would ask questions about themselves. If the question was answered wrong, the person would have to do whatever the other person asked for a week.

"Yes, Chad?" Gabriella asked when she answered the phone. Chad laughed and said, "What number am I thinking of?"

"Between what two numbers?" Troy asked, as Gabriella set it on speakerphone.

"Darn!" Taylor muttered, as she and Chad were always together on trivia night. "Why does Troy have to be there?

"Between… one and infinity!" Chad said happily, sure that he had fooled the pair. Gabriella opened her mouth, "That's not-…"

"Thirty-two."

"Damn it!" They hung up. Troy chuckled and rubbed a hand through his hair. Gabriella shook her head and walked into the kitchen. Troy sighed and sat on the couch heavily. He looked at the television and immediately turned it off. He heard Gabriella's voice from the kitchen.

"Why'd you turn it off?"

"Umm… There's nothing on."

"Why don't you go grab a movie?" Gabriella asked. Troy heard glasses clinking around in the background. Troy stood up. "There's a couple in my room that we could watch."

Troy walked up the stairs and disappeared onto the second story. Gabriella rushed into the living room, leaving the sink running, and turned on the television. It flashed brightly in the dark night and the picture swarmed in front of her.

"-Call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline! This has become a growing conflict in the nation. Physical abuse has been skyrocketing. There has been reported: beatings, whippings, even burning with cigarette butts and hot water. Please do as we ask and call us at-"

"Sorry, I took so long!" Troy said. "I couldn't find the movie."

Gabriella spun around, clicking off the TV. She nodded and gulped, asking, "What'd you grab?" Troy held up a movie. "The Little Mermaid."

"Oh! That's my favorite movie!" Gabriella squealed. Troy nodded. He put the disc in the DVD player and the movie started up. Troy threw himself on the couch and Gabriella snuggled closer to him. As gently as she could, she laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes. Troy gave a small flinch but let her lie down comfortably. He closed his eyes and let his hand rest on Gabriella's stomach lightly.

The movie was about to end and Gabriella sighed contentedly. She looked up at Troy, who shook his head but still smiled as the picture rolled on. Gabriella stared at him and asked, "What?"

Troy shook his head and gave a grim look. "I don't believe in happy endings."

Gabriella felt her heart get heavy with remorse. "Why not?" She questioned, her voice sad enough to be apparent to Troy. He shook of her grievance and said, "Because I never got one."

Gabriella grabbed his hand and they both fell fast asleep, lying in each other's arms.

---

"Where the hell were you last night, Troy?"

"I was out with my friends!" Troy shouted. "I told you!"

"I told you not to go anywhere last night!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Sorry isn't good enough, Troy!" Jack threw his hands in the air. "I never thought you could be so stupid! When will you learn?"

Troy came home to his father sitting at the kitchen table, his feet up on the table as if hygiene were nothing. There was a cigarette in between his fingers, smoke lazily drifting around the kitchen. Troy coughed and waved his hand through the air, trying to clear the smoke. "Are you smoking?"

He reached to the window above the sink and pulled it open, yelping in pain and grasping at his chest. Even moving his arms above his head would set off the broken rib. Finally, very painfully, he pushed the window open and the smoke wafted out of the room while Jack sat at the table, smoking away at his new cigarette.

"Come here, Troy," Jack wheezed with a smile that made Troy want to hide under his covers in his room. Not that that would help much; he didn't have a door. Troy stepped over slowly and stood up straight next to his father.

"There's this thing about smoking," Jack started to explain, brandishing the charred cigarette in the air. "Once you start, it's hard to stop. And you can watch the cigarette as it starts to fade out," He pushed the burning end of the cigarette onto Troy's bare arm. Troy let the cold air slice through his teeth but he didn't move. Jack twisted the butt around and said, "Until it's all… gone."

Author's Note: Now, I don't want you all to think that I'm some psycho twisted freak for thinking this and (groan right now) the next chapter. The ending of this chapter was inspired by a very sad story I read and the next chapter was inspired (and based off of) an ABC movie. I'll say it now: I'M SORRY, GUYS! I know you must hate me, but if you do, I've done my job! Review please!