Author's note--Okay, so many of you have either sent me a message or left a review saying that you don't understand Andrew Cross and what he's doing. That's exactly how I want you to feel. He's supposed to be this character where you have no idea what he's doing or planning, or even if he's planning something to begin with. You're not supposed to know if he's regretting giving up Troy, or leaving Lucille. He's one of those characters that always has to have power and control of the situation. That's his main goal, and he'll do that by sweet talking his way in, using his anger, or just being plain mean. I hope that clarifies some things as he's important to the story since he did help produce both boys, but yet, he's not the main focus like Jason, Gabriella, and Troy are.
Okay, so now that I got that clarified, I want to thank the ones who brought that to my attention, and maybe didn't understand Andrew's actions. I could go on and on about it, but I'm not since I'll let you read on now. Thanks.
It was six o'clock and Gabriella was getting home from Troy's house. It was a Sunday night so she knew that she should probably be home early since she did have school work.
She stopped instantly when she walked into the house, and craned her neck around to peer down the dark hallway, only to see the one source of light illuminating out from underneath her father's study on the main floor.
She sighed while hanging up her black pea coat on the coat tree near the door. This was a continuous routine between the father and daughter now.
Before her mother's death, the three would try to eat dinner as much as possible with each other. It was rough during basketball season as Carlos was usually on the go or at meetings every other night, but he would still make it a priority to get home at a reasonable time for his wife and only daughter who he loves with his whole being.
But now instead of trying to cook dinner like he used to do, he shuts himself inside his office most nights while both Gabriella and him make whatever they find in the fridge or pantry. They rarely see each other in the evenings as Gabriella still worked down at the sports store in the mall--even though she cut back on hours due to her mother's death--and she's also still tutoring Troy. Carlos' and Gabriella's schedules just didn't allow them to see each other as even though for the first grieving weeks things seemed to slow down for the two Montezs', the basketball season didn't, and now Carlos had to come up with ways to finish the season without one of his starting line up players.
Gabriella hesitantly walked up to the door of her dad's study. She could hear the keys on the computer typing if she pressed her ear up against the thin wood of a door. She sighed quietly as she bit her lip in an unsure way.
She was tired of not seeing him. She was tired of only saying a couple of words to him in the morning before they each had to take off for East High. She was tired of learning information about her dad through gossip of the basketball team. Just the other day she heard through Zeke that practice was being run by the assistant coach because her dad was going to be gone at a dentist appointment. But most importantly, she was tired of missing her dad. In ways she felt like she lost a part of him when they buried her mother.
Gabriella lifted her hand slowly, and got ready to knock on the door, but froze as the door opened. She had been standing there for nearly three minutes and didn't hear the clicking of the keyboard stop, or the computer shutting down for the night.
Carlos nearly jumped back in surprise as the bags underneath his eyes went almost unnoticed by Gabriella due to the darkness of the room behind him now as he had just shut off the lights.
"Oh! Ella, I didn't see you there! Is everything okay?" He asked genuinely concerned as he awkwardly shuffled his feet.
It was painfully obvious that their relationship was going through problems as father and daughter. Carlos was still morning his wife, and Gabriella was reluctantly adjusting to feeling like she was losing both of her parents as part of her, deep down, was realizing that maybe the fact she spent so much time away from home now was because she couldn't stand seeing her dad grieve anymore.
She hated the bags underneath his eyes as she knew that he wasn't sleeping that much. She hated how blood shot his eyes were, again, due to lack of sleep. She hated how she had to eat dinner alone almost every night. She hated how he didn't force her to be home on time for curfew during school nights. He didn't even question her actions when she quit the dance team.
Gabriella awkwardly rung her hands together at her sides. "Um…yeah, everything's okay. I was just wondering what's for dinner."
Carlos sighed as he ran his hand through his almost black hair. "Oh," he sounded relieved Gabriella noted, "just that. I guess it's whatever you can find for tonight. Are we out of cereal?"
"Dad?" Gabriella nearly chocked on the word as she followed him into the kitchen, hot on his trail. She promised herself right there that she wouldn't get upset, as she had to remember that he was hurting. "I've had cereal the past three nights." By myself, she wanted to add, but bit her tongue.
It wasn't that Gabriella couldn't make dinner for herself and Carlos, she would love to do that if it meant he would eat with her and be in the same room with her for more than five minutes, but it was the fact that she wanted to eat with him. She wanted him to start doing the normal things that he used to do.
Both daughter and father stared at one another. A counter top separating them. Carlos scratched the back of his neck. "Well," he looked around helplessly as his tired eyes finally landed on his daughter again, "we must have something else then?"
He strode over to the fridge and opened it to see barely anything in it. Carlos yanked open the fridge and Gabriella sighed sadly, knowing that their food supply was limited. Not because of money issues, but because of their own personal issues that neither has admitted to yet.
Carlos looked at his daughter, "I'm not hungry myself, but I can order a pizza?"
Gabriella looked down at the counter top as she found that much easier to look at than her broken father. Her hands were playing with one another as she knew what the problem was. She didn't know how they lasted five weeks without doing this, but then again it was easy as they only ate two meals at home and then hot lunch at school, but they hadn't been grocery shopping in over five weeks. Food supply was bound to get low sometime.
"Dad," Gabriella croaked out again as her emotions were getting the better of her. She blinked her tears away as she finally managed to look up at her role model. "I lied before--"
"Ella--"
"No, let me finish. Please." Gabriella took a slow breath. "Things aren't okay. I'm sick of living like this. It's been almost five weeks dad, and neither one of us can step foot in the stupid grocery store. You're always gone, or I'm always gone, and we never see each other anymore. The other night I came home at midnight and you didn't say ONE word. Not one word dad."
"Ella, I'm trying my hardest. I went back to work almost immediately, I'm sticking to the same schedule I always would have if she was still here. Just cut me some slack to adjust. It's not something that happens overnight." Carlos spoke lowly as it angered Gabriella more that he was able to speak in a rational tone.
She didn't wait for him to finish as she rolled her eyes. "I KNOW this dad. I'm going through exactly what you are. She was my mother and it's hard. But pushing yourself to go back to work right away, to make yourself forget the pain that's always going to be there probably wasn't the best way to go about grieving."
Gabriella's eyes were glossy with unshed tears that were staying in her eyes but falling through her tone. Carlos' grip on the back of the bar stool tightened so that his knuckles were white.
"Ella, do you want pizza or not?" His tone was sharp as that meant he wanted to stop discussing the subject.
Gabriella's eyes went wild as she couldn't believe her father. It was very rare for the two to fight, but the pent up strain on their relationship was finally coming to show itself.
"Don't you see how messed up this is?! Everything is so messed up right now and you don't do or say anything!"
"Gabriella, that is enough." Carlos spoke in a tone that would make Gabriella flinch if she was calmed down, but she was far past that as she rushed to her father's side and clung to his arm in desperation for him to see what was wrong.
"God dad, I have a boyfriend and you say nothing now. I was over at his house until midnight on a SCHOOL NIGHT last week and you didn't say one word! You don't make me do chores around the house anymore. You don't do the puzzles in the newspaper anymore! You don't even care that I have a fucking hickey on my neck right now and I'm not even bothering hiding it!"
To make her point, Gabriella gripped her hair on the ride side of her neck and pushed the tendrils to the back of her head to show off a recovering hickey from two nights before.
Carlos' eyes turned blacker than their original color, and Gabriella knew that she took it one step too far. But she didn't care as she knew that as long as Carlos finally realized things weren't okay around the house, then it would all be fixed sooner or later as she had faith in her dad.
"I SAID THAT IS ENOUGH GABRIELLA! NOW GO TO YOUR ROOM!" He boomed as his fist slammed down onto the countertop; making Gabriella coil away. For some reason, she didn't see her dad sending her to her room as a possible outcome of her outburst. She thought things would become clear to him.
"What?" She whispered hoarsely.
Carlos sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose. "Gabriella, just…please go to your room and if you're hungry I'll call for a pizza."
Gabriella's eyes narrowed while a tear escaped a slit, "I'm not hungry anymore." She stood there for a second longer to see if her father would at least look at her, but he didn't bat an eye lash even while she spoke to him with so much anger in her voice that it made her shake.
She turned on her heel and stomped up the stairs.
"Are you coming back to school tomorrow?" Gabriella had asked on Sunday evening.
Troy was now laying on his bed, flicking through boring TV channels as it seemed like nothing was on. Not even the movie stations had good movies playing. He was starting to regret not going to school Monday, but he knew that the doctor told him to not use his arm at all for the next couple of days.
"No," Troy's answer was chipper as he liked the idea of staying home while everyone else was there. It was like he was in first grade again where all he got to do was watch TV, eat, and sleep.
Gabriella's face had been almost sad before she smiled at him. They had fallen into a routine that consisted of him giving her a ride to school, they would have their classes together, eat lunch together, and then she would sometimes stay and wait for him during basketball practice or go to the library. He couldn't blame her for looking sad in that moment of time as he knew that he would be too.
"I guess I'll have to finally drive my car again," she joked lightly while pecking him on his moist lips.
Troy groaned in boredom as he tried texting Gabriella to talk, but he knew that she wouldn't answer back since she was in class. He just wished that she would text him back once, but he knew in the back of his mind that she would never do that during class. Plus, it also could be the fact that she never carried her phone with her during school hours.
Troy tried to keep himself busy as he slept for more than half of the day. He then tried to make himself lunch, but ended up having cereal as he found it much easier to pour milk with one hand than try to spread peanut butter and jelly with a knife. He tried to keep himself busy as it was a good work method for him to keep his shoulder out of his mind.
He found that if he didn't think about his shoulder or arm then he wouldn't get nervous about not being ready in time for basketball playoffs. His team was ranked number two in their conference, but that was including all of his games where he was either number one person with most assists or number one three point shooter.
Troy hated letting his mind wander as he always came back to the same thought over and over again. I let my team down. On some subconscious level he truly believes that he let his team down as Jason would have never gotten into a fight with Derek and they could've won against West High. He would be able to play in the last half of the basketball season before the playoffs, and he would be able to be at practice with his team.
Troy let out a half snort as the thought of his team. Even though it was his first official year of playing basketball on East High's varsity team, and he was only co-captain, he now considered the basketball team as friends. He was on good terms with everyone on the team, and they actually got a long.
If someone were to tell that to Troy at the beginning of the year, he would have laughed in their faces. He never talked to Zeke, and ironically, a couple of weeks ago Troy was staying at Zeke's cabin. Troy would have never envisioned himself actually be partners with some of the guys on the team in some of his classes. He hadn't even known that Jake was in two of his classes before basketball. And then of course there was Jason. Troy had hated Jason with a passion. Neither boy knew where the hate came from, but just from Troy's experience with Andrew on Friday night and his mother's reaction to getting the phone call, Troy had a pretty good guess.
They both developed hatred for the other all because of one person: Andrew Cross.
Both boys' tempers and anger started with Andrew. One son was jealous of the other. Although Troy would never admit it out loud, as he was having trouble admitting it to himself, but he was jealous of Jason. Jason had a dad, and Troy was abandoned as a baby with his mom.
But while Troy was jealous, Jason at times wanted it all to stop. Andrew wanted perfection, and more than half the time, Jason can't give it to him. He's not an all around athlete, although he could be if he wanted too, but that wasn't what Jason wanted for his high school life. Also, Jason always has this constant want and need to impress his father as Andrew's standards are set too high for one person. And after seeing how Andrew interacted with Troy on Friday night, that just brought back Jason's fears of losing his dad. Even though they didn't get along sometimes, Andrew was a constant in Jason's life, and if Andrew stopped pressuring him, then it was like Andrew was giving up on him as a son.
It was Troy's phone that was ringing as it only took him a second to process that it was his ring tone that he set for Gabriella that was going off. He instantly reached out with his good arm and grabbed his phone that was just laying on his bedside table.
"Hey Baby," he greeted while sitting up a little bit straighter on his bed.
He could hear Gabriella giggling a little. "Baby? I haven't heard that one before. Are you sure you're not too high off of your pain killers?"
Troy rolled his eyes while letting a chuckle vibrate through his throat. "You're always my baby. Plus, I still managed to leave my mark on your neck Friday; one night after my fucked up shoulder when I was on many other pills. So what's up?"
"I don't know; you tell me. You're the one that called five times." Gabriella pointed out as Troy looked over at his alarm clock that said it was two-thirty. School would have just gotten out.
His face turned a light shade of red as he realized Gabriella was right. "Sorry. Guess I just got a little bored. You're alright with a ride home?"
"Yeah. School just got done and I'm in the parking lot now. Want me to come over and bring your homework?" Gabriella asked cheekily while Troy groaned dramatically.
"I'm injured Brie. I can't do homework. That's like a known rule around our nation."
Gabriella giggled as she fumbled with her car keys and managed to put them into the ignition. "We'll talk about this soon Troy, but right now I have to go since I'm in the car now. Love you."
Troy shut his eyes blissfully as he wouldn't be bored in a little while, he would get to see Gabriella, and she was willingly going to come over to his house to distract his mind from thinking about his shoulder.
She had come over to his house. She was there physically. She was there taking up body space. She was breathing right before him as she was obviously still human. But she wasn't there fully as Troy looked at her curiously for what seemed like the hundredth time that afternoon.
Gabriella had come over, carrying her ridiculously heavy book bag, while also trying to balance two milkshakes from McDonalds in her free arm. Luckily he had met her at the door so that she wouldn't have to try to switch one drink from one hand to ring the doorbell.
Something was different with her though as she smiled, gave him a vanilla milkshake--his favorite flavor--and entered his house. He went to kiss her on the mouth, but she instead turned her head almost guiltily and pecked him on the cheek.
He had taken in her tired demeanor as she was just wearing simple blue snap up sweats, rolled at the hip a couple of times due to the length, and a yellow sweatshirt that totally contradicted their school colors. Her hair was pulled back in a high pony tail and she had a thin yellow head band in to hold back her baby curls at the side of her head. She wore very little make up, and the slow careful body movements that she showed indicated that she didn't get much sleep the night before.
She was still the most beautiful female to him as she was definitely one of those girls who could pull off wearing anything and still look good.
"Hey," she had said after pecking him on the cheek. Her twisted face full of guilt and caution told him that she wasn't too sure of something. "How's your shoulder doing?" Was her second sentence spoken to him almost immediately. Despite being obviously tired and maybe even upset over something, she still was thinking of him.
Troy smiled at her as he felt compelled to pull her into a hug; maybe, just maybe he had the magic potion to cure her in the form of his arms wrapping around her small body. She tensed for a moment before melting into his embrace and gradually wrapping her arms around him too.
"Better, now that you're here." He had whispered into her hair before gently kissing her on the forehead.
She had smiled at him before letting go and sighing. "We should get started on your homework. I can't be late getting home tonight."
No matter how happy she sounded on the phone, something obviously was different. Or maybe, instead of being different, Troy concluded, she was just a good actress over the phone and fooled him that everything was okay with her cheery demeanor.
"You never told me if something happened today at school," Troy commented as he briefly looked up from his math textbook. He was trying to make small talk with her as every time he tried to talk about what might be upsetting her, she would always find someway to avoid answering fully.
Gabriella forced a smile on her face and looked up at Troy. She had been done with her math homework ten minutes prior, but instead of looking like she was done, she took the easy way out of not talking about her dad and the fight the previous night and decided to check over her homework to make sure that it was correct.
"School was the same old boring day. Nothing happened that wasn't supposed to happen." She looked at him and saw that his face fell a little at her answer. She moved from her position on the floor in front of the coffee table, and crawled the short three feet over to Troy who was also on the floor, at the head of the coffee table.
She stayed on her knees so that she was eye level with him and wrapped her arms around his neck, locking her hands together.
Brown eyes locked with ice blue and she had to support herself so that she didn't fall over from just one look at his eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she had to try extra hard to keep the calmness in her voice. She would do anything to keep the tone she was using as she didn't want to ruin it just yet. "I'm so sorry for being like this. You have to believe me when I tell you that I had this whole afternoon planned out. I was going to bring over your favorite milkshake and we were going to watch tv and your favorite movies, but homework was packed on heavy today since Break starts on Thursday."
"I know," Troy cooed. "I know and it's okay. You still managed to bring the milkshake," he joked lightly as his good arm reached up and his fingers gently traced the side of her face. Her eyes closed blissfully before opening again and he spoke seriously now, "You really don't have to plan things for me. Being with you is enough."
Gabriella's heart swelled with affection. "You're sweet and too good for me."
Troy chuckled good heartedly. Being with Gabriella definitely helped dull the pain in his shoulder. At first it started as a huge jackhammer drilling his body, and now it's a small toothpick pricking a numb part of his body.
"I think you have it mixed up. You're too good for me." Gabriella opened her mouth to oppose, but Troy quickly laid his fingers over her open mouth. "No, let me finish Brie. I'm lucky to just have you in my life. You've opened up so many doors for me as I never thought once that I would find a friend in Zeke. Or that I would actually be passing math right now. You help people from the bottom of your heart as no matter what happens to you, you always put others before yourself."
Troy's gaze was so intense that Gabriella couldn't pull herself away from the God in front of her. If the President were to pass through at the time, she wouldn't even turn her head as staring at Troy was her first priority in the world at the time. His thumb cradled her soft cheek while his fingers were long enough to wrap around her cheek and to the side of her neck; his touch burning an imprint into her skin.
"I have never known someone as strong as you before. I've seen you happy. I've seen you sad. I've seen you at your weakest and strongest points. As corny as this sounds, you light up my day every time I think of you--which is almost every minute." Troy pressed his lips to her forehead as tears glistened in her eyes. "I love you Brie. You're the best thing that has ever happened to me."
Troy pulled back as he let his arm drop. "You're a good person Brie. Feel this," he lifted his arm once more and gently unwrapped her connected arms from around his head. He brought one of her hands to the left side of his chest, where his heart is beating. "My heart beats for you. Only you."
The air was quiet after Troy's mini speech. Gabriella shut her eyes as she never expected to go over to Troy's house when she knew she wasn't supposed to be there due to her fight with her father the previous night. The steady beat that was quickly accelerating underneath her touch was the only thing keeping her from breaking down and crying for Troy's beautiful and kind words.
She messed up. There was no way around it as Troy helped her realize that without even knowing. It was already passed seven on a school night, and usually her curfew on school nights was seven, unless she was the one with people over, then her friends could stay until ten-thirty, but she was at Troy's house, and she knew that on an off chance, if she were to run into her father, then another fight might break out. Or even worse, he would just give her a disappointed look and silent treatment.
"I love you Troy, but I have to go." She whispered hoarsely. "I have to go talk to my dad."
She quickly crawled out of his lap and stood up. Troy soon followed her as Gabriella started gathering her things.
"I know it doesn't make sense right now Troy." Gabriella rambled as she quickly looked up at him. "But I'll explain things to you later tonight on the phone. And maybe if you feel up to it, I'll see you at school. Yeah?"
Troy was confused. He was more than confused as it didn't matter, however, he just wanted to know Gabriella was okay. He stepped forward and with his good arm gripped Gabriella from the front, letting his hand spread widely across her lower back. He pulled her small body forward and lightly kissed her on the lips.
"I'll call you later tonight." He kissed her once more. He didn't know what she was doing, but the way she was talking, and the way that she looked right now, it was as if he restored life in her. He knew that whatever she was about to do was something major or big. "Good luck."
Gabriella stared up at him for a moment in a complete confused daze. "How did you--never mind. I'll talk to you later tonight. I love you."
"Love you too babe."
Gabriella turned around before she walked out of the house. She sent him a sassy smile and a small wink as she heard him call her babe.
"Thank you Troy."
It was a thank you for many things, but mostly because he was able to put her back together without evening knowing it.
