Chapter 15: Bleeding Love
East High Gymnasium…
"Hey guys," Chad said coming up to Jason and Zeke, "So…how long has he been here?"
"We don't know," Zeke said, "Troy's been in the gym since we arrived. I guess…he wanted to practice early."
"C'mon knowing Troy he'll only constantly be focusing on his game if something is up or ignoring the fact that sooner or later he has to open up about dumping Gabi," Chad said.
"Wait…Troy and Gabriella broke up?" Jason asked clueless, "Wow…that's something we didn't know of."
"Jason…everyone knew for more than a week now and quite frankly he's not in the right frame of mind ever since Nick Dyer's death. Whatever is happening to my best friend, what he needed at a time like this is Gabriella."
"So…has Taylor talked to Gabriella about the break up?" Zeke asked.
"Not that I know of because one refuses to reveal his motive of why he would dump the girl he claimed to love with all his heart while the other one is an emotional basket case. At a time like this, I usually turn to my girl to assist me on helping getting our best friends back together, but for the first time she's stumped on a solution to the problem..."
"So…does that mean you and Taylor are not going to help get Troy and Gabriella back together?" Jason asked.
"We don't know," Chad replied as they look at the clock, "Listen…I'll see you guys in homeroom I'm going to talk to Troy."
"Take care dude," Zeke and Jason said as Chad headed down to the court to see Troy, "Give Troy our best regards."
"Another air ball I guess?" Chad replied catching the basketball Troy threw.
"Three in a row," Troy said, "Can't seem to focus…just shooting air ball."
"Or shouldn't I bother asking why your game is screwed up bro? C'mon sooner or later you got to talk or maybe said…are you out of your mind?"
"Not interested in talking," Troy answered, "And besides…you can't make me."
"I can assume whatever happened out at Buffer's Park that night with Nick Dyer's death gave you an epiphany of facing death in the eye or you're afraid of something. Look Troy I'm not trying to be rude or bash you for suddenly dumping Gabriella but you know…I can see in your eyes that when she first came to East High, came back into your life after twelve years I can tell that something changed in you. It's like…she brought the best out of you and that whatever you guys shared and have before the adoption, you're afraid of losing it."
"Yeah that's why I had to…let her go because I love her too much and if I hold onto her harder I'm afraid I'm going to hurt the one thing that meant the world to me!" Troy snapped, "When we saw Nick that night out at Buffer's Park, he was completely wasted, out of his mind, and berating his girlfriend after he found out about her infidelity. She hurt him by cheating on him and then…Nick out of his mind accidentally slipped off the cliff and fell to his death! If you love someone so much…sometimes it makes you do crazy things, or dangerous things to prevent losing it. I can't…do that and I don't want to end up hurting her and end up like Peter or Nick."
"Dude…I can understand you want to prevent a psychological and emotional breakdown by not being with Gabriella," Chad said, "And although it took two deaths to suddenly make you reevaluate your relationship with Gabi, don't you think you shouldn't base what you witness with Nick or Peter effect you in the long run? Just because what you saw or whatever you witness that night was traumatic and it brought back painful memories, what makes you think you; Troy Bolton would end up going down that same path? I know you and I know you'll never hurt anyone you love and care about so much because there's still a lot of good inside of you."
"That's what she told me Chad…but what makes you think I'm not capable of one day pulling off a stunt like that?" Troy replied, "I love her…but I can't risk putting the both of us through what I went through six years ago and right now! In the future, she'll understand why all of this happened."
"Is that what you're trying to tell her or maybe yourself? You're going to push her away for the sake of love just to protect her from the possibility of a relationship self-destructing but the reality is you're just making it worse. Troy, you think you're protecting her and saving her but you're just hurting her and no matter what you do, she'll always keep carrying a torch for you because that's who she is. I believe the one who maybe blind is you because sometimes not all of us are high and mighty to handle things on our own…you protected and helped her maybe it's time she returns the favor, but if not you'll end up losing her again."
Homeroom…
Meanwhile in homeroom, Gabriella was with the girls as they were waiting for class to start and Taylor chatting with the gang as they were interrogating her of why she came late at Sharpay and Ryan's place last night. Gabriella slightly smiled as she knew her best friend was suddenly was suspected of engaging in some "special extra curricular" activities with Chad. In that instinct, she felt happy for Chad and Taylor, but still heartbroken of her sudden breakup with Troy. She didn't want to think about it because it hurt too much and tried to focus on Taylor's conversation.
"You of all people I didn't expect to be pulling off stunts like that Taylor c'mon," Sharpay replied, "So…what was it like?"
"What makes you think Chad and I are doing anything wrong?" Taylor asked.
"Because you guys showed up two hours later at my place and you said you'd be over by 5:30pm after you finished with your meeting," Sharpay asked, "You're a terrible liar because you completely blew your cover when Gabriella showed up right after the Scholastic Decathlon meeting and telling by your glow lately you've been up to something."
"Alright already, I confess you caught me," Taylor said convincingly, "Chad and I snuck into the janitor's closet yesterday to have sex. We shouldn't have done it while we both had practices yesterday and it was wrong of us, now can we move on?" Chad came into homeroom a few minutes later with Troy as he gave Taylor a look of disbelief as the girls starting laughing.
"Whatever sure it's not like good girl Taylor would go against the rules and sneak around and screw Chad in the school's janitor closet," Kelsi smiled laughing, "Sharpay would do Zeke before you do Chad."
"No, you would probably do Zeke and Jason, before I do Chad," Taylor said to Kelsi.
"Hey…can we stop the whole sex discussion thing okay?" Sharpay asked, "I don't care about who is doing who or where, but you guys have forgotten about a situation that is at hand right now."
"Oh gosh sorry," Kelsi and Taylor said as they saw Gabriella staring at Troy, "Hey…girl how are you holding up? Do you want to talk about it?"
"What's there to talk about?" Gabriella replied, "He said he didn't want to hurt me or he was afraid of hurting me but hey…guys are complicated, it just doesn't…it doesn't make sense."
"Have to talk to Troy since?" Sharpay asked.
"What am I suppose to say to him? Troy broke up with me because he couldn't risk hurting me or destroying me because he says he loves me. You guys wouldn't understand what is going through my mind right now…because it just hurts to love someone you care about so much try to push you away because he thinks he's going to end up doing something that will hurt you."
"You really do love him do you?" Kelsi asked, "Your eyes can tell us by the way you're staring at him."
"I do…and now I'm thinking I sometimes wish we never met up after twelve years apart because being around him now…he thinks he's doing this to save us, it only makes me only bleed more inside and he doesn't' realize it."
"Okay class settle down," Ms. Darbus said coming into the room, "So we're exploring the creative side of story telling through the movement of the beautiful art of dance. Remember class, through the movement of dance, your body must tell the story and you must dance with your heart, mind, body, and soul to connect and express the emotion of the piece."
"Great another duet work again," Chad said to Troy in the front, "She must love it."
"I'll be given you guys a week to rehearse your pieces and I assigned you in teams of two and thanks to the assistance of Ryan and Kelsi, each of you will be given a scenario that will best fix the song you'll be dancing to," Ms. Darbus added handing out the sheets to the class, "The challenge is not only to come up with choreography to your pieces and tell a story through the movement, but to dance and show the emotion behind it. I will be grading you on this and performances will be in the auditorium during class."
"It's like Darbus can read our minds on who we're going to be paired up with," Martha said.
"Yeah…too much," Gabriella sighed as she turned her sheet over and revealed her partner which was Troy, "This one should be a slobber knocker."
After homeroom was done, Gabriella headed to her locker to get her books for her next class upset and disappointed that she was forced to pair up with her now ex-boyfriend Troy for Darbus' class. The two of them haven't spoken to each other since the break up and now to dance with him; it would be difficult to them to put aside their differences for the next two weeks.
"Hey Gabi," Troy said coming to her locker, "So…how are you doing?"
"I've been doing okay I guess," Gabriella sighed, "What are you doing here?"
"I just wanted to check up on you and see how you were holding up. Look I know things are shaky right now between us after what happened and I'm really sorry about it. This is not what I came to talk about."
"Darbus' assignment I don't mind working with you Troy…but only because we're assigned to be partners. You help me get a good grade I'll help you get a good grade that's all we need to do right now. So…do you want to meet in the auditorium during free period to work on the assignment?"
"I'll see you during free period," Troy said as the warning bell rang, "Hey maybe I could…huh…you should start heading to class."
"Yeah I should get going…I'll catch you later Troy."
Auditorium…
That afternoon during free period, Gabriella met up with Troy to discuss about their assignment for Ms. Darbus' class which involved describing scenarios given to them and presenting them through dance routines with songs pre-selected for them. Gabriella read the scenario over again and question whether or not she can do this assignment with Troy without revealing how she is truly coping with the breakup. While she thought she heard some noises going on backstage, she saw Troy come in a few moments later.
"Hey Gabriella sorry I'm late," Troy said, "Practice just ran a bit later than usual."
"It's okay I wasn't waiting that long…I was experimenting on some moves we can use for our performance next week. Have you had time to look at the assignment?"
"I did a little bit; do you want to review it again?" Troy asked as they sat on stage, "You…can read the scenario out loud then."
"Okay so our scenario is we're suppose to act out the characters of two people in a real life situation," Gabriella added, "The story is about a workaholic who is emotionally attached to his work and a devoted wife who doesn't want him to leave. Throughout the choreography he manipulates her and steals her heart only to leave her again and choose his work over her."
"But Darbus assigned each pair to come up with two different dances to two different songs have you looked at the second one?" Troy asked.
"I read it a little; do you want to refresh me on it?"
"The second scenario tells the story about the end of a relationship between two people. The girl is emotionally angry and broken and the guy begins to feel guilt and doesn't want to let her down. They come to realize that the relationship doesn't end on a happy note and the two become emotionally distressed."
Troy looked at Gabriella uncomfortable and then realized that their dance pieces were hitting them hard on a personal note. For some reason, Troy felt that either way if one of them didn't confess how they were feeling about their post-breakup then eventually some other way it would come out.
"Gabi…are you going to be alright doing this?" Troy asked, "Look…I know we haven't talked about things between us and feeling awkward about how to approach it, is this going to effect us doing the performance?"
"I…don't think it would matter because I'm okay accepting the fact you broke up with me and I understand you have some personal issues to work out I'm cool with it. Besides, you need space…and I'll give it to you and I'm alright with us just being friends for now. I just don't see why you have to suddenly feel like you have to handle Nick's death on your own thinking that I too wasn't affected it by it as well?"
"We were both there that night and seeing it happened all over again reminded me of what happened with Peter years ago. Don't get me wrong I didn't breakup with you because I'm giving you the idea that I'm going to maybe throw myself off a cliff over a girl I'm hopelessly in love with…it's not me. I did this…because I don't want to risk hurting you in anyway possible and just because we broke up it doesn't mean I'll stop caring about you."
"Well you have some way of showing it," Gabriella said, "Look, can we just start practicing and forget about all of this right now because despite the crappy scenarios we have and the songs that we got to dance to, the more I think about it…I feel like sooner or later we're going to explode and then come to realization we have deal about breaking up."
A few days later…
As the days passed, the class were given time to rehearse their performances for Ms. Darbus' class and a lot of them were exploring different styles of dance. It was finally the day of the performances and the gang spent homeroom in the auditorium. They all had their work cut for them as each assigned pair was going to perform two dance routines. Chad and Taylor sat down with the group as they watched Troy and Gabriella's first dance routine to "Bleeding Love." The two took to the stage with Troy dressed in a suit and Gabriella wearing a pair of concourse sneakers, skinny jeans and a lavender purple top with a ruffled style vest.
"Closed off from love
I didn't need the pain
Once or twice was enough
And it was all in vain
Time starts to pass
Before you know it you're frozen
Ooooh...
But something happened
For the very first time with you
My heart melted into the ground
Found something true
And everyone's looking 'round
Thinking I'm going crazy
"Well…they seem to be getting along," Taylor said, "But hey when you got to dance stuff that can hit you on an emotional and passionate level I got to give them credit for putting on a united front to handle it."
"How can you think that?" Ryan asked, "If I'm not the only blind person here I think Troy and Gabriella need to realize that whether they like it or not, somehow they have to confront one another of dealing with their breakup."
"Spoken like a true analyst," Sharpay added, "You're like reading their faces and the way they're moving on stage together. The whole connection, the passion, and the emotion it's pouring out there. Oh my gosh I can't believe you and Kelsi deliberately pick those songs for them to dance to! The two of them are secretly emotionally detached right now and it doesn't give you the right to use that to make them realize it!"
"Either way sooner or later if one of them keeps it in, what happens?" Kelsi asked.
"I hate to say this Kels…but Sharpay is right," Chad said, "All we can do is lend our friends an ear and hear them out. Whatever problems they have is between them alone and whether or not they want to confront each other, it's their decision alone. However, like how you showbiz people would say sometimes you got to act to put on a performance."
"The question is how long can they pull it off until you can stop acting?" Sharpay asked, "I hate to agree with Ryan but one of them is bound to break soon."
But I don't care what they say
I'm in love with you
They try to pull me away
But they don't know the truth
My heart's crippled by the vein
That I keep on closing
You cut me open and I
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open…"
After Troy and Gabriella finished their first routine, Ms. Darbus critique them and explained to the class the importance of making a connection and displaying emotion in both the performance and movement. The two of them had to head backstage to setup for their second dance as Ms. Darbus was marking them and commented that both Troy and Gabriella's performance was excellent and that so far she was impressed with the performances that the class have done for the morning.
"Hey…are you ready?" Troy asked as they both finish changing for their second dance.
"Yeah I'm ready…Troy," Gabriella said, "We haven't…really rehearse this one that much."
"Just remember what Darbus about making a connection and getting in touch with the passion and emotion," Troy said, "Hey…I'm here alright just focus on me okay?"
"I will Troy," Gabriella said as they took to the stage, "I don't know…if we're able to hold it together after this one." The two of them took to the stage for the second time as they explained that their second dance routine was a contemporary piece to the song "Happy Ending" as the music started.
This is the way you left me
I'm not pretending.
No hope, no love, no glory
No Happy Ending.
This is the way that we love
Like it's forever
Then live the rest of our life
But not together.
Wake up in the morning, stumble on my life
Can't get no love without sacrifice
If anything should happen, I guess I wish you well
A little bit of heaven, but a little bit of hell
As the two of them were dancing, Troy began to feel the emotion coming out of Gabriella's movement and of his own and then he thought back to the scenario for this dance routine and it did reflect about their breakup. However, he was showing and displaying the guilt on his face as Gabriella looked at him with a look of anger and the look of an emotionally broken girl because of him. To their classmates, they thought that Troy and Gabriella was putting on a performance with a lot of technical lifts, jumps and throws, but their friends knew otherwise and saw that Gabriella was on the verge of breaking down soon.
"This is the hardest story that I've ever told
No hope, or love, or glory
Happy endings gone forever more
I feel as if i'm wastin'
And I'm wastin' everyday
This is the way you left me
I'm not pretending.
No hope, no love, no glory
No Happy Ending.
This is the way that we love
Like it's forever.
Then live the rest of our life
But not together.
After their performance was done, everyone was surprised by Troy and Gabriella's dance routine but their friends knew that what they danced on stage was their feelings and that their performance effect them. Troy looked at Gabriella with a guilty face, but she looked at him with a look of anger and just became emotionally broken as she just suddenly ran off stage leaving the entire class surprised, and Darbus confused.
"So…does anyone want to critique that performance?" Ms. Darbus asked, "Any feedback?"
"Huh Ms. Darbus did you ever consider us ever using any personal feelings in these dance performances?" Taylor asked.
"Why do you ask Miss McKessie?" Ms. Darbus asked, "The whole challenge of this assignment was to express through the creative movement of dance to get in touch with the passion and emotion of the performance and express them with your body. Do you have any comments?"
"Some of these scenarios were relating to things that happened in real life but maybe some of them just hit some of us on a very personal level," Sharpay said, "Sometimes we have to be creative and maybe…let out how we truly feel."
A few moments Troy ran out of the auditorium going after Gabriella. He managed to find her in a stairwell outside the drama hallway sitting on the stairs crying. It reminded him of that time when he first met Gabriella when she was five years old in the hospital all those years ago after the death of her mother. He realized that their performance forced them to deal with their breakup and feelings for each other although he knew it would cause the person he loved to breakdown.
"We sure did put on a good performance out there," Gabriella said with tears, "We're sure to get a good grade on it…because it personally meant something to me. With everything that happened in the last couple of weeks, it was like we suddenly became distant and with what happened with Nick you just push me further away. I just…wanted to help you so much because I care about you and love you so much. I really wanted to ask you since we broke up what happened to us? Why did you end things with us that way? Did something go wrong?"
"It wasn't you…nothing is your fault here Gabriella," Troy sighed, "You know since Nick's death I felt guilty of not being able to save him, but I'm coming to realize that accidents happen and life can be full of surprises. There was nothing wrong with our relationship and now coming to realize what I did to you…it makes me feel guilty of letting you down. I did it because…I thought I would end up going down the same path as those guys holding onto the one they love too hard that sooner or later something would push them over the edge."
"And you think you're capable of hurting me eventually if you stayed with me Troy? How can you know that? Did you ever consider my feelings in this because I've been hurt in the past by people who I thought I could trust and I realized…out of all the people I knew I never realized that the one person I trust with all my heart in this world can do something like this."
"I know you're hurting and you showed me right on stage it broke you inside for what I did but you have to believe me I did it because I love you. I wanted to protect you and be there no matter what happens despite being together or not. We have history I know and we have this connection to each other like no other. It made feel guilty of what I did and I let two deaths decide the outcome of my relationship and everything I had with you because I was afraid of hurting you like what Nick and Peter did. The last thing I need is for you to see me one day head down that same path like those guys but I promise you I won't because I got a reason to live and the last thing I don't want to lose is our friendship."
"You asked me the day of Nick's funeral if you were capable of hurting someone you cared about by doing something extreme." Gabriella asked in tears, "You're not capable of hurting someone physically and psychology because that would go beyond the edge. It may haven't occurred to you the emotional outcome of everything that happened these last few weeks and we never dealt with it…like our breakup, but I guess the performance forced us to deal with our emotions because I can see you felt guilty."
"This is not how I wanted things to go down like how it is us dealing with all this crap because it's making me realize this is when I need you the most but…how can I after letting you down? It was hard showing you how guilty I felt for what I did to you but you have to understand the only thing I have is your best interest at heart and…"
"You know Troy just stop!" Gabriella snapped, "You think that after we broke up we can go back to being friends but you know what…being friends hurts a lot and I can't look at you the way I did when I first fell for you! Times change and people change and after twelve years apart we thought if we met again it would just be like old times! You're not able to hurt me physically and death is not only one way of hurting someone. However, you know how you were able to hurt me…emotionally by doing what you did by breaking my heart! Out of all the people I knew I never believed that you were able to make my heart break like that and hurt me so much!"
"I didn't want that to happen Gabi you have to believe me!" Troy said with tears, "I wasn't capable of hurting you the way those guys did…but in the end I still hurt you badly and I didn't consider the consequences! I'm felt like I was on the verge of losing everything I held dear because what happened these last couple of weeks but I didn't realize that my actions cost me the one thing…your heart."
"So in the end we're both hurting and that's why it hurts to be friends or lovers. We can't look at each other like how we did because what's left Troy? There's definitely no spark, no light, I'm suddenly beginning to feel like I used to before meeting you all those years ago at the orphanage…only this time it's twice as painful as it was before."
"I can't say…anymore because we just now dealt with everything and in the end I hurt you and now the guilt I'm feeling inside is making my heart break over what I did to you."
"And now you finally have realized that you are…capable of hurting someone you love with all your heart," Gabriella sighed as she left, "Sometimes…I wonder what life would have been like if we never met because if I didn't meet you all those years ago, then I wouldn't have given my heart to you and have you break it."
(Author's Notes: I don't own the songs "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis and "Happy Ending" by Mika. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter and please review!!)
