Gabriella decided to find out once and for all what was going on with her and Troy. She found herself marching up directly to Troy's locker, but stopped in her tracks when she overheard Troy and Chad talking about what she assumed to be her. She stood back to a spot where they couldn't see her and continued to listen.

"She wants me to kiss her," Troy sighed.

"She told you that?"

"No. It was implied."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I can't kiss her, Dude. What about Katie?"

"Which Katie?"

"You know, I'm really sick of playing this game with you."

"Well if you tell me that you don't want to kiss her because you think that it will somehow hurt that pretty little girl you've got waiting for you at home, fine. I'll try to understand."

Before he could say anymore, Gabriella left in tears, unnoticed by both boys.

"But if you're telling me that you think you're cheating on Kaitlin somehow," Chad continued, "then I think we need to have a much bigger conversation."

"Taylor said Kaitlin would have been happy for me. That she would have wanted me to move on."

"Taylor's a smart girl. So what are you going to do?"

"I guess… I guess I should take her to meet Katie."

"I think that's a really good idea," Chad said, slapping his best friend on the arm.

"Fuck my life," Troy groaned. "Why couldn't I just live happily ever after with my daughter and no one else?"

"Do you want me and Taylor to be there?"

"No. I should do this alone."

----

"Gabi? What's wrong?" Taylor asked concerned, seeing her friend making a beeline for the door with tears falling from her eyes.

"I overheard Troy and Chad talking," Gabriella huffed. "Chad asked Troy about us and Troy said he wouldn't kiss me because of Katie. Of course he's seeing another girl! God, how could I be so stupid?" Gabriella cried, continuing out the door.

"Wait! Gabriella!" Taylor said, calling after her. "Tell me exactly what you heard." Gabriella sighed and relayed what she had heard to Taylor. Taylor took a deep breath before speaking.

"Gabriella. I think you need to talk to Troy."

"No," Gabriella replied angrily, walking off the in opposite direction just as Chad and Troy turned the corner.

"Troy!" Taylor called out. "Gabi overheard you and Chad talking. She thinks your seeing someone else. Someone named Katie."

"Shit," Troy sighed, running his hands through his hair.

"Well what are you waiting for, Dude? Go talk to her."

"No," Troy sighed, walking off in the opposite direction.

For the rest of the day, Troy and Gabriella went on avoiding each other. They awkwardly sat next to each other in homeroom, both staring straight ahead the whole time. Gabriella ate lunch in the library while Troy ate in the Gym. By the end of the day, they had successfully not said one word to each other. And while this came as a relief to Troy, Gabriella was quite thrown off. She knew why she was ignoring him, but what she didn't know was why he was doing the same. Later that evening, after not getting a phone call and explanation, Gabriella decided to go see for herself what was going on. She drove down the few blocks to his house and rang his doorbell.

"Gabriella! How nice to see you again," Mrs. Bolton smiled, letting the Gabriella in. "Troy didn't mention you were coming over."

"He doesn't know I'm here," Gabriella admitted.

"Oh. I see. Well you wait right here and I'll just go get him." Gabriella thanked her and Mrs. Bolton went right up the stairs to Troy's room. She smiled as she saw her son do his homework with his daughter on his lap, playing with her stuffed monkey.

"Troy?"

"Mmmhmm?" Troy responded, not looking up from the calculus homework he was working on.

"There's someone here to see you?"

"Taylor?"

"Nope."

"Chad?"

"No."

"Can you watch her for a minute," Troy pleaded, knowing who was at the door.

"Sure. But you're going to have to tell her eventually."

"We'll see," Troy sighed, leaving the two girls alone. He ran down the stairs two at a time and stopped right in front of Gabriella.

"Hi," he said a bit awkwardly.

"Hey," she said with the same tone.

"We should talk," they both spoke at the same time.

"I should go first," Troy said truthfully. "I know that you overheard Chad and I talking today. But you should know the whole story."

"Troy. It's fine. I don't need the whole story. I just wish that if you just wanted us to be friends that you would just say so."

"But that's not true. I don't want us to be just friends. It's just… God… it's complicated. There's a whole bunch of stuff you don't know about and once you know about it… well none of this may matter anyway."

"Who's Katie, Troy? Because I may be a lot of things, but I won't be the other girl."

"Gabi, what you have to understand is that with me… you will always have to be the other girl," Troy admitted, looking down at his feet. Gabriella felt tears begin to sting her eyes.

"I should go. Have a nice life with Katie."

"Wait. Gabriella."

"What?" She snapped, turning back to face him. He felt the guilt as he looked into her teary eyes.

"I want you to meet someone."

"What?" Gabriella asked, confused, as she watched Troy run back up the stairs. When she saw him come back down he had a baby girl on his waist, being held up with one strong arm.

"You wanted me to meet your sister?" Gabriella asked, exhausted with the conversation.

"No," Troy began. "I wanted you to meet Katie. My daughter."

A/N: The next chapter will be the final one in this story! Thank you to everyone who has been reading and reviewing!