It was a rainy afternoon in New York. The rain completely fitted Gabriella Montez's feelings as she sees the casket being lowered down in a hole. The casket is filled with Len Montez's lifeless body. Gabriella felt sad but there was no tears coming out of her eyes. She was tired of crying and being depressed. She told herself to be strong but she couldn't help but crying randomly at one point.
Len Montez past away on 30 November, Monday, quietly in his room, sitting by the window. Gabriella found him when she wanted to ask serve him his dinner but instead she found her father's lifeless body. She tried all she could to wake him up but there was no use. He was gone. As people started to walk away, Gabriella stayed where she is and looked at the gravestone.
Lenard Theodore Montez
25 January 1956 – 30 November 2010
Beloved Son, Husband, Father & Friend
After sending his parents to their car, Troy came back to the graveyard to find Gabriella. Luckily, he saw her standing in front of her father's gravestone while holding her black umbrella. Troy could tell how depressed she feels. He's just afraid that something bad might happen to her due to the event that had just happened to her. The doctor told them that if Gabriella gets more stressed out, it will damage herself and the baby.
He started to slowly walk towards her and tapped her shoulder, without giving her a shock. "Hey, you okay?" he asked.
Gabriella sighed, "Yeah, I guess," she said, still looking at the gravestone.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
Gabriella shook her head, "I don't know," she answered, her voice starting to shake. "But I know he would want me to move on and not be such a downer for the rest of my life."
"You're right. He would want you to move on," Troy agreed.
"But the thing is I'm not ready to move on. I'm not ready to let him go. It's too hard for me," Gabriella said, already starting to cry. Troy wrapped his arm around Gabriella in a concerned way. "Thanks for being here with me. I don't know what to do if I was doing this alone."
"Hey, it's no big deal," Troy assured her. "You want to go home now?"
"If it's ok, I would like to go to my dad's place and start packing his stuff, including mine too. You can come if you want," Gabriella said.
"Sure, it's not like I have anything to," Troy said, offering his hand.
Gabriella smiled, "You're a good guy Troy," she complimented.
"You're not so bad yourself," Troy replied. Gabriella giggled and walked closer to Troy while talking to each other. She hates to admit it, but she was actually falling for Troy which she told herself was completely impossible. Maybe it's due to the constant persuasion her father gave her to give Troy a chance. Gabriella's answer was always no. Then she thought, maybe she should give Troy a chance. She just needs to find a moment for her to admit it to him or better yet, make him fall in love with her that way she won't have to do the heavy lifting.
"Did you happen to have your guitar with you?" Gabriella asked.
"As the matter in fact yes. I forgot to take it out last night because of…you know," Troy answered, referring to the previous night when Gabriella called him about her father.
"Maybe you could perhaps play it in my dad's apartment. I still haven't heard the song you wrote that got you to your promotion," Gabriella pointed out.
"Are you sure you want to hear it?" Troy asked, fearing of Gabriella hearing his song.
"Sure. Why not?" Gabriella asked.
"It's not that I don't want to you to hear it. I just thought you wanted to hear it sung by someone else other than me," Troy covered.
"Why would I want that?" she asked again. "Look, if you don't want to let me hear it then its fine or whatever."
Troy was hesitant to let Gabriella hear his song because he's afraid she'll get the message behind the song that the song is about her. But he has no choice. "Alright. I'll let you listen it to her later. Right after we do whatever it is you want to do," Troy said. Gabriella smiled thankfully.
When entering her father's old apartment, Gabriella could feel tears starting to build in her eyes already. To her, even the house is dead. There was no life in it. It seems as though her father took the life out of everything from his penthouse. She scoped around the living room where her father and her use to sit down and watch TV together. She remembered the stories and laughter they shared together. Usually the couch looked like a perfect Montez conversation couch but now it looks like a usual big black couch with gold patterns on it.
"So what are you going to do with this penthouse?" Troy asked, interrupting her thoughts.
"I'm not sure. My dad did tell me that he wanted me to sell it. The rest of the furniture I could just leave it here or donate it to charity," Gabriella answered, while taking a seat at the couch.
"Hey, here's an idea. My parents organise a Christmas charity auction every year. I'm sure they won't mind putting your dad's old furniture and stuff in the auction. You know, if that's ok with you," Troy suggested.
"Wow, your parents organises charity auctions?" Gabriella asked, amazed. "What does your family not do?"
"I know it sounds lame but it's the only thing about my parents that I'm interested in. The money and the stuff that doesn't sell go to a few of orphanages here in New York. I visit some of the orphanages almost every time I could," Troy briefed.
"You visit orphanages?" Gabriella asked. She heart warmed at Troy's commitment with orphanages. She guessed what people say is right. You can't judge a book by its cover. In this case, Troy's cover was a conceited jerk but inside he is so sweet. "I've always wanted to do something for charity when I was little but I never got around doing it."
"Maybe you could help out this year. All you have to do is show up to the auction and then the next day, we get to visit a few orphanages. It's really simple," Troy said.
"Sure, I'll be happy to do it. I could even give some of my stuff away from auction to the children. Like my old toys and such," Gabriella suggested.
"Speaking of children, when are we going to set up the nursery for our baby?" Troy asked.
"You already started to think about that?" Gabriella asked dreamily. She is swooned by Troy's commitment towards their baby.
"Well yeah. You're going to enter your third trimester now and according to Parenting for Dummies we should've set up at least some of the baby stuff by now," Troy said.
"You read a parenting book while I was away?" Gabriella asked in disbelief.
"Why is that so surprising? I did promise I read it right?" Troy challenged.
"Touché," Gabriella replied. "You know what, enough talk, let's hear that song of yours," Gabriella said excitedly.
"Alright. But before I do, I just want you to know that you might think this song is about someone but it's not. The song just came to me and nothing more ok?" Troy said.
"Whatever. I don't care. Just play it the verse and the chorus," Gabriella said.
"Alright, calm down," Troy said as he took his guitar and then he started playing it.
Here I am
There you are
Why does it seem so far
Next to you is where I should be
Something I
Want so bad
Know what's inside your head
Maybe I could see what you see
Gotta keep on believing
That everything takes time
I'll make up any reason
To make you mine
If you're staying or leaving
I'll follow your lead
So why keep pretending
Open your eyes
I can be what you need
Any kind of guy you want, girl
That's the guy I'll be
Turn myself upside down
Any kind of guy you want, girl
You know I'll agree
Turn your whole world around
Any kind, any kind
Any kind of guy you want
You decide
Change your mind
I will be there
Won't you try
One more try
Be my any kind of girl
You decide
It's alright
I will be there
Troy finished the song and waited for Gabriella's reaction. His worst fear is Gabriella finding out the song might be about her and then she'll get awkward around him and might even leave him. He didn't want to lose Gabriella neither did he want to let Gabriella down.
"So what do you think?" he asked, anxiously.
Gabriella smiled, "I love it."
"You do?" he asked.
"Yeah. Why don't you think I won't like it?" she asked back.
"I don't know. I thought that…never mind," Troy said.
"That was really good Troy. You're good at writing songs. You could even go all the way," Gabriella encouraged.
"Thanks. Speaking of jobs, how's your collection going?" Troy asked. It's been a while since he heard of Gabriella's clothing line for wedding dresses.
"It's going well. I just need three more dresses to fit my collection and it will in time to debut by next summer. To be honest, I'm very nervous of showing people my dresses. What if they don't like it," Gabriella said.
"What? Of course people would like it. You got a lot of compliments of your wedding dress didn't you?" Troy asked.
"Yeah but they're just normal people, not fashion critics. Critics are tougher to impress with," Gabriella said.
"Well, if it helps I think your dresses are good. You'll definitely succeed in designer and I'm not just saying it because I have to. I mean it," Troy said in a serious tone, while looking into Gabriella's eyes. Gabriella smiled at Troy and started to lean in closer to his lips. Soon, their lips started touching and Troy held on the back of Gabriella's neck while kissing her passionately. Troy couldn't help but feel happy and excited whenever he's kissing Gabriella. There was this kind of sensation that makes him feel so good whenever they kissed.
But just when Troy thought the moment couldn't get any better, Gabriella suddenly pulled back. This time, she didn't look regret. "I'm hungry," she said, innocently.
Troy chuckled, "I have some leftover McDonalds in the house. Want some?" he offered.
"I guess we can start packing my stuff tomorrow," Gabriella suggested.
"If that's ok with you, then it's alright with me," Troy replied and made Gabriella giggle.
On the way back to their apartment, Troy and Gabriella couldn't stop flirting with each other. They keep fidgeting with one another and couldn't stop staring at each other for the entire ride home. When they reached their apartment building, Troy helped Gabriella out of the car and kissed her lips softly. When he pulled back, he saw Gabriella smiling at him cheerfully. Gabriella then walked inside the apartment building with Troy following right behind her.
"Hold on, I have to grab the mail for a while," Troy said. Gabriella nodded and stood by the elevator.
After taking the mail, Troy accidently bumped into someone and dropped his mail to the floor.
"I'm sorry. I should've seen where I was going," the person who Troy bumped into said.
"No, it's cool. I wasn't paying attention," Troy said as he grabbed his mail from the ground. He then looked at the person that he bumped into. He recognised the person. The woman had short blonde hair and green eyes. "Oh, hey Amy," he greeted.
"Good evening Troy. Did you go somewhere just now?" Amy asked.
"Uh, kind of, I just got back from a funeral actually. My wife's father past away," Troy explained.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Well does this mean she's going to come back to live with you now?" Amy asked.
"I guess so. I hope so," Troy answered.
"Well good for you. I think if you two got more separated, you two might end up in a nasty divorce," Amy commented.
"Yeah, I just hope our divorce won't be as nasty as Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston," Troy joked and both of them laughed.
"I should really get going. My fiancée is waiting in the car for me. He's bringing me to someplace special and romantic," Amy said.
"Let me know about the place. I just might to bring Gabriella there one day," Troy said.
"Oh, I already know the place. Here I'll give you the address," Amy said as she took out a piece of paper and a pen from her purse and handed it to Troy.
"Thanks," Troy smiled.
"No problem. I'll see you around," Amy greeted as she walked away.
Troy walked to the elevator where he last saw Gabriella. For some reason, she looked agitated and angry. "Hey, I got the mail. There is some mail here for you," Troy said as he handed Gabriella's mail to her but she refused to take it. Troy was confused by her actions. Just a few minutes ago, she was all lovey-dovey with him and then suddenly she's angry with him.
"Oh, I'm sure you got more than that," she said while stepping inside the elevator.
Troy didn't know what he did. All he did was take the mail. As the elevator door opened, Troy tried his arms around her waist but she pushed him away.
"Don't touch me," she said with a death glare on her face and then stepped out of his elevator.
Troy followed closely behind and questioned her, "What is wrong with you? I thought we were cool."
"Well we weren't," she spat back.
"What are you talking about? Are you just mad because I wanted to take the mail?" Troy asked.
"No. How stupid do you I am for being mad at you for taking the mail," she answered as they reached in front of their apartment door.
"Then why are you so angry with me?" Troy asked again while opening the door.
"Figure it out on your own or rather you ask your new blonde girlfriend," Gabriella said while walking inside the apartment and taking out her shoes.
"What new blonde girlfriend? You mean Amy?" he asked.
"Oh, she has a name," Gabriella said sarcastically.
"Gabriella, Amy is our neighbour from the third floor. I happen to see her everyday while I go to work. You think I'm dating her? She has a fiancée," Troy explained.
"Oh, save it for someone who cares," Gabriella said.
"Then what were we doing back at your dad's house? I thought you liked what happened just now?" Troy said.
"Well I declared that what happened between us didn't happen," Gabriella said. "Let's just forget it."
What did you think? Hope it's not too boring.
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And here's a sneak peek:
"I love you."
Here's a little trivia for you. Who do you think will say I Love You first?
