*Lovesick

Chapter 11

A/N: Hey readers! It's been so long since I last updated and I'm sorry about that. I just got really busy with school so I haven't able update for a while. I'm going to make it up to you though! Here's chapter 11! I hope you all like it! The story Gabriella's mom tells at the end is a quite lengthy. I just didn't want to forget any details so bear with me. I will update possibly two more chapters this week or next week for sure. Remember to review! Your reviews are what motivate me to continue writing! Enjoy! :)

Chapter 11 – Like Mother, Like Daughter

"What a jerk!" Taylor exclaimed. Gabriella rolled her eyes for the third time, not wanting to hear Taylor's lecture about Scott again. She couldn't stop thinking about what happened last night. Scott tried something on her…again. It was odd because she couldn't quite place her finger on the reason why he did, since he had promised to take it slow. He thought of it, however, began to worry her. What were his intentions, exactly? Gabriella shook her head at this. Every couple deals with this.

The school hallways were crowded, of course. Taylor and Gabriella reached their locked and stopped. "It's no big deal, Tay. I mean, we were caught up in the moment and it just happened. I'm sure he didn't mean it." Gabriella turned the dial on her lock and opened it. She grabbed her books for the day and the closed her locker. "Look, he's called me like 50 times already telling me that he's sorry. It sounds to me like he really didn't mean for it to happen."

Taylor sighed. "Well, I sure hope so. I gotta go but I'll see you in homeroom." She turned and walked down the hall.

Gabriella remained by her locker, her shoulder leaning against it. I sure hope so. Taylor's words echoed in her head. Did Taylor know something she didn't? She shook her head vigorously. "Everything's fine." She mumbled. She sure hoped so.

After suffering through not only French class but Physics class with both Troy and Scott's angry remarks towards one another, Gabriella was beginning to lose it. Her frustration only increased when she spent the entire lunch being lectured by Taylor about the consequences of being in a relationship with bad boys while practically driving herself crazy whenever she saw Scott laughing with those stupid cheerleaders. Now, in homeroom, she was nearly ripping her hair out because Ms. Darbus just would not shut up. What has gotten into that woman? She thought to herself. Sighing, she pulled her phone almost all the way out of her purse and checked for any new messages. There were about three more from Scott. Sorry about last night. Hope you forgive me. Why haven't you talked to me yet? She stopped there. It was all she could do to not laugh at the last text. She was not the one avoiding him. She scrolled down, shaking her head in disbelief. Finally, she stopped scrolling when she reached an unread message from Troy. He had sent it this morning. How could she have missed it?

What Scott did was wrong and I need you to understand that. It's taken just about all of my control not to go and teach that jerk a lesson about respect but I know you'd kill me for doing that. Just know that I am and always will be there for you, Brie. If you need me, I'm just a call away. :-)

She couldn't stop smiling. That text practically made her day. Well the rest of it at least.

She was about to reply but realized they were in class. She tucked her phone away in her purse glanced up at Troy, who was sitting at the second desk to the right, in the front row. He looked just as bored as she was. Her mind wandered back to last night, when she was in his arms. She realized how calm he had been in that moment and wondered if it was just because she needed him or if there was something more. The way he had held her; his arms wrapped around her like a blanket, was so similar to the way Scott held her sometimes. She always thought Troy's feelings for her never ran deeper than just as a friend but could she be wrong? Was there something more? She shook her head furiously. There was no way that was true. She knew that if it were true, things would have been different years ago. Besides, she only saw him as nothing more than a friend. She blushed when she realized Troy was smiling at her and she wasn't even paying attention. She smiled back at him, feeling like a fool. She then turned her attention back to Ms. Darbus, who was now telling the class about the upcoming Halloween dance.

"…The Halloween dance is coming up rather quickly and our Halloween dance committee, organized by none other than Taylor McKessie and Gabriella Montez, are making sure that this year's dance is better than ever. Would either of you like to say anything?"

Taylor stood up and went to the front of the room. "Well tickets will be on sale next week so don't forget to buy one. At this dance, we will be crowning a prince and princess for each grade and will have nominees next week as well." She smiled and went back to her seat.

"Lovely, thank you. Okay class we're going to talk about homeroom requirements to be aware of so there is a paper going around for each of you…"

There she goes again. Gabriella thought to herself.

Another 20 minutes to go.

"…So I think three nominees for each grade is good enough right? And to make it interesting we won't have 3 couples in order. We'll mix them all up so it doesn't seem so obvious. We'll have three boys on one side and three girls on the other. It'll be like this for each grade and then people can just vote from there." Taylor explained to Gabriella and the rest of the dance committee. It was four p.m. that day and they were having a meeting about the Halloween dance. They planned to discuss the decorations after sorting out the voting.

"So you want 'random boy, random girl'? Gabriella inquired.

"Yes, but it'd be more like 'Scott Turner, Chelsea White." Taylor smirked.

Ugh, that stupid cheerleader that hooks up with a new guy ever day. Gabriella rolled her eyes. Yeah, right."

Taylor smirked again, seeing her reaction. Her eyes glanced over to the door and suddenly she frowned. "Well it looks like we have a visitor."

Gabriella turned and frowned when she saw Scott making his way across the room. She quickly picked up a box of flyers and stood up. "I'll take these to Jane." She walked over and smiled at Jane, who was at a small table organizing tickets. She smiled at Jane, giving her the box. She was trying to avoid him now; not because she didn't want to talk to him but because him trying to confront her now was just ridiculous. She made her way back to Taylor but was cut off when Scott stepped in front of her.

"Just give me one minute, please." Scott pleaded.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Fine."

"I'm so sorry about what I did last night and you have every right to hate me. I got ahead of myself. I thought we were just making out but then I just forgot about our boundaries. I was caught up in the moment. I truly am sorry Gabriella."

She thought about this. "How can I trust you?"

"Because I don't want to risk hurting our relationship again. You know I care about you."

She grinned. He got her with those hazel eyes; just like he did everytime she was mad at him. She couldn't help herself. "I care about you too," She took his hand. "I just want this relationship to work."

He smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Don't worry it will." He leaned in and kissed her.

She pulled back, smiling. "Well I have to get back to the meeting but maybe I can call you later?"

He broke away from her. "Absolutely. I'll see you."

Gabriella smiled as she watched Scott walk across the room with his hands shoved in his pockets and then out the door. Things were definitely okay now.

Gabriella let out a sigh of relief as she walked into the front door of her house after what seemed like a long, stressful day. Right now, homework could wait. She needed to relax. She set her bag down on the kitchen table and plopped down in a chair. Her mom came in, smiling.

"Hey mija, how was your day?"

"Good/frustrating. But also decent."

"Wow, sounds like a busy day."

"It was, believe me." She got up and walked to the island in the kitchen to grab a cookie. As she took a bite, her eyes moved to a medium-sized book sitting next to the plate of cookies. Weird, she'd never seen that book before. She picked it up and read the writing in bold letters: 'My teenage years'. She opened up the book and saw a picture of her mom; young, beautiful, and wearing white, standing with a young man who was wearing gray. She'd never seen this man before. She flipped through the pages, seeing pictures of her mom again, this time with friends. There were more pictures of her with that mysterious man. Who was he? She flipped another page and something caught her eye. The top of the page was titled: 'The year of 1985: the year I lost you'. Confused, she read the captions and her eyes suddenly widened. Her mom had been pregnant. "Mom, what is this?" She asked. Page after page there were pictures of her mom and the mystery guy, pictures of her at parties…

"What's what?" Her mom came in, glancing over Gabriella's shoulder. She smiled. "Ah, you've found the book."

Gabriella looked at her. "What are these pictures? And how have I never seen them before?" She asked. "And how," She flipped back to the page that had caught her attention moments ago. "did I never know you were pregnant?"

"Gabriella, slow down I knew you would ask all these questions. Come here; sit down and I'll explain everything."

Gabriella followed her mom to the couch and sat down. She sighed, out of things to say. "Okay, talk."

"First, I want you to know that before I met your dad, I was in love with someone else. He's the guy you keep seeing in those pictures. His name was Adam Davis."

"Okay, so what happened between you two?"

Her mom took a deep breath and began her story. "In 1984, the year I turned 15, I fell in love for the first time. I met Adam at one of my friend's summer party before the start of out sophomore year. I remember how cool he would act around his friends. He was a smart and very popular guy that all the girls threw themselves at him. I saw something special in him though. At that party I talked to him and found him to be one of the nicest, sweetest guys I've ever met, but the only problem was that he had a well-known reputation. Of course, I didn't care. By the time school started we were inseparable. We went everywhere together. We walked to class together, ate lunch together, even studied together. We told everything we were just friends because at the time we were. Around October, he asked me out. Of course, I said yes. I felt like I was head-over-heels in love with Adam. Everyone thought that we wouldn't last long or that all he cared about was getting a reputation as the bad boy. I knew though that they were wrong. He just wasn't that type of guy,"

Gabriella was looking at her mom more clearly now. She was just like her.

"In December, right before winter break, we promised each other that we would make our relationship work in whatever way that was necessary. We didn't want to lose each other because we cared about one another too much. Over the break, I thought a lot about sexual decisions that would eventually be made sooner or later, and so I decided that I wanted my first time to be with him. I told him that I didn't want to wait because it was the only thing that would prove our love for each other. I also told him that I wanted it to be special, especially for me. We agreed that Valentine's Day would be the day. It was perfect. I celebrated my 16th birthday that month and remembered him giving me a beautiful diamond necklace. At that point I knew he had to of loved me because he was making my life so special. A few days before the planned night, Adam kept asking me if I was ready and that we could wait. I told him I couldn't be more ready. On Valentine's, he took me out to dinner and bought me dessert. We went to the park and saw the stars. Then, that night, it finally happened. We made love and it was the most amazing night of my life. Afterwards, he told me loved me,"

"From then on, we were closer than ever. I felt like everything in my life was perfect. I didn't know until the end of February when I started feeling sick in the morning. I told Adam what was going on and he told me that he didn't use protection because he thought the birth control pill was enough. When he said that to me, I felt like my world fell apart. I didn't want to be pregnant, especially at my age. He said we would figure out how to deal with it. I thought he was someone else. He didn't care about me. He actually wanted to get me to agree to an abortion before our parents found out. It was ridiculous. I thought hard about what this pregnancy would mean for the rest of my future and decided to keep it. He got mad at me and chose to leave me on my own. I was better off without him because I could make my own decisions. March went by and I knew I couldn't hide the truth anymore. I began to tell the doctor, my parents, and then my friends. People talked about me and made up stupid rumors. My parents were there to support me but my friends weren't. They thought I was only desperate for attention."

"What happened to the baby?" Gabriella finally asked.

"Around May, I was beginning to have really rough nights. I was under a lot of stress with school work and test prep. One day, though, I woke up with a miscarriage. The doctors said I had undergone too much stress. I was a nervous wreck. Adam showed up when I was in the hospital to see me and apologized for everything he did. I didn't forgive him. He hurt me when he left me."

Gabriella was speechless. Her heart ached for her mom. She wished she could go back and change all the times she ignored her mom when she as telling her the right things. "Mom…I had no idea. I can't imagine how hard that must have been for you."

"It was. Gabriella, you're the most important thing in my life and I only want the best for you. The reason why I didn't tell you all this was because I didn't want you to know how hard my life had been. You seem happy with Scott and I'm glad. Sometimes, thought, your first love might not turn out the way you wanted it too. It wasn't until I met your dad that I started to turn my life around. Your dad was like my best friend. He listened to everything I said and he was always there for me."

Gabriella smiled. "I really like Scott and I know that he's changed. He's better now and he really cares about me. I've never felt this way about a boy before."

"I know, sweetheart. I just think you're missing the one person that made you who you are today. Troy. Look I know he's just your best friend but I can see it in his eyes that he cares about you a lot more than you think."

Gabriella creased her eyebrows. "You're not saying that he likes me are you? I've known him since like kindergarten."

"That's not what I'm saying. I think you should get to know him better. Who knows, one day you might find something in him that you didn't even know was there. Maybe you'll even find something special in yourself." Maria stood up.

"Think about it okay?"

"Yeah," Gabriella stood up. "I love you mom." She leaned over and hugged her.

"I love you too mija."

Gabriella was really listening this time. She was listening to her heart and while her feelings for Scott were blocked out, for the first time she actually believed that there could be something more to her friendship with Troy. Something as crazy as love.

A/N: Did you like it? Nice chapter, I thought. Please give me your thoughts in the reviews! I would greatly appreciate it! Just a little side note: earlier in my story I had said that Scott is captain of the varsity football team. That should be corrected to member of the varsity basketball team. My bad. I will be back ASAP! Possibly 2 more good chapters to come in the next two weeks! Stay tuned. :)

-xoxo, Alyssa