Hello everyone! I'm actually updating relatively soon, so I hope you guys like it.
Someone said they really liked having a review of what's going on at the beginning of the chapter. So I'll try and do that each time. In the last chapter Mr. Montez and three year old Laina were in Alburquerue. Troy showed up at Gabriella's house with a black eye, which created a fight between them when he didn't want to tell her what happened, and then when she found out it was from a fight he got into with a guy he doesn't like. After Troy left, Zeke showed up with cookies, thanking Gabby for showing him that he needed to move on from Sharpay. This freaks her out because she does not want to be involved in someone else's mess. At the end, her dad and sister leave and she admits to her mom that she wishes things could be different.
Enjoy!
I purposely left my cell phone at home while I was at the airport. When I got back, I had a message.
"Hey, Gabriella. It's me." Troy. And it was the same voice I heard on my balcony in January and every time after that when something was wrong.
"Listen, I know you're mad, and you should be, but the stuff I said yesterday…" There was a silence as he chose his words and when he started again he began all over. "I wasn't drunk at that party, Gabriella. And I wasn't looking for a fight." Another pause, I heard him exhale. "I'm sorry I didn't want to tell you and I'm sorry I had to lie to your dad." I felt bad because I wasn't mad at that, a football lie was a much better idea than the truth. "Anyway…you don't have to call me back, I just wanted to apologize. Okay….bye. Lo- uh….bye."
I'm almost sure he was about to say 'Love you' at the end until he caught himself. It was a genuine apology; he was very good at those. But I didn't want to call him back right away. I dropped my phone on the bed and left it there as I went downstairs.
&&&
When I finally did call him back it was mid-afternoon. My mother was working at home today and a fax she was supposed to receive an hour ago never showed up. As she panicked and made calls to Germany I retreated to my room. He picked up after the third ring.
"Hi." He sounded hesitant, but I could sense he was relieved that I had called him back by the surprised happiness in his voice. I wondered how his eye looked, I cringed picturing it.
"Hi." I wanted him to tell me what happened and why he tried so hard to keep it from me.
"Listen, I'm sorry. I didn't know the fight would bother you so much and I didn't plan it. I swear."
"I know." No one said a word. Outside, a squirrel was running up the trunk on the big tree. It was another hot day, the heat wave hadn't let up but going to the Baylor's pool today with everyone didn't seem like the best idea.
I broke the silence. "You know how sometimes when you first hear something you take it the wrong way and you overreact?"
"Yeah." He sounded hesitant and I knew he was wrinkling his forehead, half confused and half worried. Probably biting the skin around his thumb.
"I think I did that a little bit."
"No, I mean, you were just mad. And you should have been."
"Well, I still am." The words caught us both off-guard. Lately, blurting things out seemed to me my thing. I heard almost complete silence on his end, just the barely audible sound of him exhaling. I sat down on the edge of my bed.
"Well…" He seemed to be looking for an answer. "You never really told me why."
I wasn't sure if I wanted to yell at him for not understanding or give a sigh of relief that we might be getting somewhere. "I'm mad because…" I searched for the words. "I think that getting into a fight with Casey was such a stupid idea. And you wouldn't even admit it to me, which made me feel….not important enough to know." I felt like a whiney girlfriend and I hated it. I never wanted to be that girl.
"That's not what I meant to do."
"Well, what did you mean? You wouldn't tell me anything!" I was desperate, I just wanted him to talk to me and give me real words instead of apologies.
"I – " He sounded lost for words. "I just knew you would be mad…which is exactly what happened."
"I don't know what else to say, Troy." I leaned back against my headboard.
"Well, I don't know to make you stop being mad!" Exasperated, I knew he was throwing his hand into the air or rubbing his face.
"Maybe we should just talk about it tomorrow." Fighting was giving me a headache and it felt like we were going in a circle.
"Maybe we should talk about it today." I inwardly groaned. As much as I hated confrontation, Troy liked talking it out and clearing the air.
"Troy…" I closed my eyes and sighed.
"C'mon, Gabriella. Look, why don't you come over? My mom is at work, my dad took Chase to his speech therapy, and Alec is in his room. Please."
I took a deep breath. "Okay. I'll be there in ten minutes."
&&&
Maggie greeted me at the door. She was the Bolton's chocolate lab who loved attention and her tennis ball. Every night she slept in Troy's room, she had been their dog since he was nine years old.
She panted and stared at me with her big brown eyes as Troy and I stood awkwardly at the door. With Maggie racing over neither one of us had said anything when I'd walked in and now the silence was almost painful. His bruise looked the same to me, only the cut was a little less visible. I can only imagine how his parents had reacted.
"Um, come on in." Troy pulled Maggie away by the collar and motioned for me to enter. I loved the Bolton's house. Almost every wall and surface was covered with pictures of the family, especially the boys. I liked that, it made me feel like I knew more about all the things in his life I wasn't here for. First day of kindergarten, a trip to the pumpkin patch, Troy and Alec with an infant Chase all watching a movie, Christmases, vacations, silly faces and posed pictures. His whole life was in this house.
In the kitchen there were cereal bowls and glasses in the sink. A pile of magazines, motor cross and sports ones, sat on the counter next to silver GameBoy, which I knew belonged to Chase.
"So, listen." He pushed the magazines and GameBoy to the other side of the island. "I know I screwed up and I know you're mad. But, I don't think there's anyway to fix something like this, I can't change anything that already happened."
He was right. He had apologized but there was nothing else he could do. It was something I could choose to be angry about or I could just forget about it.
"Can you at least tell me why you started the fight?"
For a second he didn't respond at all. Then he started biting his thumb again. "I told you, he was pissing me off. Being a real jerk."
"To you?"
"No." He answered almost as the last syllable came out of my mouth. "I mean, yes. I mean…we were standing in a group and I just couldn't take him anymore." At this point he had his eyes fixed on a picture on the refrigerator, although I knew he just didn't want to look at me.
"So, you started a fight with a really awful guy, who you've always hated, because he was making you mad by being obnoxious at some party?"
He looked back at me and exhaled. I don't know what I wanted him to say, but I waited for him to say anything.
"Yeah." He nodded. "I did."
And there was my answer. I was disappointed. I knew it and he knew it, but it had happened and I couldn't change it.
"Okay." Now we had to move on. "Let's just forget about it then." I put on a smile and realized that I did actually feel a little better.
"You want some ice cream?" He was already up and opening the freezer. "We have cookie dough." He grinned playfully and pulled it out.
"Sure. I'd love some."
&&&
But the next fight started as soon as the first had. Troy swallowed a spoonful of ice cream and looked at me, a bit pensive.
"You know what's weird?" He asked.
"What?"
"This time next year, we'll be getting ready for college." And with those words my stomach tensed up and my whole face fell.
"Yeah, that's…crazy."
He kept talking. "It's exciting, isn't it? I mean, a little scary but exciting. I can't wait to get out of here, be on my own, start something totally new –"
"Troy, stop." He shut up immediately, both of us surprised. Then he blinked, confused. "What's wrong?"
"I don't want to talk about college, Troy. Please."
"Why not? Don't tell me you're worried." He actually looked amused. "You're brilliant Gabriella, every college is going to want you."
That wasn't my fear, at least not my biggest. But the thought of having to start all over, pack up and leave again just as I was getting settled made me ache. And knowing I had to leave Troy and Taylor and everybody, and East High and my house and my mom…it was something I forced myself not to think about. I had no other choice. I blocked it out..
"I just don't want to talk about this."
"Why not?"
"Troy…" I closed my eyes and looked down.
"Gabby, come on. When I didn't want to talk about the fight you made me, so now I'm making you." He dropped his spoon into his bowl and folded his hands in his lap, facing me.
"No Troy." I wanted him to hear from my voice that I needed this to stop. "This is different, and I don't want to talk about college."
"Why? I don't understand…."
"Troy… Please, drop this."
"I…" Whether he was confused or just lost for words, I don't know. "I'm sorry, Gabriella. I just…"
"Can't wait to get out of here?" The words caught in my throat and it was too awkward to look him in the eyes. The air was suffocating and silent.
But he knew what I meant. He looked at me, wordlessly.
"I'm going to go." I told him.
He jumped off his stool and reached his hand out to me as I stood up. "Gabby, no."
"Please, Troy. I don't want to fight again, I should just go."
I turned to leave when Jack and Chase came bursting in.
"Hey guys. What's going on?" Jack looked at us, smiling.
"Nothing." Troy lied and I avoided his glance.
"Well, Chase has something he wants to say." Chase was standing beside his dad with the biggest grin on his face.
"AL!" Jack called up the stairs and Alec came down, looking annoyed. "What?"
"Chase has something he wants to say. Go ahead Chase."
All eyes turned to him and he was bouncing on his toes. "We're going out for ice cream to celebrate." He spoke very slowly and carefully.
"What for?" Troy asked.
"Say it again Chase." Jack encouraged.
"We're going out for ice cream to celebrate." He repeated and both Jack and Chase looked at us expectantly. We must have looked so confused.
"I don't get it." Alec shrugged.
"Listen very carefully to your brother, guys. Chase, tell them again."
"We're going out for ice cream – "
Suddenly Troy yelled. "Oh my god, Chase!" His eyes got big and he looked so excited. "You did it!"
And all of a sudden I figured it out. Chase had finally perfected his 'r' pronunciation. He had graduated from speech therapy. He looked so proud of himself, standing there with a huge smile on his face; this was a big accomplishment for him.
"Chase!" I wanted to pick him up and hug him. "Good job! You sound so grown up."
"Thank you." He was grasping his hands together, looking like he had won a million dollars.
Jack patted him on the back. "He'll have one more session next week to wrap it up, but basically he's all done."
"Way to go, Chase." Alec gave him a high five. "Now we all get ice cream." He teased.
"Would like to come, Gabriella?" Jack asked. "We'd love to have you."
"Oh, that's okay. I should go." Troy was right beside me, we hadn't made eye contact since we walked out of the kitchen. But I could see him out of the corner of my eye with his hands shoved into his pockets. We'd already had one disaster eating ice cream, I don't know if a second attempt would work out either.
"Are you sure? It's a big celebration." Jack was grinning and he had a hand on Chase's shoulder.
I looked down at Chase. He was such an incredible little guy, standing there with his sandy blonde hair falling right above his eyes and his little blue t-shirt. Sometimes he felt like my own brother. And I was so proud of him.
"Okay," I gave a smile. "I'll come."
&&&
"Curious?"
"Curious."
"Surprise?"
"Sur..prise."
Lucy Bolton met us at Tastey Freeze, where we ate our ice cream under the outside awning and quizzed Chase on words with 'r' in them. Troy and I managed to act as if everything was fine, and it almost was, but it felt forced and awkward. I tried to concentrate on Chase, who had red and blue Spiderman ice cream all over his mouth and hands but looked thrilled with himself.
When we got back to the Bolton's house on Arrington Street I said good-bye to everyone and gave Chase a hug. Troy, of course, walked me out to my mom's car and we stood in the driveway under the hot sun. Neither one of us exactly sure what to say.
"Gabriella," Troy rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm really sorry about earlier. I didn't mean what you thought I meant."
"What did you mean?" I wiped a strand of hair from my forehead and wished I had a hair tie with me.
He opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. "I'm just excited, it has nothing to do with you."
"That's what I'm afraid of." I almost couldn't get the words out, because once I said them they were real. Troy was so excited about the future, even when he was scared. And it was so easy for him to get caught up in it that sometimes I worried if I was going to get left behind.
"No, I mean…" He was lost for words. "You know what I mean, right?"
"I don't know Troy." I sighed. "Sometimes we feel really differently about things."
"But Gabby…you have to know that I don't want to leave you. Sometimes I just say the wrong thing, you know that. Can we just forget I ever said it?"
For a second I wondered how many fights we could put into a closet and forget about before it became too much. But I knew this wasn't his fault, and that I needed let him be excited about college and his future. So I nodded, so ready to move on and let things be good again. "Okay."
He smiled, relieved. "So…can I kiss you good-bye now?"
I nodded again, a small smiling forming on my face.
And he did. He kissed me and pulled me in close, pressing me into his body with his hand on my lower back. And I tried to forget about the fights and the awkwardness and the apologies.
"I love you." He pulled back and smiled "I'll talk to you tomorrow."
And I looked him in the eyes, as we stood there in the driveway, melting under the hot sun, but still touching anyway. "I love you too." The words were sweet on my tongue and his eyes smiled when I said them. Then I hugged him good-bye, a little tighter and little longer than usual
This chapter was really hard to write, and it seems a little off to me, but I hope you liked it now that they have made up! I'm so tired of them fighting, so the next chapter will be happy, but I have to warn you that there will be another fight before she leaves for Brown.
Please review, it means so much to me!
Sparks
xoxoxox
Next chapter has the families & the Wildcats in it!