Brushes.

By Katie

Pairing: Troyella

Rating: K+

A/N: Well, this is was originally a Hannah Montana idea I got, but I decided it fit better with High School Musical. So there.

Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical or Troyella. Darn, man. :p

X

The woman sits quietly in her church pew, reading her Bible with the large spectacles she's become so used to. It is hard to believe that thirty years ago, she had never taken one step into a church.

Her hand finds her silver hair, brushing away a flyaway hair. Her hair used to be rich, ebony black. Through the years, though, it had turned salt-and-pepper gray.

The dull brown eyes shielded by glasses had once been beautiful, chocolate pools.

If you looked past the smile lines and folds in her cheeks, you could see a youthful face. She had once been lovely, the loveliest girl in the world.

'Oh, Troy...', the woman, Gabriella Montez, thought, setting her Bible aside. Gabriella had been coming to this church everyday for thirty years. She awoke at five-thirty and went to the six o'clock mass, then prayed for a half-hour afterward. Today, she decided to pray for her deceased husband, Troy.

He had died thirty years ago today.

It was a sudden death. Gabriella had been there when he died. She had held his hand in the hospital room.

He'd died at night. 11:00 PM. Gabriella liked to think he'd died when their children were sleeping so that they wouldn't have to see their father die.

'I wish you could see the kids, Troy. It hurt them so much when you died. Ginny asked me for weeks, When is Daddy coming home?. Oh, God, I couldn't even look at Ginny for weeks, because she has your blue eyes.', Gabriella thought again, shaking her head solemnly.

Her and Troy's children, Alexandra, Oliver, and Ginny, had been so young when Troy had died. Allie had been 9, Oliver had been 7, and Ginny had been 3.

Gabriella smiled when she thought about how Troy had been with the children.

Allie had been the most heart-broken about Troy's death. Her memories of him, she often told Gabriella, had faded over the years.

And it wasn't because Allie had loved Troy more than Oliver and Ginny.

Allie was blind.

Troy had showed her new ways of seeing, that you didn't have to have eyes to see things.

Troy had been Allie's best friend.

Gabriella had dried her tears over Troy's death long ago, as had Allie, Oliver, and Ginny. But there were days, oh there were days.

Today, for example, was one of those days.

Alzheimer's had ravaged on Gabriella's mind. Some days she barely remembered her own name. The doctors had told her that as time went on, she probably wouldn't remember an ounce of anything. Not her friends, not her family, not even Troy.

It was a scary thought.

She loved her memories of Troy. Of days spent in the park, laying out on the grass with his lips against hers, of nights spent snuggled up against a couch with the kids.

She preferred, rather, to not think about any of it.

60-year-olds don't usually live in denial, but Gabriella does.

So she picks up her Bible and removes her spectacles from her eyes.

She has a soccer game for her grandson today, and doesn't plan on missing it.

X

:( So sad, isn't it?