Lips of an Angel

A/N: A one shot written by one of my good friends, Tara, and I. It's loosely based on the song "Lips of an Angel", by Hinder.

Disclaimer: partly mine, partly tara's, partly neither of ours.

rated T for minimum language.

Enjoy.

Gabriella hastily wiped the tears that fell from her eyes; a few stray tears flowed down her cheek and onto the hardwood floor beneath her.

Crouched on the floor, she was alone.

She felt alone.

The brown box sat open in front of her, the items it had contained lay scattered around her in an unorganized fashion. Gabriella didn't understand, why she decided to pull the box off the highest shelf in her closest, and go through it at two o'clock in the morning. But something about the evening itself led her to it.

Opening the box, she did fine. Pulling out old pictures of her and her closest friends; laughing at the silly pictures they took while they were bored. She even held her emotions together glancing through her old yearbooks even reading through the penned notes written on most of the pages.

It wasn't until she reached for one picture; slightly warn with age, that she felt her body slowly begin to break down.

She stared at it, lying in the center of the box, the only light shining into her room was from the moon, and the moonlight fell upon the picture as a spotlight.

She reached for it, and then drew her hand back.

Realizing, that if she wanted to get to the bottom of the box of memorabilia, she had to get passed the picture.

Delicately, she reached into the box and enfolded her hands gently around the keepsake and pulled the picture from the box.

To any onlooker, it was a mere picture, full of smiles, and a laughing couple.

But to Gabriella, it was so much more than that.

She clenched the picture tightly in her hand, as she ignored the falling tears that slid from her eyes to the hardwood floor.

She felt as if time had stopped, as she stared into this old, useless picture.

She wanted to just smile and look at the picture as a chapter in her life, and then mentally laugh at herself for getting so involved as she lay the picture back into the box.

But she couldn't do that.

"God…" She muttered, releasing the picture and letting it sway into the air, finally landing by her side.

She pulled her knees tightly to her chest, resting her forehead atop them, as her body shook violently from the emotion that engulfed her body.

So many memories flooded into her mind.

Happy times, fights, deep talks, that promise to always be together.

Always.

Gabriella let a sob out, into the silent, still air.

And then lifted her head.

"What am I doing?" She couldn't help but think, as she angrily swiped at the tears that continued falling from her eyes to the ground.

She sat up straight and inhaled a much-needed breath of fresh air.

She rested her head back, against the foot of her bed, and lightly closed her eyes, attempting to salvage whatever composure she continued to posses.

Things seemed so rough lately.

Her latest boyfriend dumped her.

He told her he had to break it off because he "Felt something was missing" from the relationship.

Gabriella shook her head, tightly closing her eyes.

"He was a douche bag." She thought, in defense, even though deep down, she knew he was right.

Her own boss even seemed to be against her.

"You seem distracted by something." She would say, laying her pen down onto her desk, "Why don't you tell me what's on your mind."

Gabriella sighed, she hated when people poked into her personal life.

Truth be told, Gabriella knew what her problem was.

She lifted her head from her knees and picked up the picture at her side.

She brushed the salty tears from its exterior.

The more Gabriella looked into the picture, the more it channeled her emotions.

It couldn't be good for her to do this to herself, she thought, looking into the eyes of her past.

She needed to move on with life, stop dwelling in the past, just forget about him.

But she couldn't do that.

What they had was something that couldn't be repeated.

No matter how many guys she dated, none of them would ever be able to measure up to him.

No one could ever be Troy.

Sighing, Gabriella dragged her finger around their silhouettes, their happy, laughing silhouettes.

For a moment, Gabriella could almost hear his gentle laugh; feel his warm arm draped over her shoulder, leaning her head so it was resting against his chest.

But as her mind began to reminisce, she caught herself from falling again. She felt the sudden head rush as she yanked herself back to reality; that was the moonlit darkness of her bedroom.

Looking around her dark room, she felt the tears welling up inside of her again. That chronic pain in her stomach returned, as it always did when she thought of him.

It was her fault it was over, she reminded herself.

But that didn't make her broken heart heal any faster.

Looking at that photograph didn't give her any relief, in fact in only caused more pain.

Not even thinking, Gabriella fumbled for her cell phone, in frenzy, she passed through her entire phone book.

Without pause, she pressed the call button.

She held her breath as the phone rang.

It rang four times before going to voicemail.

Gabriella gave a sad smile, she shook her head.

"I have actually gone crazy." She said to herself quietly.

Tossing her phone onto her bed, she slowly got up off the floor.

Walking to a small vanity, she sat on the wooden bench. She pulled a fresh tissue out of its box and gently began dabbing her puffy eyes.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her phone screen light up.

Her heart stopped.

She sat on her bench, and watched as the screen continued to flash in the darkness, causing the eerie glow of light to fill her room, and her eyes to squint from the new brightness and the years that harbored in the corners.

Her breathing increased as her eyes adjusted.

Slowly she got up, and walked towards her bed.

Carefully she picked up the phone.

Staring at it, in disbelief, she hit the talk button.

"Hello?" She asked quietly, her breath still uneven.

"Gabriella?"

The melodic sound of his voice sounded through Gabriella's ears as she felt the tears threatening to spill over.

"Troy?" Her voice cracked.

There was no sound between the two.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Troy asked through a whisper.

Gabriella glanced at the clock, 5:30 a.m. She shut her eyes and exhaled.

"I'm sorry." She said softly.

"Not to mention the time difference where you are." He said a bit louder, Gabriella realized he must've gone to a different room.

Gabriella re-opened her eyes, fresh tears nearly falling now, "I know…I'm sorry…"

Gabriella heard Troy sigh, followed by the sound of a door closing.

"I just…" Gabriella began, stifling her tears, "I just needed to talk to you…"

Troy's frustration diminished when he heard her soft sobs, "Gabby, are you crying?" He asked tenderly, sitting down on a porch bench outside his house.

Gabriella said nothing, but she mentally cursed herself as she swiped the tears again.

"Is everything okay?" Troy asked with concern.

Gabriella shook her head, "No, I mean…yes…everything's fine."

A silence fell over them.

Troy rested his head against the brick wall behind him.

"Baby?" feminine voice asked as he quickly turned his head.

From the other line, Gabriella's heart sank. She heard Troy attempt to muffle their voices.

However it was no use. Like an arctic Whale, struggling to breathe after it was harpooned. It was as if someone had harpooned a dagger though her chest, she felt paralyzed; surrounded by an icy whoosh of air, she felt as if she were sinking, drowning, dying. Blackness encased her; she thought she had drowned, drowned in her own tears; until she realized the blackness was that she had shut her eyes tight against the outside world.

"It's just my boss." Troy lied as the blonde nodded, not having the slightest suspicion.

"I'll be back to bed soon." He lied again, but the blonde nodded and wandered back into the house.

Troy sighed as he removed his hand from the bottom of the phone.

Gabriella heard him sigh.

"She's just someone I'm seeing…" Troy said, trying to explain himself, feeling a pang of guilt hit him.

"You don't have to explain Troy…" She said sadly, "…life goes on…" She added, tears silently filling down her cheeks.

After a short pause, Troy spoke quietly, "It's not like what we had…"

Gabriella deeply swallowed, lifting her eyes up off the ground.

"I'm sure it's better…" She said enviously.

"No!" Troy said a bit too quickly, he re-composed himself, "Nothing will ever even begin compare…to what we had…"

Gabriella's bottom lip quivered, she realized that she wasn't the only one having problems moving on.

The pair fell silent.

"It's good to hear from you…" Troy said, attempting to lighten the situation, "I'm glad to know you didn't…die or something." He said through a smile, a forced smile, but a smile none the less.

He heard Gabriella laugh, something he didn't ever hear anymore.

"Well, I didn't die." Gabriella replied with a grin, leaning back against the headboard of her bed.

"Not like I would know…" Troy said somewhat bitterly, "You never call…"

"We broke up Troy…" Gabriella shrugged.

"But you could still call." Troy persisted. "Shouldn't she?" He thought to himself.

Gabriella's felt the anger rush inside of her, "Won't she be mad?" Gabriella asked harshly.

"Who?"

"Your girlfriend?" Gabriella said shrilly, "Won't she be mad you're talking to your ex?"

Troy fell silent.

"Yes." He thought to himself.

"What about your boyfriend?" Troy asked, his voice rising a little against the night air.

Gabriella instantly stopped talking.

"We…broke up…" She said, "Well, he dumped me…"She gave a small laugh, almost as if to say "I'm used to it by now"

A strong lull fell over the pair.

"I'm sorry Troy…" She said quietly.

Troy continued to say nothing.

Gabriella sighed, "It's just…" She bit her tongue.

Another minute in silence passed.

"It's just, I really miss you." Gabriella said quickly.

Troy rubbed his eyes with his free hand as he got up off the bench.

He walked to the railing of the porch and knelt against it.

"I miss you too." He said gently, staring off into the morning sunrise.

"I don't want to cause any problems with your new girlfriend…" Gabriella said quickly, she meant it too.

"You won't!" Troy said, again, a little too quickly, "I mean, what she doesn't know, won't hurt her."

Gabriella couldn't help but feel like a bad person. "Is he hinting at what I think? No, it's wrong, we had a go, it was fun while it lasted, and we're done…right?"She thought to herself.

"No…maybe, maybe I should go-"

"Gabriella." Troy said, but then lost his train of thought.

Now that he had her on the phone, now that he was talking to her…he didn't want to let her go.

"Troy…we can't do this…." "Right? Of course I'm right." She reminded herself; even through all the pain she felt, the want in wanting him back.

Troy knew she was right, but right now, he didn't care what was right.

"How have you been?" Troy asked softly.

Gabriella sighed, "Good."

"Bullshit."

Gabriella laughed, "Okay…so, I've been lousy…." She said truthfully.

Troy smiled to himself as her voice filled his ears.

"What about you?" Gabriella asked lightheartedly, "L.A. treating you good?"

Troy shrugged, "For the most part…I guess…" He said solemnly.

Gabriella nodded.

"I'm sure the weather's great." She said, trying to stay pleasant.

Troy snorted, "Yeah, that's a perk…what about New York? Are you a frozen Eskimo yet?" He asked with a smile.

Gabriella laughed again, "Not quite, but give it a few months…"She giggled as she twisted a few strands of hair around her finger.

Troy grinned

She dropped her hair, bit her bottom lip, and inhaled sharply. "Maybe it's better this way… for now." She thought

"The whole other side of the country thing really wouldn't work out for us. Right?" Gabriella breathed hard.

Troy's grin faded, he knew she was right.

"And even though, it…it hurts…we did have a good time." She added.

"Yeah." Troy sighed into the phone.

"I wish things could have been different Gabi."

"Me too." Gabriella stifled yet another sob, "You can't cheat on your girlfriend Troy. It's not who you are. You're not that type of guy. It's one of the reasons I fell in love with you."

"I know." Troy's heart was sinking deeper and deeper by the minute, boy that harpooned whale really got around.

"You know if we're really meant to be, love will find away." Gabriella inhaled a quiver between air and tears.

"Tell it in the wind? To be passed upon the lips of angels?" Troy asked, his eyes beginning to moisten.

"Something like that." Gabriella's tears had subsided by now.

"Do angels really guide us on our destiny?" Troy asked, a single tear sliding down his cheek.

"Only time will tell. Good bye Troy."

"Bye Gabi." Troy heard the soft click of the phone, indicating that Gabriella was indeed gone.

Troy let his hand hang over the porch railing with his open cell phone still semi- clutched in his hand. He was staring out at the sunrise, but the strange thing was he couldn't see it. In fact he didn't think he would see it ever again, at least not until he looked into Gabriella's eyes.

Troy felt an early morning breeze wash over him, he shut his eyes and felt the hairs upon his arms, and his head sway in the wind.

He could hear faintly in the passing winds the words "I love you Troy"

His eyes shot open and he wondered…the lips of an angel?