"She's on a mission, Troy. As long as things go to plan, and you know how Taylor is with planning, then Chad will be reined in until the morning of the wedding and you can handle his objection then and it will all be okay!" Gabriella was excited and relieved as she conveyed her news to Troy. Troy on the other hand was less enthusiastic.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Troy gazed cautiously at Gabriella. "Uh, Gabi, what if Chad freaks out and does something drastic between now and then. I mean the guy's going to be focused on destroying us, Baby. You've never seen Chad when he zones in on one thing. He's like a Hulk or something. He might actually succeed at causing enough trouble for our parents that he gets what he's after before your plan ends."

Gabriella shook her head, "He's not exactly the world's most brilliant thinker."

"No, but he isn't stupid, Gabi. You don't have to be the best to succeed at offense. You just need the defense to crack one time and use the opening." Troy frowned at his reflection in the mirror. He realized she'd have no idea what he was saying in sports terms. She'd never played sports, and the look on her face seemed to suggest that he was making her angry for disagreeing about the plan she was so excited about.

"Fine. Then how are you going to handle this, Troy? How are you going to protect us, our secret?" She stood now with her arms crossed. A look of irritation was all her stone-carved expression could be relaying.

Troy sighed heavily. He was tired. He was worried. He was in so freaking far over his head that he had no clue how to love everyone he was supposed to love, protect everyone he was supposed to protect, and still manage to keep his grades and sports skills well-polished and improving. "First, I'd turn our would-be attacker."

"He isn't would-be, Troy. He's been attacking me any way he could for months and he's finally found a way to strike at both our hearts."

"He doesn't know he's fighting me, Baby. He thinks he's helping me. So, I drop a few hints. I don't say anything outright. I don't actually tell him how I feel, but I make him get the doubt in his head that maybe, on some level, I might want this. He'll back off at least until he knows whether or not he's fighting you or fighting me or both of us. I can bring him around without actually giving away our secret. Taylor's going to be suspicious. She's never once caved to him for a date. He's been asking her out in joking ways for 4 years, and now, all of a sudden, she can't wait to go out with him?"

Gabriella stood at his window looking out at the stars. His mother had told them come inside an hour ago when the rain began pouring over the little roof on his tree house. "If…all either of us seems to be able to come up with is 'if we can manipulate Chad'." She frowned, "The truth always works better than a lie."

Troy watched her as she played unconsciously with the small amethyst stone on her necklace. His mother had insisted that he give it to her as an engagement gift. He'd picked it out a month before, but had claimed he wanted to buy it for whatever girl he was "seeing" just before their parents had informed all the world of their engagement. It had worked well enough and he'd been able to put a piece of jewelry on her body that she never had to remove. "We've been manipulating people the whole time this has been going on, Gabi. It's worked well enough so far. I just need another 40 days of things working before there's nothing anyone can do to us, Baby. I need this. I need you to be my wife, so that no one can take you away from me except you. I don't care what gets us through the next 40 days and 39 nights. I don't care if I have to 'runaway' to fake everyone out and only 'miraculously' come around 2 days before the wedding." He turned her around and met her chocolate eyes. "Help me get us there. Forty days from now, in the chapel, pretty dresses and tuxedos, and vows sealed with rings and an amazing kiss for my incredible bride."

Gabriella looked at him. "What if Chad can't be deterred?"

Troy nuzzled the side of her face, "I can make him doubt."

Her eyes closed at the soft sensation that his nuzzling the side of her cheek could produce, "Troy…"

He smiled softly knowing he had her attention. "Yes," he said just as gently.

"We could just tell him the truth."

Troy sighed heavily against her neck. His forehead dropped to her shoulder. "Honey, we've already created a complication with Taylor knowing. It would only double or quadruple if Chad knew. He can't keep his mouth shut to save his life. Plus, if after 2 years he was suddenly quiet about his anger or nice to you that would draw so much suspicion. It's best just to keep him in the dark."

Gabriella's cellphone rang with Taylor's ring tone. "Shit! She was only supposed to call if something went wrong." Gabriella sprang at the phone on his bed. "Hello? Taylor? Tell me what's wrong."

Taylor's voice was shaky. "He's an idiot, Gabriella. Chad is…we're at the hospital. He was stupid. He took some challenge some guy put online. The guy said it would get him high and he'd be able to have fun with me instead of being nervous. He's so stupid. He ate like 3 of the Tide Pods and we're at the hospital getting his stomach pumped." Taylor stopped speaking for a minute. "I'm so mad at the stupid lunkhead. He better be okay, or I'm totally beating him up for this! It was awful. He started feeling really sick to his stomach and he got really green. I told him we could just go home, you know, just get him somewhere he could sleep. Then he told me we might want to go to the hospital instead and he told me about the online chat he'd had with this guy. The guy was totally trolling him. He just wanted to ruin a date for some guy because that loser can't get one. I have half a mind to track the bastard down and make sure he gets brought up on charges for this!"

Gabriella's face had been registering so many different forms of shock and revulsion that Troy was once again worried about their future, because of Chad. He and Gabriella were set to go to college in California in the fall. He and Chad were setup to play basketball together at Palo Alto University and she was going to Stanford. They were ready. "Baby, what's going on?"

Gabriella looked over at him with a hand up over her mouth in shock. She frowned and softly said, "Just a sec, Tay. I need to tell Troy." He lowered the phone and looked at her fiancé, "Chad took some challenge from a guy online. He said the stupid Tide Pod challenge would get him high. Now they're at the ER and Chad is having his stomach pump. She's scared, Troy."

Troy's eyebrows shot up high enough to brush his hairline. "What?! What the hell was he thinking?! Everybody knows that stupid challenge just makes people sick! Where are they?" He was grabbing his keys and wallet when he registered Gabriella's voice getting the information from Taylor. He turned and she was off the phone, but she stopped him. "We can't show up together. Taylor said we shouldn't even come. Their parents are starting to arrive, and your dad was called because he's Chad's coach. We can't go together. I won't be able to help Taylor if I'm afraid that someone will see us."

Troy took her hand. "Screw the secrets, Gabriella. My dad figured it out already anyway. Come on. We need to be with our friends, and I am going to need you beside me."

"She'll tear us apart," was all Gabriella said when Troy tried to pull on her hand to turn and leave. She didn't budge. She didn't cry. She just stood there stock still. "My mother will tear us apart so fast. She's desperate. She's desperate that I don't turn out like her."

Troy stepped to her and ran his thumb along her cheek and wiped at the tear with gentleness that surprised even himself. "It's going—"

"No! You don't understand! It's not the same for me with my mom as it is with you and your parents!"

Troy tried to reach her heart, but she was beyond his skills now. "Baby, we need to get to the hospital. We will figure out everything else as we go. Please, just come with me."

Gabriella looked at him. "I will be at home studying where all the parents expect me to be. You go to the hospital. Tell Taylor to call me when she can."

Troy was furious. "Dammit!"

"No, this is how it has to be. Too much has happened. Too many people know, or think they know. Too much is at stake!" She felt the tear drop from her cheek. "I won't be able to keep from being near you! I won't be able to keep the look off my face! They would expect me to be at home. That is exactly where I will be…far away from you. Far from giving away the truth in a moment of fear." She stopped and began to regain her breath and her brain seemed to clear from the fear of the threat of their truth. "Please, Troy. Go. I will be in my house, in my bedroom. If you need me, you can sneak in tonight."

He rubbed his forehead along hers as he tried to keep from being angry. When he tried to "lay down the law," as she called it, he always lost. She was better at thinking before leaping than he was. He'd bulldoze every defender by half-court only to realize he'd left all his teammates behind too. She was always there, not quite as far down the same path, but coming up on him when he turned around, suddenly aware of how far out he was. "Fine. I'll tell Taylor to call you quietly. But, I'm telling Chad tonight. He's an idiot and all of this just put his future in jeopardy too. That scholarship for basketball is the only way he'll get through college, Gabi. I like Taylor, but come on, it's not like he's going to marry her."

Gabriella shook her head, "Maybe, maybe not, but she can get him through college too. Ever think of that?"

Troy rolled his eyes, "Like she'd stick around. She only went out with him to manipulate him!"

"She went out with him to protect us. And, to keep him from doing anything stupid. And right now, she thinks he's hurt. Give her a break."

"Fine, again. For now. I have to go."

Gabriella smiled, "Besides it's good for your mom to see you rush out on me to run to Chad."

Troy rolled his eyes. He kissed her long and soft. "I'll be glad when all the bullshit is over and we can move away to our little apartment for college."

Gabriella nodded, "I love you. Get there safe, okay?"

Troy nodded, "I'll see you tonight, Baby." He kissed her and mimed an 'I love you' as he rushed out of the room.

He yelled at his mom that he was going to the hospital because Chad had done something stupid. She yelled out the front door to have his dad call her.

Gabriella slowly descended the stairs with red bloodshot eyes and clear anger. "Mrs. Bolton." She walked out of the house as though Troy's slight was expected, if not acceptable to her. She saw the calculating, speculative look on Mrs. Bolton's face briefly before she pulled away in her older, sensible sedan.

Gabriella paced along the end of her bed across the large rug in her open space over to the dresser and back again. She had worn a small path where her feet had made the journey across the rug before this. If anyone got too upset and spilled… This was why she had told Troy in the first place that if anyone but them knew, it would no longer be a secret. This is why they had to keep their love quiet, and she'd been the one to breakdown.

He'd spent 2 years in love with her. For 2 years he'd suffered Chad's constant bashing and not once broken down. She'd have lost it with Chad 1 year and 11 months ago, if she'd been in his shoes. With Troy's strength, she would have slammed him into a bleacher side and choking the ever-loving daylights out of him. Troy was so much better at taking a beating than she was.

What had he meant about his dad figuring them out? Had he told Mrs. Bolton what he suspected? What if that was why she gave Gabriella that look when she left? What had given them away? Was it a look, a word, a moment stolen alone together?

Gabriella's mind spun from topic to topic at light speed. Her mind whisking through so many predictions that seemed just as illogical as the next. Gabriella had never been one to let her emotions cloud her mind this much. She'd never been one to let some social entanglement jeopardize her future. She had a goal in mind: Standford. She would be going there and she needed a spotless, uncomplicated record to accomplish that.

She wasn't the smarter student in the world. So, she'd studied relentlessly with the knowledge that the action was important enough to forego socialization for now. It would be worth it in the end. Then her mother had come into her room, sat down on the bed, and delivered the news. It had felt Earth-shattering to her. How could her mother do this?! That stupid "arrangement" wasn't going to make Gabriella's life better! It was going to derail the school goal that she'd given up everything to achieve!

Gabriella sat down. She thought about the image she had in her head of their comfortable little apartment between the universities. She began to calm down as she saw the little patio where she could grow flowers, and thought of Troy out at the basketball courts playing one-on-one with Chad again.

Then, she saw the look on Mrs. Bolton's face in her mind again. She thought of Chad blabbing to his mom and her calling Mrs. Bolton. She felt the loss of the little apartment. She felt the fear that it would be gone before she could get there. Then she heard her mother's phone ring downstairs and Troy tap, tap, tap at her window.

She opened the balcony door and pressed in to Troy's chest. Her pain eased, her thoughts slowed at the feel of his arms closing around her. She sighed a heavy breath of relief once there breathing in his scent. She pulled back, "How is he?"

Troy shook his head, "Not great. They say that they don't think it will do any permanent damage. Still he could have died if it had been more. He could have done some serious damage if he hadn't gone in when he did. Taylor said she put him in the passenger's seat and drove straight to the hospital once he told her the truth. From the look on her face, I don't think Chad ever really had a choice. She was going to get him help, no matter what it took."

Gabriella gave a tense smile, but it reached her eyes. She could see Taylor standing in a movie theater parking lot screaming for help and stopping cars to get him to help. She was just that stubborn.

Troy chuckled, "Imagining what she would do?"

She nodded quietly. "When did it all get so complicated? One minute I was Stanford bound, the next… I am just so overwhelmed."

"Is that your mom coming up the stairs?"

"Oh crap! I forgot her phone call and you don't know about that look your mom—" Knock, knock, knock, "Gabriella. We need to talk, mi ha."

Gabriella frowned at Troy knowing he'd have to leave. "Just a minute, mama."

Troy pointed to the strip of brick alongside the doorway. He could just fit there until she left.

Gabriella nodded and walked to the door. She opened it even as he mother raised her fist again. "What are you doing in here child?"

Gabriella pointed to her lamp lit desk with books and note books still open. "I'm trying to sort out a problem and pacing instead of making any progress on this irritating Chemistry assignment."

Her mother's shoulders seemed to relax a fraction of an inch.

"I was just trying to get a breath of fresh air before I sat down to attempt it again. I'm feeling so overwhelmed with everything. I can't think."

Her mother nodded, "That's what I've come to talk to you about. Mrs. Bolton called to say you'd been at the house this afternoon. What were you and Troy talking about when he rushed out?"

Gabriella sank onto her bed. "Troy's friend asked Taylor out. She's only kinda-close friend I have here, mama. I felt betrayed when she agreed to go out with him. I know I shouldn't have, but I went over to the Boltons' to try to get him to get Chad to call off the date. It isn't fair. I need one person to be on my side, just one. And now it's going to be all Chad all the time and he's been so cruel to me about the marriage – like I have any choice." She stopped. There was a brief breath and in a quieter voice she said, "I just wanted to go to college and get away from here. I don't want to be in this stupid town anymore."

Troy listened as her mother explained that she shouldn't have expected Troy to fix her feelings for her. He heard the sadness and the pressure that Gabriella's words were screaming. He wanted to fix it for her. He wanted her to feel nothing but happiness, but somehow their lives had tangled into such a complicated web. He wasn't sure with problem to try to fix first, or even how to fix one without making the others worse. As her mother talked, a thought occurred to him, maybe they had to make the other problems worse to make the most important one resolve.

Her mother closed the door and Gabriella hopped up from her bed and went to the balcony. "Troy?"

"Yeah?" He peeked up over the rim of the balcony from where he held his body hanging from the edge.

Gabriella starting laughing softly, "That I was my mom, huh?"

Troy pulled himself up enough to do a hop of his hand to a rail and get his knee over the edge. He was severely out of breath and red in the face with sore hands when he was done, but he'd done it and felt kind of badass for the move too. "Yeah, so."

Gabriella chuckled softly. "The things my man does for me," she smiled and kissed him.

Now he felt like the biggest badass ever. He got the girl too. "So, what did she say?"

Gabriella closed her eyes, "Your mom said she'd heard us yelling a bit, but not what we were saying. Apparently she's having some second thoughts. She isn't as sure you'll be able to trust me."

Troy rolled his eyes. "Why can't everyone just stop keeping secrets and then everyone can get what they want: us, together, happy."

Gabriella shrugged. "Don't ask me why parents are the way they are. I don't even know my other one."

Troy rolled his eyes. "I was thinking while you were talking. Maybe there isn't a way for us to solve the problems all the secrets are making without putting our marriage in danger. So, let's go to Vegas for the night. I can pick you up tomorrow morning. We'll just take off, go to Vegas, do a 'drive-through' chapel, come back and give them the papers. They can still have their big ceremony if they want to, but we can stop this charade now. We can take the pressure off of Chad and Taylor, your mom, my parents, everybody. Once we're married we can be honest and they can't marry us off to anyone else in any stupid attempt to 'make our lives better'. We can just be together and everyone else can bite it."

Gabriella realized her mouth had gone dry and was hanging open, "You—uh, you want to—"

"Elope." He stood there silently. He was waiting for the shock to pass and for Gabriella to give him her real feelings.

Her brain that had been frantically racing all day was now stock still. There were no words. No thoughts passed. She tried to find something –anything—to say, but there was simply nothing, "Uh…"

Troy smiled, "That good, huh?"

Gabriella met his eyes and tried to not look terrified, "No, it's not that. I just, well, I thought, Oh my God. Is this happening? Are you proposing to me and saying, 'Hey, Baby, let's run away together tonight.' Really?"

Troy laughed, "Well not tonight. I'd like to shower, pack a bag, and sleep a little. How about in the morning, Honey?"

Gabriella scoffed, "Oh give me a break. You're freaking me out here."

"Yes, dear." He placed a little kiss on her cheek.

"They'll kill us, Troy. And that will throw everything up in the air and everyone will be confused."

"Maybe, but we're both 18." He counted off each sentence on another finger as he spoke, "This is going to happen anyway. They want it. We want it…all be it for different reasons. And, it takes the pressure off of Chad and Taylor and my dad and us. Gabriella, we could just tell the truth and our mothers could get over it."

Gabriella glanced over her shoulder, "But what about high school? There's—"

Troy rubbed his forehead against hers softly again, "Everything can just stay on track. You live with your mom until the wedding and then we move into our little apartment over the summer and go to college in the fall. It's not like we have to move out and change everything. We can still have our pretty day and our comfortable apartment…but, we can also have the truth, Gabi. We can be honest again. I can't explain how much I can't take the lying anymore. I love you. I write it every night in the most imaginative, steady-handed calligraphy I can do, because it is the only time a day when I get to be completely fucking honest about how I feel about the most important person in my life! I hate when Chad goes off on his rampages. It's not even just that it hurts you. I hate that he actually thinks I agree with him. He actually keeps trying to ruin this! I'm not really ready to get married. I'm still in high school! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pissed that I'm not going to get to go to the frat parties and be stupid and go after one girl or another. I don't know how to be your husband! I don't know how to be anybody's husband! I love you. I want that for us someday, but right now, I'm fucking overwhelmed and the one thing I know to be true is that I want you, every day, right here. My chest gets this massive, gaping, bloody-wound of a hole in it when I can't see you or touch you and the longer I'm away from you the worse it gets! I need you next to me! I NEED US! Please."

Gabriella had stood silently through his tirade. He'd pulled her close and pushed away and pulled her close again. She heard different words saying a lot of things she hadn't allowed herself to think. She was surprised Troy had. But, before she could speak, he was on to another topic. "Let's go Sunday morning. Let's take the night to think about it, actually plan a little bit and pack. Let's go on Sunday. We'll bring the license back and show our mothers and tell them what you said. We'll tell them that we need each other, honesty, and to be rid of all the secrets and forced relationships. We'll tell them that we want to finish out the plan exactly as expected," she paused, gathering the courage to say the next words, "but with one difference."

Troy's brow furrowed and he looked at her confused, "What difference, sweetheart?"

"I want you to move in here with me and my mom. You can have your own room if you want it, or we can share this one. I want a chance to be with you where we are safe, before we go off to another place without knowing how we live together. I wasn't ready for marriage either. I just wanted the wedding because I wanted to be honest about us and make everyone happy. I don't know how to live with anyone but my mom, Troy. I've never lived with any other human being EVER."

Troy saw the pain on her face and knew she was referring to her dad and her lack of siblings. "Alright. But, tell me something, do you love me? Enough that we can make it through college, through jobs and kids and retirement? Do you actually want to be my wife?"

Gabriella felt her heart skip a beat. She'd never heard him say the word, 'wife' that way before. "Yes, I just, I always thought we'd older. You know?" Her emotions began to overwhelm her and she felt tears she couldn't control and her voice cracked and sounded so weepy to her own ears, "I thought I'd come home from Stanford and you'd just be –I don't know—coaching the local basketball team or something. Some cheerleader having divorced you after a brief marriage right after college. And, maybe then we met up. You know?"

Troy saw the idea blooming into a little movie in his head. He had to admit he would have liked it better. He wanted to go to college just like everybody else and drink and party like everybody else. "I'm so confused. I love you. I've gotten to the point that I really want this, but I want to be like my friends and go party, too. And now, everyone's in danger because of this stupid secrets. I don't know what to do, Gabi. I don't know what to do."

She sat down on the edge of the balcony dangling her legs from the edge under the railing. "I don't what to think either. I want to stop being afraid. I love you and I want be able to tell people that. And maybe I'd like to be able to scream back at Chad once in a while that you love me too and he can go to hell."

Troy sitting down next to her laughed, "I'd pay to see that showdown."

She chuckled too. "He really is a bastard that best friend of yours."

Troy nodded, "Wait until he finds out he was a bastard AND wrong."

She laughed louder this time. "Great. Now he'll be insufferable."

Troy laughed too. "He's been insufferable for right about 16 ½ years now. Just about the time he learned to talk. But, he's always had my back. When we started playing ball it was all over. On and off the court, he's who I counted on most. Until you came along he held all my secrets."

Gabriella looked at him with a smile. She like when he told her things about how he saw the world and the people in their world around them. "Nobody else?"

Troy laughed, "Oh, I've got lots of stupid crap I've done. Plenty of people have things on me, but they were so impressed that I did them, they wouldn't ever tell a soul. But, Chad, he really knew which ones made me nervous and which ones I thought I'd die from doing. He'd have been the one calling 9-1-1 instead of running before the cops showed up, you know? He's got my back. And, until now, I've always had his. This thing with you and me. It's really gonna mess him and I up. I let him look like a fool for 2 years. I didn't tell him anything. I lied to him about plans and hanging out. I used him as a lie to my parents. He's gonna be pissed. I think I'm going to lose my best friend, which is okay, if I still have you. In a lot of ways, you've been more my best friend for the last two years than he has. He just doesn't know that and it's gonna piss him off something fierce."

Gabriella nodded, "I hadn't even thought about what this was going to do to Chad or Taylor. I just needed to pain to at least ease a little bit. I needed someone to confide in and trust when you couldn't be everything every minute, you know?"

Troy nodded, "I get it. I hadn't really thought much about it until the idea of eloping broke open this whole other world of feelings and ideas in my head while you and your mom were talking. I just kept thinking I needed to protect you and love you and do everything I could to make you happy, but there's more to it than that, isn't there?"

Gabriella smiled, "I don't know. I don't know anything about marriage. I've only ever been the kid with her nose pressed against the glass watching other kids whose parents were happily married or getting horribly divorced. I don't know what to think or believe. I have nothing to go off of except how my mom and I have lived."

Troy watched her face as she spoke. Aside from a desperate desire to kiss her and wrap her sad expression in his arms to ease the pain, he realized for the first time exactly how sad and lonely she had always been. "You don't have a dad or siblings. You barely keep any friends who really know you. I just realized I'm the only male that's ever slept in this house. That must be lonely. I can't imagine. I've always been so surrounded by people who not only had known me from before I could remember, but that knew my dad when he was a kid and my mom as a young adult before me. I've never heard you complain about that though. Not once."

Gabriella looked a little confused, "I guess I never really thought about it. It's just the way my life's been. Dad was gone before I could remember him. Mom was always a bit short on trust, so we mostly kept to ourselves. Every now and then, she'd just get sick of a place and we'd up and move to some new town where she'd gotten a job I didn't even know she was up for or trying for at work. So, there just wasn't anyone. I got used to being by myself. My goals were my friends. Other people never really seemed to understand that; and I didn't understand them wanting to know so much about me or why they called me weird. I just put my head back in my books. It's kind of all I know how to do."

They sat there with their legs dangling over the balcony's edge for several minutes. At one point, Troy reached over and took Gabriella's hand into his own. The connection felt warm and comforting as they each seemed to sit and contemplate the heaviest thoughts they could ever really remember. Eventually, Troy spoke up, "Did we really just say out loud that neither of us were ready to get married, but we love each other?"

Gabriella nodded, "I think we did."

Troy let out a heavy breath. "So, what do we do? Do we go get married now and do it on our own terms and drop the secrets on Monday? Or, do we wait and let our parents have their way? Or, do we – I don't know—run away somehow to college?"

Gabriella frowned, "Without our parents there isn't really a college option, is there? Wouldn't we need to have jobs to pay bills and no time to study or see each other?"

Troy dropped his head against the railing. "Yeah, I mean, I guess. Damn. There's got to be an answer here that isn't going to lead us down a bad road. I'm so sick of the secrets and the lies. I want you, but I want to be normal college guy too. And, I really don't want to give up college. This is all so fucking weird! What the hell were our parents even thinking?!"

Gabriella's mother's voice range out from her bedroom, "That the two of you deserved a better life than the ones you were headed toward on your own, but that's over now, isn't it?!"

Gabriella stared at the dark shape of her mother just inside her balcony doors. "Mama—"

Her mother held up a hand. "Troy, your mother says you are to come home immediately." She looked back over at Gabriella, "You want to pack a bag? I suggest you get your suit cases down and pack a large one, because I've had it."

Troy saw Gabriella's face lose the little bit of color that had been there a moment ago. She was stricken and terrified and he had no idea what to do. He knew the expectation was for him to go home, but he wasn't leaving her in this alone. At very least, he knew he needed to have her back, even if he couldn't protect her. "Why? Are you throwing her out? First you try to force her into some kind of arranged marriage because you think hatred is better than love as the basis of a family?! Now, because, God-forbid, you find out we love each other and might just run away and do this ourselves, and take your precious control away, you're going to what? Throw her out? What kind of control-freak lunatic are you?!"

"You stay out of this! Get out of my house! Don't ever come back!"

Her mother was screaming. Gabriella couldn't take this. She'd only ever allowed a few people into her heart. Her mother had always been there and now Troy had a place and they were fighting. "Shut up! Just SHUT UP!" She dropped back against the railing and was trying to get her breath back under control.

Troy dropped to her side from where they'd jumped up when her mother scared them. "Come home with me. Let's just go. Please, I can't leave you here with her."

Gabriella shook her head, "No, I just want this all to be over with. I don't care how it turns out anymore. I just want it over. Leave. I'll be fine."

Troy looked over at her mother, "Call me tonight when things settle down."

Her mother spoke, "She'll be busy."

Troy growled over at her, "Then I'll come back to be sure she's okay."

Gabriella was now sobbing. In her gut, she was afraid that they wouldn't be here if he came back tonight. Bags would be packed, resignation letter sent through the mail, and a new job in a new town and a moving company packing everything else to be dropped at a storage place until her mother got it out by a round-a-bout means. Suddenly, she didn't believe she'd ever see Troy again. She reached out to pull him down for a good-bye only to realize, he gone moments before. She cried new tears for a broken heart she could not mend for herself.

She cried until she heard the zippers closing on her suitcase set that had been laid out on her bed. She'd finish high school by mail and she'd graduate in some new house with a manila envelope containing what she'd worked so hard for. No ceremony. No open house. No wedding. No family. Her, probably her mother, and maybe a piece of cake from the deli at a local grocery store.

As her mother ushered her into the back seat of the car and loaded up the suitcases in the cargo space, she made phone calls about a sick family member and a rushed visit. She claimed she'd be back as soon as possible, then send in a resignation and apologies for having the relocate so unexpectedly.

Gabriella did not aid in the hurried escape, but she did nothing to slow it down. In a state of resignation of her own, she watched as all the thoughts, hopes, and feelings she'd had just a few hours ago evaporated mile by mile down the roads. A few places brought fresh tears, the high school, the library, and the basketball courts at the park where Troy played so frequently. She watched as the life she'd had some belief was hers and that she could make the decisions about for herself passed by and out of sight.

When she woke in the back seat of her mother's SUV, it was gone. Her life, her hopes, everything felt empty both physically and emotionally. She looked out at the space beyond the window and realized that this was just another one of those times when her mother had made her the little girl with her nose pressed against the glass of life. There were the lives that other people lived, and there was hers; they weren't the same lives. Troy would wake up tomorrow in the same room he'd slept in every day of his life. She wouldn't know where she was when she woke up and she wouldn't be there when she went to sleep again. Troy would cry and his family and real friends, even acquaintances, would help him get over her. She would cry as quietly as possible in the backseat of her mother's SUV and try to not anger her mother with her sadness. Then, Troy would leave for college, maybe married to someone else, maybe not. She didn't know what was going to happen to her.

Somewhere in California on the fourth day, her mother spoke. "You were granted early acceptance to Stanford and they suggested that you come out to begin summer classes in June instead of waiting until Fall semester. We will be there to make arrangements in two days. I'll find a new job, buy a new house, and you will setup courses. You will commute to school each day. There will be no frats or sororities and you will maintain a reasonable grade point average. When you have finished graduate school, you can do as you please. The sooner you finish, the sooner you will be free of me and my ways that you disrespect and dislike so much."

Nothing else was said until the realtor stood in front of a house and smile jovially. Gabriella and her mother put on their so-happy-to-be-here faces and walked through the home. Her mother put an offer on the place on the spot and they were moving in 3 weeks later.

Gabriella had mailed back to Albuquerque all the work for the "sudden family member sickness" time away. They mailed her diploma to her and a lovely letter saying that she was missed and they hoped she did well at Stanford in the fall. It made Gabriella cry. She put it away in a box where she kept things that broke her heart from places she didn't want to leave as a kid. She hadn't needed to add anything in a long time. She realized now that there were pieces of her heart scattered all over her map of the United States and kept tucked away in that box in her closet.

As the box lid was closing, she saw a picture of Troy and her on a day when they'd managed to both sneak away together. They been at the zoo and there was a company that took pictures and handed you a card to buy it on your way out, if you wanted. Troy had bought them a small package of 3 or 4 pictures on a page. He was smiling like he'd never been happier. Gabriella had been so surprised to see him happy that she had grinned like a lovesick pup, tucked tightly there in his arm. She'd been happy. She'd thought she would be with him forever. She'd been wrong.

A fresh veil of tears separated her cheeks from the air around her. Her chest caught, both heart and lungs for a moment. Then the moment was gone, and so was he and her little image of the apartment with the patio for plants and the sounds of two guy playing endless games of basketball from the court outside.

Troy walked into his home. His father was yelling and his mother was red in the face and furious. He'd known the chaos was coming. He slammed the front door and walked back into their kitchen. "Why do you hate us?!"

Her father cut off from his tirade instantly as the whole room realized Troy was staring down his mother as if she were a mob boss who'd threatened his children's lives. "What the HELL did she EVER do to YOU!? Except fall in love with you son who happened to love her back! What the fuck is wrong with you that you WANT TO FORCE ME TO MARRY SOMEONE I HATE!? We kept our love a secret to make you and her crazy ass mother happy! We lied to everyone we knew and loved! We fought for ever goddamned moment alone, every kiss! Because you had to think we hated each other! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?"

No one moved. No sound was made. When it was clear that his mother would not answer him and that he would not accept an excuse from his father, he turned and stormed to his room, then back out the front door. He did not say where he was going. There was no running after him. It had exploded.

The whole crazy, outside-of-sane, ridiculous mess had blown up in her face. And, now it was time for him to deal with the anger in a way that didn't hurt anyone else. Basketball wouldn't help. Only the woods would calm him now. So he walked, one foot in front of the other, over and over and over again. He walked from the house in their little town to the National Forest outside of town and through the trails he'd known all his life and around the entire park as the sun slowly began to rise.

He came out the other side of his journey with a sense that he might be able to salvage this, if the parents would just listen to them. It wasn't that they didn't want a marriage. They just didn't want it yet. He'd thought through a billion comments, ideas, solutions. He'd come back every time to the thought that they wanted to be together without all the damned pressure. Just let them get on with their lives and see if maybe after college they were ready to get married. Store all the dresses and the accessories, just slow the fuck down.

The sun was fairly high in the sky and he was worn out. He thought he'd head to Gabriella's to discuss it all with her and see how she was doing and then go home and shower and sleep – if he didn't fall asleep on Gabriella.

When he got there, the house looked pretty much the same, but no one answered the door. It was strange, but there was something nudging at him, something bothering him that he couldn't put his foot on. It was too quiet, too empty. He looked in through windows and their furniture was still there and their pictures still on the walls. Still something was nagging at him.

He went around back to her balcony. He pulled himself up as he'd done a billion times before. Her bed was mussed, but not as though it had been slept-in. It was disheveled like it had been used for heavy things before she left. Then it clicked for him. Her closet was nearly empty. Her bookshelves were sparse. Her desk was cleared. On her bedside table, her phone and charger were missing. So was her journal and her computer. She was gone.

He rushed to her mother's room and found similar missing items. The bathrooms were void of hair brushes and showering supplies and toothbrushes. He ran downstairs for a note, for something, anything. "Troy, I love you, but I need some space. See you in a week." Something. Anything.

He found himself desperately trying to call her, but not getting an answer. That damn phone company recording just kept telling him the number was no longer in service. He tried Taylor. He called that other girl Gabi talked to sometimes, Kelsey. No one had seen or heard from her. Yes, the number he had was right. He called Jason's mom at work at the hospital and asked to speak to Dr. Montez, but she said that the doctor had called in and was going to take care of a family member who'd come down quite ill in Illinois. Troy stopped searching through the junk drawer where they kept notepads. They weren't going to Illinois. Gabriella had told him there was no other family.

He hung up and called Chad back. He wanted to know what that PI had found out about her dad. Chad wanted to know why he sounded freaked out. That was when Troy realized that no one knew what he knew. Chad didn't know that the only girl who'd ever taken his heart from him was the girl he'd been waging war on for years. No one knew that they were missing and that there wasn't any family members in Illinois for them to rush back to care for. He'd been the only one there when her mother had threatened them, and when Gabriella had crumbled into a small bawling mess in the corner of her balcony. No one knew, no one, except him.

So, he did the only thing he knew how. He spilled everything to his best friend. He told him everything. The love affair they'd had behind their crazy parents' backs. He told him about the idea to run away to Vegas and her telling him about how lonely her life had been. He explained the intensity of her mother's threat and Gabi's reaction. He did it all with a few words, "I love her more than my own life. She's gone and I think her mother forced her to leave after she found out we were going to runaway to Vegas so we could stop lying to everybody about actually being in love. I'm sorry, dude. I know this sucks, but I have to find her. Right now, you're the only one who knows anything about Gabi before she was just here and taking over my heart. I'm scared to fucking death. You gotta help. Hate me all you want, just, please, I'm begging you, help me find her."

Chad stayed quiet for a few moments. Then, he said, "Yeah, Taylor called me after you hung up freaking out. She told me everything. She's on her way to get you. Meet her at your house. Mom brought me my computer last night before they left the hospital."

Troy dropped to the floor. "Thanks, dude. Really. Thanks. I'm sorry for all the lies, but it was Gabi, man. I couldn't lose her."

Chad grunted and they ended the call. Troy knew he was pissed, but he also knew, Chad had his back. He found himself curled up on the Montez's kitchen floor. He was bawling his eyes out. She was gone. She might even be in danger with that fucking crazy mother of hers. He had no clue how to find her, save her, protect her, anything.

He didn't know what to do. He was exhausted and afraid and in pain and furious and so many things all at the same time. The only thing that could make it all go away would be for her to come strolling back through that front door and let him hold her so tight. He'd have to see her, feel her in his arms, before he'd believe she was alright. He was terrified for her. His heart was frantically beating in his chest. He had no idea what to do.

He picked up his phone and sent a text to his Dad. When Taylor gets there, come get me at the Montez's house. It was a simple text, but it carried the weight of his whole world. All he could think about was Gabriella alone somewhere crying for him, needing him, and here he was so far away he was powerless.

There'd never been a time in his life when his Dad couldn't just sweep in and take charge and schmooze or command or coach everyone into getting some impossible thing done. Basketball hadn't been the only thing he'd succeeded at in this community. In a way his Dad had been the superhero, the 'guy to beat', in this town. He'd been on search and rescue teams, a teacher, a coach, and for a while a Sheriff. Now, he was Troy's dad, watching his son's broken heart bleed all over the town as he frantically searched for any word or sign of the girl he loved.

There was no way to explain in any words how much he wanted to take the suffering from his only child and let the young man just sleep the pain away. His poor, precious son was broken and despairing, and fighting a battle he could never win against an enemy that was now a ghost. He'd known Dr. Montez was elusive and evasive in her answers about her past or her family. He had some suspicion that the woman had had a hard life and needed anonymity to feel safe. She was very private and guarded. Her daughter was a loner and didn't really trust easily, at least not any more than was socially required.

As the first day pressed into the first night, Troy found that no one knew the two women better than he and Chad did. Then they found that they only knew small fragments of what they'd believed they knew. Finally, after 48 hours, he watched as his heartbroken, exhausted son got the words from the police department that would echo through him for most, if not all of his life: "I'm sorry, Troy. Unless you have some proof that Gabriella was taken against her will, there is nothing we can do. It isn't illegal to move, even overnight, to take care of a family member."

Troy's crest fallen face had registered anger with the little energy he had left. It seemed to be all that was keeping him standing. "She wouldn't just move. There wasn't any family members to go take care of." The officer looked at him with pity.

The officer glanced over to the side of the room as Troy was signing a statement. "Look Jack, we got a hold of Dr. Montez. She left an emergency number with the hospital. It seems that some Uncle has been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and doesn't have long to live. She said that Gabriella was there with her. We heard her talking to someone in the background. She's alive. She might not be happy about leaving and might not be willing to talk to Troy, but she isn't missing. I know there's been a lot of gossip going around about your two families, and to be honest, I couldn't care less. I just wanted you to know that we checked as best we could. She is safe. You're going to need to help the boy through this one though. He can't storm off after her. It isn't a good idea."

Jack nodded, thanked the officer and collected Troy to take him home. The other kids had needed to return to families earlier in the day. Even Chad was scheduled to return home in another day, pending good behavior. As Troy slowly dragged into the house, Jack could see the pain and the suffering written all over his face. They'd foolishly thought they knew so much more than he did about his own life. They'd tried to force him onto a path that might lead to a better one. He'd somehow made the best of an insane notion, only to be let down by everyone who'd made him lie about love, and now be honest about love lost.

His son was crushed under the weight of his heart and there were still a couple of weeks to go before he was set to graduate. His championships and accomplishments, his friends and his accolades would be tainted now with a pain he could not explain in any words he knew. All the pictures would show hurt eyes and angry family members and weakened bonds.

The following day, Troy only briefly meandered from his room. School wasn't mentioned, considered, or even pretended as an option. He slept and cried, cried and slept. At some point, Jack saw him come down and pull an old science fiction novel from the shelf and take it back with him to his room. The sound of the door closing told him all he needed to hear. Troy was going to try and distract himself from the pain.

A day later, Jack checked in with Troy before heading into the school for last days of the school year work. He had grades to turn in and a wealth of inquiries to answer regarding his son and the Montez girl. He also had students for whom he needed to write recommendation letters, setup end of year awards for, and provide a boat load of information for seniors from the basketball team moving on to college level basketball. At the end of his day, he brought Troy home a stack of items from his teachers to work on for class the next day.

Troy showed up on Wednesday. He rode silently with his dad to the school. He walked to the hall with his locker and nearly broke down completely at the sight of hers. After a brief stay in the boys' restroom down the hall, he meandered to homeroom and sat staring at her chair until the bell rang and students began to filter into the room. Many of them stared openly at him. His name and Gabriella's name were loudly whispered several times. Troy didn't respond or react.

Chad came in and the room went silent. That was the first time that Troy truly understood that while he'd been the "King" in terms of popularity, he was only there because his best friend had been his enforcer since before he could talk. Even now, at a time when Chad had every right to be furiously pissed at him. Even with the hospital stay and his body fighting him at every turn, Troy knew that Chad still had a threat out to anyone who gave him shit today.

Chad sat quieter than anyone had ever seen him in his chair in front of Troy. Her chair remained empty. Troy pulled out his phone. He sent a text message to Kelsey who sat behind her in homeroom. Hey, have you heard from Gabi? Kelsey's answer was short and painful. No. You haven't either? They met eyes across the room and Troy shook his head. Kelsey gave him a pitiful look and he knew that she was sad for him in a way that few people were going to be today. Suddenly, Kelsey was one of the few people Troy trusted and counted as a friend.

Taylor came into homeroom. She sat in front of Gabi according any seating chart you'd get, but when she walked in. She sat down on Chad's lap for a few moments. The room was stunned into silence. Their whole world had changed over the weekend and no one knew what to believe and what was salacious rumor. Ironically, Chad gave her a short smooch on her cheek instead of making a scene as he'd have done in the past. Troy realized that in the years he'd been tormenting Gabriella, some of it had had to do with her proximity to Taylor and Chad's need to have Taylor's attention no matter the reason.

Darbus came into the class, shewed Taylor away to her seat and sat solemnly on her actor's throne at the head of the class. "I am sorry to say that Ms. Montez has had to leave us just before graduation. I am sure the entire school is aware by now that her mother had to return to help with a sick family member. Please, keep your whispers to a dull roar today and do not create any unnecessary drama."

Troy got up and left the room without a word to Darbus or Chad. He made no eye contact before simply walking out. In the boys' restroom once again, he cried like the baby he couldn't remember being. Being here without her was so much worse than he'd thought. If he so much as opened his eyes anywhere in the building, he saw missed touches, missed 'I love yous', missed opportunities to show every human being here that she was his, his…his girlfriend, his fiancé, his heart, his everything. She'd been his and he'd denied her.

He was having a very hard time forgiving himself and everyone else for the silence and the secrets and the lies. Most of all, he couldn't forgive himself for leaving that house while she cried. It was the stupidest mistake he'd ever made and one he vowed to never make again. He'd find her if it was the last thing he did, and she'd never be without him again.

Slowly the days began to go by more quickly. One sleepless night muddily slipping into a cheerless day. Troy kept to himself and spent more than a small amount of time wondering what Gabi was doing. He prayed each time that she wasn't secluded in some asshole's basement that her creepy mother might have sold her to. It was more prayer and more pleading as time went by. Due to his sleepless nights and looming graduation, no teacher gave him trouble for dropping his chin to his chest and closing his eyes. Besides, they'd all heard the sorted details about how he'd secretly fallen in love with the girl they'd all thought he was being forced to marry, and too many had taken to giving him puppy dog eyes when he passed by for it.

Graduation came and Troy's mother returned from her week at the spa. Troy knew it had been a hope that both she and he might calm down before she returned. However, it was clear that calm was not on the menu. Troy clearly blamed his insane mother for the levels of absurdity that had become their life. It was no shock when he announced the day that she returned that he and Chad were renting an apartment for college and would be leaving to move in the week after graduation. Both boys said they wanted out of this town, the sooner, the better.

Moving day came sooner than Troy had expected. He finished boxing more things than he'd ever realized he owned. He stored several boxes in the garage, and took several more to the moving van his dad had rented for the boys. Chad's parents were driving up with them to help them unpack. Troy's dad had supplied the moving van and was helping them load it.

As they drove from their home to Chad's childhood home, Troy quietly stared out the window. As they passed by the home formerly belonging to the Montez women, Troy said quietly, "She was so excited about our first apartment. She had these plans for the patio." He grew quiet again. In a barely audible whisper, Jack heard him say, "I really love her a lot."

All Jack could do was bare witness to his son's pain.

Troy walked across the stage to the sounds of cheers coming from the Albuquerque section consisting of his dad and Chad's parents. Troy smiled easily this time. At his high school graduation, he was miserable. This time, he still missed the woman who would have been his wife and been here to cheer for him as well, but his heart didn't bleed inside him the way it had then.

Four excruciating and exhilarating years had passed since his mother's torment. She had grown more distant over the years. They still spoke when in one another's presence. In some respects she was still his mother. She simply would never again be the woman she'd been when he was a child and needed help with a skinned knee. She was still married to his father, but he'd specifically requested that only his dad come today. He wanted to celebrate this graduation, not create another sad or forced moment to be collected in a book of important memories.

"So, where are you headed off to in this big bad world, Mr. Bolton?"

Troy laughed. Hearing Chad's dad call him mister anything was strange. "I'm debating. I've been considering physical therapy school. I have an acceptance letter, but I also have a job offer to work at the old high school too. I haven't decided for sure yet."

Chad chucked him on the shoulder. "Brainiac! You'll go on to physical therapy. You know it! Besides that pays way better!"

Troy rolled his eyes, "Contrary to what you CPAs believe, not everything revolves around money."

"Nah, but you can buy way more pizza, if you have it, dude." He laughed and ran off to goof off with some of their frat brothers who were also graduating today.

Jack smiled, "Who'd have believed Chad would be the popular one and you the book nerd in college?"

Troy shook his head, "I just kept my head down more in college than I did in high school. I'm not a total nerd!"

Jack smiled, "Come on, book nerd, we have a long drive ahead of us in an uncomfortable moving van."

Troy nodded before yelling at Chad, "DUDE! Come on, man!"

Chad laughed, gave a few secret handshakes and headed back their way.

They all climbed into the Danforth's SUV and headed back to the boys' apartment for the last time. As they were pulling away, Troy glanced out the window again. His heart stopped. He locked eyes with the deepest brown eyes he hadn't seen in years. One hundred, people-filled yards away stood a face he'd know anywhere, a face that would never leave him so long as he lived. Troy shouted to make the car stop, but before he could glance back or climb out of the vehicle, she was gone again. It was the most amazing relief and worst torture for him to endure.

When everyone asked why he'd wanted them to stop, he just said he'd thought he'd saw someone, but they were gone. No one questioned who or why they'd been so important. They simply recollected their composure and continued onto their destination.

He'd grown as a person, as a man, but there were still soft spots inside that would always ache. As they drove away, he wasn't even sure he'd actually seen here. He began to question his own eyes. Maybe he'd just wished she was here for him enough that his subconscious was trying to help, making him see ghosts. But where his mind might be trying to ease his old thoughts, his heart now bled more than it had been.

Jack cornered him in his room as they slung boxes and bags of Troy's belongings. "Troy, have you heard from Gabriella Montez over the last few years?"

Troy shook his head, "No. I've tried to find her a few times. I could have sworn I saw her in the crowd today."

Jack nodded, "There have been times when I thought I saw my parents in crowds only to realize it wasn't them. Then the realization that my parents are dead would come back to me. It hurts more than I ever expect it to hurt. I am sorry to say, you may have some of that where Gabriella is concerned. Our situation was a strange one in this day and age. It was something few people will ever be able to understand. I can't tell you how thankful I am that Chad has been able to take every step of life's journey with you. He's been a constant source of stability for you. I know life is taking you in different directions for the first time, but I hope you'll keep in touch with him. Gabriella may have had to leave, but Chad has always been there. And, who knows, maybe you'll meet another woman you want to marry someday."

Troy forced a smile to appease his dad, but they both knew that Troy wasn't much for letting other women into his heart. Gabriella had been beyond special. She'd been more than the "one that got away." She had stolen his heart away in the night. His ribs healed from the kick. His scar tissue had closed the wound in his chest, but she would never be equaled in his eyes. "Yeah, dad, maybe."

Gabriella had loved Stanford. Her every minute on campus had been a challenge and a freedom from the suffocation she'd felt at home. For a commuter student, she'd been incredibly active and involved in all parts of her college life. She had learned a lot from watching Troy and Chad, Taylor and Kelsey. She had learned that Troy often faked his ease and confidence and used charm of one kind or another to gloss over small issues that she would have made huge deals over before observing him.

She used all that knowledge and all those observations, she channeled her pain into her studies and used all her observations to slip right into the social world on the campus. It kept her away from her mother and away from her house. It looked amazing on paper, gained her lines on her collegiate resume, and opened up new opportunities to jobs and careers that she had no idea she could ever get. But, when sleep finally came, most often she spent some time wondering where Troy was, who he was with, what major he'd decided to study. She would lie awake with small tears rolling past her temples and into that little maze of curves in her ears. They weren't the waterfalls that she'd cried during her silent journey to Palo Alto, but they were heartfelt none the less.

She got an email two days before graduation. The subject simply said, "Graduation." She assumed it was another university announcement or recommendation for her Valedictorian speech. She clicked it open and found a picture of Troy trying on a graduation gown. The university's sign was in the distance outside the window Troy stood in front of. Gabriella nearly broke down into tears instantaneously. She looked at the address. Was this from Troy? She didn't recognized the random numbers and letters. It was from a site where anyone could open an account. Instinctually, she knew she'd never find the sender.

So, she used Google, and sure enough, was able to find the college, the ceremony location, time, and dates. She spent a week debating on going or not going, on trying to contact him or leaving him alone. She debated on contacting Taylor or Chad. She argued with herself in a seemingly endless cycle of options.

Ultimately the day came and she found herself in her car waiting for a light to change. She didn't have a ticket and hoped that they would not demand one of her. She just wanted to see him cross the stage. That was all. She didn't need to disrupt his life again. She just wanted to see him happy and successful.

He'd been so proud, so happy when he glanced out at his few cheering family. For a split second, after the ceremony, she'd thought he'd seen her. As they were all pulling away, basically one big happy family, she'd thought they had met eyes again. When she managed to get free from the crowd though, the SUV had pulled away into traffic and was gone. She found new tears that day, first from exhilaration and then from fresh heartbreak and disappointment.

There was a feeling she'd always had when it came to Troy. She'd always known their paths were meant to meet again. It wasn't empirical. There weren't any specific ways she could prove it. It was just a gut feeling. He'd be there in her future. Maybe it was just an old attachment she refused to truly let go of psychologically, but it was the strongest feeling in her gut. It was simply true with no good cause for being true except that there was at least one person who believed it with her whole, huge, tarnished, battered, bruised heart.

She got back into her car and drove back to the place that she lived for now, Stanford. She sat down to study for one last final. Her thoughts kept wandering back to his eyes. She had felt so much more than she'd thought she would. Her heart had swelled with hope in ways she'd no longer thought it could. She'd wanted to reach for him so much she didn't think before starting toward the vehicle. When it pulled out and took him, and her hopes, with it, she'd felt the loss all over again. It was more acute this time, less all-encompassing than the pain she'd felt previously.

Her coffee had grown cold and her books were still lying open to the same page. Her computer held the open the picture sent through the anonymous email. She'd memorized every pixel of the image, but there it was right in front of her.

She melted back into her life. She finished her last final and graduated as expected. She'd been accepted to Law School there on the Stanford campus. She'd be here for another 2-3 years. She had no idea where Troy's degree would take him, but she silently hoped that she was right and their paths would meet again. When she walked across the stage, her heart beat wildly sending out unadulterated screams to the universe that this would lead her back to him, somehow.

And so their journeys began. There had been secrets and arrangements. There had been love and loss. But as it is with all lives, no single destination had yet been reached. Each path continued on according to its own trajectory. Each journey left with pain and hope. Perhaps we can all be so lucky.