After ✔

26

1 in 2 marriages end in divorce.

Over 80% of high school relationships don't last.

Cohabitation = traditional family in decline.

With the odds stacked against them so high, what chance do they have?

What chance does anybody have? 

That was the thing - nobody knows.  They continue their lives monotonously, because that's what everybody's supposed to do.

Because if you would have told me that the boy I love was suffering from brain tumor, perhaps I wouldn't have fallen in love with him. It's just how things work, and you couldn't blame anybody for pointing that out.

I wonder what Nate would have, when he saw Gabriella at the university cafeteria four years ago. Would he have walked up to her and started up a conversation?

What would Gabriella have done? Would she have walked away, knowing he would cause so much suffering, or would she have stayed, realising that he had given her the most precious thing of all - a beautiful boy.

We stumble upon crossroads like these all the time. It could be simple - like walking into a coffee shop and meeting the love of your life, or harder ones, where you have decisions to make on how to lead your life that affect those around you.

And right now, Gabriella was at a similar fork in the road. She could have stayed back at her parent's house and talked so sense into them, or she could have reconciled with Nate.

Gabriella being Gabriella, of course, did neither. She dug her own path.

In her brother's car, she sits at the back with her sleeping child, refusing and trying very hard not to cry.

Zach leans back and stops the car. "What do you want to do now?" He sighs, rubbing his eyes.

"We could go to the hotel." I offer.

"No." Gabriella shakes her head. "He's there, and I don't want to see him."

"Gabi, we don't have a choice." Zach reasons. "Knowing mom and dad, they already cancelled my credit cards." When I throw him a weird look, he shrugs. "It's happened before."

I turn to Gabriella. "You don't have to see Nate if you don't want to. That's all I can say - we don't really have another choice."

Finally, Gabriella gives in. "And we leave tomorrow for your house?"

"As early as we can." I reply.

Zach starts up the car again, and I give him directions to the hotel. We're pulling up twenty minutes later, where a tired looking man in a black suit offers to park out car at the entrance. 

Inside, it takes me about ten minutes - no joke - to convince the receptionist to give us two spare rooms. It isn't easy because there are hardly any left, and the only reason she finally gives in is because of my dad.

"Presidential suit?" Asks Gabriella when she looks at the card. "Val, I didn't mean..."

"They didn't have any other." I cut in. "Unless you're willing to sleep by the kitchens downstairs, and I'm pretty sure Mason won't be able to handle the noise."

Gabriella glances at him, who's still fast asleep in her arms, covered in a blanket over his PJ's.

I hand Zach his card. "Are you coming with us tomorrow?"

Zach tilts his head. "I'll decide and tell you in the morning. There are always friends I can stay over with here, but my sister needs me." He says, pulling an arm around Gabriella's shoulders.