A/N: Happy Mothersday! I feel kinda sad, my break is ending so I have school tomorrow. But anyway this chapter is about Tiny, Lola, Zig, Maya, Florence the nurse, an OC and, in a way, Shay.
"Okay, this is our stop. Thanks for driving us, let me know when you hear something." With that, Tiny and Zig exited Tristan's car and walked up to the house where they had been living for the past months. They both had separate rooms, which they entered after saying goodnight to each other. Tiny rubbed his head and then his eyes. He was extremely tired, but had to call Lola before he went to bed. She was friends with Zoe and she cared about her but didn't want to call her in fear of her reaction. She also knew how important Grace was to Tiny, not romantically but as a friend. So Tiny had offered to call her when he came back from the hospital, to just let her know about things. He got out his phone and called her. A drowsy voice answered: "Hello? Tiny?" He smiled, she was always so... happy, excited and bubbly but also so caring. "Hey Lo, I just got back from the hospital. I'm alright, tired but alright. Did I wake you up? If so, I'm sorry, maybe I should've texted you instead." "What? No! Don't apologize, I was waiting for your call but... I got really tired. Anyway, how was it, do you know more about Grace's situation? Did you get a chance to see her? And how was Zoe, any better than the last time you called?" Tiny took a deep breath and started answering Lola's questions. "It was... Horrible, I guess. They're not entirely sure what happened yet, but it looks like she was drugged at the dance. She's in a coma because of it, doctors said there's not much they can do. She just has to sleep it off and wake up. But, because she has cystic fibrosis there's a big risk involved: she can't get infected, otherwise her situation will only get worse. I also saw her. I don't know though, it wasn't really her. She was just lying there and she looked so not herself, she looked like a... a shell, or a case but not like a person. Zoe was doing a bit better before we went to see Grace, but afterwards it was terrible. She couldn't even walk on her own anymore." Lola had kept quiet the entire time he spoke and he really appreciated it. After a few seconds, just when he started doubting if she was still there, she spoke: "I don't- I don't know what I'm supposed to say. How did this even happen? How did we get here?" Lola had spoken so seriously, he wondered if they were still talking about the same thing. He responded with a "I have no idea." And he truly meant it. Because no matter how hard he tried to, he felt like something was greatly missing and he had no idea what.
A few hours later Tiny was well rested again, so he made his way over to Lola's place. As soon as he rang the doorbell, the door opened and Lola hugged him. They kept standing like that for a while, in the street in plain sight. For a while, everything was good, perfect even. But the longer it took, the less comfortable Tiny became and Lola noticed. She let go of him to grab a coat and her keys and then closed the front door behind her. They both started walking, not knowing where they were going, in silence. After a while, they reached a bench and sat down on it. "So...", Tiny started. Lola replied. "Yeah." They both smiled, not of joy but of sadness. "I guess we just... got together at the absolute worst time." Lola said, as if their relationship had already been ended. Tiny nodded. "I guess so, but that doesn't take away the fact that I do truly care for you. I don't want you to get hurt." "I'm not the only one who's ever gotten hurt. That's life." Lola told him and he got mad at himself for letting this amazing girl slip out of his hands. She's perfect, why can't I just be happy with what I have? He thought. But he knew the answer and so did she. Still, he felt the intense need to apologize. "It doesn't matter if that's what life is. I'm sorry." She nodded and looked thankful. "I understand, I don't blame you. We rushed into things, like I said: or timing was off. We should've waited a few weeks, gotten to know each other better. Discussed certain things with our friends, stuff like that." He replied with: "Yeah, stuff like that." She got up from the bench and gave him a final hug. And he swears he hears her whisper: "Go for it." Before she turns around and walks off.
Meanwhile, a few blocks away, Zig nocks on the front door of the Matlin residence. Maya opens it and let's him in. She sits down at the kitchen table and he follows her lead. "So...", she starts. "Yeah.", he replies. She then took the word: a "I still can't believe this actually happened. I always thought of Grace as invincible, you know? Strong. But seeing her like that, it just made me realize that it's not worth it. Any of this that has been going on, just seems unimportant. That's why I wanted to talk to you, to clear the air between us. I can see why you did what you did. I don't approve, but I understand. It's not entirely your fault or relationship didn't work out. I still care about you, I do. But I don't think I can forget what you did. So I'm sorry Zig, I know you're not a bad guy, but I can't get back together with you. I need time and space to clear my thoughts and to process everything that happened the past couple of weeks. I'm not locking a potential future, just definitely not right now. Okay?" Zig had been silent, just listening to his former girlfriend and remembering how amazing she was. He nodded and felt thankful, but right after he felt guilty. Why was he allowed to feel so happy with everything that he had done, and why was Grace in the hospital even though she had been a way better person than him? It just didn't make sense to him.
"Okay, here is your change and the receipt. I hope you had a nice meal. Have a good evening and we hope to see you again someday!" She said with her usual cheerful voice. "Thank you so much and we will definitely come back sometime soon. Bye!" The female customer, an old lady who was apparently celebrating some kind of anniversary with her husband, said to her. She waved goodbye to them with a smile. As soon as they disappeared from sight her smile faded, she was simply too tired to function. Even though she had understood Tiny's feelings yesterday morning, a few hours later she had found herself uncontrollably crying in the bathtub. The pain in her chest had almost become unbearable and she just kept wondering why she wasn't good enough. A hour later she had called Frankie, still crying, but the latter had told Lola she was busy and that she couldn't come over to comfort her. Crying, she had gone through her contacts and realized that no matter how many 'friends' she had, she had no one to call in that moment. Frankie was too 'busy' with something, which made her mad because it felt like Frankie was telling her she was overreacting and Frankie had no right to tell her that with the way she had been acting the entire year, and she couldn't call Shay because... Well because she had been the reason why Tiny and her even broke up in the first place. Lola didn't necessarily blame her, she just didn't want to be anywhere near her so she wouldn't be reminded. When Shay had first told her that she still had feelings for Tiny and that she wasn't fine with the two of them being together, Lola had kind of dismissed it by saying she really liked Tiny. She had though she could move past it, forget it. But after hearing what happened with Grace and Zoe, she couldn't. She couldn't be with Tiny, it just didn't feel right anymore. How could she be in a healthy relationship with Tiny, knowing she had come between him and one of her best friends, knowing she ruined their chances of being happy? She had though about it the entire night, eventually falling asleep because she was so tired and sad before being awoken a few minutes later by Tiny calling. For some reason when the break-up was actually happening, she was calm and seemingly at peace with it. What a difference a few hours make. Eventually she had dragged herself out of the bathtub, into her bed and had fallen asleep. Now she was here, serving the last few customers of her parent's restaurant. The last customers were a young woman and a young men, who she assumed were a couple. That fact made her sad, because she had been serving couples the entire day. It almost felt like they were messing with her, like every couple in town decided to eat here a day after she broke up. "Lola, go and serve this to those last customers! Vamos!" One of the other employees said to her. She picked up two glasses, put them on a tray and walked over to the customers. They were laughing almost hysterical and she couldn't help but get slightly annoyed. She put the drinks down in front of them and smiled at the two. "Wow, you two look like a nice couple." For some reason this made the two laugh even more hysterical and Lola wondered to what she owned the pleasure of working exactly today. "We're not... We're not a couple. That would be weird and illegal for that matter. We're brother and sister." The guy explained and Lola felt like the biggest idiot in the world. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I never meant to-" "It's fine, I mean I get it we don't look alike at all." The lady told her and she nodded. "Well, no matter, let me offer you like a coupon or something. Please, just to make me feel less bad!" She almost sounded desperate at this point. "Sweetie, it's fine really. Why are you worrying so bad?" Lola sighed, opened her mouth but then shut it again. "I don't- I don't know. I just broke up with someone and I'm just... So confused. Oh my, what am I doing? I shouldn't tell you this, you just want to have a drink." The woman gestures for her to take a seat at the table and she does, the woman then answers Lola: "What? Oh sweetie that is terrible, I'm so sorry. Have you told anyone this yet? I'm Florence by the way." Lola shakes her head: "No, we broke up because I knew one of my friends was in love with him. So, she wasn't really someone I wanted to talk with. My other friend was... busy. Or so she said. Oh, and my name is Lola." Lola then sat down. "Damn", the boy said, "That sucks, I don't understand why anyone would do that. Oh and I'm named Ezra, almost forgot to mention that." Lola looked at him thankfully and nodded. "Well, I'm sure that your friend didn't mean it like that. Maybe something was going on at the same time? If not, then it's really weird and you shoul d talk to her about it. In person though, not via text or whatever you all do nowadays." Florence said. Lola nodded again: "Yeah, maybe that's it. I hope that's it, otherwise I have to find new friends." She laughed, before continuing. "Anyway, this was really nice of you to do, but I have to get back to work. I have to clean this place up or my parents will be mad." Florence and Ezra nodded and smiled at her, all of sudden Ezra seemed to realize something. "Wait, you said your name was Lola right? Are you the Lola from this place?" Lola grinned, sighed and thanked the siblings for visiting Lola's Cantina. And when she walked back to the kitchen she felt a bit more okay with the break-up. There was one thing she knew for sure: this break-up was way bigger than any other break-up she had ever gone through, so she needed to take her time to recover.
A/N: Thank you again so much for reading! Next chapter is up next week if everything goes right, I've already written quite a lot for that so I think I'll manage. The chapter will be about Adriana, Sophia the doctor's estranged friend, and Christina, Grace's sister. But after that it's one more chapter, then a sequel and that's it! Anyway I hope you liked this chapter, feedback is always appreciated!