Chapter eleven: Remains of a shattered heart

Zim stood by the casket that held Gir. The funeral consisted of only him, Gaz, and Dib. It wasn't even a funeral at all. They were all just standing around the casket in an abandoned graveyard, hardly a perfect funeral for Gir.

Gaz, standing beside her brother, had her head bowed. She wouldn't even so much as glance in Zim's direction now. He had seemed empty ever since Gir's death five days earlier. Whenever she tried to talk to him he would just walk away. Her heart felt like it had been pricked with a thorn, a tiny puncture but one that could build up to make a hole. It seemed to Gaz that Zim didn't want to speak to her. He was just a depressed, grief-stricken shell. Empty. That was the only word to describe him.

"Gir deserved better than this." Zim growled softly. Gaz's head snapped up but she just stared at Zim, her expression unreadable.

"Then why didn't you invite anybody else?" Gaz's temper flared, for some reason she was getting sick of Zim's constant sadness. He couldn't be depressed his whole life, he had to get up the courage to move on. She was trying and little by little she was letting Gir go.

Zim's eyes narrowed and he spun around. "Because, they don't deserve to know that Gir died. The Tallests are cruel and evil, they have not earned the right to know of Gir's death." He spat.

Gaz stepped forward. "Oh, and you do? Sure, he saved you and all, but if you hadn't driven him away and ordered than stupid Adiex then we wouldn't be here right now!" she snapped. Her hands were clenched into fists.

Dib glanced from one to the other. "Uh…I think I'm gonna go for a walk." Both ignored him. Dib turned around and ran from the glaring alien and human.

"So you're saying that it's my fault that Gir died?" Zim's antenna were drawn back in rage.

"Oh, lookie there, the Almighty Zim figured something out on his own without needing help! Ladies and gentlemen, let's give our contestant a prize, shall we? His damn stupid brain figured something out on its own, what a miracle!" Gaz said, sarcasm dripping from every word like maple from a leaf.

Zim gasped. "I cannot believe that you have made fun of the ALMIGHTY Z-!"

"Oh SHUT-UP, would you? That's all you care about, yourself! Just for one minute I would like to not hear you brag about how superior you are or how great you are. I thought you would have finally outgrown your California-sized ego by now, but I guess I was wrong. Your ego is so big you're drowning in it!" Gaz exploded. Zim's expression turned to shock but she wasn't finished. "Everything is always about you and that'll never change! Haven't you ever thought for one second that other people have feelings too? Why do you have to be so selfish and arrogant?" by now she was on the brink of tears. "I saw how you looked at me the other day, and I thought that you might've changed. But I guess you didn't even think much about me after that. You probably went back to thinking I was heartless, I bet. And for the past five days I've been trying to talk to you but you always pull away. What is that about? I'm trying to just talk to you about something but I guess it'll never matter enough!"

Silence followed and Zim blinked and gazed at the teary-eyed, purple haired girl standing in front of him.

"I-I didn't know you wanted to talk to me." Zim murmured.

A tear escaped from her eye and it rolled down her cheek. "Once," she whispered. "Just once I wish you would just look past that turned up nose of yours and actually look at the world. And once…just once I wish you would look at me and see how much I love you."

And with that she turned on her heel and ran from Zim and the casket holding Gir. She didn't stop until she got to her house and flew up the stairs to her bedroom. She slammed the door, bolted it shut, and sat softly down onto her bed. She rested her head on her pillow and then let the tears flow. They rolled down her face and she didn't even bother wiping them.

"He'll never know…" she whispered to herself, a soft sob escaping from her throat. She closed her eyes and two more tears escaped from under her closed eyelids.

He'll never know...