Chapter 28: "Christine, you must have been dreaming..."


"Morning!" Tristan says as he leads the group into my room. "Hey guys." I whisper, sitting up and stretching my arms above my head. "We brought scones!" Tori says, shaking a tin, walking over with the clicking of her heels. "Made by Mama Milligan herself." Cam boasts, walking with Maya, hand in hand. "How ya feelin?" Brian asks, walking to my bedside and taking my hand in his. "Better. I don't feel like roadkill anymore." I say smirking. "Scone?" Tristan asks, popping open the container and holding it out to me. "Sure." I say, grabbing the biggest one. "So, any news?" I ask, putting my scone down on the tray table and wiping the crumbs from my hands. "Well, people at school are talking..." "Oh, and what are they saying?" I ask Cam. "Well, they think you're a legend, a total badass." He says with a devilish grin. "My girlfriend the badass... I don't know if I can get used to that." Brian says laughing. "No way." I say with a mixture of shock and happiness. "Any other dirt or gossip?" I ask, not really asking anyone in particular, though aiming it at Tristan. "Well, since you asked..." Tristan begins, looking at Tori excitedly. "The cast list got posted today... and you're Christi!" Tori says, jumping up and down with excitement. "Babe that's awesome!" Brian says, giving me a hug, careful not to hurt me. "Wow! That's so great!" I say more excited than I've been in months. "Who's playing Sam?" I ask, the room goes silent. "Zig." Tori says, staring at the floor. "Okay. We're friends, that's cool." I say, toning down my excitement due to their reactions. "Zig has been nothing but good to me." I point out, crossing my arms over my chest. "We get that. Really, we do, but we don't want to see you befriend him for the wrong reasons." Tristan says, walking behind Maya's chair. "We love you. Know that we do. But, Zig's done some bad things okay? We have some trouble trusting him." Maya says, putting her hand on my arm. "Fine. I'll talk to him." I say, picking up my scone and taking a bite. "That's not it... we want you to stop talking to him." Tristan says calmly, staring into my eyes. "I can't do that." I say flatly, avoiding his glare. "And why is that?" Brian asks, finally speaking up. "Because he stood up for me when you couldn't." I say, narrowing my eyes at him. I push a button to call the nurse. One appears a moment later. "Yes Ms. Carlo?" The petite redhead asks with a fake smile playing on her lips. "I'm tired, could you please escort these people out? Thank you." "As you wish." She says, gesturing them out. "And guys?" I say as they turn to face me. "I get out of here tomorrow. I'd like it if I still had friends by then." I say, sliding down into the covers and turning away from them, sulking into my pillow.


"Hey Christi!" Zig says, entering the room with a bouquet of white roses. "Wow, those are beautiful, you didn't have to get me flowers. Roses are really expensive." I say, looking into his soft green eyes. "Well, if I'm going to play your stage boyfriend, I'd better act like one." He says, sitting in the chair closest to my bed. "You're so sweet." I say sitting up and smiling. "I know." He says winking with a soft laugh. "I need to ask you something Zig, and I want you to be honest with me." I say with a serious tone in my voice. "Anything." He says, putting the flowers down and folding his hands in his lap. "Did you do anything to make Tori mad?" I ask, curiosity in my voice. "Well, other than the kiss with Maya.. no." "Zig-" "Okay, I did do something else... but its pretty bad." "What did you do exactly?" I ask, a bit frightened. "Well, I treated her like shit when we were together, and then she sees the way I treat you... and she gets really mad. SO she asked me like 'what's up with that?' And in a fit of rage, I told her I never loved her... Well, she stormed off crying." There's a long period of silence before he speaks again. "If I could take back everything I said, I would. I mean, I didn't really love her, but it was cruel to tell her that." He says, staring at his hands. "Sure she's beautiful, but I only liked her for her body. She was nothing more than an object to be had in my mind. But then I got to know Maya, and realized that neither of us deserved to be in a tanking relationship, so I broke up with her. And Maya and I shared a kiss. But she has Cam, and I'm destined to be forever alone." "Oh come on now. You can find another girl like Maya, I know so. You're charming and sweet and kind. Any girl would be lucky to have you." I say, trying to get him to look at me. "Well, there is this one girl..." He says with a twinkle in his eyes. "Oh yeah? What's she like?" "Well, she's new and her name's Nora... I really like her. She has strawberry blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She's really funny and has an amazing voice. I want to audition her for WhisperHug when you get back on your feet." He says, popping back into reality. "She sounds perfect Zig... or should I say Sam?" I ask, smiling. "Hahahaha, It would be a pleasure to work with you Ms. Carlo, rehearsals start wednesday." He says, getting up. "Now, I have to go home and work on algebra. An actor's job is never done." He says with a dramatic hair flip. He stands up and gives me a hug before walking out of my room and down the hall, whistling to "Someone Like You" by Adele.


I wake up with a smile on my face, remembering that it was my last day in the hospital, and I would be discharged at noon. I check my phone, I have a text from Cam.

Cam: Hey Gee, sorry about everything that went down. We didn't know how you felt about Zig. I'd be careful mentioning him around Tori for a while. Maya and I honestly don't have any beef with him. Love you and can't wait to see you back in the hallowed halls of DCS next week- C.

Well, that's a relief. I think to myself, realizing that Zig isn't everyone's "public enemy number 1". I mean I'm gonna be working with Zig for awhile, I should at least be friendly with him while I do so, right? I think to myself as Maya enters my room.

"Hey M. What are you up to this fine Sunday morning?" "Well someone's happy." She says, walking to my bedside and picking up the flowers from Zig. "Swanky. Did Brian get you these?" She asks as she sniffs the white roses. "No actually. Zig did. He said since we're a stage couple, we might as well act like one." I say, trying to recall his exact words. "Sweet huh?" I ask, trying to determine the emotion behind Maya's face. "Yeah... Yeah, it is sweet. But, uh, I think there's a motive behind it." Maya says, putting the flowers down and looking into my eyes. "No. Zig and I are friends. He did flirt with me once, but I shot him down. He knows about Brian." "But he will stop at nothing to break you two up." Tristan says, entering the room. "No. He's sweet, he wouldn't do that." I say, in denial that Zig could be anything but charming. "Think about it. Brian wasn't there to fight off that guy to save you, but Zig was. Zig wants to indirectly show you that he would fight to have you. He's willing to risk friendships with us for a relationship with you." Tristan says, sitting down and crossing his legs. "No no, there's a mistake. Zig just told me about this girl he likes... Nora. He doesn't like me anymore, okay?" I ask, staring at my hands, still in disbelief. "Nora?" "Yeah, he said there was this girl named Nora that's like really pretty and very talented." I say, still not ready to admit what Tris had been telling me. "Okay, I guess I'll believe that. But the boy's got some serious feelings for you too." Tristan says, putting on his sunglasses and bumping into none other than Zig on his way out the door.

The overwhelming smell of too much body spray hit us immediately. When would boys learn that less is more when it comes to these types of things? Anyway, Zig walked in, sitting next to Maya. "Hey." "Hey yourself." I say back, not being able to think of a funny retort. "How's the leg." He asks, trying desperately to move from the awkward conversation between us. "Well, they're upgrading me from the cast to the boot and the back brace comes off today. The arm cast will stay the same... good ole castey." I say, awkwardly petting the hard coating. "You're twisted." He says shaking his head back and forth, smirking. "That's why ya love me." I say winking and getting out of bed. I wasn't hooked up to any of the scary machines anymore, so I could get up if I wanted to. And I had to pee. Hospital gowns though, not a wise fashion statement for everyone. I've seen more butts than I would have liked to in my stay here. "Ugh. It feels so good to actually get up." I say, stretching my arms above my head. One of the knots on the back of my gown comes loose and unties. I try to tie it with no success. Zig gets up. "I got it." He says, signaling for Maya to sit back down, her face full of confusion. After he finishes tying, he puts his hands on my waist. "Good as new." He says with a grin as Cam and Brian enter the room. Zig quickly sits back down. "What's going on?" Brian asks, looking at the three of us. "He was uh, the gown. It came undone and Zig, um-" "I fixed it." He says nervously, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah, he was just helping me out ya know. BFF's!" I say, putting a thumb up and retiring to my bedside to pack my things. Once everything was in order, I bent down to pick up my bag, and the knot came undone again. "I got it." Brian says, glaring at Zig and rushing to the other side of the bed. He tied the knot and wrapped his arms around me from behind, kissing my neck. "Still sexy in a hospital gown, how does she do it?" Brian asks, turning to face me and wrapping his arms around my waist. "My my Mr. Bierl you dog." I say winking and kissing him passionately. The knot comes undone once more, I try to tie it but Brian lowers my hands. "Leave it." He says, his hands traveling south of my waist. "We're gonna... go." Cam says awkwardly, leading the others to the waiting room. "I missed this." I say, breaking the kiss. "I love you Gioia Carlo." "And I you Brian Bierl." I say, my hands going to his hair. The kissing became more heated, and intense. "Not now." I whisper in his ear. "Not here." I say, releasing his grasp and walking away. He begrudgingly accepts it. I walk to my stuff and change into street clothes: yoga pants and a burgundy tank top. "Those pants are really working for ya." I hear a voice say, we both turn to see Maya at the door. "Brian leave us why don't you." Maya jokes in a British accent. "Love you too M." He says, kissing my cheek and walking to the door. "Text me later." He says, before disappearing down the winding hallways. "Will do." I say, still laughing from Maya's comment. "Okay Geeg. Time to pack up the stuff and head home." She says, clapping her hands together and taking my bag. I put my arms on my crutches and slowly make my way out of the room, past the weird moments and awkward conversations, and into the Matlin family car, arriving home and napping until dinner.


Hahahaha! I finally figured out how to do line breaks! This is a huge victory for me... Anyway, hope you liked the chapter! Have a good day/night Degrassians!