Hey everyone, I really am sorry that I haven't updated in a long time. I'm such a bad person. I've been extremely busy with school work and marching band. In fact, I literally just finished the majority of my homework. So I decided as a break for myself, I'd get to finally write for myself...and well for you guys. I know I said that I was going to update quicker but I didn't realize that marching band was such a time commitment. I literally go to marching band right after school then right after that I eat dinner and then go to sleep. I barely have time to go and hang out by myself and relax. So hopefully you all understand. Oh...and my mom usually needed the computer, and just yesterday, I got my own brand new laptop! So it'll now be easier for me to update whenever I want to. Well...let me clarify. When I have time.
Shout-outs:
L 94: Well I'm very glad that you like this story so much. It's definitely flattering and it makes me want to write more, so thank you. I hope you understand why I haven't updated in...well two months, and hopefully you haven't forgotten about this story. Anyways, thanks for reviewing!
Zac is my life: I'm sorry if it confused me. I guess it's because I haven't read my own story in a while and it takes me a while to figure out where the heck I left off. Hopefully I didn't confuse you too bad. (; And well, I usually burn it at night, and outside with a hose. But last time I did it with my friend...my mom wasn't very happy with it. She thought it would end poorly. But oh well. And...oh fillers. How we all loathe you... hahahaha. And I hate word too. It changes something or it thinks something wrong and then I just want to throw my computer. It never ends well... hahahaha. But now I don't have word...but hopefully I'll get word soon. Anyways, it's always flattering to hear you say that you enjoyed the chapter. I'm definitely improving on my writing skills...I think. I just love reading your reviews! So thanks! (:
themsjadey: I'm glad you liked it! Well, we'll have to see what happens with Zak. It'll all revealed soon. (: Thanks for the wonderful review!
Pumpkinkin5: Well, I can't say what's exactly what's wrong with Zak, but you'll find out in this chapter. It should definitely be something that...will be more different for me to write. And Troy...ummm...he has problems. Hahahaha. We'll just have to figure it out...won't we? Thanks for reviewing!
Aly: Hahahaha, I don't care. I'm in high school...so I'm sure I've heard enough cuss words to get me along for the rest of the year. I just like teasing. I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks for reviewing again!
XxBabiiGurlxX: Well, we'll just have to see... it'll definitely be a dramatic story. Thanks for reviewing!
MissEllaSalvatoreBieber18: Hahahaha...umm I'll give you half credit hahaha. Anyways, Zak's secrets will be revealed sooner or later. Don't worry about changing your name. It's really no big deal. Anyways, thanks for reviewing!
Sorry guys, no riddle this week. I think it'd be best for me to just start writing so I don't make you guys wait anymore longer.
Enjoy the chapter!
Quck note: Zak only has a mom. I totally forgot to change that in the last chapter...
Chapter 19-Thanksgiving Gone Wrong Part 3
I finally began to stifle my tears as I watched the EMTs take Zak put him on a stretcher. "Zak..." I whispered as I hugged myself tightly, unsure of what to do.
"It's going to be okay." Kayla whispered as she put an arm around my shoulders, grasping the opposite shoulder tightly with her arms.
"Kay's right." Sam whispered, as he wrapped us both into a hug tightly, 'He's a trooper. He'll be fine."
"I hope you're both right." I whispered I said as we got into the car, ready to head to the hospital.
"Hey..." Luke whispered looking at me with a worried look, giving me a small smile.
"Yeah?"
"Everything will be okay. It all works out in the end no matter what happens. And if it doesn't, then it's not the end. My mom used to tell me that all the time and sometimes I didn't believe her, but it always did work out in the end." he said, sliding into the car next to me.
"Really?"
"Hey, I didn't want to move here."
"Oh."
"And now I love it here. I met a pretty amazing girl." he smiled.
I smiled at his sweet comment and looked up at Troy who was driving. His fist clenched the steering wheel and his jaw tensed. Well...somebody's eavesdropping...
"Thanks." I said, "You're not so bad yourself."
"Good to know."
I smiled, feeling a little bit more comfortable. "It'll be okay. Zak's parents will tell us what's going on."
XOXOXOXOXOXO
We all rushed into the hospital, going to straight to the front office. "Where is Zak Greene?" I said, wanting to go see him. I wanted to ask him what was really going on. I wanted to ask him what he was really doing early on today. He wasn't shopping.
"I'm sorry, you can't see him now. He's in critical condition right now and his doctor his speaking with his parents right now. If you must, you all can in the waiting room."
"What's wrong with him?"
"I think it would be best if the doctor or his own parents told you." the woman said.
"What's wrong with him?" I repeated.
"C'mon Gabi, we'll go see him in a second. Let's go wait for the news." Sam nudged me along, going to the elevator, with the rest of them following.
I pressed the up button, wanting to break down once again. I didn't have Zak anymore. He was...different. He was changed, and I was stupid and didn't try and pry him open. I was stupid enough to think that he was going to tell me soon. I should have just asked him what was going on and not taken 'no' as an answer.
I felt tears begin to fill my eyes, as I began to think what was wrong with Zak. "Gabi, it'll be okay." Luke said, trying to comfort me.
"Yeah Gabriella! It'll be all great! Zak's fine! I'm sure he's fine! He'll be back to normal in no time!" Madi chirped.
I almost glared at her. "Madi-" I stopped myself from blowing up.
"Yeah?"
"...Thanks." I whispered. Nobody comes out of something like this unchanged. Nothing is going to be normal.
"Of course Gabi. It'll be totally perfect!"
"Right...cuz everything was perfect before." I muttered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing." I said, as I stared down at my feet on the ground, hiding my tears as I let them roll down my face.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
I stared at the door, anxiously waiting for some sort of news. Some sort of glimpse of what was going on. All I knew now was that Zak had a...yeah and I don't even know why.
I felt a hand rest on my leg and turned to see Sam smiling. "Hey."
"Hey."
"Kayla is going to go get something to eat from the cafeteria."
I made a disgusted face.
"I know. Hospital cafeteria food. Doesn't that sound appetizing?"
"Mmm..." I mumbled.
"C'mon, you need to eat something. You look like you're losing weight."
"I'm fine." I smiled.
"Gabi, please eat. You don't look good."
"Well thanks Sam."
"I'm not kidding Gabi. Kayla and I were talking and we don't like the way you look right now. It's like you're model-skinny. It's not funny. We're worried about you."
"I'm fine, Sam. I'll eat later. I'm not hungry right now. I ate something earlier."
"Really? And what was that?"
"It doesn't matter what I ate Sam. I ate, okay?" I said, getting defensive.
"Gabs, you need to eat." he said in a more stern voice.
"I said I'm fine."
"Gabriella."
"No."
"Gabriella, you will eat and if you don't then I'll shove it down your throat."
"Sam, I'm fine!"
Sam sighed in defeat, "Fine."
He turned his body in the opposite direction practically telling me that he didn't want to talk to me anymore. He gave up on me. And that was almost the worst feeling in the world.
"Gabi?"
I looked up and saw Troy. "What?" I said, sounding bitter.
"Can I talk to you?"
"You kind of are."
"Privately?"
"Where's Madi?"
"She's going to the bathroom and then she's going to go the cafeteria with Kayla. But I want to talk to you. It doesn't matter where she is. She's not the jealous type."
"Of course she's not."
"Y'know what Gabi, I'm sick of this. Just come talk to me when you're done being a stubborn bitch."
"I'm being a stubborn bitch?" I said, raising my eyebrows, "Maybe you should try looking in the mirror before you start throwing around names."
"At least I know what I am." Troy threw back, "I know I can be a bit of a jerk-"
"A bit?"
"Fine, I'm one fucking, huge asshole who doesn't deserve to talk to you. But y'know what? At least I'm not lying to my friends to their faces! At least I'm still being social and alive and well. Okay? So don't start calling me shit when I know what I am!"
"Whatever." I muttered, "I'm going for a walk."
"Hey everyone." Lucille came into the waiting room, "Sorry we're late but I was texting Zak's mom and she said she'd be out in a second with some things to tell us. She wants to speak to Gabriella first."
"When?" I asked urgently.
"Soon." she gave me a small smile.
I felt a wave of fear fill my body as I went to go sit down on the opposite side of the room. Sam wasn't happy with me. Troy was...yelling at me. And Luke was reading a magazine. I didn't want to be bothered and the last thing I wanted to do was yell at somebody else because of my foul mood.
"Gabi?" Lucille sat down next to me, "How are you holding up?"
"I don't know." I whispered, "I just now I'm worried and I want to know what's happening to him."
"It'll be okay." Lucille said in a comforting voice, "They'll explain what's going on."
"Do you know what's going on?" I said, looking up at her.
"...I do." she said, giving me an uneasy look.
"Wait..." I paused, "You knew?"
"I'm sorry Gabi, but I didn't want to tell you. Zak wanted to tell you himself. He made us promise. He made Troy promise."
"Troy knew?" I said, feeling betrayed.
"...We all knew." she said, looking up at everyone in the room. "Even Luke."
"Excuse me." I said, getting up and walking towards the exit.
"Gabi, can we talk about this?"
"I don't want to talk right now." I mumbled as I wiped the tears that were escaping as I walked out of the room and towards the elevator.
"GABI!" a voice came.
I turned to see Sam and he was running after me. "Go away." I muttered as I pressed the button repetitively. I wanted to be out of here.
"Gabi, I have you're food." Kayla said from down the hall, smiling.
The elevator door opened and I quickly went in and pressed the '1'. "Gabi, didn't you hear me? I have you're food!"
"GABI!" Sam began to ran quicker as the doors slowly closed.
I fell to the ground as the doors shut and the elevator started making it's slow descend down to the bottom floor. "Why?" I whispered, feeling the warm tears hit my jeans as I brought my knees to my chest.
"They betrayed me! They didn't even tell me what was going on with him!" I cried, "Why? I had the right to know! I had more of a right to know than Troy!"
He ignored me...and he still never told me what was going on with Troy. Ever.
I looked up and saw that the numbers were slowly getting lit up, number by number and with that, I slowly stood up, wiping away my tears.
"It'll all be okay."
Their voices ran in my head. They all told me the same thing and yet, they never told me what was really going on. I felt so betrayed. I felt like I wasn't worthy of knowing the truth.
The elevator came to a halt with a 'ding' and when I came out of the elevator, Troy stood there looking at me with a look of...well I wasn't quite sure what at the time. "Gabi. We need to talk."
I rolled my eyes as I walked past him and towards the doors. "No." Troy grabbed my wrist and turned me around.
"You can't keep running away from me Gabi."
"You can't keep telling me what to do and what I am." I hissed back, "Now let me go."
"No. We need to talk."
"No. You need to leave me alone. Now get out of here."
"Gabi, it's important."
"No."
"GABI!" Sam yelled as he ran out of the 'stair' door. "The doctor said Zak's parents want to talk to you."
I looked up at him, unsure of whether or not I could believe him. They all had been lying to me for the past few months and not one of them told me what was going on with one of my best friends.
"I'm not lying. I swear. They're up there now. Zak is going to want to see you too."
"C'mon Gabs. We need you. Zak needs you."
"You all don't need me, considering you couldn't tell me the fucking truth." I hissed as I walked towards the elevator once more, "And by the way, Zak doesn't need me. I need him."
XOXOXOXOXOXO
I walked into the room where Zak's mom was and I looked at her. Her eyes looked swollen and red like she had been crying before. "Hello Gabriella."
"Hi...Mrs. Greene." I smiled.
"Call me Tracy, dear." she gave me a hint of a smile, "But please, sit down."
I sat down next to her as she looked at down at her hands. "Zak wanted to tell you this himself, but it seems to me like I should just tell you now. He told me that if he couldn't tell you then I should and...well...I never thought that day was ever going to happen. I told Zak that he should have told you earlier, but he promised me he was going to tell you soon."
"Tell me what?" I said, my voice shaking.
"Gabi, about...well the beginning of...summer, Zak was beginning to have terrible head-aches. He acted out and he just never really cared. He's a smart boy as you know but that's probably why him and Troy didn't get along. I wasn't sure what it was so we had him go get some medication from the doctor and he said that if he wasn't seeing anything become...different then we should have him get an x-ray. It turned out he had a..." she paused and took a deep breath.
"What? A what?"
"He had a tumor. A brain tumor, about the size of a larger strawberry." she said, "Gabi, I really didn't want to tell you. You've helped Zak so much and because of you, he's beginning to love life again. He was so afraid to tell you. He didn't want to ruin your year here in New Mexico and the last thing he wanted to do was make you think of New Mexico as a bad memory."
"It would never be a bad memory Mrs. -Tracy." I said, "I loved it here. Zak...he made it a special memory. And...I..." Cancer. Zak had cancer. "I will never think of this last year as something horrible."
"I'm so sorry Gabi. It's been something that was hard for everyone to swallow. Zak has been taking chemotherapy but it doesn't seem to be working. The tumor is still growing and right now, I'm not sure anybody else knows what's going to happen."
I nodded, unsure of what to say. I didn't know how to process any of this. I didn't know what to do.
"And...the last thing Zak wanted was for you to be angry with him or anybody for that matter. He didn't want anybody else to tell you because he wanted to be the one to tell you. He thought it would be best that you heard it from him and not somebody else. He wanted you to hear it from him so you didn't feel like you weren't important. Zak didn't want you to worry about him."
"If only he knew that I was going to worry that he was keeping secrets from me."
"He figured you were going to catch up sooner or later and well he figured that this week was probably going to be the best time to tell you because you had the break to let it sink in."
"Oh Zak..."
"As you know Gabriella, Zak is a trooper. He'll get through it."
I nodded, hoping she was right.
"And he has you to help him push him along, right?"
"Always."
XOXOXOXOXOXO
I sat in the waiting room with Zak's mom next to me as I waited anxiously for news on Zak. I wasn't in the mood to be talking to Troy. He kept staring at me like he had every right to be talking to me and Sam was letting me have my space. I knew at one moment or another I was going to have to talk to all of them about all of this. But I was going to choose another moment. I wasn't ready to talk to them yet.
"You know, Zak always told me that he loved you." Zak's mom said out of nowhere.
I blushed lightly, unsure of what to say.
"He said that he just wanted to make you happy and he always said he saw that you were head over heels for Troy. He said he was glad you were happy."
"He was right... I was head over heels for the boy."
"You aren't anymore?"
"I'm not sure anymore."
"Well Zak said he thinks you are."
"Zak's a smart kid."
"Does that mean he's right?"
"I'm not really sure." I muttered.
"He also said that he thinks you should talk things out with him."
"Does he tell you everything?" I chuckled.
"Kind of. He just wants to make sure I know everything before anything serious happens...if anything happens."
"Right." I nodded, "Well I don't know."
"Zak wants you to be happy and if he makes you happy then let's not make Zak be unhappy."
I laughed, "Maybe later."
"There's no better time than the future."
"You know a lot don't you Tracy?"
"I'd like to thinks so." she laughed, "But really Gabriella, it's never going to the 'right time' to go and tell a boy that you still love him. So just do it."
"I will. I'll promise Zak when he's ready to get out of the place." I shuttered, "It's just so depressing in here."
"Agreed."
"Zak Greene's family?"
We all stood up and looked up to see a man who looked to be in his early fifties maybe younger in the familiar white jacket. "He's awake. He's not very coherent right now but he'll be ready to see people in about an hour. He's doing well right now, just a little tired."
"What happened?" Mrs. Greene said, playing with her hands, "Why did he have a seizure?"
"It seems to me like Zak's body isn't taking well to the chemotherapy.
"He's...rejecting it?"
"Well not exactly. Zak's body hasn't responded it to the best way...we thought it would. We're afraid that he might have only...a year. Maybe less."
I felt something hit me. I don't know what it was, but something hit me hard. It was like suddenly...a huge weight got packed onto my shoulders and then somebody thought it would be a good idea to punch me in the stomach just to make it even more unbearable.
"But it's...no. It can be cured somehow, right?"
"I'm afraid not like this." he said, looking down at his clipboard. "I'm so sorry."
"Thank you Dr. McGanahue.
He nodded with a grim line on his lips as he turned in the opposite direction.
I stared down at the ground, "I can see him soon?" I whispered.
"Of course you can. Zak told me that if this ever happened he wants you to be the first person he sees when he wakes up."
I smiled, "He thought of everything didn't he?"
"He's a smart boy."
I nodded, "He is."
XOXOXOXOXOXO
I waited patiently for another forty-five minutes but suddenly the doctor came back. "He's ready to see people. He asked to see Gabriella first."
I smiled, "That's me."
"Perfect. I know why he wanted to see you first now." he winked, as he led me into the doorway.
I blushed as I looked at Tracy who gave me a small smile of encouragement as I disappeared into the doorways to see Zak.
I followed. Dr. McGannague and went into a room and saw Zak. He was paler than usual and he looked tired. "Hey." I said, trying to smile and not cry at the sight of him like this.
"Hey to you too." he smiled as he tried to move up.
"Come sit down." he said, patting down on his bed.
I slowly walked over to him and sat down next to him as he scooted over, "How are you?"
"I'm just peachy. How about you?"
"You're peachy?" I said, amused at his humor. Especially now.
"I am. But you didn't answer my question." he said, looking more serious, "Are you okay?"
"Yes. I'm just as peachy as you are."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Gabi. I asked Troy to watch out for you. I understand that you don't like him right now...or anybody right now. You probably hate me too, but Troy has been telling me that you aren't eating. Is that true?"
"Why would you believe Troy?"
"Because Troy knows you. He knows you as well as I know you. If not better."
"...I'm eating Zak."
"I know you're mad at me for not telling you Gabi. I'm so sorry. But you can't be doing this to yourself. Not now. I need you to be happy. I need you to be healthy for me because I can't be."
"Don't say that." I said, shaking my head, the tears filling my eyes.
"Gabi, I can't lie to you. Not now. I can't do that and you shouldn't lie to me. Or yourself. You aren't eating. You aren't healthy and you-"
"No. Zak."
"You can't do this by yourself. You need somebody and if it can't be me then it has to be someone. Gabi, you need to eat."
"Zak..."
"Please, for me."
"I-"
"Please."
"Fine..." I said, "Only for you."
He smiled, "Good."
He pressed a button on the side of his bed that looked like a food button and he smiled at me, "Are you really okay?"
"No..." I gave up, "I'm horrible."
"Gabriella Montez. I admire you so much. You're incredible and if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here now. So don't start being the pessimistic boy I once was. It isn't fair. And not only that, but you deserve to be happy. Alright? You're an amazing girl and you can't be sad because I'm sick. I am sorry that I didn't tell you. I couldn't tell you. I didn't want to see your face when I told you that I was sick."
I laid down next to him, hugging him tightly, "It's okay. Nothing needs to be said right now."
Okay...well that's the chapter. The End. Finally. Okay not of the actual story, obviously but the end of this chapter. It's been a long one and a dramatic one. I hope you all enjoyed it and I really am sorry for making you guys wait so long. Hopefully you understand! (: Review, Read, and anything else you want to do. Oh! And if you see any mistakes, please tell me.