sorry i didn't update for a while i've been busy with homework and stuff

hopefully the updates will get more frequent as we're nearing the end of the story

but here's one last filler chapter before we get back to the good shit

ShoutOuts: None

Chapter 44

*2 weeks later*

Zoe sat down at the control panel in the Parts and Service room. She'd recently been working on blueprints for new, smaller animatronics. Tia was having a lot of issues keeping up with the orders in the kitchen, and Tonnie and Teddy couldn't serve pizza to everyone at once, son she wanted to make some more robots to help with their jobs. Fritz was helping too, but he wasn't back from lunch yet, so she was on her own for a few minutes.

The picture Raina had drawn of her a while ago sat next to the blueprints. It was shaded expertly in silver and blue pencil crayon, and there were no smudges or out of place lines. Zoe smiled. Even though it was a picture of herself, she thought it described Raina perfectly, organized and perfect.

"Hey Zoe!" a voice said from the door. Zoe turned around and saw Raina walking in, wearing an incredibly colourful outfit. Now she always stopped by the pizzeria at lunch whenever Zoe was working. Zoe did the same on her days off.

"Hi Raina," Zoe greeted, pushing her chair away from the control panel. "How's work going?"

"Great," she replied, setting her tote bag down and sat in Fritz's unoccupied chair. "I just finished making a few of my newer designs and put them in the window of the shop. A lot of people have commented on them already. Said they're looking forward to seeing the rest. Anyway, how's it going here?" she asked.

Zoe shrugged. "Well, we're making some progress. I haven't actually started building them yet because I'm still working on the designs."

"That's cool," Raina commented. "Um, hey, can I ask you something?"

"Uh, sure," Zoe replied. "What is it?"

"Do you want to go out on a date?"

Zoe blinked. She automatically thought of the last time someone had asked her that, when she was stil in school.

"Do you want to go out on a date?" he'd asked, his warm brown eyes staring at her intently, his smile kind and understanding.

She'd been taken aback by this question, but she smiled back, rubbing at the fading bruise on her face, and accepted his offer.

"I'm sorry," Raina apologized, interrupting her thoughts. "I just thought I'd ask. Forget it." She picked her tote bag off the floor and started to stand.

"No, it's fine!" Zoe said quickly, putting a hand on Raina's knee to stop her. "I'd actually love to." She hesitated. "It's just-"

"You're still thinking about Travis," Raina finished.

Zoe sighed. "Yeah. I'm sorry."

Raina sat back down. "I understand." She paused, as though she wasn't sure whether she should keep talking. "What about your mom?"

Zoe shuddered. "I'd rather not think about her." Zoe's mom had been an alcoholic when she was younger. Zoe and her father would leave the house every time she drank too much, but once they'd made the mistake of going home too early. Her mom was in the midst of a drunken rage and decided to take her anger out on the two of them. Zoe had gone to school the next day with multiple bruises.

Travis, however, was a completely different story. After Zoe had told Raina and Jeremy about her mom (she remembered telling Mike too, but of course now she knew that was fake), Travis had come up to her and they struck up a conversation. Apparently, his father was the same as Zoe's mother. They bonded over this, and he'd eventually asked her out. Years later, after they graduated, they'd gotten married. They had eventually had a kid, and Travis had wanted to name her Kelsie, but Zoe had suggested the name Jesse. Travis didn't like it, and the two got in an argument. This was only the start of their problems. A month later, Travis had gotten really mad when they had just been talking and Zoe had nonchalantly mentioned that she used to date girl named Hannah before she got together with Travis. He'd blown up, saying that he hadn't known Zoe was "one of those people" and that he didn't want their kid growing up around someone like her. The next day, Zoe had woken up, and both Travis and Jesse were gone.

Zoe wasn't hesitant to go out with Raina because she wasn't over Travis. She was hesitant because if they got really serious and wanted to get married one day, they couldn't because Zoe had never gotten divorced.

Raina put a hand on Zoe's shoulder and looked at her sympathetically, as though she knew exactly what she was thinking. "Hey, it's okay. If we ever get to that point in the future, we can work around it."

Zoe leaned forward and hugged her. "Thanks Raina."

Raina hugged her back and then pulled away. "So, is that a yes?"

Zoe smiled and nodded. "Yeah."

sry for the short chapter i just wanted to get zoe's backstory out of the way

i'll actually have some real plot happening in the next chapter

like nothing really big will happen but i'm working up to that