Shut Up and Talk to Me! A KOTLC FanFic

Chapter Nine: Fitz

Fitz lay in his bed, replaying the last four hours of his life.

He went to P.E. He fell down. He went to the Healing Center. He fell asleep. He ate dinner. He went home.

It seemed pretty simple when you put it that way, but in reality, it wasn't at all.

But there were really only two big things on his mind.

First... was he going to be alright? He remembered exactly what Elwin had said after Keefe and Sunny went home.

I don't know 100% what's going on here, Fitz. But this might just be something you're going to have to learn to live with.

Did that mean that he was never actually going to get better? Was he ever actually better? For a couple of years, his leg still hurt sometimes, and his friends couldn't pretend they didn't notice. Especially Sophie. He noticed when she noticed. And he didn't like feeling that pathetic. It was just the look in her eyes when he caught her eyeing him. He remembered one night more clearly than the others, though, maybe because it was more recent.

Sophie, some of their other friends, and their parents were over at Everglen, only right before the new year at Foxfire started up again. Dinner was over, and Fitz had decided to take a breather. But he saw Sophie watching him as he went out the door. His leg had been hurting for a while that day, but he only noticed then that he must have been walking funny, because a few minutes later, Sophie brought it up.

When he'd been sitting on the back stoop for a little while, Sophie had joined him.

"Hey," she'd said. "Can I sit here?"

"Sure," Fitz replied, scooting over to make room for her.

Sophie had sat a fair distance away, maybe about a foot, or a foot and a half.

It wasn't Fitz had been counting.

Anyways, they were sitting there together.

"Is everything okay?" Sophie had asked eventually.

"Yeah," Fitz said. "Why?"

"Well..." Sophie had reached for her eyelashes, and it was the first time in a while that Fitz didn't roll his eyes at it. "You just walked outside alone, and everyone else went to play Base Quest."

Fitz sighed.

"Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to get some fresh air alone," Sophie clarified. "I totally get it."

Fitz stared out at the sun setting over the trees. "No... I know what you mean."

It was silent for a while again. Deciding one of them was going to have to cave first, Fitz had said, "I'm not sure what's going on, Sophie."

"What do you mean?"

Fitz ran his foot along the marble stair. "That's the thing. I'm not sure what I mean."

"Is it something I did?"

"No. No, of course not." That's when he felt the pang near his knee. "Ow," he'd said quietly, rubbing his leg.

"Are you okay?" Sophie asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm fine. Just a stitch."

And that's when she gave him that look. Like he'd been hurt, and he had never fully healed, and it was all her fault.

And he couldn't stand it.

"Don't give me that look," he'd said. "Please."

"What look?" Sophie looked slightly taken aback.

Fitz shook his head. "Never mind. Let's go find the rest of our friends."

Fitz didn't usually mind the occasional pain in his leg. It was just a sort of extra thing he was learning to get by with.

But today was different. It had hurt. A lot. Fitz's mind flashed back to when Elwin asked him if his chest felt fine.

He'd said yes, because, well, he was pretty sure it was fine. Sure, his heart had been beating pretty fast, but that was just because he was in extreme pain. The tiny ache in his chest was probably just because he was breathing so fast.

Fitz was overthinking this.

But on his second hand...

Sunny.