Tattooed Mistakes (Are Gonna Fade Over Time)

Chapter 7

(Well, last week was a wild ride, wasn't it? Back to regular-sized chapters now

Christmas fics are coming starting tomorrow, with a mix of canon and BG characters~)

Two months. He lasted two months in counselling. Two months before he completely gave up. He had already been showing up late and walking out of sessions, but now he was done. Roz, as usual, was there to be his voice of reason, since clearly he didn't have one of his own anymore.

"He's not gonna be happy, Zeph."

"He hasn't been happy for a long time."

"You know what I mean. About quitting counselling."

He glanced at her and looked down, ashamed, "Roz, he doesn't know I was in counselling."

"What? You didn't tell him?"

"Hell, I didn't even tell him about the fight!"

"And I guess that means he thinks you're still on the team, too?" she asked and he pretended not to hear, "Didn't he want to hear about all that?"

Zephyr groaned in frustration and threw his arms up, "It's not like he understands anything about it! He only cares about it 'cause I care about it! I can tell him anything, he won't know the difference and he won't ask questions."

Roz stood with her mouth hanging open. It took her a while to find the words to say, "So you're just making things up to tell him and you think you'll be fine? He won't know the difference, how can you even say that? He's your boyfriend, you love him, don't you?"

"Of course I do, that's why I don't want to tell him! I don't want to hurt him anymore. If he found out I was fighting over him..."

"So you're just gonna play him like that? You're lying to him, Zephyr. You're keeping something serious from him. I'm pretty sure you haven't kept a single secret from Al for as long as you've been a couple. And when you were friends, the only secret you kept was that you liked him," she gave him a hard stare, "Don't start now. You're already on thin ice."

He kept walking past her, not listening when she shouted at him to stop, but her words burrowed deep in his mind and stayed there. He already felt guilty enough, why did she have to add to it?

– TATTOOED MISTAKES –

SIX MONTHS AGO - SEPTEMBER

For the first time, Keira felt uncomfortable sitting with the rest of the cheer squad in the cafeteria. She felt so out of place. Roz was with Zephyr and Zach, distracted with trying to comfort Zephyr as best they could. Her heart went out to him. She knew him well enough by now to know how important Alonzo was to him. He was practically Zephyr's whole world, and he had been for years. It couldn't be easy to be torn apart out of nowhere and be told they couldn't see each other, at least not until visiting hours were open. Still, if she went to join them, she'd feel wrong there, as well. She couldn't understand what all of this meant to the zombies. She was human. She had no idea what it was like. She had no idea what they could be experiencing because of this, or what Al could be experiencing in containment.

The whole room was buzzing with gossip and rumours. Everyone had heard by now that a zombie had killed and eaten a human, but far too many of them didn't have the full story. Keira, however, was close to the situation. Uncomfortably close. And it was weighing on her.

"Zed!" Addison's voice called from nearby – the next table over – and Keira looked up as Zed, Eliza and Bonzo joined her and Bree. Addison and Bree both hugged their boyfriends tightly as soon as they were close enough and Keira felt a twinge of jealousy, but she kept watching. They wouldn't have seen each other in the past week, like she hadn't seen Roz. And she suspected they might not have been able to talk much, either.