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My sleep was cut off by my alarm blaring loudly. I let out a sleepy groan and fumbled my hand around until I managed to turn off the alarm.

It was a Monday and how I wished Monday never existed but we all know we'd end up hating Tuesday then.

I was feeling terrible, literally. My head was pounding, my nose felt stuffy and my throat was drier than Sahara freaking dessert.

I was locked up all day in my room yesterday, not bothering to eat nor go in the mood to go out of my room.

Mom and Jack were working late. Neo and Peggy were busy in their own world, hanging out with their own friends to even notice.

The sun just came up but it was only then did I feel myself doze off. My slumber didn't last long before my door opened wildly.

"Good morning precious twin! It's monday and we have freaking school!" Neo's voice flitted in my ear, his footsteps moving closer to me.

I mumbled a few incoherent replies, my mind was so tired that I can't even think about what happened yesternight.

The blankets was ripped from me, immediately shivering at the cold temperature that nipped on my hot skin.

"Zoe! Wake up! We have classes and I can't be late for school! I have business to do!" He whined, stomping foot wildly.

I didn't move a fraction.

He took a hold of my hand to pull me up but immediately felt him let go when he noticed how my temperature was clearly higher than normal.

He placed a hand on my forehead, frowning."What the hell? You're burning up Zoe! Mom! Mom! Zoe's sick!" He called out, waiting for a reply that didn't come.

He muttered a curse, before taking his phone out and dialing a number.

"WOMAN! I'M FREAKING COMMUNICATING WITH YOU. I REPEAT ZOE IS FREAKING SICK! I NEED A MOTHER'S CARE HERE A-S-A-P!" He bellowed at the phone, making me grimace as the pounding on my head grew stronger.

I actually felt him wince when a loud reply was also heard from the other end before loud footsteps could be heard.

My mom stood at the door not a moment after, glaring at Neo before moving to him and pinching his arm. A pained yelp came from him before he dashed out of the room, escaping his pissed off mother.

My mom had on a deadly face but when she caught a sight of me, a gasp could be heard escaping from her lips.

She made a dash towards me, putting a hand to my forehead before cursing lowly and dashing out of the room.

Coming back after a few minutes with a cold compress, a wet towel, and a few medical supplies.

"What happened honey? You have a flu, since when were you sick?" She asked, her expression morphed into one of concern.

What happened? Well basically mom, Tyrone and I called off our non-existint friendship and being the stubborn lady that I am, walked home on the cold pouring rain above me without even thinking of the consequences.

"It's nothing mo-achoo!" I sneezed loudly, my nose feeling itchy and completely stuffed.

Mom glared at me,"Don't you lie to me Zoe, since when were you sick?" She repeated, wiping my face with the towel.

I sighed," I-achoo! I think yesterda-choo!" My answers were cut off by my terrible sneezes.

She winced before putting the cold compress on my forehead and proceeded to wipe my body with the wet towel, occasionally going back and forth to the bathroom.

"Thanks mom." I gave her a weak smile, followed by a loud sneeze.

She forced me to eat some soup, a few chocolate bars that were essential and making me drink a dose of medicine.

Neo walked right in. He wasn't wearing his pajamas earlier but was now wearing a simple shirt and fitted jeans.

He apologized to mom, who glared at him pulling her in a side hug. After that, he bent down to my level, giving me a chaste kiss on the forehead.

"Get well bitch, we still need you here on earth okay?" He muttered, offering me a smile.

I half coughed and laugh,"Thanks nemo fish, don't miss me too much at school." I croaked out, earning a grin from him.

"Honey, I have a morning shift that starts at 9. I can't be absent because I'm the acting head nurse at the moment. Would you like Jack to watch on you?" Mom asked, a worried look on her face.

My mom works as a nurse at a private hospital while Jack, my step dad, was an owner of a local restaurant.

That would be an absolute no. Besides, we kinda don't get along much since he's uptight especially on the simple things that occur in the house. The only thing we actually get along is about my part-time job.

"No need mom, I can manage. Just cook me something before you leave and some medicine." I answered sleepily.

The only thing that I remember before completely dozing off is my mom's soft kiss on my forehead.

The next time I woke up, I felt even worse. I could feel myself sweating profusely, and my stomach gnawing painfully.

The tissues that was beside my bed was almost gone because I've been sneezing alot this past few hours.

I thought walking on the rain was a romantic type of kind?

It is when you're not walking alone dumb ass, my subconscios thought.

I groaned weakly, I know mom had already left along with Jack. She woke me up one hour ago saying she has to go and to call her if anything happens.

My stomach grumbled loudly, something that I can't ignore for long.

I stood weakly from my bed sniffing, taking the box of tissues with me and wrapping the blanket around me.

I half walked-drag myself out of the room, not even caring that the blanket is touching the floor.

Heading straight to the kitchen, I heated up the soup that mom had left behind and sitting at one of the stools, holding a tissue as I let out another loud sneeze followed by a cough.

I hate sneezes.

They shook you to your absolute core. Especially the ones where you have a stuffy nose to the point that you have to open your mouth just to breath properly, ugh.

I let out a yawn, rubbing a hand on my face. The sound of doorbell almost made me fall out of the stool in surprise.

Groaning, I moved my body out of the chair, the blanket dragging behind me with the tissue box on my arm.

Opening the door, my expression widened for a brief moment before letting out a loud sneeze, mucus sliding out of my nose.

For the first time in 24 hours, a genuine smile flitted into my lips. The laughter that followed my embarrassing scene rang in my pounding head loudly.

Using the tissue, I wiped the evidence out of my face and started to weakly laugh at their reaction.

Chica, Jax and Eliki were laughing like a bunch of hyenas. Chica was half gasping and laughing on the floor. Eliki was banging her fist unto Jax who was also holding his stomach, trying to contain his laughter.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, my voice scratchy and hoarse.

They continued laughing until I crossed my arms and glare at them, immediately sobering them up.

"You're mom called me ginger, saying to check up on you after class because you were sick." Eliki started, a frown on her lips."Since I love you so much, I decided to just skip school and take care of you and then this two came up to me saying they overheard our conversation and they wanted to go with me to also take care of you and here we are." She finished, lamely bringing her hands up in a 'T'

I shook my head,"You idiots, I can take care of myself." I said, before remembering my soup and making my way to the kitchen hurriedly.

"Mi casa es tu casa idiots!" I called back, giving them the permission to enter.

They entered in without a second. The soft thud of the door closing and their footsteps resonated in the house as they made their way to the kitchen.

"You have a cute home," Chica murmured, taking one of the seats at the table.

Eliki snorted."Wait until you see her room, it's so messy that you'd actually thought that a boy lives there and not a girl." She said, shaking her head.

I frowned, preparing a bowl of soup."Hey! It's not my fault that my stuff doesn't cooperate with me," I defended, taking a sip of it.

Eliki shook her head,"Cooperate? They're non-living objects Zoe. They wouldn't move an inch no matter how much you shout at them to find a corner to stuff theirselves into." She deadpanned, making me turned even more red.

"Chica's room creates mountains when she's choosing an outfit," Jax piped in, a teasing tone on his voice.

"I do not!"

"You do, you're like a dog digging into your closet with clothes flying and muttering 'where is it' and then when you find it, you pick up all the pile of clothes and push it into your fricking closet just like that!" Jax exclaimed, shaking his head.

"What do you want me to do Jax? Apologize to them profusely and start folding them one by one again when knowing the next day it'll just be a disaster again?" Chica sarcastically said.

I covered my nose quickly before letting out a sneeze,"See? We all have our own mess to clean." I pointed out, giving Eliki a look.

The room suddenly turned silent, their expressions changing into a solemn one.

"We know what happened Zoe," Jax softly said, it was so soft that I almost couldn't hear it.

I took a spoonful of my soup, acting as if I didn't hear what he said until Eliki sighed.

"Zoe, don't bottle it up. It wouldn't do you good." Eliki piped in.

"It's nothing Eliki." I replied, avoiding eye contact.

Eliki was about to say something when I slammed my hand on the table, some of the soup spilling out."I said I don't want to talk about it." I snapped, my anger getting the best of me.

"I know we haven't known each other long Zoe but believe me when I say I consider you as my friend and someone I could trust. You can talk to us Zoe." Chica gently said, not even bothered by my sudden outburst.

I don't know if it was because of the words 'consider a friend' or how genuine Chica truly sounded that I found myself suddenly crying.

After walking away from Tyrone, I cried all the way home but once I stepped foot on my house, the only thing I felt was my aching heart and puffy eyes.

I just numbly made my way into my bathroom, sat on the toilet seat the whole night with wet clothes as Tyrone's words replaying over and over in my head like damn recorder.

I didn't even get a proper sleep that night. My brain was on a overdrive and when the sun was up did I finally managed to sleep only to be woken up a few hours later by a nightmare about it.

One question rang in my mind as I heard Chica saying those words.

"Then why can't he consider giving me a chance?" I cried, shaking my head sadly.

I could feel their expression drop at my words. Eliki stood up from her seat, made her way to me and pulled me in for a hug.

I cried harder, wrapping my arms around her. I felt Chica move closer to me and tied my hair into a bun to prevent it from sticking on my wet face.

"I'm sorry Zoe, If I didn't force you both on those conditions of mine then you wouldn't get hurt." Chica apologized, rubbing her hand at my back comfortingly.

"It's not your fault Chica neither is its Jax. It's my fault for actually thinking that I could change his mind." I replied, pulling away from them.

"It's his loss." Jax chimed in."He might be my friend but that was low of him to do that to you." He shook his head, a frown marrying his features.

I sniffled, wiping my tears."Its his lost indeed. I mean, I'm fucking awesome for cookie's sake!" I let out, giving them a teary smile.

I wouldn't dwell on it much, if he doesn't want to be friends then I guess all I can say is atleast I did my best to show hin that I can be a good friend.

And besides, it's really satisfying to know that you actually did something rather than hope and wish that fate would use their magic and do something about.

You need to know when to give up sometimes, because holding on can cause more harm than good.

"Are you okay now? We're not gonna push you to talk about it okay?" Chica said, brushing some hair away from my face.

As much as I trust them, I still didn't have the energy to talk about what happened and I felt relieved that they didn't push.

"I'm good," I sniffled."Thank you for trusting me and for being here guys." I smiled softly, my eyes glancing at Jax and Eliki also.

"That's what are friends for ginger." She pressed a soft kiss on the crown of my head."Stop crying, you're stronger than that." Eliki said, giving me a comforting smile.

I shook my head before fixing my bun and wiping my tears and wet face with the back of my sweater.

Jax suddenly beamed, glancing knowing gazes at the other two."Speaking of making you strong, tadaaa!"

"What the fricking bologna is that?" I let out, my mouth turning in a grimace.

Jax held up a transparent water bottle, what made me recoil was the fact that it had a green liquid inside.

Eliki giggled."Oh this? We made it." She proudly says."We went back into my house to do this smoothie before coming over here." Taking the bottle from him and shaking it gently.

"It's really good for sick people," Chica added, an evil smile on her face.

I felt myself pale.

"I'm not drinking that garbage. What the hell did you even use to make it look that green?" I asked, shaking my head.

"Well, you see, green is the universal color for good health right? So, we bought all green vegetables like broccoli, mint leaves, cabbage, cucumber and heck, we even added green apples!" Jax explains, a proud smile on his face.

"It's called a fifty shades of green smoothie!" He added, his eyes bright.

"Please don't make me drink that," I pleaded, eyeing Chica who was now pouring it into a glass.

I felt myself stand up, ready to run but was caught into a strong hold-Jax.

"Oh noodles! Don't you even dare! If you make me drink that garbage I won't hesistate on spitting it all on you!" I threatened, my eyes wide with terror.

Eliki scoffed playfully,"Bitch, you wouldn't dare." She mocked, coming closer to me.

"I swear to my teeth Eliki, I would take a big gulp and spit it in you so fast that you'd wonder why you did it in the first place." I sarcastically snapped, trying to pull away from Jax's grasp.

They all bursted out laughing while I breathed heavily, glaring at the green liquid with distaste.

"Oh gods, your reaction to everything would never fail to amuse me Zoe." Jax laughed, clutching his stomach.

I rolled my eyes, but a smile flittered on my lips at his words. I might've fail to make Tyrone my friend but I guess, I earned two more in the process of trying.

To all the #rrcardishes, you've probably noticed the changes that weren't there before, starting from the first chapter up until the upcoming ones.

I've been editing the book and adding new scenes, deleting some scenes that my sixteen year old self thought was cool.

This is two chapters that I decided to converge. Chapter 14 that was previously name 'Sneezes that shook your core' and added Chapter 15: Fifty Shades of Green Smoothie with it.

Question of the day: What's your favorite book?

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You are loved, You are beautiful, You are you.

-ElaBearXx