𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 | 𝐙𝐢𝐜𝐤 [𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐙𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐲] ✔️

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒊𝒗𝒆.

September 1981.

I hurry down the stairs.

My friends go from the kitchen to the living room carrying the food back and forth as if it were their own house.

We had decided to rent some movies to watch in the evening, these days we had hardly gotten together for different reasons.

The phone starts ringing and I start walking to answer it but my mom gets there first. I hear her talking to someone but I don't pay attention.

My bad.

"Ziggy! It's for you," I frown. All my friends are here, they look up also confused.

"Who is it?", I ask starting to walk towards her.

"Mrs. Goode." I stop when I hear the name and immediately start to deny.

Why would Nick's mother call me?

It doesn't make sense. I've never crossed words with her. I've seen her, yes, but only on TV when we lived in Shadyside, I didn't even know her in person.

My mother covers the bottom of the phone and looks at me accusingly.

It reminds me of when she would scold Cindy and me after finding out we'd done something naughty.

"Nick Goode came looking for you once at Shadyside and you didn't even talk to him. Answer the phone Ziggy Berman, don't be rude", she orders me.

My friends are looking at me waiting for me to do something, but my mind is blank. I don't know how to react, I had never imagined a situation like this.

"Christine!" my mother exclaims again.

My friends look at me curiously.

Great, now they know my real name.

Teddy lets out a laugh but turns serious when I give him a bad look.

My heart races with every step I take and I hesitate whether to pick it up or not, my mother looks at me impatiently and almost throws it in my face, so I had no choice.

"Hello?" my voice sounds weak.

What if it was all a trap. What if the caller was Nick? I'm not ready for that.

"Ziggy Berman?" a sweet woman's voice sounds on the other end of the phone, that reassured me a little, but at the same time it hurt to know it wasn't him.

"Yes, Mrs. Goode, how can I help you?", this time my voice sounds normal.

New goal, get this conversation over with as quickly as I can.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I wanted to talk to you about Nick." I want to respond, but I can't.

She is silent waiting for me to say something.

"Well, you see...", she starts to speak when she realizes she won't get an answer from me "I wanted to ask you if you knew, well, if you knew if he ever dated anyone", she says hurriedly.

I definitely wasn't expecting that question.

I could tell the truth.

Or lie.

My gaze wanders off somewhere in the house.

"Looks like blood" he said. "Yeah, well, I didn't have a pig", I replied sarcastically. "Carrie, cool" he said with a smile.

"Ziggy?" Mrs. Goode's voice rings out again.

God, how embarrassing.

"Ni- Goode and I weren't close", liar, "but I never saw him with anyone."