Confide In You (Zack Merrick Fanfic)

Chapter 6

It felt like a searing pain that shot up my spine. It felt as if someone was trying to slice up my back. My heart monitor machine picked up it's beeping slightly. This was the first physical pain I'd felt in months.

I could still hear Marina turn a page of her book. She had told me about it before she'd retreated into reading it. My mind felt as if it were shaking and blacking out.

___

Within a second, my vision was a blinding white, but then it dulled to a medium shade of gray. I blinked. I was blinking. I took a deep breath, reveling in the scent of medicine and bleach. I sat up slightly to see a girl beside my bed.

The light from the window illuminated her face. Her eyes appeared a dark gray, her hair long and curly, and just as dark as her eyes. A book in front of her face, a slight smile upon her lips. She appeared to be glowing, due to the light from the window. She felt familiar, but I didn't quite know how.

"Beautiful." I mumbled as I gazed at her. Her eyes widened and she met my gaze. I'd never been that good with girls...or words, so my vocabulary left me, and I had no idea what to say. Tears filled her eyes and she covered her mouth.

"Zack..." She breathed. Even her voice sounded angelic to me. I smiled at her shyly. Her eyes held so many indescribable things within their depths. My gut clenched at the sight of her. "Um, hi."

"Hi." I whispered back to her. We stared at each other for a few moments. "You're really beautiful." I told her, making her face flush.

"No, I'm not, not really." She replied back to me. I chuckled, how could she not see?

"Please, don't argue with me. Tell me your name." The air between us was thick with emotion. Her eyes looked sad, but she spoke anyway.

"Marina Lau-"

"Laurel. Right?" I asked. She nodded slowly. I looked to the bedside table. I picked up the picture frame with shaky hands. "This is you...at...your uh, spring dance?" She nodded again.

"You remember me?"

"I know who you are. I know a lot of other things, but, I don't remember meeting you. Are you my girlfriend or something?"

"No. You uh, didn't really meet me. My, erm, dad was down the hall, and I came in one day."

"Your dad. He...smoked..lung cancer?" She nodded slowly with a soft 'yes'. "He talked to me. That night."

"Which night?"

"The night..he..died? Yeah, that night." I concentrated on trying to remember what he'd said to me. Only snippets came to mind. "I can't remember what he said to me though."

"T-That's okay." She touched my hand, and I laced our fingers together. "Do you remember anything else?"

"Yeah. There's a lady here, Linda's her name. She works here? And her..son..died?" I spoke as memories of darkness but words filtered into my mind. "And my mom, she said I was erm, adopted. And my sister, Emily, I was supposed to make her French toast." A doctor had come in and was watching me talk to Marina.

"Zackary, can you tell me your full name, birthday and age, please?" The doctor asked me. I nodded.

"My name's Zackary Steven Merrick, I was born on April twenty-first, and I'm seventeen." I answered.

"Okay, Zackary, you're actually eighteen, you had a birthday." The doctor said, his voice emotionless. I nodded again, taking the information in. "Do you know why you're here?"

"I was walking home...from somewhere..and some guys beat me up...so uh, so uh...I'm here."

"Do you know that you were in a coma?"

"It felt like I was sleeping and eavesdropping."

"Okay, then. Marina, don't overcharge him, I'm going to contact his family. Linda should be in shortly." The doctor left briskly. I squeezed Marina's hand. I turned to her.

"I really like you." I said chuckling. She flushed and covered her face. "He won't hurt you. Not anymore."

"You remember that...?"

"I remember lots." I scooted over in the bed. "Lie with me, Marina." She laid down in the small bed close to me. Neither of us said anything to each other for a while. I ran my fingers along Marina's spine as she stared up at me. I didn't even second-guess my actions.

I pressed my lips to her's. She melted into my touch as our lips slotted together softly. I smiled into the kiss and deepened it. Her fingers ran through my hair. We continued on like that until we both needed to breath. When we broke apart, I gazed down into her dark, deep gray eyes. There was so much I wanted to say to her, but couldn't find the correct words.

Somehow, we both started laughing at nothing. Her little giggling reminding me of jingling sleigh bells. I kissed her again, enjoying the simple fact that I was awake once again.

A woman who looked about the same age as my mother walked into the room not too long after me and Marina had stopped kissing. She grinned widely and came over to me. For some reason, I sat up a little and opened my arms so she could embrace me. She also felt really familiar, but no name in my mind matched her face.

"I'm Linda, sweetheart. How are you feeling?" The woman told me as she pulled back. My eyes widened as the information sunk into my brain.

"Hi, Linda. I'm feeling really good. I mean, it's really cool to say that." I chuckled nervously. It was weird calling her by her first name out loud, I was used to addressing every adult with a Mrs. or Mr. before their name. It was just a sign of respect that I could never break out of.

"That's good to hear. I see you've seen Marina." She gave me a playful wink. I glanced at Marina to find her blushing. "Dr. Rhineheart told me that you can recall a lot of what you heard during the six months you were unconscious. Is that right?"

"Yeah. I remember stuff, like I remember you telling me about your son, Cody. You know, I used to swim a lot, mostly during the summer, but I'm not very good at it." I replied with a small smile. She blinked and looked at the ground.

"Do you remember what happened to Cody?" She asked me softly.

"He was hit by a drunk driver on his way home from practice one night." I answered sadly. She nodded but gave me a weak smile. "He's okay, Linda. He's alright. Sometimes, people come into our lives to teach us things, but we have to move on after they've left us."

"Bless your heart, Zack." She choked out. She embraced me once more and kissed my forehead before leaving. I felt terrible for making her cry. I had hoped that my words would've soothed her, but they seemed to had made things worse. Marina placed a hand on my shoulder.

"She's okay. She's still in mourning, but each day gets easier. Nothing you said was wrong." Marina assured me. I nodded slowly. "So, what else do you remember?"