The Broken Girl and The Golden Boy

The Ski Trip Dilemma(s)

Chapter 32: Justin

"No, absolutely not," he shook his head, "It's completely out of the question."

"Chris, it doesn't make sense to go on the ski trip without you," I said, growing exasperated. All of us had gotten together - even Sean and Elena - to tell him that we were going to cancel our trip this year. We thought it would be a quick thing where we'd tell him and that'd be it. We were very wrong. For some reason, it had turned into a huge argument and Chris refused to budge, no matter what we said. "We've always done it as a group."

"What about the time Andy broke his arm and had to stay home?" he pointed out. Gesturing to his immobile legs, he added, "Just think of this as my 'broken arm'."

"They're really not the same thing, man," Ian said.

"Says who?" Chris retorted, "It's an injury and I can recover from it one day."

"Maybe," Andy mumbled, making Chris shoot a glare his way. He was trying to be intimidating, but lying there in a hospital gown, he wasn't scaring anybody.

"Look, if you guys don't go," he said seriously, "I will never forgive you." That made all of us go silent for a good minute or two, but this argument hadn't gone on for an hour because we were a bunch of pushovers.

"But you're in the hospital," Lindsey murmured, "Who will keep you company?"

"I could stay back," Elena offered, "I know we're not close, but..." She flinched slightly when Steven snorted derisively at the suggestion. I frowned. What was the deal with those two? They'd gone from almost disgustingly cute to... well, I'm not sure what it was. 

"Don't be ridiculous," Sean sighed, dragging a hand over his face, "I'm the odd man out here, I'll stay back. The rest of you should go enjoy the couples retreat." He shot a pointed look at Elena that made me even more suspicious, but I shook it off. It wasn't important right now and I could ask Steven about it later if I had to. Sean and Chris had patched things up - sort of - but things were still very tense between the two of them. I wasn't exactly sure that his suggestion was the best either.

"Maybe not, Sean," Piper started to speak, clearly thinking the same thing.

"No, I think it's fine," Chris interrupted her, "Sean can bring Shea here from tennis practice and they can keep me company. Darcy's busy with the wedding prep a lot of the time, but she can come by to see me sometimes too. I definitely won't be bored."

"But you don't -" Piper blurted.

"Don't what?" Chris challenged.

Piper paused, swallowing hard. It was obvious from the look on her face that she was biting back what she really wanted to say, "You don't get along."

"We can make nice for a week," Chris replied, glancing at Sean who nodded in agreement, "See? So go. You guys are starting to bother me anyway." He smiled slightly, "Chris, do you need some water? Chris, are you hungry? Chris, do you want us to get the nurses to give you your morphine? Chris, do you want to take a nap? Chris, Chris, Chris... At least Sean's not going to baby me."

The corners of Sean's mouth twitched up in amusement, "True... I'll just laugh at you if you ask me for anything."

"Now that," Chris said, pointing at him, "Sounds perfect right about now. Absolute heaven. In fact, Sean, you should move things out of my reach. Toughen me up and teach me to fend for myself."

"But you don't have to do that, Cristobal," Liv protested.

"That's where you're wrong, Liv," he replied, "I do have to. How else am I ever going to get better? Please, guys, just go. I need this." He looked around the room, his expression pleading.