I did it. I apologized to Diane. I saw them together. And I survived.
*****
I lay on the couch. My mind is completely detached from my body. I strain to hear Mom and Presley in the other room. Liv, Trey, and Marcus kept talking about her in the hospital. They’re telling me we dated, but I can't remember her. If we dated, why isn’t she here, forcing me to remember her? Why is she staying away from me? She didn’t say anything to me. Maybe we weren’t serious enough. Maybe she’s using the fact that I can't remember, as a way to end our relationship, but it doesn’t feel like it.
She is cute though. She doesn’t need a lot to look beautiful, and I was definitely excited to see her. Excitement at something I didn’t fully understand shot through me, my body reacted to her on its own while the leech was obsessively placing open mouth kisses along my neck. Just what I need, showing up to school tomorrow with my neck looking like a spotted leopard. I can hear the disdain in Olivia’s voice already.
I don’t know who to believe right now. My friends tell me one thing, but Heather tells me another. I remember dating her this summer, and then my mind goes blank, a huge chunk of memory just vanished.
Presley walks through the living room, and she offers a minuscule smile when Heather says goodbye. She doesn’t stop. Doesn’t say a single damn thing to me, just continues out the front door; I follow her like a damn puppy. I am physically drawn to her. Heather calls after me, but I don’t care.
I’m rendered frozen on the front porch at the sight of her climbing into Mr. Keller’s classic truck. I’ve admired that truck for years, I’ve begged to drive it, but it’s always sat in the garage until Gramps takes it out to one of the classic car shows or drives it in the Fourth of July parade through town. And now she is sitting behind the wheel of it. As she wipes her eyes, I stand on the porch feeling responsible for her pain. She stares angrily at me before driving away, leaving me with a pang threatening to tear me apart.
Making my way back inside, Heather is still on the couch, and Mom is making herself busy in the kitchen.
“Get out.”
“Excuse me?”
“Get out, Heather.”
“But Bricee. I’m here to help you.”
“It sure doesn’t feel like help. I’m confused as it is, and right now you aren’t making things better. In fact, it all feels wrong. The only reason you are even here right now, is because I remember dating you and only you. Trey and Marcus have told me a few things about you. I’m still trying to figure out for myself.”
An expression flashes across her face, too quick for me to decipher. “What, what did they tell you?” she stammers
She seems a little on edge and scared, just another thing for me to figure out by myself, but judging from her reaction, maybe there is some truth to what I was told.
“Just get out. And don’t call me Bricee. It’s Brice, or maybe Robert, I don’t know right now. Just leave.”
Mom’s leaning against the wall that leads into the kitchen, a proud smirk on her face, making me feel as if I just did something incredibly smart.
“You’re making a mistake,” Heather says as she stops at the front door.
I can hear a hint of sadness in her voice, but I need to do this for me right now.
“So, what are we?”
I give her the most honest answer I can think of. “I don’t know. But today I need you to leave. Tomorrow might be better.”
She gives me a small smile, her lips gently curving before she heads out the door saying good night.
I look over at my mom and she knows before I even say two words. “Come here. Let’s get you reacquainted with Robert.”
Over the next several hours we spend looking at pictures of when I was younger. There are a few of Presley. Mom shows me the legal documents changing our names, and the date Brice was created. She answers any questions I have about Robert but refuses to talk about Presley, I’m told only Presley can answer those.
Chapter Twenty-eight
The first bell of the day has rung, and I’m still sitting in my truck. The full magnitude of my memory loss hits me as I come to terms that everything about Presley has vanished. It’s the end of March; normally I would feel ecstatic about walking out of here in two short months as a high school graduate, but what if I don’t graduate? What if everything I have learned this last semester is gone. All my finals will be tests of the material I’ve learned since Christmas. There’s no way I can fit three months of knowledge into pretty much a month and a half plus keep pace with the new stuff being taught.
If I don’t graduate, I don’t play. It’s simple.
A knock on my window startles me. Coach stands outside of my door, so I roll the window down.
“You don’t attend class, you don’t play on Friday night.”
I nod, and roll the window back up, pull my backpack from the passenger seat, and get out of the truck. The building casts an intimidating shadow in my direction as the sun peaks over the roofline.
“What if I’ve forgotten all of it?”
“Then you’ll get a tutor, work your butt off and move forward. Now let’s go.” His hand claps against my shoulder blade as he gives me a slight push. “Do you remember your first class?”
“History, I think.”
“Well, there ya go.”
I’m shocked I got it right. Things are a bit hazy as I sit in class, listening to the teacher lecture about World War II, but slowly things start coming back to me. The rest of the morning goes the same way, and by the time lunch rolls around, I’m confident in my ability to graduate on time. Maybe since I didn’t have classes with Presley, they weren’t affected in any way.
At lunch, I sit at the table with Liv, Trey, Marcus, and Heather. Presley walks by, glances at Liv and then finds a table alone outside. Liv, Trey, and Marcus all look at each other seemingly affected, and then out of nowhere, I get a backhand to the head.
“Oww. What was that for?”
“Because you deserved it. And I’m hoping to jog your memory again,” Liv says sarcastically. “You took my best friend away.”
“Well maybe she wasn’t that good of a friend,” I say under my breath.
Heather laughs while Liv shoots daggers in my direction.
“For your information, she isn’t sitting here right now because of you. So, you will get smacked every day until she is back at this table.”
There’s no way Liv will hold true to her threat; it doesn’t even make sense.
“Oh, and by the way, you look disgusting. You better hope those spots on your neck clear up before Friday’s game.” She rolls her eyes before going back into a conversation with Trey and Marcus; the three of them act like they want nothing to do with Heather and me.
I watch Presley pick at her lunch, sitting alone at one of the picnic tables. Coach sits down with her for a few minutes, she smiles a little, but it’s one of those forced smiles; she looks tired. They talk about something and then he gets up, leaving her alone again. I want to go over to her, but what would I even say? I’m sorry? Can we talk? I am sorry she’s hurting, but I don’t know her well enough to grasp why and I’m not ready for the answers to the questions I have. I know, I’m a freaking chicken right now, but how do I completely lose all memory of one person and why her?