I looked at the piano again, walking beside it slowly, but ignored it as my hand instinctively reached for my guitar. I pulled it off the stand and took a seat at the white bench, letting my fingers run through the strings. I wasn’t sure what song I was playing—I couldn’t make it out. My fingers just plucked at the strings. It was a soft melody, and before I knew it, I was lost in it. Some time had passed when I stopped, and someone was standing behin d me.
“Sounds beautiful, Elvis.” It was the sweet voice I’ve heard my entire life.
“Thanks, Mom,” I said, without turning ar ound.
She put her hands on my shoulders, kissing the top of my head.
“I’ll be upstairs doing some work in the study if you need me,”
she said.
I nodded without saying anything back. I stayed seated for a few minutes longer, but I couldn’t stop overthinking. Upstairs, I heard the doorbell ring, and Lizzie went to answe r it.
“Hi, Logan,” Lizzie greeted him cheerf ully.
Allison’s voice suddenly joined with his, but I tuned them out. I was almost positive that Allison would be telling Logan about the night before, seeing as those two don’t keep any secrets from each o ther.
I walked out of the music area, heading to the stairs, and ran straight up to the third floor, two steps at a time. I strode into my bedroom and took out a pair of jeans that were folded on the top shelf in my closet and a blue t -s hirt . While looking for my watch, I had spotted something gold on the seat of the chair where I placed my pair of jeans the night before. I reached for it—the bracelet from the a lley.
I stared at it in the palm of my hand for a moment then closed my fist and opened my bottom dresser drawer, throwing it in. Before I left my room, I picked up the black shirt I had worn the night before, slightly stained with the girl’s blood. I kept my eyes on it for a minute, thinking what little blood was on this material in comparison to what was on her clothes. Lizzie was walking across the hall when she stopped outside my door and we made eye con tact.
“Would you like me to take that from you, Elvis?” Lizzie a sked.
“Sure, thanks,” I said slowly as my voice cra cked.
Lizzie held out her hand in front of me, gesturing for me to hand her my shirt, and I placed it into her hand with hesitation. But as she tried to pull it towards her, I held on. She looked up and into my eyes as if she could read my thou ghts.
“I will wash it and put it back in your room,” she said reassuri ngly.
I nodded, releasing the shirt. I had to get out of there. I walked quickly to the stairs, running down to the bottom and heading straight for the front doors. My dad was standing behind it, holding my car keys in his hand. He held them in the open palm of his hand and gestured for me to take them back.
“Stay out of trouble,” he said.
My mom walked over to stand beside him and wrapped her arms around his big build with a grin on her face.
“I can have my car back?” I a sked.
“For now,” he answered, lifting his arm and gently resting it on my mother’s shoul ders.
I looked at both of them with the keys in my hand.
“Thanks,” I said, making my way out into a beautiful, sunny day in June.
CHAPTER TWO
For over a year after that night, she crossed my mind every day.
I waited on any type of information to come about a girl found in an alley, but nothing came up on the news. I struggled to forget everything that had happened, and the memories would constantly replay in my sleep. It was a tough year to endure. Thankfully, the dreams started to become less frequent and eventually stopped completely. But I still wondered what had become of her. Had she survived? Every so often, I got flashbacks of the state she was in when I had found her. The sight of her lying there, covered in blood, wasn’t easy to erase from my memory. It was even harder to erase the knowledge that someone’s life had hung in my hands, and that it was only by chance that I’d found her at all. Hopefully, I had found her in time.
I graduated high school just a couple of weeks after that night and decided to skip my prom since I wasn’t exactly in the mood to celebrate my graduation. Instead, I drove to Whistler and spent that weekend at our family cottage. Allison and Logan had wanted to join me—they thought they were doing me a favour by offering to keep me company—but I refused their offer and told them I wanted to be alone. In fact, I begged my entire family to stop giving me the special treatment with all their sympathy. I kept reminding them this wasn’t about me. The best thing they could do was pray that the girl was all right and stop talking to me about it at all.
After that, I would avoid them anytime they tried to bring it up with me. I kept to myself as much as I could, living with my flashbacks and cold sweats, but telling them that I was fine. I let it build up inside just so that I didn’t have them feeling sorry for me. I wanted to avoid the topic of the girl at all costs, but no matter what I did, they would all look at me with concern, like I was on the verge of breaking—all except for my father who would grin my way every time he saw me. He actually eased up on me quite a bit afterwards. He had tried to talk to me about it once, shortly after the incident, but I quickly stopped him, begging him not to bring it up anymore since I was desperate to forget about it and move on. I guessed he couldn’t have had too much to say to me because he just nodded and walked away. I can’t deny that I appreciated that from him.
At times, I would catch the rest of my family discussing that night in hushed tones, talking about how terrible it must have
been for me. They would all shush each other as soon as I entered the room, changing the subject really fast.
Liam and Philip were truly disappointed I didn’t attend my prom, especially with the lame excuse I gave them.
“It’s too late to find a prom date,” I claimed. “I don’t want to go solo since you both have d ates.”
“You could have any girl you lay eyes on, El. Why would you not just ask Naomi? She really wants you to take her to prom.”
But I wouldn’t giv e in.
I stood by the decision even if it meant I might regret missing my prom night. They couldn’t understand my reasoning. How could they? I never told them about the tragedy of what had happened.
But since Liam and Philip knew me so well, they knew I was keeping something from them, and I could tell they had a feeling I was making excuses. Eventually, they forgave my absence on prom night and decided to show up unannounced at the cottage the next day to continue the celebration with me. At first, I wasn’t pleased, but it turned around and I actually appreciated their company. Liam, always the more observant one, noticed my unstable mood.
“I know something is up with you, El. We’ve been best friends since Grade 2. You can’t lie to me,” he said one night while we were sitting out on the terrace, staring at the village lighting up the mountains of Whistler. Philip had passed out inside the cottage on the c ouch.
I looked away from him, focusing on the sight down b elow.
“Some things you just want to forget about, Liam. Bringing it up constantly is no help. That’s why I’m here, far away from everyone and everything, so a little help from you to forget would be appreciated, all r ight?”
Liam looked confused but intri gued.