10. Chapter 10
Charlotte
The bright lights and strong smell of disinfectant assault my senses as I wake. There are wires everywhere and the hope this was just some nightmare is blown away. This is real life. My life.
Slumping back down into the pillows, I recount everything that’s happened in the last however many hours.
My parents are gone; I’ll never see them again.
The weight of the loss of them sits heavily on my heart, and I know I’ll never be the same.
How could the universe be so cruel and take them both from me?
Wren’s currently asleep in a chair while Sawyer watches over her. He’s a friend of her brothers, so I’m not sure what he’s doing here, and they’ve never gotten along. That’s a question for another day.
Looking around, I notice the other guy has gone.
Who was he? He looked so crestfallen when I didn’t recognize him.
Was he my boyfriend? No, I’m pretty sure Wren said he was my best friend, but that can’t be.
I have male friends, but none that look like…
him. He is the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.
Tall, with dark brown hair and dark, soulful eyes that stared at me with such intensity. And the way his shirt hugged his arms?
Guilt prickles inside that I can’t remember. I hate to be the reason he looked like that. Is that why he isn’t here now? Because of me? The thought causes tears to pool, threatening to spill over at any moment, then I think about my parents again and I can’t stop the loud sob that wracks my body.
The noise jolts Wren awake. “Oh my god, babe, come here.” She rushes to sit on the bed and does her best to wrap an arm around me.
“It-it’s all just t-too much, y-you know?” My brain is firing a mile a minute, and it hurts like hell, but I’m desperate for answers. Desperate for him to come back and I don’t even know why. “Where did that man go?”
“Jake? He’s just gone home to get some fresh clothes and he’ll be back,” Wren reassures me as she strokes my hair.
“You said he’s my best friend? I can’t think of any Jakes that I know.”
She gives me a sad smile. “Do you remember having a pen pal?” I dig deep into the recess of my mind and I come up blank, shaking my head.
“Shit, you really don’t remember him, do you?” The way she’s saying this tells me he’s definitely important to me. “It’s probably best if I let him explain to you who he is. It might refresh your memory.” She smiles hopefully. God, I hope so too.
Closing my eyes and letting sleep take me yet again, I pray the next time I wake up, I’ll remember the handsome man and what he means to me.
Just then, there’s a knock at the door and there he is, holding a bunch of beautiful pink flowers and a stuffed animal.
The look on his face is pure sadness. No, scratch that, he looks heartbroken.
The dark circles under his eyes suggest he hasn’t slept well for days and that doesn’t sit right with me. But why?
Wren clears her throat. “I’m going to go and catch up on some work, and leave you guys to talk, ok?” She looks me over, making sure I’m ok being left alone with the guy I don’t remember. Nodding, I watch her and Sawyer leave with his hand pressed to the small of her back. Interesting.
Jake sits in the chair next to me, awkwardly rubbing his hands together. It’s clear he wants to touch me or try and comfort me, but since I no longer remember him, he doesn’t seem to think that’s the right thing to do. Definitely didn’t help that I flinched when he took a step toward me earlier.
The silence is deafening—neither of us know where to start. I’m not much of a talker with new people, but I get the feeling I’m going to have to throw him a bone.
“So, Wren said earlier your name is Jake?” I ask, hoping it’ll prompt him to carry on the conversation.
He takes a deep breath before answering, “Yeah but you like to call me J.” He smiles at the affectionate nickname I have for him, and I find myself smiling too, even if I don’t know what he’s talking about.
My mind desperately tries to place him, but every time I do, I come up empty.
“I’ve been your best friend since we were 10,” he says, and the anguish spread over his handsome face is tearing me apart.
God, this is awkward. So I tell him the truth as it is to me right now. “The only friend I had growing up was Wren.”
That was clearly the wrong thing to say, I might as well have just told him I kill kittens for sport. I need to change the subject before I put my foot in it again; maybe question time will have to wait.
I go back to thinking about my parents and I realize I don’t know how long I’ve been here.
Have they had funerals? I didn’t even get to say goodbye.
My throat clogs and I can’t speak—I feel so alone even though I’m not.
Tears are falling in earnest now. Jake reaches over and wipes them away with his thumbs and, to my surprise, I let him.
“Hey, hey. It’s ok, Lotts. I’m here,” he soothes, cupping my cheeks. Instinctively, I lean into it, soaking up the warmth and comfort he’s offering to me, not flinching once. “What’s going through that head of yours?” he asks.
“I just thought…I guess I’m going to have to start making funeral arrangements for my mom and dad, that’s if they haven’t already cremated them whilst I was…
you know. I don’t know how long I’ve been here.
” I tell him, my eyes downcast and trained on his forearms, one of which is covered in a beautiful tattoo—I can’t quite make out what it is, but the colors are striking.
“You’ve been here for just over three weeks. In regard to your parents, uhm…” he pauses and scratches the back of his neck. “You don’t need to make a decision straight away, it’s been taken care of for now. Let’s just focus on getting you out of here.”
Nodding slowly while I play with the pulse monitor on my thumb, I go back to asking questions to find out more about this mystery man.
“So, you said we’ve been best friends since we were 10. How did that happen as I didn’t live in San Diego then,” I question him.
“I’ll give you the cliff notes as I really want you to try and remember things about me organically, but here’s a general run down,” he takes a sip of his coffee, which he grimaces at, and then continues.
“Our schools participated in a pen pal program and we were paired up. We bonded, became best friends—other than Wren, of course. When you turned 18, I convinced you to come to college with me in San Diego as Wren was going to Harvard. And the rest, as they say, is history.”
There’s obviously a lot more to our history than that, but that’s all he’s willing to share with me for now, and that’s ok.
“How did you find out about the accident? I’m guessing you weren’t with me?”
“I’m your emergency contact, so I was the first person they called.”
Wow, he’s obviously very important to me then. I’m even more curious to know about him now, but my head is pounding with all this information. The pain meds kick back in and I close my eyes, drifting off to sleep—my dreams filled with a faceless man at a masquerade ball.