AllFreeNovel
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She says, “I need to know everything. Why did you leave? Where have you been? I need all the adventure details.” Energy vibrates from her, but after dealing with Carter, it’s nice to be in the mix of her liveliness.
“Actually, I was hoping you could tell me a few things.” I sit on the chaise at the end of the bed, thinking she’s just the breakthrough I need to solve these mysteries in my life.
Her head tilts as her smile finally settles into something more subtle among friends who casually hang out. “What do you want to know?” she asks. “We’ve just been here not doing much of anything. Well—” She waves her hands again, waffling them back and forth. “You know how boring it gets around here.”
She sort of reminds me of myself. I wonder how close of friends we were and if we formed our habits together. “I’m still working on my site. Not a shocker, but it’s finally in the testing stages. Oh,” she says, dropping her feet to the floor and sitting forward. “Do you mind being a client for me? I really need someone from the outside to use it so we can find any bugs and fix them.”
“Sure.” I have no idea what I’m agreeing to. It’s been all of two minutes, but I can feel the connection to her, and trust for her. “I don’t know your name.” I didn’t intend to be so soft-spoken, but my worry for how she’ll react gets the better of me.
“What?” she asks, her smile growing but not quite reaching her eyes.
“I need to tell you something. Can I trust you?”
“Can you trust me?” She comes to sit beside me as confusion pinches her brow. “What do you mean? You know you can trust me with anything.” She looks down at her lap as soft laughter rattles her shoulders. “I never told anyone it was you that caused Joslin and Matt to break up when you made out with him at your sweet sixteen party. Or that you did it only to make Carter jealous. Not a peep left my lips when your parents found the fender of their Rolls dented, and they blamed Blake, who got sent to military school for lying about it since it was his third strike with trouble.” My stomach tightens as she continues, “Do I really need to remind you how you cut my ponytail off in second grade?”
I feel sick. “No. Please don’t. I sound like a horrible person.” I wanted to know my past, but I wasn’t prepared for this. Sadly, me and Carter might be more alike than I realized, so dating him makes more sense, quite honestly. And Loch saying I was rude tracks with what I’m hearing now. I sigh. Wow, I was a mean girl.
“What are you talking about, C?”
“I got someone sent to military school because of something I did . . .?”
“You got an asshole who tried to assault me sent away. I don’t feel an ounce of sympathy for him. Joslin had been fucking with you and Carter for years. You may have made out with Matt to make Carter realize what he had with you, but Matt and I wouldn’t be together now if you hadn’t exposed her cheating. I mean, it took him years to really see me as more than his hot friend.” Clicking her tongue, she then adds, “But he got there in the end.”
Her personality is so magnetic that she’s managed to make me feel less guilty for my bad behavior. Impressive. “And the haircut?”
“That was just a bitchy move.” She laughs. “There’s no excusing that, other than we were seven.”
How did she manage to make me feel better about the awful stuff I’ve done in the past? If one thing is apparent from this quick rundown of stories through the years, she’s loyal. I angle toward her, and confess, “I really don’t know your name.”
“Why do you keep saying that?”
“I was attacked in New York City. Mugged, actually. I hit my head and—”
Her hand covers her mouth just as she gasps. Lowering it, she asks, “You really don’t remember me?”
“I don’t remember anything. I didn’t even remember me. I still don’t. That’s why I’m back.”
I’m not sure how long she stares at me with eyes wider than I’d think possible, hand back over her mouth, but her silence is not doing us any favors. I shift and then eventually stand, walking back toward the window. Resting my hands on the sill, I finally can’t take it any longer. “Please say something.”
When she lowers her hand, her mouth remains dropped open. “I don’t know what to say, Céline.” Looking into the void of the far corner, she takes another moment before turning back, and asking, “You don’t remember anything?”
