AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Down with a cold. Super gross. You don't want any of this.
It was exactly what I had texted to Carrie two months before, so I knew it sounded authentic. Of course, she’d texted me back that I didn't have to worry, because her children had brought home every germ within a 500 mile radius. She claimed I'd probably gotten sick from her gremlins, and it was probably true.
Greyson, on the other hand, texted me back offering to bring me soup and take care of me once he got away from work. I didn’t want to think about what urgent things Greyson had to take care of.
I just needed a break from all of them, and from the way it felt like they were sweeping me away into a new future, but away from my real past.
I got into the Civic and drove to the outskirts of the city.
Greyson, Carter, Jack, and Sebastian had gone to high school on the outskirts of the city. I drove past the hospital that had once been my home, then found myself stuck in rush hour traffic until I reached the outskirts of the city and the traffic eased. Everyone was trying to get into the city, not out of it, this early.
A restless, anxious feeling swept over me. My knee jiggled anxiously, and I tapped to the steering wheel, not quite in tune with the music I was listening to. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was making a terrible mistake. But I had to know.
And what did it say about the secrets in my past that it seemed as if my brain went into full nervous alert about the thought of untangling them? What had happened in my past?
I drove to the high school first. If the guys had gone to school together, maybe I had gone to school with them. Maybe they knew me from when we were teenagers.
I pulled into the parking lot of the school, a squat gray brick building. It definitely didn't look like one of the high schools from one of my favorite teen movies, likeCluelessorTen Things I Hate About You.
I went up to the door and tried it before realizing there was a sign telling me to buzz in. I pressed the doorbell, and a voice came over the intercom. “What can I help you with?”
I'd thought that I would be face to face with a person when I asked these vulnerable questions. I stared at the intercom, trying to figure out a way to ask for what I wanted that didn't sound insane.
Nothing came to me.
“I wanted to find out if a student ever attended here.”
“Why?”
“Well, I have amnesia, and I think I might have been a student here at one point...”
“Is this for real, or is this a plot point from a soap opera?” a young voice asked behind me.
“This definitely seems like one of those fake TikTok stories,” another kid said.
I turned to face two teenage girls, who smiled at me, then waved to the admin through the window, and I realized for the first time that there was a magenta-haired older lady watching us. She visibly sighed and pressed the buzzer. A little alarm sounded, and one of the kids reached out and grabbed the door.
“Come on in,” she said in a friendly voice. “I am dying to know how your story ends.”
“Me too,” I said.
The three of us went together through the little lobby and into the door of the office.
“So you two are late again, absolutely shocking,” the elderly lady said to the two of them. To me, she said, “Just give me a second to get them into class. Hopefully in time to learn something today.”
“I am so ready to be educated,” one of the girls said, wide eyed.
The woman scoffed and gave them each a little paper slip.
Then she turned to me. “How can I help you, again?”
The two girls lingered in the doorway. She didn't even look at them as she raised a finger to point. “Out. Stop trying to miss math class on purpose.”
“I don't think we should be blamed for trying to escape algebra,” one girl murmured to the other one as they headed down the hall.
The lady’s look on her face said,I don't get paid enough.
I agreed with her. On general principle.
