I woke up in an all too familiar place, I was back in the hospital. This time I only had an IV in my hand and breathing tubes shoved up my nose – and I wasn’t alone in the room.The girl from earlier, Sylvia, was still there waiting anxiously on the chair next to the bed. She gasped and rushed over when she saw me move.“Isla, are you okay?” she asked.I stared at her for a few minutes, but no other memories flashed in my mind.“Are we friends?” I asked.“Why would you ask that? Of course, we are! What happened to you?”I wasn’t sure if I should tell her what happened. Was she really someone I knew before?“Where did we meet?” I asked.She looked confused but proceeded to tell me about the University and the dance program we are both enrolled in, the time we met in the practice rooms and the drama we both went through with a girl named Amber.“Is she the reason you’re here? Did she do something to you?”I shook my head, feeling a little more familiar with Sylvia.“I was hit by an onco
I stared at the text message for what felt like hours in the dark of my room, the only illumination from my phone. I read the message over and over again, the number now unknown but one name kept pushing at the forefront of my mind.Ace Huxley. I couldn’t be sure it was him, something in the back of my head screamed for me to call the number, but my fingers shook and hesitated over the screen.Before I had the chance to decide, my phone lit up once more with a phone call this time. It wasn’t the same number as the text message, which prompted me to answer it.“Hello?”“Isla, it’s me, Sylvia! Are you still at the hospital? I brought some goodies for you to eat.”I bit my lip and contemplated seeing her to ask about my bag, but I had no proof it was her and if she denied it, I would just look suspicious for no reason. I don’t know this girl, or remember her at least, and until I do my gut tells me not to trust her so easily.“I’m at home right now, I’ve been put on bed rest for a coupl
I was packing my bags in my room when the doorbell buzzed. “Yes?” I answered on the intercom. “Miss, there is a girl here to see you.” It had to be Sylvia. I was wondering when she would turn up. I asked Chase about her, and he vouched that she was someone I knew, but we weren’t the closest of friends before my accident and some of them even suspected her of trying to harm me in the past with a suspicious fire. At the moment my heart trusted Chase more than it trusted Sylvia, but I wanted to figure out what she was planning by hanging around me suddenly. “Let her come up,” I said. There was a knock on the door a few minutes later and I opened the door to her smiling face. Even something about that made me feel off, although it was just a harmless gesture. “Hey, how have you been feeling?” she asked, but I knew what she really meant to ask was if I had remembered anything. “I’m alright, nothing much has changed.” She looked at my bags and frowned. “Are you going somewhere?” “
I stood in shocked silence as I watched the moment in front of me unfold. I didn’t recognize the feelings of anguish and rage that took over me until Chase placed a hand on my shoulder and brought me back to reality. “It’s not what you think, trust me. Just watch,” he said. I closed my eyes briefly then opened them to see Ace push the girl away with an irritated look on his face, then shouts at her to leave him alone. “Hey, Ace!” Chase called out. “What?” he roared back and spun around. Once our eyes connected, it felt like the world crumbled and crashed around us, until we were completely alone. No memories resurfaced, but I felt a sense of comfort I had never known in the past three months of trying to find myself. I sensed a missing part of myself nestled inside the warmth of his beautiful blue eyes. I wanted to run to him and run away from him, afraid of these overwhelming feelings that had no sentiment attached to them. Like Chase had predicted, Ace pushed the girl aside a
I once again woke up to the familiar white walls and slow beeping sounds beside my head. It seemed like too many times I was waking up here, it almost felt like a dream. But I knew it was real when I moved my toes and fingers. My head ached as I tried to sit up, but there was a heavy weight on my chest. I saw Ace asleep on top of me, one hand holding mine. I went and gently stroked his hair, but my fingers froze when I realized something. “I remember,” I muttered out loud. Holy shit, I remembered everything! From my father kidnapping me, right down to getting bashed over the head by Amber. Ace stirred below me and groaned. “Isla?” “I’m right here.” He snapped up from the bed. “Isla! Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?” “I’m okay, Ace.” I smiled gently and caressed his cheek. He grabbed my hand and clutched it tight. “Wait…do you remember?” I nodded and gripped his hand back. “I guess that second knock to the head was all I really needed to put things back into place,” I chu
I have hated the majority of my life I could remember. My mother died in a car accident when I was young, on the day of my 10th birthday. From that day my father had blamed me for her death, all because I had thrown a tantrum over not having ice cream with my cake, so she went to get some and was struck by a drunk driver.That was the day the horrors of my childhood had begun. My father had become a recluse drunk who lost his job and claimed disability to sit at home and drink. He would have flashbacks of my mother and get into a drunken rage, which usually ended with me as his punching bag and anger release.I tried several times to tell an adult about it, I showed them the bruises on my legs and arms, but my father was the world’s greatest actor. Every time someone had come to the door under the suspicion something was happening to me in the house, he pretended to act like a sober and loving father, which in turn made me look like a liar.So, I stopped telling people, and I waited f
“Hey, haven’t seen you around here before,” he said with a cocky grin. The same damned cocky grin he always used to pick up skanks, and now he was using it on me.“Here’s your sac back,” I said and tossed it to him, then turned and walked away.“Wha – wait, hold on!” He jogged after me and started walking backwards next to me to keep up. “What class are you headed to; I can maybe help you find it?”I held up the school map I printed out this morning. “Thanks, I got it covered.”This stumped him and he had no choice but to stop and watch as I continued to walk away like he was never there. I kept walking until I saw the signs for the bathrooms and ducked into them, then let out a gasping breath.It had been so long since I last saw him, all the memories of high school had come rushing back. Of all the people to run into on the first day, why did it have to be him?I sat in the bathroom until I thought the coast was clear then snuck out and raced to my first class, which was the History
Weirdly enough, I didn’t see Ace for the rest of the week, not even in the halls or the cafeteria, it was like he disappeared. Only to return on Friday with the biggest grin on his face as he awaited the start of the game.I sat at the top of the bleachers, as far away from the ice as possible and hoped he wouldn’t see me up there, but to my luck, he scanned the crowd and spotted me right away. He gave a huge wave which only attracted all the female attention to me.‘Oh, great. I haven’t even been here hardly a week, and I’m already the target of envy.’ I could feel all the jealous stares as the game started. At first, I didn’t find myself very interested, until I heard the horn go off, which I guessed signalled a goal as the players celebrated on the ice. I looked and realized it wasn’t our team, and it was only the first 5 minutes out of 20 minutes.Maybe this was going to be a lot easier than I thought. I started to pay a little more attention to the game, even though I didn’t und