“Miss, can you hear me, Miss,” my eyes wouldn’t focus on the face; it looked like he had two heads, flouting in oblivious. This time the two headed man shook me, “Miss! Are you alright?”
“Yes….I think,” I said trying to stand up. Not quite the smartest of moves, because I fell right back down…
“Wow,” two heads said placing his hand behind my back, “Not quite ready for that yet,”
“Obviously,” I squinting
“How many fingers am I holding up?” he asked
I’m not sure that was the greatest question he could have asked, considering I see two floating heads in front of me, “Four?” I said squinting to see two flouting hands holding up two fingers.
“Close enough,” he said lowering his hand or hands, “Do you think you can stand?”
“I don’t know,”
“What if I helped you?” he said standing up towering over me
“Maybe, but I think you should grab my hand considering that I see two hands out stretched to me, and I’m not sure which to choose,” I said closing my eyes and reopening them.
“Alright then,” I heard a faint chuckle in his voice, I do have to admit, it was probably pretty damn funny looking down at me. Instead of grabbing me by the arm, he leaned down and grabbed me around the waist then lifted me up,
“Are you alright?” he said looking down at me
I felt the warmth of his body against me and clung to it unconsciously, “I don’t know, but I will be,” I said trying to see if I could stand on my own, my legs were wobbly, like a new born animal, but he grabbed me by the arms so I could balance
“Thank you,” I said finally seeing that the ground had stopped moving under my feet
“What happened?” he said continuing to hold onto me
“I don’t…. I don’t know, I blacked out,” I said looking up at him for the first time. Oh Laura, he’s not Jesse.
“You were calling me…”
“Jesse,” I said looking down, “I’m sorry, I…”
“LAURA!” I heard Roxi’s voice screech, “What happened?” she said examining me like a child
“I…”
“She lost her balance,” Blonde said looking over at my sister, “That’s all, I little accident.” He said smiling down at me
“What were you doing out of the car?” she said looking at me sternly, who knew my little sister could be so motherly. I can’t say I appreciated it.
“I waved her out, there was a Robin’s nest in that tree over there,” Blonde said pointing out a tree behind us,
“Laura is that true?” she said looking suspiciously at blonde, I wondered if they’d known each other, could have been an ex for all I knew. But Roxi was irritating me with her motherly acts, and blonde did lead a good alibi
“Yes,” my voice was a little weak, I still hadn’t gotten myself all back together yet, “He was pointing at the nest, and I just lost my balance, probably because I haven’t eaten sense yesterday.” I said in the most reassuring voice I could muffle, but even blonde who didn’t know me saw right through it,
“Well then, we need to get you home,” Roxi said taking my hand, “Thank you Nick, her skull might have been smashed open if you hadn’t been here,”
“Oh please,” Blonde said with a wave, “I believe if I hadn’t been here, she might have never gotten hurt,”
He looked over at me, those blue eyes piercing through my skin, as if he could see into the depths of my soul, “Thank you,” I said under my breath as Roxi led me to the car,
“You’re welcome,” his lips moved back to me, never taking his eyes off me, or my soul…
___________________________________________________
I walked into my sisters two bedroom apartment. And it was exactly that, my living room was probably the size of her whole apartment. You walked in through the front door, and to your left was the living room, to your right the two bedrooms with a bathroom in the middle, and straight ahead, the kitchen. You could see the whole house from the front door. She really was my father’s child…
“The room on the left is yours, sorry I didn’t have more time to clean up,” she said throwing her keys and purse in a pile on the floor,
“It’s ok Roxi, quite I charming place,” I said lifting up a bra off the back of a chair, “Suits you,” I said laying it back down gingerly
“Well, I never got your house cleaning methods, I guess you could say I got dad’s,” she said scooting her clothes that piled on the couch to the side
“We all have our mishaps,” I said smiling at her, “Speaking of mishaps, who was he?”
“Who?”
“Blonde, who caught me when I fell?”
“Oh, that’s Nick. He’s one of the guys,”
“One of the…”
“Backstreet Boys, remember? I told you he’s the prankster,”
“Oh, that’s right…don’t you think he looks like…” I caught myself; if I had told her then she’d be even more worried, and that I could not take, “Never mind. “I’m going to take a shower,”
“Oh, ok… there are clean towels underneath the sink; I’ll start some dinner,”
I walked into her bathroom and closed the door; I needed some time by myself. I turned on the shower and let it steam up the bathroom. I had a killer headache and needed something to sooth it before I hit my head against the wall. I opened my sister’s medicine cabinet to find absolutely nothing referring to medicine. She didn’t have time to clean her house, but she had time to take every prescription and non-prescription drug out of the house, not even an aspirin. Now not only was she acting like I was a child. She was treating me like one…
“Look at yourself Laura,” I said looking at my reflection in the mirror, my curly red hair was frizzy from the humidity, I pulled on one red ringlet and it bounced back up like a spring when I let it go. I had black circles around my green eyes, and my skin that was usually the color of peaches and cream was now more of a blotchy and pale color. “What are you doing here,” I said looking down at the tiny scars across my wrists, now hardly noticeable to an unknowing eye. It had been so long, but the truth is, the past never goes away, it haunts you, ripping at your seams, crawling up in every inch, every molecule of what you do, who you are… They say leave what’s in the past, in the past. But what’s in our past is that of what’s in your future, what lies in the shadows.
Memory, it’s a curse and a blessing. Memory makes the dead alive, and the past so close that you can almost touch it. It makes wounds reopen and bleed, makes pain so real that it seems like its being inflicted onto you, over and over again... So the truth is… nothing is ever really gone…
“Laura,” the loud knock at the door startled me, “Laura, are you ok?”
Never Gone by MeG
