by J. L. Wyer
“Mmhmm,” she voices again. “I see the boys found you. Do you remember them at all?”
“No,” I quietly answer.
Mrs. Stubbs lifts my chin so I have to look her in the eyes. “You know you can come talk to me or Miss Prichard anytime. Consider our office doors permanently open for you. We want you to feel safe and not pressured. Your uncle already set up a video conference later in the week for me and Miss Prichard to speak with your doctors back in Durham. We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to help you during what I know must be a very difficult and confusing time. You may attend that meeting if you'd like.”
“No, thank you. I've had enough of doctors for a while.”
“Alright. Well, it's your lunch period now. I'm sure there will be a lot of your old friends who have missed you and would be very happy to see you today. If it becomes too much, just come to the main office. I can unlock the teacher's lounge for you, so you have a quiet place to relax and recoup.”
“Yes, ma'am. Thank you.”
“My pleasure. I'll check up on you later before school ends.”
I shift my backpack to my other shoulder. “Um, Mrs. Stubbs? Could you remind me where the lunchroom is?” I feel so stupid asking.
“Of course. Down the hall, take a right, and it's at the end of that hallway behind the double doors.” She gently pats the back of my shoulder and walks inside the main office.
As I walk down the hallway, three heads poke out from around a corner, comically stacked one on top of the other.
“Is she gone?” Julien whisper-shouts and I giggle.
“Coast is clear,” I assure him.
“Awesome. Come with us. We're going to sit out on the quad for lunch,” Jayson says.
I have to admit, having the three of them with me today is going to make things easier. At least I have somebody to hang out with and not look like a total loser sitting by myself during lunch. They may be friends I can't remember and who are complete strangers to me now, but a girl in my situation can't be choosy.
The quad outside is peppered with groups of students: some eating their lunch picnic-style and some playing frisbee or throwing a football back and forth. There's a circle of cheerleaders practicing cheers.
A piercing shriek has me jumping about two feet in the air before I'm almost body-tackled by a blur of curly brown hair.
“Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod! You're back!” the girl chants, hopping up and down and taking me along for the ride.
“Celeste, put her down, babe,” a brickhouse of a guy says as he walks up behind her. He grabs her by the hips and lifts her away from me like she weighs no more than a sheet of paper. The girl, Celeste, has the most beautiful toffee-colored skin and striking green eyes. She’s absolutely stunning. And I can’t stop staring at the guy with her. His honey brown eyes sparkle with mischief, and the blue streak in his hair contrasts with his dark skin. Together, they make a striking couple.
Another girl, this one with wavy strawberry blond hair, speed-walks over. She’s holding hands with a guy who has to be at least a foot taller than she is. He has black, spiky hair and looks like he could dead-lift a car. There must be something in the water in Fallen Brook, because between Ryder, Jayson, Julien, and Fallon, and now these two new guys, I'm surrounded by chiseled male perfection. All of them are drop-dead gorgeous.
As soon as the redhead and her boyfriend enter our cluster, a flurry of questions gets flung at me: How am I doing? Where have I been? When did I get back? And why didn't I text or call? I think I may have to take Mrs. Stubb's offer of hiding in the teacher's lounge if this keeps up. As everyone talks excitedly to me and around me, I feel myself shrinking back from the group, one tiny inch at a time.
“Hey, you doing okay?” Ryder's deep voice feathers across my cheek and into my ear.
I tip my head up and to the side to look at him, and my lips accidentally brush against his lower jaw. Suddenly, it feels as if all the oxygen has been sucked out of my lungs, and I forget to breathe for a second. A sharp tingling crackles across my lips at the barely-there contact with his skin. What is it about this guy that makes me react so strongly whenever he's near me? Jayson alleges he was my boyfriend before the car accident, so why don't I react to him in the same way?
My lungs start working again and I wheeze out a breathy, “Yeah.”
Still lost in the magical spell that Ryder has on me, I don't catch what Jayson is saying until I hear the word ‘amnesia.’ Celeste and the redhead throw their arms around my shoulders and tell me how sorry they are. The new guys give me sympathetic looks. Did Jayson just tell everyone about what happened to me? He has no right airing out my personal business. I'm going to have to talk with him about boundaries later, and which lines he should not ever cross. I don't care that he used to be my boyfriend before the car accident, or these people used to be my friends. Jayson has no right to speak on my behalf, especially about what happened to me or my family. That’s my personal business.
Before I realize what I'm doing, I reach behind me, grasping for Ryder's hand. I grab it like a lifeline and link our pinkies together.
“Need to get out of here?” he asks me.
“Yes, please,” I reply, thankful that at least one person seems to understand how uncomfortable I am right now.
Ryder pulls me away from the group. “Guys, we're heading over to the tables,” he informs them, giving our linked fingers a tiny tug. I follow him as he pulls me over to where four picnic tables are located, all of them in various stages of use. He chooses one that only has two other students sitting at it.
“I can’t believe he just did that,” I mumble more to myself.
“Want me to talk to him?” Ryder offers, sitting down next to me.
“Thank you, but I can handle him.”
“I never said you couldn’t,” he replies. “But you can count on me, Elizabeth. I’ll always be there for you, no matter what.”
I give him a small, grateful smile, then frown when I see the entire group walking over to join us; my desire for space and quiet short-lived.
“Liz, you want anything?” Julien asks me as Jayson slides in, sandwiching me between him and Ryder.
“No thanks. I'm still stuffed from the pizza and salad I ate.”
Julien just shrugs and takes a seat on Ryder’s other side.
“Do you really not remember anything? Like at all?” Celeste queries, sitting down in her boyfriend's lap. The redhead does the same with the other large guy.
“That's what they tell me,” I reply, but my wry humor is totally lost on her. Ryder, however, chuckles and shoulder-bumps me. I bump him back.
I look at the two girls across from me. “Let's just pretend that I'm the new girl at school and we're meeting for the first time. Hi, my name is Elizabeth,” I say, offering my hand across the table.
The girls seem to like this game and play along. “Hi, I'm Celeste, and this is Davis, my boyfriend. He's on the football team.” That explains his enormous build. It wouldn't surprise me if the other girl's boyfriend is also a football player.
She confirms it when she says, “And I'm Beth. The guy I'm sitting on is Keith and he also plays football here. You should definitely come watch a game.”
I nod my head, but I don't actually say yes. As we play a round robin of getting to know one another, I notice three girls coming up to our table. Two of them I recognize from the cheerleader circle I noticed earlier.
“I thought you were dead,” the blond one says. “You're like a freakin' cockroach.”
Celeste and Beth both gasp in horror at her crudeness.
I do a slow blink. “Are you talking to me?” I feel both Ryder and Jayson tensing up on either side of me.
“Jacinda, come on. We’re trying to eat lunch,” Beth says to the blond.
“Who else would we be talking to, Lizzie?” the dark-haired cheerleader interjects, ignoring Beth.
The girl with tanned skin and dark brown wavy hair beside her lock
s narrowed eyes with Ryder, and her nostrils flare like a charging bull.
“We're not doing this today, Maria,” he says to her, the warning clear in the tone of his voice.
Jacinda winks at Jayson and I feel him recoil like she's a venomous snake poised to attack. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the old me and these three girls were not friends. At least I now know who to avoid for the rest of the year.
Ryder stands up, placing both palms flat on the table, and leans over it in a authoritative way. “Since Fallon is back in town and was actually here this morning, I'm sure he'll be thrilled to find out you tried something with Elizabeth on the first day of school.”
By the way Jacinda reacts to that statement, you would think Ryder actually threw a punch at her.
“Now, get lost. Pretty please,” Jayson says with a toothy grin that isn't that friendly.
The one Ryder called Maria sneers at me, and then the three girls turn tail and walk away without another word.
“Are they going to be a problem for me?” I ask the group at the table.
“If Fallon has anything to say about it, no. He kept Jacinda and Samantha in check last year. Maria? She's a whole other ball game,” Julien explains.
Beth relaxes back into Keith. “We won't let them screw with you, Lizzie. They're just a bunch of petty, spoiled, entitled bitches. Beth and I may be on the same squad as them, but that doesn’t mean we’re friends.”
Davis wraps his arms around Celeste and kisses her temple. The smile she gives him is filled with adoration. They clearly are in love with each other. I peek over at Jayson. Were we like that, I wonder?
Celeste notices me watching. “We didn't see you this morning, Lizzie. What classes are you in?”
“According to the schedule Mrs. Stubb's gave me the other day, all AP courses including Spanish.”
Keith whistles through his teeth. “You were always the smartest of our bunch,” he comments.
“Beth and I are taking AP European History this year, so we'll be in the same class together for that.”
I already know that Ryder, Jayson, and Julien will be in my AP Calculus class, and Julien will also be in AP Chemistry with me.
The bell rings, signaling that lunch is over. Jayson picks my bag up from the ground where I had placed it under the picnic bench. “Where are you headed next, princess?”
“I'm not your princess,” I remind him, then answer, “AP English.”
“Come on. I'll walk you to class.”
“It was nice to meet you...again,” I say to Celeste, Beth, Keith, and Davis.
Keith picks Beth up and she gives me a wave over his shoulder as he carries her inside the school.
“They are totally going to make out under the bleachers in the gymnasium before class,” Celeste giggles, then yelps as Davis smacks her on the butt.
“Come on, woman,” he playfully commands, and she literally swoons right before my eyes.
“Those four are adorable,” I say to the guys.
Ryder stands up and motions for Julien. “They're good people. Good friends. You couldn't ask for better.”
I want to ask Ryder about Maria. About the scathing, withering look she gave him. There's history there between them, and it doesn't seem to be a good one. Based on what Ryder said to Jacinda, and how she reacted to it, I'm also curious to find out what Fallon has to do with everything.
∞∞∞
“Is this desk taken?” a dark-haired girl asks me.
“Not at all. Be my guest,” I reply as I take out my spiral notebook and a pencil.
The girl settles in at the beside me, even though there are like ten other empty desks in the classroom. “Hi, my name’s Meredith,” she proclaims happily in greeting.
“Elizabeth,” I answer.
“Nice to meet you, Elizabeth.”
“Yep,” I mumble, not really paying attention.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to,” Meredith says.
Realizing I hadn't heard a word of what she said, I apologize. “I’m sorry, Meredith. It's been a crazy first day. It’s very nice to meet you.”
She beams at me and I notice how pretty she is. Dark brown hair cut in a pixie bob, chocolate brown eyes, and a heart-shaped face with a creamy complexion. And she’s tiny, around five feet tall.
“I asked if you'd like to do something this weekend. I'm new in town, so I don't know anyone. It would be nice to have a friend who can show me around.”
A hand lands on my desk. When I look up, Trevor is standing in front of me.
“Small world.” When I continue to stare at him, he backtracks and says, “Trevor, remember?”
The way he emphasizes remember has me thinking he's heard that I'm the amnesia chick who lost her memories. Fantastic. I'm the new school oddity.
“Yes. I remember.” Trevor is really good looking—tattoo, twin dimples, and all.
“Do you guys know each other?” Meredith asks from beside me.
Trevor aims his dimpled smile at her. “We ran into each other earlier in the parking lot.”
“Of course you did.” She turns to me. “Don't waste your time on him. As brothers go, he's the best. As boyfriend material, not so much.”
“Hey!” Trevor says and kicks at her feet, which are sticking out from under her desk. “I'm not that bad!”
She rolls her eyes. “Yes, he really is,” she silently mouths to me and I laugh. Trevor plops down at the desk in front of me.
“So, you two are siblings?” I ask.
“Paternal twins,” Trevor replies.
“That's cool,” I say. “I should introduce you to Jayson and Julien. They're identical twins.”
Meredith gets excited. “Hey, maybe they'd like to join us this weekend.”
Trevor looks on with interest. “Cool. What are we doing?”
“Elizabeth is going to show us around town.”
I stutter, “Wait, I never said I would—”
Trevor sees my panic and jumps in to control his sister's assumptions. “Mer, stop being so bossy. She probably has plans. Right, Elizabeth?”
I take the life preserver he's tossing me. “Right. I can't this weekend. Maybe, next weekend?”
I don't remember where the grocery store is, let alone any other place in this town. I would be a horrible tour guide. Maybe Ryder can show me around.
“Oh, sorry, Elizabeth. I can get carried away sometimes.”
Like now, I think, when she leans over and snaps a selfie of the two of us.
“Let's exchange numbers,” she prompts.
After Meredith and I trade digits, Trevor gives me his number too. He sends me a text as the teacher walks in.
Trevor: Sorry about my sister. I'll talk to her later and explain everything.
Me: So you do know.
Trevor turns around in his seat. “Yeah,” is his one-word reply.
A throat clears from the front of the room. “Alright class. Settle down. My name is Mrs. Pender, and I will be your AP English teacher this year.”
Chapter 7
My New Crazy Life
Elizabeth
WTH! My phone has been blowing up with ding after ding, and it’s driving me crazy. Is this what my previous self put up with every day? This is insane. It's not like I won't be seeing them at school in an hour, so why all the texts?
The first one is from Ryder.
HellcatClone: Good morning.
He attached a picture that was taken of the two of us as kids. We’re sitting in a car — me in the driver’s seat, him in the passenger, the photographer at the open driver’s side window. For fun, Ryder added the hashtags #firstdaywemet, #instantbestfriends, #thisgirlistheboss, and #adrenalinejunkie. I save the photo to my phone, but not before I stare at it for a while. Even as a little kid, Ryder was handsome. I swipe two fingers wide on the screen to enlarge the image and stare at the younger version of myself.
HellcatClone: Meeting up with Fallon at the Fields Thursday night. Want t
o come?
My fingers fly across the screen.
Me: Absolutely!
I smile as I send it and then I read the next text, which is from Julien.
Doppelganger: Want to do lunch on Saturday?
There is another from Jayson.
ScaryGuy: Miss you, princess.
What kind of person was I to have the attention of so many guys? And it’s not just their attention. It was clear from yesterday that I mean something to each of them. They all care deeply about me. The way Jayson was always watching me. It was intense, just like him. And then there’s Ryder. Clearly, there’s something between us. It’s tangible. I feel it. I think he does too. That instant tug. That powerful pull. Those strong emotions that made me run away from him, but also had me running to him after the incident with Jayson at my front door.
I respond to Julien’s text first.
Me: Lunch sounds good.
Doppelganger: How about I come over to your place? I'd like to be able to hang out with you without Jay and Ry hovering. I’ll cook.
Me: Okay. I'll need to check with Daniel first, but it shouldn't be a problem.
I text Ryder.
Me: Whose car are we in?
HellcatClone: Hey!
Me: Excited about the Fields. Can I drive too? I’ll bring my car.
HellcatClone: I’ll make certain of it.
Anticipation pulses through me.
Me: Having lunch with Julien on Saturday.
HellcatClone: I know. Jules just told us.
Me:??
He sends a picture of the three of them sitting down at a counter island, plates filled with breakfast foods in front of them.
ScaryGuy: No good morning for me, princess? I feel left out.
Jayson is so needy. And pushy.
Me: I was getting to you. Did you guys always blow up my phone like this every day?
ScaryGuy: Basically. Yeah.
ScaryGuy: We would all have breakfast together before school too.