“Ready to go?”
“Yep. Let’s do this.”
“Definitely that one,” Meredith says as she sits cross-legged on my bed.
Being the only girl I know, I begged her after class this morning to come over tonight and help me get ready for my date with Ryder. I’m nervous as hell, anxious, and a little bit scared. I want things to be perfect. Because of my memory loss, to me, this feels like I’m actually going on my very first date and my hormones are acting accordingly.
“You know you could wear a sack over your head and Ryder would still think you’re the most beautiful girl in the world.” I roll my eyes at her and slip on the pink silk floral wrap-around dress she picked out for me from my closet. “That man looks at you like you are water and he’s been stuck in the desert for ten years.”
“I think you may have him mixed up with me.”
“Oh, I’m not leaving you out. I was about to say that you eye-fuck that poor boy so hard I’m surprised he’s able to walk a straight line.”
I burst out laughing. “Oh my God. Not the visual I want right now.”
Ryder met me at the library again last night since me, Meredith, and Trevor had another study group meeting to continue working on our presentation. Ryder was wearing a dark gray button-down short-sleeved shirt and jeans that fit him like a glove. I may have ogled him a bit when we left the study room.
Meredith taps her finger against her bottom lip. “Are you also picturing Woody the Woodpecker with a penis for a beak, just pecking away. Or is that just me?”
“You are one weird girl,” I say.
“So it is just me.”
“Let me turn the tables. I see how you look at Trevor. Anything going on there?”
“Trevor is… well, Trevor.” Meredith drags her hand through her short hair, making it stand up on end in a stylish way. “He’s mysterious and handsome. Not as fuck-hot as Ryder is, but yeah, I’d climb that. I’m going to test the waters at the party tomorrow. See if there’s anything more to his dark, brooding persona. Don’t think I haven’t noticed he’s given you a nickname. Why does he call you Wildcat?”
I sit down on the corner of the bed and Meredith starts playing with my long hair. “You’ve got such great hair. I love the pink. Perhaps a simple updo tonight since it’s still so hot out. Yes, that’s what you should do.”
This girl surely does talk a mile a minute. I backtrack so I can answer her first question. “Remember him telling you that we met one day at the beach by accident, before classes started? He figured out I was at CU and started calling me Wildcat, I guess because of the college’s mascot.”
“Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Follow me. I’m fixing your hair.” She pulls me up and leads me into my bathroom. After rummaging around my vanity drawers for hair clips, she takes a brush out and starts working on piling my hair up in sectioned twists. “I want a nickname. Something cool like Wildcat.”
“I’ll ask Trevor to give you one.”
“Don’t you dare!” She smacks me lightly with my hairbrush. “I already make a fool out of myself whenever I’m around him. You think I talk a lot now. That man has gotten it double-time the past two times he’s walked me back to my dorm room. He makes me nervous.”
Meredith intricately twists a few strands of my hair, shakes her head, then starts over again. “So what’s your story morning glory?” she asks me.
“Not much to tell. Literally.”
“There has to be a story there. I mean, you and Ryder growing up together. Lots to tell, am I right? It must be so cool to fall in love with a guy you’ve known since you were a little girl. That’s stuff you only read about in romance novels. So spill it, sister.”
“Like I said, there’s literally nothing to tell. Besides, Ryder and I just started dating.” I debate on how much I should tell her about my amnesia. Some stuff is just too painful to talk about, even now. But I want to have a friend, another girl, that I can confide in. Perhaps it’s a part of me that subconsciously misses my sister that’s prompting me to open up to Meredith. “I have amnesia.”
Meredith blows out a raspberry at me. “Yeah, right. Nice try.” Our eyes meet in the mirror and she must see the serious, sad expression plastered across my face. “Wait. You’re serious? Like truly serious? Are you shitting me?”
“I wish I was. It’s a long story and one that I probably won’t feel comfortable enough to tell you most of, but I was attacked over a year ago and then was in a coma for two months. When I woke up, the first eighteen years of my life were missing. I don’t remember anything.”
“Holy shit, Elizabeth! Like, holy shit! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. Next time, tell me to mind my own damn business. Oh! So Ryder was a guy you grew up with but you don’t remember him, at all?”
“I have had flashes of memories of him, but I don’t really remember him if that makes sense. But I can feel the connection. When we ran into each other at the student center before classes started, he was so happy to see me. Me? I bolted. Like up and ran away from him as fast as I could. Thankfully, they all found me again that night.”
Meredith pins a strand of my hair and wraps another piece around it. “They?”
“You haven’t met the other three. There’s also Jayson, Julien, and Elijah. Jayson and Julien are twins. Julien is dating Elijah. From what they’ve told me, Jayson, Julien, and I met when we were six and we lived right next door to each other. Then Ryder joined our group when I was nine. He lived down the street. They’ve been filling me in on what our lives were like. Sharing pictures of us growing up. We’ve started having breakfasts together – they all live with each other in the same condo. I go running with Julien almost every morning. And then there’s the stuff that’s happening with Ryder. It’s a little weird right now. Before my attack, I was Jayson’s girlfriend.”
“Get the fuck out of here!” Meredith shouts and drops the hairbrush she’s holding.
