I did what I was supposed to do. I went to school. It wasn’t easy. In fact, it was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. I spent the entire day lost in my own thoughts and even screwed up my grades because I wasn’t paying attention while I was doing my work, including a quiz in math. Staying home would’ve been a better idea. At least I would’ve had the chance to make up my assignments when I was feeling better. The only problem with that was I had no way of knowing if I would ever feel better. It seemed like every time I turned around, there was another problem that needed taking care of, and I was the only one capable of fixing them.
And as I was finding out, I couldn’t fix everything.
The rest of my pack was just as out of sorts as I was. At least Brice was back at our table in art and sat with us a
“Hi, Sam,” I said stepping into his bedroom. He was smiling at me, but that vacant look in his eyes told me that he had no idea who I was, other than what he remembered from the night before. “How are you?”He shrugged and looked around the room before he said, “Lost.”It seemed like a stupid question, but I asked it anyway. “You still don’t remember anything?”“Nope. Not a damn thing. All of my memories begin with my waking up on the front porch of the house next door last night.”“That’s my house,” I told him.“That’s what I hear.”I smiled, wondering what else everyone ha
I didn’t know what to say to Sam. He didn’t want to try and remember everything that he’d forgotten because he had feelings for me? How could he know at such a deep level that he and I were meant to be together when he couldn’t even remember his name?I thought it had complicated things the day before when Starla had admitted that it had been magic that brought her and Sam together to begin with, but this was something else entirely. This was him saying that there was something about me that innately told him that we were meant to be together, even when he didn’t know who he was.“Sam,” I began, taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly, trying to figure out how to respond, “there’s a lot more to this that you don’t remember at the moment.”&ldqu
Mage Jaye was still waiting for me. At least she wasn’t standing outside when I walked out of Sam’s front door. I was informed that Brice was picking Starla up from the hospital, that he’d been released, with a strong sedative. For a few moments, I wondered if she’d notice if I borrowed some of those pills. It would be nice to black out for a bit, sort of like Sam was doing by refusing my help. But then, I could probably manufacture my own drugs. Which led me to think that if this whole mage school thing didn’t work out, perhaps I could make my own line of designer drugs and sell them on street corners….“Are you going to the school?” Ben asked me. He was in the yard, and even though he was fully dressed at the moment, I could tell he had just been out on a run. He smelled of the woods and a bit like perspiration, which I didn’t mind at all.
I was dismissed from Mage Jaye’s office pretty quickly after I told her that Sam was my legal guardian, at least when it came to school. Surprisingly, she wasn’t rude about it, but she did send me home. I did tell her that any conversation she had with him about me I wanted to be present for. I didn’t come right out and tell her I didn’t trust her not to use her magic to manipulate his mind, but that was pretty much what I implied--because it was true. How did I know she wouldn’t use her powers to make Sam sign something he otherwise wouldn’t?I took my time walking home, enjoying the peace of the forest. I was glad I hadn’t seen any of the people I knew at the school. As much as I’d thought it might be fun to hang out with Kayla, Lluvia, and Sean, I just had too much on my mind to actually be entertaining at the moment. Still, as I walked throu
It took me a moment to process what Starla had just told me. Even then, once the words had registered, I was still useless. “You don’t know?” I repeated. “What do you mean you don’t know?” “You don’t know who the father of your baby was?” Sam asked, scratching his chin. “Did you sleep with so many men you can’t keep track, or…?” “No!” Starla objected, clearly upset that he’d accuse her of something like that. “No, I didn’t. Only one other guy. And you, Sam.” “Well, I’m not a genius,” Sam began, but then he turned to me, and under his breath, asked, “am I?” I laughed because even though he couldn't remember a damn thing, he was still Sam. “I’ll take that as a no,” he said, turning back to Starla. “I’m not a genius, but I’m pretty sure, if it wasn’t me, then it had to be this other guy. Unless of cou
“I’m so sorry to bother you, Harlow,” Liam Finch said as he wandered over toward me, his hands shoved down deep in his pockets, his eyes on the ground. I could tell Sam wasn’t sure he should leave us. He was lingering a few feet away from where I’d stopped, between our houses.“Sam, it’s fine. Just tell them I’ll be right there,” I said.“Okay.” He looked at Liam a little bit like a person stares at a spider before they squish them and then headed toward my house.“What’s going on, Liam?” I asked as he awkwardly came to a stop in front of me.“Well, I just, uh… I didn’t want to come,” he said, looking up into my eyes for the first time. “I want you to
After school the next day, I came home to find Mage Jaye sitting in Sam’s living room, chatting away, as the two of them sipped tea out of delicate little teacups with flowers and gold leaf decorations on them. The only reason I had come over was to get Starla because I was planning on following through with my promise to take her over to the Buzzards’ house, but I had been planning on doing it without telling Mage Jaye. Now that she was here, I realized that probably wasn’t going to work.Sam and Jaye were laughing gleefully as they sipped their tea and ate sandwich cookies off of a gold tray. I stood in the doorway for a moment, trying to rectify what I was seeing. I knew Sam wasn’t himself, but she had to be messing with him to get him to act like this. I swear, he even had his pinky up as he took a sip of tea.“Ha
It took me a moment to absorb what Sam had just said to me. “You’re taking Starla to Cody’s house?” I repeated. “But Mage Jaye just told me not to take her.”“I know that,” he said. “But she didn’t tell me not to.”I folded my arms and stared at him for a moment, not sure what to say. “Why would you do that?” I asked him.He shrugged nonchalantly. “Why wouldn’t I? I want to know just as much as you do whether or not this Cody feller is her baby’s daddy. I’ve been there before, right?”I nodded.“So maybe I can find it again.”