Mr. Anonymous

Chapter 19

As Mrs. Greene pulled up to the hospital, Audrey was suddenly nervous. What if Jack didn't want to see her? It was basically her fault that all this had happened. Audrey turned to her mom.

"Can we just wait a second before we go in?" Audrey asked, practicing deep breathing.

"Sure, honey... Can I ask what's wrong? If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay." Audrey's mom said reassuringly, patting her leg.

"It's just... what if Jack hates me now? Bill almost killed him because of me. What if he doesn't even want to be my friend anymore?" Audrey asked as tears started streaming down her face.

"Oh, honey." Mrs. Greene pulled Audrey into a hug. "That wasn't your fault and Jack will understand that. Bill is an evil man and that's why this happened - not because of you." Mrs. Greene reassured her as she rubbed her back.

Finally, after much encouragement from Mrs. Greene, they both got out of the car and made their way to the front doors. As they walked by the front desk, the nurse that had helped Audrey last time smiled at them as they passed. Audrey noticed for the first time, her name tag read, "Lois." Audrey resolved to thank her on their way out of the hospital.

As they neared the hospital room, they heard voices. Diana left the room right as Audrey was about to open it. Audrey and Mrs. Greene both stepped back, allowing Jessie to leave the room.

"I'm glad I caught you before you went in." Diana said in a voice much more serious than her normal upbeat, positive one. Audrey and Mrs. Greene followed her a few steps down the hall, waiting to see what she would say.

"The thing is... Jack hit his head pretty hard. And now that he's woken up... he's been having trouble remembering things. The doctors are hopeful that he'll regain all his memories eventually, but..." Diana sighed and turned to Audrey. "The truth is... chances that he remembers you are pretty low. For a few moments, he didn't know who I was." Diana said, her eyes shining with tears. "I know it's a tough pill to swallow, but I wish I had known before I saw him."

Audrey just nodded. She didn't know what to say. She felt anxious - she wanted to just go in the room and get it over with. She wasn't sure how she'd react if he didn't recognize her, but she would rather know than wait out in the hallway, discussing the possibility.

"All the same, I want to see him now if that's okay." Audrey said looking to Diana.

She seemed taken aback, but recovered quickly. "Of course. I'll walk you in."

As Diana opened the door and stood back to hold it for Audrey, the voices in the room went silent. Audrey walked in slowly, peeking up at Jack to see his reaction.

He was squinting at her from across the room. As she walked closer, he still looked confused, but a light blush dusted his cheeks.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her somewhat shyly.

Everyone in the room seemed confused and surprised. Diana stepped forward.

"Jack, do you know who this is?" she asked incredulously.

Jack's blush seemed to deepen.

"Yes." he said in a voice that implied, 'obviously.' Jack still looked confused, though. "But why is she here?"

"What do you mean, Jack?" Jessie finally spoke up from her spot beside his bed.

Audrey glanced at the chair by Jack's other side and wanted to move closer to him, but was anxious for his answer to Jessie. Did he remember her and was angry with her? Was that why he was confused why she would show up here?

Jack finally answered. "Audrey's never spoken to me before - we just go to school together... right?" Jack trailed off when he caught everyone's facial expressions.

Audrey couldn't help but feel disappointed. She tried not to let it show on her face, though.

"Wait, what's going on? Are we friends now?" Jack asked Audrey. When she hesitated before answering, Jack's eyes went wide. "Are you my girlfriend now?"

Audrey blushed deeply as everyone in the room looked to her for an answer to the question. Diana seemed especially curious.

"I-I mean... I don't... think so..." Audrey trailed off, looking at her feet.

Jessie spoke up. "You don't think so? What does that mean?" Audrey suddenly remembered that she had never gotten to tell Jessie about their kiss in the hall and she blushed fiercely, thinking of how she was going to explain this.

Audrey decided to turn to Jack. He was the one who deserved an explanation, after all, not anyone else.

"Did they tell you why Bill pushed you?" Audrey asked quietly.

Jack nodded. "They told me I wanted to go to the dance, we fought, and when I tried to leave, he pushed me."

Audrey turned to Jessie and Diana who were looking away from them, guiltily.

"Okay... well there was a little more to it than that..." Audrey trailed off. "So we've been friends for a little while now... And then the night before Bill pushed you..." Audrey trailed off, embarrassed to be explaining this to all these people.

"What happened?" Jack asked, leaning towards her.

"The night before... I was spending the night with Jessie at your house. She started asking me how I felt about you... and I told her, but then it turned out that you heard everything I said. Later, after I got ready for bed... I ran into you in the hallway... and you..." Audrey was mortified now, her whole face bright red. She hadn't been able to look at Jack the entire time she spoke.

"And I..." Jack trailed off, silently asking her to finish her sentence.

"You... kissed me." Audrey finished in a very quiet voice. Unfortunately, you could hear a pin drop, the room was so quiet. Audrey decided not to wait to hear everyone's reactions to that information and moved on.

"And the next day, Bill told you to stay away from me because he thought that was the reason you wanted to go to the dance. You argued with him and said you were leaving to go see me and that's when he pushed you down the stairs." Audrey trailed off, tears threatening to spill over. "It was all my fault. I'm so sorry." Audrey said, and with that, the tears were streaming down her face.

Audrey's mom came over to her and rubbed her back consolingly as she cried.

After a long beat of silence, Jack cleared his throat to speak.

"I thought that was a dream." he said in a quiet voice, looking at Audrey.

Audrey wiped her tears and turned to him. "What?"

"I thought that was a dream my brain made up to get me through the coma. When I was asleep, my brain replayed that... memory, I guess... over and over." he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "It was right outside the bathroom right? Someone interrupted us..." he looked as though he was struggling to remember who it was.

"Jade." Audrey provided in a quiet voice.

"Yeah, that's it... did I make a little speech before... I... you know?" he trailed off, seeming embarrassed.

Audrey smiled. "Yeah... you remember that?"

"I remember that."