the amnesiac

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I place my hand on the doorknob and breathe in deeply. Turning the handle, I open the door slowly.

I take one look at his face- one look- and I see it.

I see the memories, I see everything that I forget, everything I thought I would never remember.

There I am at the cheer game, pom poms in hand. I glance towards the benches and see Aaron sitting there, pushing at a smaller kid on his football team, his face full of disgust. I shake my head and turn towards the bleachers, spotting Jack with a notebook and pencil in his hand, probably writing a poem or a story full of details and long words. He looks up and I wave at him. He smiles cheekily for a second before I turn back towards my friends-

There we are after school in photography club. Aaron was nowhere to be found (as usual- he hated the club and only joined it because I was in it) so it was just me, Kate, and Jack. I laughed when he and Kate argued over which yearbook was better: freshmen year's or sophomore's. Jack put his arm around my shoulder-

My mom stood in her apron, leaning over the open oven with her mitts on. I could smell the deliciousness of the cookies from two rooms away, and Jack had beaten me to the kitchen when we raced to see who could get there first. "Smells good, Ms. Deacon," Jack says to my mother. She smiles as she places the chocolate chip cookies on a plate. "Thanks, Jack. I made three batches this time. Hopefully that's enough for you." We laugh as we take large bites out of our cookies, me on my second and Jack already on his fifth. I shake my head and call him a pig-

"You can't catch me!!" I yell over my shoulder as I make my way up the large, winding tree. "You just wait," Jack calls out after me, but I can hear the struggle in his voice. I was always the better climber (years of cheerleading helped me with that) and Jack always had trouble getting past the hole in the tree that split the branches in two. I climbed higher and higher, ignoring the "Be careful!" from below me. I smiled as I reached for a branch about a foot above me, grabbing onto it and pulling myself up. I heard the snap before I felt the branch break under my wrist. I let out a shriek and tried to grab ahold of another branch on my way down, felt Jack's reaching hand just brush my fingers, felt my head hitting the ground, and then everything went black.

"Hannah? You okay?" I jump, feeling the sweat gather under my arms. "You look a little pale," Jack says with a worried look on his face. I look down at my hands and release the doorknob. "Um, uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," I say, my voice low and breathless. Jack steps over the doorstep and reaches for me. My heart starts beating even faster and I tense up. Jack seems to notice and puts his hand down. "Are you sure you're okay? Do you want to sit down?"

I breathe in and out, trying to calm my pulse. "Yeah, yeah my mom's in the kitchen." I turn around quickly and rush over to the other side of the house.

I don't know whether he's following me or not, but I keep walking, faster and faster until I reach the kitchen table. I grab one of the chairs and pull it out, sitting down too quickly and tapped my fingers in the table. My mom glances towards me. "Whoa, what happened to you?"

I chuckle nervously as Jack slides into the chair next to mine cautiously. "Uh, nothing, Mom. It's all good. You made cookies?"

She looks at me unassured, but then places the plate of cookies and a plate of sandwiches on the table in front of us. Jack seems to forget all worries and digs in, taking two sandwiches at a time.

My mom looks towards me as Jack devours his food. "Mom? Mind coming with me into the other room?"

She looks at me quizzically, but replies, "Sure, honey."

I jump out of my chair and race to my bedroom, impatiently waiting for her slow ass to follow me.