By Chance (Accidentally In Luck #1)

30. Gone Ghostbusters On Him - Cora

*Cora*

"Who are you guys?"

Those were not the first words I wanted to hear from Jay's lips when we walked through the door to find him sitting up, awake, and alert.

And, actually, those weren't words I ever wanted to hear from him ever, no matter his condition.

I grabbed E's hand as soon as I felt him tense up beside me. This was quite literally the worst thing that could've happened. It was something out of a damn book! This amnesia stuff didn't actually happen in real life!

Well, so I thought.

Here I was having it shoved right down my throat.

I looked at Jay. He was sitting up on one of those bed-like things they have in school nurses office with his legs out in front of him. His eyes were clear and questioning as they took in all of us. The look on his face was passive though, like he was more curious than anything else. I felt a pain stab through my chest as I realized I may have just lost one of the only best friends I've ever had and, no, that's not being dramatic.

I couldn't stand the pain from looking at him, so I trailed my eyes from him to Elle. She had one hand over her mouth while the other was clenched in a tight fist at her side. Her eyes were wide and, even as I watched, tears came to them.

I tore my eyes from her, too, and slowly and reluctantly looked at E. He was who I was most worried about for obvious reasons. Sure, I may have lost a best friend and Elle may have lost a possibly boyfriend, but E... He lost a brother. I know that feels and I'm well aware that it's not nice. I'm not even sure which was worse: death or amnesia.

At least with death, there was never that maybe. The maybe he might remember, the maybe there's a trigger, the maybe he will go back to being perfectly fine and normal again.

But also with death, there was never a chance. The chance he could recover, the chance of making new memories, the chance of possibly starting over.

I felt the tears prickle my eyes for our brothers (even though mine wasn't gone anymore) and I focused back on E. I immediately became confused.

He didn't look sad.

He didn't even look the littlest bit upset. In fact, he looked almost... relieved?

My eyebrows knit together as I looked back and forth between the two. Something was up obviously, but what?

I felt stuck in this moment. It was deathly quiet and no one was moving beyond swiveling heads and shifting eyes.

Jay's expression hadn't changed and didn't give anything away, but E turned to look at me when I looked back at him. This time he smiled, it was very faint and barely there like he was trying not to, but it was there.

I closed my eyes and threw my hands up. "Hold up." I met E's once again blue eyes and tried to pry some kind of information out of them. I got nothing. I turned to Jay instead. "What's going on?"

I heard an intake of breath from Elle behind me. "Cora. Why would you say that? He's forgotten everything. That Dex guy must've hit him that hard."

I glanced over at her sympathetically and shook my head no. She didn't know these boys as well as I did. "No, I don't think so." I held up a hand to forestall her next words. "Only because some things here don't make any sense." I paused trying to pull my thoughts together. C'mon. I can do this. "Jay, why aren't you scared of us at all? Or, if not scared, wary. Three people you don't know burst into a room that you've just woken up in and you're not worried or nervous or anything? No, I don't buy that. Plus, Theo you're not upset. I know exactly what it's like to lose a brother and that—" I pointed at his face, "is not it. So excuse me, but I don't buy this. I think you guys are just being a couple of massive jerks trying to screw with Elle and me."