Love Bites (Rewrite)

Chapter 2: Throbbing Recognition

A whole night had passed before Bex was woken up the following morning to her mom shaking her shoulder to stir her from her sleep. Bex sat up and when she looked down at herself, she discovered she was still in the same clothes from the day before, shoes and all.

Her brows scrunched together in confusion. She couldn't remember anything that happened after her French class. She looked up to her mom's scowling face for answers.

"What happened?"

"What are you talking about?" Her mom raised an eyebrow.

"I just... nothing. Never mind," Bex shook off the strange confusion and got up to get ready for school.

"I would hurry if I were you," Her mom called as she walked out of the room. "You refused to get up, wasting precious prep time. Ten minutes to be exact."

Bex groaned in annoyance and glanced around the floor for something to wear. She dragged her feet everywhere she went. Her head felt heavy and her body was slow to react to everything.

It was like there was a three-second delay to her routine. She just didn't feel right. Everything was off, harder, slower, more tiring. The more she focused on the fog in her brain the more she found herself thinking of Lyssa Norwood.

"You okay?" Nathan asked her.

"Huh? Oh... yeah," she mumbled as she headed towards the door.

She walked to school, taking it one step at a time. Her legs pulling her to her usual spot next to her friends.

"Hey," she plopped down.

"You sick or something?" Joan felt her forehead.

"No, just tired," She shrugged.

"You look awful," Mike pointed out.

"Gee thanks."

"Where's your backpack?" Darci pointed out.

"What? Oh shoot, I think I forgot it. Can I borrow some paper and a pen?" Bex turned to Joan.

"Sure," she reached into her bag.

"Freak alert!" Monroe cupped his hands around his mouth to announce the entrance of Lyssa Norwood.

Bex let her eyes drift over to the strange girl, Lyssa had been looking right at her. As their eyes met Bex's hand started to throb and tingle all over. She hissed at the sudden sensation that was not exactly painful, but not exactly pleasurable either. She held her hand close to her chest, cradling it as if to protect it. It reminded her of the needle-like feeling of when a limb goes numb but twice as bad.

"You okay?" Jaden asked.

"Yeah, just a hand cramp," Bex wrote off the strange coincidence.

Her eyes followed Lyssa's every movement as the pale girl made her way to her usual vacant table. Bex didn't understand it but for some reason, she wanted to go to her. Her missing memory had something to do with Lyssa, Bex was sure of it. Her hand burned and throbbed almost unbearably at this new revelation.

"Bex? Hello, earth to Rebecca," Joan waved her hand in front of Bex's face, causing Bex to flinch and realize she had been staring too long.

"You sure you're okay?" Darci eyed her in worry.

"I—I don't know."

"What do you mean?" Joan leaned into the conversation.

As Bex thought about telling her friends about her weird memory loss which she was sure had to do with Lyssa, the throbbing in her hand increased tenfold. She winced and tucked the hand into her body as she leaned into the table in pain.