Houston and Bryce approached us, their eyes scanning and reading the situation.
Hu was the tallest and lankiest guy in our school. Bryce was a goofy lookin’ kid that somehow was dating hot Viola. Pushing his glasses higher on his nose, he shook his head.
Hu asked, “Again?”
Again?
Everyone was staring at me as if I were a stranger, not the guy who’d had their backs for years now. The betrayal made it feel like my head was going to explode. Turning and walking away, I held my hands to my head until I could get to the one who could put it back together.
Delilah.
Then, as if I’d experienced major time travel, I was suddenly in Delilah’s room, tying my shoe. I stopped when noticing my knuckles were all marked up. My heart started beating erratically. What the fuck is happening to me?
Nervous, I peered around to make sure everything looked okay. All seemed tidy as usual. Delilah’s little desk was organized with her reading lamp and laptop. Her big bookshelf was all organized. But, on the floor was her yellow comforter. I jolted at what this girl would consider disarray.
Delilah’s shower was running, so, without taking my eyes from the yellow pile, timidly knocked on the door. “Darlin’?”
“K-Kenny?”
“Uh, yeah. It’s me.” I was so confused that I wasn’t sure I was hearing correctly, but could’ve sworn I heard her crying, so I offered, “You need me to come in there?”
“No. No, I’m fine.” After a pause, she asked, “You okay?”
She sounded shaken up again. “Um, yeah, I’m good, but… I–I don’t remember—” Not wanting her to think I was nuts, I stopped talking.
Surprisingly, Delilah said, “Thank you for bringing me home when I asked you to, Kenny. I, uh, got cramps, ya know?”
Epic relief washed over me. Oh, thank God. I did right by Delilah. “Anytime, darlin’. I’ll be downstairs.”
Before heading to her bedroom door, I was shocked when I saw a little blood on the center of her unmade bed. Cramps. Maybe she took a nap. Thinking her menstrual cycle was really troubling her, I stripped her bed and headed downstairs to the oversized—and incredibly organized—laundry room.
I’d barely got the machine started when Tucker came charging in like a bull, slamming me up against the wall. He was bent over so his face could be in mine. “You pulled Lilah from school?”
I didn’t even know what time it was to know if the school day had ended. “Whoa! Fuck, brother! She had cramps and asked me to take her home! Calm the fuck down!”
His nostrils flared in disgust. “She got her fucking period?”
“Yeah. Damn! Ya good?”
Releasing me, he looked guilty as hell, almost falling backward. As if exhausted, Tucker leaned against the doorjamb, his fingers intertwined in his dark hair in a stressed manner. “Fuck. I just saw red when V—”
“She hates me, dude. Can’t believe shit she says.”
He shook his head with his eyes closed. “She got me all kinds of riled.”
“When does she not? That girl knows how to crawl under your skin.”
He smirked. “Yeah. That hot bitch is a pain in my ass.”
Now it was my nostrils flaring. “Tell me you are not going to the dark side.”
“What?” Tuck acted shocked but was lying like a Mo-Fo. “No way.”
“Duuuuude. Noooooo.”
“Fuck off. Nothing is happenin’ with me and Diesel’s sister. I’d like to keep my dick attached, thank-you-very-fucking-much.” He changed the subject. “So, Lilah’s fine?”
“In the shower as we speak.”
“Good. Good. Do me a favor. Don’t tell her I was here, ‘kay? She’d probably think I was accusing her of skippin’ or somethin’.”
“Mum’s the word, brother.”
Feeling so much better after teasing Tuck, I headed to the kitchen. After chowing down a sandwich, I grabbed a bottle of water and headed back up to Delilah’s room.
Looking stunning, Delilah was sitting at her desk in a little robe. Her long hair was damp but still gorgeous. She was staring at her laptop.
Before taking another sip of my water bottle, I asked, “Whatcha doing, darlin’?”
Delilah peered over her shoulder and sounded extremely calm—almost surreal like. “I’m doing some research. Wanna join me?”
Due to how much I craved her, I ignored the ping in my stomach as I stepped over the blanket still on the floor and grabbed a chair to sit next to her. “Cramps better?”
A gentle, angelic smile crossed her face as I sat. I don’t know what I had done to deserve it, but I was rewarded with a tender kiss.
She was so wholeheartedly breathtaking to me, I literally patted my chest, promising where she would be, forever. “Right here, Delilah.”
Those big, golden-brown eyes teared up. “I know.”
My chest tightened. “Why are you cryin’?”
She tenderly admitted, “I don’t have cramps, Kenny.”
“W-What? Then why did you say—”
“I need to talk to you.”
Her words put me on edge, but I nodded, willing to do anything she asked of me.
“You know how sometimes you experience… time loss?”
Her knowledge of something I wasn’t ready to deal with was like being electrocuted. “How do you know about that?”
That is when my naïve veil—the one I had hanging between Delilah and me—began to fall…
Laced with sadness only her closest friends or family could hear, she told me, “You sometimes don’t remember us doing things. You sometimes claim to have been sleeping.”
I could barely breathe. “What do you mean?”
Even though everything she was saying was alarming to me, she was utterly calm. “Well, I wasn’t sure, but…” She pointed to her laptop for me to see, but I couldn’t move. I didn’t dare see the typed words on her laptop screen.
Delilah didn’t give up. It was as if she had made up her mind to make me see what I preferred to be blind to. “I think I’m understanding more now.” She placed my water bottle on her desk, then took possession of my hands. “See, when you think you are sleeping or simply forgetting where you are, there’s another side of Kenny that comes forward.”
My ears rang as blood rushed through my veins. “No.”
Her incredible lips trembled through a soft smile. “It’s happened to others, too.”
I could barely get my throat to operate—lubricate—in order to speak. “O-Others? What are you trying to say?”
“It’s okay, Kenny. Look at me and remember who I am to you. How much I love and adore you.”
She loved me.
“Thank you,” she said with relief.
I could feel the tidal wave about to drown me. I could feel the ocean of lost memories booming forward. No matter what was coming, though, I needed her to know, “I love you, Delilah.”
A hiccup of air escaped her as if fighting so many emotions it was impossible to count. “I know you do—”
Boom! The slamming sound echoed from Delilah’s front door. The loud noise was followed by Viola’s hot temper flaring. “Delilah! Where are you?”