Hidden Memories

2. The Institute

This one is a long one!!! Hope you enjoy!

-Nicole

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Simon's POV

       I hate this. I hate the fact that every time I try to recall something with Isabelle, I get this cloudy image, like a wall of fog, preventing me from starting all over with her. I also hate the fact that whenever I don't know what she's talking about, she gets mad at me. Like it's my fault that I don't recall what "we used to be"

      Izzy claims that we were a thing before we came back from actual hell. Oh, that was another shocker. Discovering a world that I never knew existed. Twice apparently. 

        From the first moment I met her, again, I strangely knew her name. Back then, I was sure that I had never met her before, but somehow, I did. A few weeks after that, she wanted to walk around with me, only asking a million questions the entire time, most of them pertaining to my memory problem. 

        Oh, yeah, another weird thing. It didn't even feel like a memory problem. For one thing, I never really came across any holes in my memory. Except for Clary. Yeah, I've seen her around school campus sometimes, but I never really seen her as anything more than another kid that goes to my school. However, according to Izzy, I used to really like her. 

        Well, back to my problems. After that little spat at Taki's, I didn't really feel like talking to her again. But, no, she wouldn't leave me alone. She had to come over to talk to me about this Dorthy lady, and I honestly had no idea what she was talking about. Again, like it's really my fault that I can't remember some of this stuff. 

        In the past hour, Isabelle had been texting me, asking if I could meet her at Taki's again. I didn't answer her because I knew where it was going to lead. It had become our routine. We talk, she asks me something from my past with her, we argue, she says harsh things, we go our separate ways, and it just circles around again.

        But I know that deep down, I'm not really mad. I enjoy my time with her even if she steps all over me with her words. I guess that's a weakness of mine. I mean, whenever I'm with her, I get this warm feeling inside that tells me that we're perfect for each other. That there actually was something there, even if my stupid brain can't figure it out. 

        Feeling like a lovesick puppy, I spring up from my bed, intending to meet Isabelle at Taki's. I was thinking I should apologize, even though I still thought that none of this was my fault, and maybe, depending on Izzy's mood today, we could get somewhere.

        Unfortunately, there was someone coming into my room so as I was walking, a blonde guy hits the door in my face. Hard.

        "Ow, watch where you're going!" I exclaimed.

        The guy apparently couldn't control his laughter. "Sorry, man."

        I look up to see a blonde guy with Marks similar to Isabelle's all over him. I didn't really mean to check him out; my only excuse was that it really wasn't every day you see people walking around with tattoos all over them.

        "Checking me out?" the blonde guy grinned.

        "No," I said defensively.

        "Looked like you were," he replied.

        "And it looks like I need to push you off a building."

        "Ouch, that really hurts," he said, putting his hand on his chest and feigning hurt.