The Pieces of Me

Go fish

"Lily that's not even possible, plus it's never happened before so why would it happen now" Maya said over the phone trying to explain away the bruise on my face. After having a mental breakdown for about ten minutes I called her. She knows that I will call her any time of day or night, it's basically in our best friend contract. "Maybe you hit your face while you were moving stuff"

"Maya, the bruise is huge, I would know if I hit myself that hard!" I nearly yelled back, the feeling of panic once again settling in. "I'm turning it to Face Time so you can see how awful it looks!"
It took forever for the cameras to connect but as soon as Maya could see me her jaw dropped.

"Well there has to be some sort of explanation," she said after picking her jaw up.

"Ya Maya there is..... I'm starting to do more than just feel what Garretts feeling" I begin mumbling out before everything goes dark.

"Come on Garrett!" A young Cole calls out running around trees, "you're gonna miss it, hurry!...hurry!"

He looks down and theres a small toad hoping around by his feet. I rush over with the biggest grin on my face.

"It's so pretty" i say mouth open in awe.

"Come on in boys!" We both turn and look at the back door to see our father calling to us "Dinners ready!"

"Lily! Lily! Are you okay!" Mayas screaming as I regain consciousness "What was it about!? Did his mom hit him again!?"

"No, no, remember I only have current day visions when I'm sleeping, if I'm awake it's always a memory." I say in response, "It was Cole and Garrett when they were young, they found a toad, and there dad was there"

Memories of his dad always come out around this time of year. Mr. Farr died on August 31st a couple weeks before Garretts 16th birthday.

"Lily I know I should be used to it by now, but everytime you do that it freaks me out!" Maya says with her hand held to her heart as if trying to settle it's rate.

~~~~

After talking on the phone with Maya for about an hour longer I decided it was time to start being productive. Hopefully I'll have everything put away and organized before school starts next Monday.

Before hauling boxes from the family room to my bedroom I decided to conceal the bruise. My mom and dad know about the memories of course, but it always scares them when they change or anything. My mom nearly had a stroke the first time I told her I had a current day dream. So I thought it'd be best to keep this new change to myself.

It took a while to cover up cause the bruise is so dark, but I managed... Only took like two breakdowns before it looked almost presentable.

I went downstairs to start grabbing boxes and saw a bottle of wine with ribbons on it and a tag saying welcome to the neighborhood sitting on the side table in the hallway. That must've been from whoever Mom was talking to last night at the front door.

I picked up a box and went to walk up the stairs, but I dropped it as the view of the hallway turned black.

"Go fish" Dad said, grinning down at me. I always love it when he plays this game with me, it's my favorite.

"Dang, I didn't get it, it's your turn." I reply, looking down at the four cards in my hand. An Ace, a Queen, a Four, and a Six.

"Do you have an eight?" Dad says. He's so silly, I start giggling at him.

"No" I say, cover up my face with my cards as I continue laughing."Go fish!"

I regain consciousness for just a moment before it all goes black again, this time taking my muscle control with it and causing me to crash to the ground.

"Set, Hut!" I yell out, catching the ball snapped at my face. This was the first game of the season and coach finally made me QB this year.

I can hear Cole and my dad screaming at me from the sidelines. "THROW IT!" Dad calls out waving his arms in the air at me. "24 is open!!" Cole screams along with dad.

The rusher getting closer and closer to me I hurl the ball as fast as I can aiming it right at Wyatt. He's our best receiver, and my best friend.

It soars through the air and Wyatt reaches out and catches it. A beautiful pass. He's running with two defenders right on his tail. He's at the 40...30...20. One defender dives for him and he spins around causing the defender to dive face first into the dirt. He's past the 10.

The crowd erupts in screams and cheers, he'd made it to the end zone. Touchdown!

I wake up on the hardwood floor of the hallway. Cold sweats running down my forehead. My phone and the box I was carrying lying next to me on the floor.

I roll over and check the time on my phone it being 6:13, when I have flashbacks of Garretts life I have no sense of time at all. Sometimes they'll last seconds and go through my mind really quickly but sometimes they'll last as long as the memory was in real life. There really is no pattern to them at all, no way to really find out what they are, or why. My personal belief is that it was a past life of mine, someone I was before who I am now, and the reason Garrett grows with me is because as I grow mentally I remember more of what happened then.

Maya seems to think that I can see to an alternate reality, a timeline parallel to ours happening at the same time. I think she's ridiculous, but it's not like my theory is any more plausible.

~~~~
After finally managing to carry all of my boxes up to my bedroom I collapse myself onto my bed, it's past 7:00 already and the flashbacks this morning felt so physically taxing. I decide to try and go back to sleep hoping that I'll feel better if Im not so sleep deprived too.

I lay back on my bed closing my eyes and fighting the thoughts that are running through my mind.

"Mom are you okay?" I say, seeing her collapsed on the floor in the kitchen "Mom wake up!"

"Shut up boy!" She screams as she finally opens her eyes, "What do you want?!"

"Sorry mom, it's nothing, I just wanted to make sure youre alright." It's hard to have someone you love so much no longer show love to you. "Do you want breakfast?"

"Yes, but you better not make eggs, I'm going to my room!" She says, scrambling to the floor, and wandering off.

There are sometimes when she's really drunk when she can be herself again. But that only happens when she's so drunk she'll pass out in the next two minutes, so I never get to see that her for very long.

I make pancakes, flipping four onto a plate for Cole and four more on a plate for me and then the last two onto a plate for mom. I top them with butter and syrup and walk them into her bedroom. She's already back asleep when I go in, so I leave them on her nightstand.

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