The Pieces of Me

Cutting Corners

"Girl you can open your eyes now, he's moved away" Aliya says laughing, luckily the flashback only lasted a couple seconds so the awkward moment didn't drag on too long. 

I turned my head to look over at Austin and he was just watching me, a soft smile forming on his lips. We sat there for a second like that before returning to the game and temporarily writing off what had happened.

Getting a deeper understanding into how Garrett was feeling about seeing me felt a little bit too personal. Knowing him in person now and still seeing his everyday life felt violating, like I knew much more than I should. And if kissing Austin is what caused that flashback then maybe I wont be able to be as normal as id hoped.

~~~~~

"Its Saturday, you cannot be planning on laying in bed all day" I can hear the groaning of disappointment on the other end of the phone, " Listen its like a Castlemont thing to throw a party the first Saturday of the school year, and this year Wyatt's throwing it so you have to come!"

"Exactly why I'm not going!  Going to a party to be surrounded by all the football players, including Garrett, no... specifically Garrett. Sounds like a good way to embarrass myself or get too close to Garrett"

"Remember how we talked about being friends with him being better for you." She says changing her tone to sound more like a lecture, "You can't exactly be friends if you never talk to him."

"Fine!" I concede, simply because I know she wont give up, "Pick me up at 7?"

"Yes ma'am!" She screams through the phone right into my ear, I'm sure nearly bursting my eardrum.  

~~~~~

I look at myself in the mirror. My long hair is styled in its natural beach waves, with a couple small braids done at the top. I'm wearing a sage green cropped halter tank top and low waisted light jeans. Aliya should be here in about fifteen minutes.

I open my top bathroom drawer, revealing the necklace I took off last night at the top of the pile of things. I had thought about it multiple times yesterday, never before had an object caused a flashback but I wrote it off so I didn't worry Aliya. But then after the kiss with Austin causing one too it made me even more curious. 

I reached down and picked it up rolling the small rose pendant around in my hand and immediately things began to turn dark, turning from my own vision to Garretts.

"He's just young Dad" Cole argued, I could hear their whole conversation through my bedroom wall, as I leaned my back against it trying not to let tears fall.

"But he's your brother, he just wants to be close to you son." On our way home from practice today I had told Dad it was hard having Cole grow so distant to me. I missed when relationships were innocent, when there were no hard feelings between me and anyone else.

"Well maybe I want to be close to you! Have you ever thought about that!" Cole cried out before storming out of his own bedroom slamming his door behind him. The force of the door slamming shook the wall and loosed the nail holding up the picture of me and dad at my first football game. With my head still against the wall the picture frame slipped, landing directly on my head. I could hear the glass shatter as everything went black.

The view of my bathroom came back for just a moment before Garretts memories took its place another time.

I regained consciousness with my head against the floor, pieces of glass strewn around me and a cut on my forehead bleeding furiously. There was two shards of glass wedged into my forehead right above my right eyebrow creating a corner like gash. I couldn't remember a thing that had happened before. How did I get on the floor? Where was Dad wasn't he just in here waking me up for breakfast? I looked towards my window only to be met with the dark night sky, only contrasted with the few stars seen through the crack in my curtains.

I reached up and touched my forehead feeling the blood dripping down my face. The more I tried to remember what happened the less memories I could grasp. I stood up quickly opening my door and walking out into the hall, I could hear chattering in the kitchen and made my way towards the conversation.

A slew of gasps were let out as I walked in. Cole had been sitting at the kitchen island and mom and dad were both on the other side.

"Garrett honey what happened" My mom was the first to speak, picking up a napkin and wiping at my face.

"Umm, I...I don't know" I stuttered out still not getting any hold of my thoughts.

"Roger honey, get the car started lets drive him to the hospital!" Mom said now facing away from me and back towards the kitchen counter. " And Cole please go check your brothers room and see what happened."

 I woke up in cold sweats, the necklace clenched in my hand. I could feel my body shaking as though I'd been afraid. I made an attempt to pick up my phone and check the time but before I could make out the numbers my vision blurred for the third time. This time I could feel myself fall to the floor hitting my head on the corner of the drawer as I went down.

"He should be fine although that triangle cut from the glass will probably scar after the stitches are removed"  The doctor said to my mother near the exam room door. "It sounds like he's experiencing some amnesia, there's a possibility he has a minor concussion, but nothing showed up on the CT scans"

"Will there be any long lasting effects" My father asked, no doubt worried about my starting spot on the football team this year. 

"Not that we can tell right now, however because we cant place the reason for his amnesia there's a chance it could develop into memory loss as he gets older." The doctor responded but that was all that Id caught before drifting back to sleep in the hospital bed.

When I woke up I was laying on my bathroom rug blood now splotched across it, I got up to look in the mirror and right above my right eyebrow was a cut, shaped to the corner of the drawer.

~~~~~

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