MEMENTO

XIII.

Cecilia retired her long sleeve sweaters into the back of her dresser as the temperature picked up, allowing her to wear her free-flowing gowns once more, not that she really wanted to wear them to her labs.

However, having the option to wear them was nice.

She crossed and uncrossed her legs at the table, attempting to listen into Sol and James' conversation about the school's soccer team, but found her gaze slipping across the cafeteria, landing on the once familiar mop of brown hair.

Erica Solomon sat very far from them, nearly out of view as she threw her head back in laughter at something a frat boy said to her. He was making fun of you not too long ago, Cecilia couldn't help but think, narrowing her eyes.

Zip picked at his food, seemingly having lost his appetite the last few days.

"Stop staring," she heard James' voice cut in. She glanced over hurriedly, realizing both he and Sol were studying her.

"I'm not," she snapped in return, fixing her gaze onto the tabletop and flitting a hand over her face.

"It's pretty obvious you are," James insisted, raising an eyebrow.

"Look," Sol began, smoothing out the tension between the two of them. "I know it's weird to see her and have her not even know who we are, but we have to get used to it."

"Why should we have to adjust because of a selfish choice Erica made?" Cecilia spat out before she could help it. The thought had been festering in her brain since she watched them drink the nepenthe.

"Just be grateful," James muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. "Our lives are back to normal."

"We don't know the full story," Sol insisted, ignoring James' implication.

"So, we're just supposed to pretend the last few months didn't happen?" Cecilia asked, shaking her head as she swiveled in her seat. "I don't care what Erica's reason was, honestly. I was so close to finding out the truth about Elena and Erica was the only one who could talk to her, so I basically lost her again."

The table fell silent at that, most of them recalling Cecilia's tearful reunion with Elena a few months ago. It felt like all of that had been for nothing.

Finally, Zip piped up, to everyone's astonishment, murmuring, "It doesn't matter...The Erica we knew doesn't exist anymore. No use taking it out on a stranger."

Cecilia's lips curled at that, as she blinked at Zip's sudden words. "Fine," she huffed, scooping up her tray. "I'm going to go get started on my homework."

At that, she made her way to the trash, dumping her wrappers and strolled towards the exit, pulling her phone out of her pocket. She scrolled through her notifications, frown deepening when she realized she wasn't hearing from the person she wanted to talk to the most. She opened her messages with Drew and scrolled through, recalling the previous conversations they had. She opened her voicemails and scrolled to the one left from Drew the night he took the nepenthe.

"I fell asleep," he had admitted, fiddling with something on the other end of the line. "I tried not to, because I knew when I did, she'd be gone. But when I woke up, I still remembered. I remember everything, Cece! Maybe it didn't work? I don't know what to do. I'm scared to feel happy about this."

However, his happiness was instantly quelled when Erica didn't reach out to any of them after drinking the nepenthe and carried on as if she'd never met them. When they did see her around campus, she was surrounded by the very same people who once taunted her and made her feel as if she didn't belong. She generally kept to herself, making friends with a few sorority girls, but never actively pursuing anything with anyone. Cecilia watched it all, attempted to reach out to Drew, but was only met with silence.