In Memoriam ✓

Chapter Twelve: The Hills

Reid

A week after my accident, I was finally ready to go home. As I got into my cousin's car, Tony looked at me worriedly from the driver's seat. "Everything okay?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes, replying, "I'm good, Tony. Seriously." Because what was I supposed to say to that?

      The number of times that people asked me about how I was, well, it was surely nearing infinity by now. I was grateful, but at the same time, everything was not okay. But I couldn't throw out my problems to the air every time that someone asked me.

Tony huffed. "I'm just checking up on you. You're my little cousin." he reached over to rudfle my hair.

I batted him away, groaning, "Cut it out." I stared out of the window. "How's mom?"

"Frantic, obviously." I looked over at Tony, alarmed, and he quickly elaborated, "Frantic with joy! Because her favorite son is coming home."

I frowned at him. "I'm her only son."

"So the point stands." Tony agreed. His eyes twinkled. "I'm glad you're better."

I shrugged. "Whatever your definition of 'better' is. To sound like a broken record, I'm fine." I repeated as Tony opened his mouth to speak, looking awkward.

Tony cleared his throat, starting up the car. "I saved all your music on the USB. So if you want to choose a song, be my guest."

"I guess this way, we can last the drive." I remarked, and I got a grin in return.

I left Ormond Hospital a week after my accident. Nina visited me every day; my parents and Tony visited even more frequently. One day, a few college-age people I'd never seen stood nervously outside my door. My mother went outside to greet them, and then introduced them to me as my friends of the past year. I nodded and went along with it because I had no other option.

My girlfriend Mallory, never revisited me, after that first day of waking up in the hospital. She looked beautiful in the pictures that Tony showed me. Maybe she was already back at university, focusing on her work. I wouldn't blame her if that were the case.

After I left the hospital, I moved into my parents' house. Tony told me I used to rent an apartment with Mallory at our university, Collard. Mallory was probably staying there, but I didn't want to ask my parents. My mom's eyes turned sad whenever I tried to mention Mallory in front of her.

I took time off studying and told Collard University staff about my accident. Then I sat in my room, trying to remember how to be normal again. But that was easier said than done because I didn't know who I was in college. Someone who majored in History. Dating a girl who looked like she belonged on a movie set. That didn't feel like me at all.

I tried to spend as much time around my family as possible, to prevent myself being alone with my thoughts. When I was in high school, I was pretty introverted. There were so many drastic changes to my life in the past year, with close friends who cared about me cropping up out of nowhere, that I was barely able to catch up. Time was running ahead of me.

Tony gave me a picture of Mallory and I on his last visit to the hospital. It was on my work table in my old room, next to the bed I was sitting on. I rolled over my bed to pick it up. It was taken at some beach, and Mallory was wearing a red bikini. It was during that last year of high school that I didn't remember. Tony gave me the brief details on Mallory's background, but there were still a lot of gaps that needed to be patched up.