Before They Give Up

Remembering My Age

Me and Derek stayed up until like 6:00 this morning just talking and laughing. "You're funny." I looked at him. "And you're a dork." He said back. We started laughing again and then I scooted over. I patted the spot next to me, he came over closer to me. "You want me this close to you?" He looked surprised. "Mhm, well you said that we lived together so I want to see what it feels like to be really close to you." I told him. "Oh." He smiled and looked at the ground blushing. "You're cute when you blush." He smiled at me and I started to blush. He got on the bed with me. "Can I um..do you think maybe..uhh..is there a possibility.." He kept stopping. I started to giggle. "Can you what?" I asked him. "Can I hug you?" He looked scared to ask. "Sure I don't mind, I love hugs. I have this shirt at home and it says 'Free Hugs' and I wear it once every 2 weeks and I go around school hugging people all day long." I stated while smiling and giggling. "So I can?" He looked happy. "Yes you can, I grant you permission to hug me." He started laughing. He hugged me for a long time and I didn't care. It felt nice knowing that someone wanted to hug me. I thought about everything we talked about. All the memories that I'll remember hopefully soon. But until then I guess I'll just go with what everybody says. I fell asleep while he was hugging me. I guess he fell asleep too because his heartbeat slowed down. "I guess she remembered something" I heard voices and I opened my eyes blinking a couple of times and then I rubbed them. "I take it that you remembered something." My older sister said. I looked at her I woke up in a bad mood because they assumed something. "No I didn't thanks for assuming something. Do you want to assume anything else? I'd really like to know so I can be prepared to be offended even more...so please tell me Miranda...do you have any other assumptions??!" I pretty much yelled at her. It made me really mad that she assumed something. "Lilian Anne Sareeno don't you yell at your sister that way!" My mom yelled at me. "Oh so she gets to assume stuff but I can't defend myself?!" I screamed at my mom. Derek woke up and was surprised. He took my hand in his and squeezed very lightly to calm me down. "Calm down, your sister was just hoping that you did." He whispered in my ear. "You can't assume shit li-","LILIAN!" My mom yelled. Ugh I hate how my moms religious. Stupid Christians. You can't curse, you can't do this and you can't do that and blah blah blah whatever. I thought to myself. "Sooorryy for being my own person and being like the attitudy person I am that you obviously don't like mom...I'm sorry for waking up in a bad mood because I woke up to my stupid...my bad..non-intelligent sister making freaking assumptions." I said. Right after that the doctor came in. "Soo did you possibly remember something or did you feel comfortable enough around him that you wanted him to lay with you?" The doctor asked. I held one finger up to tell him to hold on. "Now how come you can't be like the doctor Miranda? Why do you always have to assume stuff?" I asked with attitude. "I felt comfortable enough for him to lay next to me. And well what can I say, he actually made me feel like I mattered." I looked at Miranda and my mom with disappointment. My younger sister and my brother were at school. "Well, you look like you're doing fine. If you're still like this in a couple of days, you'll be able to go home." He said to me. "Thank you doctor, but, is there anyway I could possibly go home today? I'd really like to leave this place." I asked. "Unfortunately no, but I could try to get you out of here tomorrow if that's ok." He looked at me. "That's fine, thank you doctor. If you could get me out tomorrow that's fine I just want to leave as soon as possible." He nodded and left. "Can you guys leave? Until you stop making assumptions and you stop yelling at me like I'm 5 I don't want you guys in here" I spoke to my mom and sister. They left me with Derek. "That was really rude Lily." Derek looked at me. "I'm just tired of Miranda making assumptions and my mom treating me like I'm a baby when I'm not. I'm almost 19 I don't need her babying me." I spoke. I looked at him and he was smiling. "Why are you smiling?" I asked. "Because you remembered your age. Yesterday you said you were 16, and you just said that you were turning 19. Lily if I could I would spin you around in excitement because that means improvement." He looked really happy. "So, what am I really turning 19?" I was confused. "Hahaha yes you are. And actually you're turning 19 in like 2 weeks." He looked really happy. That made me smile. "I guess remembering my age is a start to the process." I smiled at Derek. He looked like he wanted to hug me and that's exactly what he did. He hugged me again and I hugged him back.