Past Repeating - Book 1

The Dueling Monkey

Star Chips: Yugi: 6/Joey: 2/Sarah: 5

Soon after Eric and his friends left, I remembered something else about them. This memory was hazy, and full of speckled lights, but I could still make out what was going on.

It was of a local tournament happening at my "hometown" in the States. After a duel with Ryan, we were shaking hands when I met his friends for the first time. That was when I first met Eric. He was the same as he was now - charming, confident, and cool. His mop of orange hair wasn't much of a mop back then, however; it was shorter, and I could see his cute little ears clearly poking through the strands. I remembered feeling shy at first, and it was difficult to meet his gaze. But did I like him? Did I really like him enough to...?

I felt myself blush. I've been doing that a lot lately, and it had become quite annoying. I wanted to feel normal again, and to remove these fluffy feelings from out of my insides before I exploded.

"How do you feel, Sarah?"

I decided to try and ignore myself for now as much as I could. I did not wish to think about this at all.

"A lot better now that I have some of my memory back."

Tristan playfully nudged my shoulder with his arm. "Think you can remember dating Eric anytime soon?"

My face remained hot for some reason. "You're teasing me."

Tristan grinned. "I just think it's kind of cool how someone who's so close to you hasn't given up on you," he said.

Although the notion was quite romantic, after my duel against Ryan, I didn't know how to feel about this. My heart was still a confused mess, and everywhere I thought I would get an answer, I ended up running into more corners. Why could I not remember Eric as easily as I could remember Ryan?

I groaned in frustration. I just wanted to go back to only worrying about the Pharaoh. Running into Eric and his friends was such a mistake.

What happened before I lost my memory?

I felt a pat on my back and turned to see Yugi with an apologetic smile as he handed my duffel bag back to me.

"It's alright," he said, kindly. Again, reassurance fell over me. Yugi always seemed to calm me down. "I'm sure we'll figure this all out soon. It's just going to take some time."

"Mm... thank you."

"Hey, let's put this aside for now," said Téa. "Joey's far behind and needs to catch up, so let's watch him duel somebody."

The anxious look from before returned to Joey's face. He scratched his cheek thoughtfully, probably coming up with another excuse.

"Eh, but I don't see anyone," he said again. This man's persistence was admiring.

"Come on, man. Even Sarah's got more than you now, thanks to her last duel," said Tristan.

Joey looked at me. I blinked.

"... Eheh."

"Don't you be so innocent."

"But..."

Before I could finish my sentence, Tristan suddenly bumped into me, making me lose my balance. We both fell to the ground with Tristan weighing down on me.

"Whoa! You guys alright?" asked Yugi. Joey started to laugh, finding the sudden situation quite hilarious. It did happen from out of nowhere, which made me concerned.

"That was so smooth!" Joey struggled to say between bursts of laughter. "Dude!"

I rubbed my head, recognizing this same scenario from a while ago. Then I looked up at Tristan who was pulling himself off me, also massaging his temple.