Remember Me (Jack Maynard)

Chapter 27

"Well, there goes any chance of me getting to face my fear of parasailing. Darn," Jack said sarcastically, looking out the sliding glass door of our hotel room to where the rain from the thunderstorm pounded down onto the balcony. 

I had somehow finally managed to convince Jack to attempt parasailing with me while we'd been here, however, the day I had managed to get him to go, it started storming right before we were about to leave. He'd been extremely relieved, whereas I was more annoyed that we had to cancel our plans.

"Yanno you're going to look back on this after we get home and wish you'd done it," I pointed out, setting my backpack back down onto the floor.

"Well yes, that may be true, but now I couldn't do it even if I'd wanted to, could I?" he asked, pointing back out the window. "We leave tomorrow morning, so I can't do much about it now, can I?" he giggled. 

"Why I oughta...." I giggled.

"Oughta what? Snuggle me?" he asked, and I nodded.

"Well of course I want to snuggle you," I said. 

"Well let's go get our pajamas on and watch movies and stuff." Jack suggested. "I mean there's not much else we can do right now, and maybe later we can go grab burgers and go to the arcade. Make the most of our last day in Hawaii."

"That sounds nice," I said, changing into my pajamas and climbing into bed.

"I brought one of your favorite movies from before the accident," he said, rummaging through his backpack before finding the movie.

"What movie is it?" I asked him, sitting down on the bed and crawling under the covers.

"It's called Me Before You," he said, "you read the book awhile ago and really liked it. It's basically about a girl taking care of a quadriplegic man and they fall in love. It's one of your favorite books, and you really loved the movie, too."

"Okay," I said, "yeah, let's watch that."

Jack was right. I did love it, but until the end I just never really put together how sad it was going to be. I'm not sure how I missed it, I probably really only focused on the aspect of them falling in love when Jack was explaining it to me. However, by the end of the movie, I was a mess.

"That was so beautiful," I sobbed, burying my face into Jack's shoulder as he held me close.

"Yep, even when you don't remember it, same reaction every time," he said, "let's talk about some funny things. Or not funny, necessarily. Just something to get your mind off things."

"Like what?" I asked, wiping my eyes and looking up at him. 

"Well, let's talk about what's coming up for us when we get back home," he said, sitting up. "For starters, what would you say about officially moving back in? As in, getting all the stuff you took to Joe's and moving it back into our place?"

Moving back in with Jack, Conor, and Josh? I mean, I was there all the time, and only ever spent a couple of nights here and there at Joe's, but still, that was a big commitment. One I had already made awhile back, I guess, but it was still a big deal for me. 

But it might help. Maybe by officially moving back in there, my routine would once again get established. I could drive my car again, now that I'd finally learned my way around again these past almost six months.

Almost six months.

My time was almost up. When we did get back home, I'd have my last doctor's appointment. I'd remembered so many things, but there were still some crucial parts that I'd missed. And, if I didn't remember them by then, it was likely I'd never remember them at all.

"Yes," I said, and I watched as his awestruck smile grew. "Yes, I'll move back in with you guys,"

I didn't want to hurt Jack with what I still didn't remember. He knew there were some things, but we never really talked about what would happen if the rest of my memories never came back. We just kept assuring each other that it would happen, because I knew it made him happy. The worrying about what would happen had they not come back usually happened with Joe and Caspar after I'd gone back to Joe's flat for the night.

"Mellie, that's amazing," he said, hugging me tight. "I love you,"

"I love you too," I said, but I needed to know where he stood on this. "Jack?"

"Yeah?" he asked.

"What's going to happen to us if I... don't remember?" I asked him.

"I don't know," he admitted, "but I do know one thing. You've remembered so much already. It's like I told you all those months ago, whatever you don't remember, we can recreate if we choose, or we can make new memories. We are not defined by what you do and do not remember, but instead where we go from there. We are going to be okay. I got you to fall in love with me again, and I'm not going to lose you again. I'm going to stay right here by your side, and we are going to get through this together. You are not alone."

I hugged him tightly then, burying my face in his shoulder. We didn't talk for awhile after that, just sort of held each other and listened to the storm roll outside.

But he was right.

I wasn't alone. I had him beside me, as well as the others. I am not my memories. I am who I choose to be, and I can choose where I want to go from here. And wherever I'd go, he'd follow. Because that's what people who are in love do. They want what's best for the other, and they work together as a team. That's what we've done, anyways. When we've had a problem, we've been able to work together as a team to find a solution. In our case, the final solution just hadn't come yet.

Maybe it never would.

But maybe, just maybe, it was right around the corner.

Maybe.