Forgotten

Chapter 4

                                                Chapter 4

The past few days of silence went by slowly. My family knows best to ignore me-sometimes I didn’t mind but other times I wanted to slam their faces to a wall just to get some kind of emotion on their face.

            When was the last time I spoke to anyone?

I camped out in my room doing homework again. There wasn’t anything else to do.

I heard a knock on my door and mom entered. She looked at the room with the lights off, curtains drawn closed, and about a million crumpled pieces of homework paper scattered the floor. “You should go outside. It’s a Saturday afternoon and…. its nice out.”

“There’s nothing to do and I have homework.” I placed beats over my ears and changed the subject “So did I have any friends in my last school?”

Mom pursed her lips. She was silent again. She always did this.

I suddenly snapped. I couldn’t take it. I felt lost and she wasn’t exactly helping. In fact she doesn’t say anything to me that doesn’t involve the weather and I was starting to worry that I’ll never know what happened to me. “Damn it! You can’t keep me in the dark forever. You hardly talk to me! No one talks to me!”

Mom didn’t look at me and looked almost statue like.

“Mom I’m here! If you’re going to stand there like some useless piece of shit then I suggest you get out.”

I instantly felt bad about what I said but I was tired and I needed answers. Mom didn’t respond and I muttered a curse. I was about to leave my room when my mom asked.

“You saw a girl around your age at the hospital?”

I turned and answered. “Yeah”, but it sounded more like a question than an answer.

“She’s been a friend of yours since middle school. The girl’s name is Ronnie. You could talk to her if you want. She lives in a red house two streets down.”

I looked at my mom and for once I smiled at her, “Thank you.”

To my surprise she smiled back.

I spotted Johanna on the lunch line.

    We didn’t speak to each other for about a week since I yelled at her. I didn’t understand what I was about to do. Maybe I’ve felt alone too long.

I walked by her like a stroll in the park. She turned and glared daggers at me but I shrugged and casually said, “The lunch here sucks. Come with me.”

I reached for her wrist but grabbed her hand instead and jogged out of the building. What the hell am I doing?

Johanna took the word right from my head. “What the hell are you doing?” I ranked my hand through my hair. She glared and then a smile came up. “Is this your way of an apology?”

I didn’t exactly have a plan. “…. Yeah.”

“Well you know I can’t say no to free food.” She hopped into the car and I followed.

I made a couple turns and stopped at a red light.

“So what do you regret most in life?”, she asked.

I raised an eyebrow. “You sound like one of those annoying philosophers.”

The light turned green and I pressed my foot on the pedal.

Johanna rolled down the window and turned back to me. “I ask that whenever I get to know someone. I find it interesting.” She stopped, laughed ,and slapped my arm. “Now stop making that face and answer the question.”

I didn’t visit Ronnie yet so the question didn’t exactly fit for a person with my kind of memory. I parked the car near a diner and turned. “Why don’t you go first?”

Then I realized I actually wanted to know.

We hopped out of the car and headed for the diner. “Believe it or not I was a lot quieter when I was younger.”

I smiled and almost laughed. “Ha, biggest joke of the day!”

“Its true. I was always shy and I hardly talked. You remember my friend Allie?”

 I remembered the girl with curly dark hair and blue eyes and nodded. I then opened the door to the diner. Johanna entered first and I followed with my hands in my pockets.

“Allie and I were friends since middle school. We were always picked on by these group of girls so I took revenge.”

I looked around for the waiter. “What did you do?”

She smiled. “I did one of the classics. I took the leader of the pack’s gym bra and hanged it on the flagpole proudly beneath the ole American flag.”

I chuckled. “What happened?”

Johanna’s face changed. “They thought it was Allie who did the prank and they ganged up on her. I was hiding when it happened and I didn’t do say anything. I was scared and I didn’t do anything. There were seven of them and two of us. She had all these bruises on her arms and she has some of those scars today.”

The waiter came and took us to a table for two.  Within two minutes she came back asking for our order. I ordered breakfast for lunch for lunch and Johanna ordered enough for an army.

The waiter didn’t make any comment on it but I could see the disbelief in her eyes.

Johanna was small and thin and a meal for a football player didn’t exactly look like her kind of diet.

“You’re ordering a lot.”, I commented.

She chuckled. “You owe me a big apology so logically: big apology= big meal.” I chuckled as I played around with the salt and peppershakers. “ So you didn’t tell me.”

“What?”

“What do you regret the most?”

I looked around then stopped when a hand came on the back of my shoulder. “You’re coming with me.”