Vacant

Chapter 5

"Are you a nurse?" Niall repeats.

I breathe slowly as I think of how to respond. Should I tell him I used to be his girlfriend? Should I pretend like I am a nurse? My mind flashes every moment I had with Niall within a span of five seconds.

All of those moments...has he forgotten them all?

"She's not a nurse, sweetie." Maura decides for me. "That's Nike, Mrs. Wilkins' granddaughter."

Who the hell is Mrs. Wilkins?

"The curly haired lady who owns tons of cats next door?" Niall looks at Maura.

Niall remembers Mrs. Wilkins and her feline pets but he doesn't have a clue on who I am?

"Stay with Nike for a while. I'll go settle some stuff first." Maura smiles at Niall and then sends me a look filled with empathy.

Maura leaves and a tension fills the air.

"How come I don't remember you?" he asks as he sits beside me.

"You've probably forgotten loads of things."

"So far you're only the second person I can't remember." My heart sinks as Niall says this. "I wasn't able to recognize me da. Me mam thinks it's probably because I wasn't that close to him."

So he thinks I wasn't close to him?

"Were we good friends?" Niall smirks as though asking whether or not we have ever shagged.

I start coughing and Niall starts to laugh. That laugh. It was an incredible melody. Somehow, it was the only thing that was the same about him. Apart from that, I couldn't recognize the cocky man beside me. "I would say we were proper pals." I gulp.

"So you were named after a shoe brand." He looks oddly at me.

"No." I unintentionally rolls my eyes at him. "Nike was a Greek goddess."

"It's still a shoe brand," he insists.

"So how old are you?" He continues with the interrogation.

"Twenty-three years old."

"How old am I?" he asks. "If you know,"

"Twenty-two."

"Well, aren't you a cougar?" Niall says as he licks his lips.

"What are you talking about?" I cough harder. It's been a habit of mine to cough when I'm nervous. And right now, I am. It's as though I am not talking to my Niall but a complete stranger. Who the hell is this guy beside me?

"I saw how you looked at me the first time you saw me." He starts to boast. "It was a look for someone you had a history with."

"We don't have any history whatsoever." I look him right at the eye. If he doesn't remember me, then maybe I wasn't as important to him as I had initially thought. "In fact, we hated each other."

"Did we?" He starts to look confused.

Zayn walks toward us. I had forgotten he was here. "Here," he says as he hands a cup of coffee to me and another to Niall.

"Who are you?" Niall asks.

"Don't worry, mate, I'm just a friend." Zayn answers as he looks at me.

"Were we close friends?" Niall asks Zayn and Zayn looks at me with a puzzled look on his face. "Oh. We weren't?"

"You guys are best friends." I don't know why but this was what I say. He could really use a friend like Zayn.

When Niall and I got together, he sort of drifted from most of his college friends. Which was partly my fault since I thought the people he used to surround himself with were collectively a bad influence on him. And since Niall moved from Ireland to Bradford for college, all his other friends are back in Mullingar.

"Yeah, we are." Zayn nods at me as he realizes Niall's situation. "It's good to have you back, mate."

"Thank you." I mouth to Zayn when Niall looks down to drink from his cup.

Zayn hands me the keys to my car. "I have to be somewhere. Take care of my boy." he says as he looks at Niall. He's a natural. If he weren't good at writing, he could have made a great actor. Zayn leaves and Niall and I are left alone again.

Tension fills the air.

"Where was I headed the day I got into the accident?" He breaks the silence. His tone was more serious; it was formal.

Me. You went out to look for me.

"I don't know."

"Tell me what you do know about me."

"You like football." I laugh. It was that stupid sport which had gotten us here in the first place.

"What's football?"

* * * * * * * * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Niall has selective amnesia aw my poor baby.