My Significant Other?

Chapter 3- Stations

“Why would you continue to talk when I specifically ask for you?” Shelby asked her friend.

“Because you can’t boss me around,” Joan argued. Shelby exhaled. Did Joan not get it? Shelby needed her friend and when she acted like this, their friendship wouldn’t get any better.

“Well, it’s time to go home,” Shelby grunted. “I’m just glad they locked up the right person.”

“Oh whatever,” Joan stated while she pulled out her phone. She started texting someone, but Shelby didn’t know who.

“How was the date with Connor?” Shelby inquired, trying to make conversation.

“Good,” Joan answered. “I guess. He’s just not my type.” The cab they were in slowed down and stopped at Baker Street.

“Home, sweet, home,” Shelby whispered. They got out. Joan paid the cabbie and then both walked to the door. Right next to 221 Baker Street, was their flat, 220b Baker Street. They walked to their flat in silence. Joan texting someone and Shelby bored. They walked into the messy flat and Shelby sat down in her chair. Shelby huffed, knowing that a case may take forever for her to come. Joan set her purse down and kept her phone in her hand.

“Aren’t you going to take your coat off?” Joan asked, looking up from her phone.

“Nope,” Shelby replied and closed her eyes. “Too bored.”

“Of course you are,” Joan stated with a sigh. Joan’s phone went off and she jumped.

“Who are you texting?” Shelby questioned, annoyed how the person she was texting was getting even more attention than her.

“John,” Joan explained, not looking up from the phone.

“How do you know John?” Shelby quizzed. They obviously knew each other. Joan had said from the army, but how. Joan smiled and breathed a sigh as memories came to her head. Shelby huffed silently, couldn’t she do this another time? Joan sat down in her chair across from Shelby.

“We met in the army,” Joan started. “Since we had the same last name, we were put next to each other. People often thought we were lovers or siblings. We would laugh and tell them that they were wrong. We grew close, both of us knew the exact same stuff, both doctors. My aim was always better, even though John had wonderful aim. We would have spars to see who could hit the furthest target without missing. I always won. He used to say, ‘I was just letting you win,’ but I knew better. We both were shot and discharged from the army. I never saw after the day I got shot until now.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Aw, I was expecting a tragic love story,” Shelby whined. Joan snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Of course you were."

"What? You are obsessed with danger! I can't assume stuff?"

"Well, we were both obsessed with danger! And you don't assume, you deduce!" Joan argued. Something clicked in Shelby's brain and she grinned. "What?" Joan demanded, angrily.

"You liiiiike him!" Shelby chimed like a teenager at a slumber party.

"I liked him but not in the way you implied," Joan defended. Shelby rolled her eyes, her smile growing on her face.

"Joan and John, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Shelby chanted loudly and horridly. Joan's eyes twirled again and she groaned.

"I'm going to my room!" Joan screeched and sprinted up the stairs.

"First comes love! Then comes marriage! Then comes a baby in a baby carriage!!" Shelby kept on and got louder as Joan dashed up. "I know you love me, Joan!" Shelby yelled.

"Whatever!" Joan shrieked back. Shelby laughed.

"I know you like him," Shelby whispered and then she closed her eyes and went to her Mind Station.

♥প্রেম♥

Her Mind Station was different than any Mind Palace or Fortress. When you first popped in, you were at a train station that looked abandoned. Shelby could call upon specific memories when she wanted to. A train would come up filled with the memory and others related. The platform wasn't big though. It was the size of normal stations but instead of walls, there was fog. Go left, a castle was there. Go right, a forest was there. Her castle was filled with many important memories or happy ones. Some rooms were filled to the brim on one person or thing. In the forest, there were other memories, some that weren't important, many were fun it's just that they didn't really matter. But, if you stepped on the track and walked for about a minute, you could see fog and this fog had squares like little televisions in the sky. Each would flicker on and they would show the bad memories. Stuff that was completely useless was thrown out or deleted.

She had it organized so that she could never see the scaring memories ever again.

But, every year she had to walk through the fog of bad memories or they would haunt her while she was doing her work. She had a specific day to walk this hike of bad flashbacks and it was always July 2nd. Any time would work, mostly it took the whole day. Probably because it was the day all the memories started to infest her mind.

But, today was not July 2nd. It wasn't even close. So, she just strolled through the castle.

She visited times with Joan, times when Shelby was alone but had fun, like finding a murderer by accident and turning him in after an acceptable chase. But, near the end of her stroll, Shelby found two new rooms. One had memories with John and the other with Sherlock. Why would her brain find it necessary to calculate these beings with importance? Well, John because Joan really likes him, so maybe John is the one? Sherlock because...... Shelby groaned. Maybe because this was the first time Shelby really felt hatred towards someone. Yeah, that was it. Hatred. Or was it something else?

No, Shelby was pretty sure it was, in fact, hatred.

And Shelby knew it for sure.