Promises - Joel Pimentel

Chapter 45

"What are you talking about Maya? It's still me, Joel. I'm the one in the photo" Joel says, looking straight into her eyes.

"Well this is awkward" Chris interrupts.

"Dude, not now" Zabdiel elbows him in the gut, indicating to keep his mouth shut.

"Maya please, I know you remember me. Just think long and hard" Joel continues.

"No, you're not. I know I have a boyfriend and I know it's not you. Maybe you're trying to trick me because I sure as hell would know who my boyfriend is" she was starting to get angry as she clutches onto the photo album closer to her chest.

"She needs time. I promise I'll do everything to make sure she remembers you" I try to comfort Joel.

"Hey who's side are you on?" Maya yells.

"I think we should come back another time. Maya needs to rest" feeling disappointed, Joel stands up and makes his way to the door, not showing how upset he really was.

One by one, the boys exit the room. Giving Maya one last look while her gaze was down, not wanting to make eye contact with any of the boys.

I now decided that I would do everything and anything I can to stabilise Maya's memory. She may seem fine in some situations but as her best friend, it's my job to help and support her every step of the way.

"Alright how about we put this away and do something else instead?" I take the photo album away from her chest and put it back.

"I want to go out. I feel like I haven't seen the sun in forever" she suggests.

"Alright, we could do that"

Asking permission from Mrs Francis to take Maya out, I helped her get into some causal clothes before we both made our way out the door.

"Let's go to the big building where we purchase clothes and other things" she says.

"You mean a shopping mall?" I ask.

"Yes"

As we were making our way to the closest shopping mall, I did everything I could to help her remember who Joel was.

"So, tell me about this boyfriend of yours. Have I met him?" I ask as we entered the automatic doors of the mall.

"I think so. He's sweet, tall and handsome and everything you could want in a boy" she smiles to herself while looking out into the distance. "Do you want to see him?" she asks.

"Sure, why not"

She whips out her phone and scrolls through her gallery, looking for a photo of her and Joel.

"That's him" she points to a photo and Joel and her.

"Wow you're right. He really is handsome"

We entered the first clothing store that had caught our eye and browsed through the clothing racks. I hadn't realised Maya had walked away on her own since I was too busy holding up a designed t-shirt to see if it fit me.

"Cute" I say to myself.

Just as I was about to place it back, I hear the store alarm go off. I look around to see what was going off and caught Maya walking out of the store with an unpaid clothing item. Running towards her, I managed to stop her just outside the store.

"Maya, you can't just walk out like that. You have to pay for it" I grab her arm and try to pull her back into the store.

"But I don't have any money" she replies.