Unforgettable (OLD COPY DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 4

"You've gotten good at using chopsticks, I'm jealous," Tessa whines and we watch Astrid in awe as she effortlessly swirls together a couple of noodles and lifts them to her mouth.

She grins at this and shrugs, "I've had practice, there's a Chinese food place two blocks from my dorm, but it's still not as good as the Dragon Dynasty."

Tessa nods in agreement as I stab a piece of chicken with a plastic spork and inspect it before I eat it, savoring in the flavor as I chew. Astrid and Tessa share a brief look from the corner of my eye and I glance up at them and pause, feeling in that moment that they want to say something to me.

"What...?" I ask as I suddenly feel nervous.

"So...do you want to go back and ask that guy for his number?" Astrid suggests as she plucks up a noodle and eats it.

I choke on the soda I was sipping on and sit back in my chair as I try to compose myself as I cough and hack into the crook of my elbow. Astrid merely smiles at me reassuringly as I get myself under control and take a couple of calming breaths.

"Come on, Kara, you've never dated anyone, why not give it a try?" Tessa urges me and I feel a prickle of nerves.

"I don't know, I just...I don't feel comfortable with the thought of kissing," I whisper as I focus on eating my plate of stir-fry.

"Kara, there's nothing to it, you don't have to kiss him if you don't want to, just...go to a movie or something, hang out, talk," Astrid recommends as she pulls out her phone to text on it briefly.

My hands tremble with anxiety as I finish my last bite of food and set down my spork, my hunger abruptly gone and replaced with dread. I swallow before I find the ability to speak and my voice comes out as a croak.

"I'll...I'll try," I say at last and my heart aches at the smiles that light up on their faces.

"Come on, we'll follow you over there and hang outside," Astrid tells me as she stands and collects her trash.

I follow them reluctantly once we've dumped our trash as we head back down the corridor to JCPenny's, my heart beating harder with every step I take.

It'll be fun, I reassure myself

"Look, you can just go out for a movie, if he starts to get weird, we'll be here for you and you can text us to come get you," Tessa assures me.

"Yeah, we're here until the middle of next week, you can go to a movie after your classes sometime and go have some fun," Astrid says as we near the entrance to the store.

"Now go," Tessa murmurs as she makes a shooing motion and takes Indigo's gift bag from me, "we'll be out here waiting for you."

They then lean against the wall outside of the store, their phones out of their pockets as they start to text and I'm at a loss for words. I swallow nervously and start walking as I turn away from them, my heart already beating too fast as I trace my way back to the checkouts.

I stop over by the makeup display cases in the center of the store and stand at a distance so I can get a better look at the boy without being seen. He's definitely around my age and as I look at him more closely, I realize that I recognize him.

A memory of his face during my freshman year flickers in the back of my mind like a candle in a dark room as a few memories come back to me. We had gone to school together, more importantly, mortal Salem High School and had been in the same class. I can scarcely remember taking a biology course with him and I notice then that he's aged and looks much more different than when I last saw him over two years ago.