Free Fall

Chapter Nine

~Kendall~

I think it's been two weeks since I got my memory back. There's a calendar by the door, one of those boring calendars with pictures of leaves falling off trees or snow covering a park bench, and Karen comes in regularly to cross off the day. A whole day that I've missed of life.

The calendar says it's January sixth. A whole two months since the accident. Thinking about all the school I'm missing makes me upset, especially since I have the neck brace and bulky leg casts off, with just gray Velcro knee braces in their wake. The doctors come in and basically beg me to allow the therapists to work with me in walking and moving my neck again, but I don't answer. I just stare at the wall.

Erick hasn't visited in a very long time. Really, it's only been two weeks but two weeks feels like two years when all your doing is lying down depressed out of your mind. But I told myself I shouldn't be surprised. He was Erick Sanchez, baseball star and one of the most good looking guys in the school. And I was Kendall Burgess. . .unpopular nerd who can't even leave the hospital bed. I'd get bored too. I always think everything is going to last forever, but nothing ever does. In fact, nothing exists longer than an instant except the things we hold in memory.

And I'm living proof of that.

Nothing lasts forever but it forever remains a memory. And that's all Erick will ever be.

A memory.

*****

~Erick~

I went on a date with Claire Eberhart.

I decided my life needed to be as normal as it was before Kendall. Uncle Mario said Kendall will never be the same, we'll never have the same conversations, and she'll never see me the same.

So the best thing for me to do is move on.

I made the baseball team. I was back to being the catcher I've always been, my friends accepted me again, and I was going in a date with the prettiest girl in the school.

Except, I don't think she's the prettiest girl in the school. When I took Claire to the most expensive Italian restaurant in town, I couldn't re-light the flame I once felt for her.

All I could see was Kendall's face.

Her beautiful face, her large dimple on her right cheek and the way she nervously tucks her hair behind her ear. Claire seemed to since that, because after the date she didn't text me again.

I ignored the overwhelming feeling of missing Kendall and went to school focusing on baseball. I didn't engage in the stupid conversations at my lunch table. Except when one thing caught my attention.

"Should I go and dump this on Kelsey Hampshire?"

Austin was grinning, holding a plastic container of potato salad and wiggling his eyebrows. The girls at the table burst into giggles and nodded. I looked over at Kelsey, sitting with most if the members of marching band as she scribbled frantically in her notebook.

I looked back at Austin. "Don't do that, man."

The giggling stopped and everyone looked at me. "You're not converting to Geekism again, are you?"

I glared at Austin. "That's just completely messed up to do. What has Kelsey done to you?"

Austin seemed to think about that for a minute before shrugging and standing up. "Don't worry about it, geek head."

"Austin-"

He strode over to Kelsey, the container hidden behind his back as he tapped her shoulder. The lunchroom suddenly got quiet as Kelsey turned around and nervously touched her chest. "W-what?"

I heard the terror in her voice, and I couldn't believe I was just sitting here and watching this. No matter what happens in the Kendall situation, because of her I opened my eyes to the horrible bullying my friends were doing. And I need to put a stop to it.

But just as I stood up and started to walk over to Austin, he brought the potato salad around from behind his back and dumped it on Kelsey's head.

The lunchroom erupted into laughter as Kelsey's eyes watered. She got to her feet and ran out of the cafeteria. The people at her table didn't even go after her.

Angry, I shoved a laughing Austin. He stumbled back a few steps but caught himself and glared at me. "Dude, what's your problem?"

The lunchroom was now eerily quiet, aside from a few whispers.

Taking deep breaths, I shook my head and stormed by Austin and out the cafeteria door. I looked down the empty hallways and decided to check Kelsey's locker. I followed the silver-painted lockers to the band hallway and saw her sitting in the floor in front of it, picking pieces of potato salad out of her hair and flicking it on the ground. I approached her slowly before saying, "Hey, Kels."

She flinched and looked up, the fear vanishing from her eyes and replaced with anger. "Leave, Erick."

I sighed. "I am so sorry that happened. I thought I could stop Austin in time, but he was already-"

"Save it. Ever since you stopped visiting Kendall, which was a terrible, terrible idea, you have changed." Her face softened. "Not that it's any of my business, but after seeing that side of you this side sucks."

I sat on the floor next to her, expecting her to leave but she just looked over at me.

"My uncle said she'll never be the same. She won't feel the same emotions to us as she did before. I guess that hurt so bad I tried going back to the life that was normal for me."

Kelsey sniffed and continued taking pieces of the food out of her hair and clothes. "I don't understand how you can hang out with them."

I sighed again. "I don't, either."

"So don't." Kelsey looked up at me and half smiled.

"I've known Austin and Cole since we were just kids. I guess I'm just hoping they'll change. They weren't always this bad."

Kelsey looks at her hands and is silent for many moments before looking back up at me again. "People come and people go. That's life. Stop holding on to people who have already let go of you."