Once Upon A Crime

Chapter Four

Dedicated to @Anonymues a.k.a. Elizabeth, my Wattpad sis <3

***

8:02 p.m.

I have amnesia.

Very convenient, I guess, to forget the boy I have been dating for the past six months. I have also erased every single bit of the last six months.

So, whereas I thought it was April, it is now November.

I also have a boyfriend I didn't know about who is currently fast asleep in the chair he has been preoccupying for the past hour. His arm is flung outwards, and his eyebrows draw inwards as I watch him from my vantage point. Gold. He is a metallic gold darkened with black, an exotic mix, if I had my paints.

He looks out of place here, a lethal poison in this hospital room.

My legs have been freed from their tethers, and I wriggle them slowly under the covers, wincing when my knees protest. Apparently, I now have permissison to move, but Dr. Keith wants me in bed for a couple more days to make sure I haven't broken anything.
Strange though, that they're letting me, well, move so quickly. I shouldn't question it, I know. Something about the doctor knowing best, but the way she left, a strange look on her face, weirded me out.

You are lucky, she told me as she left. You could be really hurt right now.

And I suppose I am, but the fact that Mom was only going ten miles an hour helps my case, I think. How she managed to not see me, I don't know, but then again, I didn't see her either.

I have a boyfriend.

No. I had a boyfriend.

Gage, at the moment, looks nothing like the bad boy stereotype I would have imagined him to be. Only the leather jacket and tattoo are hints, but To Kill A Mockingbird is open in his lap and he is nursing a soda.

The image brings a smile to my lips.

"What are you smiling at?" His voice knocks me back into reality.

I grapple for words. "Um. The clock. I was looking at the clock. Yeah."

He merely smirks and gestures at my monitors. "How are you feeling?"

I shrug, and sink back into the pillows. Physically, I feel beat up, as if I've just gone through an intense self-defense lesson with Linc, but inside, deep where my heart lies, I am a quivering mass of turmoil and fear that I have missed out on six months of my life that I will never get back.

He moves suddenly, just two long strides and he is crouching next to me, examining my face. I shrink back without thinking, the immediate flight response kicking in. Whether or not we had dated, he is an enigma, and one that looks extremely dangerous.

His hand rises up to brush the hair that has fallen into my face. I flinch away as his warm fingertips graze my skin and he pulls his hand away as if I've burned him.

Ah, embarrasment. Red-hot blush fires through my cheeks and I duck my head so he can't see me.

"What are you afraid of?" he whispers, his voice rough, raspy. "You know me, and God knows I l--"

He cuts himself off abruptly and my eyes shoot back to him immediately, pondering his words. I'd be lying if I didn't know what he was about to say. I swallow, and the tiny choked sound I make fills the room.

"Don't," I whisper.

"Stop acting so oblivious," he snaps.

I swallow tightly. "Ah, so that's the word. I usually consider myself some kind of absentminded badass. But that works too."