A Loss For Words

Music Room

She's withdrawn and shy and moody with everyone, even Olivia and Kyle and her parents. Not all the time, but it's starting to be more often than not that she refuses to go anywhere or see anyone.

Except with him. With him, she's mostly the same old Mia and he doesn't know why that is but he's not going to question it.

She forgets more than words now. She can't remember the name of their high school, the address of the house she grew up in, and James's mom's name.

New places confuse her. Old places confuse her. Things and places that used to be familiar are new and challenging and he never knows when she'll remember something or when it'll be like it never existed.

Like today.

They're at Mia's dad's house because he needs to retrieve an old cook book and she goes and talks to her dad while he tries to find it. She's in a good mood today and her dad hugs her for a long moment and he watches as she squeezes back just as tightly. Mr. Davis catches his eye over Mia's head, nodding at him gratefully. He smiles back and pretends to look around the kitchen for a while longer so they can catch up.

She's talking animatedly, which is rare for her now, and he observes her out of the corner of his eye as she gestures wildly and grins as she tells her dad something and then they both burst into laughter. James watches her with apprehension, knowing that she could slip into blankness at any moment.

But she doesn't, and she grins at her dad one more time before she turns around and walks towards him.

"Did you find it?" she asks.

"Yup," he says, throwing an arm around her. "Wanna go upstairs for a minute?"

She shrugs. "Okay."

He doesn't think much of her short answer but once they get upstairs he realizes that he should have known something was wrong.

"What is this room?" she asks, her eyes curious. "Why is it set up like this?"

His stomach plummets to the floor. "This is our old music room, Mia," he says, his voice strained. "You don't remember it?"

"Music room?" she asks, her face twisted in confusion.

"We wrote songs in here and hung out in here and—"

Her lower lip is trembling. "I don't remember this room," she says, and her voice is a little panicked.

He sighs. "It's okay, Mia," he says, wrapping her up in his arms. "It's just a room."

She buries her head in his chest and he strokes her hair gently as he looks around the room where he fell in love with the girl in his arms and this one hurts, it really, really hurts, but he won't ever let her know that.

But it is just a room, after all, and it's not important where she fell in love with him, but that she still does.