The "Forget You" Brew

X.

Monday, after the bonfire

Ten minutes before first period, Allison opened her locker and found a brown envelope inside. It didn't have anything but her name on it, in a handwriting that somehow seemed familiar. She took the envelope, then scanned the corridors for signs of someone, anyone, who would have slipped the mystery document in her locker.

But everyone was minding their own business, chatting,retrieving stuff from their lockers, or rushing to their first classes.

Allison opened the envelope, and her heart leaped as she pulled out a beautifully drawn charcoal portrait of herself. Hoping to find a note of some sort, she turned the paper over. There was nothing there as well. 

How strange, she thought, and wondered all the way to class about who could have given her such a pretty surprise and why.

When she entered her classroom several minutes later,she found another portrait on her desk. It was the same as the first portrait, only now the hints of color on her face made it look even more enchanting. Again, there was nothing on the piece of paper that hinted to who made it.She felt a bit confused, yet still pleasantly surprised. There was a smile on her face as she slid the second portrait inside the envelope together with the first one.

"Good morning," she heard someone say. It was almost shy, the way this person said it, but he went ahead and sat on the seat beside Allison.

"Hey," she greeted back. The smile on her face was still there when she turned to face her seatmate. She was about to say "Good morning" right back, but seeing the person's face made her pause for a moment, for reasons she couldn't explain.

It was Kyle, smiling back at her. "Kyle Thomson," he said, holding his hand out for a handshake. 

"Of course I know you!" Allison said with a pout,smacking his hand away as though rejecting his introduction. "You're being weird, Thomson."

"I was just playing around!" he reasoned, taking out his sketchpad and drawing supplies. It had been a habit of his to sketch or draw something before a professor came to class, sometimes even as a class was in progress. Their professor for the first period seemed to be running late, and Kyle decided to do something with charcoal for now.Allison couldn't help but sneak glances at his work.

When he noticed her interest in what he was doing,Kyle offered a story. "I have this one class where we're required to create a book of some sort. Deadline's coming up, so I'm rushing."

"Really? That sounds interesting! What's the story about?"

Kyle's hand moved expertly across the blank page as he spoke. "It's about this guy who's in love with a girl but can't really tell her because they're good friends, and he's afraid that if he confessed, she'd avoid him . . . or something like that."

She flashed him a wary look, as if trying to see if Kyle was just messing with her. "I never thought you'd be into something like that . . ."

"What did you think I'd be into?" he asked, hoping she'd at least remember something significant about him.

"I don't know . . . didn't you like comic-book heroes and stuff? You drew a lot of them back then." 

That's a good place to start, he thought, relieved. Tim was right. You never really lose all of your memories after all.

He chuckled over her comment, nodding. "You think you could help me with it a bit?"

"How?"

"I was hoping you'd be willing to read through it when it's done. You know . . . for proofreading and general comments and whatnot."