Bear Heart (Book 2)

Chapter 5

5. The First Step

When I woke up in the morning, I felt like had gotten no sleep at all. Just putting on a random shirt and random pants, I went downstairs and grabbed a piece of toast. “How you feeling, Clair?” Ben asked. “Whaa?” I asked, bread stuffed in my mouth. “Do you feel okay? Or do you feel like staying home today?” I shook my head, taking the toast out of my mouth and rubbing my eye with sleep. “No, no, I’m fine. Totally one hundred percent this morning.” I said, giving a thumbs up. “Are you sure? ‘Cause your shirt’s on backwards. And it’s inside-out.”

“What? It is?” I looked down, and it was just as Ben had said. I pulled my hands inside my shirt and started turning the blue shirt so that it was facing the right way. I’d switch it out later. “You look dead, Clair. Get any sleep last night?” Ben asked. I shook my head. “No, not really.” Ben sighed. “I guess that makes two of us.” I nodded, resting my hand on my locket. “They’ll find her killer, Clair. I promise they will.” I nodded. “You know, I’m not really all that hungry, I think I’ll just skip breakfast and just head to school already.” I grabbed my backpack from its hook by the stairs and reached for the door. “Are you sure you don’t want me to take you?” I shook my head. “I want some time to clear my head. Thanks anyway, Dad.”

I headed out, not even looking towards Kenai’s house. I had to start thinking about how I was going to get him to remember me. This was going to be my number one priority now. Hell, I’m willing to make it my life’s purpose if it takes that long. Maybe if I show him some old pictures? God, this was going to be harder than I thought. “Good morning, Clair!” said someone from behind me. I turned my head to see Mrs. Ursus waving at me from her open kitchen window. I waved back. “Good morning, Mrs. Ursus.”

“On your way to school already? Come inside for a quick coffee and you can walk with Kenai. You drink coffee, right?” I thought about it. I do like coffee, but I needed time to think about what to do . . . “Sure, why not? Thank you very much.” I walked to the front door, which Mrs. Ursus opened. I was greeted by the smell of gingerbread-scented candles. “Go sit by the table and I’ll serve you a cup. My husband already left for work and Kenai should be down in a moment.” I told her thank you and I took a seat. I really did love their kitchen, it had a mother’s touch, which made it feel warm and homey.

“Here you go, sweetheart.” She said, giving me a blue mug. “Thank you so much.” I took quite a few gulps of the coffee, despite it being so hot it burnt my throat. I needed the caffeine. Kenai came down just then. He seemed surprised to see me. “Morning, Kenai.” I said with a smile. It took him a few seconds until he came to his senses. “Hey, girly.” He said with a smirk. I couldn’t help but smile at the nickname. It made me think of before, back when he was still himself. “Would you like some coffee, honey?” His mother asked. Kenai shook his head. “No thanks, Mom.” He turned to me.

“So what the heck are you doing invading my home?” He asked. “Oh, you know, just thought I’d come here to annoy you guys and steal all your food.” I said with a smile. “Seems legit.” He said with a shrug. “You wanna get going?” I nodded. “Sure.” I turned to Mrs. Ursus. “Thank you for the coffee, it was great.” She smiled. “Anytime, sweetheart. Now, get going, I don’t want you to be late.”

We walked out, and we stayed in a few seconds of silence. For some reason, Kenai looked awkward. “Hey, you okay?” I asked. He snapped out of his awkward daze and nodded. “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?” He asked. I shrugged. “I dunno, that’s why I’m asking, genius.” I gave him a smile, but it didn’t seem to do much. “Seriously, what’s bugging you? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, I mean, we did just meet two days ago, but I’d like to know.”

He stayed silent for a moment. “Can I ask you something?” He asked. I nodded. “Okay, this might sound stupid, but hey, you never know. Have we ever met before? Maybe we met at a mall a long time ago or something?” The question caught me off guard. I stayed quiet for a bit. “I know it’s almost impossible, but I don’t have any memories from before the coma, so that’s why I’m asking.” I didn’t know whether to just spill and tell him everything in hopes that he’ll believe me, or just lie and say no. “Um… I don’t really know. You… You look familiar, but I don’t think we’ve met…” He nodded.