Remembering Smiles

Chapter 8 -

Not much drama in this one :/

Dedicated to : VenessaJinson for the amazing cover [: Thankss<3 

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***Layla's Point of View***

Again I awoke with no memory. I looked at the wall for my calander.

July 31st.

It's only been three days? It felt like months. My mind still wasn't gaining any memory and each moment was such a struggle.

"Laayylaa!" sang my cheerful sister. She acted like I couldn't hear her sobbing across the hall at night. They were all hurting, it wasn't just me, and that was yet another thing that bothered me.

"Yes!" I replied.

"Breakfast! Mom has stuff to say!" she said, without explaining anything.

I grunted as I lifted my sore body off the bed. I was hoping Allen wasn't there; I looked awful. But, just incase I redid my hair so it was in a quick ponytail and slipped off my baggy shirt to replace it with a tank top.

Why would you care for your appearence about a guy you can't even remember?

I didn't really know how to answer myself. I mean I was told he was my boyfriend, and the chemistry was obviously there, but it's not like I knew him. However, I felt him.

Was that it?

He didn't have to say anything and I didn't have to know anything, I could just feel him.

Could we love without the memories?

I snapped my head out of it. I was going to get my memory back, I just had to wait. I jogged down the stairs to smell something...maybe chocolate chip pancakes?

I sank into a chair to see, ofcourse, Allen. It touched my heart that he cared so much, and suddenly my appearence was irrelevant. I was then distracted from the pancake being set infront of me.

"I took off from work today." My mother announced. It shocked me, Allen said she was a very dedicated worker. I couldn't blame her, being a single mom raising three kids couldn't be easy.

"Why?" I asked.

"I have an idea. It might not work, but why not try?"

"An idea for what?" I asked, my one eyebrow raised.

"To, possibley, jog your memory a little." How in the world was she going to do that? "I'll be right back." she said, before anyone could say anything.

I looked over at Allen who shugged his shoulders. Then, she reapeared with a plastic bin filled with tapes and photo albums. What was this woman doing?

"We are going to watch these," she started. "Maybe it'll help you remember, maybe not."

I sighed, and gave her a look that said "yay", but in my head I was crying. It wasn't going to work, and I would just disappoint everyone, including myself.

First, she pulled out a dusty photo album. We looked through it, and I realized I wouldn't even remember these times with my memory back. I was way to young in the pictures.

"Mom, do you have anything more recent?"

She sighed, clearly she was also using this as a moment to rumage through my baby stuff.

"Fine." she said, playfully rolling her eyes. She stood up and then pulled out a DVD and placed it in the player. The screen turned on, flashed blue, and then started playing.

I guess it was my fourteenth birthday, I could tell from the banner in the background, and I was opening presents. I was sitting in one of the dining room chairs that was pulled into the living room. A group of unfamiliar faces gathered around me. The only four people I recognized was Allen, Camile, Triston, and Raina, but we were so young I barely did. I could tell my mother was behind the camera as heard her voice coming from there, eagerly making me open up the next gift. My "friends" passed up a neatly wrapped box with a blue bow on the top and childlishly hit their knees, imitating a drumroll.

I smiled wide and I held the box in my hand,

"Open it!" smiled Triston, still looking like a baby at the time. I did the math and figured here was about ten.

"Okay, okay." I giggled. I slowly peeled off the wrapping paper to uncover a box, and I flipped off the top and sent tissue paper flying everywhere. I grabbed the object inside the box to show off my new black knitted boots and they all smiled, slightly jelous.

"Their great!" I excaimed. "Thanks mom!" I cheered and the camera moved around as she hugged me.

Then, what happened next made my heart stop. It made my blood freeze, and my body twitch. I saw someone else come into the video. Someone too familiar for a girl who lost her memory. I dove for the remote and fumbled for the pause button.

The room fell quiet as everyone stared at the screen.

I knew who that was, a small blurry memory shot pain and disgust through my body.

This was my father.

I pressed play.

"Thanks daddy!" resumed the movie, and I pecked him on the cheek. I cringed at the sight, feeling the pain. I didn't have a very clear memory of what happened, but I knew it wasn't good.

I felt my mom grab the remote out of my frozen hands and she shut the TV off.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! Layla, I forgot that he was in here...and that you remembered him." my mother shouted. I wanted her to stop.

I knew any efforts would make things worse, even in the way I hadn't planned.

"I'm going upstairs." I mumbled. Allen followed me, and I let him. So far, he was the only one able to calm me down.

I angrily walked to my room, tears in my eyes, and slammed the door shut as Allen squeezed through.

This wasn't fair.

I had to relive the rememberance of my father, and my mother caused the painful memories to try and force themselves back into my head. I was tired of blaming myself, this was all her fault.