CURSED // ZIGGY BERMAN X FEM READER

III // 1994

I WOULD'VE FOLLOWED ALL THE WAY TO THE GRAVEYARD

The bus is crowded and vaguely smells like stale chips. 

The first bus, coincidentally containing all of my friends was full. Lucky me. So I get the reject bus, the one with like three people on it. 

I shoulder my backpack, heading down the aisle. Rolling my eyes against my will, I sit down in the back, putting my headphones on.

'Is this seat taken?' A voice asks, cutting straight through the music playing. Which is surprising, because normally I can't hear a single thing when I'm listening to Wayward Son. Oh well. 

I glance up to see Ziggy. She looks so familiar, like an old friend, or someone I saw on TV ages ago. It's like I already know her, yet I don't. 

'No,' I shake my head, glancing around at all the other empty seats. 'Go ahead.' 

'Thanks,' She gives me a quick smile. 

'Do I, know you from somewhere?' I ask, tipping my head to the side. 'Sorry, you probably just remind me of someone.' 

'I don't think we've met before,' Ziggy answers, shaking her head. 'But I don't know, you look sort of familiar too.' 

Her hair falls around her face in a way that gives me the weirdest déjà vu. White flashes appear in front of my eyes, and my head pounds. It's like when you're trying to remember a song, but you only know a couple of the lyrics. She's a mystery to me. 

Where the hell did that come from?

I can hear my own breathing increase slightly as she leans back against the seat. Her eyes are so bright, like the colour of the sky. 

'Where'd you move from?' I say, valiantly trying to distract myself.

'Hawkins, Indiana,' She replies with a tiny smile. 'It's a really small town, kinda like this.' 

I nod silently. 'Cool.' 

'Have you lived here your whole life?' 

'No, actually,' I chew on my bottom lip. 'It's uh-actually a weird story.' 

She raises her eyebrows. 'Oh?' 

'Well,' I scratch the back of my head awkwardly. 'When I was thirteen years old, I woke up in the middle of an a street in the middle of the night. No memories of anything, really.' 

'Wow,' Ziggy tucks her hair behind her ear, staring into space. 'That's crazy. You don't remember anything from before then?' 

'Nope,' I sigh, tapping my foot against the floor. 'Not a single thing.' 

'Did you ever try to figure it out?' Ziggy asks. 

'Yeah, loads of times,' I take a long breath. 'The only thing I can remember is something about the word 'good', and a summer camp..maybe?' 

'Good, like the adjective?' Ziggy says. 

'I actually don't know,' I tell her. 'It's been a long time since I've really tried to remember anything else.' 

'Huh,' Ziggy says. 'Can I tell you something weird?' 

'Sure.' 

'When I was about, 10-I told my parents about this summer camp I went to,' She shakes her head. 'I swear, it was so vivid in my mind at the time. The more I told them, the more confused they got, and the less I remembered.' 

'What did they say?' 

'They said I'd never been to an overnight summer camp in my life.' Ziggy clasps her hand together. 'So I just decided it was a dream I had, or something.'  

'Do you remember what it was called?' 

'No,' Her lip twitches. 'That's the weird part. As I was telling them about this camp, I forgot everything about it.' 

'That may just be weirder than my story,' I grin. 'Maybe.' 

'I don't know about that,' Ziggy laughs. 'So where do you live now? I mean, did you find your parents or....' 

'Nope,' I sigh. 'I live with Deena Jonson.' 

'Oh, are you two together?' The question is asked relatively casually, but there are certain undertones that I can't quite place. 

'No,' I say slowly. 'We're just friends. I'm dating Kate Schmidt..' I trail off, thinking intently. 'You're one of the only people I've told about how I got here.' 

Ziggy stays silent. Either I've just made the biggest fool of myself ever, or I confided in a complete stranger about my backstory. Maybe both. 

'It is strange, I agree,' Ziggy blinks. 'But maybe there's a reason you ended up here, in Shadyside.' 

'Or maybe I'm cursed,' I laugh, my hand going down to the seat. It lightly brushes hers, and the strangest thing happens. 

'Constance...' 

A voice whispers, sending tingles down my spine. I move my hand back to my lap. 

'Constance,' I say aloud. 'Sorry, I didn't mean to say that.' 

'Do you know a Constance?' Ziggy frowns, slightly confused. 'That's quite an old fashioned name, is it not?' 

'Yeah,' I flick a piece of hair out of my eyes. 'I guess it is. I really don't know where that came from.' 

'I like your shirt,' She says suddenly, pointing at my yellow tank top. 'It reminds me of the sun.' 

'Thanks,' I smile, as the bus lurches to a stop. 

'Well, see you around, Sunshine.' Ziggy waves, getting up. 

'See you around, Ziggy.' 

It doesn't occur to me until much later, that somehow, she knew I like girls.