Now or Never (An Austin Mahone and Crew Love Story)

Forget Me

      Walking into the hospital the next morning is something I’ll never forget. Alex was laying in his hospital bed with his broken leg propped up and the rest of him covered by a cheap hospital gown. His face seemed to light up with recognition when he spotted us, but it wasn’t because of me.

      “Austin!” Alex exclaimed. Austin leaned over the side of his bed to hug him and showed him the bag of stuff we brought. Alex’s voice was loud and muted, but it was a huge relief to hear it at all.

      The first thing he pulled out of the bag were the cards. He opened the one from Austin first, and then the one from Drew. After he thanked them both he looked down at the last get well card that was from me. On the inside of it was a message that Austin had helped me write the night before, saying I forgave him for not trusting me and that I’d be there every step of the way through his recovery. At the end we admitted that I was dating Austin and I apologized for hurting him.

     He slid the card out and read it and I held my breath. I had expected him to look angry or forgiving, but instead he just looked confused. “Who‘s Olivia?” he asked a little too loudly.

      I looked at Austin, who looked at Drew, who stared at their mom in the corner. Why didn’t he remember me? How couldn’t he remember me? His mom’s eyes seemed to pop out of her head and she wrote a note for Alex on a white board she had with her that excused all of us into the hall.

“The doctor said there could have been memory loss since he hit his head, but we never came across any missing pieces in his memory, so I didn‘t think to warn you. I‘m sorry,” she apologized to all of us.

      Drew hugged his mom. “It‘s not your fault, Mom. You couldn‘t have known. We‘ll just explain it to him and see if he remembers.”

      We walked back into the room and Alex took a good look at me. “You‘re Olivia?” he asked.

      I nodded and his mom passed me the whiteboard. “Do you really not remember me?” I wrote.

He shook his head. “I don‘t recognize you at all. What happened between us? Why can‘t I remember?”

      “It‘s a long story, but we dated for almost a month. We broke up because you didn‘t trust me, but now you can‘t remember it because you hit your head.”

      He pulled out one of his new notebooks and a pen. “Tell me the whole story.”

      The next thing I knew I was curled up on Alex’s recliner in the corner of the room writing down our story while Drew and Austin set up the Ustream and went live from Alex’s hospital bed. Alex stayed quiet while Austin and Drew explained everything that happened. 

      Austin apologized for staying off of Ustream for so long and then they answered questions for awhile. When someone asked how I was dealing with Alex’s accident Austin answered by saying that I was struggling just like the rest of them. Then he told the world about our breakup and how Alex didn‘t remember me at all.

      I passed the notebook back to Alex and he started reading the overview of our relationship that I gave him. His face stayed neutral the whole time and they logged off of Ustream before he finished reading.

      “I really took your first kiss and all of that? Our first fight was in the girls bathroom? I wish I could remember.”

     Austin took the white board and said, “It‘s okay that you don‘t. There could be a lot of sour feelings toward each other if you did.”

       “Why?” Alex asked.

      Austin erased the white board and wrote, “You REALLY liked her, but you couldn‘t trust her, so she dumped you. I kind of stole her right out from under your nose.”