If You Forget | ✓

Chapter 3

"Honey, you have a visitor." My mom's voice echoes through my room from the other side of the door.

"Who is it?" I ask in confusion. This is the first time anyone's visiting me since I returned home, so I wonder who it might be.

She opens the door and peeks inside. "It's your friend from the hospital, Jane."

"Oh," I only mutter in surprise, even though she should be the most probable choice. "I'll be there in a minute."

When I descend the stairs and step into the living room, I spot Jane sitting on the couch and chatting with Mom. As soon as she notices me, though, she greets me with a wide smile.

"Oh, Elainne! Hi! I haven't seen you in so long," she says as she stands up from the couch, even though we've last seen each a week ago. However, I decide not to comment on that, and instead return her enthusiastic greeting.

Mom quickly leaves us and slips into the kitchen, while we sit on the couch and start chatting. Soon after, she returns with a plate full of cookies that she places on the table in front of us.

"I made these with my mom, so I brought some to you," Jane tells me as she reaches for the plate and grabs a cookie. "You should try them. It's not because I made them, but they're really, really good." To prove her statement, she takes a bite of it, the enjoyment visible on her face.

Convinced, I follow her example and let out a happy hum as the chocolate chips melt in my mouth. We sit in silence for a minute, each nibbling on her own cookie, until she finally finishes hers and starts speaking again.

"I'm sorry I can't stay too long, I just wanted to stop by and see how you're doing. Oh, and I have something for you too." She reaches for the armchair, and for the first time, I notice a handbag resting on it. "Some people heard I planned to stop by, so they asked me to give you some stuff," she mumbles as she rummages through her bag.

Soon enough, she has a tiny stack of cards in her hand, and I inwardly beam at the thought of all the people who made an effort to write as much as a couple of words and pass them on to Jane.

"Okay, let's see," she begins, looking at the first card in her hand. "This one's from Natalie Ross, this one's from Penelope Atkins, then there's this one from Evan Brooks..." Jane lists out the names that mean nothing to me, and I sigh a little breath of relief when she gets to the very last name from the pile.

I accept the stack from her, and then put it on the table right next to her cookies. Just when I'm about to thank her, she cuts in.

"I should probably get going now, but it was nice to see you again. Do you have a new phone?" Jane asks as she gets up from the couch.

I nod reluctantly. "I do, but I don't use it that often."

"Oh, great! We can exchange numbers then. That way, I can give you a heads up the next time I visit. Maybe I'll bring someone else with me, everyone misses you so much."

She produces two slips of paper from her bag, along with a pen that she offers to me. I write down my number, triple checking for a mistake. When I don't seem to find any, I gave the pen back to her, and then we exchange the slips.

With the last few pleasantries, I follow her to the door and give her a quick wave goodbye when she leaves. Now alone, I leave my mom in the kitchen and go back to my room, heading straight for my desk.

I slump into the chair just like I did earlier today, and pick up an abandoned notebook from the desk's shiny surface. When Jane arrived, I've just started flipping through its pages and glancing over its contents. It was one of my school notebooks, packed with notes from my classes, all written in a neat, slightly cursive handwriting.