Guardian

Chapter 2

"What exactly did Holden Sinclair tell you?" Ava asked as we walked to my truck. She met me outside the front doors of the science building.

"Nothing, but he definitely knew me," I said.

"Ron, I was always with you then. I'm telling you, if you had a secret boyfriend, I would've known about it. I think he's lying to you," Ava replied.

"No one said we were dating, Ava," I said, pulling my keys out of my pocket. I shoved it in the drivers door and yanked it open. Once inside the cab, I leaned across the bench and pulled the knob up to let Ava in the passenger door. "I don't remember him. Not even a little. Everything else has this fog over it. I can remember but it's fuzzy, but him, he's nowhere to be found up here," I motioned to my temple with my key before shoving it in the ignition. The engine turned over and I backed out of the parking spot and towards the exit.

"Did the doctors ever figure out why you can't remember the last year?" she asked.

"No, they did a full workup on me after and there weren't any drugs in my system. My dad thinks I'm faking so I don't have to talk about it but the doctors said it's normal to block out traumatic experiences." Ava was the only person who I didn't mind if she asked questions. She asked to build on a conversation we were already in the middle of or to check on me, not because she was curious know before everyone else.

"That's got to feel weird, Ron. Not knowing where you were or what you did for a whole year?"

"It didn't feel like a year," I said. It really didn't. I had hazy memories from around the time it happened, I remember darkness, earsplitting squeals, someone calling my name, and then I woke up in the hospital. My mom was crying, my dad was speechless, my older brother was sitting on the edge of my hospital bed. None of them expected me to come home. After the first month, everyone had given up that I ever would. I suppose I got lucky in a sense.

"Have you decided on a major yet?" Ava asked.

"Right now it's literature but that's only because I had to decide quickly. I'm not sure if I'll stick with it," I replied.

We drove the rest of the distance to my house in silence. When I pulled up to the house, my mom was sitting on the porch, waiting. She stood up to wave when she saw the truck. "How was school, sweetie?" she asked as I slammed the door shut and slung my bag on my back.

"It was how I expected it to be," I shrugged. Ava got out of the car and ran around to us.

"Hi, Mrs. Johns," she greeted.

"Oh, hi, Ava. Veronica didn't tell me you were coming over," mom said, looking back at me. I winced at her use of my full name. I was still sensitive to it, but mom should be able to use the name she gave me.

"I didn't understand a lot of my homework, so Ava offered to help me," I replied. My mom nodded.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to set another place at dinner tonight. I always make too much anyway."

Ava and I headed upstairs to my room. We spread a few books out over the floor and pulled out our notebooks. I understood most of the lessons from today, I just needed an excuse so my mom wouldn't kick her out. We did our homework, talking and catching up on everything that happened over the year. Lenny had asked her to last year's homecoming dance that I missed and then spent the evening ignoring her. No wonder she tried to paralyze him at lunch.

After doing our homework in silence for a while, I finally spoke up. "Do you know anything about Holden?"

"I know that he's a loner. I've never really seen him talk to anyone. I have a few classes with him, and he just sits as far away from people as possible."