ANIMUS

1. Gradual

Mason

"Sit. Beatrice made all your favorites." mom says as I enter the kitchen.

She has been extra attentive since my accident or should I say since someone tried to bash my head in.

Even dad made sure to be home today. They will be driving me to school for the first day of term. The first and only other time they did that was my first year at Wellington Academy when I was 6.

When I woke up in the hospital it was to find my mom crying over me. I had been out for a week.

My memory was really wonky, I didn't even know why I was in the hospital. The last thing I remembered was arriving at the Everheart ball with Cassie and then her spending a good part of the night pouting because Winter and Cyn copied her look. Everything was a blank after that.

Apart from my memory issues the doctors gave me an all-clear and my parents whisked me away to recuperate in Seoul. It was my first time back since my grandmother's funeral.

I spent the first week just catching up with family I hadn't seen in years. My cousins made it their mission to get me to fall in love with Seoul with hopes of getting me to move there permanently.

Days were spent visiting all the great food spots, riding our bikes along the Han River and going to art exhibits. The nights were spent checking out the music scene. I truly fell in love with the city.

It was during one of these concerts that I started getting my memory back. It was a flashback of dancing in what I think was a club with my friends, I remembered being very happy.

The flashback didn't magically bring back all my lost memory all at once. It was a gradual process triggered by the most random of things sometimes by a song, a word or a smell.

I became very frustrated with myself trying to trigger a new memory constantly but my therapist and family encouraged me to take my time.

It was only as I went through old pictures and text messages that I was able to finally fill in the missing gaps in my memory. I remembered the past few months including my breakup with Cassie, ANIMA and my new group of friends.

I remembered him.

I wanted to go back to Wellington right away but my family convinced me to finish our vacation and complete my recovery first.We only came back two days ago and I texted my friends as soon as I landed.

I am moving back into the dorms today. My parents weren't happy with me going back, they were worried something might happen to me again. I told them I really didn't want to get homeschooled or transfer to a new school in the last term of my senior year. And I reminded them that I wasn't attacked on campus. I promised I would be more careful this time around and they grudgingly agreed to let me go back.

After a hearty breakfast, my parents drive me to school. They go as far as to drive me onto the campus grounds themselves before leaving. A lot of students are already back on campus and the stragglers will probably be here by end of day since classes start back up tomorrow.

As I make my way to the Heathcliff dorms, I get a lot of stares. Some people at least have the decency to welcome me back and ask me how I am doing but a lot of them just stare. I guess they heard what happened.

I haven't really been in touch with anyone from school so I am not sure how much they know exactly. Even when I spoke to Aiden he just asked a bunch of questions about Seoul and my family. We didn't get into what happened at Oakwood.

As soon as I round the corner to my room I am almost tackled to the ground.

"It's so good to see you man! How are you feeling?" Aiden asks clinging to me.

"I will feel much better once you stop squeezing the life out of me." I reply.

"Oh sorry man, got a bit carried away." he says pulling back a little. He holds me by the shoulders and just looks at me.

"I am so glad you are okay" he says tearing up.

I heard he was the one that found me. That must have been traumatizing.

"Come here." I say pulling him back into a hug. After a few minutes of Aiden trying to imitate a koala, we finally enter my room.

It feels like a lifetime has passed since I was here, yet everything is just as I left it.

As I put my stuff away, Aiden and I catch up. He tells me about how he was bummed out he wouldn't be spending vacation with his dad for the first time and how he felt guilty about feeing that way when he thought of his mom and how his dad cheated on her with her best friend.

But then 2 days into their vacation with Ava and their mom, their dad showed up because he missed his kids. His new wife also tagged along.

"They kept flaunting their new relationship and going out of their way to throw barely hidden verbal jabs at mom. Her ex-friend had the guts to say that at their age it is hard to find love so mom should be happy for them instead of being bitter about her and dad's breakup. Dad even said she should let go of the jealousy because she will grow old alone and bitter if she doesn't. They said all this knowing Ava and I were within earshot. I realized then that they didn't come because he missed us, they came to throw their relationship in mom's face." Aiden says.

"I think there is a part of him that missed us. But the way he was acting proved that no matter how good of a dad he had been in the past he was a terrible husband to mom. And a horrible person for continuing to go at mom like that after everything he had already put her through."

"Did you confront him about it?" I ask.

"On the 5th day of our vacation, Ava and I spoke to him privately. He refused to see reason saying we were blindly taking mom's side when all he did was choose to be happy. He also reminded us of what a great dad he had been to us and the opportunities we get to enjoy because of his hard work." he replies.

"He conveniently forgot that mom is just as successful as he is if not more and she and her family were the ones that financed the expansion of his business."

"I am sure Ava was quick to remind him."

"She was." he says with a chuckle.

"Enough about me, how was your vacation?" he asks.

So I fill him in on everything that happened from the moment I woke up in the hospital.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

A/N

Welcome back to the Wellington story! What did you think of this first chapter?

Did it answer any of your questions?

QOTD: What are you most looking forward to getting resolved in this story?

- Oli 💌