Remembering Smiles

Chapter 16 -

"Fine, we'll take a vote." Said Jordan, folding her arms.

"You're crazy if you think we're going to  take part in this." Laughed Francesca.

Jordan and Juliannah sighed, giving up the conversation, and we all started normally chatting again. I wasn't really paying attention to much since none of the conversations were really going anywhere. Our table was very weird in that way; sometimes we were the life of the lunch room and others we all wanted to be our individuals. Today, we were all being individuals. Natalya was buried in some lengthy novel while Brooklyn just slowly faded. Camile was texting while I just rested my head on the table. Allen would be showing up soon after he said goodbye to his friends.

Francesca, Juliannah, and Jordan's conversation finally died down and soon the entire table was filled with a slightly awkward silence. I couldn't see anything since I was completely buried in my arms, but I felt Jordan's heavy sigh as she got frustrated with the silence.

"Hey Layla," she said, perking up a little. She had a huge smile on her face and she looked like she was about to laugh. "Remember when Brooklyn wasn't here for like a month because she actually slipped on a banana peel and broken both of her wrists? I mean, I thought that only happened in Mario games!" She giggled, trying to start up a conversation.

Before I could even process anything, Brooklyn's head snapped up at me. Her light blue eyes stared into mine almost like she was trying to give me a message. It almost looked like a plead for Jordan's joke to stop, but not because of any obvious reason. The look in her eyes made me think something else was going on.

But what?

Suddenly, that's when the sharp pain hit me. Of course nothing would make sense, I didn't remember anything. I didn't remember Brooklyn's accident and I didn't remember anything that could make Brooklyn react like that. 

I didn't remember.

I could see small tears start to build up in Brooklyn's eyes as she looked down shaking her head. She almost looked like I had abandoned or betrayed her, but I didn't know what was going on. I wanted to help her, but I didn't even know the problem. The familiar wall in my mind felt thicker than ever and soon I had tears of my own coming into my eyes.

I stood up and walked quickly to the bathroom, leaving Jordan to talk to herself and Brooklyn to deal with her own problems. I pushed the door open and went into one of the stalls, but not bothering to close it as I heard Camile come rushing behind me. 

I curled up in a ball as I heard Camile join me in the stall and lock the door. She bent down next to my shaking body as I let tears stream down my face. I was so helpless.

Camile rubbed my back and let me lean on her shoulder while I let out giant sobs and frustrated groans into her shoulder. It was such a horrible feeling. I wasn't able to help my best friend, who was now a stranger! There was so much to catch up on, and it only now really hit me.

"Did you see Brooklyn?" I asked after I managed to calm down. 

"What do you mean?" She asked, fixing my makeup with a spare mascara brush she kept in her boot.

"The second Jordan mentioned her being gone for a month she seemed, I don't know, really upset. She looked at me with such a nervous look, almost like she was silently calling for help. There were even tears in her eyes, but I didn't know what to do." I said, slouching with my confusion with this problem.

"Oh," Camile said, running the brush through my lashes one last time."I know what that's about." She finished, screwing the brush back into the bottle and slipping it in her boot.

I raised my eyebrows, pushing for her to tell me.

"You see, her falling on a banana peel is a cover up for something else. She didn't want to tell anyone the truth so she lied and said she broke both her wrists which prevented her from coming to school. The banana peel part was just added for humor, even though it's far from the truth." Sighed Camile. She placed her elbows on the edge of the sink as she leaned back to talk to me.

"What was the truth?" I asked.

"She was having a lot of family problems. Her dad died in a gang fight a few years ago and her mom refuses to come out of her room. She only comes out to go to work, but not much else. Brooklyn has to do the shopping, cooking, and driving. Anton and Raphael, her two younger brothers, also need to be watched. It was a big load for her so she took the month off of school to get situated. At first, she wasn't going to tell anyone, but the whole secret was to much for her. She told you the whole story and you would keep everyone away from that topic." She explained.

I took this all in, suddenly feeling even more guilty. She was relying on me and I blew it. 

"How did you find out?" I asked.

"You told me. There's never any secrets between us!" She smiled, trying to raise the mood.

However, nothing was going to be making me feel any better. How could I explain this to Brooklyn? I could tell her the truth, she trusted me why couldn't I trust her? Then I wondered if she would be mad and I felt even worse. This damn memory loss was tearing apart my life.

I was tired of being patient. My memory needed to come back now. I had no idea how to control this and that drove me even more crazy. This was way to much for me.

I slumped onto Camile's shoulder once again and cried my eyes out. By the time I finished, it was already the next period and I asked the nurse for a late pass for Camile and I. She saw how miserable I looked and gave us our passes. Well, at least something was going right.

We made our way to our next class, history, which Camile and I had together. As we walked in, Allen was the first to look at me with worried eyes. For some reason this irritated me. Everything was irritating me because whatever sadness I had before was turning into anger.

It was anger about nothing, but it would change everything.

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Soooooo? Watcha think(;? 

♥♥