Remember Me

Prologue

The silence was deafening which didn't normally bother her, but somehow today it was overwhelming and threatened to suffocate her. She wouldn't let it though. The second thoughts and doubts that came to the forefront of her mind were pushed back out as she took a deep breath and reminded herself that this was the right thing to do. If there was one thing Brittany Tate was good at it was doing the right thing.   "Will you say something, please?" She pleaded breaking the silence that had taken over the room.

"What am I supposed to say? Didn't you cover it all when you said you are leaving?" Cody Jensen finally spoke from his spot on the hospital bed where he'd spent the last two weeks. He wasn't looking at her, instead choosing to focus on some unknown spot over her shoulder.  His words were laced with a bitterness Brittany couldn't ever remember hearing from him in the three months that she's known him.  It didn't make sense for him to be bitter though.  Just like it didn't make sense for him to be angry about this, but she could feel the anger radiating off of him.

"I didn't make this decision lightly, Cody. I just feel like it's the best thing for everyone."

"No, you think it's the best thing for you."

"That's not fair." She'd worked so hard to keep her resentment and anger at bay over the last few weeks but she could feel both emotions creeping up inside of her even as she tried to force them away. "I don't understand why you are acting like this. I know that things have been hard for you since you woke up. I'm trying to make it easier. This should do that."

Cody snorted at her statement, " how exactly is running away making things easier, Brittany?" He finally pulled his eyes away from the wall and let them lock on her. "Do you really think you not being here would change anything? I still won't remember."

The emotion that she saw swirling in his dark brown eyes made her heart ache and her stomach hurt. "I'm not trying to hurt you."

" But you are. Don't you understand that? It hurts me that I look at you and can't remember what everyone tells me happened between us." He closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath. "It kills me to have this knowledge of being in a relationship with you but not be able to recall a single thing about our time together." Opening his eyes, he looks down at his hands in his lap, " I know it hurts you too."

All Brittany could do was nod. It did hurt, more than she could even tell him.  She never knew that she could feel this much pain. 

Three months ago, Brittany had been living her life happily preparing for her high school graduation and looking forward to going away to college. Then her best friend Lindsay had decided to enter one of the songs that Brittany had written into a songwriting contest being sponsored by Cody Jensen's record label.  Cody had been Brittany's crush since he had broken into the music industry two years before and she idolized him.  She never expected to win the contest but she had. Cody had loved her song and wanted to record it on his new album so she'd gotten to meet him and her life changed forever. They'd clicked instantly and became fast friends.  Then just as quickly, they'd become more than just friends. It had been a whirlwind but it had been perfect. Until it wasn't anymore. "It's not your fault."

"That doesn't matter. It doesn't make me hate myself any less."

His confession gutted her. She knew from his father that he was blaming myself for things that were beyond his control but hearing him say it out loud made her feel physically sick. "You didn't ask for some low life junkie to carjack you and bash you in the head with a tire iron, Cody. you didn't ask to be in a coma for two weeks and wake up with no memory of your life for the last three months. None of this is your fault."