Forgotten

Chapter Thirty One

“You didn’t!” I exclaimed, laughing uncontrollably. I probably looked like an idiot, but I couldn’t stop.

Zane chuckled. “I did though! I was five, I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to tell people if they were ugly; my parents always taught me to tell the truth.”

“I can’t believe you did that,” I was still giggling. Zane had just told me about a time when he was little and met the queen of Miserere. She had said hi and they’d had a bit of conversation before she asked him about Cinderella. He said she looked like the evil stepmom would, but that he didn’t read fairytales. I could imagine it perfectly.

He shrugged, sipping at his shake. The restaurant had turned out to only have sushi and smelled overwhelmingly of old people so we left pretty fast. Instead, we’d picked up some fast food and drove to a nearby lake. That’s where we were now, our feet in the water.

I felt something wet hit my face and glanced at the sky. The clouds that had been scattered and light earlier were now dark and reaching across the sky. “Uh, Zane, I think it’s going to rain.” Another drop hit my arm.

“Oh great, do you think we have time to make it back to the car?” He asked while we stood up.

I shrugged. “Maybe if we hurry.”

“Alright, I just need to throw this away.” He held up the fast food bag and I nodded in understanding, pointing at a nearby trashcan. We headed over that way.

It was right after we got there that the rain started to come down harder. And we still had about ten minutes away from the car. I took Zane’s hand in mine as we sped up. Neither of us were wearing jackets because it had been warm earlier.

The car was in sight when it really started pouring. Zane broke into a run, and although he was already practically dragging me along, exclaimed, “Come on!” I giggled, the sound concealed by the pitter patter of rain on the sidewalk, and started running as well.

We scrambled into the car less than a minute later and when Zane glanced at me from the driver’s seat we exchanged grins. As the downpour continued outside, Zane and I stayed nice and warm (though slightly damp) inside the truck. It was a nice change to just watch the storm pass.

Several hours later, Zane and I were lying silently next to each other in our shared bed. We’d stayed in the truck for hours, talking, but the rain never let up and eventually we figured we needed to get back. After quick showers, we were just relaxing for lack of anything else to do.

“So what did you think of the date?” Zane asked, finally breaking the silence.

I rolled onto my side to smile at him. “Isn’t it too soon to tell you? Usually the girl waits a few days, until the guy calls to ask her on a second date, to tell him what she thought of the first one.”

“Shut up and tell me,” he muttered, but his eyes were crinkled in amusement.

“It went great and I’m not just saying that because I’m stuck with you for another two weeks.” Two weeks until we were going back to Astoria.

Zane laughed quietly as thunder roared outside. “I’m glad you clarified. I had a pleasant time too, in case you were wondering.”

“Yeah, that’s why I didn’t ask,” I remarked sarcastically.

He flicked my forehead in a playful manner. “Ha-ha.”

“How old is your brother?” I asked, suddenly wanting to know more about him. Despite spending all afternoon chatting, there was still so much I didn’t know.

“He’s twenty-five.”

I nodded. “And you’re twenty-two?”

“You remembered,” he said happily, his eyes wide.

I rolled my eyes in response. “You’re weird.”

“And you’re nineteen. See you’re not the only insightful one,” he teased, reaching out to lace his fingers through mine.

“Oh, that’s a big word.”

He smiled proudly. “I try.”

“I bet you practice every day.” The thought of him bent over a dictionary for hours each day made me smile. Zane scoffed, but moved closer.

“Yup, just to impress you.”

I laughed. “Sure.”

When a boom of thunder made me jump for the second time in five minutes, Zane asked, “Are you okay? You’re not scared of storms, right?”

“No, I’ve been through a few storms and I was fine. It’s just feels like there’s something different about this one.”

“Yeah, it’s her looking for us.” I would’ve thought he was joking if he didn’t sound so serious.

“Huh?”

He sighed. “She likes to send storms, hoping it will make us use our elements on them for our own convenience. If we do, she’ll know where we are. It’s sort of an ‘I had this first so you can’t take it’ thing. When someone influences the same part of the element you’re influencing, it works like a GPS.”

“Strange…” I was trying hard to understand, but there were a lot of things about Astoria that I couldn’t fully grasp. Hopefully getting my memories back would help.

Zane shrugged. “You get used to it… Since we’ve spent all day talking about me, why don’t you take a turn. I don’t know much about you- except that you love pink.”

I laughed at the last part. Honestly there’s not much I remember…”

“Tell me about the past-year-you then,” he suggested, shifting closer to me.

“Okay, um… I can do flips and such, like you saw at the circus. I love chocolate; especially frosting, but I don’t like chocolate cake for some reason. I have a younger sister that I would do anything to protect and I love my circus family. Kia said that I also have a great relationship with my biological family, but I have yet to see if that’s true,” I concluded.

He rested his head against my shoulder; somehow he had gotten close enough to do that while I was talking. Not that I minded, I liked having my side pressed against his. “I bet you love them a lot; you don’t seem like the type to hate people- especially your own family.”

“Yeah, well, who knows what they’re really like…? Maybe they treat me like scum.”

Zane chuckled. “I doubt it; they threw you a big pink party when you were seven. That doesn’t seem like something bad parents would do.”

“You’re right; they’re probably amazing people.” He didn’t reply so I continued. “I know I had a boyfriend that meant a lot to me until he cheated. And I dated Blake, but I don’t know if I have had any other boyfriends. I love music.” I brushed a hand through his dark hair. “On my old IPod, I spent most of my spare money on music so I had about seven hundred songs; my storage was almost full. I don’t have a favorite kind of music because I love them all. I like reading too; I loved the Harry Potter books that Ally made me read.”

I stopped because he made a noise, but he didn’t say anything after that. A few moments later he made another noise- wait, was he snoring? I bent so I could see his face and sure enough, he was fast asleep. I scowled, “Nice to know I’m so interesting.” But at the same time, I found him adorable… It was official, I was insane.