Baseball Princess

Chapter 16: Memory Chasers

Seeing Daniel again was easier than I thought. Tommy was with me the whole time.

We tried to have a normal conversation with him, casually bringing up past situations to try to help his cause.

"So when is prom?" Daniel asked, out of the middle of nowhere.

"Why do you ask?" Tommy asked.

"I got my phone back today. I was looking through some old messages between my old self and Lindsey, and I saw a message saying her dress was pale pink," Daniel said, holding out the phone. I'm surprised it survived the crash.

"Oh, yeah. It's on May 30th. You and I were going together," I said, "but we don't have to go, if you don't want to."

Tommy clenched his jaw. This must he hard on him, too.

"I don't know. I mean, I want to go, but I don't know if it'll be with you," Daniel said.

"Actually, maybe we should go together, Lins," Tommy suggested.

"If Daniel still wants to go with me, I will. But until he says no, your answer is no, too."

He looked down. I'm not giving up on Daniel just yet. There's still a chance he could get his memory back.

"Maybe we should go now. It's awfully late," Tommy said, looking at his phone.

"Sorry," I mouthed to Daniel.

Then I followed Tommy out of the room, and out of the hospital. The car ride home was silent.

When we got to my house, Tommy walked me up to the front porch. He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, and bent his face down so our lips could meet.

It didn't feel the same as with Daniel, but it still felt nice.

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

I answered a little reluctantly. "Sure."

He seemed to notice my lack of sincerity, so he kissed me again.

I opened the front door, and backed away. Then I shut the door, and waited until I could hear his truck drive away.

When I got up to my room, I pulled put a notebook. The whole front half was full of writing, not a single free space in between the vertical red lines. Not even spaces between words.

I turned to the next free page, and began writing.

Words formed on the paper. Sentences making perfect sense. I ran out of space in that I had to run to the basement and pull out a fresh notebook.

Luckily the next day was Sunday, so I kept writing.

It finally ended a little over halfway into the second notebook. Since it needed to be typed, I pulled out my laptop, and began typing.

By nightfall, it was completely typed. Twenty-seven pages, single spaced. Take that.

I popped dowstairs, and made myself a celebratory hot chocolate. Who cares if it's seventy degrees outside right now.

I finally checked my phone. Seven missed calls, eight text messages. The calls were from Ben, Tommy, Mark, and one from Daniel.

The texts, same. I ignored every single one except Daniel's.

D-My wallpaper.

It was simple, yet it meant so much.

L-Yep. Ben took it. That one was my favorite.

D-The way I looked at you. We must've had something nice.

L-I'm going to call you.

I called Daniel, and he answered right away.

"I left the hospital today."

"Good for you. The place was horrible."

"So that picture..."

"We went out for ice cream with the team. We sat down, and Ben took our phones for pictures. He got that one on your phone. We all agreed it was our favorite," I said.

"I like it."

"Do you remember anything about our relationship now?"

"I'm trying. I vaguely remember swimming, and lemonade. But that's it so far," he replied.

I sighed, and I could tell he heard.

"Listen, Lins," Daniel said my name unsurely, probably because he wasn't used to the nickname. "If I'm not the same guy I used to be, we can still be really great friends."

"That's fine," I responded, a little too soon and a little too rushed.

"And I understand if you want to be with Tommy now."

"I'm sorry," I whispered just loud enough so he could hear.

It went silent. I checked my phone and we were still on the call.

An idea came into my head. "You don't remember what you used to be like, do you?"

"Nope."

"I have a video. I'll show it to you tomorrow at school," I said.

"Alright. Well, it's getting pretty late..."

"Oh, shoot! Yeah, sorry, see you tomorrow." The clock on my table said 11:34.

"Bye, Lindsey."

-

"Here, just take my phone, password is 0128, watch it when you can," I said to Daniel.

Class starts in two minutes, and first period for me is on the other side of the building.

"See you at lunch!" I called over my shoulder.

Maybe he'll look through all the pictures, videos, or even text messages. Anything will help, I guess.

So I silently prayed.

Please, Daniel, go through every aspect of my phone!

Please, Daniel, go through every aspect of my phone!

Please, Daniel, go through every aspect of my phone!

The bell rang just after I sat down. Thank God.