After a few minutes had gone by in silence and Harvey hadn't softened his stance on me leaving at all, there wasn't much to do except prove to everyone that I was, in fact, good at doing nothing. There was a small amount of water from the rain outside that had crept under the garage door and onto the floor, and the two guys I didn't know personally in the band scooted their stuff away from the water.
An awkward silence lingered in the air in the garage, and maybe it was because I damaged everyone's eardrums with my little freakout that caused the sound equipment to screech. But I had a feeling it was because there were two groups of people in that garage—one that knew exactly what was going on and couldn't afford to give it up, and one that was probably a little confused and terrified. After all, the two guys also didn't know me personally.
Maybe now was a good time to learn their names. We were going to be stuck together for at least a little while, so I gave them a smile. Hopefully, the talisman would do its job and erase their memories like I asked, and they'd forget me just as I had never bothered to remember them. There wasn't much else I could do, after all. The talisman had power (that I had obtained somewhat illegally), so it was too risky to call the cops, and it wasn't like I had anyone who cared enough to come find me besides Jack or maybe Sierra, and they were right there with me.
"Well, while I'm being held against my will here, I might as well introduce myself. I'm Lindsay—"
"We're aware," one of them interrupted, but neither of them gave me their name. Good start.
How did they expect me to remember them when we never even talked that much? No one ever remembered drummers or bass players, anyway.
But instead of taking that no for an answer, I walked up to the two of them with the talisman in my back pocket. Remember, talisman, how I asked you to destroy Harvey's and their memories of this misunderstanding? I extended my hand across the drum set to the taller one. "What was your name again? I'm sorry I can't remember."
Jack let out an audible gasp, and I turned around. It wasn't that shocking that I faked an apology.
But before I could get either one of their names, Dominic gestured to his side. "Lindsay, I told you to stay right here."
"What? This garage barely fits all of us and the band equipment, and you're gonna tell me that I can't wander around a little?" I dipped my shoe into the rainwater by the door. "If I won't do my homework that professors tell me to do, what makes you think that I'll listen to you?"
"What are you talking about now?" he said.
Wasn't my point clear? "I'm not gonna do what you tell me to. You're not my mother, and I don't even listen to her."
"Look, that shit is your business, and I didn't—" He hesitated for a moment, then looked around the garage to Jack, Sierra, Harvey, and the two still-unnamed guys. "Did you bring me here to kill me or something? Because that seems like something you would do, Lindsay."
Bring him here to kill him? What was he talking about?
"I don't even know who the hell you are," Harvey said. "Get out of my garage. We have a huge gig at Trailfest coming up in a few days, and we need all the practice in the world so we don't get booed off the stage by rich people."
My eyes widened. Either the talisman really listened to me, or we went back in time, and I definitely remembered Jack getting pissed at me because I decided that I would rather spend my time at my professor's house than his gig at a rich people gathering.
Dominic shook his head. "I've never heard any of your stuff, but if Lindsay likes it, it has to be dumpster music. You'll get booed no matter what."
I frowned. I had okay taste in music, and I only liked Jack's captivating presence on stage, anyway. Besides, Dominic had definitely heard their music before, so why didn't he remember it?
"Trailfest was weeks ago, Harvey," the guy behind the drum set said.
My mouth fell open as I turned to Jack. He put his finger up to his lips, and I bit down on my cheek to keep from saying anything.
"I think I would remember that happening. We'd probably be signed to a record deal by now if that were the case," Harvey said.
He was in for a rude awakening. Yikes.
But more importantly, what did I ask of the talisman? To erase the memories of Harvey and the two other guys.
Shit.
The talisman sure as hell listened to my words, but not the spirit of them (again). If drum guy and Jack remembered and Sierra and I didn't count for obvious reasons, that left Harvey, bass guy, and finally Dominic as the other guy without any clue of what was going on.
Fuck.
And if Harvey didn't even remember Trailfest, it was possible that Dominic only remembered events that far back too, before we accidentally ruined so many things and told each other what made us miserable and drove us crazy. He probably didn't even remember the times we kissed and hated ourselves for it.
A lump rose in my throat.
"Dominic," I said softly, but it must have been too quiet for him to hear since he didn't look up at me. He probably didn't remember I knew that.
I had done it again. Another careless wish went so very wrong, and how was I going to fix it? As much as I wanted to take back my memory erasure idea, I couldn't guarantee that it would work, I wouldn't screw it up again, and Harvey would still not remember a thing about the talisman. That was far too hasty and risky for right now, and I was just present enough to know it.
I took in a choppy breath. Out of all the shitty things I had accidentally done with the talisman, this was the first to make my nose run and my eyes sting with frustration. I almost killed a guy and brought the end of times upon our little Tillamook, Oregon campus, but those didn't feel nearly as bad as this.
Although he didn't hear me when I said his name, Dominic looked over, and when he noticed that I was almost (not quite) crying, his face soured. "Oh my god, Lindsay. Are you seriously about to start crying because I called your taste in music bad? Are you really that damn sensitive?"
I shook my head. "Don't be rude to me right now. I know you don't care, but I'm not exactly in the mood to deal with you and your snide comments."
Maybe I was crazy, but it seemed that all the time we had spent together in the name of the talisman changed the way he talked to me, and now that we were back to square one, all it did was throw salt into my hurting heart.
The talisman experiment was fun while it lasted, but I wasn't cut out to carry it and be the chosen one or whatever theory we were going with that I didn't care to remember. I never thought things through, so if any of this was fate or destiny or whatever, how did it end up in my hands instead of someone like Dominic's? He did all of his assignments early and got good grades and cared way too much.
"Lindsay, we should probably just take you back to our dorm," Sierra said.
Jack nodded. "We still need to rehearse and get our set together for Trailfest, but you and Dominic should take her back."
"But Trailfest already happened, guys. Remember? They did boo us off the stage after we did a couple songs from Jazz, and then there was literally just some drama with Lindsay that apparently no one cares about anymore," drum guy said. Once this practice was over, I needed to ask Jack for his name.
"You dreamed it, dude. Pics or it didn't happen," Jack said, and he looked over at me. I gave him a small smile. At least he had my back, even if he didn't fully know what was going on. All he needed to know was that something weird was happening, and I was the person behind it.
I would probably be better off just leaving Dominic in a roadside ditch and promoting Jack back to his original spot as my most trusted colleague, but as Harvey opened the garage door for us to give them some much-needed space, I knew I couldn't do that. I missed the real Dominic that I had excavated after a few weeks of work.
"What the hell did you do this time?" Sierra whispered as we got into Dominic's car. "Everything had gone to shit, and then suddenly, everything is fine but no one remembers Trailfest?"
I didn't have the chance to respond before Dominic started the car and a new conversation. "I'm not gonna lie to you. I don't even remember how I got here in the first place, so either you're a witch, or there's something more to that coin you dug up that might be mine." He coughed a couple times. "Dirty ass garage."
Sierra took in a long breath from the back seat behind us, and I looked back and forced a smile before turning to Dominic.
"I'll tell you how to get back to campus. I just need you to come with me to my dorm to talk about something that'll probably sound crazy," I said.
"Just about everything you say is crazy and stupid," he replied.
If everything was normal, he probably would have left out the stupid part or softened his tone a little, but that was completely my fault. I didn't have a plan, but I had to find a way to get Dominic's memories back. Whether that was showing him the pictures I had taken of Dr. Reed's notes on the whiteboard or explaining every detail out loud, I was going to put everything back the way we had it.
I took out my phone, and I had one unopened text from Dominic twenty minutes ago. I took in a breath and read it: I have to tell you something about the day with the whole sky thing when we finally get out of here. And I would tell you that it's nothing bad so you don't freak out and burn this place down and kill us all or something, but that would be a lie. The truth is a bitch.
I looked over at him. He couldn't have mentioned anything about it before I asked the talisman to erase his memory?
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Hello everyone! How's it going? Thank you so much for reading!
For this chapter's question, what is the physical feature that you find most attractive on a person?
For me, it's the smile. I don't like those bullshit half-smiles or smirks like they think they're cool or something. It's all about having a real, genuine smile that looks like you really enjoy life. That's literally the most important trait for me. It's very simple, but it tells so much about the person.