“Ivy, bringing in his guitar had to be the best idea ever,” Mrs. Lewis said to me a few days later, giving me a huge bear hug. “He’s remembering so many things!”
“That’s great!” I grinned. Only a few more days until he was going to be out of the hospital and I was looking forward to it immensely. It was going to be good for him to get out of here, see his house and room and school again. It would hopefully help him piece things together.
“Of course he rarely puts the thing down, but I’m not complaining,” she chuckled, stepping back to hold my shoulders. “So how are you?”
She asked me this often enough. Tyler had told her about my refusal to tell Jake about us, hoping she’d get me to see reason, but unfortunately it backfired. She was on my side, and knew it must have been hard for me to keep such a big secret.
“I’m fine. He’s almost out so I can tell him soon,” I replied, twisting my ring around my finger. “He didn’t…he doesn’t remember me still?”
“No, I would have told you if he did,” she patted my back comfortingly. “Don’t worry. You guys are getting along so well, that maybe he’ll realize he likes you all on his own.”
“Maybe,” I murmured. “Can I go see him?”
“Of course. I’m heading down to the cafeteria, you want anything?” she asked me, starting to walk down the hall backwards.
“No, I ate before I came,” I assured her. She shrugged and turned down a corner out of my view. I peeked through the window of Jake’s room, watching him play his guitar. He was totally focused, eyes closed, one hand on the neck, holding down strings while his other hand played gently across the strings over the body. I could hear just the faintest tune through the door, a soft melody that made my tears come to my eyes. It was beautiful and different, nothing I’d ever heard before.
I saw his hand falter and he stopped playing altogether, looking frustrated. He looked down at a book on his lap, staring at it intensely. I took the brief opportunity and knocked on the door. His head whipped up and when he saw me standing there, he got an embarrassed look on his face.
“Come in,” he mouthed, hastily shoving the book into his guitar case.
I went inside, curiously looking at the guitar case. “Having trouble?” I dumped my bag by my usual chair and sank into it.
“A little. But I think I need a break before I smash this guitar into tiny pieces,” he sighed, storing his guitar with a little difficulty into its case. He leaned it against the small bedside table.
“What were you playing?” I asked, unable to help myself. I wanted to know where he got that beautiful melody from.
“I don’t really know. I was just messing around,” he said quickly.
“Didn’t sound like ‘just messing around’ to me,” I said, eyeing him suspiciously. There was something he was hiding. “That was really beautiful.”
“You think so?” he asked, meeting my eyes for the first time.
“I do. But I know you won’t tell me what it was.” I leaned back in my chair, hands in the pockets of my hoodie.
“It’s a secret,” he admitted. “I just want to figure it out for myself.”
“Sounds reasonable,” I said with a straight face, before I broke into a grin. “Stop being so serious. You’ll never get it if you think too hard about it.”
“Wouldn’t thinking about it be the point?” his eyebrow arched, clearly not getting it.
“No. I find that when I’m trying really hard to understand or something, I never do. But if I put it to the back of my mind, focus on other things I’ll come up with an answer or solution much faster. You can’t force yourself to do something. Let it happen by itself.”
“Well there’s not much else to focus on here.” He gestured around the plain room with a grimace.
“How about the fact that you’ll be getting out soon?”
“Trust me. I’ve been thinking about that a lot. It kind of goes with what I was doing before you arrived.” He rubbed his temple, frowning. “It’ll be weird, going out there again...seeing people, going to school, living. I don’t really know what’s going to happen or what I’m supposed to do.”
“Do what feels right,” I said, smiling. “And you shouldn’t worry too much about it. We’re all going to be there if you need us.”
“Thanks." He took my hand, running his thumb along the side of my ring. “So does your boyfriend go to school with us?”
I fidgeted in my seat. “Yeah.”
“What’s up?” he asked, catching my wince.
“We’re just…going through a bit of a rough patch, that’s all.” That was kind of the truth. Right?
I saw his lips twitch slightly. “That sucks. You’re fighting?”
“Sort of…” I trailed off, not really knowing how else to go on. “It’s complicated.”
“I’m not as dumb as I look,” he joked.
I grinned. “That’s debatable.”
“Hey, be nice to the patient!”
I waved a hand and rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah. So what are you going to do first as a free man?”
“You make me sound like a criminal getting out of jail. And I have a very good idea of what to do.” He looked extremely happy about this fact, and I wondered what exactly he had planned.
“What are you going to do?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Oh nothing too special,” he smirked, pleased at having peaked my curiosity.
“Is this a secret too?”
“Yup.”
“That’s not fair. You can’t just leave me with that!” I whined, “Come on, tell me. Please?”
“Nope. Not telling. Don’t even bother begging.” He shook his head. “I’m not saying a word about Friday’s activities. Just like you didn’t tell me about the guitar.”
“That is so not cool. And that was only a day’s wait. Come on, I sat by your bedside for almost three months. You owe me an answer,” I pouted.
He let go of my hand and folded his arms. “Well I didn’t make you stay, you did that all on your own. Sorry, but that’s not going to get me to budge. It’ll ruin the surprise.”
“Surprise?” I repeated. “What do you mean surprise?”
“That’s all you’re getting out of me!” he said quickly, “Subject change!”
“But Jake!” I cried. “My curiosity…it will never be satisfied!”
“Oh yes it will. Friday. Now, let’s talk about something else.” He rolled his eyes at me. “Don’t be so dramatic.”
I folded my arms and glared. “You’re evil. Truly evil.”
“Thank you. Now, what’s going on in the outside world?” he asked.
I was reluctant to let him change subject and not tell me anything, but I finally gave in, albeit grudgingly, and we moved onto other topics until his sister came to the door. Then I left them to talk and be together, figuring they needed it more than I did. I got to see Jake whenever I wanted, Sandra lived so far away and was on bad terms with her parents, so coming to visit wasn’t an option. Plane tickets cost way too much to come often, and driving took time she couldn’t afford to lose.
But I noticed that since Jake woke up Sandra and their parents had been on slightly better terms. I wasn’t sure whether it was because they had decided to put aside their differences for Jake, or if because they had finally decided it was useless to be so unfriendly. What ever the reason, I was glad they were being nice to each other for once.
Tyler was waiting for me outside, he had just left Leena’s house. I got in the car and we set off for home, both of us quiet with only the radio filling the silence between us. Then I broke it because I was really bothered.
“Jake won’t tell me what he’s doing Friday,” I blurted.
“Well of course he’s not going to tell you,” Tyler snorted a little. “That would ruin the surprise.”
“I’m sorry, but do my ears deceive me? Are you saying that you know what he’s talking about?” I gaped. “How is that fair?”
“He needed my help so he obviously had to tell me about it,” he said, as if it was obvious. Then he grinned. “You’re going to love it.”
“But what is it?” I asked impatiently.
“Nuh-huh. I’m not telling you. It’ll ruin the surprise he has planned for you.” He shook his head. “Don’t even bother trying to get it out of anyone, no one’s saying a word.”
“Who else knows?” I exclaimed.
“Um…Leena knows, Jo knows,” he shrugged again, but I noticed that he seemed hesitant. “I don’t really know.”
“Tyler you know exactly who knows.” I glared. “You’re a crap liar.”
“Doesn’t really matter how good of a liar I am, I’m not telling you anything more," he said, sounding stern. “You’ll have to wait to see what’s going on.”
“Okay fine, I won’t ask anything about it except for this one last thing," I said slowly. Tyler’s eyes flicked at me momentarily. I licked my lips and asked simply “Why?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Why is he doing it?”
“I don’t really know actually. I asked him, but he said he couldn’t tell me.” Now he looked cross. “I don’t have a clue why he’s doing it. I’d guess it’s just because you guys are so close and he wanted to thank you? I’m not really sure.”
“He doesn’t…he doesn’t know about us, does he? You didn’t tell him?”
“No, none of us did. I want you to tell him. It’s going to be really hard to tell him now, and it’ll serve you right.”
“Yes, I know you disapprove of me omitting certain facts but—”
“Omitting? You lied to him, Ivy. He thinks you have a boyfriend, but he doesn’t have a clue that’s its him. He still thinks he’s single. He asked me if I could tell your boyfriend about the surprise, see if he wanted to come. He really believes you’re with someone else. So that makes you a liar.” Tyler looked as frustrated with me as Jake did with his song.
“Look you don’t get it Tyler. How can I just dump all that information on his lap and force him to accept it? I couldn’t do that to him. I want him to like me for me, not because I told him he used too.”
“Then you should have told him you didn’t have a boyfriend!”
“How could I say that? He saw my ring! I didn’t tell him a thing, he came to the conclusion that I had a boyfriend and what could I do? Say no? How would I explain the ring?” I fired back. “And how can you expect me to explain to him everything we’ve gone through, just days after he woke up, barely even remembering who I was?”
“You could have eased him into it—”
“Eased him into it? Tyler do you hear yourself? How can I ease him into the idea that he has a girlfriend? That I’m his girlfriend? He couldn’t even remember me until I helped him out! Can you imagine, dating a girl you don’t even know? And having to take her word for it, and just her word and that of her friends, just because you don’t know any better?”
Tyler stayed silent, and I knew he didn’t have an answer to that. Sure, lying to Jake was bad. But I hated the thought that he would only have ‘liked’ me because I told him we were dating. I wanted him to like me all on his own. I wanted to see if he still loved me. Yes I’d tell him everything, but a little part of me hoped that he would already know it all by then. That he would have figured it out, that he would remember me.
But it was just wishful thinking.
********
No one would tell me anything about Friday, so after a day of begging I gave up. But it was still bothering me inside, and I couldn’t stop thinking about what it could possibly be. Fortunately, we had Friday off so at around eleven o’clock in the morning, we headed over to the hospital. We being Leena, Jo, Tyler and myself.
When we got there, Jake was in his room, standing and stretching. For the first time in months, I saw him wearing his familiar jeans and a plain black tee-shirt. It was so strange to see him in normal clothes, I had kind of gotten used to the hospital gown. But I was glad to see him looking normal and healthy again.
“Hey, you finally got some pants on!” Tyler exclaimed once he walked into the room and saw Jake. “It’s about time. That gown of yours was a little emasculating.”
“Tell me about it,” he rolled his eyes, and they did a man hug.
“Bromance,” Jo coughed, smirking at the two.
“Shut up,” Tyler stuck his tongue out at her. “So can you leave now?”
“My parents are just finishing with something, then we can go.” He shrugged, picking up his guitar case before he slung it over one shoulder. “They said they’d meet us in the lobby when they finished.”
“To the lobby!” Tyler cried, looping his arm around Leena’s waist and they were out the door in a flash. Jo followed with a shake of her head and a smile, and Jake and I followed behind her.
I suddenly felt awkward. “So…must be nice to get out of there.”
“Definitely. I was beginning to think there was no world outside that room,” he grinned. “But it is a little weird. I’m used to being in there.”
“You’ll get used to be out soon,” I replied, looking at the floor where I could see Jo’s black high heeled boots hit the floor with tiny crack sounds at every step.
“Are you excited? You finally get to see your surprise,” he bumped me a little, probably to get me to look up. It worked, I did look up at him for a second, before I went right back to Jo’s boots.
“Yeah but I do wonder…” I said, more to myself. It still bothered me. Why was he doing it? And why for me?
“Wonder what?” he held my arm and stopped me from walking, the rest of our group continuing without us.
“About today.” I put my hands in my pockets and he released my arm. I dragged the toe of my boot across the floor, leaving a small wet streak as my boot squeaked, wet from melted snow. “Why are you doing it?”
He was silent for a long time. Long enough to make me look up to see his face, to try and get a feel for what he was thinking. He didn’t seem to know what to say. He looked a little pale.
“Jake? Are you okay?” I touched his arm. Maybe he was tired or sick? Maybe that’s why he stopped? “Jake?”
“I’m fine. Relax. I just sort of felt like doing something for you, that’s all,” he said, abruptly starting to walk again.
I caught up quickly. “But why?”
He shook his head and didn’t answer me. His face tightened and I decided that pestering him would do more harm then anything else. So we walked to the lobby in silence. His parents and Sandra met us there, and since they were now finished we could all leave the hospital with Jake. Jake, his sister and parents all went into their car while the rest of us got into Tyler’s (technically my parents’) car, and followed them to Jake’s house.
We all went inside their house, Jake leading the way. He walked through the place with a smile on his face, picking up picture frames, running his fingers over the faces frozen within the images.
Just to keep the pressure off, we all decided to sit in the living room, let him do his exploring on his own. I could bet that having a crowd of people following you around would put a lot of pressure on a person. So we sat around chatting as Jake went upstairs, taking his time to take in every inch of his house.
A little while later he came back down, looking incredibly happy as he plopped down next to me on the couch.
“So when are we leaving?” Tyler asked Jake, giving him a sly grin.
“I think we should leave now. She’s going to need all the time she can get,” Jake replied, looking just as secretive and mischievous.
“Um…what?” I asked, feeling completely out of the loop.
Tyler laughed. “Don’t even worry about it, Ivy. Just go with it.”
“Come on! You’ve got a lot to do today!” Jo pulled me off the couch by my hand, then shooed me to the door.
“I don’t get it? We just got here, shouldn’t we—”
“Ivy, don’t argue. It’s pointless,” Jo rolled her eyes at me as she handed me my coat.
“Don’t worry Ivy, you’ll be very glad when we get there,” Leena assured me.
Obviously, they were going to continue being cryptic until we got there. So I took Tyler’s advice and went with it. I put on my coat and boots and followed them out the door.
Tyler drove us down familiar streets, and I tried to figure out where we might be headed. Then we took the highway, the one we normally took to get to Java’s. But we soon passed Java’s, and Tyler exited, taking us confidently through some place I didn’t recognize. He pulled up outside a very wide, very long one story brick building and I wondered what he was playing at.
“Okay I give. Where are we?” I frowned, getting out of the car.
“Ivy! You made it! Just on time too,” Ben said, opening the door at the top of a few steps. “Come on in guys.”
I lead the way up the stairs, eyeing Ben questioningly. “You’re in on this too?”
“Yup, and it’s not just me. There’s plenty of others,” he winked, taking us down a short hallway before he opened the door at the end of it. I walked through and saw a wide open space. Tables and chairs were set up around three sides of the room, leaving a large amount of free space in the center. At the far end was a stage, large speakers and a microphone were already on the stage. And the people!
Everyone from my dance classes were there, and so was Anthony. Judging by the large number of people, and the loud hum of conversation almost everyone from dance was here.
I gaped at them all. Anthony saw me standing there and jogged over, grinning from ear to ear. “Ivy! Perfect timing! Here, you’re going to need these.” He handed me a pair of dance shoes.
“For what?” I breathed, completely mystified as I took them. What the hell was going on?
“The dance show,” he replied, laughing. “I guess they didn’t tell you, eh?”
I turned around and gaped at them. Tyler ruffled my hair and laughed at my expression.
“You…I don’t…how?” I fumbled, struggling to comprehend everything.
“I’m afraid the explanations will have to wait till later, we’ve got a show to rehearse for!” Anthony took me by the arm and dragged me back to the group, but I couldn’t help looking over my shoulder at Jake. He grinned and waved at me, looking loads better than he did this morning.
“Anthony I’m still confused,” I said, Ben coming to join us as well.
“It’s simple really. Do you remember the choreography for your dances?” he asked, stopping me in the middle of the group of dancers.
“I…uh…yeah I think so. Why?” my thoughts suddenly fell upon the answer. “The show’s tonight?” I screeched.
“Yeah. Don’t worry about it, you’ve got plenty of time to rehearse. It’s why you’re here,” he replied, patting my arm.
“Didn’t someone replace me?” I thought I was about to pass out. A dance show? Tonight? I’d be lucky to even remember half the steps correctly. It’s been months! They could have changed the choreography or something!
“Yeah, but she sprained her ankle a few weeks ago. Then Ben said you’d be coming back, so we kept your spot reserved for you,” he said, pushing back his dark hair. “I know it’s a lot to swallow right now, but I know you can do it. So let’s stop wasting time chatting, and get dancing, okay?”
“Okay,” I said, feeling like I was two seconds away from hyperventilating.
Ben grinned. “Breathe Ivy, you’ll do fine. I’ll help you rehearse when we’re on break. And it’s only two dances.”
“Two dances?” I squeaked.
“'Moulin Rouge' and 'Dirty Dancing', remember?” he said, as Anthony called everyone’s attention and they started taking their positions. I hurriedly put on my shoes and tossed away my boots, hanging my coat up on a nearby chair while my friends were all being ushered out the door by Anthony.
“We’ll be back later!” Jo shouted as they left. “Break a leg!”
I fanned myself and tried to recall the steps as Anthony ran over to the stage and music started to play.
This was going to be a long day.
----------
One chapter left!!!!! S2L is officially finished and BLWL is one away from following suit, which means W&V will be the only story up and being updated. I think I may add Till Death up here as well to give you guys something extra to read while I work on the sequel to S2L...hmmm. I'll have to see when I have a chance to organize everything, but that's probably what I'll end up doing. I'd hate to slip back into old habits (read: not updating ever).
Hope you guys are as excited to see the ending as I am to show it to you!!!!
Much love and good vibes,
xxLaura <3 <3