"Can I borrow her for a second?" I suddenly pop up from Bridget's back, surprising the mini circle of her chatty minions she had gathered. Their jaws drop on the floor at the same time Bridget jumps.
"Stop sneaking on me!" she dramatically exclaims as she swats my hand that's grabbing her shoulder—a bit tighter.
If I'm going to finally dare someone to reveal the truth about me, I decided to choose the person who will never have a second thought on spilling out her guts in behalf of the entire town of Lexus who are way too great actors for pretending that everything's alright. Someone whose mouth is as big as our campus door.
"Can I?" I repeat, now with cock brow to the four minions. The idea of me talking to them is still scaring the shit out of their junior heads.
They all nod in unison when I narrow my eyes and with that, I grab her. Literally dragging her arm, her feet skidding on the tiled floors and her hair getting all tangled up on her face. Oh if only I could laugh.
But you could.
I ignored that voice inside my head and focused on Bridget's yelps. That's more interesting. And just to be very clear, I'm no sadist of a friend. It's just me messing with her, in our own way. The bitch did it to me once back in highschool when we had a very petty fight. She and my boyfriend....
I suck in a breath. Boyfriend?
Holy shit I really can't remember.
My grab on Bridget unintentionally tightens so when I noticed it, I immediately let her go. By this time, we're already standing in front of the door of the music room. I turn the knob and the irritated Bridget Argent hauls herself in first.
"What do you want?!" she snaps at me. Okay, I'll let that one pass. I deserve it for dragging her like a voodoo doll.
"I need your help," I say without a further a do.
"What?!" she snaps again but with a hint it calmness in her tone. She promised me that when I needed her help, she'll help. She assured me that she'll always with me. I need that promise now and I'm sure as hell she's gonna uphold to that.
"When you eavesdrop on me and my mom, you told me you want to help..." I remind her and she slowly nods. Her hostility is slowly fading and it's being replaced with wary and care.
"Whatever you want me to, Harls. Just say it," she sincerely tells me. But then she raises her finger as if to add up a point, "except for jumping out of the rooftop or worse, stopping the Senior Prank."
I roll my eyes. She really needs to sort out her priorities. "I just want you to be honest, that's all."
She straightens, her face beaming in excitement which kind of confuses me. I didn't expect her to be this eager. I do know she'll tell me the truth but with her face full of fear for her imminent death care of Austin or Jace or Austin and Jace.
Bridget claps her hands together and I smile to myself. She is so genuinely pure. I should've asked her earlier. "Go on, shoot!"
"Promise me you'll be honest. No more lies, no more pretendings. I just want to know the truth. I think I don't want to live another day here in Lexus without knowing who am I because right now, no matter how many times I convince myself that I know me, it doesn't feel right. You guys are constantly lying to my face and that sucks. It's like you're being selfish for a part of me that I deserve to know..."
I'm on the verge of crying so I trail off and when I look into Bridget's eyes, they're gleaming with tears.
She bites down on her lip before speaking. "I know, Harley. Trust me. I hated doing all these. I hated being selfish to you because you're right and I've always told myself that, that it is your life and you're my bestfriend and I'm supposed to be true to you and when things get worse just like they usually were, I just have to be by your side."
"So you're admitting that there are a lot of things that all of you are hiding from me?" I blink, not in disbelief but with the fact that they disappointed me.
"I'm sorry, Harley. I love you and we don't want to lose you and..." oh she's starting to blab again.
So I cut her off by raising my hand. She shuts up instantly which is good. I take a daring step towards her, take a deep breath and drop my first bomb, "Do I really have amnesia?"
I am pass the in denial stage. I have finally come to the point where I accepted (not fully) all the facts laid out on my face that I have that stupid thing where the brain forgets everything.
Bridget starts sobbing and weirdly, she's fishing something out of her.... bra? My eyebrow cocks up in confusion. I did not ask her to strip?
"Whoa, B..." I try to stop her but I halted when a shinning pendant goes into view.
Bridget lifts her chin up and her tears-filled eyes look into me as she holds dearly onto the necklace. The pendant is a ring, a gold ring with two small diamonds on either side of a larger one. "This is yours and ever since the day you left, I held on it for safekeeping. That's what I always say whenever Luke's asking me to hand it over. But the truth is, Harley... when you got out of surgery and when you finally woke up after a few days, your mom was the only one allowed to go inside your room and when she came back to us... she said you're okay but——"
The necklace fall from her grasps and I roll my eyes. Way to ruin a moment, Argent.
She wipes eye with the back of her free hand as she stands up from crouching to pick the necklace up. "But you're different. You don't remember some parts of your life, Harley. I held onto this up until now because this is my only sane way to feel that you're always with me even though you've wandered very far from home. So yes, Harley. Yes you do have an amnesia."
I feel like there's a huge solid lump of air (if there's even any of that) stuck in my throat and I can't breathe. Thinking about it is okay, it's bearable but I did not see this one coming. Having someone confirm it shatters everything in me. I was living a lie.
"Harley..." Bridget calls me softly.
"Don't!" I stop her before she could even come close to me. I appreciate her for being my friend and for being completely honest to me without even forcing her but I'm having alien emotions right now and that's all because they lied to me. "So what parts did I forget? Are my brothers still alive?"
Of course, if I have amnesia all this time ever since I woke up from that hospital bed and saw my mom crying hysterically on my arms, then there's a possibility, no matter how minuscule, that they're still alive and I'm really living on a lie.
Bridget frowns which eventually turns into a sadness etched on her face. "No, Harley. They're not and I'm so sorry."
And there it is again. The pain when I knew that I lost them. It's present now and it's excruciating.
"The doctors said you have retrograde amnesia, the kind that makes you forget memories from your past and in your case, your subconscious self chose to pick specific ones," she informs me. I nearly blurted out 'thanks, doc'. But I held my tongue.
"Oh my god.." I murmur to myself.
I hear her sigh and in just a second, she's by my side helping me on my feet. "Okay, that's enough for today."
My head whips to the side and I glare at her. She promised me that she'll tell me everything. "No! You——"
"I know!" she cuts in, her face a mixture of annoyance and worry. "And I will tell you everything but one thing at a time, okay? This is a lot to process and we're at school. As much as I want to do you a favor by answering your question, I'd rather keep you sane for the entire days rather than have you all weak and confuse and hurt in front of everyone at Lexus especially Austin and Jace."
"No, Bri. You need to keep telling me more please," I beg and she shakes her head. She grabs my hands and holds them tight in a comforting manner.
"Austin and Jace are going to kill me and I won't be able to tell you the end of this if you're not going to pull yourself together and act like I didn't tell you a thing," she says reassuringly and I do remember this Bridget, this Bridget is the one who's consoling me when my boyfriend and I had a fight. "And this kind of news about yourself is really nerve wracking so we'll do it this my way, okay?"
My eyebrows pull together. I don't think that floats my boat. I am the one who's asking questions. Everything should be my way.
"You're the one who needs answers," she continues as if she's reading my mind. "And as your bestfriend, I want to help you know everything about you but not all at once."
She's right. She's got a point. All she did today is confirm that I have amnesia and look how it took a toll on me.
"How about this..." she grabs my arm and smiles at me, sweetly. "...one at a time and then if I can, we will relive them so I'm not just doing all the work, you're also remembering it for yourself. I know that's what you want to do."
I battled with my own thoughts for a second and I decided she's right. The sane version of me would want it this way, like a therapy not a gold discovery.
"You game?" she asks, her voice very calming and I know she only uses this kind of tone when she's dealing with a toddler throwing a tantrum.
I nod and she lights up. "But not one at a time. Few at a time," I correct her.
"Fine!" she exclaims and then she skips towards the door, stopping just to say one final speech to me, "But I want you to keep in mind that everyone did this to protect you and to not lose you again, Harley."
I scoff, acting tough and back to action even tho my knees are still shaking. "I'll be the one who gets to decide if they did it for me or for themselves."
She groans, realizing she is so screwed for fessing up to me but I know this girl. She won't regret a thing because if I didn't know better, she would've told me earlier without a doubt.
I remember being rolled out of the hospital in a wheelchair and at the door stands Bridget, clasping on my jacket for dear life with tears in her eyes. She jumped on me even though she's clearly aware that I'm still sore from my injuries. She begged my nurses to let her because it was her last time to hug me before I fly to Colorado. She promised me she'll miss me and love me every day. And I do remember her last words telling me, 'I'll look after him.'
That was a blurry memory but it reminds me of another question I need to ask her. "Bri..."
She spins on her heels and skips to the door, now grabbing the knob and looking like she's dodging my next bullet. "I know you're going to ask one more question because you already look a bit sobered up from the first. But no, Harley Gold. We are getting out of here before anyone notices we're gone."
"Bridget," I call her and she stops.
"Harley..." she begs.
"Who is Grayson Levy?" I bravely asks and I'm amazed that I didn't stutter because my heart is pounding way too violently inside my chest.
Bridget slowly turns half her body to me and she's opening her mouth when the door of the music room bursts open—I know locked that—hitting her.
"Argent? What are you doing here?" The music teacher asks the groaning in pain Bridget.
Clasping her forehead which just had a collision with the door, she whips her head to my direction and glare at me. "Let's go, Harley."
Not even paying attention to the music teacher who just caught us in her room, I instantly grab Bridget's hand and suck in every ounce of air I could fill my lungs with. Once I'm through these doors, I will have to face the little devils in my life again. Those who live everyday to pretend I'm okay and that withholding the truth for me will get them far on their lives.
"Don't say a word to Austin and Jace, okay?" she remind me once we're out, not even minding to turn to face me while she's dragging me down the hallway.
The situation has clearly been reversed. A while ago, I was the one who's dragging her and the one who has the upper hand in this but now, she's going all madame on me.
"Fine!" I reply. "But can I ask Grayson?"
That question isn't really going to happen. I just thought of dropping it just in case it'll rattle her and will make her spill more to me today. She stops from walking and turn to me, studies my face for a second before slowly smiling.
"Of course. You deserve to know," she says and when she's about to grab my hand again, I jerk away. She notices but lets me and kisses my cheek before leaving and setting enough distance between the two of us. I bet that question and answer portion awhile ago took a toll on her too.
As I watch her walk away from me, I realized... there are still people in this world whose hearts are pure. Pure enough to break free from the things they see wrong and brave enough to stand up against the people who do wrong. Bridget's heart is brave because it beats for love, love for everyone no matter how different people are.