Chapter 10
Chapter 10
The morning sun filtered through my curtains, painting the room in soft, golden light.
It should have been a nice way to wake up.
But I just felt... heavy.
I lay in bed for a long time, listening to the faint sounds of the neighborhood waking up.
The distant hum of a lawnmower.
The soft barking of a dog down the street.
The faint chirping of birds.
Normal sounds.
Comforting sounds.
But they didn’t reach the hollow space inside me.
I rolled onto my side and stared at the notebook on my nightstand.
The same notebook where I had tucked away the photo, the receipt, and now the picture of the flyer.
Pieces of a puzzle I didn’t know how to solve.
I sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
My body still felt weak, but it was stronger than yesterday.
That was something.
I reached for my phone, the cracked screen lighting up with a soft buzz.
No new messages.
No missed calls.
Just me.
And my thoughts.
---
After brushing my teeth and throwing on a soft sweatshirt and leggings, I grabbed my laptop and settled cross-legged on my bed.
If there were clues out there, I had to find them.
I opened my old social media accounts first.
Accounts I hadn’t touched in months.
Scrolling through the pictures made me feel strange.
It was like looking at someone else’s life.
There were photos of me and Lena at school events.
Chris pulling stupid faces in the background.
Mom smiling too wide, pretending everything was fine.
All normal.
All ordinary.
Nothing that hinted at a secret past or hidden memories.
I clicked through old albums.
Birthday parties.
Study sessions.
Random selfies.
Still nothing.
I sighed and leaned back against my pillows.
Maybe I was looking in the wrong place.
Maybe the past had been wiped so clean that no trace of it was left.
---
I was about to close my laptop when something caught my eye.
A small blinking icon in the corner of the screen.
A message.
An old one.
From months ago.
My heart skipped a beat.
I clicked it open carefully.
The sender's name wasn’t fully clear.
It just said: “A.C.”
Alex Carter?
I held my breath as the message tried to load.
But all that came up was a blank screen.
An error message flashed:
"This content is no longer available."
I stared at it, frustration building inside me.
No.
There had to be something.
I tried refreshing the page.
Nothing.
I tried accessing it from my phone.
Still nothing.
It was like the message had been deleted — or erased — before I could even see it.
I slammed the laptop shut, tears stinging my eyes.
So close.
So close to a real connection.
And it was gone.
Just like everything else.
---
I curled up into a ball on my bed, hugging my knees to my chest.
For a long time, I just stayed there, breathing slowly, trying not to cry.
It wasn’t fair.
None of this was fair.
I didn’t ask for this life.
I didn’t ask for these broken memories.
I didn’t ask to love someone who didn’t even know me.
But here I was.
Living it anyway.
---
A knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts.
“Come in,” I croaked, wiping my face quickly.
Lena peeked her head in.
“Hey. Brought chocolate and movies. Emergency rescue mission.”
I laughed weakly.
“Come in.”
She plopped onto the bed beside me, pulling out a huge chocolate bar and two DVDs.
“We are going to stuff our faces and watch trashy romantic comedies until you forget whatever’s making you look like a sad panda.”
I smiled, feeling a little lighter just having her there.
She always knew exactly what I needed, even when I didn’t.
---
We didn’t talk much as we watched the first movie.
It was some silly rom-com about a girl who falls for a boy next door.
Cheesy.
Predictable.
But somehow, it made me feel better.
Halfway through the second movie, Lena paused it and turned to look at me.
“Can I ask you something?”
I nodded.
She tucked her legs under her and played with the edge of the blanket.
“Do you ever feel like... you’re forgetting something important?”
I blinked.
“What do you mean?”
She shrugged.
“Like, sometimes I get this weird feeling. Like there’s something I’m supposed to remember. Something important. But no matter how hard I try, it just slips away.”
I stared at her.
My heart pounded hard against my ribs.
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“All the time.”
She gave me a small, sad smile.
“Maybe it’s normal. Maybe we all forget things sometimes.”
I wanted to believe that.
I really did.
But deep down, I knew my forgetting wasn’t normal.
It wasn’t random.
It was done on purpose.
Someone had taken pieces of my life and ripped them away.
And I was going to get them back.
---
After Lena left that evening, I sat by my window again, staring out at the darkening sky.
The stars were starting to come out, tiny and scattered.
I wondered if Alex was looking up at the same stars.
I wondered if somewhere inside him, he felt it too.
The missing piece.
The hole that nothing else could fill.
I pressed my forehead against the cool glass and closed my eyes.
"I’ll find you," I whispered to the night.
"I promise."
---
Later, I opened my notebook and added a new entry:
Found old message from “A.C.”
Couldn’t open it.
Message deleted or blocked.
Need to find another way.
I stared at the words for a long time.
They looked small on the page.
But they meant everything to me.
Because they meant I wasn’t imagining it.
Alex was real.
Our connection was real.
And no amount of lies or erased memories could change that.
---
I tucked the notebook back under my pillow and curled up under my blanket.
Sleep came slowly that night.
My mind kept spinning, chasing shadows and broken dreams.
But somewhere between wakefulness and sleep, I made a decision.
I wasn’t going to sit around waiting for memories to come back.
I was going to find them.
Piece by piece.
No matter how long it took.
No matter how much it hurt.
Because Alex was out there.
And he was waiting for me.
Even if he didn’t know it yet.