replied slowly, “That’s not right. It belongs to your family. It’s ancient…in a good way.”
But he shook his head. “My mom’s not too big on fancy jewelry, and I’m pretty much the next one in the generation.”
I could only think of the future as he said that. Eric would potentially have a wife and kids. I, myself, would probably too. Did I think I would end with Eric in the future? No, I don’t know…maybe? But if he gives this to me now, what will happen when we break up? Because of course we will…it is high school after all. Fat chance we’d be that spare 10 percentile of high school sweethearts sticking together. We technically weren’t even high school sweethearts.
“No.” I said again, this time my voice was stronger. But he unclasped the necklace and put it around my neck, ignoring my objections. “Seriously Eric.”
He shushed me. “I know what you’re thinking. And if we have a fall out…well then that sucks.” We will have a fall out, I thought. “Other than that…take it. You can even keep it.” He smiled.
I touched the locket in my hand and said, “So what are you going to put inside?”
And then he grinned wickedly. “Something’s already inside.”
“You guys…when is this ‘Janaki’ person going to run off to the woods in hopes of finding Dottie?” Aaron said, pouring himself some ice tea. “I mean, can I at least eat first. You know that driving while eating is terribly wrong.”
We were pressing Aaron to rush but he took his sweet time. He didn’t think this much as a life-or-death danger, but it’s Janaki! I remember she told me that she was pissed at her parents when she was ten. So she packed her clothes and left. At least she gave clues to where she would be (like pinning a picture of the place on her bedroom wall—not to mention staying at her mom’s friend’s store).
But now Janaki is older and only spoke in a blog (and possibly a diary) that she was determined to find me—no matter what it takes. I loved Janaki but her stubborn determination would get her in trouble one day.
“Eat, now.” I demanded. But even with my best death glare, I didn’t faze him. He smirked in amusement.
“Wow you are feisty.” Aaron said, slurping some of the ramen noodles in the cup. “What did you do to the quiet one, Eric? I mean do two quiet people equal an extra ordinary loud one.” He emphasized at me.
“Oh please.” I sighed. “I’m far from loud compared to you, Aaron.” I sat down on the stool next to the counter, drumming my fingers impatiently. He carried on, taking a spoonful of noodles and liquid in his mouth. I imagined Janaki yanking her drawers open and dumping any sight of clothing inside her black traveling bag. I could see her writing a letter to her parents at her desk, and that she would get some bottled waters. And perhaps, maybe I was thinking too hard about this, because I gawked at Aaron the whole time.
He stared back. “What am I doing wrong?”
I shook my head and looked at Eric who sat quietly at the dinner table. “How much time do you think we have left?” I said.
“Janaki posted it at 9 o’clock in the morning,” he recalled. “But, she could have made it so that it was scheduled to post this morning. She said she’s leaving at 8 o’clock, giving her time to say goodbye to everyone before heading off.”
I said nothing.
“So that means we have like…20 minutes?” Aaron said with his mouth full.
“Can you just eat!?” I exclaimed, throwing him back a nasty glare.
Eric knew where Janaki lived, which didn’t surprise me at all. She told me he’d been to her house a bunch of times back when they were friends.
And it was very cold in the car. Eric’s jacket may have helped a little, but I had this nice cotton one that would work well in this environment. Of course, you can’t always have what you want.
“Hey Aaron, do you have heat?” Eric said. I stared at him, confused, but waited for an answer like he did.
Aaron took a long, exaggerated pause before saying, “Nope.”
Eric and I both sighed.
“You car may look pretty but it’s really a piece of junk,” I said.
He fixed his rear-view mirror to glare at me. “My car is not pretty. It’s handsome.”
“Whatever,” I shivered. The window outside had built-up ice on it, although it wasn’t snowing yet. The last time it snowed was the winter of my freshman year. People were ecstatic about it.
“Dorothy?” I looked up and saw Eric gazing at me with his head turned back, “Are you going to be okay?”
I kept my eyes on him for a second. What did he mean? “Yeah.” I expected him to turn his head back, but he stayed in the same position. “What?” I said.
“I love you…I just wanted to let you know that.” He said.
I smiled, but not out of my pleasure; only because he needed me to smile at him in the very moment. “I love you too.”
But he continued on, “So whatever happens…” He didn’t finish, leaving the sentence open.
And I couldn’t really figure out what he meant at that moment. So I looked past his subtle hints, which I know I shouldn’t have, but I was worried too much about Janaki to care then.
“Listen, guys, I don’t want you two to get all romancey around me.” Aaron said. “The couples at college are annoying enough as it is, I don’t need to be around high school kids.”
Just to tease Aaron—just to get under his skin, I scooted forward and kissed Eric right on his lips. I let the time linger, hearing Aaron clear his throat rather loud. It served him right, though.
“PDA.” He said.
I took my mouth off of Eric’s to look at Aaron. I said, “It’s not considered PDA when there’s only one person watching.”
“Not necessarily,” Aaron said, looking at his mirror before turning. “Anyone driving past me can see. So it’s PDA.” He said this all in a serious tone. “Harley drive, right?”
Eric nodded. “You know too?”
“I think I went to this girl’s birthday party with my mom to pick you up.” He smirked. “Then we went to the park and you threw up because you ate too much at the party.
I glanced at the back of Eric’s head. “No way.”
Aaron’s smirk grew even sinister. “Yeah.”
Eric slugged in his seat. “And thank you for telling her that.”
“No problem, cuz.” Aaron patted Eric’s back. “She should know EVERY detail about your life, after all.”
I giggled softly as Aaron continued rambling to Eric about how (when the time comes) he will get a new girlfriend. The weather seemed to grow colder now, so I pulled down at the sleeves to go over my hands. I looked outside the window again and realized that Janaki’s house was just minutes away now. Hopefully we weren’t too late.
But what happened next was severely unexpected.
I heard sounds, a bunch of commotion surrounding me. Someone was crying, I didn’t know who, but it came from a woman. People were talking in soft mutters, and metal was being pushed aside as I felt a couple of arms slowly pulling me out. I was being hoisted into an uncomfortable bed. Someone grabbed my hand; it felt cold and shaky. This person gripped with lame strenght
“Please….” The person pleaded.
“And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set
Haply I may remember
And haply may forget.”
-Christina Rossetti
18. WAKING UP
The first thing I noticed before opening my eyes was the smell; overly used disinfect chemicals. Then loud beeping sounds around made me really wake up, but I still didn’t open my eyes. I just woke up, and I needed to stretch. But I couldn’t. This felt all too familiar.
This time it wasn’t a rope that kept me from pulling out my arms, it was cords in my veins that kept me from moving an inch. My eyelids flew open and I looked carefully around the room I was in.
White. Pale White. I took another deep breath and scrunched up my nose. I hate the smell of a hospital.
And it’s cold, probably colder than outside.
Wait, why was I in a hospital? Various images flooded back in my memory. The only thing I remembered was riding in the car with Aaron and Eric. Everything after that went blank.
I spotted pink roses set beside me on a table. There was also a bear holding a small balloon that had ‘Get Well Soon’ written on it.
A middle-aged nurse with blazing red hair came in. She had a brown board in her hand. When she saw me her eyes widened.
“Oh, you’re awake!” She said. “You must be wondering why you’re here?”
I nodded solemnly because I didn’t know what else to do.
She went closer check my IV cords and machine then wrote something down on her clipboard. She handed me a device that resembled a remote.
“To adjust the bed and change the channels on the TV,” she said with a kind voice. She was pretending, of course, to be pleasent. No one can ever be happy in a hospital—that’s just insane. “You’re family will be so excited to see you awake.” Then she added cautiously, “You do want to see them?”
I nodded again and said, “Yes.” I coughed a little because my voice was hoarse. The woman left me and I used the remote to push my back up. I was wondering what happened to Eric and Aaron—after all, I’m in a hospital. Must have been a car accident sever enough too—
I moved, and winced. It was my leg. It was my head too, as some cords dragged up on my face.
Someone opened the door in a full ruckus. “DOTTIE!” I recognized the voice and saw the familiar figure. Janaki rushed to my side immediately and wrapped her arms awkwardly around me. My