The sound of scissors snapping caused me to open my eyes. May set the needle down and rolled some gauze across my forehead. After she taped it, she walked over to the sanitizing bin where she put all the dirty needles.Then I thought about Grace. I needed to talk to her. She’d definitely tell me what was going on or if Colin gave any indication about what happened to me. “Can I at least see Grace?”
“No, ma’am. You can see them both tomorrow.”
“May?”
“Yes, Georgina.”
“I know I’ve never said anything until now, but I’m really sorry about what happened to Monica.” That was the first time in months that anyone had spoken to May about Monica’s disappearance. But I decided that when it happened, she had enough people that were constantly approaching her about it. I knew it would probably hurt just the same now as it did then, but I didn’t want her to think that I just shrugged it off as nothing.
She was quiet for a moment. “Tha-thank you, Georgina” she stuttered. I heard the sadness in her voice and felt sorry for mentioning it. Even though I was sincere about it, I could understand how it would be like pouring salt into an open wound.
May faced me, swallowing hard. She did her best to smile, but she only made it halfway. Her eyes were red and I could tell that at any moment every tear in her entire body were going to flow out of her eyes. “You just get some rest, dear.” Her voice was trembling. “I’ll be back to check on you in the morning.”
After she left the room, I felt like a total jerk. “You need to learn to bite your tongue,” I said to myself. With that, I buried my head into my pillow and closed my eyes, hoping that something, anything, from my memory would come to visit me in my dreams.
Chapter 12: They Always Come Back
The memory of the just is blessed.~ Proverbs 10:7
Violet eyes! I remembered something! Violet eyes! My eyelids fluttered open and I gazed around the room. As I processed the memory about the violet eyes, two more memories flooded through my cranium. And both of them involved Colin.
He was running toward me—like a charging bull—his face twisted and contorted, stricken with panic. Then he was running away from me. So far away that he looked like a tiny insect flitting across the air. But what happened in between? That part still hadn’t come back to me. And who did the violet eyes belong to?
I closed my eyes and they were there again, radiant and hauntingly beautiful. A mixture of deep blue and purple hues. Yet, no matter how hard I tried to match a face to them I couldn’t. S
urely, with eyes that gorgeous, they would have a gorgeous face to match, right?
Footsteps carried down the hall and my attention averted to the open door. Colin sauntered passed the door without stopping. From my viewpoint, it looked like he was in a hurry to get somewhere. “Colin,” I called out to him. He froze, just past the door and all I could see was his right arm. “Colin,” I called again. He backed up slowly and placed his left arm on the frame of the door.
I studied his body language carefully. He was fidgety, like a drug addict, just coming down from their high. His shoulders were tensed and he seemed to be looking everywhere but at me. Something wasn’t right with him. Colin Martin had always been a direct person. That was something I always admired about him. This Colin Martin wasn’t the one that I knew.
“Oh, hey, Georgie,” he chuckled nervously. I stared at his fingers intensely as he twirled them around and played with them. “How are you feeling?”
I wanted to shout, lost, confused, and pissed off. Where was he when I came back? Did he think I died? He promised to protect me, and here I was severely injured. But what I needed most, was for him to fill in all the missing pieces so I glanced at his face and narrowed my eyes. “I’m okay.” I adjusted the pillow behind me with my head. “Colin, listen, I wanted to talk to you last night, but May wouldn’t let me. So, I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for slapping you.”
He looked over his shoulder and spoke with a detached tone, “Oh, you remember that?”
“Yes,” I said with a bit of uncertainty. What was going on with him? He was really starting to freak me out. I kept trying to read the expression on his face but he was constantly turning his head. “Why?”
He rested his forehead against the door. “I just heard you couldn’t remember anything, that’s all.”
“I can remember most of what happened up there.” He was looking at the floor again. “Would you just look me in the eye for God’s sake!” He looked at me but I still didn’t feel like I had his full attention. “I need your help. There is a huge chunk missing of what happened that I can’t remember. I thought that you might remember for me.”
Colin folded his arms across his chest and began tapping his right foot. “You ran off, remember?” There was a snarky tone to his voice.
“Oh, I remember that. You totally deserved it,” I added with a bit of attitude.
“It was a joke!” he snapped.
“And you were the only one who found it funny.” I sifted through everything that happened during that joke and I recalled the part where I said I loved him. “Are you acting weird because I said I love you? Or did we have another fight out there that you aren’t telling me about?”
My gut was telling me it was because I said those three big words. To be honest, I knew I cared for him deeply. I more than liked him. And he almost always sent my teenage hormones reeling. But love? That was too strong of a word and I shouldn’t have used it. It was a heat of the moment kind of thing and I wished I could have taken the words back. I mean, I thought he was dead. In any tragic situation, sometimes people said things they didn’t mean. Maybe I’d tell him that eventually, but I didn’t mean to say those words when I said them.
Colin stared at the floor, in a daze. “Neither,” he finally answered.
I was baffled. “Then what happened? I don’t understand. Why are you acting so strange?”
He took small steps away from the door. “I’m just glad that you’re okay.” He turned and walked down the hall, leaving me alone. His words sounded meaningful enough.