7 yrs, Gone and Forgotten

Chapter 9: Friendly Chats

      “Hey, there you are.” An angelic voice drifted through my ears as I opened my eyes, only to realize I had fallen asleep next to the trees, and it was almost dark. I turned my head to see Eva standing above me smiling like a fool. “Mind if I sit?” She pointed to the ground next to me.

      “Not at all,” I smiled back up at her as she took a seat, and I wiped my eyes. “I must have fallen asleep.” I admitted sheepishly.

     “As fast as you ran that course, I would say you are worn out.”

      I shook my head, “It wasn’t that fast.” I admitted. I knew I had been the first to cross the finish line, but that didn’t mean I was that fast, for a girl maybe.

     She wrapped her arm around my shoulder and pulled me close, if it had been one of the other girls, I had known I would have resisted, but with her something felt completely normal about it, I felt my heart pitter patter just a bit at the feeling of being so close to her. “Girl the boys are even talking about how fast you ran it, Theo said you sat a record.” I pulled back and looked up at her, her smile was sincere, “Seriously, I wouldn’t not kid about something like that. So tell me how long did you practice?”

     I slowly pulled away from her and looked over into the field where I could see the others gathered around a bon fire that was starting to grow in flames. I looked back over to Eva as she was studying me, unlike Mildred though, it didn’t feel uncomfortable, I didn’t know how I felt about it, but Eva being there beside me felt right. “Truth?” She nodded at my question, and I giggled. “As far as I know, first time.”

    “You are kidding?” She asked, but I was a little shocked at the fact she didn’t seem surprised at all.

    I figured I would go with it, maybe she knew girls that could do stuff like that, maybe that was why she wasn’t surprised. “Not at all. Actually, I am not an outgoing person at all. I never put myself into this physical stuff. I spend my days working and lounging about our flat. That’s pretty much my life.”

     “Well, I applaud you. You are definitely setting a good example for the other girls. Your other friend didn’t make it past the wall.”

      “Really?” I couldn’t believe Mandy didn’t get any further than that.

     “Yep, we lost the majority of them at the wall. The rest fell out at the tower.” She sat there and played with her fingers for a minute before she spoke again. “What do you mean, as far as you know? Wouldn’t you know if you had been on the course before or not?” She covered her mouth quickly like she was ashamed she had asked the question and I couldn’t help but laugh, which in return caused her to turn cherry red.

    “It’s okay, no offense taken.” I offered her a friendly smile and held my arms out in front of me. “See all these scars?” No one knew anything about me except the Marlette’s and Mandy. Lance and Lane didn’t even know my past, but something about Eva made me want to be an open book.

     She took my arms in her hands and turned them over and over examining them closely and it was then that I noticed the scars were barely noticeable. The only scar that really caught my attention was the one in the palm of my hand that I noticed when she turned my hands over. “I see barely noticeable scars.” She finally admitted after she took one last look at the one in my palm. “The one on your palm is the most noticeable, it must have been deep.”

      I pulled my hands back to me and with my thumb I traced the scar in my palm, and I suddenly felt tears try to well up in my eyes. I dropped my hands quickly and choked back the tears before returning my eyes to her. “I will tell you a little bit about myself, but the deal is, no pity, okay? And it stays between you and me, very few people know. Okay?”

      She was sitting in front of me but in the blink of an eye I immediately saw her as a young girl, maybe thirteen, no pink tips, and just like that I blinked and she was sitting there again in the form I met her as, hot pink tips and all. She held her hand up and offered me her pinky. I laced mine in hers and she smiled at me. “Deal, I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

     “Well, here goes.” I took a deep breath and released her pinky before placing my hands back in my lap. I turned my eyes to the grove of trees surrounding me in the darkness and let my mind wonder back to my beginning. “I don’t know who I am, where I came from, nothing. When I was found I was on death’s door and on one even knows how I was breathing. We did everything we could to try and find out where I belonged but turns out no one was looking for me. So long story short, Scott and Theo took me in as family, they saved me, gave me an identity, and well, here I am today, a walking miracle.” I half-heartedly laughed. “That’s the short and skinny of it anyway.” I looked back over at Eva and the tears were streaming down her face like Niagara falls as she stared at me. “Hey, I said no pity, remember?”

      She shook her head and wiped the tears from her eyes, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it.” She wiped a few more tears. “Don’t you think you will ever find your family, friends, anything from the past? What happens if you do?”

       I had thought about those questions so many times, but the sad reality of it was, I didn’t know what I would do. I only knew I would not pity myself any longer, I was done looking back, I would only look forward from now on. “Honestly Eva, the shape I was in, I don’t know if I ever want to go back to that life. I mean who ever I was, whatever my story was, one evidently, I wasn’t that important, or I would have been found sooner than seven years. And two I had to have been involved in something pretty bad to have been left for dead like I was.” I took a deep breath and stood to my feet offering her a hand.

      She took it and stood to her feet, “What if you were more important than you could ever dream? What if you were loved more than someone loved their own self? What if...”

      I laughed and shook my head cutting her off, it wasn’t like I hadn’t thought about all that before, “Seven years is a long time, trust me, I have thought about all the what if’s. I have chosen to let it go, if I learned nothing else, I learned life is short, and we shouldn’t worry with all the what if’s looking back. Besides the life I have now is not so bad, and plus I met you. I may have never met you in that other life.” I wrapped my arm in hers not giving her a chance to say anything else as I pulled her toward the bon fire. “Now let’s get back. We have a long day ahead of us.” She silently nodded as we made our way back to the group.

     We spent what felt like an eternity sitting around the fire talking. Mandy had made it to the wall and that was as far as she went, Scott didn’t seem to mind she had given up so quick, he was more intrigued with me and my skills. Theo, Lance, and Lane alone with the other girls were starting to place bets on round three of the test, the hand-to-hand combat. Talking to the other seven girls, Eva included they all were nervous to face down Scott, that was everyone but Eva, she didn’t seem phased at all. She didn’t talk anymore the rest of the night about my past, but I could tell every time she looked at me, she wanted to, her eyes and expressions held so many questions, and there were times I felt like she had answers. I only could wish why I felt that way, maybe I was holding onto the past I had washed away so much that I was only making a fairy tale up in my head about someone coming to rescue me.