Page 29 of Forget Me Not
Syve hung her head.
“Aimi, I’m so sorry—” When she looked up, Aimi was rushing toward her with tears streaming down her face. Her friend tackled her with a hug so fierce it almost took them both to the ground. “Oh, Aimi.” She shushed her friend and smoothed her hair as she hugged her back.
“Shut up. I’m not crying; I’m just detoxing. And if you tell anyone, I’ll tell the world about that one time you drank all that vodka and—”
“Okay! Okay, okay! You’re not crying! Don’t you dare bring that up!” Syve cut her off in a panic and Aimi erupted into a fit of evil giggles.
“For real though, you’ve got some serious talking to do. But first, go shower. You smell like a wet dog.” Aimi scrunched her nose up. “I’ll order food—coffee or liquor?”
She was already headed to the kitchen, scrolling on her phone as she went. Syve noticed the room had been cleaned, the only evidence left that she had in fact trashed the place earlier, was the spider-web of cracks across the TV screen.
“How about liquor in the coffee?” Syve suggested.
Aimi let out a string of expletives, agreeing to the request while also mumbling something about needing to call her therapist after this. Syve shook her head and turned to the bathroom. A hot shower sounded euphoric.
Syve spent a solid thirty minutes standing under scalding water, staring at the wall and replaying the day in her mind. If she went to bed right now and woke up to see the same date on her phone, she would not even question for a minute that the entire day had only been a fucked-up dream.
When she finally ambled back into the living room, Aimi had two giant steaming mugs on the coffee table, surrounded by no less than a dozen takeout boxes.
“Did you really order Chineseandwings?” she asked, settling into the couch, one leg folded under her and reached for her drink.
One sniff confirmed it had been spiked generously with her favorite bourbon. Well, Erhard’s favorite bourbon. Keeping his favorite things around was a habit she never gave up.
“Listen. I stress eat, you know that! I wanted frickles and fried rice. Sue me.” She shrugged, shoveling a massive spoonful of rice into her mouth. “I also got us some of that lava cake from that fancy new pastry shop.”
Sure enough, two of the boxes were full of fried rice, another two were full of fried pickle chips and there was a clear-topped box with two massive slices of chocolate cake. Aimi had also gotten an order of lo mein, some spring rolls,orange tofu, a side of white rice, a box full of little sugar donuts, a whole order of fries, and a whole order of tater tots shaped like Tetris pieces. Syve did not even hesitate, popping two tater tots in her mouth before grabbing a fork and the box with the cake.
“Bitch, you’re already on thin ice, I swear on my Blu-ray box set, if you eat my half of that cake, I will never make coffee for you ever again.”
“Better put down the rice then, this is really good.”
With that Aimi dove across the couch, snatched half of the cake up in her bare hand and plopped it down unceremoniously in the top half of her half-eaten rice box.
“Now would be a good time to start talking, b-t-dubs,” Aimi chided as she licked chocolate frosting off her hand.
Syve told her about how she had stayed up late reading her mother’s journal and how she had finally started getting into the old family history. She told her she had not slept, choosing to binge read instead and that was why she had neglected to show up for coffee.
“Awesome, now I know what you were doing up until you disappeared on me. Now is where you’re supposed to tell me you figured out the family secret, freaked out, turned into an animal, destroyed your house and then, when I letyou outside, you went AWOL for seven hours only to return with Butcher Boy—oh! And you werewearing his clothes.”
Aimi, having finally removed all the cake from her fingers, picked back up her rice and began eating again like she did not just drop an absolute bomb. Syve gaped at her for a solid minute before responding.
“I literally told him you were entirely too smart, and way too damn nosy to not have figured it out,” she finally said.
Aimi laughed, grinning around a mouthful of rice.
“The notebook was lying open on the kitchen table—it was like you wanted me to read it! What if you left a note for me? Whatever, you know I can’t help myself.” She gestured dismissively with her fork.
“So…why are you not freaking the fuck out right now? Oh, and don’t think you can distract me with this interrogation like I’m not going to ask why the hell you calledGunther,”Syve said incredulously.
Aimi groaned, ran a hand down her face and slumped back into the cushions.
“Before I figured it out, I was freaked out and assumed if anyone knew where you were, it would be your weird ass stalker cousin-in-law.” Aimi sat back up and turned her whole body toward Syve. “As for why I’m not freaking out now? I totally am, you just missed most of it…and I’m hungry…and still trying to decide if that brownie I ate this morning was Toni’s, not mine, and I’m actually just high as fuck right now.”
“Christ, Aimi.” Syve shook her head, though she was not truly surprised by any of this. “Okay then. I guess I can start with the fact that those weird ass repeating dreams were not really dreams?”
Aimi nodded, mouth full of fries while her eyes gave her a look that clearly translated to, ‘duh.’
Syve took a long drink of her coffee before continuing, “Right, so I don’t exactly understand all of it yet, but I guess strong emotions can be a trigger. I kind of had a little panic attack after reading that last journal entry and then…okay, so that part is actually a little fuzzy to me too. I do remember you showing up though. When you opened the door, I ran into the woods.”
