Page 83 of Requiem

As soon as she leaves, I lean across the table and whisper to him. “She didn’t ID you?”

Theo becomes the embodiment of awkwardness. He shifts in his seat, then picks up his chopsticks and taps them nervously against his water glass.

“What? What is it?”

“Uhhh…”

“What?”

“Well…”

“Theo!”

“We had fake IDs for this place years ago. They stopped asking us a long time ago. And besides…” He squirms in his seat., looking like he wants to run and hide.

I just stare at him.

“We’realmostold enough to drink anyway.”

I nearly spit out my water.“What?!”

“Well, yeah. We both turned eighteen six months before the accident. And that was…” He raises his eyebrows, waiting for me to do the math.

“Oh…mygod.” Shock slams into me, sinking its teeth deep.

He nods. “Yeahhhh. We both turn twenty-one in a couple of months.”

What. The. Actual. FUCK. “I’ve been hanging out at a high school all this time and, I’m…” I can’t even wrap my head around this. “I’mtwentyyears old? Fucking TWENTY?” No amount of cursing can express the horror I’m feeling right now.

Theo’s bemusement mirrors this sentiment. “We arenotthe coolest. I’ve kinda been waiting for you to put two and two together about that, but…” He trails off.

“And Sebastian? Beth?Ash?They’re all…”

He nods, sighing. “Yep. Well, Beth’s still nineteen, but her birthday’s coming up. She’s planning a rager.”

“Why the hell aren’ttheyin college?” The lights suddenly feel too bright, the room too loud. I am not processing this news very gracefully. I mean, Ishouldhave been able to figure this out for myself. He told me how long it’s been since the accident. Principal Ford also told me how many times they’ve attempted this high school experiment with me since I lost my memory. I just…I didn’t even think about the fact that I’ve been aging throughout this entire process. There are so many aspects to this mess that I’ve just skipped over, too focused on the fact that I might just wake up one day and be someone fucking new. That one fact has taken precedence over everything else. I am the biggest moron on the face of the planet.

“They’re gonna go, though. Seb and the girls. Eventually,” Theo tells me. There’s a tight quality to his tone that does not make me feel good. Doesn’t make me feel good at all.

“They stayed because ofme?To help with this whole charade?”I don’t even attempt to mask my incredulity.

“They wanted to help.”

“Bullshit.” The word flies out of my mouth. “None of them like me very much. And even if they did at one point, there’s only so long a normal person puts their life on hold for someone who…who might never recover from something like…likethis.”

“You’d be surprised.”

I can tell there’s something he’s not telling me. Something he doesn’t think I should know. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let him get away with hiding anything from me right now, though. “If you don’t explain right this instant, I’m going to lose my mind. In public. And it will not be pretty.”

“Here we go, guys. Two large Tsingtao beers. Your food’ll be right out.” The waitress places our beers down in front of us, beaming beatifically. She seems oblivious to the fact that I’m glaring at Theo like I’m about to go nuclear. “I know you probably hear this a lot,” she says, “but it’s so great to see you back in here, Sorrell. You’re looking good. We’re all just so glad to hear that you’re doing better.”

I snap my head around, ready to fire some dismissive retort at the waitress, desperate to send her away, but the moment I see the genuine happiness on her face, my ire fades and dies. “Thank you, that’s really sweet. I appreciate that, uh…” I look for a nametag but apparently those aren’t a thing at The Golden Palace.

The girl looks confused for a moment, and then realization dawns on her. “Oh. It’s Rachel. My name’s Rachel. I’m sorry, sometimes it’s just so easy to forget…”

The sound of that name is like a bell, tolling within my soul. It shakes my very foundation, setting me even further off balance.

Her name is Rachel? How well did I know her before? She’s young. Maybe just a little older than me. Is she the reason why I woke up and decided to call myself that name one day? A sharp, piercing pain forms behind my eyes.

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