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If you asked him how he was doing this summer, Call would be… lost.
Not that anything was really out of the ordinary. The sweltering heat of North Carolina rested on the small town like an invisible blanket from Hell. Call felt the harsh sun rays glaring down on him. He was pretty sure that the birds weren’t even out, preferring to stay in the shade of the trees. The concrete on the road was practically steaming, which just further pushed the expression, “It’s so hot, you can fry an egg on it”.
Still, Call made his way down the street, occasionally leaning backwards and forwards in order to keep balance. Skateboarding with a bad leg was a challenge, but it was a challenge that he had found his way around a long time ago. His hopes for a light breeze were unfortunately dashed, since all that came his way was hot air.
All in all, this was normal. Everything was normal. It had been a few weeks since the end of the school year, and he had gotten back to his usual summer routine of helping his dad around the garage, visiting poorly air-conditioned antique stores, watching movies and doing whatever he wanted to. There was no real reason to feel so out of place. To feel so uncomfortable in his own skin. To feel like something was missing and not know why.
The worst part was that he did try to figure it out. But one train of thought led to another, which led to another, only to hit a metaphorical wall. Then came the headaches. Every time he thought he remembered something important, he would get an abrupt and really intense headache seemingly out of nowhere. That paired with the constant feeling of emptiness left him feeling… lost.
“Call?”
When he raised his head from his arms, he was met with Alastair’s concerned gaze. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen that expression, it was becoming a common occurrence. It felt like his father had been making an extra effort to talk to him. Call didn’t know why, but he sort of appreciated it. Alastair had never been an openly affectionate person, so the attention was kind of nice.
“Yeah, my head just hurts.”
It did nothing to alleviate Alastair’s worry.
Thinking back on it now, he didn’t remember much from his last day of school. He didn’t remember getting picked up by his father, although he did have a fuzzy memory of sleeping in a bus. A car ride home, maybe. He remembered the hushed voices of his father and someone else. He remembered feeling sluggish, but he chalked that up to being really tired. He was pretty sure that he had gone to a boarding school, which would give a reasonable explanation as to why-- Ow-
He stumbled a bit, resulting in a rather painful crash to the ground. His head throbbed painfully, and pressing his fingers on either side wasn’t making much of a difference. Another incredibly annoying result of sudden spontaneous headaches were instances such as falling over and making a fool of himself.
“You okay?”
…
That voice was surprisingly familiar. Call looked up to find none other than Kylie Myles staring right back down at him. He winced at her oddly intense expression.
The thing about Kylie was that they both went to that entrance exam, to go to… school. She was very surprised to figure out that he got in instead of her. She had approached him a few days ago asking about the ballet academy. His response, “What ballet academy?” was met with confusion. On both ends.
Ever since then, he was a lot more aware of her presence. Something about her gave him a feeling of unease. Every time he saw her, he felt the burning urge to get away, don’t talk to her, don’t think too much-
It was an exhausting, repetitive cycle. Call would appreciate not having to go through mental gymnastics just so that he didn’t run away for no feasible reason. He suspected the excuse of my head head hurts whenever I see you would not go over well with Kylie.
Call stumbled a bit before standing up to meet her level. “Fine. Why are you here?”
That had come out a little harsher than he had intended. But between the pain in his head as well the pain from falling on his ass, he couldn’t bring himself to care all that much. It wasn’t like they were friends or anything. He once heard her talking about his limp when she thought he wasn’t listening. He also had a distinct memory of her walking away when he tried to talk to her. “Sorry, I’m trying to make a good impression… You know how it is…”
Kylie hesitated, her resolve fading a bit before she hardened again.
“Do you remember anything from last year?” she asked.
“……”
For some reason he didn’t expect that question. It made sense that she would ask, going by their brief one-sided conversations.
“Yes?” The blond girl narrowed her eyes ever so slightly. “Oh? You don’t even know what school you went to.”
“What makes you say that? It wasn’t a ballet academy,, Kylie. You and I both know I couldn’t dance even if I wanted to. Between the two of us, who’s not remembering?” He shot back. He was already tired of talking to her. It wasn’t because she had a point, no.
She continued to stare at him, unwavering. “I got a letter from a ballet academy. I can’t find it anymore. What did you get?” God, he needed her to stop talking.
“Why does it matter? S’not like they’re going to take you anyway. Now if you’ll excuse me-”
“I don’t remember anything.”
“I-what?”
“I don’t remember what we did during the exam.” She snapped.
He did not expect her to say that. Never once had it crossed his mind that the reason why she constantly tried to talk about it was because she didn’t know either. She also didn’t know.
The headache was starting to make him dizzy. They stood in awkward silence, both trying to come up with something to say. Kylie brought him out of his misery by going first.
“Look, I’m just really confused right now. I don’t even remember when it was, the exam I mean. I don’t remember what happened. I know I didn’t get in?” She took a breath. “Last week, I asked my mom what score I got. She didn’t know what I was talking about. It’s like I’m the only one who remembers this happened?”
Call stared. He was honestly not sure what to say. The pounding on his head was practically unbearable at this point. His vision was blurry. He was aware that she was still speaking, her mouth was moving.
“…… and then there’s you.” Kylie finally stopped, looking at him expectantly.
He should say something right? She had the exact same problem. He finally found someone to-
Stopstopstopstopstopstoptalkingstopitturnawaygohomeundernocircumstancescanyouknowrungetawayit’snoneofyourbusiness-
“Call?”
“Bye.”
He was gone before she could call him again. She could totally outrun him, but years of running from bullies gave him the advantage of being very familiar with his surroundings.
After finding a spot between the old garage and vacant record store, he let himself slump over in exhaustion. He realized a moment later that he had completely abandoned his skateboard with Kylie. Whatever. He could always get it later. Maybe Kylie would be nice enough to give it back.
Call lived in a small town, so it wasn’t hard to get around. Everyone knew who lived where. He wouldn’t be completely surprised if she just showed up with the skateboard at dinner time. He hoped that wouldn’t happen though, the last thing he needed was Alastair pushing him to be friends with her. Would he want Call to make friends with Kylie? He honestly wasn’t sure, his dad was kind of weird sometimes. Like previous year where-
Where he didn’t remember. Again. He sighed and put his aching head into his hands. He wasn’t an idiot, he could tell something was wrong with him, that something was wrong with this whole situation. He was pretty damn sure that Alastair knew something too.
Call did want to remember. Even a sliver of a memory would be nice, especially if it could stop his stupid migraines.
This whole thing was stupid. He must've looked like an absolute dumbass back there.
He got up, gingerly avoiding putting pressure on his left leg. Regardless of everything that happened so far, he should. The sky was darkening, if only slightly (it was actually still bright because it was barely afternoon), and Alastair might have dinner on the stove. If not then takeout.
Walking back home was no easy task, running had taken a lot out of him, and he was sincerely regretting leaving his skateboard behind. When he returned to where Kylie was, he found the road deserted. He really hoped she had his skateboard, and not some random kid looking for a new ride.
Call made a resolution to talk to Alastair when he got back, like really talk this time. He was going to ask what happened the previous year, he was going to figure out exactly what was missing. He was pretty sure he wasn’t going crazy, otherwise Kylie wouldn’t be asking about last year’s entrance exams. Thinking about them again made his head start to swim a little.
Call was about five minutes away from his house when his already shitty day got infinitely worse.
He felt something was off when he saw an unfamiliar face just a few feet in front of him. Normally he had no problem vaguely recognizing the people in his neighborhood. From the distance, all he could really make out was a boy, maybe about his age, but taller and with a head of fluffy blond hair. His back was turned, and it wasn’t until he turned around that Call sensed something off.
The instant they made eye contact, Call froze. Every fiber in his body screamed at him to run away (again).
“Call?”