"I have to live if I want to be remembered."
― Suzanne Young,
Day Six
"Make a left at Crest Ville" Hailey pointed in my direction and I take the next left. We're currently 'shopping' for wedding venues and I didn't understand why my mom wasn't here with us, doing this struggle. When my parents told me that they wanted me to take control, I didn't know it had to be the 'I'll feed you' kind of control. They only shopped for their wedding rings. That's it.
"I hope this woman is nice," I say to Hailey. The venue owner we just met was a cranky old woman.
"And doesn't have bad breath, man, it smelled like fermented rice and onions. It's as if that place was haunted with ghosts" Hailey continued. She was a bit shaken from the other place.
This is the third venue that we are checking out and I am hoping this place is at least decent enough for a proper wedding, I was tired of driving around.
"Yes we are here, just drive forward a bit" Hailey directs me with eyes on her GPS.
Overall, this place looks nice. Clean, crisp, and minimal were the words that flew into my head.
There was a huge outdoor space with clean-cut grass and a few trees by the edges of the plot.
"I can work with this. Very modern touch, I like it", Hailey nods her head.
"And the building looks like a church", I add. This is perfect for my parent's wedding. We got out of the car and walked inside the building. A pretty young Asian who looked to be in her twenties woman walked up to us.
" You must be Elizabeth and Haley", she smiles and holds out her hand. She smelt like lavender and spice. Hailey grabbed her hand a little too eager.
"Yes and yes I absolutely love your place", Hailey gush. "This is heaven compared to others we've been to"
She laughs, "So do you want to take a look around?"
"We would like that", I answer this time before Hailey had the chance to embarrass us.
She took us on a long tour around the perimeter and it was worth it. The venue coordinator, which we found out the name was Vivian, was very polite to us and asked us all the questions she needed for the wedding. We are not expecting a big crowd, more or less a hundred people are going to come for the wedding.
After going through the usual formalities, it was time for us to reserve the area.
"When is the wedding?", Vivian asks, with her pen scribbling down our information.
"It's on the 29th of this month, we'll reserve it for the whole day"
"Okay"
We paid and I had to admit, it was a bit pricy.
We're driving back home when we decided that we should have a bite together, we stop by this fast-food restaurant and order something to eat there.
"You think that they're all right?" Haley ask. The waiter comes back with our orders. We are both having an egg and cheese sandwich with grilled chicken and a large Pepsi.
"They will be all right, at least I trust Cole, Stephan needs to spend time with him if he wants to have a shot at remembering his past. Cole is a big part of that", I take a big bite from my sandwich.
Currently, Stephan and Cole are going looking for skilled wedding caterers for food and drinks.
"Aren't you worried that Stephen is going to drink again or misbehave in the least?" Noah had filled Hailey on what happened back at my apartment. I am guessing he thought telling Hailey would help to convince me to put Stephan out.
"I don't want to think about that and besides I feel like he can take care of himself now he's in changing, he is certainly not as grumpy as he was last week"
"So are you going to tell me about him?", Hailey asks, "Why do I have this, camaraderie feeling when I see him?"
I chuckle, "You don't know even know the meaning of that word"
"Still sounds good doesn't it?", She smiles. I love Hailey but what am I going o say to her?
"It's a crazy story Hails, even a crazy person won't believe me", I sigh, taking a huge gulp o my drink.
"Try me"
"Okay", I drawl shifting towards her, "What if I told you that Stephan was someone we all knew, me, you, Noah and Cole, everyone from our high school because he went to school with us, well he was normal, up until five years ago, he died and became a ghost and now, he is alive, again because according to the angel that resurrected him, a death angel call Thanatos, I am the only one that has my memory intact, and that is because I am the only one that can save him, apparently" I take a deep breath, "Thinking about it, I feel Like I have been dropped into this alternate dimension or reality"
Hailey just stares intently at me.
"Oh Come on Hailey if you don't believe nobody ever will". Hailey relaxes into her seat and sighs, "Alter dimension huh? Explains why I feel so weird these days"
"What do you mean? What happened? ", I question her.
"Oh, nothing as crazy as what you told me, all this business of angel of death. It probably did a really good job wiping memories I don't know, but ever since last Friday, I have been feeling really odd, like you know the feeling you get from deja vu, well multiply that feeling by a hundred"
"Wow", I frown, "I had no idea"
"I had no idea that your story was so crazy, I understand why you didn't say anything"
"Do you believe me?"
Hailey smiles, "If anyone was ever going to believe you, Eli, it's me". And after a moment she added, "Don't tell anyone about this though. You don't want anyone to think you are going cuckoo in the head. Especially Noah"
Ah yes, Noah. It was funny how Noah and Hailey were best friends with Hailey. He does not believe in ghosts or magic or anything that has to do with supernaturals and he was really spooked by Hailey in the first days they met. It took a while for them to adjust and we three got together because we were seatmates in middle school. I like to think of myself as the glue in their relationship, once they got used to themselves, they were good friends, although, without me, I don't think they would ever give that friendship a chance. I like to hope, that Noah would understand just like Hailey. I love him and I didn't want to leave him out of this. He does not deserve to be in the dark, at the same time there is no telling how he would react to everything. I have never really had to keep anything from Noah, even when he was away in Paris, he was pretty much updated with everything that happens with me. This was going to be painful for me to keep but there was nothing I could do about it. I could only hope that this secret does not destroy us.
"You know he won't ever understand"
"Yes", I breathe out, "Yes, I know"
There was a small silence before Hailey asks, "So if we had our memories wiped, what about the reality that was created from his connection with us?"
"What do you mean", I ask, a bit spaced out.
"Yes, what about things that happened to us because of Stephan? Can you remember instances that really involved Stephan, and without him, that event would never have occurred?"
"Hmm", I relax into my seat, thinking about her question.
Stephan hung out with the popular kids, right from day one. He was always the star and he earned that because of his laid-back demeanor and his attractiveness. He was the type of guy that nothing fazed him. Everyone either loved him or stayed the hell away from him, even the teachers. He honestly has not lost that aura and if anything, it has only gotten stronger.
There was no reason Stephan would talk to any of us. Hailey, I, and for a while, before he got shipped off to Paris, Noah, we were in our own bubble until-
"Yeah, you had a massive crush on Cole Harper", I snap my hands as if I had an epiphany.
"Um, yeah I know he is kind of my boyfriend now Beth"
"Yeah, my points exactly. Stephan ad Cole were best friends, they were closer to each other apart from their clique. They literally went everywhere together. Sometimes it is hard not to think of them as brothers. They were so close."
Hailey blinks, "Oh really, Cole and him? Friends in this other reality?"
"Yeah yeah and I remember the night that you went to Cole's party and you tried confessing your feelings to him. That was days before Stephan's death"
"Ugh, please don't remind me of that wretched day, he rejected me before I could get a word in"
"That was the beginning of your love story", I tease, winking at her.
"Shut up, it is still painful. But what about that night?"
"You tell me? What do you remember?", curious to hear her side of that night.
"Well there's definitely no Stephan in my memory", she chuckles lightly. "I remember just feeling so hot, stupid, and embarrassed. I just kept drinking to drown the pain, then I threw up and there was a slight commotion, I really don't remember everything that happened before that, oh then you dragged my sorry ass to your house. Your mom gave us an earful the next morning"
"I am guessing your account is different?" she asks
"Yes, it is very different. It was Cole's party so obviously, Stephan was there. Stephan took us home. He carried you because you were so intoxicated and he literally saved me from being mauled by fat Joe"
"You mean Joe that posted me making a fool of myself and barfing on the floor in the school's social media?"
"He did what? I broke his phone before we left, that is the reason why I almost lost my head"
"I was too drunk to remember what happened but, I know there was a fight. After that night, being in school was a problem. Emily and her dogs kept hounding me and these junkies and frat boys kept hitting on me. Actually, that's how Cole and I finally hooked up, we finally talked after he saved me from this really creepy guy"
"Oh", I say, stunned that I had no recollection or idea of what she is saying. "Our memories are really different"