Can I Be Your Memory?

Chapter 10

As the stories started to come more and more, Erelin started to get exhausted. She tried to remember everything that her family told her, but it was too much for her. She was started to get sleepy, and Brendon noticed. As he was about to say something, the nurse had come in. The nurse checked her monitors, pulse, and charts. The nurse mentioned about dinner being served pretty soon and left. Erelin didn’t realize that it was already getting late. With all of the story telling, she had lost track of time. She looked at the clock to see that it was almost seven. She was surprised that it had taken so long.

“Oh wow. Why don’t you guys go ahead and get some dinner. You are all probably hungry. I don’t want to keep you guys from not eating,” Erelin said with a smile.

They all looked at each other and sort of shrugged. They felt that they didn’t want to leave her. Erelin was too smart though. She could sense their hesitation, but she shrugged it off.

“It’s ok. While I’m eating, you guys can eat too. I don’t want you guys to go hungry,” she said with a smile.

And just in time, her food had come in. One of the staff put it on a movable table and moved it towards her. Her father adjusted the table and put her tray in front of her. She smiled and said thank you to both the staff and her father. Her father took off the cover to reveal a beef dish with vegetables. She then felt her stomach grumble as inhaled the smells. She didn’t realize how hungry she was. She didn’t care that it was hospital food. She was just hungry.

“Go ahead. I’ll be fine. Go eat, please. Don’t let me hold you guys back,” Erelin insisted.

“Alright. We’ll be back,” Celeste said as she looked at her family as the agreed with her.

They all left to go get food, except for Brendon. Brendon was actually just sitting there the whole time listening to the stories they would say. He knew it wasn’t his place yet to tell anything. He wanted to wait ‘til Erelin was ready to ask her something. As Erelin stared at her food, she didn’t notice that Brendon was there until she was about take a bite out of her broccoli. She put it down and looked at him confused.

“Aren’t you going to go with them?” she asked.

“I’m not really hungry right now. Besides, I thought I’d keep you company so you aren’t so alone,” he said.

“Oh… it’s ok. You can go ahead and grab something to eat,” Erelin said.

“I’m fine. I’ll grab something downstairs later…”

“Well here at least eat some of this,” Erelin said as she had already cut up a part of the steak she had gotten.

She stuck it to her fork and held it out to him. Brendon sat in his chair, staring at the piece of meat uncomfortably.

“I’m not hungry. It’s okay…”

“I insist. Come on.”

“Erelin… to be honest with you, I’m vegetarian,” Brendon said, relaxing as he got that out.

“Oh… I’m sorry. I didn’t even think to ask. Here at least eat some of these vegetables,” she said.

She put the piece of meat in her mouth, wiped the fork and stuck a piece of broccoli on it. She held it out to him still expectantly, waiting for him to grab it from him.

“I’m not gonna give up,” she said with a know-it-all face.

Brendon smiled and sighed. He got up and walked over to the bed. He leaned down and took a bite out of the broccoli. He then pulled it off the fork and chewed away. Erelin smiled and got some mash potatoes on her plate.

“Ha, I win…” she said with a huge grin.

“You always do,” he said.

“What?” she asked him questioningly.

“Whenever we would get into fights… whether they were small, fumy ones or serious ones, you would always win. And when we were done arguing, you would always say that you win, which is true,” he said with a laugh.

“Oh…” she said as she sort of blushed.

She started to pick at her food. The thought of her always winning when it came to Brendon seemed a bit funny and questioning too. The thing is though, Erelin wanted to take one step at a time. She wanted to start from the beginning.

“What’s wrong? Are you feeling alright?” Brendon asked.

“Yea… I was just wondering…” she said slowly.

“Yea?”

“I was just wondering how we first met and how we became friends?” she asked.

He looked down at her and sighed.

“It’s a long story…”

“Like I said before, I have plenty of time,” she said with a smile as she put down her fork.

“Alright…” he said.

She pushed aside the table with her half eaten food. She had lost her appetite for food, but she was hungry for the truth.

“Sit,” she said as she sat cross legged on the bed.

She pointed to the empty space on her bed for Brendon to sit on. He smiled and sat down on bed across from her.

“Alright… Well it all started when…”