Can I Be Your Memory?

Chapter 18

Erelin leaned against the big metal poles in the underground basement baggage claim of O’Hare International Airport. It was exactly two days since she had talked to Brendon over the phone and decided not to answer her phone until she saw him in person to talk. Much to her dismay, she was the only one who could pick up Brendon from the airport. Her sisters had forced her to go seeing as though the whole family had work. She had been complaining about going to pick him. She tried to get answers from them as to how they had met and what not, but they had refused to tell her exactly why. They had told her that she had to get her answers from him. She mumbled something about not getting them and reluctantly picked up the car keys belonging to Brendon and drove to pick him up from his trip to New York.

She sighed as more and more people started to arrive down the escalator to grab their luggage from the moving conveyor belt. She adjusted her huge, white sunglasses while shifting her weight from her left to her right. She was getting very impatient for all the right reasons. As she started to zone out on how she was going to bitch out Brendon later, she felt someone tap her shoulder. She looked to right to see Brendon giving her a goofy smile as he clutched a bouquet of white and red carnations in one hand as he held his carry-on bag in the other.

Erelin kept a straight face as she stared at what he had brought her, but inside her, it was completely different. She was melting with joy in her heart. He had bought her favorite flowers. She then had come to a realization that she had another memory….

A younger Erelin ran down the stairs of an unfamiliar house when she heard the doorbell ring repeatedly. She checked herself in the mirror. She adjusted her black and red highlighted hair, making sure her nice grey v-neck shirt was on straight and that her make-up was perfect. She then smiled and headed for the front door. She sighed, releasing all nervousness out of her, and opened the door.
She smiled as she revealed Brendon, a younger version of him with glasses, smiling showing off his soon to be taken off braces, and a single flower at hand… a white carnation.

“Erelin?” Brendon said as he shook her out of her memory relapse.

“Look… I said I was sorry for not telling you much…”

“Much, Brendon? Much? Seriously… you haven’t told me anything,” Erelin said as her voice started to rise, alerting many of the people surrounding them, compelling to watch what was going on between the two friends.

“Look, let’s not argue here. Can this wait ‘til we get home?” he asked.
She mumbled an ok. He then handed the flowers to her, waiting for her to grab them. Even though she didn’t want to, she grabbed them out of his hands. He kissed her on the cheek and grabbed his luggage from the conveyor belt. They grabbed a cart and put his stuff on there as they wheeled his luggage to the parking garage where Erelin had parked his car.

On their way out to the car, Brendon was stopped by a teenage girl who had recognized him from his famous band. Erelin stood there as she watched Brendon took a picture with the girl, and after that signing an item of her’s that Erelin could not distinguish. She wasn’t standing very close to notice what it was.

“So you must be Erelin, Brendon’s…”

“… Friend. She’s just a friend. Sorry to cut this short, but we have somewhere to be. Thanks again for being so supportive of the band!” Brendon said in a hurry.

With that, he rushed Erelin, himself and his stuff out of the airport towards the car.

“What was that all about?” Erelin asked.

“Nothing… I’ll explain later.”

“You better because I am getting sick and tired of hearing that from you,” Erelin said as they had finally reached the car.

They put his stuff in the trunk of his silver Audi and closed it up. Brendon instantly grabbed his keys from Erelin’s hands as she pulled them out of her purse and headed to the driver’s seat. Erelin shook her head as she headed towards the passenger side. Brendon was always protective over his car or what he would like to call it, his baby. Cue in the eye rolls.

Brendon hooked up his Ipod to the radio after he had turned on the car, letting Bob Marley fill the silence between them. He lowered the music down in hopes of talking to Erelin through the car, but he knew that wouldn’t happen. So he had something else in mind. Brendon headed out of the airport and back to the suburbs with Erelin ignoring his soft singing even though she loved it. She didn’t want to cave in though. She felt that was too easy because she always let Brendon off the hook. As they finally approached the house, Erelin didn’t expect that Brendon would pass it up.

“Brendon? Where are we going?” Erelin asked as she slowly started to panic inside.

“Somewhere…” he said.

That’s when the panic started to grow in her. She knew he wasn’t happy that she was ignoring him, but she couldn’t help it. He had left her out in the dark. Brendon started to turn left on to the street and then made a sharp right. He started to brake and then parked the car near the curb. Erelin looked outside the window to see that they were right in front of a park.

“Brendon… what are we doing here?” she asked as she looked over at him.

Brendon didn’t answer right away. He stared intently at the park for a couple of seconds, looked over at Erelin, and unbuckled his seatbelt. Erelin watched as he got out of the car, closed the door, and headed over to her side of the car. He opened up her door, leaned over to unbuckle her seatbelt and took her hand into his.

“Come on… I’m not gonna hurt you. I just want to talk…” he said softly as he removed her sunglasses.

She adjusted her eyes to the bright sunlight and looked at Brendon, then down at their hands and fingers intertwining. He squeezed her hand, reminding her of what he had asked. She sighed and got out of the car, their hands not breaking away from each other. Together they walked over to the swing set and sat down on individual swings.