Forget Me Not: Remembering Sunday

It was dead silent.
Shit. I thought. Shit, shit, shit.
He was joking. He was confused. He knew us. This was NOT happening.
A nervous laugh broke the heay silence. "That's not funny Alex. We were seriously worried about you for a second. Don't joke around now." Rian said, a nervous laugh continuing to gurgle out of his throat. "Stop giggling like you're fucking possessed Rian. You sound like you're gonna start foaming at the mouth and eat us all." Zack told him quietly. "How are you Alex?" Matt asked softly, like he thought Alex would break if he spoke too loud. And from the fragile look on Alex's face, for all I knew, he just might.
"Do I know you?" Alex whispered.
My heart stopped.
The tension in the room could be cut with a knife.
"What... what do you mean? It's me, Rian." RIan eventually stuttered out. Zack had gone pale and Matt's mouth was hanging open. I felt faint.
Oh my God. He really didn't remember us. "Alex..." I said weakly, willing my shaking knees not to give out on me. I stumbled forward to the edge of his bed, my heart panging as he inched away from me, clutching his blanket closer to his chest. "Alex do you know me? I'm Jack, your best friend. I play guitar with you in our band All Time Low, you hit your head on an amp and yesterday we were playing a full contact game of Pictionary on the tour bus you tackled Grieco into Evan. Do you remember anything?" My words were blurring together as i questioned him frantically. I felt my heart plummet even further as he gave me this tearfilled, blank look. "No, I'm sorry. I... I don't understand, how long have I known you?" Alex asked me warily. "Since the eighth grade. I was your first real friend since you moved to Baltimore from England." Alex continued to look at me blankly, his face resembling that of a sad, lost pppy. My throat was tight as he asked, "How... how old am I?" "Twenty-one." "Oh."
Tears were starting to seep from Alex's chocolatey brown eyes, sparkling in the harsh white light as they cascaded down his face. Alex looked completely broken, and not just physically with his bandages and such, he looked mentally drained. Then I notied that Alex's hand had drifted over the emergency call button on the side of his bed. That was it for me.
It was all too much, something inside me just snapped and then my long legs were propelling me out of the room, down the hall, passed confused doctors and sick patients as I bypassed the elevator and charged down the stairs.
I burst through the front doors, into the rain that had started pouring down. It was freezing, but I barley felt the cold as I slammed to a stop next to our van in the parking lot. My body finally sucumbed to gravity and I crashed to the ground, my frozen fingers, desperately clinging to my soaking hair.
"JACK!" I heard a frantic voice call and then I felt a large body colide with the side of mine, strong arms wrapping around my body. I clutched onto Zack and started sobbing into his shoulder.
"HE DOESN'T KNOW ME ZACK! HE DOESN'T KNOW ANYONE, *ANYTHING*!" I screamed hysterically. "WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?!"
I was snapped from my hysterics when I felt the sharp slap to my face. My tears abruptly stopped and I sat there, dumbfounded, as I looked at Zack, who was cooly staring at me.
"Calm the fuck down. You sitting out here in the freezing rain isn't going to help Alex remember. I think he has more of a reason to cry then you do. Now get the fuck up and be. a. MAN. You just ran away from your best fucking friend back there, and now he's more confused then ever. All we can do is try to get the old Alex that we know to come back to us, to remember everything. You're his best friend, you're the closest to him, YOU are the best chance we have. So get off your fat ass and get back in that hospital."
I didn't reply at first. I was still staring, completely stunned, at Zack. That was probably the most he has EVER said at once. And yet, that wasn't what I was gaping at, and it wasn't what spurred my reply.
"Did you just... bitch slap me?"
Zack's serious face cracked into a smirk as he stood and used his weird Hulk strength to pull me to my feet, "Couldn't have you getting snot all over one of my few shirts, could I?"
That made me smile a bit and together, me and Zack made our way into the hospital lobby, where a squat little nurse gave us the Evil Eye when we shook ourselves like dogs to rid ourselves of some of the water that clung to our skin.
After a short, quiet elevator ride and a tense moment of hesitation outside Alex's room's door, I knocked and after a moment heard a muffled, "Come in." So we entered the room.
Rian was sitting in the chair next to Alex's bed, Alex was looking at us anxiously and Matt was nowhere to be seen.
"Matt's talking to the doctors to see about release and care and all that jazz." Rian said, answering my unasked question. "I was just talking to Alex about... stuff." He continued. I looked at Alex, who was staring at me intently.
I met his eyes and I could have sworn I saw a blush creep onto his face before he quickly looked away.
"Alex, would it be alright if I talk to you for a minute? Privately?" I asked as I tried to catch his eye again. He just seemed so AFRAID and I wanted him to know that he didn't have to be scared around me. ALex quickly met my eyes once more, before looking away again. "Okay..." He finally replied, twisting his blanket in his fingers.
Rian got up from his chair and started to leave with Zack, but not before giving us weird looks, no doubt about our sopping clothers. "I'm wet." Zack said simply, in answer to the weird look, as he tried to wring some water from his shirt. "That's what she said." Rian shrugged. And then they were gone, a comment about Starbuck's floating to me before the door shut behind them.
Once they were gone, I looked at Alex, who was still avoiding my gaze. It broke my heart to see my best friend like this.
Alex was amazing. He was so kind and caring and adorable and awesome, he of all people didn't deserve this.
I silently walked to the edge of the bed and perched in the chair Rian had been previously occupying.
"Alex-" I started but he cut me off, "I'm sorry I don't remember. I'm sorry I don't know you. I Just... I don't know what I'm supposed to do."
Tears were threatening to spill over his cheeks again but he sniffed, trying to hold them back.
"I'm sorry I don't remember you J-Jack."
I dropped to my knees and shuffled to the edge of the bed. "Alex, Alex don't cry, don't apoligize, it will all be okay."
Alex sniffled again and rubbed at his eyes, "How do you know?" He asked bitterly.
I sighed. He was right, how did I know this was all going to work out? For all I know, Alex would never remember who he was, He would move out of the house he and Rian shared and go back to live with his parents or something, quitting the band, walking away, never knowing us again. My heart stuttered at the thought.
But I couldn't tell Alex my doubts. I couldn't do that to him. So instead I replied, "Because I'm Jack Bassam Barakat, and you're Alexander William Gaskarth. We have been best friends through absolutely everything, this is just another adventure we're going to deal with together. So I guess you're really just going to have to trust me. Can you trust me?"
Alex hesitated for a frighteningly long moment before nodding shakily. A sob finally burst free of his throat.
"Come here." I said quietly and I took Alex into my arms, sitting on the edge of his bed. I shhhhed him, stroked his long hair that stuck out from beneath his bandage and assured him that everything would be a-okay as he clutched onto me and cried for who knows how long. But in the end, it didn't matter how long it was, if this new Alex, who didn't know ANYTHING, somehow knew he could trust me, then old ALex must still be locked inside him.
All I had to do was get my best friend back.
As for HOW I would do that, well, we'd figure that out later.