Like You Wanna Be Loved

I was confused as to how Sidney expected me to find his car in our giant parking lot. What I didn’t expect was for his car to be parked directly across from the front door. A huge Penguins window cling was stuck on the back windshield. His license plate so humbly read, “CPTN 87”.

“I guess this must be it,” I mumbled to myself. I opened the back driver’s side door and climbed in, waiting for everyone else to show up.

I soon heard shouting. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Jordan and Evgeni running towards the car, shoving each other along the way.

“I want to sit next to her,” Jordan shouted.

“No! I sit next Nicole,” Evgeni hollered back.

I shook my head at them before turning around in my seat. The car door soon opened and Evgeni jumped in before shutting the door behind him and locking it.

“Hi Nicole,” he said, turning to me. I could see Jordan throwing a temper tantrum over his shoulder. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight. “I Geno.”

“Hi,” I replied simply. I couldn’t help thinking that his accent and broken English were the cutest things ever.

“We best friends again now,” he asked hopefully. “I really good friend. I promise.”

“Okay. Sure.”

Jordan finally finished throwing his temper tantrum and climbed into the car.

“Staalsy, guess what,” Geno called to Jordan.

“What, Geno,” he questioned, a bitter tone still evident in his voice.

“Nicole and I best friends now,” he said with a bright smile while slinging his arm over my shoulder.

“How are you feeling, Nicole,” Jordan asked me, looking at me seriously.

“Tired,” I told him truthfully.

“Well that’s nothing new.”

The driver’s side door opened and Sidney climbed in the car, looking confused at Jordan.

“Why are you sitting up here,” he muttered through gritted teeth.

“Geno got to the car before me and insisted on sitting in back with Nicole.”

Sidney didn’t say anything else but when he looked in the rearview mirror to back up I could see the look of hurt on his face

I slumped against Geno’s shoulder, wanting nothing more than to take a nice long nap.

“You tired,” Geno asked. I didn’t say anything. I just nodded against his shoulder. “You lie down in lap if want,” he offered.

I knew that I should’ve felt weird about laying my head in Geno’s lap but he was so sweet and I was so tired.

I adjusted myself in my seat and leaned over, gently setting my head in his lap. I swear I could hear Sideny’s heart breaking. I wasn’t a terrible person; I couldn’t go unaffected by something like that. I quickly sat up and looked sadly at Geno.

“I probably shouldn’t fall asleep just yet,” I lied to him simply.

Sidney pulled up outside of the hospital downtown and we all jumped out of the car. I felt Sidney’s hand on the small of my back as we walked into the emergency room. It was a habit I could tell he didn’t want to break himself of.

He led me inside and up to the check in desk while Geno and Jordan followed closely behind.

“Hello, sir. What can I help you with today,” the receptionist asked, looking at us confused that none of us were bleeding or limping.

“My girlfriend has amnesia. I think she might have hit her head. I was hoping we could get her in for an MRI.”

“Okay, sir. I’m gonna ask you to fill out this paperwork to the best of your ability with your girlfriend’s information. Someone will be with you as soon as possible.”

The receptionist handed Sidney a clipboard and a pen. Sidney put his hand back to its place on my back and led me over to a group of seats. We all sat down and Sidney placed the clipboard on his lap.

“You know I can fill that out myself, right?”

“Oh, sorry,” he mumbled, pushing the clipboard over to me. “Here you go.”

“I mean, you can fill it out if you really want to. I just figured it might be easier if I did it.”

“No,” he responded quickly. “It’s fine.”

I noticed Jordan whisper something to Geno and they both snickered. I chose to ignore them, assuming that it’d be better if I didn’t know what they were talking about.

I started filling out the paperwork. It was just normal stuff; birthday, family medical history, current medications. At least it was just normal stuff until I got to the question: “When did you last have sexual intercourse?”

I immediately started blushing. ‘Like hell if I know..’ “Umm,” I mumbled, tapping Sidney’s shoulder. He looked over at me and I pointed to the question which had left me befuddled. A blush started creeping up on his cheeks as well. ‘Clearly we’re not one of those really open couples.’

Sidney grabbed the pen from me and scribbled a quick date on the paper. He scanned over the sheet and saw that I’d answered every other question so he took the clipboard back to the sign in desk. When he sat back down, he placed his hand on my thigh. I didn’t feel completely comfortable with it but I knew that the contact made him feel better.

Jordan could the see look of discontent on my face and subtly shook his head at Sidney with a pointed look. Sidney picked up on the meaning of Jordan’s gesture and quickly removed his hand while muttering a half-hearted apology.

“Nicole,” a nurse called from a nearby door.

We all stood up by Sidney turned to Jordan and Geno and suggested, “Why don’t you two stay here?”
They reluctantly sat back down as Sidney and I followed the nurse.

“So, Nicole, what seems to be the problem,” the nurse asked as she led me into an examination room. I looked to Sidney frantically, unsure how to explain my predicament.

“She has amnesia,” Sidney answered for me. “But it’s weird. There are select people she can’t remember. She can’t remember me, or her best friend, or any of his friends or any of my coworkers.”

“That’s very weird. I’ve heard of very few cases like this, but it does happen. I’m going to call for Dr. Rosenthal. He is one of the country’s top neurologists. I’ll be right back.”

The nurse left the room hurriedly. As soon as the door clicked shut, Sidney’s eyes were on me.

“How are you feeling?”

“A little bit better. I’m relieved that this kind of thing has happened to other people. I was afraid I might be some sort of freak of nature.”

“Nicole, you are not a freak of nature. You should never think that.”

“Oh really?! Look at what’s happened today, Sidney! My boyfriend and his friends show up to visit me and I have no clue who any of them are. My best friend calls me and I’m left completely floored. I honestly feel like I could be on Punk’d right now! The only problem is this isn’t some stupid reality show, this is real life and I’m confused as hell.”