The World Forgot

Somebody that I used to know

She found a shirt balled up in the corner of her closet, forgotten about who knows how long ago. She immediately knew it wasn’t hers though. It was maroon and flannel, long-sleeved, definitely a man’s shirt.

She held the shirt carefully, rubbing the worn fabric between her fingers, trying to remember where it came from. After a moment, on impulse, she lifted the shirt to her nose and breathed in, her eyes closing when the scent hit her nostrils. It felt like home.

She inspected it again, un-bunching it and holding it out in front of her. Why couldn’t she remember where it came from? It’s not like she had dated anyone in a while, at least, not while she had been living in this apartment.

Amanda blinked a few times, feeling a headache beginning to form. She hastily folded the shirt and set it on top of her dresser, hoping she would eventually remember where it came from.

But whenever she thought about the shirt, her head would begin to ache again, so she decided to put it out of her mind, putting the shirt into a drawer of her dresser she didn’t open very often. It wasn’t important, she decided. It was just a shirt.

The shirt hardly entered her thoughts after, until about a week before her last memory erasing procedure. She had been trying to distance herself from Ryan, but there was just something genuine about him that made you want know him better.

She invited him over for dinner, ordering takeout because she didn’t feel like cooking. They opened a bottle of red wine, enjoying easy conversation on the couch in her living room, Amanda expressing hope that she might be able to enjoy a more normal life after this last procedure. Ryan making jokes that made Amanda laugh harder than she’d laughed in a while.

“Can we start over after this last procedure?” she asked, smiling at Ryan. “I think we should become friends again afterwards.”

“I like the sound of that,” Ryan answered, smiling in return. She wanted to hug him then, pull him close and just feel comfort in his warmth, but she thought it’d be better if she didn’t. She couldn’t deny that she felt something towards him, but she could hold off and hope that those feelings would still come to her in the aftermath.

Instead, she raised her wine glass to toast their friendship but instead wine sloshed over the side in her forceful gesture and landed on Ryan’s t-shirt, staining it immediately.

“Oh shit,” Amanda said, clapping a hand to her mouth and setting her wine glass down on the coffee table in her living room. She stood up and took Ryan’s glass from his hand and set it down next to hers. “Shit. Oh! I have a shirt you can wear, if you want to take that one off and I can clean it for you.”

“You really don’t have to,” he said, laughing. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Please let me clean it,” she insisted. “I’ll feel bad if your shirt is stained for good.”

He rolled his eyes.

“Fine,” he said. “Go grab me the random man’s shirt that you have.”

Amanda laughed and went to go grab the shirt she had hidden away.

“I honestly don’t know where it came from,” she said when she returned. “But I’m pretty sure it’s clean and it feels really comfortable.”

She handed him the shirt and Ryan looked down at it, suddenly quiet and frowning slightly.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, worried that something had happened.

“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head and smiling at her. It didn’t reach his eyes. He quickly pulled off his t-shirt and pulled the flannel shirt on, buttoning it quickly.

And somehow it clicked.

“That’s… that’s your shirt isn’t it?”

“What?” Ryan asked, handing Amanda his t-shirt. She held it, distracted, twisting the fabric in her hands.

“That shirt,” she said, nodding towards him as he stood in front of hers. “It’s yours. You’ve been here before.”

He didn’t say anything, just shifted uncomfortably, unsure of how to continue.

“We’ve met before haven’t we?” she asked. “And you’ve been erased from my memories before as well?”

It was silent as she watched him, her hands tangled in t-shirt. Ryan nodded, finally.

“Oh.”

Everything went black.
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Wow I haven't updated this in a while. Whoops. Hopefully I won't take so long with the next update!

~Sally

[Chapter title credit: Somebody That I Used to Know - Gotye feat. Kimbra]