A Mess of Youthful Innocence

I stared confused for a second, but covered it up well and looked behind him to my mother, using my eyes to ask who this person was. "Patrick. It's Patrick," She mouthed, emphasizing his name with her lips. I nodded slightly, understanding her silent words. I looked back to Patrick. He took no notice of the exchange.

"Hi, Patrick," I greeted softly, smiling at him. His eyes widened in surprise and his smile widened. He enveloped me in a tight, rub-crushing hug.

"You remember me?" He mumbled into my neck. I frowned and my eyes welled up with tears at his hopefulness. He looked so happy. How could I let him down?

"Of course I do, Patrick! How could I ever forget you?" I lied. Believe me, if you ever saw the way he was hugging me and his face when he heard me say his name... You would have said the same thing. I'm only human. My mother stared at me, her eyes slightly angry and questioning. I could tell she didn't approve of my leading him on. I looked at her apologetically. What else could I have done? I couldn't very well have told him, 'Oh, I'm sorry, Patrick, I have no idea who you are. I just know your name because my mother told me.' How well would that have gone over? He would've hated me, he would've had no hope at all for me to remember anything. I couldn't bear that.

Patrick hugged me tighter and whispered, "I love you, Rose. I can't believe I thought you would forget me. I knew you wouldn't, deep down. I'm sorry." Yeah, so am I. I feel horrible. I thought silently. I closed my eyes and enjoyed his embrace while I could. "Oh, hey, Rosalyn, I have something to tell you." He pulled away reluctantly and sat on the edge of my bed, holding my hand in his and staring at me, smiling. I looked at him, confused. He was smiling, so I assumed it was good news.

"What is it, Patrick?" I asked apprehensively. He smiled wider.

"I started a band," He blurted out excitedly. My eyes widened in surprise and I shot him a huge smile.

"Are you serious?" He nodded quickly, still smiling widely. "Oh my God! That's awesome!" I squealed, bouncing slightly on my bed, grinning like an idiot. "When did this happen?"

"About a month ago. I met this guy who wanted to start one and he needed a drummer, so I tried out. I got in and they asked me to sing background vocals, so I did, and apparently my voice was just too awesome, 'cause now I'm the lead singer," He explained, smiling. I smiled and hugged him.

"That's so cool, Patrick! You always did have a great voice," I told him, hoping he had sang to me before, so he wouldn't suspect anything. He smiled at me. "Can I come see you guys practice?" I asked hopefully. He nodded excitedly.

"Of course you can, you loser!" He said playfully. I laughed lightly and looked at my mom. He looked at her too.

"Can I, Mom?" I asked. She shook her head and I frowned slightly.

"You get out of here tomorrow, Rosalyn, remember? They need to run some tests to make sure you're okay to go," She reminded me. I nodded and turned to look at Patrick again.

"Tomorrow, then?" I suggested, and he nodded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the day consisted of brain, heart, bone, and whatever-else-you-can-think-of tests. Not very exciting. They were all okay though, so I got to go home the next day.

"Rosalyn, I brought your clothes. Go get dressed, and I'll take you home," my mom said, handing the bag to me. I took it and went into the bathroom to change. When I came out, my mom was standing next to the bed with her keys in hand. "Come on, let's go!" She said, flashing a smile at me. I nodded, and we walked out of the hospital to her car. The ride was short and silent, and when we pulled into what I assumed was our driveway, she turned the car off and looked at me. "Rosalyn. When you get back from Patrick's house, we need to talk. Got it?"

"Okay, mom. I'll go put my stuff in my room, and then you can take me to Patrick's?" I suggested, opening the car door slightly while waiting for her reply. She nodded and I turned around to grab the bag my mom had brought to the hospital room and then hopped out of the car. I closed the door, then realized something. I turned around and opened it again. "Hey, mom? ...Which room is mine?" She chuckled.

"Upstairs, third door on the right."

"'Kay!" I said excited, running up the sidewalk to the front door and throwing it open. I took the stairs two at a time and opened the third door on the right to find my room. I stared in awe. The room was a light green shade with black splatter paint everywhere. Across from the bedroom door was the only window in the room, and to the left of the window was a bedside table with a lamp and an iHome next to it. Taking up the entire left wall was my bed, with a small TV hanging above the foot of it. On the other side of the window was a dresser with another lamp, a hairbrush, and all my make-up and beauty products. The right wall was completely covered with tons of band posters, such as Nirvana, Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, Blink-182, and many more. There was a drum set and a bass over there as well, so I assumed I could play, even though I had no memory of it yet. To the right of the bedroom door was, what I assumed, a closet door. I walked over to it and opened it up. It was a walk-in closet consisting of all of my clothes, mostly band tee's and graphic tee's. There were shoes and stuffed animals strewn all over the floor. I guessed that I was one of those kids who, when told to clean their room, just stuff everything in their closets. That thought made me smile slightly. There were two bookshelves on the right side of the closet, consisting of tons and tons of books, looking to be mostly mushy romance ones. I could tell I would be spending a lot of my time reading from now on. Walking out of the closet, I noticed a desk on the other side of the door with a laptop on it, a small desk lamp, and probably about ten different packs of gum. Wow, I must have a slight obsession with gum... I thought to myself. I walked over to the laptop and turned it on. The first thing I noticed when it finished loading was the desktop photo. It was one of Patrick and I, hugging and making funny faces at the camera. It looked like we were in a park, because there was a tree behind us with yellow and red leaves, falling to the ground, and we were standing on a path with a bench next to it. It was an extremely cute picture; I could tell Patrick and I had great chemistry together just from that picture. The next thing I noticed was the IM that appeared on the screen.

"Message from: hatsOFF2theSINGERxx. Accept or Ignore?"

I sat down and clicked Accept.

hatsOFF2theSINGERxx: hey Rose... you coming?
aROSEbyanyotherNAME: oh, yeah, of course, sorry, i was just kinda exploring my room.

I had automatically assumed it was Patrick by the screenname and his question.

hatsOFF2theSINGERxx: oh right, i forgot about that... well, i'll let you get situated.
hatsOFF2theSINGERxx: when should i expect you over?
aROSEbyanyotherNAME: umm, maybe like... 15 minutes i guess? somewhere around there
hatsOFF2theSINGERxx: k, see you then rose :]
aROSEbyanyotherNAME: byebye pattycakes!
hatsOFF2theSINGERxx has signed off.

I hit the "x" button and almost as soon as I did, another box popped up.

"Invitation for chat32858874257892 sent by: GabbyyyyxPants56. Accept or Reject?"

I hesitated for a second before once again clicking Accept.

GabbyyyyxPants56 has entered the room.
THANKtheSHIREforSCARVES has entered the room.
QUEENofthePUPPYFACES has entered the room.
aROSEbyanyotherNAME has entered the room.

GabbyyyyxPants56: omg, rose, is that seriously you?
THANKtheSHIREforSCARVES: omg! rosalyn! when did you wake up?!
QUEENofthePUPPYFACES: HOLY CRAP, when did you get here?!
aROSEbyanyotherNAME: ummm...not to be rude, but who are you guys?

There was silence for a minute or two. I probably made them feel bad. Great, more people I made feel bad.

GabbyyyyxPants56: ...you don't remember us?
aROSEbyanyotherNAME: I'm sorry, but no... who are you?
THANKtheSHIREforSCARVES: well, we WERE your best friends... hopefully we still are... anyways, i'm anna.
QUEENofthePUPPYFACES: rose, you loser, how do you not remember us?!
aROSEbyanyotherNAME: ...i'm sorry, i can't help it... it's not my fault i lost my memory...
GabbyyyyxPants56: don't worry about it, rosalyn... logan's a loser...she likes to speak her mind, haha. I'm gabby... we met in 8th grade.
THANKtheSHIREforSCARVES: you met me and logan in 7th grade... Mr. Gopen's social studies class... haha, those days were epic.
QUEENofthePUPPYFACES: yeah they were. I miss those middle school days. high school is too full of drama.
THANKtheSHIREforSCARVES: agreed!
GabbyyyyxPants56: agreed!
aROSEbyanyotherNAME: ok guys, sorry, but I kinda have to go... I'm going to someone's house and I still kinda explore my room a little bit before I go
THANKtheSHIREforSCARVES: hey, are you going to patrick's place?
aROSEbyanyotherNAME: yeah, how'd you know that?
QUEENofthePUPPYFACES: we're going there too! I guess we'll see you there rose! :]
aROSEbyanyotherNAME: ok, I'll see you there then... bye guys

I hit the "x" again and immediately signed out of AIM so I wouldn't get attacked by yet another IM box. I walked over to my dresser and started going through the drawers. Junk drawer... jeans... pajamas. That'll come in handy tonight. I closed them all and then looked on top of the dresser. Hmmm, I should bring that over... Take pictures of the band. I had found a camera at the very front. I picked it up and put it in a purse I found on a hook on the wall next to the door. I also found a wallet and a cell phone on the desk and shoved them in the purse as well. I explored a little bit more around my room and after I was done, I bounded down the stairs and called for my mom.

"Mom! Come on, let's go!" I yelled, hoping she was in a room close by so she could hear me. I opened the door and hopped outside, my mom walking down the hallway towards the door and coming outside with me. We both got in the car and started driving down the road. We were in front of a house within ten minutes and I jumped out of the car, waving goodbye to my mother.

"Remember, we're talking when you get home," She reminded me, shooting me a stern look.

"I know, Mom. We'll talk," I assured her. I slammed the car door and walked up to the front door, ringing the doorbell. The door opened within a few seconds and I was greeted by Patrick's smiling face.

"Hey, Rosalyn! I'm glad you came!" He said, stepping aside so I could walk in. There were six more people in the room; three boys and three girls. The girls – two brunettes and a bleach blonde -- looked up from what they were doing and their eyes widened when they saw me.

"Oh my God!" They all screamed in unison, running over to me and tackling me to the ground.

"HOLY FUCK, who are you guys?" I shouted in surprise. I heard Patrick and the other three boys chuckle loudly. All three of the girls got off of me and then pulled me up. I dusted myself off and looked up at them questioningly, an eyebrow raised.

"Duhh, we're the ones you talked to online not even fifteen minutes ago," The blonde said. She was the tallest of the group. Her hair was stick-straight with very defined layers and short bangs, just about to her eyebrows. Her eyes were a blueish-green and lined with black, one side of her lids pink and the other side green with eyeshadow. She was dressed in a gray Hello Kitty tank-top and regular jeans with a pair of flip-flops on her feet. "I'm Logan," she continued, "This is Anna," She pointed to a girl with long wavy dark-brown hair and blue eyes. She looked slightly short for her age at 5'3. She was all natural with no make-up on her face. "And this is Gabby," She pointed to the last girl, who had short dark brown hair that flared out at the ends, and bangs that went into her beautiful green eyes. She looked to be the same height as Anna. I waved at them all, smiling. They waved back excitedly, and then Patrick grabbed my arm and dragged me over to the three boys. I looked back at the girls for a second; they all had slight scowls on their faces. I giggled, then turned back around to look at the boys.

"Rose, this is Pete, Joe, and Andy," He told me, pointing to each one respectively, "They're in the band. Pete's the bassist, Joe's the guitarist, and Andy's the drummer." I waved at them as well.

"So, this is her? The one that was in the coma for like, seven months?" Pete asked. I scowled.

"Five months, actually. And yes, that's me," I told him, "How do you know me?" Joe chuckled slightly.

"Patrick only talked about you 24/7. I mean, come on." I heard a slight lisp in his voice and giggled. "Don't make fun of my lisp!" He said, pouting playfully. I grinned.

"But it's so funny!" I said. He stuck his tongue out at me and I laughed again.

"Go play with your girlfriends! Us men have some songs to practice," Andy said, putting his fists on his hips in a superman position and lifting his chin. I scoffed.

"Pshh, fine. Maybe I will!" I said, sticking my tongue out and turning away to go back to Anna, Gabby, and Logan. As soon as I reached them, they attacked me in a group hug. Jeez, they're full of love.

"I can't believe you're finally awake!" Gabby screamed in my ear.

"Owww, my ear," I said, smiling lightly. They finally released me, and we sat on the couch across from the boys' little playing area.

"So how do you know the boys?" I asked them.

"Well, we're all girlfriends of the band members," Anna said. My heart sank. Please don't say Patrick, please don't say Patrick. Wait... I don't even remember him. How can I like him if I don't remember him?

"Oh. Which ones?"

"Joe's my boyfriend, Pete is Anna's, and Andy is Logan's," Gabby told me. Thank God.

Shut up, brain!

"That's awesome," I said, smiling. They smiled back and nodded, and then we all turned our attention to the band as they started playing.