Page 25 of Don’t Forget Me

“Yes, I can’t believe you remember that. It’s not scorching hot, and it’s not⁠—”

“It’s not super cold,” I finished. “Because you hate summer’s heat and winter’s frigidness.”

To see her smiling at me again made me realize that she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Not even the greatest works of art in the grandest museums in the whole world could compare to her beauty, which was radiating and illuminating my soul.

“Yes! I know summers in Scotland aren’t that bad, but I’ll always remember the summers at home.”

“Yeah, I recall you telling me how it would get to three digits. How do the people survive over there?”

“Anyone who goes out into the heat doesn’t survive, so the streets are mostly empty. And the coldest it gets during winter is forty degrees Fahrenheit. The last time it snowed in my hometown was in the 1930s. Can you believe that?”

I was surprised that I could get her to speak so much just by mentioning her hometown. Back then, it was a reason for her to shut down.

“That is difficult to imagine since it snows most of the time here,” I said.

“That’s probably Scotland’s only flaw.”

I smiled with her.

She spoke as if she’d never left. As if she knew the patterns of the seasons of Edinburgh. Like Scotland had become her home.

“Forgive me, but I have to ask,” I began. The light in her expression seemed to dim. “Did you stay here all this time? Where did you go after the…incident?”

She gulped before fidgeting with her cherry-red painted nails. “I transferred to Lachlan a few weeks after. Once I had finished high school there, I was accepted into the University of Edinburgh.”

“Wow…”

Her cheeks grew rosy.

“I always had a feeling you’d get everything that you wanted.”

Her brown eyes reflected nothing but sadness once I said that. Yet, there was no reason for her to be sad. She really did have everything she wanted. She got published. She was a well-known author across Europe and America, and I don’t think she had realized the full extent of her fame. She was engaged to a man with money. Lysandra was about to embark on a new journey and watch her words materialize. How could she be sad?

“Not quite.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“Story for another time. Right now, I’d like to focus on the one that I’ll be seeing on the big screen next year.”

I grinned, knowing that this would probably be the best year of my life.

“Is it okay if we use these scripts for the auditions?” She asked.

There was absolutely nothing I could have ever denied her.

twelve

LYSANDRA

5 YEARS AGO

A new day. A new beginning. Finally, after seventeen miserable years, I got to live far away from what I went through in California. To say that I was happy was an understatement. I was overjoyed, ecstatic, and even excited. I had never felt this way before.

When I woke up, my roommate was already up and running. Camille was like a ray of sunshine. Her side of the suite was already organized and decorated in an eclectic array of pink. I slowly pulled myself up, my muscles hurting as I did, and examined the dashes of rose that covered her walls.

“Good morning!” she exclaimed.

“Hi,” I said, my brows knitting together. “When did you find time to do all of this?”