Amnesia

Eighteen, the year I crashed my car and forgot all about Lily.

Later, I started seeing Chloe, a girl from a tough background. She was quiet, almost timid, but incredibly caring. My friends would joke, "Come on, Xander, it's just a fling. Don't get serious."

I'd just smile. "I am serious. I really like her. I want to marry her."

They'd stop, stunned. "Dude, you really forgot about Lily?"

I'd shake my head. The name meant nothing.

Then one night, after a four-hour flight, someone knocked on my door in the middle of a blizzard. Lily. Someone I hadn't seen or spoken to in eight years.

1.

She stood there in a black coat, snowflakes dusting her dark curls. Strikingly beautiful, with eyes that could burn a hole through you.

"Wrong house?" I asked, confused.

A bitter laugh escaped her lips. "Xander Harris, you have your friends pressure me into coming back, and now you pretend you don't know me? Playing hard to get?"

"Eight years, and you're still the same selfish jerk." Her voice cracked, eyes glistening.

It took a few seconds, but then I remembered. My best friend, Sam, had talked about a girl I'd forgotten – Lily. He’d even shown me a picture: us in high school uniforms on the football field. She was beaming, all sunshine and smiles, looking at me. I was grinning at the camera, oblivious. Even in the photo, you could tell we were close.

I looked at the woman in front of me. The heavily made-up face slowly merged in my mind with the girl in the picture.

"Lily?" I said, uncertain. The car accident had wiped out a chunk of my memory. Everything I knew about Lily came from Sam.

2.

Sam had told me Lily and I grew up together. Same kindergarten, same elementary school, same high school. She wasn't like other girls – bold, independent, stunning. In high school, while everyone else was buried in books, she was riding motorcycles, driving cars, skipping class. But somehow, she still aced every test.

And, I had been crazy about her. And she about me. Sam had chuckled, "You two were the 'it' couple. Perfect match, good looks, family money, the whole nine yards."

"Were we ever officially together?" I'd asked.

Sam hesitated. "Not officially, no. You never made it Facebook official or anything. But you were inseparable. School, lunch, everything."

"So… we were a 'thing'?"

Sam laughed. "Pretty much. We all thought you'd go public after graduation. But then she left for Europe, and you… well, you had the accident. Woke up and she was just… gone. Poof. No memory. No contact. Such a shame, man. Made me lose faith in love." He’d sighed dramatically.

He’d painted a picture of young love, a bond that seemed unbreakable. But I felt nothing.

Seeing my blank expression, Sam had pressed, "You really don’t remember her at all?" He stared, searching for a flicker of recognition, a spark of emotion. My friends had all asked the same question, incredulous that I could forget her.

But I had. It was like she'd never existed.

I shook my head, impassive. "I do...