CHAPTER 2
1138 Words
Aurora’s POV
I saw him on the news last night, along with his parents. Callum Delaunay. I remember wondering what kind of life he lived as the son of the founders of the largest art gallery in Paris. His life is already set out for him.
Must feel so good.
“Did I do something wrong?” I whisper, nudging in the direction of his friend, who is now out of the room.
Callum shakes his head. “Nah! Andrew is always that way. Apathetic towards… you know?”
“Poor people?” I murmur, genuinely ignorant.
An awkward laugh slips from his lips, and his blonde hair teases the collar of his shirt as he throws his head back. The sound dies abruptly, and he bites his bottom lip. “No, not poor people. Just… people. Look, ignore him, okay?”
“And what about you?”
He has that look on his face, like his friend, but it soon melts into a rueful grin. He scratches the side of his head apologetically, then flashes his teeth. “Erm… okay. This is awkward.”
I narrow my eyes. My lips barely move. “What is?”
“You won’t get mad?”
I am not even in the space to get mad. This is their world, while I am just an intruder. It is a miracle that one of them is even talking to me.
Wait a minute. Why is he talking to me?
“Okay,” he laughs again. “I am just going to say this. I was the one who made the comment about your body… I um… I didn’t mean it that way, but if we are going to be friends, I think…”
“Hold on,” I cut in, shaking my head. “Friends?”
“You don’t want to be friends?”
“Callum…”
“You know my name!” He sounds pleased.
“All of Paris knows your name,” I mumble under my breath, looking away for a second. “Look, I don’t care that you said that about me. I have heard worse, really. But you don’t have to talk to the nude model and try to be friends with her…”
“Have you taken a look around?” he questions. “You will need a friend around here.”
“Stop trying to bang the nude model!” one of the girls says in a bored tone as she waltzes out of the room. “She is totally out of your league, Callum.”
“Shut up, Sophia!” he yells, then turns back to me. “Don’t mind her.”
“Aurora,” Professor Alaric calls from the door. “Come on. Let’s go.”
That’s right. I have to go get Jayden from the nursery.
“Callum…”
“There’s a party tonight at the Lefevre mansion,” Callum mutters, his hand gripping the sling of his backpack. “You should come. Get to know everyone better.”
“Look, Callum. I can’t…”
“I’ll send you the details,” he calls as he pulls away. I wonder just how he will do that. “It will be fun.”
Turning around, I watch Callum walk out of the class, a light spring in his steps. Professor Alaric holds the door open for me, and we move out together.
“Today went well,” he murmurs, glancing up at me. “You were nervous, but only a little. With time, it will leave. But Aurora…”
“You are trying to get me to consider other options, aren’t you?” We take the turn beside the hedge, heading to his car.
“Well, I have to try.”
“Professor Alaric…”
“I’ve told you to call me Alaric.”
“Alaric.” It feels strange on my tongue. I didn’t know who he was until I woke up at the hospital after two years of being in a coma, of being diagnosed with amnesia the minute my eyes fell open. The doctors said he came to the hospital every day for the second year of my admission.
He would read to me, talk to me like I was present, and fight so my baby did not get taken by social services. They think he was the reason I came back to life.
I am yet to ask him why he did all of that. I don’t know why, but it is a conversation I dread having.
“You gave me the opening for this job,” I continue. “And even if it is not what I want, it is something. It pays more than any job at a diner, and that is my only other option unless you want me to work at an old people’s home.”
He presses his lips into a grim line. “At least you will be clothed.”
“This pays a lot, Pro… Alaric. Veridian College is the most prestigious school in the whole of France. And maybe… just maybe, I can save a lot and attend here.”
He stops when we get to the car. “You want to come here? I thought that with your accident and your coma, you would want to attend somewhere smaller. Less noise. It might help you regain your memories.”
“Now, I care more for giving my son a much better future, and I think I can find that here.”
Professor Alaric pulls open the passenger door for me, but I make no attempt to get in. He leans on the body of the car.
“The doctor said you can regain your memory if you return to your old life, surround yourself with people who make you feel that you are at home. At least, in the slightest. And I don’t think Veridian is the place for that.”
I blow out a stream of breath, a single line of sweat trickling down my spine. I need to get out of this tweed.
“Yeah,” I answer, chuckling. “I don’t think it is either. I mean, I obviously would not have been abandoned at the hospital for two years if I were from one of these families. And maybe I would have been flown to China and might have woken up earlier.”
“Aurora…”
I laugh again. “I can talk about it freely now, Alaric.”
“You don’t feel the migraine anymore?”
“I do,” I murmur. “But I think it is my mind trying to remind me of what I am forgetting. And is it strange that my heart ached today?”
“What?”
“Is it strange that I feel like I have been here before?”
- Writer
