[COMPLETE]
When Hanna Haddad embarks on what's supposed to be another uneventful summer as a lifeguard on Cape Cod, a trip to the past comes as an unnerving surprise. The discovery of her estranged mother's journal opens up the world of tragedy and...
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"Come with me, I want to show you something."
Jesse and I clambered off his patio and inside the house, the world spinning and slightly fuzzy before my eyes. Colin had explained once that this condition was called orthostatic hypotension, but I knew I just didn't want to admit I was a lightweight.
"You okay?" Jesse wrapped an arm around my waist, making me fall into his chest. The pink of my cheeks morphed into red. Chuckling to himself, he pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
"Where are we going?" I asked as we navigated his labyrinthine house.
"To my room." When he noticed the way my lips slightly parted, he shook his head. "Not in that sense."
His room was at the far end of the hallway, hidden by a jut in the wall. It gave no indication that a twenty-two-year-old male inhabited it, not a speck of dust marring the black furniture. It was large but not overcrowded; a simple low king-sized bed stood out in the center, surrounded by a side table littered with finance books and a wide chest of drawers across it.
"You're rather neat," I remarked, mostly to myself.
"I have Cathy to thank for that," he said, walking over to his side table, "my favorite housekeeper."
I stayed quiet as he opened the drawer of the table and pulled out two small objects from the far back. Walking over to me, he handed me one and held the other, a small smile growing on his face. "I've had these two bracelets since I was at least six or seven. Probably the only relic I have left from that age." I peered down at mine, a four-beaded bracelet with the letters H-A-N-A. Impeccable English skills, Hanna. "I don't remember making them, so I always wondered who it belonged to."
For a moment, I froze, hesitating to believe his words. Six and seven were usually the ages where most memories felt concrete, free of the childhood haze masking far earlier ones. But then again, I hadn't experienced nearly as consequential a trauma as he had at that age; surely, he'd lost most of the blissful memories to that cursed event.
"My mom bought me these beads for my fourth birthday." The thought made my heart constrict, because I hadn't received a gift from my mom in years. "She finally trusted me to not swallow them, thinking they were candy."
"So, it really is yours," he murmured. He closed his hand over mine. "You should keep it."
I slipped it onto my wrist, barely fitting, even though my hands were bony. "I don't know what I'll do with it, but I feel like it has more meaning now that I know I made it with you."
He took a step forward, barely slipping his bracelet onto his fingers. "Well, I'm glad I found my Hanna. With one N."
"Shut up," I sneered, fighting a smile. It quickly faded, that tight feeling in my chest returning. I realized I was fighting tears, even though the only person that should have been sad today was standing right in front of me.
