Remind Me

Chapter Forty-Nine

"When did this come?" Owen asks, and I can hear him flipping the note over and over again.

"I don't know, your mom just gave that to me a few minutes ago," Clarin says in a worried voice.

"I thought this was over," I put my head in my hands. "I thought I could move on from this."

Owen's arms wrap around me and he leans his head against my own. "I did too. But I will not let anything happen to you. Never again."

I let out a long sigh. And I thought nothing could get worse. I was so wrong.

"I want to know who sent that letter," Clarin says. "Couldn't be Jonathan. Couldn't be Lucas."

"How many people could want to hurt me?" I ask, exasperated.

"Maybe this isn't a threat," Joey suggests.

"What else could it mean?" I ask, giving a pointed look.

"I don't know, it could be a seductive card. A lot of guys used to confess their love to you," Joey says in a sarcastic tone.

"Really?" I ask him sarcastically.

"I'm not kidding," Joey says. "Owen told me a ton of stories. And he was usually in a terrible mood when he did..."

Owen grunts in response. "A lot of boys found you irresistible and thought you should know. It started to get on my nerves, as you can imagine."

Clarin's laugh rings through the air. "Sometimes you made them cry when you only thanked them. They really wanted your approval."

"Oh..." I look down awkwardly.

"But I don't think that's what it is," Owen says. "It wouldn't be sent here by one of them."

"And what coincidental timing," I add. "It's got to be a threat."

"And yet you look calm," Joey says.

"I'm only kind of freaking out on the inside." I feel sick to my stomach every time I think of the words written on that piece of paper. Somebody is after me yet again, and I don't have a clue who it is. When will this all stop? When I'm dead, the unwanted portion of my mind thinks. I shove that thought away, but somehow it keeps appearing in my head. I shove my face further into Owen's shoulder.

Joey lets out a sigh and says, "Hey, you've got two strong men here..." Clarin clears her throat. "-and a very strong and independent woman whom we all look up to... The point is, we certainly aren't going to let anything happen to you."

I smile in thanks, but that terrible part of my brain keeps saying: Their help didn't do enough last time. But that's so irrational. I should be able to take care of myself. And they did so much! Every one of them kept a close eye on me. I am wrong for even for a second thinking that they didn't do enough. They saved me.

*•*•*

Ian and Owen are told to go outside and clean up the yard. While they're busy doing that, Clarin and I sit on my bed together. She knows as well as I do what's on our minds. It isn't the letter. It isn't the threats. It isn't my blindness or my short term memory loss.

"Are you doing okay?" I ask her finally. After the incident with Lucas, she's been awfully quiet on that subject.

She hesitates.

"You don't need to sugar coat anything for me," I say. "Don't try and make me feel better by saying you're fine."

"It just sucks," she says. "I finally found someone who I thought was in it for reals. You don't know this because I haven't told you before... But I had a boyfriend at the same time you had Jonathan. His name was Brock. He wasn't any Prince Charming, but he was my everything at the time. But slowly, he just became so distant. He would make excuses not to spend time around me. He wasn't answering my calls. I finally marched over to his house, and he told me he stopped loving me." She takes a long breath. "And ever since, I've been trying to find someone, anyone to just love me and stay loving me. But it never works out. Lucas was too good, I should've known. But that's that."