Darling Unexpected - Sequoia Gallatin (summer reads TXT) 📗

"My dearest friends." Says Ian Shenning. "These four years with all of you were some of the best in my life. We've loved, we've hurt, we've laughed, we've cried, we've yelled, we've lied. But no matter what, we've been there for each other, and now, seeing each one of you guys smiling up at me. I know that I will miss and be missed but we will see each other again. I know it. I am so pleased to have met each and every one of you. Happy graduation."

. . .
"Hey, how'd you like it?" Ian walks up to a girl with purple and orange hair. She smiles up at him.
"Gorgeous speech Ian! You were so good." Cassie Loving says, then she turns to me. "What did you think of it, Em?"
I sigh. "It kind of made me cry" Eliza says before I can say anything. I roll my eyes. That's a shocker. Pretty much anything makes Eliza Bonning cry. "What about you, Emma?"
I shrug. "It was okay." I say. "I'm just glad to finally be leaving."
Cassie chuckles. "Oh Em," She says. "You've never really liked this school, have you?"
I shake my head. "It's not that," I begin. "It's just…" I trail off, having spotted Sage Miller.
"Miller." Ian scoffs. "I see what you mean Em."
"Is he STILL stalking you Emma?" Eliza asks, eyes wide.
I sigh, nodding slightly. "He just won't leave me alone. I'm kind of tired of it."
"Hey!" I groan then turn around to face Mr. Gorgeous Stalker. I stop dead before I can say anything. Because standing right next to him is,
"Ohmigod!" Cassie gasps "Nick!" Nicholas Sterning was standing right next to Sage.
Words escape me. There was one boy in my life and one boy only. His name was Nick Sterning. He was in my class. I had known him forever. We had been IN-LOVE! We had been going out for about five years when one day he just… Dissappeared. We searched everywhere. Nobody could find him. I guess I just kind of gave up on life after that.
"What the hell?" My brother, says. "But you were missing. Where have you been, man?"
"Dude," Sage says, glaring at him. "Stop giving him such a hard time. He doesn't remember ANYTHING."
"Nothing?" Cassie asks, glancing at me. He looks at me, too. Then back at her, eyes narrowed.
"Nothing." He agrees. I start to feel lightheaded and sit down on a bench. This cannot be happening. Ian sits down beside me, and holds my hand.
"It'll be okay, sis. Everything will be okay." He whispers in my ear.
I look up to see Nick gazing at me with a strange expression. It's like he thinks he knows me but he doesn't know where from. Ian stands up and walks over to Nick. He holds out his hand.
"Hi I'm Ian." He says as the other boy hesitantly takes his hand.
"Have we met?" It's the first time he's talked since he got here.
"Oh yes, many times, you were my best friend." Ian laughs. "Plus, you were in-love with my sister."
Nick stares at him. "I was?" He asks.
"Oh definitely." Ian laughs. "At first I wasn't very pleased about my best friend being in-love with my twin sister but you guys were together for so long after a while that I could't imagine it any differently."
"Who's your sister?" Nick asks, still looking confused. Oh-no, here it comes. Ian looks back at me. "That's your sister??" Nick stares at me. Ian nods.
"That's her alright." He grins at his old best friend. "You know, I'm glad to have you back, man." He claps him on the back then walks off to join the rest while Nick continues to stare at me, dumbstruck. He finally comes over and sits next to me. I gaze down at my feet.
"I thought I recognized you." He says. I look up into his eyes.
"Hi Nick." I say, slightly smiling at him. But it's hard to smile at the love of your life when they've forgotten about you.
"Hi um," He seems to be trying to remember something.
"Emma." I say, offering him my hand. "Emma Shenning."
"Emma." He whispers as if trying to insert it into his memory. "Is it true? What your brother said? That you were my-" He searches for the word.
"Girlfriend?" I offer. He nods. "Yes, it is. Actually people told me that it was like we were more than that. I guess 'cause we were always together."
"And did you like being my girlfriend?" He asks.
I laugh. "Like? I LOVED it! I'm guessing you don't really remember what being in-love is like."
"Is it when you see someone and can't look away from them or stop thinking about them?" He asks, watching me.
I look at him suspiciously but nod. "Have you ever been in-love before?" I ask.
He shakes his head. "No, not that I can remember. But I think I'm starting to get back my memories."
"Your memories of what?" I ask.
"Of you."

. . .
I could feel my heart lift as I saw Nick walk out of his house later that night. We had driven him home earlier to reunite with his family. Even though he didn't remember them that well. But he had wanted to meet with me later that evening so I agreed to it. Because even though I hadn't seen him for a few years I couldn't stop how my heart always raced whenever I saw him. I had still been in-love with Nick Sterning when he disappeared and I'm falling even more in-love with him.
"Hey." He says, walking towards me, hands in his pockets. I look up at him and smile.
"Hi." I say. "What did you want to meet up for?"
He sits down next to me, and smiles. "I wanted to see you."
"You do realize it's only been five hours since you saw me last, right?" I say, laughing.
He shrugs. "I don't care. Unless," He looks down at me and I can see some sort of fear and pain in his eyes. "Unless you don't want me to be here."
"No." I say, feeling ashamed that I had joked about that. "I just thought you'd want to be with your family for a little while. They seemed really happy when they saw you."
"It was nice seeing them even though I hardly remember them. But I wanted to see you more. I think I'm starting to remember more about us." He looks at me, his eyes soft. "And I know that I'm falling more and more in-love with you."
That shocks me. I did NOT see that coming.
"Are you sure?" I ask him. "I mean 'cause your feelings might have changed. A lot." He squints at me, seeming to not quite understand. "I mean it's just that it's been about 4 years since you last saw me. Your feelings could have easily changed in 4 years."
"Have your feelings for me changed?" He asks, studying me.
I turn red. "No," I say. "But that's besides the point."
"Then what IS the point?" He asks, eyes narrowing.
"The point is," I can't think of a point. Why is my brain doing this to me right now? Think Emma, think!
"Okay, let's get the point that there is no point. I feel like your just trying to avoid me. Why are you making up excuses?" He asks, his eyes looking hurt.
"I'm not!" I cry, standing up. Then I hear a girl calling,
"Nick! It's me! Leslie! Nick," We both look up to see a beautiful girl in a pink summer dress walking down toward us. Her beautiful blond hair shining in the sun. "There you are. Your mother told me you would be down here." She smiles at him.
"Who are you?" I ask, feeling panicked. She seems to notice me for the first time. She looks me up and down then says,
"Oh hi! I'm Leslie Thorn, Nick's girlfriend." She smiles at me. My heart sinks. "Oh, you must be Emma! Poor thing. I hear you took the breakup really badly. Is that why your here right now?"
I stare at her. "What are you talking bout? What breakup?"

"Um, The Breakup. The Big B. The one where he broke your heart in-front of the whole cafeteria? Is your brain working right, sweetie?"
"Nick?" I ask, turning to him, tears in my eyes. "Did you really say that?"
He looks away and sighs. "I'm so sorry Emma. I never meant for this to happen. I loved you and I just wanted everything to be perfect. But it wasn't perfect, nothing was perfect. My parents wanted us to move, they weren't getting along always fighting and everything. My life at school wasn't so good either. My best friend was hanging out with other people a lot more. People didn't much care for.me. My grades weren't going so well either. I was having a lot of anger issues too. My parents would send me to a psychiatrist but it didn't help much. The only good thing in my life was you, and I was so sure that I corrupted everything around me. I didn't want to corrupt you too. So I decided to disappear for a while. I wanted to get my act together before I returned here. Then I met Leslie. She helped me with everything. She helped me become a better person, and in return I pretended I was in-love with her."
"So you lied to me?" Leslie screeches. "After all I've done for you? You lied?"
He nods then looks at her. "I'm sorry Leslie. I didn't mean to hurt you. I thought if you believed I loved you back you'd be happy. But that's when you turned on me. That's when you erased my memory and tried to plant a different story in my head. You tried to make me live a lie. The next night I escaped."
"I was doing it for you!" She says, hysterically. "I was doing it for us! You never seemed happy and I could tell that you were in-love with someone else. I thought that if you forgot her, if you forgot everything, I would be-"
"The only thing on his mind." I muttered, finally understanding.
She turned to me. "But then YOU went and ruined everything!"
"How could I have ruined everything? I wasn't even there." I say, shocked at her accusation.
"He was pulled towards