Chapter 2

The smell of chocolate and freshly baked muffins had always managed to brighten my day.

That was the reason behind the foolish smile on my lips as I made my way through the short waiting line in the cafe.

Reaching the front, I smiled up at the cashier, Demi.

In the past two years since me and my sister first moved here, I had found myself visiting this little cafe almost every morning.

As a result I had struck an unpredictable friendship with the waitress/cashier, Demi – a girl with purple hair and more ear piercings than I had been able to count.

While she secretly scowled at most people, for some reason, she had always greeted me with a warm smile.

Soon afterwards we became friends and had grown closer ever since.

"So what's it for you this fine morning?

The usual or would you like to try something new?" asked Demi happily.

I blew through my lips and offered her a smile.

"No thank you.

I have to run back home before my sister sets her mind to finally get rid of me; mind you that her riddance will include a lot more violence and blood than just kicking me out of the house."

Demi guffawed, attracting attention to us from the elderly crowd amongst the audience.

Barely stifling her laugh, she stated, "Well I wouldn't be surprised by that.

I've known you for just about two years and already I'm sick of you.

I honestly pity your poor sister who's had to mind you foryears."

I feigned hurt by placing my hand over my chest.

"And here I thought that we were friends." Shaking my head in disapproval I added, "You break my heart, Demi.

You really do."

"Gotta keep up the practice, hon," retorted Demi before making a show out of flipping her hair back over her shoulder.

We both broke down laughing then, attracting a number of angry and disapproving looks from the customers that forced us to sober down.

"Right," began a still giggling Demi, "the usual then?"

"Yes, please."

Demi smiled.

"One hot chocolate and a plate of egg sandwich coming right up."

I found myself an empty seat near the back of the cafe to wait while my order got ready.

Gazing around the small place, my eyes settled down on a pair of blue ones that were already looking at me.

The holder of blue eyes swiftly looked away and busied himself in reading the book in his hand.

However, if the flittering gaze and flushed cheeks were any indication, he was barely reading the book and more just diverting his attention.

I smiled at this and kept looking at him.

He must have been in his early thirties because he had that mature and just plainoldaura to him – despite whatever his current actions suggested – but he sure as hell could've passed himself off as a mid-twenties man to other less observant eyes, what with his muscle built body and his practically glowing olive skin.

He had brown hair that was currently set in a rather unruly manner, and piercing blue eyes that I had already managed to look into.

Every so often his eyelids would flutter up to look at me, only to find me staring at him, and then he would urgently start concentrating on his book again.

Looking at him then made me realise that I had seen him before; sometimes near my compound and sometimes in this very same cafe.

Maybe he lived nearby.

Still it felt like there was something more.

Like I hadn't only seen this guy before, but had known him too.

However the details of it were so blurry that it might as well have been from another life time.

I felt a sudden burst of sadness and happiness, all at the same time, as I stared at the man with the blue eyes.

I most certainly couldn't remember him but some part of me begged me to recognise his face.

I couldn't however.

No matter how much I tried to recall, I just couldn't recognise him.

A hand squeezing my shoulder is what brought me out of my haze and back into the real world.

I turned around to find Demi looking at me with a smirk on her lips.

"Know that guy?" she asked.

"Who?" I was clearly still a bit woozy from my sudden trance.

She jerked her head in the blue-eyed man's direction.

"The brunet who is desperately trying to read his book; do you know him?"

I chanced one more glance at him before turning towards Demi.

"No, I don't actually." After a second's silence I added, "But it feels like I did once upon a dream."

"Right," Demi made a funny face, but dropped the topic nonetheless.

She handed me my order and reminded me of the evident death threat from my sister that had me rushing out the door in no time.

However just before leaving, I turned around to look at the guy one more time and found him already staring at me.

This time, however, he did not look away.

Instead his gaze pierced through my eyes and into my soul, as if desperately searching for something.

Failing to find it I guess, he suddenly looked away for a second and then back with a less piercing gaze.

Finally as I left the cafe to run back home to my sister, unexpectedly he smiled at me and even more unexpectedly, I found myself smiling back.

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Lyrics of song"Once upon a dream"byLana del Rey

I know you, I walked with you once upon a dreamI know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleamAnd I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seemBut if I know you, I know what you'll doYou'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream

Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-aah mmhAh-ah, ah-ah, ah-aah mmh, mmh-mmh, mmh-mmh

But if I know you, I know what you'll doYou'll love me at onceThe way you did once upon a dream

I know you, I walked with you once upon a dreamI know you, that gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleamAnd I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seemBut if I know you, I know what you'll doYou'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream

A few days later I was sat in front of the TV, as I sipped on tea and tried to concentrate on the documentary being shown.

It was about dolphins... or was it pandas?

Well it had something to do with animals and that much I was sure of.

After all, what else would they show a documentary about on Animal Channel?

Anyways, back to the thoughts occupying my mind which were quite successfully diverting my attention from the adorable pandas.

Or maybe they were whales...?

"Annie?" I called out to my sister to vent.

A few seconds passed before I turned around to glare at her for ignoring me, only to find her fully submerged in a book.

Oh dear, sister of mine.

I grabbed the nearest cushion and aimed it straight for her beautiful, little, piggy face.

"Ow!" Annie turned around, completely oblivious to her surroundings as she tried to find for the assailant who had dared to break her moment with her book.

Finally her eyes settled on me.

"You!" She raised her finger at me and screeched, "Why would you do that?"

"Because I had been trying to gain your attention for awhile, and the cushion attack had come to me as a last resort." I smiled sweetly in the end for added effect.

Annie huffed and puffed but then sat her book down and glared at me.

"Why were you trying to gain my attention?"

"Right," I began, smiling triumphantly, "I was wondering..."

"Oh here we go again," groaned Annie.

"Your over-analysing brain is back in business again, isn't it?"

"Would you just shut up and actually listen to me?

Something really is the matter!"

Annie motioned with her hands for me to go on.

"Right, So I have been wondering about my accident."

Annie froze for a second before replying, "Yeah, what about it?"

"Well I lost four years' worth of memory, Annie.

And I completed my degree during that time and what not." I sank further down into my seat on the couch.

"But what bothers me the most is that didn't I make any friends during that time?

Anyone who would be even remotely interested to check up on me since the last five years after the accident?

I mean I couldn't have been that big of a social pariah, you know."