Now I know what you’re thinking. You think Kendra’s in River’s hospital room making some kind of pass at him, right?

Well, you’re half right.

“River!” I smiled brightly, almost completely forgetting that the black-haired girl was sitting by his bedside, a little too close for comfort. “You’re awake!”

River blinked at me, as if he didn’t understand what I was saying. I continued to smile, forgetting about my lost ring for the moment. I’d rather have River than the ring any day, even though it was a symbol of our love.

But we didn’t need it. We only needed each other.

The door opened behind me and Rex entered. I only glanced at him and noticed he had a very awkward and uncomfortable look on his face. That sure was strange for Rex; he’d usually burst inside and laugh and tease River the first chance he got. But now he was almost deathly silent.

River continued to look at me in confusion before he uttered three words that made me confused.

“Who are you?”

What?

Did River, my fiancé, just ask me who I was? Wait, he did get hit in the head, but…

Did River have amnesia? There was no way he could have gotten amnesia, right?

“It’s me, Delilah,” I said slowly, walking a little closer to his bed as I tried to jog his memory. “You know… your fiancée?”

River’s nose soon wrinkled after I had introduced myself, confusing me even more. He tried to smile, but it was obvious that it had been forced. “Oh… hi.”

“Are you okay?” I asked, stepping closer to him again. River grimaced slightly and Rex quickly grabbed onto my arm, pulling me away ever so slightly. What the hell was going on?

“Delilah, I need to talk to you,” Rex told me quickly. “It’s important.”

Since when did Rex ever say anything important? What was going on? Why was River acting like he didn’t want to be anywhere near me?

“Fine,” I replied grimly.

I blinked at Rex for a moment before sighing, removing my arm from his grasp and starting to follow him out of the hospital room. Before I we could get out the door, however, something shiny caught my eye. I looked over to Kendra’s hand, which was now on top of one of River’s, and my eyes widened.

“Delilah?” Rex asked when I had suddenly stopped walking in front of him. He knocked into me, but not hard enough for either of us to get hurt or to fall to the ground. “Delilah, what’s wrong?”

“You bitch!” I shouted, turning away from Rex and practically marching toward Kendra. “Give it back, bitch!”

“Delilah, urgent conference in the hallway now,” Rex informed me through clenched teeth, grabbing onto my arm and dragging me out of the room before Kendra or River could react.

“That stupid bitch!” I shouted once the door closed behind us, not even caring if anyone else heard me. “What a tramp! That dumb slut! I hope she gets burned at the stake! I’m going to kill her!”

“Okay, before I tell you what’s going on, I have to ask. Why are you so pissed off?” Rex asked, raising his hands as he tried to calm me down. “Or did you figure out what’s happening?”

“That whore stole my ring!” I cried, wanting to call her every insult in the book. I couldn’t cuss that much in a hospital. Little kids could be around… “She’s wearing it like it’s hers or something! I want my ring back, Rex, I want it back! How could she just take it from me? I’ve never been so pissed off in my entire life!”

“Well, what I’m about to tell you is sure going to top her taking your ring,” Rex laughed nervously, shoving his hands in his pockets as he stared down at the ground. “Boy, you’ll want to murder her then…”

“What?” I demanded, almost grabbing onto his shirt and shaking him. “What is it?”

“River does have amnesia,” he told me with a nod, taking a step away from me as if he knew I could snap at any moment. “And I was listening outside the door when River woke up. Kendra was in his room, and she… well…”

“What did she do?” I demanded even louder, taking another step toward him. I swear, if he didn’t tell me right then I’d beat the answer out of him!

“Well…” Rex started once again, twiddling his thumbs awkwardly. “River woke up and didn’t have any idea about what had happened or how he had gotten there. I don’t even think he knew who he was. But, since Kendra was in there, she told River that she was his… fiancée.”

“What?” I shrieked, quickly spinning in the direction of River’s hospital room. I’d kill that bitch! I didn’t even care if I went to jail or not! I’d go bunk with Mr. Higginson for all I cared!

“No!” Rex called out, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind to stop me from moving any farther. I squirmed and hit as much as I could, but nothing would make Rex release his grip on me. “Delilah, you have to calm down for just a second! I’m not done yet!”

“Oh, what else could there be?” I demanded yet again, ripping away from Rex and spinning on him. “What could be even better than Kendra stealing my fiancé when he’s most vulnerable?”

“Well…”

“Stop saying well!”

Couldn’t he just get to the damn point? I was losing my mind! Why couldn’t he just be straightforward and break it to me? That’s all I wanted!

“She told him about you,” Rex said quickly, crossing his arms over his chest as he continued to stare at the floor uncomfortably. “But she said that there was this crazy chick named Delilah that always hit on him and called herself his fiancée. She told River that he pretended to be nice to you so your feelings wouldn’t be hurt, but he really doesn’t like you at all.”

I was fuming by now. I wanted to scream my heart out, but I was smart enough to know that I couldn’t do that in a hospital. I was going to bash Kendra’s face in! I’d kill her! That stupid bitch!

“Oh, my gosh,” I now sobbed, crouching down onto the floor as I tried to breathe in and out. I had to stay calm and not break down… I had to stay calm… But I found it very hard to as the tears leaked down my cheeks and I cradled my head. I knew I looked like a crazy person, but I honestly didn’t care at this point.

“What the hell’s going on?”

The familiar voice caused my head to snap up, and I just stared at my friends for a few moments before falling into a chair that was on my left, wiping at my eyes to stop the tears from falling.

Seth came closer to me now, crouching down at my side. He reached out to touch me, but I recoiled away from him. The only person I wanted to touch was Kendra, and only so I could strangle her. I’d want to touch River as well, if he didn’t cringe at my very presence.

“Oh, no,” Marnie gasped from behind Seth. “River isn’t… dead, is he?”

Seth’s eyes widened as they searched mine for the answer, but I quickly looked away from him. I hadn’t ever been good at eye contact, and that moment definitely wasn’t any different.

“No, he’s not dead,” Rex sighed, shaking his head and crossing his arms over his chest. “He’s alive.”

“Then explain this,” Seth demanded, standing up and motioning it me.

I knew I looked pretty pathetic. I was practically curled up into a ball, pretty much cowering against a chair. I’d want someone to explain this to if I was on the other end of it!

“River has amnesia,” Rex started to explain, and then went into the long details of what he had heard Kendra inform River when he had woken up. I continued to stay curled up against the chair, not knowing what else I was supposed to do.

The hallway went silent for a moment, but I didn’t look up to see what was happening. Maybe they all just walked away and don’t care about me anymore… Mr. Higginson could walk right through the door and kidnap me and they wouldn’t care!

Okay, I was getting too dramatic.

And I hated it.

“I don’t care if she’s a girl,” Seth suddenly announced, sounding angrier than I had ever heard before. It scared me a little, to tell you the truth. Seth had killed before… “I’ll kill her.”

Alice sighed. “You can’t kill her, Seth.”

He scowled at her. “Watch me.”

“We all want to kill her,” Alice continued, swiftly sliding in front of him and blocking his way to River’s hospital room. “I’d love to wring her neck right now, but we can’t. Because I’m sure that that’s what she’s expecting, so I’m sure she has some kind of plan. She seems to really have this planned out.”

“Like she planned it from the beginning,” Rex thought out loud, snapping for some reason. “She even told River that his friends would say he’s going out with Delilah because we don’t like her. She’s thought of pretty much everything, so I’m sure she’ll have a plan if we try to attack her or something.”

Damn it.

“But how could she have gotten Delilah’s--oh, you’re kidding me,” Alice groaned, slapping a hand over her eyes. She just stood there for a few seconds before she finally removed her hand and stared at the rest of us flatly. “When she came into the hospital. She grabbed onto Delilah’s hands, remember? She must have taken the ring then! Sneaky little tramp…”

“I still think we should kill her,” Seth pouted as he plopped down into the chair next to me. The rest of my friends stared at him flatly, and I probably would have done the same if I still wasn’t kind of out of it. Even though I was saying that I wanted to kill Kendra, I knew I didn’t have it in me and that I definitely couldn’t. Seth, however, could. Very easily. He had done it before. “I’ve done it before.”

“For self-defense,” Alice reminded him flatly, in case he had somehow forgotten. “You killed those three men to save Marnie, your sister, and yourself. This is just for vengeance, which is going to get you a murder charge. You’ll get your ass sent straight back to Bentwood, and maybe even prison since you’re seventeen. They could try you as an adult, you idiot.”

“Okay, Mom, I get it,” Seth grunted, covering his ears with his hands so he wouldn’t have to listen to anymore of Alice’s ranting. “I wouldn’t be able to do it anyway.”

“None of us could,” Rex pointed out, leaning against the wall behind Seth now. “We all say we want to kill her, but we all know that there’s no way any of us could really pull it off.”

“Okay, stop talking about murder please,” Marnie pleaded, now covering her ears with her hands. “It brings back bad memories.”

“But you got knocked out and don’t remember the incident at all,” Alice said flatly once again.

“Images,” Marnie cringed.

We let the disturbing subject drop, and we all just stood there for a few minutes without saying anything.

Finally finding my voice again, I swallowed. “Where’s Jay?”

“Waiting room,” Alice informed me with a shrug, sitting down on the chair across from us. “You and Rex were taking forever, so we decided to go look for you guys. We told Jay to wait there just in case you guys came back or something.”

“I bet he’s getting mauled or something,” Rex chuckled, and I really wanted to laugh with him, but I just couldn’t. “Who knows if any of his fans are out in the waiting room? I won’t be surprised if we come back out to see his clothes all shredded…”

As depressed as I was right then, I had to agree with Rex. I really hoped that when we got back to Jay, his clothes would almost me non-existent.

*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~*

“Delilah! I love your hair today! Did you do something different with it?” I heard a random girl from my homeroom asked when I walked inside a week after the car accident.

I stopped caring about what I looked like after what happened with River. He wasn’t even back at the school yet, and he was the only person I really ever dressed up for. I luckily hadn’t run into Kendra since the day of the car accident either, which was good for her. My friends and I were still trying to think of a plan to get River back. But until then, I didn’t feel like getting ready. Now that we were pretty much broken up, I didn’t think dressing up for school was really worth it.

They were just lucky I was decent enough to not come to class in my pajamas.

I ignored the girl and walked past her desk to mine in the back. I plopped down in my desk and let out a quiet groan after Jay turned around to speak to me.

“Nice look today,” he complimented sarcastically, causing me to glare at him. “Is that the look you’re going to have when you try to win River back?”

“Just shut your mouth, alright?” I whispered harshly, really not in the mood for him. “You were annoying before your slutty bitch of a sister interfered in my life. Now I don’t need her talentless bastard of a brother interfering in my life either.”

“Ouch,” Jay smirked, covering his heart with his hand. “You sure know how to hurt someone’s feelings, Delilah.”

“Leave me alone,” I snapped.

“Come on, Delilah. We should go out. You’re not engaged with River anymore, so--”

“Hell no,” I snarled, crossing my arms over my chest and turning away from him. Unfortunately, that caused me to now face River’s desk. “Leave me alone or I’ll file sexual harassment charges.”

Jay rolled his eyes, turning back around toward the front of the classroom. I was too lazy to turn around to see when class would start, so I only continued to sit there sourly until someone tapped me on my shoulder, causing me to jump slightly.

“Sorry,” the person apologized, and I looked over to see the girl who had complimented me when I had walked in. Her name was Ashley, I believed. “Did I scare you? I’m sorry if I did.”

“It’s fine,” was all I said, turning away from her a little.

“Hey, I heard about your breakup with River,” she frowned, sitting down in the desk on the other side of me. “I just wanted to say I was sorry, even though I never really talk to you and River…”

“It’s fine,” I repeated, hoping she’d get the message that I wanted to be left alone.

“I just wanted to say that--whoa. Who’s that?”

I looked over to her in confusion to see she was looking wide-eyed to the front of the room. My eyebrows furrowed, I looked over to see what she was looking at.

A boy with spiky light brown hair stood next to Mrs. Dyas, looking around the room almost hesitantly. He looked familiar, but I didn’t think anything of it. For a second I only brushed it off; it was obviously just a new kid that had caught Ashley’s attention. But then my eyes met with this supposed new student, and he cringed as I gaped.

I looked away from him quickly, not believing what I was seeing. There was no way that that could have been… But his eyes! Those were his eyes!

I looked over to Seth, who looked just as shocked as I was. I then looked over at Rex, whose eyes were so wide that they looked like they were going to fall out of their sockets.

Mrs. Dyas smiled at the boy in the front of the room. “Welcome back, River.”

My eyes widened even more when I realized how else he looked familiar. He looked just like he did when he was a kid.

And I could actually see his forehead!

“I’ve heard about your amnesia,” Mrs. Dyas started with a nod, still smiling brightly. Was she not at all shocked at how he looked? He didn’t even have a speck of black on him! Only blues and whites! This wasn’t River! “You sit right back there, next to Delilah.”

She pointed to me, and then his seat. I felt myself cringe when I saw River grimace, but he didn’t do anything to argue with the teacher, which made me glad. He walked down the aisle, plopping down in his seat without even giving me a second glance.

You’d never know how incredibly hard it was to sit there next to my ex-fiancé and pretend that I was completely fine. He didn’t even look like he acknowledged the fact that I was there! I was supposedly his creepy stalker… Didn’t that bother him at least?

When homeroom finally ended, I made a beeline to the door. But right as I stepped outside, I collided right into someone.

“Delilah!” Alice gaped, looking almost horrified. “Did you see? Did you see?”

“Yeah, I saw,” I grumbled, turning away from my homeroom and walking down the hall. A few people said hi to me, but I only murmured a hello back to them. “River looks like he did when he was younger.”

“Yeah, Rex showed me pictures of them when they were in middle school,” Alice informed me, shaking her head as we continued on our way to first period. “I didn’t even recognize him when I saw him! Why would he go back to looking like that?”

“Two words,” I scowled, glaring at the bitchy princess that was now passing us through the almost empty halls. “Kendra Harris.”

“Hey!” Alice cried out suddenly, clutching onto Kendra’s shoulder and stopping her from moving any farther. “Bitch, I think you’ve got some explaining to do.”

“Excuse me?” Kendra asked innocently, looking in between the two of us in confusion. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped when she saw me. “Delilah, you look awful!”

“It’s your own damn fault,” Alice snapped, removing her hand from Kendra’s shoulder in disgust. “It’s your fault she looks this way.”

Kendra crossed her arms over her chest, biting the inside of her lip as she tried to think of something to say. I was so close to slapping her…

“So River’s memory might be permanently lost,” Kendra started innocently, causing my hands to ball into fists at my side. “Isn’t that sad? He can only really remember from when he was a kid, up to when he was about nine. Isn’t it sad that he forgot who his own friends are?”

“He wouldn’t have forgotten if it wasn’t for you,” I snarled, taking a step closer to her. “You practically brainwashed him with your stupid fantasy and then changed him to be just like he was when you guys were kids. And then you stole the ring River bought for me! Give me my ring back!”

I looked down at her hand to see my ring, fueling my anger even more. That ring was mine! I could have called the cops on her if I could have!

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kendra continued on like a dumbass, pretending like she really had no idea. “This is my engagement ring. River gave it to me.”

“Stop telling lies!” I shouted. “I’m not insane like you; I know what happened between River and me! I can remember where we were when he first told me he loved me! I remember where we were when he gave me that ring! You can’t tell me lies and expect me to believe them!”

Kendra only blinked. “I really have no idea what you’re talking about, Delilah. Are you sure you don’t look that way because you’re going a little crazy?”

One more glance at my ring on her finger and I pounced on her. Grabbing onto her hair, I yanked as hard as I could before pushing her down on the ground. Not even knowing what I was doing, I was on top of her in seconds, bringing my fist down to her face as hard as I could.

Grabbing onto her hair and yanking once again, I ignored her already swollen face. “Give me back my ring. Give me back my fiancé. Give me back my life!”

Before I could give her one last satisfying tug, I was suddenly being ripped away from her. I was then thrown to the ground roughly, and I looked up to see Alice’s shocked face looking over to the person who had knocked me over. They were helping Kendra up, so I guessed it was a teacher.

When my eyes landed on the person, my first thought was that it was Tanner. I then shook my head and realized that this person had spiky hair, not long like Tanner’s was.

It was so strange. He looked so much like Tanner, except their hair was styled differently. I didn’t think that I’d ever see the day that the two Daniels’ brothers actually looked alike.

I missed the old River.

“Listen, you psycho,” River snapped, hugging Kendra and scowling at me over her shoulder. “Leave my fiancée alone. I normally wouldn’t hit girls, but I’ll make an exception if they’re hitting the person I love. I’m not even going to pretend that I like you anymore, because if you’re going to treat my fiancée this way then I don’t think you deserve any kindness. Understand, you freak?”

I looked up at River, not even recognizing who I was watching anymore. I hadn’t ever heard River ever say anything like that before, but now he was… and he was saying it to me.

River pulled Kendra closer to him, locking lips with her for a second before starting off hand-in-hand. Horrified, I let the tears trail down my cheeks as I tried to think of something that I could have done. There had to be something I could have done…

“Delilah,” Alice breathed, crouching down and hugging me tightly. This surprised me, since she normally wasn’t the touchy-feely type. “You hit her good. I never knew you were that good of a fighter.”

I chuckled through my tears, wiping them when she finally pulled away from me. We were both late for first period now, but I didn’t even care. I knew that we weren’t going to be going to class at all that day, but that was exactly what I wanted.

“I was going to ask you this before, but I forgot,” Alice started, sitting down cross-legged next to me in the middle of the hallway. “Did you call your parents about the car crash? Or about how you and River are kind of… separated now?”

“Nope,” I answered, shaking my head as I wiped my eyes. “They would have just flown over here for no reason. And if they learned that River and I aren’t really together now, they’d be happy. I can tell that they all really wish that I was going out with someone else.”

Alice’s eyes suddenly brightened, and she smiled widely, as if she had just thought of something. This scared me a little, because Alice was kind of known for having strangely thought out plans. She even asked me to get a zebra once so we could get out of a test. Yeah… let’s just say she failed it.

She shook me a little, looking way too excited for what had just happened. “I have an idea! I know what we’re going to do for the plan! I actually have an idea! I have a plan!”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You have no idea how hard it was to change River's appearance. xD Just know, he didn't cut his hair. It's just styled differently and he dyed it back to his original color.

Facebook page in external link. You know you want to join. ;P

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! :D