Read 3 Days for Free Online

“Okay, brain damaged doesn’t mean deaf. You gonna talk to me, or what?”
    Blaine let out the breath he had been holding and gave me a half smile. “Is that what you want?”
    “Well, I have never been good at charades, and I make a crappy mime, so yeah, it would be nice.”
    He smiled again, this time bigger. Now we are getting somewhere . With his mood brightening, I decided to push my luck and get some answers. “You gonna tell me what happened in those two days that I can’t remember, or am I going to have to read about it in the school paper? You still haven’t filled me in, and I am beginning to think I did something beyond embarrassing. If I did, tell me. I can take it. Did I strip down naked in the middle of history class and do the Macarena on Mr. Grant’s desk? Or worse, in the middle of the pep assembly? You’ve got to help me out here. I am in the dark, big time.”
    I studied his face carefully as the smile faded to a hard line. He glanced in my direction before cementing his gaze back to the road. With a heavy sigh, he said, “You really don’t remember that day, after detention? Me climbing the tree, getting caught by old lady Qualls?” The idea of Blaine climbing the big oak outside the school made me giggle inside, the picture he planted of Granny Qualls in my head, shouting at him, a bonus.
    “You did?!” I half snorted, trying not to laugh aloud.
    “Well, yeah!” he snapped back, sounding irritated. “What about that night, when you, Crystal, and Jared came to my house. Remember? Sardines?”
    “Ew…” I never ate sardines, they creep me out. “We ate sardines ?” My stomach reeled at the thought.
    “No. The game, sardines, the game. We played it, all four of us.” A hint of impatience was in his tone.
    “Oh. Well, no. Like I said, all I remember was sketching that tree and that was it.” I looked down at my shoes, consciously aware of my inability to pluck two days of my memory out into the open.
    I allowed a long moment of silence before adding, “Just tell me what happened.” We pulled into my driveway. My parents weren’t here yet. They had wanted to stop at the drugstore to pick up my prescription on the way. Blaine put the truck into park and locked his eyes with mine. His breathing unsteady, he had pain in his eyes, as if looking at me hurt him physically. We were locked in a stare for what seemed like an hour before he broke eye contact and looked down at his hands. In a hurried tone, he answered, “Nothing happened, just a normal weekend. You left after the game, went home, we played video games with Jared the next day, and on Sunday, we went to Lingo’s for lunch. I overslept Monday morning when you fell, so I didn’t see it happen.”
    I opened my mouth to ask more. I knew he had kept something from me. But as I did, Blaine flew out of the driver side of his truck, ran to my door, pulling it open. I stepped out at the very moment my parents were pulling into the driveway to let us into the house, ending our discussion.

     

Chapter 10
    Blaine and I are just friends .
    An annoying fact I had to remind myself of every day. I enjoyed being with Blaine, and I knew he liked having me around. Most guys expect a female friend to leave so they can hang with their guy friends, but Blaine never asked me to go, and Jared didn’t seem to mind either. We were like the Three Musketeers, except when Crystal came over, making us a “fearsome foursome” as Mrs. Lasser liked to say.
    Two months had passed since my accident, and I still had no memories of the two days I had lost to amnesia. But it didn’t matter now, things were back to normal again, mostly. As much as I would like to have thought Blaine had been in better spirits, it was apparent he was putting on a show. Sometimes, when he thought I wasn’t looking, I would sneak a glance at him from across the hall at school and recognize agony in his features. When I was around, he forced a smile and tried to make me