Losing Hope

attention?”
    I throw my arm over her shoulder and pull her to me, then kiss her on the side of the head. “I already told you I was paying attention,” I whisper in her ear. “Just not to the words coming out of your mouth.” I turn back to Breckin. “I did catch some of it, though. Not a bad book. I didn’t think I’d ever be interested in a romance novel but I’m curious how that dude’s gonna find a way out of that shit.”
    Breckin agrees and brings up a part of the plot. We begin talking about the book and I can’t help but notice how quiet Sky is the whole time I’m talking with Breckin. I keep glancing at her but she’s zoned out, just like when she zoned out in her kitchen Saturday night. After a while of her not talking or even taking a bite of her food, I become concerned that something is wrong.
    “You okay?” I ask, turning my attention toward her. She doesn’t even blink. I snap my fingers in front of her face. “Sky,” I say a little louder. Her eyes finally jerk up to mine and she snaps out of it. “Where’d you go?” I ask, concerned.
    She smiles, but looks embarrassed by the fact that she just zoned out. I reach up and cup her cheek, running my thumb reassuringly back and forth. “You have to quit checking out like that. It freaks me out a little bit.”
    She shrugs. “Sorry. I’m easily distracted.” She smiles and pulls my hand away from her face, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Really, I’m fine.”
    I look down at her hand that’s now holding mine. I see the familiar half of a silver heart dangling from beneath her sleeve, so I immediately flip her hand over and twist her wrist back and forth.
    She’s wearing Les’s bracelet.
    Why the hell is she wearing Les’s bracelet?
    “Where’d you get that?” I ask her, still looking at the bracelet that sure as hell shouldn’t be on her wrist right now.
    She looks down at her hand and shrugs like it’s not a big deal.
    She just shrugs?
    She shrugs like she doesn’t give a shit that she just completely knocked the breath out of me. How can she be wearing this bracelet? It’s Les’s bracelet. The last time I saw this bracelet it was on Les’s wrist.
    “Where’d you get it?” I demand.
    She’s looking at me now like she’s terrified of the person in front of her. I realize I’m holding on to her wrist with a tight grip so I release it, just as she pulls away from me.
    “You think I got it from a guy?” she asks, confused.
    No , I don’t think it’s from a guy . Christ. I don’t think that at all. What I think is that she’s wearing my dead sister’s bracelet and she’s refusing to tell me how she got it. She can’t just shrug and sit here, acting like it’s a coincidence, because that bracelet is handmade and there’s only one other bracelet like it in the whole damn world. So unless she’s Hope, then she’s somehow wearing Les’s bracelet and I want to know why the hell she’s wearing it!
    Unless she’s Hope.
    The truth hits me head-on and I think I’m about to be sick. No, no, no.
    “Holder,” Breckin says, shifting forward. “Ease up, man.”
    No, no, no. This can’t be Hope’s bracelet. How could she even still have it after all this time? Her words from Saturday night rush through my head.
    “The only thing I have from before Karen adopted me is some jewelry, and I have no idea who it came from.”
    I lean forward, praying this bracelet isn’t the jewelry she was referring to. “Who gave you the damn bracelet, Sky?”
    She gasps, still unable to give me an answer. She can’t answer me because she honestly has no idea. She’s looking at me like I just crushed her and hell . . . I think I did.
    I know she doesn’t have a clue what’s going through my mind right now, but how could I even begin to tell her? How in the hell do I explain to her that she may not know where the bracelet on her wrist came from, but I do ? How do I tell her that bracelet came from Les? From the best friend she doesn’t even remember? And how do I admit that she got that bracelet just minutes before I walked away from her? Minutes before her entire life was ripped out from under her?
    I can’t tell her. I can’t tell her, because she honestly has no memory of me or Les or how she got this damn bracelet. From looking at her, I don’t even think she remembers Hope. She doesn’t even remember herself . She said Saturday night she has no memory of her life before Karen.
    How can she not remember? How