Chapter 1- Amnesia?

It was a rainy day today. Grey and black clouds produced more rain than she had seen in half a year. It felt like it was a bad omen.

Coming to her workplace today, she had got drenched from head-to-toe, and only two hours in, she already felt a headache and a sniffily nose coming on. Lucky it was the last day of her working week, meaning she could sleep all of the next day and recuperate.

Tapping away at her computer, furiously trying to finish her work, she thought about the new officer of staff that was introduced today that she heard about. She came late to work because of the rain, but her workmates told her that it was a good-looking young man.

She thought about the last officer of staff for this wing of staff. She remembered him to be a kind old man who would help people with their work and praise the staff often. She smiled at the memory of the man who boosted all their morale significantly. Too bad he retired.

She wondered what this one would be like.

She tapped away on her latest assignment, a sales report of the business, as she happily thought of scenarios to when she met him.

She heard a door open and the squealing of women. That was probably him then.

"That's him! That's him!" Her co-worker who sat next to her, Mia, swooned.

"Aren't you married?" she asked sheepishly.

"Yeah, but I can still look, can't I?" She laughed. Mia was five years her senior and had been working here for ten, while she had only worked for half that time. She had been married for eight of those years, and already had two children.

"Just don't let your husband find out, okay?"

"He'll only find out if you tell him!" They both laughed at that.

They resumed their work, trying to look industrious, while chatting the time away.

"Now how are you two lovely ladies going?" a foreign voice came from behind the two.

"Great!" Mia chimed cheerfully.

"Are you the new staff manager?" She said, looking at him over. He had a familiarly handsome face. Maybe they had met at the corporation sometime? "Great to meet you!"

He had a stunned look on his face, sapphire blue eyes wide.

"Are you all right, sir?" Mia asked, slightly concerned.

"Um, is your name Cecile?" He looked dumbfounded

"Yep! Why do you ask?" She questioned innocently

"I-I met you in high school." He muttered

"Hm, really? We must have not hung out often. I don't remember you at all." She looked confused.

"We were friends until year ten… I'm really shocked that you don't have a clue who I am."

"Are you serious?! No way! That's impossible!" It was her turn to wear the dumbfounded look. What was this man going on about? "What's your name?!"

He looked hurt by her statement. "My name is Cai. Can you seriously not remember it was only six years ago that we left school!"

She shook her head trying to remember.

"If you can't remember me from high school, can you remember anything from school?"

It was at that moment it hit her. She really could remember anything from school at all. What happened?

"I can tell by that expression that you don't." He sighed, grabbing out a note book. With a pen, he scribbled something on it, ripped it out and gave it to her. "If you want to know what happed during our school years together, call me, okay?" He sighed once more and took his leave.

"Is it true, Ceci? That you really can't remember your school years?" Mia asked worriedly.

"I thought I did, but he just started questioning me and I realized… I really didn't." she looked a bit pale from shock.

"Does this mean you're going to go on a date with him, right?" She said, quickly changing the subject. "You did get his number. From my knowledge, you haven't had a boyfriend since I met you, right?"

"I've had two boyfriends in the past, I don't remember them though." She told Mia with a blank face.

"You're no fun," She said playfully. "We better get back to work or the boss'll sack us!" She laughed. They both continued working, and resumed small talk a little while later, when the pressure of what had happened wasn't still looming over them.

When the eight hours of work was done, she returned home, changing into her pyjamas and making herself some dinner- which, it seemed, was going to be two minute noodles.

Being single had its perks. She didn't have to cook at specific times, she didn't have to look after anyone bar herself, they didn't crowd the place and she could even walk around her flat naked, if she really wanted to.

The only bad things about not having anyone there is that she gets lonely often. And the fact she has to pay rent all by herself.

Trying not to think about her rent bill for that month, she proceeded to eat her piping hot noodles. Then she remembered to slip of paper that was still in her work skirt pocket.

Pausing the eating of her delicious noodles, she got up from the table and went to her room, locating her black work skirt and taking the slip out of the pocket

She grabbed her mobile phone- a red flip phone she bought a couple years ago- and dialled the numbers on the note.

It took a little while to get through, but eventually someone picked up on the other end. "This is Cai, Hello?"

"Ah- um… er, Th-this is um… Cecile?"

She could hear him chuckle on the other end of the line. "You're not sure, it seems? Have you forgotten about your name as well?"

She blushed. "O-Of course not, I just haven't talked on the phone for ages!" She retorted quickly.

After a second or two of silence, he started to talk again. "So you worked up the guts to call? That's great. You really were never the type of girl who would sit on her phone all day…"

She let out a sigh. "What can you tell me about my school years, 'best friend'"

"Hey, no use getting frustrated, I was just saying you weren't like all the other girls. And about your schooling, you started in grade one, and you went to year twelve. You had six boyfriends in total, and most of them treated you like shit."

"Most of them, 'ey?" She said. Where was he going with this?

"Yep, you're second to last boyfriend, you stayed together for… two years? And then you dumped him for some popular boy who was obviously with like five other girls…"

"So why did I dump this second to last boyfriend?" She quizzed.

"You said that you just wanted to stay friends, and that bratty rich kid asked you out, so you broke it off with him. You were happy with that second to last boy though. You smiled a lot, and you seemed so much happier."

"Really?" she was shocked and impressed at the news. Did that really happen? "What was this guy's name? Maybe I could track him down, and if he hasn't got a wife already, I might start dating him again."

There was a slight pause on the other end and then he told her. "Y'know, it's late. We should meet up tomorrow somewhere and talk about this more. Sound good?"

"Sounds great," She complied. "Do you know any café's? Where do you live?"

"I live in the Marion Apartments, about a ten minute walk from where we work, you?"

She let out an 'Oh!' of surprise. "I live there to! Which floor?"

"Floor six."

"Ah, I live on floor two. Oh well, I guess we can see each other a little more often!"

"That's great! Want to meet outside the North Lakes Café at ten?" That was a café about a two minute walk away from the apartment complex.

She grabbed the magnetic note pad that she had on her fridge and scribbled on it with a nearby pen to see if the pen was still working. She then jotted down 'NORTHLAKES, 10' in big bold letters.

"I'll be there!" she said, then hung up.

"Crap, I'm gonna be late!" She yelled, trying to hurry up with her make-up. She took too long to get up, and was taking a toll on the last thing she had to do.

She checked her phone. It proudly displayed 09:56 in blocky white letters. Finishing up with her mascara, the last thing she put on, she hurriedly brushed her hair and ran out the door.

She then ran back into the door, realizing she had forgotten her handbag and phone.

"How could I forget my phone!" she screeched to herself. "It was in my hand two seconds ago! Whatever, I just have to go!" She told herself, running out the door for the final time that morning.

Heading down the flight of stairs she checked her phone. 10:03. she was a couple minutes late. She hoped he didn't go early to the café, or she would be screwed.

She put her phone away, not looking for that short amount of time, but that was enough to collide into someone.

"Ah, geeze, I'm sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going!" she apologized to the person, trying to smooth her small cut from the landing.

"Don't worry. It should be me who's sorry," A familiar voice told her. She saw a hand extended out to help her up, and she looked up to see who it was. And she was surprised. "I should have set the time a little later,"

She took Cai's hand to help her up. "What are you doing here?" She asked, trying to fix her hair.

"I live here." He deadpanned. He chuckled, displaying a smile on his face. "I was rushing to the café, thinking you would be there already"

"Hehe, I was doing the same thing…" She confessed awkwardly. After a second of awkward silence, she said "Well, shall we get going?" There seemed to be a lot of silence between the pair.

"Yeah," the both walked together in synchronicity, chatting about meaningless things while walking out the building.

Heading into the small café, Northlake's Coffee Shop, and grabbed a table.

They both flipped open their menus, both looking at the range of coffees and teas that the café had to offer.

"Found anything?" He asked as she flipped to the light dishes page of the menu.

"The Chai Latte sounds nice." She articulated. She skimmed the small meals and said, "The bruschetta also sounds great."

"Okay, I'll go order," He told her, getting up.

"I'll give you some money," Cecile told him, getting out her coin purse and rummaging through it.

"Nah, this one's on me," He finalised, walking over to the counter, ordering quickly.

"So," He asked "Where do you want to start?"

"Huh?" She had been off with the fairies, not really paying attention.

"What do you want to know about your past first?" He asked, he leaned on his hand, probably tired.

She shrugged. "Middle school, I guess."

"All right. In middle school, met each other in third year when my parents moved near the school." He smirked "We totally hit it off at first. Best friends from the second week of term."

She was a bit shocked "Really? Did I have any other friends?"

"Not really, you were more the shut-in intellectual type before I met you." He paused as a waitress brought out their food and drink. She saw he had black coffee and a croissant. He thanked the waitress and took a sip of his coffee. She did the same with her Chai latte.

"Did anything interesting happen then?" She inquired

"I vaguely remembered that during an art class some bully got pink paint in your hair, you cried and had to get your hair cut short, and bet him up every day until your hair grew past your shoulders."

"Are you serious?!" She yelled. People turned their heads look at her and she awkwardly waved at them, making them turn back to their conversations.

"Yep. That was year four." He told her. "Also, whenever I got a new friend you would his at them, take me by the arm and run off with me."
Once again she was shocked. She looked at him with a confused look and he nodded.

He went on with the things about their experiences in middle school while she ate her bruschetta and drunk her latte.

The stuff he had said was enthralling to her. Escapades from teachers, setting things alight and other dangerous things of the like he was saying. It must have been really crazy in those first seven years.

He also went on to say about the academics. He said that he wasn't that great, but she would always be head of the class. From his descriptions they were so different but the same. It was amazing

When he had finished explaining the third term of their sixth year at the school, elaborating on how they were chased by the police, they looked outside to see that it was already dark. She checked her phone, lucky that she remembered it, and found that it was seven o'clock already.

"Well, we better get home," He sighed. "We have work tomorrow."

"Yeah." They both got up, heading out the door together. "When's our next public holiday?"

"In two weeks." He told her

"Thanks."

"Why do you want to know?" He sounded curious

She sighed heavily. "Work is horrible around this time of year. Financial New Year is in two months, and everyone's rushing around in our department to get all the stock sold off in time so there's nothing left by July."

"Why's that? I've never worked in a department like yours before."

"The more we sell off, the more funding we get for the year."

"Interesting. Where's your flat?" He asked "It's on the second floor, right?"

"Yeah. It's 2C." She located it and opened the door. "You want to come in for a bit?"

"Nah. I have to get some rest today. I'll walk with you to work though."

"Where do you want to meet up?"

"How about outside your apartment?"

"That'll be great! See ya!" She waved as he left for his apartment.

She had some dinner, a warm-up dinner that she had in the fridge from when she had done the shopping last week, ate it then headed to bed.