Déjà Vu
Chapter 1
Again. Mark bailed on the wedding. This time,
it was to be with his “one that got away,”
Sarah.
“Are you two ever actually gonna tie the knot?
This is, like, the hundredth time! Are you
kidding me?”
Everyone, especially family and friends were
beyond pissed.
I spent the evening apologizing, calming down
my parents, and dragging my sorry self to a
bar to drown my sorrows. Guess who I saw
there? Mark, down on one knee, carefully
lifting Sarah’s foot and planting a kiss on it.
Publicly.
Watching him debase himself like that, all to
get a smile out of Sarah, I suddenly realized
how pathetic I’d been.
Eventually, I walked away. I forgot about
Mark, completely disappearing from his world.
Then, he lost it. Started searching for me like
a madman, begging me to remember the
past.
“Grandma Willow, I need to forget someone.”
Eight years together, wedding invitations sent
a hundred times. Mark had played me for a
fool, and I couldn’t take the emotional drain
<
anymore. So, I came to the sacred place,
looking for Grandma Willow, the local witch.
I wanted to erase this relationship.
“Ah, deep love doesn’t last, especially when it
starts out as a way to make someone jealous.
These are the love locks you two came for,”
Grandma Willow said, not surprised at all. She
pulled out a pair of heart–shaped padlocks,
tied together with a faded red ribbon and
handed me a cup of some funky smelling
stuff.
“Drink this.”
“Then, give Mark’s love lock back to him. If he
doesn’t come crawling back here, the magic
fades after two weeks, and you’ll start to
forget. If he smashes it himself, the memory
wipe kicks in right away. Just one day, and
you’ll forget everything.”
Grandma Willow snipped the red ribbon.
I stared at the cup for a few seconds, then
downed it in one gulp. Nabbing the padlock
with “Mark” scratched on it.
“Grandma Willow, don’t forget to eat your
supplements! I’ll come by to check on you
soon.”
As I walked out of her little cabin, I passed
the statue of Mary the Virgin and spotted
Mark, kneeling and bowing, begging for a St.
Christopher’s medal.
“What’s he doing here? Is he looking for me?”
I remembered when Mark and I came here,
kneeling and bowing to ask for the love locks.
Who would’ve thought it would end like this?
Mark carefully tucked the St. Christopher’s
medal into his pocket, turned, and froze when
he saw me. “What are you doing here? Is this
what you were up to last night? You’re
following me to see what I’m up to?” He
demanded.
He frowned, clearly annoyed.
Turns out he wasn’t looking for me. He was
getting a St. Christopher’s medal for Sarah.
I was just making things up in my head.
That’s right, Mark hadn’t sent me a single
<
message last night, too busy with Sarah.
“I, uh, got you a guardian angel medal,” I said,
not bothering to explain. I handed him the
padlock wrapped in red fabric.
“Let’s go.”
Mark grabbed it without looking, tossing it
into the glove compartment when we got in
the car.
Same old Mark…
I laughed.
He didn’t even give it a glance. It could have
been the love lock we got together, but like
always, anything I gave him was just tossed
aside.
Г
But Sarah could give him half–empty bottle of
cologne, and he’d be over the moon, spraying
it on himself every day.
Instead of going home, Mark drove to a diner.
I peeked inside and saw a familiar face:
Sarah.
Also my stepsister, or adopted sister. I was
kidnapped when I was twelve, and my parents
adopted Sarah. Five years ago, Grandma
Willow rescued me, and I was able to come
home.
Sarah acted nice to me, calling me “sister,”
but she was always playing games.
Mark was the boy next door. I’d liked him
since I was a kid, and he liked me back. Our
parents were close because of business, so
they arranged for us to get engaged young.
Everyone expected me and Mark to get
married.
But while I was gone for those five years,
Mark had fallen head over heels for Sarah.
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