Is it beating? Is she really here? Is she really grinning at me?

“Shawn, you want to walk the girls home with me?” I ask him.

“That’s okay. Adella and I are headed to the after party.” He flashes me the signal for alone time needed.

“Unless you need me back at the dorm Evelyn?” Adella asks.

“Oh no, have fun.” Ev yawns again and we all laugh.

We say our goodbyes and I head to my bar manager, making sure things are closed up and giving him the heads up that I am leaving. I hold her hand all the way to her dorm. Life is f**king content for me right now.

We get to her dorm room and I groan. I don’t want my time with her to end. I just got her back.

“Hand me your phone,” I say.

She digs it out of her purse. I call myself with it and program my number into it. “There, now we have one another's phone numbers,” I quip.

Really, I am just glad I know where she lives, and now I have her number too.

“I suppose we do,” she whispers, turning around to unlock and open her door.

She turns and I get a glimpse of the carefree sixteen-year-old girl I knew.

“So, tomorrow, memories.” She grins.

“Tomorrow, memories. I’ll text you before I come to get you.” I smile.

God, I cannot wait to spend more time with her.

“Okay. Goodnight Tristan.” She leans up and kisses me on the cheek. I know this is wrong, but my pants instantly get tighter.

“Night Ev, see you tomorrow.” I run the pad of my thumb along her cheek. She sighs and melts into my touch, but just as soon as she does, she disappears into her room.

I text Drake while walking back to the condo I share with him.

Me: Where u @

Drake: bout 20 mins away

Me: u get the trunk?

Drake: Yeah Mom and Dad were stoked

Me: I bet

Drake: They are pissed at her parents tho

Me: So am I

Drake: Me 2 c u in a few

Me: yeah

I sit, impatiently waiting for Drake to get back with the damn trunk, our trunk of memories. He honks the horn and I take off running, like a little kid flying down the steps on Christmas morning.

“Dude, help me. This thing is f**king heavy,” he huffs, dragging it out of the truck. He’s right; it is heavy. We heave it into the house and drop to our knees. It’s like opening Pandora’s Box. We look to one another and we let out a breath as we open the lid.

“Fuck, this is hard man,” Drake says.

No shit. Three years of our life are in this damn thing.

When Mom and Dad realized she was not coming back and they couldn’t get in touch with her parents they helped us put this together. This trunk holds all the photo albums, a DVD case with all the homemade movies we made, and tons of room for all our other memories.

“Man, I don’t know if I can watch these,” Drake says, pulling on the DVD case. He leans his head against the trunk. He loved her just as much as I did. She was like his sister.

“Drake, I promised to give her back these three years,” I groan. “What if it’s too hard for me man? What if I can’t make her love me again?”

Oh, shit! Now I am a mess. I can’t f**king lose her again!

“She will. You guys are forever bro,” he says and pats me on the back.

“Tomorrow I’m supposed to pick her up and start giving her memories back. This is all so screwed up Drake. All this time I thought she left me, left you, but she was f**king dying. How the hell do you come back from that shit?” I fall back onto my ass.

“This is what you guys need to do. I’ll clear out for the weekend. You guys spend the entire weekend going over memories and ordering in. You explain stuff to her. It’s great you have another chance to start over man. Don’t ruin it.” He places the DVD case back into the trunk and gets up from the floor.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to pack a bag and you’re going to go pick her up.” He strolls from the room.

Can I do this? Can I relive this shit? The answer is simple. Yes! Yes, I f**king can!

Me: Trunk is here.

Ev: Is it?

Me: didn’t know if u were still awake

Ev: I can’t sleep this was a big night

Me: Pack a bag and come down memory lane with me this weekend? I have spare room.

Ev: I want my memories, consider bag packed.

Me: Be there in 10

Ev: Kay

“Drake!” I holler.

“Yeah, bro?” He pops his head around the corner.

“She’s coming over.” I smile, grabbing the keys to my Jeep.

“Clearing out.” He smiles back. “Good luck bro.”

I nod and head to pick up my girl, praying the entire time this will end well.

Ev is quiet the whole ride back to my condo.

“Ev, we don’t have to do this.” I look at her.

“No, it’s not that. It just sucks. I am not scared to find my memories. I am scared that I am going to miss what those memories hold. Does that make sense?” she whispers.

“Would it help for you to know that I’m scared of it all too?”

Because I am f**king petrified.

“It does, thank you,” she says as we hop out of the jeep. I quickly learned she is still the same. She doesn’t like car doors opened for her. Her response was exactly the same as it used to be. “I’m not Queen Sheba; I can open my own doors.” I had to smirk at that. It is as if, even with her missing memories, she is not completely gone.