"When I get to my apartment, Tara is sitting on the sofa with Flipper in her lap. She looks like she's been crying.
"I-I know you probably don't want me here, but I needed to talk to you," she begins, standing up.
I have no idea what she's talking about, but all I can think about is that she's here and she's alive. I move in close to her and kiss her. With my hands on her hips, I pull her as close to me as I can. I kiss her cheeks and her nose and back to her lips. I confirm that she has been crying because her face damp and salty. I can't believe she was crying and I wasn't here for her. "I'm sorry," I tell her, it's not enough to make up for abandoning her.
She pulls away anyway. "It's not okay, Elliot! It's not okay to tell me to just fuck off like that."
I still don't know what she's talking about. What else had happened this weekend? I can't keep keeping these secrets. I mean, she already knows that I've been talking to my dead dad, how much worse can this be, right?
"I don't remember that," I admit. I sit on the sofa and pull her down, too. "The last thing I remember is bringing you and Tyrell to the arcade, then this morning, I woke up in Tyrell's SUV."
She sits in silence for a moment. "So you don't remember telling me to go away?"
"No and I don't know what happened to Tyrell either." Talking about it out loud makes it seem more real and I begin to fidget, hoping I don't go into full on panic mode. "So you don't know what happened either?"
"I left like you told me to and haven't spoken to either of you since." she explains and then gently asks: "Do you black out a lot?"
I shake my head. "Never like this. It's more a question of what's real and what's not."
"Why haven't you told me?" she seems more upset at the fact that I had kept a secret than what the secret actually was.
"I'm crazy; this isn't normal," I admit. "I thought you would leave me and I couldn't handle that."
Tara reaches out and squeezes my hand. She looks as though she's about to say something and I can't help but think of the dream I had while I was detoxing, of her in a wedding dress. Before either of us can say anything, someone pounds at my door.