Alright, this will (definitely) be my final version of this prologue! I have worked long and hard on it so I hope y'all like it! (made some minor tweaks, this is the last time I will be editing this chapter!)
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An eighteen year old girl was walking home after a long day of work, wondering what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. It couldn't be like this the rest of her life. Waking up, going to work, having lunch with Mickey, going back to work, and then going home. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy spending time with Mickey, no she enjoyed his company. She only wondered where the excitement was. The danger that she'd seen on television and read about in books? The exhilaration of really living? She was pulled from her musings when she heard a large clatter a few meters in front of her.
She stopped.
She took two steps forward, then paused again. "It's probably just a stray cat, Rose." She began to walk the other way when she heard a soft pained moan come from the same spot. Freezing where she stood, the young girl turned back around and cautiously, one step at a time, approached the source of the commotion.
Of all the things Rose expected to see, a young girl who was maybe in her mid-twenties lying in the bushes was not one of them. She was covered in bruises, scrapes and cuts. Her crimson dress was torn and filthy and a dazed expression was on her freckled face.
"Are you alright?' She asked, then shook her head. "Of course you're not alright" She muttered to herself, mentally facepalming. She crouched down next to the girl, checking her pulse, which seemed to be going twice as fast as it should, but Rose was no doctor. "Can you hear me?" She waved her hand in front of the girl's face.
This seemed to snap the mysterious blonde girl out of whatever dazed trance she was in as she looked up at Rose, an apologetic look on her pretty face. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"
Rose was taken aback at the composure the girl who had to have been only a few years older than her was showing. "I asked if you could hear me." The girl nodded. "What's your name?"
"My name." The strange girl repeated. Her eyebrows furrowed and her nose scrunched up adorably before she spoke again. "I… I don't know. I can't remember." Panic flooded her features. "I can't remember anything!" She tried to push herself off of the ground and fell back into the bush she had landed in.
"You can't remember anything?" Rose asked. Before the strange girl could respond, she continued. "Wait just one moment, let me phone an ambulance."
"No!" The girl quickly grabbed Rose's wrist. "No hospitals."
Rose brought her phone down from her ear. "You're obviously not well. You need a doctor."
The girl's eyes glazed over. "A doctor…" Rose began to dial once again but the girl grabbed her wrist again. "No." She turned to face Rose fully. "No doctors."
Rose swallowed, seeing the determination and panic in the strange girl's face. "Well, if we can't get you to a hospital, the least I can do is get you a clean change of clothes." The girl's face softened along with her grip on Rose's wrist as she nodded.
"Thank you. I would appreciate that." Rose gave the girl a shaky smile. She helped her rise from the juniper bush she was sitting in and helped the weak girl toward the Powell Estate.
"Well, you might as well know who's helping you. My name's Rose." The stranger smiled as they began to ascend the steps.
"Well, Rose, thank you for helping me. I'll try not to bother you for too long."
"Hey, don't worry about that. Right now let's just focus on getting you fixed up, alright?" The girl covered in ash and blood nodded.
Later, after explaining to a very confused Jackie what had happened, the mysterious girl had finally gotten into the shower with Rose trying to pick out some of her clothes that would fit.
"Does she really not remember anything?" Jackie, Rose's mother asked while watching her daughter stare at some clothes, trying to decide what would look best on their new acquaintance.
"Not according to her, no. Don't pry, mum. Obviously something really terrible happened. The least we could do is try not to dig up anything too bad."
"Of course." The elder Tyler woman thought for a moment. "Do you think she'd like the spare bedroom?"
Rose's eyebrows shot up. "You just met her, and you're gonna invite her to live here?"
The older woman crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "Like you said, something terrible must have happened, and she needs somewhere to stay until she is doing better."
Just as Rose was about to reply, the strange girl came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel. She gave the two women a shy smile as she held her clothes that she had been wearing, carefully folded despite their tattered state.
"Oh hey, so we were talking," The girl nodded. "And-" Rose caught sight of how little the girl was wearing and cut herself short. "Okay,here are some clothes for you to wear." She handed the girl the clothes and made sure she knew how to use the blow dryer so she would not have to walk around with wet hair.
"Alright." She turned around and went back into the bathroom to change, eyebrows furrowed as she tried in vain to remember anything, even her own name.
"We've got the spare bedroom anyway, it's not like anyone is using it, and she needs a place to sleep, it works!"
"I never said it didn't." Rose said, smiling as she finished folding the clothes she had picked out.
"Great, then it's settled." The two sat in relative silence for a few minutes as the girl in the bathroom changed and dried her hair. After about ten minutes, the bathroom door opened to reveal the girl in a pair of jeans and an old white henley that Rose never wore anymore, hair now blow-dried and wavy. She still held onto the dress she had been wearing before, folded carefully
"Thank you both, but I should probably get out of your way now. I appreciate the help you've given me." She turned to leave but Jackie stopped her.
"Wait a minute, do you have anywhere to go?" Jackie asked, grabbing the girl's arm gently.
"Well seeing as I wouldn't remember if I did, no." The girl gently joked to the two concerned women. "I'll figure something out, please don't worry."
Rose spoke up. "We have an extra bedroom for you, if you need it." Seeing her hesitation she added, "Just until you're on your feet, we'd feel bad if we just let you walk out the door with nowhere to go. Plus, we have all that empty space, you'd be doing us a favor by filling it."
The girl agreed on one condition, she would get a job and bring in income in exchange for the spare room. They all agreed and Jackie went to tidy up the spare room, leaving Rose and the strange girl alone for a moment.
"So now that you've had a shower and cleaned up,vdo you have any idea as to what your name is now, or should we come up with one for you?"
The girl breathed out a small laugh. "Better come up with one, seeing as all I can remember is falling into that bush."
Rose's eyebrows shot up. "What about Juniper?" Upon seeing the girl's confused face, she elaborated. "That's the name of the bush you fell into, a juniper bush."
The girl thought for a moment before smiling. "I actually like that a lot. Juniper it is."
Jackie, having overheard the tail end of the conversation came back in. "Well, Juniper, let's get you settled in."
Juniper nodded.
A few months passed by and Juniper slowly adjusted to living with the Tylers. She had met Mickey, Rose's boyfriend. He was sweet and Juniper enjoyed being his friend, but she didn't think him and Rose were a very good match. He was obviously more into Rose than Rose was into him.
Jackie could be overbearing, and sometimes Rose could be a bit snarky, but the two had become her family. She remembered basic things such as math and geography, but still could not recall a single detail of her life before. She had quickly learned how to live everyday London life, getting a job at a musical theatre singing cafe in the city. The girl found that she loved art; any type of art. Music, dance, visual arts , you name it, she loved it, and she found that she was good at it. Obviously whoever she was before she lost her memory loved any and all art and worked very hard to be good at it.
"I'm going to go pick up some bread, we're out and I want a peanut butter sandwich." Juniper called out to Rose and Jackie as she opened the door one day. "See you in around 20 minutes."
She faintly heard Rose and Jackie say "Bye" back as she closed the door behind her. Jogging out of the Powell Estate, she quickly turned a corner and rammed into someone, falling on her backside.
"Oh my god, I am so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was-"
"Junie?" A voice said. She looked up to see a very handsome man staring at her in shock and a little bit of panic.
"I'm sorry?" She asked as she picked herself off the ground.
He seemed to shake himself mentally before plastering on a fake smile and holding out his hand. "I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else. Sorry for running into you." She took his hand, letting him help her up, but before he could get a word out, he spoke again. "I should probably get going, I'm gonna be late." It was obvious to the girl that he was lying, but she let it slide.
He quickly walked off, obviously flustered and Juniper went to the store, ready to retrieve her bread for her long awaited peanut butter sandwich.
Soon New Years Eve came, and Rose, Jackie and Juniper were walking down the street to the Powell Estate after Jimbo, Jackie's boyfriend of now three months had bailed on them, leaving them to walk back home in the snow.
"Late now, we've missed it. Midnight. Mickey's gonna be calling me and everything, this is your fault." Rose griped, shivering in the cold.
Jackie scoffed, unwilling to take the blame. "No it's not, it's Jimbo. He said he was going to give us a lift, and then he said his axle broke, I can't help it."
"Maybe his axle really did break, don't go assuming the worst." Juniper tried to defend, but Rose spoke over her.
"Oh, get rid of him Mum, he's useless!" Juniper rolled her eyes.
"Listen to you, with a mechanic!" Juniper began rubbing her hands together to try and block out the cold. "Be fair though, at my time of life, I'm not going to do much better."
"Don't say that." Juniper began, and Rose finished for her.
"You never know, there could be someone out there." She comforted as she brushed her mother's bangs out of her eyes. There was a small pang in Juniper's chest, as though something were trying to burst its way through. She turned away slightly, seeing a figure in the next alleyway, but the amnesiac was too focused on trying to remember something, anything about her life before.
Quicker than a lightning strike, a flash of a memory burst into her mind. A soft hand brushing hair from her eyes. A warm embrace. A flash of laughter. The memory of running through fields of grass. A gentle voice, comforting her in a moment of pain.
And just as quickly as it came, it left. As though it were never there. As Juniper sat in that spot, holding a fist against her chest, desperately trying to cling to the pieces of the fragmented memories as Jackie lamented.
"Maybe… one day." She said, bringing Juniper back to reality. "Happy New Year!" The older woman exclaimed, the two younger girls echoing the sentiment as Jackie brought them both into a hug.
When they pulled away, Rose warned Jackie not to stay out all night, to which the older woman replied, "Try and stop me." Making Juniper giggle as the two girls walked in the direction of their flat when they heard a groan of pain on their right.
Rose and Juniper stopped, seeing a handsome man with spiky brown hair in a brown pinstripe suit with a light brown trenchcoat cringing in pain, a beautiful pale woman with dark brown hair, dark pants, a leather jacket, and black heeled combat boots holding his hand, looking concerned.
"You alright mate?" Rose asked, and the two looked up, staring at Rose and Juniper with emotions flitting across their faces.
"Yeah, he's fine. Just a bit too much to drink." The woman said, giving the two a tense smile.
"Well maybe it's time you both went home then. Enjoy New Years inside where it's warm." Juniper said kindly to the strangers.
"Yeah." The man said, looking at the two girls with sadness coloring his expression, and as Juniper looked into his chocolate brown eyes, she felt that ache once more. But as soon as she broke eye contact it was gone.
"Anyway," Rose began, sensing the somber air and smiling comfortingly at the two strangers. "Happy New Year." and smiled brightly at the couple again before walking away, pulling Juniper along playfully.
They only got a couple of steps before the man spoke up again. "What year is this?" The girls turned around, confused.
"Blimey, how much have you had?" Rose joked as Juniper gave a breathy laugh. The man shrugged and the woman pulled a playful face, gesturing that it had been a lot.
"2005, the first of January." Juniper supplied, humoring the strange couple.
"2005." The woman echoed, almost sounding sad as she gently grabbed the man's hand.
The two girls nodded before he said, "Tell you what." The man teared up, and the woman put her arm through his as her eyes became misty as well. "I bet you two are gonna have a really great year."
"Yeah?" Rose asked, and he nodded. She smiled brightly again. "Well, see you." and she began to run into the Powell Estate. Juniper stayed a moment.
"You sure you're gonna be alright?" She asked the man, concerned at the amount of pain he seemed to be in.
"Don't worry about him." The woman said, drawing Juniper's attention. "I'll make sure he's okay." The man looked back at the woman as she continued to look into Juniper's eyes. "Now go, enjoy your holiday." She gently ordered.
"June, come on, Mickey's gonna have a fit if we keep him waiting any longer!" Juniper glanced back at Rose and then toward the mysterious couple again.
"Well, happy New Year!" She said, then pointed at them cheekily. "And get home safe." And she ran over to Rose, the two girls sparing one last glance at the couple before running upstairs to enjoy their New Years, unaware of how important the two strangers would be to them very soon.