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Marianne and I spent the rest of the day after lunch doing some shopping at a nearby mall. James was originally going to tag along, but decided he had homework to do and went back home. It was a bit concerning seeing a boy his age travel alone in the busy streets, but Marianne told me not to worry about it, so I guess he’ll be fine.

The two of us spent most of our time in boutique stores trying out different outfits for Marianne. Her original excuse was that she had to start shopping for outfits for our honeymoon, but it was soon pretty clear that she was just choosing whatever outfit she thought she looked good in and I could pay for. The annoying thing was that she seemed to look good in almost everything. Not only that, but a quick check at a nearby ATM made me realize that I actually had quite a bit of money in the bank, so by the time she was finished with shopping, it was already nighttime.

“Thanks for spending the day with me.” Marianne said when we finally left the mall. “Even though you’re still dealing with your whole amnesia thing.”

“Don’t sweat it.” I replied. “It actually feels kinda nice, spending money on other people. Especially when it doesn’t even feel like my own money.”

“Heehee,” Marianne smiled, “guess I’ll have to take advantage of that now won’t I?” as we stepped into the parking lot. It was a surprisingly cool night. Not quite cold enough for me to wear a jacket, but enough still for me to prefer staying indoors.

“So, where to now?” I asked, carrying the bags of clothes with me.

“Hm.” Marianne said. “It’s actually getting pretty late. Maybe we should just head back to your place, order food and call it a night?”

“Sure, sounds great.”

“Cool,” she replied, “let’s go.”

The two of us remained standing awkwardly at the center of the parking lot.

“You… don’t remember where you live, do you?” Marianne sighed.

“I don’t.” I said. “Please let me know where my place of residency is so that I could remember how to function as a normal human being.”

“Hah,” she said, “next thing I know, you’re gonna tell me you don’t remember your own name.”

“...”

“...”

“YOU DON’T REMEMBER YOUR OWN NAME?” Marianne exclaimed. “What kind of person forgets his own name?”

“I’m guessing it’s something like a Ben? Or a Bob?”

“What? No! Your name is Sam! You weren’t even close!”

“I mean it was kinda close, wasn’t it? All my guesses had 3 letters.”

“Oh my god. Please tell me this is all just some part of a bad joke.”

“You are correct. My sudden loss in memory is all part of an elaborate prank.”

“The worst part is I can’t even tell if you’re joking anymore.” Marianne rolled her eyes. “Just follow me. Whatever your deal is right now, I’m sure I can handle it better on a couch than freezing my legs off out here.”

Marianne led me to a nearby subway station and started leading me through the busy intersections back home. Even though I’ve only met this girl for what felt like a day, I couldn’t help but feel grateful that there was someone in my life that seemed to care so much about me, especially when I was being so… difficult. That being said, I did just spend hundreds of dollars on what at least to me looked like 3 identical red scarves on said person, so I guess her affection wasn’t completely for free.

It took a while, but we eventually managed to reach my(?) apartment. It was a surprisingly nice place. It had a big living room, a great view of a mountain, it even had one of those really cool digital locks on the front door so I wouldn’t have to worry about forgetting my keys. Marianne apparently already knew the passcode, so it felt nice that I didn’t have to break into my own home.

“Ah, nothing beats TV and food after a full day of shopping.” Marianne said, kicking back on the couch and taking out her phone. “Come on. I’ll order the takeaway. God knows you’ve already spent enough money on me for a day.”

The two of us spent the rest of the night eating noodles and watching movies. Of all the movies Marianne wanted to watch, she was apparently super into this new one about a guy getting spider-like powers after being bitten by a spider. I spent the rest of the movie horrified thinking about all the implications of what would happen if this was true with other insects. In the end, Marianne fell asleep halfway through the movie, and I was free to spend the rest of my night checking around the place, seeing if there were any clues here that would let me know what was going on.

I eventually stumbled upon what looked like “past me’s” bedroom. Despite the mess and all the soda cans lying around the floor, it was clear that this guy lived a pretty decent life. Pictures of me(?) and Marianne were taped all over the desk, while a certificate of some kind of employee award was framed next to a bunch of sports medals hanging on the wall. A small, black notebook rested on the corner of my nightstand. Flipping it open, I realized it was some kind of scheduling plan, with names and addresses of places that I needed to go throughout the week. I closed the notebook and placed it in my pocket. Hopefully, this will prove to be very useful in the future.

The last thing of interest in my room was the computer. I powered it on, and the screen flickered to life, asking for a password. I tried to think of a few, though to be honest, I was much more distracted by what was staring back at me on the screen …

…

…

Oh well. Guess I’ll just have to ask Marianne about the password in the morning. For now, I think it’s much more important to get some rest, especially since the schedule said I was supposed to have work tomorrow.

I went back to the couch and sat next to Marianne. Now that she’s asleep, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if I stopped watching her friend in red tights shooting silly string out his hands. I surfed a couple channels, but nothing interesting came up until I eventually landed on the news channel.

Wow. Guess I was older than I thought, being interested in watching the news of all things, but it looked like there’s a new stadium that just opened in the city. A short bearded man was filmed cutting a ribbon to initiate a ceremony. In all honesty, I wasn’t sure why I was so excited to see the stadium. Maybe past me was really into watching sports, which made sense, considering all the medals that were hanging in my bedroom.

Listening to the man’s monotonic voice and the soft static in the background made my eyelids feel heavier and heavier. And before I knew it, the world around me started fading into black, as I too began slowly drifting off to sleep…