Page 125 of A Forgotten Mistake

“What’s hilarious? I feel like I should be concerned that my other employees left to get a break and you’re in here laughing,” Michaels comments as he enters.

“I know, right? Look at this,” I say as I go back to the beginning of the recording. “This is hilarious. You see this?”

He watches it in silence, oddly not finding it as funny as I do. “You were literally being targeted by this group… you realize most people would feel uneasy about this?”

“You know why it’s hilarious? Because all I have to do is think about where I was this night… and who I was with and who was recording.”

Michaels gives me a look. “You know who it is?”

“You know that issue I have where I really only seem to care about myself and Gabriel? I really wasn’t much different at sixteen.”

He stares at me for a long moment. “You don’t remember anyone there, do you?”

“I just need to jog my memory. It’s a video of me at… what looks like a party. I went to a grand total of like… no parties because parties meant people and I hated people. The only parties I ever went to were when I was being forced to drag Abby home. I wonder if anyone ever tried leading me off to my death and I just hated dealing with them so much that they gave up. That’s a hysterical thought.”

“Your idea of humor is vastly different from mine,” Michaels says.

“Anthony’s brother is… Jack, right? Have we gotten ahold of him yet?”

“Not yet.”

“I’m going to call Abby, then. Let me know if you reach him at any point. I’d like to speak to him one way or another.”

I call Abby, who answers pretty promptly.

“Hey,” she says quietly.

“You done pretending you have amnesia?”

“I’m not lying to you.”

“So they had a video of me in here but for the life of me, I can’t remember a time when I was at this party. I’m going to record it and send it to you because I’m lazy and don’t feel like wasting time driving to the hospital. While I’m doing that, can you think of any instance when I was at one of your parties?”

“I don’t think you ever willingly went.”

“You’re right, but Lisa sent me out more than once to go find you, and other times I went out to find you just out of the goodness of my heart,” I say as I send the recording to her. She’s quiet while she watches it.

“Hmm…” She falls silent for another second. “It’sveryfixated on you. I can’t really see too many other people… wait, there’s Christa.”

I nod as I watch it again. “Her hair is short. She cut it after she caught Anthony kissing someone.”

“Kissing someone? He was kissing you.”

“Someone ridiculously sexy.”

Abby snorts. “You’re as much of an idiot now as you were back then. But you’re right, she did cut it after that. How the hell do you remember these things?”

“What about Jack, Anthony’s brother; was he ever involved in the parties?”

“Sometimes he got weed for Anthony or alcohol, but the parties were generally not his style. Okay… this is Beth’s house.”

“Who’s Beth?”

“I don’t know. Carl’s girlfriend… it was her house.”

“You act like I remember who Carl is… Wait, this was the night before you were moved to another home, right? Lisa threw a fucking fit because you came home high and climbed into my bed.”

“Was it that night? I thought Carl broke up with that chick by then.”

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