"Koko! Cobie!" calls a male voice from afar, bringing Cobie back from blackness.

When she opens her eyes, a few faces hover over her; faces she barely recognizes. A bright light slips through the gap between heads above her and hits her sight, prompting Cobie to bring her hand to cover her eyes. What the hell is going on? And where is she? In the next second, the scene at Ebirra's cafe, followed by her running to her car floods back into her memory. Why did she run? Mom!

She jerks up, but for some reason, she has trouble moving her legs. The more she tries to wiggle them, the more her brain registers a twinge in them. No, it's not just a twinge; it's an intense pain that burns her ankle. Realizing that she's now lying flat on the ground, she props herself up, using her elbows to support her torso. The stinging pain hits her again, making her groan.

A hand sneaks behind her back to support her. "How do you feel? Are you dizzy? Where do you feel the pain?"

"My ankle..." she trails off when she realizes who is talking to her. She's about to push Peter away but he begs.

"Cobie, let me at least make sure that you are fine. Please."

"Are you alright?" asks a woman whom Cobie recognizes as the one with a baby stroller. "I'm sorry I didn't see you running in my direction."

Cobie winces. "I think I sprained my ankle, but I'm alright. The baby...is okay?"

The woman nods and smiles. "Safe and sound. Thanks to you." She digs her hand into the compartment under her baby's cot and pulls out a bottle of water. "Here. You should drink a bit."

Cobie obliges. "Thank you."

The woman glances at Peter. "I will leave you with your friend now. I hope the sprain isn't that bad. Again, I'm so, so sorry."

Cobie nods and glances at the rest of her audience on the sidewalk. "I'm fine. Thanks, guys, I'm okay." Ignoring the throbbing on her ankle, she tries to get up, but the pain is too intense, making her cry in pain.

"Let me have a look first. Don't move." Peter scoots over to check her ankle, careful not to hurt her. "It's swollen already. We will need to grab an instant ice pack from the closest drugstore."

"Shit! I need to find my mom!"

"You won't be able to find her if you don't do something for your swollen ankle first. It doesn't look good, Cobie."

Cobie is on the verge of crying from the frustration. She's so close to screaming but she doesn't want to attract more attention than she already did.

"You fell pretty hard. Do you feel nauseous?"

"No. I'm fine. Just help me walk to my car, please," Cobie replies, swallowing the bitterness on the tip of her tongue. The last thing she wants in life is to get help from this very man.

Peter nods before slipping his hands under her knees. When he sees her glaring at him, he stops. "Carrying you is faster than letting you walk and cling to my neck. Trust me, I used to injure myself during the school match, remember? I know what I'm doing."

Reluctantly, Cobie has to agree. After showing him which car is hers, Peter helps her settle in the backseat. "Lemme find a drugstore nearby. You wait here."

"No! I don't have time to wait." She racks her brain, trying to figure out what she should do next. She can't drive with the throbbing pain in her ankle, but if she leaves her car here and calls a cab, they will not have a vehicle to look for Mom. Maybe she can call Rose to come this way and pick her up. But it will take at least thirty minutes to get here.

"I'll drive you."

"No."

"Look, I get that I'm the last person on earth you want to have anything to do with right now, but if you drive, you're going to risk yourself. And what about your mom?"

"I'll call my sister to get me."

"Isn't it faster if I bring you to her? I can just drive you to your sister and I'll disappear from your life forever."

Cobie presses her lips together, suppressing her agitation. Heaven knows she doesn't want to spend any more seconds with this man, let alone let him drive her home. But when the image of her mom pops up in her head, she nods in defeat. "Okay," she mumbles, handing her keys to him.

The trip is torture. Leaning aside to the back seat, she compulsively checks her phone in case Rose calls or texts her, bringing the news of her finally finding Mom. But alas, none from her sister. And why the hell hasn't Mom responded to her calls and texts? Did she leave her phone at home? Despite the ice pack pressing on her swollen and bruised ankle, the continuing throbbing pain doesn't seem to go away. It's pulsing and beating over and over again.

"I'm not sure what's going on. How can your mom be missing? She doesn't know the way home?"

Cobie is about to spew her lava and tell him to shut up and drive, but she refrains from doing so. No matter how intense her hatred toward him, Peter has been nothing but helpful to her. "My mom has had trouble remembering things for a few years now."

"Oh. Dementia."

"Yeah," she replies, ignoring his glances from the rearview mirror. "She's still at a medium stage, but things like this have happened a few times already."

"I'm sorry, Cobie. I didn't know. You barely talked about your family online."

"Why would I? My online and real-life are totally two different things." Cobie shifts her leg, trying to find a different position that might lessen the pain. Of course, it's no use. The thumping pain is just too stubborn to leave her. "I have no idea why I agreed to meet up with you. I talked to you because I knew you were far away, which means the chance for us to meet up is slim to none."

"I see."

"How did you end up moving that far by the way? I thought you would be still living there and become the legend of the town."

Peter chuckles at her sarcasm. "Mom and Dad got divorced. And I moved away with Mom to her hometown."

"Oh. I was always fond of your folks by the way. Too bad they split up."

"It's fine. Dad got married again, having two kids with his new wife. Mom is...being her." He shrugs, before glancing at Cobie again, concerns written in his eyes. "How's your ankle?"

"Stings like a bitch, but the ice pack helps. Thank you."

"I can help look for your mom if you want. Do you know where she's probably gone?"

Cobie frowns, trying to remember any possible places her mom might visit when she's having an episode. Mom only remembers the route she's familiar with: the supermarket, the park, and her former workplace, the museum. Rose did look for her in the supermarket and she must have checked the park, too. "Museum."

"Museum?"

"I need to make a call!" Once she retracts her phone from her purse, it rings and vibrates in her hand, blinking her boss's name. Why on earth is he calling her now? Does he not know that she's taking a day off? She slides the green bar and brings the phone to her ear. "Hello? Luke, listen I don't have–"

"Cobie, I don't know if you notice that your mom is not home, but she's here now, sitting in my office."

Friday afternoon is not the best time when someone is in a rush, especially when they need to reach the heart of the city. The traffic is too much, people are less patient for some reason, and it's also when the public-transport timetable starts to go wonky, creating a pile of passengers on the side of the road. The ultimate hassle.

She lets out a sharp breath of relief when her car enters her office building's basement. It's barely 3 p.m. yet the parking lot isn't as full as usual. Or has there been fewer cars parking in the basement lately? Cobie wouldn't know. She has left her car home since the beginning of the year when her mom's car broke down.

Tapping on Luke's number on her phone screen, she directs Peter to park on her old spot. "I'm downstairs," she says once Luke picks up the phone.

"Good." His deep voice vibrates from the other side of the line. Cobie can almost see him smiling. Is he in a good mood? "We are still in my office room now, having a cup of tea over chat. We've been gossiping about you. Come and join us."

"Umm, there is a thing." Cobie bites her lower lip. "I can't go up. Can you maybe send someone to send her to me? I mean, if it's not too much to ask."

"Why can't you go up?"

"I hurt myself and I can barely walk now. So, if you can ask someone to send her my way, that would be so much appreciated."

"What happened?" Luke's relaxed tone disappears. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I just stupidly sprained my ankle. No biggie."

"Okay. Stay put." Luke hangs up without waiting for Cobie to reply.

Cobie slips her phone into her pocket, glancing at the elevator door across the dark basement even though she knows her mom isn't there yet.

"I'll wait until your mom is here. I can drive you two home if needed."

Cobie doesn't reply to him. Instead, she tries to move her injured ankle. She gently lifts her knee upward and wiggles her ankle. Maybe, just maybe, the pain is magically gone and she can drive home. She hisses when a jab of pain hits her again. "Son of a bitch."

"You should take it easy, you know? Later when you're home, you can let your sister clean up the bruises first and put the ankle support. I hope you have one at home."

"I think so."

After several seconds of silence, Peter turns around to look at her. "By the way, I meant everything I said back at the cafe, Cobie. I'm really, really sorry for what I have done–"

"Peter, can we–"

"No, please hear me out. I just don't know if you will ever want to see me again after this. At least, lemme get this off my chest." As Cobie opens her mouth, Peter begs, "Please."

"Fine. Make it fast. My mom will be here in five minutes or so."

"Thank you." Peter brushes her finger through his dark hair. "I was a jerk, okay? I was a complete idiot scumbag. No excuses for that. All I knew was I wanted to be the biggest shit in town and nothing could get in my way. I was on top of the world. I mean, you saw how boys wanted to be me, or the girls behaved around me. Being the jock captain at school was like the signature of my fame. What did I need more of?"

Maybe an extra brain? Cobie bites her lower lip, preventing herself from saying it out loud.

Peter opens his mouth and closes it again. He pauses for a few seconds, probably trying to find some sophisticated words to justify himself. "After what...happened, I kept convincing myself that what I did to you was actually nothing. Because to me, it was just a fling, and you were exaggerating when you tried to pin me with guilt. I mean, I dumped several girls before you, and they didn't react the way you did."

"I wasn't pinning you with guilt."

"It felt like that to me. I was just, you know, not in the right mind."

"You were listening too much to your useless peers and her, the very person you left me for," she replies in a flat tone.

Peter sighs in defeat. "You may be right."

"I am right. Was it worth it, though? Did you at least have an awesome few years with her before you moved away?" When Peter doesn't reply, Cobie adds, "I thought you would be married to her by now, having five kids and two dogs, driving a truck for a living, and having a pile of back bills hidden in the kitchen drawer, because your wife spent more than you could earn."

Peter chuckles softly. "I don't know if I should feel insulted, but that is funny."

"That's how I've been picturing you all these years. I guess I'm wrong." Cobie moves her toes, slowly pulling them inward. "What happened between you two?"

"We broke up a few months after graduation."

"Oh? That was fast."

"Yeah, things didn't go that great. She was just too much after a while. And honestly, you were on my mind all those years."

Cobie groans. "You know it doesn't work on me anymore, right?"

"I'm not lyin'. The guilt was getting worse every day, and at some point, I decided to go look for you."

"To fool me once again if I forgave you?" Cobie shivers, thinking it would probably happen if she still lived there.

"I wanted to apologize to you and beg for your forgiveness. That was all. But no one knew your guys' whereabouts. But from there, I learned that you moved to our town earlier to run away from your psycho dad."

"My dad wasn't a psycho. I don't understand the people in that town. They twisted facts into a soap drama or whatever they were pleased to hear." Cobie massages her head. "Who told you that by the way?"

"Words went around, Cobie. We thought you guys moved away again because your dad had found you and threatened to kill you all. I felt like shit when I heard about it." He takes a deep breath. "You were coming to town to find a hiding place, and I...did the thing to you. I wish I could still find you to clear things up."

"Do you mean to make you feel better? To make yourself believe that you weren't a moron?"

"I don't know how to answer that."

Cobie's mind travels to the day they moved back home. Emotions were swirling inside her and she didn't know how to see the end and the beginning. Resentment towards Peter was so strong yet she needed closure before she left. She wanted answers to why he did what he did to her. Why did she deserve such painful treatment? At the same time, she was dealing with her dying father, which gave her no room to think about her misery.

"That girl you talked about when you were high a few weeks ago, it was me, right?"

"Yeah."

"You left the pregnancy part." When Peter doesn't reply, Cobie glances at him. "I was actually pregnant back then. I didn't fake it. I might have been full of crap but I wouldn't lie for something like that."

Peter rubs his hands over his face before groaning on his hands. "I couldn't make up my mind if I trusted you or not. I was just..."

"You were just a stupid town boy who thought knew more than anyone else." When Peter can't reply to that, she goes on, "Or maybe you were just a coward. Anyways, I'm glad I moved away and put everything behind."

The knock on the window makes Cobie and Peter snap their heads to the window. Her mom is standing next to the passenger door with Luke towering behind her.

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