If I Forget You Read Online Free PDF

they seem, no matter how well you think you know them.
     
    * * *
     
    Avery’s history with Tam and Ryan was so fresh in her mind because she had written it all down in her journal in great detail. She’d read that journal entry over a hundred times.
    It was Homecoming week of their senior year when they met Ryan. Avery was already eighteen and the autumn air was heavy with the promise of football games and Halloween and colder weather.
    Whenever she thought back to that day, from beginning to end, it was like a deck of cards in her hand. She flipped through each one in her memory, pausing on the same ones over and over. Some were blacked out, impossible to see, but others, like the pressure and the smell in the air that day as a storm moved in, were unforgettable. Those were the solid memories that ended up in her journal.
    There was a party that night at Stacy Edisson’s house. She lived with her much older brother and was known to host the best parties in the whole school. The only reason Avery was invited was because she was Tam’s best friend. On her own, Avery was nobody. That was how it had always been until she’d met Tam.
    Avery couldn’t remember anything about school that day until the moment she and Tam walked out the doors and got into Tam’s old Volkswagen painted green and gold in the school colors. Tam took her Student Body President title a little too seriously. “Every little bit helps,” she’d say, adjusting her signature lime green glasses. “People remembered this car when they voted. They’ll continue to remember who owns it, and that gives me a leg up in everything. You have to stand out.”
    Tam was not a geek, a snob, or an overachiever. Avery had no idea if she was any of these things now, but back then she wanted to be the student body president because she actually cared about the school and her fellow students, from the awkward bookworms in the library to people like Stacy Edisson who dated the captain of the football team. It had nothing to do with wanting popularity or being in charge. She wanted to be involved and make a positive difference, and that was all. That’s why Avery had liked Tam so much, because of her genuine desire to help. Avery liked her green-and-gold Volkswagen and the string of shiny brown kukui nuts hanging from the review mirror, a constant reminder to everyone that she was half Hawaiian and proud of it. Avery liked her lime green glasses and the way she never went anywhere without a pack of spearmint gum. Avery especially liked that Tam never got angry or offended with her when she forgot something important.
    The Gold Bug wouldn’t start that day. Tam turned the key in the ignition twenty times, but the engine refused to turn over. By then, the parking lot was empty, buses gone.
    “We’re screwed,” Tam said, lowering her forehead to the steering wheel. The car was hot from the warm October day. Avery rolled down her window and took a deep breath. The sky was blue, but on the horizon she could see a line of black clouds rolling in.
    “Maybe we can call your brother,” Avery suggested. “Didn’t he bring this thing back from the dead in the first place?”
    “Yes, but he’s in California this week, remember?” Tam lifted her head from the steering wheel and smirked at Avery. “Never mind. Stupid question.”
    She was right. Avery couldn’t even remember why he was in California. She pulled out her phone and looked at her calendar. “Well, my mom’s at her illustrator’s conference until five.”
    “And mine’s asleep because she has a shift at the hospital tonight. She’d kill me if I woke her up. My dad’s at work, but maybe he could leave.” She pulled her phone from her bag and tried to call him, but he didn’t answer.
    Avery wondered why Tam didn’t call one of her dozens of friends with cars, but she didn’t say anything.
    Of course, they weren’t as screwed as Tam let on since the walk home was only two miles, but getting