by Julie Cross
If I broke her nose, then went back to the present, she’d be totally unhurt and wouldn’t remember a thing. Of course, I was supposed to be testing that theory right now (again). Well…except I’m not going to punch her. Either way—same outcome.
“Hey,” I said to her. “Do you guys sell…sunscreen?”
She didn’t even make eye contact, just pointed to a wall to the left. I walked over and snatched four different bottles and then dumped them on the counter. “So…are you at NYU or—“
“You know, you can buy these somewhere else for, like, half the price,” she snapped.
“Thanks for the tip, but I need some now.” I leaned on the counter right in front of her.
She straightened up and started ringing up my purchase. “Four bottles? Seriously?”
Okay…so much for flirting. “Fine, I’ll just get one. I guess you’re not working on commission.”
“You work at a day camp?” she asked disdainfully, eyeing my green staff shirt.
“Yep.”
The girl snorted back laughter and snatched the credit card from my hand. “You really don’t remember me?”
I had to pause for a second to process her words. “Um…”
“Karen…I sat behind you in economics all semester. Professor Larson called you unbalanced and said you needed to get a better grasp on realistic finances for college students.” She rolled her eyes at me. “Is that why you have a job?”
“Nope.” Totally true. I don’t even get paid. I’m a volunteer, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. She had obviously already made up her mind about me. “Well…it was nice to see you again, Karen.”
“Whatever,” she grumbled.
I left the store quickly. Jumping back to the present didn’t require the same level of focus as going into the past, mostly because I always had to come back before I could jump again. Adam calls the present my “home base.” He’s mastered the art of dumbing it down for me to understand. And baseball analogies are my favorite. Hopefully, I wouldn’t return to a bunch of strangers staring at my catatonic state.
Chapter Three
TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2009, 12:25 p.m.
When I opened my eyes again, Adam was standing over me. “Jackson?”
“Dude, you need a breath mint,” I mumbled, shoving him to the side.
“You were a zombie for one-point-eight seconds. I was almost right. Pretty soon I’ll have enough data to produce exact calculations. You didn’t sustain any injuries this time, did you?”
“Nope.”
I knew exactly why he asked. Last week, I jumped a few hours back, lost my concentration, and ended up in the middle of traffic instead of inside my apartment. A huge semi truck ran right over my leg. When I jumped back to home base, I felt this sharp pain shooting up my thigh and then it was gone. A light purple bruise appeared, but otherwise my leg was perfect, even though that truck totally should have shattered my bone.
I stood up and dusted off the back of my pants. “Apparently we had a class together. But I totally pissed her off just now. Well, in the past. You know what I mean. So, if the theory is wrong and I did change something, she’ll be annoyed when she sees me again.”
“Let’s find out.” Adam waved to Holly. “Hey, Hol, we’ll be right back.”
I grabbed Hunter, who was inching his way off the grass and toward the pile of abandoned backpacks, looking for some loot to stash in his pockets, no doubt. “Come shopping with us, little dude.”
The three of us strolled through the door as the girl at the register was dumping a box of key chains into a plastic container. I stopped and stared at her, playing dumb. “Aren’t you…in my economics class?”
Her eyes lifted and she actually smiled a little. “Yeah…Professor Larson.”
Ding, ding, two points for Jackson Meyer. She didn’t remember me pissing her off. Just like I said. Nothing changed as a result of my jump thirty minutes into the past.
“Karen, right?” I said.
Her eyebrows lifted. “And you’re Jackson, the French poetry major, right?”
Adam groaned and shoved past me. “Don’t see anything I want in here. Let’s go.”
I ignored Adam and lifted Hunter up onto the counter. “English lit, too. I have a double major.”
Even though my little excursions to the past didn’t change anything in my home base, there were some advantages, like getting information. So, I guess, in theory, time travel to the past did change something.
It changed me.
Adam, Hunter, and I left the store and all of us stopped outside and came face-to-face with Holly. She had a handful of garbage she was dropping into a bin outside the store. I took her hand and pulled her over to a tree that we could hide behind.
“Adam’s got a thing for that chick in the store. I was trying to help them hook up.”
Holly laughed and I nudged her backward so she was leaning against the tree. “Did Hunter steal anything?” she mumbled, but my lips were already on hers, preventing her from speaking clearly.
“Not that I know of.” I kissed her again and felt something wet land right on my cheek. Both of us pulled apart and looked upward just as the sky opened up and rain came down in huge sheets.
“Damn! I thought it was supposed to be nice all day,” Holly said.
We left our tree and made a run for the grassy area where Adam and the other staff were already lining up the kids.
A few of the little ones screamed as a loud clap of thunder rumbled through the zoo. “Are we getting on the bus?” I asked Adam.
“Yeah,” he shouted over the sudden storm.
All the kids started running in jagged lines, pulling backpacks over their heads. Holly and Adam ran up to the front of the line and I hung back to push along the stragglers as we jogged to the exit.
Luckily, the bus was parked right in front of the entrance. By that time, my clothes and tennis shoes were completely drenched. Just as I lifted the last kid onto the bus steps, I saw a red-haired girl, about ten or eleven, standing outside, alone. Her back was to me and all I could see was the hair and the blue jeans and the long-sleeve shirt. Water dripped off the end of her long braid.
My heart pounded all the way to my ears as theories spun through my head.
It couldn’t be her.
But what if it was?
I moved toward the girl and heard Holly shout through the rain, “Jackson, where are you going?”
“That girl’s not with us,” Adam said. “Come on. Let’s go!”
My steps got longer and faster until I finally reached her. I tapped her shoulder and the girl turned around instantly. Her eyes widened for a second and then her expression smoothed into a smile. If it was somehow her, would she even recognize me?
The rain pounded against the pavement and a bolt of lightning lit up the now-dark sky.
“Jackson!” Holly shouted again.
My heart sank back down. The little girl’s eyes were blue. Not green. It was both a relief and an utter disappointment. “Um…sorry. I thought you were someone else.”
I turned around and ran back toward the bus. Dozens of little heads were watching me through the windows. I trudged up the steps and shook the rain from my hair. All the eyes had moved from the windows to me, standing in the aisle. Holly’s gaze locked with mine for a second, but I stepped right around her and slid into the seat next to Adam.
I felt a twinge of guilt when Holly took an empty spot, alone, without asking any questions. And I knew she wanted to. The way everyone was staring, it must have been quite a scene.
“What was with the kid you were chasing?” Adam asked.
I had to look away from him. “Nothing…she just looks like someone. False alarm. No big deal.”
Adam leaned his head closer and spoke again after a minute of silence. “She looks like Courtney, right?”
I sighed but finally conceded by nodding. “It’s stupid. I know.”
“It’s not stupid. It happens to people all th
e time.” He drew in a quick breath before whispering, “Wait…you don’t think…hmm…it’s an interesting theory, but way too many logistical problems.”
“Just forget it,” I said, before he could drill me with questions. “Please.”
There was no way around it. My twin sister was dead. Four years later and it still haunted me. She still haunted me. Mostly because I missed her so much.
When we were filing off the bus, Holly waited for me and stepped in my path. “You okay?”
I stared at her eyes, which were full of concern, then shrugged. “Yeah, why?”
Her face fell and she turned her back on me. “Nothing…never mind.”
Okay, so I totally sucked at the personal, boyfriend shit. Holly never came right out and said that, but I knew she was thinking it.
I took her soaking-wet backpack off her shoulder and threw it over mine. “So…you want to come over later…maybe dry off before we go out anywhere?”
She jumped off the last step and onto the sidewalk before facing me and smiling. “Sure.”
I wrapped one hand around her blond ponytail and squeezed water out of the end. “I think you’re going to need a blow dryer.”
She reached up and rested her hands on my face, her light blue eyes turning serious, like Adam had a few minutes ago. “Are you sure you’re okay? What were you—“
“I’m just a little bit of a freak sometimes. That’s all.” I forced a grin and turned her shoulders toward the front doors so we could get out of the rain.
Chapter Four
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2009, 6:00 p.m.
Tonight, me and my sidekick are implementing a plan that has been in the works for a while: stealing my medical records from Dr. Melvin’s office. Adam’s convinced we may find something in there to indicate why I’m such a freak of nature. But seriously, does he think “Crazy Time Traveler” will be stamped on the outside of the folder?
I’ve spent the last two days observing Dr. Melvin’s erratic and very inconsistent schedule. Basically, he’s always working. Except tonight. Late tonight. This experiment will involve a two-day time jump into the past (my current record), and some very scientific and devious maneuvers.
Adam’s on his way back from MIT now and is probably pulling out his hair, trying to come up with all the formulas beforehand. I’ve done my part, writing down my goal, and now I just have to rearrange my plans with Holly. Adam’s trips home have been so last-minute since school started that I keep canceling on Holly. But she’s totally busy with classes and some kind of dancing team. She’ll probably be relieved. Besides, I can still make it to dinner, just not the movie…Speaking of dinner. Shit! I’m already 15 minutes late…
More data entry later.
OCTOBER 29, 2009, 9:30 p.m.
Okay, so maybe Holly didn’t take the change in plans as well as I thought she would.
“Come on, Holly, open the door.”
Two girls zipped past me in bathrobes, giggling.
“She doesn’t want to see you,” Lydia sneered. “This is exactly why I decided against men. I’ve been telling Holly for nearly a month that she needs to do the same.”
I fought back the urge to shout at Holly’s eternally angry roommate. Her arms were spread in front of the door, blocking me. Like I might try to knock it down or something. “Lydia, don’t you have a Sylvia Plath Fan Club meeting to go to?”
Music started playing from the other side of the door.
“You’re just darling, Jackson. Now I’m really not giving you my key.”
I banged my head gently against the wall next to the door. “Please let me in.”
“Don’t forgive him. He’ll just screw with you. Again and again,” Lydia shouted.
Okay, I am seriously going to strangle this chick.
A door flew open behind us and I turned to look at the girl standing with a thick textbook cradled in her arms. “Jackson, I’m really sorry, but I’ve got to study. And Lydia, please shut up. No one cares about your angry men-hating rants.”
The music coming from Holly’s room cranked up even louder. I turned to Lydia and shouted over the noise, “I’ll pay you a hundred dollars to hand over your key and disappear for the night.”
I waited for her lecture about violating the dorm rules or some shit about women giving up the metaphorical “keys” in life.
To my surprise, her dark eyebrows lifted and she said, “Make it two hundred.”
I opened my wallet and pulled out a credit card and thrust it in her hand. “Just take this.”
She dropped the key onto the floor in front of me and took off down the hall. I sighed with relief.
“Thank you!” the girl behind me said.
I snatched the key from the floor and held it to the doorknob. “Hol, please talk to me.”
The only answer I got was the chorus of a Pink song. I put the key in the door and opened it slowly, expecting to see Holly standing on the other side, waiting for me. So she could steal the key and shove me out again.
A red shoe flew across the room and slammed into the far wall, above the window. I stepped inside and shut the door before glancing around the room. Holly’s feet stuck out from the closet along with the ends of her blue bathrobe.
I wasn’t sure if she’d heard me come in, but then again, maybe the shoe was meant for me. Wouldn’t be the first time a girl had thrown a shoe at me, but for Holly, it was a bit out of character.
I had to dodge a brown sandal as I crossed the room to turn off the stereo. As soon as the music stopped, she quit digging through her junk, crawled out of the closet, and stood right in front of me.
“I have good news,” I said, attempting to smile, but it didn’t quite go with the mood. “Lydia’s actually willing to turn off her angry-girl mouth for the right price. She won’t be back until tomorrow.”
“Seriously? You paid my roommate to leave?”
There wasn’t even the slightest hint of amusement on her face. A knot formed in my stomach.
“Tell me what’s wrong. What did I do?” Just by saying this I had admitted that I knew it was more than just canceling a movie. Very stupid on my part. I reached out my hand, but her arms stayed folded over her chest.
“You’re always hiding stuff from me, running around with Adam like a couple of little kids.”
“Are you jealous? I know he was your friend first, but maybe we can work out a schedule.” Bad. Very bad. The absolute wrong thing to say. I cringed, waiting for her to shout or grab another shoe to launch in my direction.
She turned her back on me and walked over to her desk, sifting through a pile of papers. “Fine. You’re right. It’s no big deal.”
It would have been impossible to insert even one more drop of sarcasm into her voice. And it hit me like a gust of icy air. I ran my fingers through my hair and tried to come up with something decent to say. Or to decide if I should run. Instead, I went for a change in subject. “Did you…lose something? You were digging through the closet?”
“Yes. One of my memory cards.” She slammed a book against the desk, her back still to me. “I really need to study, okay?”
I snatched a couple of shoes from the floor and tossed them back into the closet. “Well…maybe I could help—“
“No,” she said quickly before hitting the power button on her computer monitor. She let out a breath and her shoulders relaxed. “Seriously, Jackson, just go so I can get something done. Please.”
The sarcasm had dropped from her voice, leaving only an exhausted and slightly exasperated tone. She was giving me an easy way out of this argument. But curiosity took over and I opened my mouth again. “Hol, why are you so pissed?”
She shook her head a little. “I’m not…mad at you.”
I let out a frustrated sigh. “Then what…?”
What do you want from me? I had started to say, because I really didn’t know. But the words got stuck in my throat when I saw the drop of water fall onto the piece of paper in front of her. I took a coupl
e steps toward her and she turned around, giving me a one-second glimpse of her tears before she leaned her head against my chest, hiding her face. “You never tell me anything…It’s…it’s like you have this whole other life and I can’t be in it.”