The Time Traveler's Guide to Modern Romance

by Madeline J. Reynolds

  Tyler clearly didn’t believe him, though. He turned to Oscar and Zoe. “You guys go ahead. I think we’re gonna hang back in this section for a bit longer, but we’ll catch up later.”

  Elias was silently grateful that they didn’t question Tyler and instead kept moving on to the next room.

  Tyler moved so that he was standing beside Elias once again. “Were you guys close?” He spoke softly, as if to ensure no one around them would overhear. But it wasn’t like any of the other patrons would know—or believe, for that matter—what they were discussing.

  Elias tilted his head, examining the painting from a new angle. “Yes and no. I wasn’t really close with anyone, back then—well, except for my grandfather and my sister. But socially, I mean, I suppose you could say that Peter was the closest thing I had to a friend. Where the other people my age saw an outcast and simply left it at that, Peter actually tried. He would make conversation. Try to make sure I felt included in small ways.”

  “Well, that was really nice what he did for your family after you disappeared.”

  Elias smiled and nodded. “It’s entirely appropriate that was the painting that he dedicated to me. I ‘helped’ to make it what it is today.” He pointed at the central red stain decorating the canvas.

  Tyler’s mouth fell open in disbelief. “No way!”

  “Yes. It’s wine that came from my glass that night. My parents and Peter’s were horrified. I was certain that Peter hated me and that he would forever. I suppose it’s easy to let go of that resentment once a person vanishes entirely…”

  Tyler offered a sympathetic half smile then gestured around the room. “Hey, with or without your help, Illingsworth did pretty well for himself. His art’s in museums, his name’s in history books…I’m sure at the time it felt pretty lousy, but just look where that mistake you felt so bad about wound up. If anything, you might have made him even more famous.”

  Elias tried to smile, but it felt halfhearted. He didn’t regret leaving when he did. Still, Elias wished that he could have heard from Peter directly that he had forgiven him.

  He was pulled from his thoughts once he felt Tyler’s fingers trace over his own. Tyler gave his hand a small but comforting squeeze. Elias reached over with his free hand and rubbed Tyler’s arm appreciatively. He thought back to the small gestures that Peter had made back in those times, all those instances where he had been somewhat considerate or sympathetic. Elias had never truly mistaken it for affection, yet it was the closest thing he had, and so he cherished it like that was what it had been. Now that he had the real thing, those memories paled in comparison.

  Tyler kissed Elias quickly on the forehead then started to make his way toward the hallway. “Should we go find the others?”

  Elias nodded. “I’ll be right behind you. I just need another moment.”

  Tyler disappeared into the next room, and Elias switched his focus back up to the familiar painting. Slowly, he reached out a shaking hand toward the painting, as if it were a lifeline from his past. He wasn’t sure what he thought touching the century-old paint would do. Maybe he was half expecting that Peter’s fingers would be reaching out on the other end. Was it really so bizarre? Was anything at this point?

  His fingers were mere inches from the canvas when a stern-faced security guard shouted, “Hey! No touching the artwork!”

  Elias looked up at the man. He was shaking his head, shooting him that disappointed look that parents give to their children, the one that says you should know better. And he did know better. Better than to ruin an old friend’s painting a second time.

  “Yes, yes of course,” Elias said through the tears. He laughed, in part to rein back the overwhelming sense of melancholy, but also, he was laughing at his own foolishness.

  He looked up at the piece one last time before leaving the room and whispered, “You did it, old friend. We did it.” He looked one last time at the bronze placard on the wall beside the painting:

  Perfect in its imperfection.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Found Out

  “I knew there was something off about Eli!”

  Zoe had texted Tyler, asking him to meet her at one of their favorite coffee shops just off campus. He hadn’t realized the meeting was actually a confrontation. Her arms were crossed over her chest.

  “What are you talking about?” Tyler blew on his green tea but didn’t dare to take a sip yet.

  “When you first introduced us to Eli, I knew I recognized the name Caldwell from somewhere. But it wasn’t until yesterday at the Met that I remembered where.” As she said this, Zoe pulled open her bag and set a hardcover book on the table. Tyler peered at the title: The Faded Family.

  “What is this?” he asked.

  “It’s a true story,” Zoe started. “It goes further into detail about the missing boy, Elias, who Peter Illingsworth dedicated that painting to. After Elias mysteriously disappeared, his family dropped everything to try to find him. They were previously a wealthy family, but they poured all of their time and money into trying to find their son, and the family ended up losing everything. Because they no longer had their wealth or status, they were unable to marry off their daughter, Samantha Caldwell—Elias’s sister—and so she ended up becoming a spinster and eventually died of typhoid fever. There were no other heirs, so the London Caldwells were basically erased. That’s why they’re referred to as the ‘faded family.’ I picked up the book sometime last year and was fascinated by it.”

  Tyler wrapped his hands around the cup of tea, needing the calming effects from its warmth. It was all so terrible. And of course Eli had no idea what sort of impact his leaving had on his family. Eli always seemed so sure that they didn’t care about him at all. It would break his heart when he found out just how much he had broken theirs.

  “Okay, but what does any of this have to do with Eli?”

  Zoe nodded down to the book. “You’ll see I bookmarked a page. Open to it.”

  Tyler didn’t like this. He flipped open to the page that Zoe had marked with a pink sticky note. When he got to it he nearly dropped the book but kept his grip firm to avoid causing a scene. There on the page was a Caldwell family portrait and standing in the center, behind his seated parents, was Eli. It was undeniable, same swooping waves of dark hair, same angular features, and even though the portrait was in faded, sepia tones, it was almost as if the blue in Eli’s eyes were piercing through.

  Cautiously, he looked up at Zoe. She raised an eyebrow. “Looks a lot like Eli, doesn’t it?”

  “It’s…uncanny.” This wasn’t seriously happening, was it? Zoe had just happened to read about Eli’s infamous family and recognized him from a photo? Was she really making the connection that he traveled through time, too?

  “There are only two possibilities,” Zoe stated. “One, the guy is Elias Caldwell’s ghost, who is haunting a school in Jersey rather than someplace in England. Or, the much more likely explanation is that this guy—the guy who’s sitting in your dorm room as we speak—learned about the Caldwell family at some point and also realized that he looked like the long-lost Elias Caldwell and has now been using the name as some strange pseudonym or even worse, as a fake identity. Who knows who he really is or what he was doing before he showed up here. For all we know he’s not even British!”

  “Zoe—” Tyler ran through all the potential things he could say next: do you realize how ridiculous that sounds? Or You’re being paranoid. But that wasn’t fair to her. She wasn’t being paranoid—okay, maybe a little bit. But she also wasn’t way off base, either. She was definitely right in that Eli wasn’t who he seemed to be. And lying to her even further just felt wrong.

  He sighed. “Come on, there’s something I need to show you.”

  Tyler led her out to the parking lot and motioned for her to get into his car. Once they were both inside he scanned their surroundingsto make sure there was no one hanging around who could peer through the window. He then slid his MacBook out of his backpack
and pulled up Final Cut Pro.

  “Impromptu film screening?” Zoe asked.

  “Just watch,” Tyler said. And then he played the clip for her. The footage from the library, from the night that Elias Caldwell had first appeared in his life.

  He had just recently made a promise to Eli that he would never show the video to anyone, but given the circumstances, he figured it would be worth it to make an exception in this case to put Zoe’s conspiracy theories to rest.

  When the video stopped, Zoe’s jaw hung open until she said, “Play it again.”

  Tyler did as he was told.

  When the video stopped the second time, she said it immediately. “Play it again.”

  And so he did.

  The third time seemed to be the charm, because when the video stopped, she just leaned back against the passenger seat.

  “What… How… When?”

  “The boy in your book looks like Eli because that is Eli. Elias Caldwell from 1886. When he disappeared all those years ago it was because he was transported here.”

  Zoe shook her head, almost too quickly. “I don’t believe that. I don’t believe you.”

  “Yes, you do, Zo. You know you do. Just look at that portrait. And I know it seems impossible and improbable, but it also explains so much. It explains his sudden, inexplicable disappearance from his home. It explains the clothes he was wearing that first night you met him—the outfit you thought was a costume. It explains why you were getting that weird feeling that something was off with his mannerisms and the way he speaks. He’s not from here—and I mean not at all.”

  Zoe just sat there for a few moments letting the impossibilities, mixed with the realizations, sink in.

  “Tyler this is…huge!”

  “I know.”

  “Time travel is real! We have to tell someone…anyone.”

  “No!”

  Zoe shot him a confused look.

  “Zo, you have to understand, the whole reason he came here in the first place was because he wasn’t accepted where he was. He was an outcast. Think about it, he’s from the Victorian era, and he was the one who originally wanted to kiss me. You know history wasn’t kind to gay men. And now? If we expose him then he’ll suddenly be at the center of attention on a global scale. He’ll never get to just be a regular kid, and he certainly won’t be happy. It’s Eli’s secret and I’ve promised to keep it. You have to promise, too.”

  Zoe nodded. “I promise. But what about Oscar?”

  “Huh?”

  “He’s our best friend. You can’t not tell him. And you can’t ask me to lie to him now that I know.”

  Tyler thought about it for a moment then nodded. “You’re right. Oscar deserves to know, too.” Technically, he hadn’t even planned on telling Zoe, but after her conspiracy theory, the only way out was the truth. And Zo-Zo was right. Now that she was involved, they couldn’t keep hiding information from Oscar. It was one thing when he was the only one keeping secrets. This was another thing entirely.

  It had all gotten so out of hand.

  Zoe motioned toward his laptop. “You’ll wanna show him that when you do tell him. There’s no way that he’ll believe you otherwise.”

  Again, Tyler nodded.

  The two of them sat there in silence for a few minutes. The weight of what he had just revealed to her almost felt as if it were manifesting as another passenger. Finally, Zoe broke the silence. “What are you going to do?”

  “Eli doesn’t know what happened to his family after he left. I have to tell him.”

  Zoe frowned, hanging her head. “I’m really sorry. I never should have started digging around in the first place.”

  “No,” Tyler said, “don’t be sorry. You were just looking out for me. And Eli deserves to know. He would have looked into it at some point. Can I borrow that book?”

  …

  When Tyler got back to his room, Elias shot him a puzzled frown.

  “I am guessing from your empty hands that you forgot to order me a hazelnut latte?”

  Tyler blinked. “What? Oh, right, sorry. Something’s come up and I—” He couldn’t stall; he had to get it over with. “I need you to read this.” He pulled out The Faded Family from his bag and handed it to Eli.

  Eli examined it quickly then set it down on the desk. “Lovely, I’ll have something to preoccupy me on days like today when you have absconded with your laptop, thus depriving me of Netflix.”

  “No,” Tyler said, “it isn’t for later. I really just need you to read it now. As much as you can, anyway—whether you wanna go from start to finish or jump around, whatever works. I’m going to go to the library, so just come and find me when you’re done.”

  “If you insist,” Eli said, picking up the book again.

  Tyler exited without another word. He really didn’t want to be in the room as Eli read about all the terrible things that had happened to his family. He already knew where this was going to lead. After reading it, Eli was going to make the choice to go back to London—back to 1886—in order to shield his family from the fate laid out on those pages.

  There seemed to be a pattern with Tyler choosing to be selfless and doing the right thing, but meaning he would also have to sacrifice his own happiness in the process.

  He pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted Oscar:

  TYLER: Hey, where are you?

  Eli had some reading to do now, and Tyler wanted to give him his space, so he figured then was as good a time as any to talk to Oscar. Better just dive right in.

  His phone buzzed:

  OSCAR: Just leaving the caf. What’s up?

  TYLER: Can you meet me at The Mansion? There’s something I wanna show you.

  OSCAR: Sure man, be right there.

  “The Mansion” was the oldest building on campus. In the first days of BGA it had been used for housing, with a couple of miniature lecture halls like you’d find at a university. Now the only thing it was good for was looking cool because of how old it was (a few teachers still had their offices in there, but that was beside the point). It was usually pretty dead around there, which he figured would be a good spot to have some privacy.

  Tyler got there first, so he sat on the steps, waiting for Oscar, wondering how in the hell he was supposed to even begin this conversation. With Zoe it had been pretty easy. She’d been the one to initiate it.

  Unfortunately, Tyler didn’t have much longer to think about it. Oscar strode up the gravel walkway to the old building, waving as he approached. “Hey man, what are we doing here? Is the thing you needed to show me a ghost? Because if so, no need to show me…I believe you. I’m already convinced that this place is haunted.”

  Eli should have been a ghost. At least, he would have been now if he’d never traveled through time. Did that mean that time travelers were technically ghost-adjacent? Who knew? He was making all this stuff up as he went along.

  Tyler blew out a heavy sigh. He was letting his mind wander instead of just doing what needed to be done. He pulled out his laptop from his bag. “No. What I wanted to show you is on here.” He nodded at a space beside him on the steps and Oscar sat.

  And then he played the clip.

  And then he played it again.

  Like with Zoe, it took a few times for the images to really sink in. Tyler went into a long-winded explanation about Eli showing up in the library, everything he knew about how it happened, how he had been helping Eli and how what was supposed to be only a week turned into something more permanent…or at least, he hoped it was going to be permanent, but there was a pretty good chance Eli would choose to go home now, knowing what that book had inside it.

  “Wow…” was all Oscar said. It seemed to be all he could say in that moment, like the story was a sucker punch that had completely knocked the wind out of him.

  “I know,” Tyler said.

  “Time travel is real.”

  “I know,” Tyler repeated.

  “Ty…you gotta tell, I dunno, somebody—an
ybody—everybody!”

  “I can’t, don’t you realize how bad that would be for Eli? The media would be all over him, scientists, conspiracy theorists…I don’t even know who else.”

  “But this is one of the biggest scientific discoveries since…well, ever!” Oscar exclaimed. “You can’t exactly just sit on a massive secret like that.”

  “I can and I will,” Tyler said, “for Eli’s sake. And I need you to promise that you’re going to keep the secret, too. I already made Zoe promise.”

  “Wait, Zoe already knows? Awesome, so I’m the last to know.” Oscar shook his head, the hurt evident in his tone.

  “I didn’t plan it or anything,” Tyler admitted. “She just kind of guessed. Well…she didn’t guess right, but she knew something was up, so I had to spill.”

  Oscar smirked, snorting slightly. “Yeah, that does sound like Zo-Zo.”

  The two of them sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Oscar repeated, “Wow.” He turned to Tyler, shooting him a quizzical look. “And you’re really not going to tell anybody about this?”

  “Nope,” Tyler said.

  Oscar nodded to the MacBook. “But that file. You named it Eli Documentary. Were you going to do something with the footage?”

  “I had been toying with the idea of piecing it together with interviews and other footage to make it into something when I thought Eli was going to be here for only a little while. But he wanted to stay, and who was I to tell him he couldn’t? Plus, now I want him to stay.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you, really—though I can’t say that I ever thought you’d introduce Zoe and me to a boyfriend from a different century. That said…in the future…say if Eli does ever decide to leave, ya know, because he has that ability. Would you finish the movie then?”

  “I honestly have no idea. I’m kinda trying to not think about it.”

  “Right,” Oscar said.

  After another few moments, Tyler said, “Hey, I don’t really feel like heading back to my room right now, is it cool if I come chill in yours?”

  “Of course, Ty. You know I’ve always got your back.”