Star-Crossed Memories

by Geri Watson

  "He did say he wanted to meet you guys tomorrow," she answered.

  Zack wrung his hands together. "Can't wait. What's his major? Psych like us?"

  Laughing, Star shook her head. "No, you'll love this...he's Pre-Med."

  Seeing Zack's eyes widen, she pointed at him. "And you told me I could never catch myself a doctor!"

  CHAPTER 4

  Tristan tried to concentrate on the diagrams being mapped out on the projection screen in front of him. Tuesdays and Thursdays were always hard to make it through. After his Microbiology class and lab he had Statistics, followed by Organic Chemistry and lab, then he rounded off the day with Philosophy.

  Right now he was sitting in Organic Chem. He dreaded this class the most because his professor had the personality of a mealworm and spoke in the most monotone voice he'd ever heard. What made it worse was that if you had read the chapter before class, then you already knew what was going to be said. Tristan had read this chapter two nights before.

  Giving up on paying attention, he returned to something he was more interested in. The book on reincarnation that he'd gotten from the library lay open on his desk. Sliding his textbook to the side, he continued with the chapter he'd started before class. He rested his elbow on his desk and leaned his head against his hand as the descriptions in the book began to sound more and more familiar with what he and Star had experienced. His brow furrowed as he wondered what it would be like to talk to this Dan Walker that compiled all the information.

  "Whatcha reading, Tristan?" a soft voice purred from beside him.

  He looked up and noticed the classroom was empty, the rest of the students dismissed. Oops. He didn't intend to be so absorbed. His lab partner, Emily, cocked her head to the side, scanning the open pages.

  "Must be interesting for you to miss the class ending." She swayed slightly with her hands clasped behind her back, and a smile on her face meant only for him.

  Tristan closed the book abruptly and slid it under his textbook. "It's nothing, Em." He scratched the back of his neck. "How long did he give us for the break before lab?"

  Emily laughed. "20 minutes. Same as always."

  "Uh...and how long ago was that?" Tristan asked as he cringed.

  He hated that she'd caught him so off-guard. Emily plainly had feelings for him. He wasn't blind. She was poised and blond with cat-eyes and a cheerleader figure. He'd seen other guys drool over her as she walked through the halls. It irked him that she never went after them but was always present when he was nearby. She was in every single one of his classes. Sometimes he wondered if she did that on purpose. Three years in a row had to be more than a coincidence. He didn't even think she was interested in medicine. Emily's family still felt college was a waste of time and that women needed to focus on marrying a good husband.

  Unlike most of his classmates, Tristan was extremely focused on his studies. He felt no need to be a skirt-chaser or delve into Greek life. His brother often told Tristan that he was missing out on the best part of college by not getting drunk or involving himself more in student activities. He argued back that being able to remember what you'd done the night before was pretty rewarding for his age.

  "Not that long ago," Emily responded, and sat down on top of the desk next to him, crossing her legs.

  Tristan stood up and stretched. He wanted to call Star and tell her what he'd read, but if Emily was going to be listening in on his conversation, then it wasn't worth it. He looked Emily over and noticed that she'd cut her hair. It was nice, but Tristan figured if he said something he was just giving Emily a reason to think he was leading her on. She also smelled pretty good today. He guessed she'd bought some new perfume.

  "Did you want to get a drink before lab?" he asked.

  She hopped down. "Sure."

  They walked out of the classroom and down the stairs toward the vending machines. Emily walked close to Tristan, her hand brushing his every once in a while. It was a routine of theirs during breaks to wander the halls for a bit. Sometimes they'd get a drink; sometimes they'd talk about the lab assignment or the chapter they were on. He tried to keep the topics safe around her. Last year she had hinted about Homecoming every single day for over a week. The only way he had gotten her to stop was by telling her that he was working a double shift at the firehouse that night covering for one of the other EMT's.

  "The sorority is throwing a mixer with our brother fraternity tomorrow night.... would you like to go with me?" Emily looked up at him with her green eyes wide.

  "You know I'm not into that stuff," Tristan replied, making a face.

  Emily frowned and continued walking.

  "Do you want to get together and study for the Organic Chem exam next week?" she tried again.

  "Maybe. I promised I'd pick up more shifts, but I guess I don't have to do that," he pondered.

  "Oh, I don't want it to get in the way of you working," she looked at the floor again as they rounded a corner and proceeded down the next hall.

  Once they got to the vending machines, Tristan got a bottle of water and Emily got a diet soda. As they were walking back upstairs, Emily started walking backward so she could face him. She pouted.

  "Don't you notice anything different about me today, Tristan?"

  He paused and pretended to study her. "You cut your hair and smell like juniper?" Might as well give the poor girl what she wanted.

  She beamed. "You did notice!"

  Shaking his head, he smiled at her. "I may have been distracted today, but yes Em, I noticed. You cut half of it off." He gestured to her hair.

  Emily pulled at the ends of the shoulder-length cut. "Yeah I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but this style seems popular right now, so I figured, why not?"

  He tilted his head. "It suits you."

  They got to the floor their class was on, and her face changed as she looked at him oddly. "Tristan?"

  "Yes, Emily?" he raised an eyebrow at her tone.

  "Why weren't you in Immunology yesterday?" she questioned.

  Tristan stopped walking. "Um...something came up." He started walking again and passed her.

  She walked faster to catch up to him. "Do you want to borrow my notes?"

  "Yeah, sure. That would be great Em, thanks."

  They walked back into the classroom and moved over to the lab tables. Tristan grimaced as the professor walked back in. At least they would be able to work on their own in the lab and not be stuck listening to the professor’s droning on the entire time. Emily was perkier and humming to herself as they set up their lab assignment. Tristan wondered if he had it right at first saying nothing to her about her hair, it might have been better if he had played dumb. He was always doing that. Maybe Star had the right idea with the over-analyzing thing.

  About halfway through the lab, Tristan started feeling pain between his eyes. Squinting through it and trying to concentrate on their assignment, he switched out the slides on the microscope. The worse the pain got, the more Tristan found himself thinking about Star. It seemed the more he thought about her and the less he thought about the assignment, the less the pulsing was in his head.

  The flashes were back again, and this time they were more intense than they had been before. When Tristan had been in the library last night, he thought he had fallen asleep while researching, but vaguely remembered getting a headache much like this one right before he found himself slumped over the reincarnation books. He placed his hand on his head and rubbed his temples.

  "Are you okay, Tristan? You look sick." Emily's worried glance met his eyes.

  "I'm fine. Just a headache, that's all." Tristan started taking notes, but the flashes took over and made his headache worse. He felt nauseated.

  "Are you sure?" Emily didn't look convinced.

  "Argh," Tristan covered his forehead and closed his eyes as the pain worsened. He heard Emily scream his name in surprise, but he'd already hit the floor. Then everything went black.

  June 17, 1864


  A makeshift desk was centered in the blazing hot tent and many maps and letters were strewn around and rolled up against the cot. The high ranking Union officer walked over to one of the maps with marked railroads and examined it more closely. He felt a small breeze and light streamed into the tent as someone entered. Expecting to see another soldier, what he didn't foresee was the petite southern belle that approached him with a purpose in her steps.

  "Charles Bailey?" her eyebrows questioned.

  He nodded toward the other soldiers in front of the tent watching their exchange, and the tent flaps closed once again giving them privacy. Once she monitored their surroundings, the belle threw herself against him and kissed him fiercely. He kissed her back in earnest, more than willing. The belle was none other than Sarah Moon. She was a Union spy but lived within the Confederacy. Their time was always limited together, and no one was aware of their relationship. He hadn't seen her in months, and she was as glad to see him as he was her. Since her last communication had been cryptic, Charles feared the Confederacy discovered Sarah.

  "Glad to see you're safe, Sara," he smiled as he ran his fingers over her still parted and slightly swollen lips.

  "You know I can take care of myself," she challenged him with her eyes.

  "I still worry," he admitted and walked over to the desk. "So what have you brought me today, other than your heavenly self?"

  "Three remaining open rail lines serve Petersburg to Richmond, and their only remaining port is in Wilmington, North Carolina. If you cut off their supplies, it would be most beneficial," Sarah smirked cattily.

  He looked over the maps and papers she had brought with her, comparing the two. "That would be beneficial indeed."

  Sarah stood close to him, and Charles glanced down at her skirt and over her bodice. "I don't know how you remain so poised when you're doing what would be considered such despicable work."

  "I'm unique." she batted her eyelashes slowly.

  Charles grinned. "You're impossible to decipher."

  "I happen to like it that way." she pursed her lips, but a smile behind them gave her true feelings away.

  "I ought to marry you and turn you into an honest woman," he flippantly replied as he moved the maps around and took notes.

  "Is that an honest proposal, Bailey?" Sarah's voice raised behind him.

  Charles turned and pulled her into his arms. "With your help, we're going to win this war, and when we do, I promise I'll whisk you away from that horrid Confederacy. You may be a spitfire Sarah, but I love you."

  "I love you." She kissed him, and they parted quickly as the tent flaps opened again.

  "Charles. General Grant wants to hear your report," the soldier saluted and left.

  "Wait for me. Can you stay the night?" he asked Sarah's waiting and hopeful eyes.

  "I can't stay, but I will wait for you," she smiled. "Go win the war."

  When he awoke, Tristan was in an unfamiliar place. That was so strange. He turned his head to the side and saw Emily was beside him sitting in a chair. Tristan realized he must be in the infirmary and was suddenly embarrassed at the realization he'd blacked out in class. Nothing felt sore, so at least he hadn't hit anything on the way to the floor. He went to sit up, and Emily noticed he was awake.

  "No! Don't sit up! The nurse said you might have hit your head pretty hard when you passed out," she scolded and tried to push him back into a laying position.

  "Emily, I'm fine. My head doesn't hurt at all anymore," he argued as he pushed her hands away and sat up. The bed wasn't exactly soft, and he wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible.

  "Tristan!"

  He set his feet on the floor and stood up. Being prepared to feel lightheaded, he was surprised when the feeling didn't come. He walked into the outer office with Emily collecting her things and scrambling to catch up to him, complaining behind him the entire time. The nurse stopped him as she passed in the hall.

  "You shouldn't be out of bed," she sternly stated.

  "As I told her"-he nodded to Emily-"I'm fine. Don't feel the slightest bit sick and my head doesn't hurt anymore. Should be saving these beds for students that need them, not me."

  The nurse looked him over. "If it was a headache that caused the blackout, you should have a doctor check into some migraine treatments for you. Sign the paperwork at the desk, and you can go."

  "Thanks." Tristan walked to the desk and signed the release paperwork.

  "You think you're okay to drive?" Emily asked him.

  He ignored her question and asked one of his own. "How long was I out?"

  She looked down at her watch. "Long enough that we've got about 20 minutes before Philosophy. Are you going home?"

  "No. I can't afford to miss class," he answered.

  Tristan turned to walk toward the parking deck then stopped and turned to look at Emily. "How did I end up in the infirmary?"

  "Some of the other guys in class carried you to my car, and I drove you over here, then someone came out from the office and carried you in."

  Ugh. How humiliating. "Oh. Well, I'll see you in class." Tristan hurried to his car and climbed inside. Once safe, he debated skipping class. What brought on that headache?

  Remembering the visions of Star and what he had read in class earlier, he started his car and headed toward the building his Philosophy class was in after dialing her number.

  CHAPTER 5

  Star was alone. That was the worst part about Tuesdays and Thursdays. Zack didn't come home until late because he went to work in the campus bookstore after his classes. Looking up at the sky, she noticed that some storm clouds were rolling in and walked back inside from the balcony. It had been getting colder, and Star wondered if this storm was going to bring rain or snow. She couldn't wait for spring to come so that she could watch the thunderstorms instead. The view was great for lightning from their top floor apartment.

  Getting hungry, Star debated over making something to eat or ordering some Chinese take-out. It was too quiet for her, so she turned on the stereo and immediately felt a little more at ease. After grabbing the menu from the junk drawer and ordering, Star walked over to the couch and sat down. There was plenty of coursework and reading that she could be doing, but she wasn't in the right mood for it.

  She idly wondered if she should have taken Alex up on the dinner and a movie idea. Tristan hadn't seemed surprised that she was still technically taken, and that had caught her off guard. Maybe he wouldn't have minded if she had gone out. Star bit her lip in concentration. She had told Alex that she'd call him, and Tristan was going to be in his classes until later that night. It wasn't like she was cheating on either of them, right? The idea of it seemed wrong. As Star went back and forth in her head trying to decide what to do next, there was a knock at the door. Expecting to see the delivery guy through the peephole, she was shocked when she saw it was Alex with the Chinese food in his hands. She opened the door and looked at him confused.

  "Alex...I wasn't expecting you."

  He grinned and handed her the bag of food. "I know. I ran into the delivery person on the way upstairs and paid him for you; I hope you don't mind."

  "Um...thanks." Star accepted the bag and walked inside. After setting it on the table, she turned around and faced him. "So what brings you over here?"

  Alex sat down on the couch and pulled out the food, setting it up for her as he talked. "Well, when I ran into you this morning you said you wanted to talk to me about something. The look on your face made me think it was important. I knew you'd be alone since it's Thursday." He paused. "And I know how you hate that. That was why I asked if you wanted to go see that movie tonight, you know, so you wouldn't have to be alone..." He looked up at her with a chagrined expression. "I'm rambling aren't I?"

  Star grabbed some plates and brought them over, then split up the food between them. "You're fine. I was just surprised to see you, and you're right...I did say that I wanted to talk to you about something."

  "So what did y
ou want to talk to me about?" Alex gently asked as he started eating.

  After taking a few bites, Star turned toward him on the couch. "I wanted to talk about you moving back to Australia."

  "Oh," he responded sounding surprised. "What about it?"

  Star tucked her legs underneath her and faced Alex again. "Well, you're moving back after spring semester right?"

  "Yes...but that's still six months away," he cocked his head to the side. "What's really on your mind?"