This felt like the longest day of Amie’s life. And that was saying something, considering.
The previous hour and a half had gone surprisingly well. Ziya filled a lot of the time talking about various exploits from the intervening three months, and Amie was just happy to listen.
But as the night wore on, a creeping sense of dread began to make its way up the back of Amie’s neck. At first she thought she just didn’t want Ziya to leave. But it was more than that.
“You okay?” Ziya asked.
Only then did Amie notice she’d zoned out, not processing anything Ziya had been saying for the past minute. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Ziya pushed back her chair and stood. “It’s late. I should get going.”
Dread shifted to panic. “Wait,” Amie said, a frantic edge in her voice. “Do you want dessert? I have ice cream, and … that’s it. I have ice cream.” She hurried over to the freezer, as if visualevidence of the ice cream would make the offer more enticing. “It’s got these little cookie chunks … I’ve kind of gotten tired of it, honestly, but it’s really good.”
Amie didn’t register her difficulty breathing until she turned too fast to deposit the carton of ice cream onto the table. The room spun, and she pressed her palms against the hard surface to steady herself.
“Whoa,” Ziya said, rounding the table. “Take it easy. Deep breaths.”
Amie sucked in a deep breath. The room stopped spinning, but the feeling of dread was still clamped onto her neck.
“Now what was that about?” Ziya asked gently. Her fingertips were almost painfully soft on the back of Amie’s hand.
Amie squeezed her eyes shut. As long and difficult as this day had been, it was a gift. A reprieve after years of repetition. And now it was coming to a close, and Amie was beginning to doubt the permanence of this reprieve.
“Could you stay?” Amie whispered, staring at the table. Just asking the question seemed to dislodge dread’s grip by a fraction. “I know you don’t believe me about the time loop, but … this was my first day back, and I’m scared I’m going to wake up tomorrow and be right back in it. I’m really scared.”
Ziya shifted next to her, the weight of her hand growing heavier on Amie’s as she answered. “I can stay.”
Once Amie had calmed down a bit, she began falling over herself to convince Ziya that this wasn’t a gross ploy to get her to sleep over. Over Ziya’s laughter, she insisted on taking the couch before running off to get fresh sheets for the bed.
“If you’re not feeling well, you should sleep in your own bed,” Ziya called after her.
“It’s okay,” Amie called back. “I think I’ll feel better falling asleep in a different place. And hopefully waking up there in the morning.”
Ziya didn’t have a response for that, which Amie expected. She knew that Ziya wanted to be supportive, but a time loop was a difficult thing to wrap one’s head around. It had taken Amie two weeks, and she’d been living in it.
She lay on the couch a while later, staring at the ceiling as Ziya slept in the other room. It was a strange combination of unsettling and comforting, this change of sleeping arrangements. Even when she’d visit her parents, she’d always make them stay up with her until 2:22AM. This was her first time trying to fall asleep somewhere other than her bed since the last time she’d slept over at Ziya’s place.
But she liked it. She liked the change. Especially with the comfort of knowing that Ziya was nearby.
The worst person to get stuck in a time loop,she had said. Amie thought back to her conversation with David, when he assured her that Savannah’s death wasn’t her fault. She knew it wasn’t. But if someone other than her had been stuck in that time loop, could they have prevented it? Would they know who killed Savannah?
Determination filled Amie’s body, but it was swiftly replaced with exhaustion. Whatever it was she was determined to do, she’d figure it out in the morning.
Chapter SixTime Loop Maxims
Day 2 A.L.
If time loops were a common shared experience by a large enough fraction of Earth’s population, there would probably be more maxims about them.What happens in the loop stays in the loop, perhaps.Every change in the loop happens for a reason: you.Put that on a plank of wood in a beach house bathroom.Loop me once, shame on you. Loop me twice … well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
Thankfully, it didn’t come to that. The good news was, for the first time in a long time, Amie Teller woke up somewhere other than her own bed. The bad news: Her secondhand couch wasnotcomfortable to wake up on.
Back pain aside, Amie was feeling better. Until Ziya emerged from her bedroom, sleepily suggesting they get breakfast from Eons, and she was suddenly reminded of her Homeric quest to get a blueberry bagel the day before. (Replace Polyphemus with a moving truck and Scylla with a group of joggers and she and Odysseusbasicallywent through the same ordeal.)
Another time loop maxim:Life after a time loop is like riding a bike.For Amie, a very mediocre bicyclist, this could be interpreted as “very shaky and potentially dangerous for herself and everyone in her vicinity.” But it also meant that twenty-eight years of living a life that chronologists would call “normal” meant that she had deep-rooted instincts that two years in a time loop couldn’t wipe out.
Despite that, there were still a few small moments of panic. An unthinkably obnoxious sports car roaring down the street. A passing jogger taking her by surprise. A plane flying overhead, so loud that even a non-anxious person might think, “Huh. That plane’s kind of loud.” But with Amie’s determination to Get Back To Normal, Ziya’s comforting chatter, and a merciful lack of trucks driving through puddles, they reached Eons Caféso fast Penelope would’ve said, “Back so soon?”
Inside the café, Jess was back at the register.Some things remain the same, even after a time loop.
