No. No. No. No.
My phone slipped from my fingers and hit the floor. This wasn't supposed to happen. We'd changed things. We'd prevented the original timeline. Oliver should be alive, beaten and humiliated, but alive. Lily should have walked away free and in peace. But somewhere between leaving my arms and going to her home, everything had gone wrong again.
Lily. What did you do? Why did you have to leave last night?
I scrambled off the bed, pulling on yesterday's clothes with shaking hands. My keys were on the nightstand where I'd left them, but when I rushed outside to my car, the driveway was empty. My car was nowhere to be found.
Of course, I'd drive Lily's parents' car home, leaving mine at Oliver's house, where anyone could see it.
The situation was spiraling beyond my control, beyond anything I'd prepared for. Without wasting another second, I took off running, with my thoughts making all kindsof scenarios.
When I got to Oliver's house, the scene that greeted me was like something out of a nightmare. There was yellow tape blocking everyone's path, and a bunch of police officers and paramedics.
There were a lot of people looking around, but no one was allowed in.
Oliver's body was no longer there, thankfully, but the air around us felt heavy regardless.
I scanned the crowd desperately for any sign of Lily or Leo. When I didn't see them, relief and terror warred in my chest. Relief that they weren't here to be questioned by police. Terror that I didn't know where they were or what they might be doing.
My friends stood huddled near the edge of the tape, and when they spotted me, they waved me over with urgent gestures. Jared looked shocked, as if he couldn't believe what was happening. Tom was hugging him. And Mike stood slightly apart, like he was trying to recreate everything.
I wished I had prepared them better for this possibility, but this situation wasn't supposed to happen. I'd thought I had everything under control. We were supposed to break the cycle, not repeat it with minor variations.
But apparently, some pasts are bound to happen, no matter how much we try to prevent them. Sometimes we torture ourselves, wondering what would have happened if we'd made different choices, without realizing that we might have had the same outcome as always. And it seemed Oliver's death was going to be one of those things that no matter how hard we fought against it, we'd never be able to avoid.
"Does anyone know what happened?" I said when I got closer to them.
"Not yet," Mike responded, his eyes never leaving thecrime scene. "All we know is that Oliver had several fights throughout the night, according to neighbors. He was pretty beaten up when they found him."
I remained silent at that statement. If the neighbors know there was a fight, then they might be able to identify me. And Lily. But if people had heard Oliver fighting, had seen him being beaten, why hadn't they intervened when Lily was screaming? Why hadn't anyone called for help when I was pummeling him in the street?
I had a lot of questions, but no single answer. And it seemed I wasn't going to get them here.
I looked around again to see if I could spot any familiar faces that might give me answers. That's when I noticed Florence standing on the far side of the police tape, her gaze fixed directly on me. When our eyes met, she turned and disappeared into the crowd before I could even think to approach her.
Maybe she thought I was guilty, too, after all, she saw me threaten Oliver in the classroom. But what was she doing here? Who had told her? Oliver didn’t even have his phone. Maybe she came looking for him because he wasn’t answering his messages. Perhaps the teacher would even tell the police that I had his cell phone.
I was definitely screwed, and I didn't know how I was going to resolve the situation, but the first priority now was to see Lily and see how she was doing. I couldn't leave her alone right now, especially since I knew beforehand that these were the moments she needed me most ten years ago. This time, I wasn't going to abandon her, no matter what her actions had been.
"I need to go," I told my friends, clapping Jared on the shoulder. "You guys should head home, get some rest. We might have some difficult days ahead of us."
When I turned around to leave, I spottedmy car parked just outside the police tape's perimeter, exactly where I'd left it the night before, with the camera still recording everything.
I had all the evidence I needed.
The question now was whether that evidence would save us or damn us both.
CHAPTER 50
Lily
I wokeup with a lightness in my chest I hadn't felt in years, maybe decades, depending on how you counted time.
Everything that had happened the night before felt like a dream. I had been able to save my brother from the path that would have destroyed him. I had faced Oliver and walked away without blood on my hands. Most importantly, I had chosen to be better than the person who had tormented us all those years ago.
We couldn't change other people's behaviors, but we could change how we reacted to them. We could decide to grow as people and be better, not because they deserved it, but because we deserved to become who we were meant to be.
And after seeing how Kyle had defended me, how he'd fought for me without hesitation, I knew Oliver wouldn't dare come near us again. The fear in his eyes when we left him on that street told me everything I needed to know.
