"Excuse me," I said, trying to sound like I belonged here, not like a patient who had escaped examination. "I'm looking for Kyle Bennett. The doctor said he was in room 303, but it's empty."
The nurse typed something on the computer and then looked at me, "He checked out about an hour ago."
"One more thing, what day is today?" I asked, unsure if I should be asking that question to a random person.
She checked her phone and went back to me, "January 6, 2015."
I thanked the nurse and turned away, my thoughts racing.
January 6, 2015. That’s impossible. This was more than 10 years ago.
I needed to find an explanation as soon as possible, or I would go crazy.
"If I were Kyle, where would I be?" I muttered to myself, trying to remember the boy he had been back then.
But I realized that I didn't know him anymore. The Kyle Imet as an adult was a stranger to the boy he once was. He had been with me during the accident, so there was a chance he had traveled back in time, too, if this is what’s happening right now. So the Kyle I had to look for was a new person.
The walls seemed to close in around me. My breath came in short, painful gasps. The familiar sensation of a panic attack gripped me, something I hadn't experienced since college. I needed air.
I stumbled toward the exit, ignoring a nurse who called after me. The automatic doors slid open, and I gulped in the fresh air, letting it fill my lungs. The world spun for a moment, then steadied. I walked for a while until I found a small garden area in front of the hospital, designed to give patients and visitors a peaceful place to sit outside.
And there, on a bench under a tree, was Kyle. He looked just like I remembered from this time, hair below his ears, light brown with waves that caught the sunlight in a way that made it look almost golden. Too skinny for his height but still athletic-looking, with none of the defined muscles he would develop later. His face still had that softness of youth that would sharpen into the masculine features I'd seen in the office kitchen just days ago or ten years in the future, depending on how you looked at it.
My Kyle. This person in front of me was my boy.
I felt rooted to the spot, unable to move.What if he didn't remember?
Now wasn't the time to doubt. I had to reach him.
Collecting all my courage, I approached him slowly. Apparently, he hurt his left wrist in the accident, as it was in a cast. He was eating something, a cookie from a blue package that looked vaguely familiar. When he saw me, his face lit up with a smile that made my heart ache because I didn’t deserve it. He motioned for me to sit beside him, and I did, carefully maintaining a small distance between us.
"How do you feel?" I asked, studying his face for any sign that he was... different. That he remembered everything.
His eyes, those same blue eyes that had looked at me across the dance floor on our graduation day, across the beach, across the park, across the office kitchen, sparkled with something that might have been mischief. "I feel amazing. Take one of these cookies. They stopped making them years ago. I loved the taste."
My breath caught.Years ago.As if he remembered a future where they no longer existed.
"Kyle." My voice was barely above a whisper.
He looked at me, his expression growing more serious. "What happened?"
I leaned closer, searching his eyes. "What is the last thing you remember before the accident?"
A flicker of uncertainty crossed his face. "If I tell you, won't you think I'm crazy?"
I started feeling a little hopeful. "No, because there's a chance I'm just as crazy."
He gently grabbed my cheek with his good hand and leaned close to my ear, as if even though we were alone at that moment, he didn't want anyone else to hear the words he was going to say. I closed my eyes to feel the contact better, like we weren't in an impossible situation, and I just wanted a little more of him.
"I remember you kissing me so deeply and full of desire," he whispered, "I knew you missed me, and your speech was full of bullshit, but I didn't know that much."
I punched him in the arm, my gaze as serious and angry as possible. I felt almost ridiculous for letting him get so close. After all, if I wasn't crazy, then he was still the same person I'd distanced myself from for so long. "Focus, please."
He hesitated for a moment longer, then took a deep breath while looking at the sky. "The last thing I remember before theaccident was trying to protect you from the explosion in Waldo's company." His gaze came back to me.
"Lily, I don't know how this happened, but I think we traveled to the past somehow. We are teenagers again."
CHAPTER 10
