"That's why I can't let everything that happened occur again, Kyle. You must help me avoid the accident."
There was silence between us as if he felt the same thing when he saw Oliver. Like he knew we were here not to make the same mistakes again but to fix them. I knew, deep down, that no one with the power to change the past would just sit back and do nothing, because we all want at least a chance to never repeat the stupid things we once did, and he was finally considering it.
Then, he finally replied, "I agree with you."
"We are finally on the same page," I said, extendingmy hand to him, "Come on, let's skip this day of class, too; I don't think we will miss much."
He smiled and took my hand back, making something inside me realize that even though I wasn't the same, my young body still reacted the same way to his touch. How could a simple touch make me feel so at peace? Like everything was going to be alright?
I didn't want the answer to this question, so I simply started walking.
We escaped school easily, slipping through the side entrance at the gym where the security cameras had been broken for months. Some things never changed, not even in alternate timelines, and I was glad for it.
We walked in silence, both knowing exactly where we were headed. Neither of us suggested a place, and yet we both felt that was where we should go.
The park was about fifteen minutes from school, tucked away behind an old church that nobody visited anymore. There was a small clearing with a single bench overlooking the city, sheltered by oak trees that had been there longer than either of us had been alive.
We used to come here often that year to talk, laugh, and escape everything else.
It was a January day when we discovered it, just like now. We had both recently arrived at the hospital to volunteer, and we started talking about all the things we wanted to accomplish there. One conversation led to another, and by the end of the workday, we didn't want to leave each other's side.
He was the one who suggested we come here, and after that day, we came every day after the hospital for at least one hour to escape everything and just talk.
I never came back after what happened. This place held so many memories that I could not be at peace here. It was our spot. Our sanctuary. And somehow, being here now, in these younger bodies but with our adult minds, felt both right and weird at the same time.
None of us said anything when we sat on the bench as if we were both waiting to see who would speak first. Kyle took a deep breath, about to say something, but I cut him off. "First of all, never kiss me again."
I needed to protect my heart above everything, especially if we were going to figure all this out together. Ten years might have passed, but the pain still felt fresh. We never had a proper ending, and some things still hurt me deep down, no matter how much I didn't want to admit it.
"I'm sorry," he replied, his eyes dropping to his hands. "I wasn't thinking clearly. It's just... seeing you in that kitchen, after all those years of wondering what happened to you, what you were doing, if you were happy... it was overwhelming. But you're right. Everything is complicated enough without adding that to the mix."
He paused, and I could see him struggling with what to say next, but then, he finally concluded, "and I'm sorry for not being able to stop anything that happened years ago."
The dam broke. All the emotions I'd been holding back for years came rushing out. The script I had in my mind disappeared, and I suddenly found myself saying everything my heart had accumulated.
"Do you have any idea what that did to me? To my family?" My voice was low but intense. "You were supposed to be the one person I could count on, the one person who would believe me no matter what. I told you I was with Leo that night. I told you we watched movies until past midnight, and that we fell asleep together. That he couldn't have been at Oliver's house. I knew for a fact that he wasn't responsible."
"I know, Lily?—"
"No, you don't know!" The words burst out of me. "My brother has spent ten years in prison for something he didn't do. Ten years, Kyle. Do you know what happens to a sixteen-year-old kid in prison? They broke him. They took everything from him."
I was shaking now, tears streaming down my face. "Leo lost everything because of what happened at that party. Because Oliver couldn't mind his own business. Because he had to destroy my brother's life for his own selfish reasons. And then, when someone finally gave Oliver what he deserved, my brother took the fall."
I stood up from the bench. I couldn't just sit there with everything I was feeling inside me.
Ten years ago, Oliver threw a Valentine's Day party at his house. Something happened that night that changed everything. By Monday morning, my brother's world had completely fallen apart. Oliver had made sure of that.
That week, Leo's life became a living hell. Everyone was talking about him, whispering in the hallways, looking at him with pity and disgust. My family was in shock. Leo fell into a depression so deep I barely recognized him anymore. He stopped eating, stopped talking, stopped being the gentle, caring brother I'd always known.
Then, a week after the party, Oliver was found dead on the street in front of his house. And suddenly, everyone looked at my brother—the boy who'd been publicly humiliated, who'd been visibly broken and angry all week. And saw an obvious suspect.
Kyle looked stricken. "I didn't know what to believe back then. Oliver was my friend, too. The evidence?—"
"The evidence was planted! Someone drove to Oliver's house, ran him over, and left him there to be found. Someone who knew Leo had a motive, who knew aboutthe fight in the locker room, who knew he'd been suffering all week, and who wanted Oliver dead. And that was not my brother."
In the past, I told Kyle that my brother was with me until he fell asleep. That there was no way it was him. I begged him not to testify against Leo. And he didn't believe me. He chose to tell the jury about what Oliver had done to my brother at that party, about how destroyed Leo had been that week. About the confrontation they'd had in the locker room. Kyle's testimony was key to putting my brother in jail. So I lost them both in the process.
"You have to understand," Kyle said softly, "from where I was standing, it looked?—"
