Kyle: Happy week, love! From now on, we have to focus on getting back to our timeline. Any ideas?
Lily: Good morning. No, thank you. I'm loving sleeping more and not having to work.
Kyle: I'm serious, Lily.
Lily: Me too.
Hidingfrom Lily what I already knew about her brother and Jeremy had been one of the hardest things I'd had to do all weekend. I never wanted to lie to her again. Things were just starting to feel right between us. But I didn't want to worry her without knowing for sure if there was anything to be concerned about. The last thing I wanted was to send her spiraling into panic mode over something that might noteven matter.
I knew how her mind worked, and I was sure that if I told her what Jeremy had confessed to me in the park, she'd completely lose it.
I could only hope that no one had seen Leo and Jeremy's romantic moment, and that everything would remain normal so we could focus on what truly mattered: our relationship and finding a way back to our reality.
This was the real problem we had, the one we'd been putting off time and time again. We were living a life that didn't belong to us, and no matter how happy and comfortable we felt in this situation, this was a timeline that was never meant to be ours.
Now that we have no immediate worries and no pressing regrets, we should focus our energy on returning to our present.
I walked into my first class of the day and saw my friends at the back of the room, surrounding Oliver, who was telling animated stories about his party. He seemed unusually happy for this early in the morning, which I initially attributed to the fact that he'd be the center of attention for the rest of the week.
Something about his energy felt familiarly dangerous.
"I was just waiting for you," Oliver said, rising from his seat to greet me with a grin. "Sit down, today is going to be a glorious day."
"Why's that?" I started having flashbacks of this exact interaction from my real past. Everything was happening exactly the same way. But it couldn't be for the same reason. This time, Oliver didn't have a controlled scenario, and this time, he didn't have any video.
Or did he?
"Oliver is absolutely convinced that Brandy is finally going to break up with Leo," Mike explained with asmirk.
"I was with them yesterday. They seemed fine, same as always," I said carefully.
"She didn't know Sunday morning what she knows now," Oliver replied, practically radiating satisfaction.
My blood ran cold. "And what is she supposed to know?"
I played dumb, even though I had a sinking feeling I knew exactly what he meant. Part of me desperately didn't want to believe that Oliver had somehow found Leo and Jeremy in the car, but the situation was becoming increasingly obvious.
We'd screwed up again. The past was repeating itself. Lily and I hadn't achieved anything.
"Why don't I show you instead?" he said, grinning, and pulled out his phone.
I didn't need to see what was on his screen to know what he was about to show me. My only option now was to get that phone away from him and destroy the evidence.
So before he could press play, I lunged forward and snatched it from his hands.
His expression immediately shifted from smug to furious. "What the hell is wrong with you, Kyle?" He tried to get his phone back, but I wouldn’t let him, so we started struggling. "Don't make me think you prefer your new friend of a few weeks over your best friend of a lifetime!"
"It's not that, Oliver. You're not thinking clearly about the consequences. Why don't you calm down, and we can talk about this privately?"
"I have nothing to talk to you about. Give me the phone before things get ugly."
I wasn't about to give it back. We continued wrestling for it while Mike and Jared tried unsuccessfully to separate us.
"What is going on here?" Florence's sharp voice cut through the chaos as she entered the classroom, clearly furious over the fight.
Oliver immediately froze, and we both stoodmotionless as Florence looked between us with the kind of teacher glare that could stop a riot.
"Well?"
