craziness of that alone was too much to grab on to at the moment. Someone knocked lightly behind my head and I jumped, completely startled.
That’s when I realized I had just been leaning against the door of Starbucks. Again.
In 2007. Exactly where I had left from.
The girl from behind the counter, and from my high school, poked her head outside and stuck something in front of my face.
“You left your cell phone on the counter,” she said.
I took it from her hands and stared at her for a long moment. “It’s 2007, right? Senior year?”
The panic in my voice was such a contrast to the people all around me, strolling the streets of Manhattan on a Sunday morning. Didn’t they know the world had just flipped upside down? Or that it might end in some catastrophic event preventing me from ever returning to the future?
Of course not. Only my world had turned over. Not anyone else’s.
“Yep, it’s 2007,” the girl said to me with a bewildered smile.
Obviously she thinks I’m nuts .
“And that’s a cool phone. Where’d you get it? I’ve never seen that model, and my sister works for—”
“It’s just a prototype. I’ve got a few connections. Shouldn’t even have it out in the open.” I stuffed the phone in my pocket. “Um … I’ll see ya later.”
The rain had slowed to a very light drizzle, so I took off running across the street and toward the park. Nothing could make anything about the last few hours seem normal. The only activity I could do to keep from panicking was to write it all down. Just like I had promised Adam.
Adam. If only I could see him now. Or Holly …
I walked a little ways until I found a tree to sit under and pulled out my journal, hoping to calm myself down. But the thought of those two names had sent my heart racing. Especially the last one. I tried not to think about her … tried to focus on the details. The scientific facts. But the truth was, since the first day I met Holly, when she ran right into me, dumping her smoothie all over my shoes, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. Something I’d never really come right out and admitted.
At first, Holly was just the girl I couldn’t have. Not only did she have a very devoted boyfriend, but she had a million smart-ass comments about the rich, privileged kids we were in charge of. At least she did until she found out I was one of them. That shut her up for a while.
People always want what they can’t or shouldn’t have. That alone seemed to pull Holly and me together like a couple of magnets. And I know it wasn’t just me gravitating toward her. It went both ways.
I had to get back to 2009. My eyes closed and I forced myself to focus every ounce of energy on where and when I needed to be.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Hours later, I was right back in my spot by the tree, writing down everything I could manage. It was a desperate attempt to stay connected, grounded to reality. Plus, this way there’d be a written explanation of my recent adventures for Adam or the future Adam, if someone found me lying dead somewhere.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2007, 6:30 P.M.
In the last forty-eight hours, I’ve made seventeen attempts to get back (or forward, actually) to October 30, 2009, and they all failed. The second attempt threw me back to February of 2006, outside in the middle of a snow shower. I nearly froze my ass off. Everything is jumbled in my head. Sometimes I feel alive, and other times I’m convinced this is some freakish purgatory. There’s too many dates to remember, too many times. Do I even exist anywhere? Am I actually someone if I don’t have a home base?
With all the attempts, I ended up in some random past date. Then I came back here. As if there’s nothing in the future. Like September 9, 2007, is THE END OF THE WORLD. Right now, I’m so exhausted I can’t even think about time travel. Maybe if I just close my eyes for a few minutes …
“Hey, kid. Get up.”
Someone shook my shoulders, then jabbed a
That’s when I realized I had just been leaning against the door of Starbucks. Again.
In 2007. Exactly where I had left from.
The girl from behind the counter, and from my high school, poked her head outside and stuck something in front of my face.
“You left your cell phone on the counter,” she said.
I took it from her hands and stared at her for a long moment. “It’s 2007, right? Senior year?”
The panic in my voice was such a contrast to the people all around me, strolling the streets of Manhattan on a Sunday morning. Didn’t they know the world had just flipped upside down? Or that it might end in some catastrophic event preventing me from ever returning to the future?
Of course not. Only my world had turned over. Not anyone else’s.
“Yep, it’s 2007,” the girl said to me with a bewildered smile.
Obviously she thinks I’m nuts .
“And that’s a cool phone. Where’d you get it? I’ve never seen that model, and my sister works for—”
“It’s just a prototype. I’ve got a few connections. Shouldn’t even have it out in the open.” I stuffed the phone in my pocket. “Um … I’ll see ya later.”
The rain had slowed to a very light drizzle, so I took off running across the street and toward the park. Nothing could make anything about the last few hours seem normal. The only activity I could do to keep from panicking was to write it all down. Just like I had promised Adam.
Adam. If only I could see him now. Or Holly …
I walked a little ways until I found a tree to sit under and pulled out my journal, hoping to calm myself down. But the thought of those two names had sent my heart racing. Especially the last one. I tried not to think about her … tried to focus on the details. The scientific facts. But the truth was, since the first day I met Holly, when she ran right into me, dumping her smoothie all over my shoes, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. Something I’d never really come right out and admitted.
At first, Holly was just the girl I couldn’t have. Not only did she have a very devoted boyfriend, but she had a million smart-ass comments about the rich, privileged kids we were in charge of. At least she did until she found out I was one of them. That shut her up for a while.
People always want what they can’t or shouldn’t have. That alone seemed to pull Holly and me together like a couple of magnets. And I know it wasn’t just me gravitating toward her. It went both ways.
I had to get back to 2009. My eyes closed and I forced myself to focus every ounce of energy on where and when I needed to be.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Hours later, I was right back in my spot by the tree, writing down everything I could manage. It was a desperate attempt to stay connected, grounded to reality. Plus, this way there’d be a written explanation of my recent adventures for Adam or the future Adam, if someone found me lying dead somewhere.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2007, 6:30 P.M.
In the last forty-eight hours, I’ve made seventeen attempts to get back (or forward, actually) to October 30, 2009, and they all failed. The second attempt threw me back to February of 2006, outside in the middle of a snow shower. I nearly froze my ass off. Everything is jumbled in my head. Sometimes I feel alive, and other times I’m convinced this is some freakish purgatory. There’s too many dates to remember, too many times. Do I even exist anywhere? Am I actually someone if I don’t have a home base?
With all the attempts, I ended up in some random past date. Then I came back here. As if there’s nothing in the future. Like September 9, 2007, is THE END OF THE WORLD. Right now, I’m so exhausted I can’t even think about time travel. Maybe if I just close my eyes for a few minutes …
“Hey, kid. Get up.”
Someone shook my shoulders, then jabbed a
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