Until We Meet Again(42)
I’ve done it. I’ve broken the one rule I knew I shouldn’t break.
And yet I don’t feel regret as much as a horrible emptiness.
Lawrence pulls me back a little to look into my eyes. “You
must be mistaken,” he says, but he doesn’t sound very convinced. My oracle-like words seem to have rattled him.
I shake my head. “You have no idea how much I wish I were mistaken. But I cross-referenced with a few other newspapers
to confirm. It happened. It…will happen. In ten days.”
Lawrence stares out at the ocean. “Good God.”
Nothing could hurt me more than the look on his face. Fresh
tears sting my eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Lawrence. I had to tell you. I know it goes
against everything I said before. I know we shouldn’t mess with
time, but we can’t let it happen.”
A dazed, distant look glazes over his eyes. The color drains
from his cheeks. “I don’t…” His voice fades into the wind. He
looks back towards the house, voice trembling. “I have to go.”
“Lawrence, wait!”
But he doesn’t turn back. As he staggers back toward the
beach, I realize I’ll probably never see him again.
Chapter 16
Cassandra
y cell phone rings just after noon. I’m still in bed.
M
Not asleep. I’m lying under the covers with my eyes
closed because they’re sore from crying. It’s been a day and a
half since I last saw Lawrence. Not even two days since I told
him, and yet it feels like two years.
So when the ringtone blasts into the silence of my room, I
spring out of bed, hoping it’s him. Then I remember that it
couldn’t possibly be him and my heart sinks. It’s Jade. I consider letting the call go to voice mail, but at the last second
I answer.
“Hi, Jade.”
“Hey there,” she says. “You haven’t sent me ten texts a day
lately. So, I figure you’re either finally having a good time or
you’ve died in some tragic accident.”
Funny she should mention tragic deaths…
“Please tell me you found yourself some New England hottie
to pass the time.”
“Ha,” I say, bitterly.
“Come on, Cass. You’re telling me you can’t find one acceptable member of the male species out there?”
“I’m not telling you that.”
“So, you found a guy then?”
I flop back on my bed, staring at the ceiling.
Jade interprets my silence. “Oh my gosh,” she gasps. “You
did, didn’t you? You totally got yourself a boyfriend!”
“I wouldn’t call him a boyfriend exactly.”
“Cass! This is fabulous!” She sighs. “Summer love. C’est
magnifique!”
Her joy only twists the knife in my gut.
“Tell me everything,” Jade says. “I want every minute detail.”
I wish I could tell her. But there’s no point in trying to explain
how I’m falling for a guy from 1925. Still, I ache to share this
grief with someone.
“He’s amazing,” I say.
Jade gives a happy little squeal. I close my eyes and picture
Lawrence. “Trust me when I say you’ve never met anyone like
him. He’s smart, deep…different.”
“And hot? Is he hot?”
“Very.”
“I’m stunned. Seriously. I’m so happy for you, Cass.”
“Well, don’t be. It’s all over now.”
“What?”
I turn over on the bed. Through the closed curtains of my
window, I can see a single line of sunlight. The same sun
shining on the beach. The same sun shining on 1925 and
Lawrence.
“We broke up.”
“Why?”
“Because. It’s complicated. Trust me.”
Jade sounds outraged. “You have to tell me. What guy in his
right mind would break up with you?”
“He didn’t. Not really. It wasn’t like that.”
“Well, what was it like?”
I search for the words to most closely convey the situation.
“He’s…leaving in nine days. And I’ll never be able to see him
again. Or talk to him.”
“Why? Is he going to Mars or something? Good grief, Cass,
I’m sure he’ll have a cell phone.”
“He just won’t, okay? It’s not his fault. That’s just the way it
is. We decided we might as well cut it off now. Before anyone
gets hurt.”
Jade is quiet for a moment. Then I hear her scoff in the angry
way she does when faced with social injustices.
“That’s ridiculous, Cass. And you know it.”
I flop my face on the pillow. It’s pointless to try to explain
this to her.
“If you guys care about each other, you fight for it,” she says.