Tempest (12 page)

“A little. Just from gym class,” she said.

As soon as I placed my arm around her waist, I knew this was going to be difficult, but I wanted an excuse to touch her, even if it was just for a few minutes. She placed a hand in mine and I could feel the nerves flowing through her. Her body was stiff and rigid, waiting for me to make a move.

“Relax,” I whispered.

Her shoulders loosened just a little as I drew her closer to me. I stepped back and she followed along. Her steps moved with mine and I let my nose touch her hair.

We stopped dancing at the far side of the floor as the song ended and she looked up at me, waiting for something.

Instinctively, I leaned my mouth closer to hers, then remembered what she was waiting for. It wasn’t a kiss. I quickly moved my lips next to her ear and delivered a quote from the Dickens novel that was well past the first page. “
When you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you.
”

As I lifted my head, she turned hers toward mine so her mouth just barely brushed along my cheek. I froze when her lips were an inch from mine.

Don’t kiss her
. It was too soon. She’d probably freak. Her eyes closed and I immediately dropped my arm and stepped back, plastering on a confident smirk.

“You were going to kiss him,” Toby accused.

“No, I wasn’t,” Holly said.

“Looks like someone’s going to be cleaning the bathrooms,” Toby sang. “Jackson, I had no idea you were such a player. Do you have a manual on this stuff?”

I grinned at him and then looked back at Holly. Her face was bright red and she turned quickly, walking away from me. “You win, I’ll clean the bathrooms.”

“Holly, I don’t really want you to—”

She put her hand up. “Hey, you played to win. I’d do the same if the tables were turned.”

“You wouldn’t have to do anything,” I blurted out without thinking.

She let out a breath. “You can stop the playboy moves. I get it, you won.”

It was obvious she was angry, and no one knew what to say, including me. I rubbed my temples with my fingers.

“I have to get home. My mom’s going to freak if I’m late.” She grabbed her bag and headed toward the door.

David glanced at me, then jogged after her. “You want me to come over for a while?”

“No, I’m tired and I have to work all day tomorrow.”

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m perfect, David. Why shouldn’t I be? I’ve been charmed by the perfect guy.” She was trying to make a joke of it, but the sarcasm and hurt seeped into her tone.

I sank into a chair and leaned my head against my hands. “Damn.”

“Man, what did you do?” Toby asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Jana said.

All of us stared at her, waiting. We were clueless.

“She practically asked you out and now she thinks she got played. It’s not like it was genuine, you just met the girl last week.”

“Nice, Jana,” Toby said, sarcastically.

“I didn’t mean that he
is
a player, I’m saying that’s probably how Holly sees it.”

I lifted my head and gave her a tight smile. “Great.”

“I don’t think asking guys out is something Holly does often,” Adam added.

“No, it isn’t,” David said, returning to the table.

“I’m such an idiot,” I mumbled.

“Actually, I think you’re a genius. What did you tell her anyway?” Toby asked.

“It doesn’t matter. Are you guys ready to go?”

“I guess so, if you are,” Jana said.

“Yeah, I am.”

The night had been a complete failure. In fact, I might have done more damage than good. I left the gym and headed for the train. I knew as soon as I sat down that I would make another attempt to get back to 2009. Being a part of
this
Holly’s life was just too hard. And I really sucked at it.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2007, 12:05
A.M.

Just seconds before I attempted another jump back to 2009, someone plopped down in the seat beside me.

“Hi, Jackson.”

I turned and looked right into my reflection in Adam’s glasses. “You followed me?”

He crossed his arms, glaring at me. “What are you doing on a train to New York after midnight?”

“My dad works nights in the city, I usually help out.”

“Where?”

“Loyola Academy. He’s a janitor.”

“Like father, like son.”

“That’s right.”

“Bullshit. How did you know my name? Before anyone told you.”

“I’m from the future and we’re friends in 2009.”

He ignored what he took to be a joke. “You know what I think?”

I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes. “What’s your theory, Adam?”

“Government agent.”

No, but I might be the son of one.
“I see. So, I’m not a time traveler, I’m an agent studying your science project because the government wants to steal your theories and use them to make weapons.”

“Well … not weapons.”

I laughed and sat up again to look at him. “I don’t work for the government. I promise. And I have no desire to steal your project or bust you for hacking.”

His face tightened. “I didn’t say anything about hacking.”

“Oh … right.”

“So, you
do
work for the government?”

“Adam, I want to tell you the truth, but you probably won’t believe me.”

He relaxed back in his seat. “Try me.”

I took a deep breath, ready to attempt a very drastic and risky identity switch. “We’ll take this slow. I don’t want you to have a heart attack. First of all, I live in Manhattan.”

“Okay.”

“Do you want to come to my place? I’ll tell you the rest there.”

He nodded, slowly. “Just so you know … I’ve got friends who know exactly where I am, in case I don’t show up later.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure you do.”

*   *   *

Adam looked up at the building with wide eyes. “You live
here
?”

“Yup.”

We took the elevator up. During our ascent, Adam was twisting his hands and darting his eyes around like the Hacker Police were going to jump out at him any second.

“Who’s your friend?” Dad asked when we walked past him in the front room.

“This is Adam Silverman. Adam, this is my dad.”

Adam shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, sir.”

“Jackson, I’m going out of town for a couple days.”

“For what?”

“Business in South Korea. I left you a message earlier, but you didn’t return my call. Someone’s picking me up in five minutes. Will you be okay?”

“Since when do you have business in South Korea?”

His eyebrows lifted as if to say he wasn’t going to talk about this with a stranger present.

“See you in a few days.” I walked down the hall with Adam trailing behind me. I led him to my room and shut the door before pointing to the couch on the far side of the room. He walked over and sat down, watching closely as I pulled a silver lockbox from my desk drawer. After sifting through a stack of pictures, I handed him a few. I had just made prints from my 2009 memory card yesterday, thinking they might seem more real like this.

“Is this—”

“Holly,” I finished.

He flipped it over and looked at the back, then a huge grin spread across his face. “Nice. This is really elaborate. And it’s kinda genius how you tie in my science project. Most people know about the theory of relativity part, but actually taking the next step and throwing time travel at me … very creative.”

“So … you don’t believe your own research?” I knew a few pictures wouldn’t be enough.

“Of course I do, in theory. How did you get these pictures of me? My parents’ computer, maybe?”

“I took them myself. And what do you mean, ‘in theory’? Either you believe it or you don’t.”

“I believe time travel is possible, but with a lot more research and probably technology that doesn’t exist yet.”

“You’re wrong,” I stated flatly.

“It’s not possible?”

“It’s very possible and I can do it.”

He laughed and shook his head. “All right, prove it.”

“What can I say that won’t make me sound like a carnival fortune-teller? It’s the future. You get into MIT and get a 2300 on your SATs.”

“Not a bad score. What else you got?” He leaned back and put his hands behind his head.

I flopped back onto my bed and yanked the journal from my bag before thumbing through the pages. “It’s possible I forgot what you told me to say.”

“Must not have been important.”

“It’s not like I really thought I’d get stuck in the past.” I sat up and grinned before pointing at his chest. “Your dog just died, didn’t he? Like a few days ago?”

“Thanks for the reminder,” he grumbled. “But that doesn’t prove anything. Jana and I were talking about it tonight. You must have overheard.”

“Sorry.”

“How did you meet me, in the future?”

“We worked at a day camp together. Holly did, too.” I watched his face carefully for any indication he believed me, but it was all calm and cool.

“But you must have proved that you could time-travel at some point, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it started something like this conversation. Only we were supervising an all-night campout. The kids were asleep and it was just us. You came up with an experiment and made me jump back and forward again.” I opened my wallet and handed him the memory card. “This has lots of experiment data on it.”

He flipped it between his fingers while I went back to the journal, trying to find the page with my description of that first experiment.

“That was all it took to fool me? My older self must be an idiot.”

“No, you made me do it ten times.” The scribbled cursive at the bottom of the April 11, 2009, entry caught my eye. “Here, check this out! You wrote yourself a note.”

He snatched the notebook from my hand. I watched as all the color drained from his face and he sank back onto the couch. “How did you get this?”

“You wrote it. I don’t even know what it says. Is it Latin?”

“Yeah … Latin.” His fingers froze on the corner of the page.

“What’s it say?”

After a long silence, he jumped into action, flipping frantically through the pages, then finally said, without looking up, “Not important. Forget about it.”

I stared at the ceiling, waiting patiently for the questions that would inevitably follow. Of course Adam would know exactly what to tell himself. Something he would never doubt. I shouldn’t have doubted him, either.

*   *   *

“Jackson, wake up!” Adam stood over me, shaking my shoulders.

It was so bright that I could barely open my eyes. He must have turned on every light in the bedroom. “What time is it?”

“Four.”

With all my excursions into different years, saying it was four meant nothing to me. I walked to the window and saw that it was still dark outside. That’s when I took in the mass of computer parts piled on the floor. Extraneous pieces were strewn all over the room and two monitors now sat on the desk.

“What the hell—”

“Sorry, I borrowed two other computers from around the house to collate your most recent data. The hard drive wasn’t big enough and didn’t work with the memory card you gave me, so I kinda … made my own computer.” He shuffled around, picking up loose items and tossing them into the pile faster than I’d ever seen him move.

I studied his current state closely. His black hair stuck up in every direction, pupils dilated like a crack addict, and he was doing the snapping thing with his fingers. I had seen him like this once before after a six-pack of Red Bull. He could probably be declared insane in this state. “Did you have caffeine?”

He held up a thick stack of papers. “I’ve got some notes to go over with you.”

“Let’s eat first. Was it Red Bull or coffee?” I shoved him toward the door from behind. He didn’t object, but he held the papers to his chest, probably so I couldn’t take them.

“Ready for number one on my list of questions?” he asked, plopping down at the kitchen table.

I grabbed some turkey slices from the fridge and a loaf of bread and tossed them onto the table. “All right, but eat while you talk. Soak up some of that caffeine.”

He stuffed a piece of bread in his mouth and chewed quickly. “Wait … so, in 2009 you’re nineteen and Holly’s nineteen and you’re both freshmen at NYU?”

“No, I’m a sophomore … Holly’s a freshman.”

“Holly’s a junior,” he said, then immediately shook his head. “This Holly is a junior and the other one is in college … got it. How did you meet us in March 2009? We were still in high school, right? Or do we graduate early?!”

“No, you don’t graduate early.… We started camp counselor training in March … it was just a few sessions until the summer officially started.”

“Dude … that’s a little taboo, isn’t it? College guy, hooking up with a high school chick? Oh wait … guess that’s what you’re trying to do now … but worse.”

I sighed, fighting the urge to crawl back in bed again. This all made sense in
my
head. “It’s not taboo. That Holly is only four months younger than me. She’s one of the older ones in her grade and I’m one of the younger ones.… That’s all. Is this really important? And shouldn’t you know this already? You’ve known Holly for how long?”

“Two years … and my brain is moving too fast to hold on to these minor details. Plus, she was born in ’90 and I’m ’91 … and it’s throwing me off. Okay, so you commute from here to NYU? And Holly lives in the dorm? Which dorm? Maybe we should go scope it out?”

“You’re making me really tired,” I said. “I didn’t commute from here. I lived in a dorm both freshman and sophomore year … a different dorm than Holly. But you’ve been here, to this apartment, before … the older you.… I lived at home during the summer and on breaks. Holly’s been here, too … and to my dorm. Anything else? Need to know all of my professors’ names or the path I took to class every day?”

Adam paused for a long moment, staring at the paper in front of him, then finally said, “Nope … not now anyway.”