“Ginny? Ginny!”
I snapped back to reality.
“What are you staring off into space for?
Liam’s here!”
I looked at Chloe, her face full of concern,
felt my eyes sting.
This is incredible.
I was back at the reunion.
and I
I looked up, and sure enough, Liam’s eyes met
mine.
I knew what he was about to say:
Excuse me, do I know you?
“Why are you crying?”
His voice echoed with my memory.
I stared at him.
“What?”
Unlike the last timeline, he didn’t ask me who I
was. Instead, he frowned and repeated the
question.
“Why are you crying?”
He moved like he wanted to reach out, but he
stopped himself when he noticed where we
were.
Then he looked away, frowning even more.
I touched my face and noticed tears were
already running down.
“Ginny?” Chloe noticed something was wrong.
“What’s up? Are you feeling sick?”
“No, I’m fine…” I took a deep breath, wiped my
eyes, and tried to make it seem like I had
something in my eye.
This was so embarrassing. How could I cry in
front of him?
He must think I was a total weirdo.
I glanced at him.
He was talking to Chloe, who worked at a
fashion magazine. She was probably the only
person at the reunion who had any professional
contact with Liam, so it made sense that Chloe
was the one to connect with Liam back then.
The reunion had been planned for a month, and
lots of people had shown up because they knew
く
Liam was coming.
I kept my head down and ate my dinner, just
happy to see him.
I wouldn’t die, and he wouldn’t either.
Later on, the reunion organizer walked over to
Liam with a drink.
“Dude, we didn’t think you’d actually come!
Thanks for being here!”
Liam smiled and took a sip, doing his best not
to be a jerk about it.
The organizer’s eyes landed on Chloe and me,
He looked like he was trying to remember
something.
“Wait… Ginny?”
When I nodded, he got excited,
“It is you! We thought you just disappeared
after you transferred schools!”
“And you were Liam’s desk mate junior year!”
Liam immediately looked at me.
“Is that so?” He said, his voice as flat as it
could get.
“I don’t remember that at all.”
My food had gone cold.
I swallowed, feeling a weird tightness in my
throat.
4
I’d been gone, but not by choice.
One day, I was there, planning the future with
my friends. The next, I was gone.
く
The only one I kept in contact with was Chloe.
Her family knew what happened, but she never
brought it up.
Then, a year later, Liam was on a TV show,
winning the whole thing.
His name was suddenly everywhere, and the
face I knew so well was on every television
screen. He was in every store.
Just like that, I went from the girl who shared a
desk with him to one of a million fans.
That’s when I finally admitted that I liked a guy
named Liam.
Long–distance was tough.
I must have opened his chat a hundred times,
just to stare at our old conversations.
Ginny, where are you?
Ginny, you’re late.
Ginny, what happened?
Ginny, it’s snowing, bring an umbrella.
There were a bunch of missed calls.
The last message was from midnight, about
nine hours after I was supposed to meet him.
Ginny, I’m not waiting for you.
That night was New Year’s Eve.
95
We were supposed to meet, but I didn’t show.
