four
T he sudden recollection of that fateful day, the events that had led up to that incident, the fear she had felt, caused Maddy such a violent whiplash that she felt the urgent need to sit down or risk crumbling on the questionably clean floor.
The only problem was that there was a very angry and very young Nate still holding her arm, with a scowl on his very pretty face, so sitting or crumbling would probably have to wait.
Had he asked her a question?
“What did you do?” Nate pressed again.
Oh yes, that was the question.
“What did I do?” Maddy quipped back at him tentatively, trying to gauge the chances of this guy popping a blood vessel right in front of her eyes.
“Do you think this is funny?” Nate fumed, his expression darkening even further.
“I’m not even sure what this is supposed to be,” she said.
The thing is, Maddy really wasn’t sure why this high-school version of Nate would appear to be so angry with her, since she was sure that their paths had hardly ever crossed when they’d attended the same school. Unless…
Unless he’d actually recognized her during those brief, final moments when they’d looked at each other, or even today somewhere in the school corridors, and everything had come back to him just like it had happened with her.
Glancing at him now, Nate seemed to be gritting his teeth really hard with the way his jaw was clenching.
He certainly looked angry enough to be remembering everything.
He let her arm go abruptly and started pacing in front of her, shaking his head, and drawing deep, calming breaths.
Which gave her the chance to study him for a bit without being creepy.
Maddy hated stereotyping, but she and Nate were actual representations of what being on opposite sides of high-school life was like.
Maddy had always been the quiet type who kept to herself, introverted as all hell, with barely any friends to her name.
While Nate had always seemed to be at the center of a group, surrounded by guys and girls who vied for his attention and his company.
At least, that’s what Maddy assumed from what she’d seen because they didn’t know each other personally.
They knew each other as well as two people who attended the same school did.
They might have seen each other, even said hello to one another or know their name, but ultimately, they ran in different circles.
For example, Maddy knew that Nate was the quintessential athlete. Well, he certainly had the body of an athlete, which was completely logical since she remembered him playing every sport in existence.
He was tall, much taller than her, and she couldn’t help but notice his broad shoulders, trim waist, and shaggy chestnut hair just this side of in need of a haircut.
Hair through which he was constantly running his hands right now and was pretty much standing every which way.
He still had a face though that could make her stupid.
Nate suddenly stopped in front of her again and Maddy snapped her eyes back to his, as innocent as ever. No reason for him to know where her thoughts had wandered off to.
“Madison,” he said in a low voice, seemingly calmer now.
“Yes?”
“Today, I woke up in my bedroom, more specifically in the house I used to share with my family. I assume the same thing happened to you?”
Maddy had a feeling he wasn’t done so she just nodded sincerely.
“Except the last thing I remember is trying to save both our asses from that car. If anything, I should have woken up in a hospital bed, not several years in the past.” His voice was starting to rise in volume, getting visibly agitated.
“You remember it all, too, don’t you?” His expression held an almost imploring look.
Maddy nodded again before saying, “I do.”
Nate’s gaze sharpened. “Then do you have anything to do with this?”
Maddy sucked in a breath, her eyes widening in disbelief.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Did you cause all this?”
Wow. It seemed there would be two angry people in this room in 3, 2, 1.
“You think I did this. That I somehow brought us here.” Maddy let out a sharp, humorless laugh. “Right. Well, if I had, do you really think I’d still be stuck here, wasting my breath in a dingy school lab?” She shot him a glare, her nerves fraying. This day couldn’t end soon enough.
She crossed her arms. “Do you think if I actually had time manipulation powers, I would choose to relive high school?” She scoffed, shaking her head. “No, you know what?” From the corner of her eye, she saw Nate shifting uncomfortably, his expression turning sheepish. Good . But she wasn’t done.
“I wish I could go back in time, just so I could save myself from this stupid conversation. Hell, while we’re at it, why stop there? Telekinesis would be great right about now, so I could fly that beaker straight to your head. Which you would no doubt deflect, of course.”
She exhaled hard, as if she’d just run a mile. And she hated running. Her face burned—whether from anger or embarrassment, she wasn’t sure. A sinking suspicion told her she’d been waving her hands around like a lunatic the entire time. Fantastic.
Daring to peek at Nate through her eyelashes, Maddy was confronted with an expression that was less contained anger and sheepishness, and more amused bewilderment, like the way someone would watch someone else lose their shit. She didn’t find that look particularly flattering.
“Are you done?” Nate asked.
“Yeah, pretty much,” she said, deflating immediately.
“Alright, since we’ve apparently established that you had nothing to do with this,” he started, throwing her a pointed look, “do you have the faintest clue on how this could have happened or even why?” he finished.
“Nope. I woke up today in my childhood bedroom, like you did, and the rest is history,” she shrugged.
Nate held her gaze for a bit before saying, “You seem remarkably okay considering the situation.”
Maddy frowned. “That’s what you got from my verbal meltdown five minutes ago?
That I’m okay?” She scoffed. “Dude, nothing about this is okay. But I have read a looot of books where strangest things have happened. Like a lot. In fact, the number is so great that I’d probably feel almost disappointed if nothing weird ever happened in my life.
” She considered that for a beat. “Would I have preferred it if it had been a vampire lord who had manipulated time to save me and sweep me of my feet, and then bring me to his imposing castle where I would be forced to endure his constant care and adoration? Sure. But I landed myself here, instead. To the land of school nightmares.” She paused. “Quite a downgrade if you ask me.”
She then turned to Nate. “Are you perhaps secretly a vampire lord?”
Nate was looking at her as if he was seriously re-evaluating the state of her sanity while resigning to the fact that he was probably doomed.
“Not that I know of.”
“Pity,” she shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”
“Are you always this weird?” Nate asked, dumbfounded.
“More times than not.”
Nate looked at a loss for words and was probably grateful to be saved by the shrill sound of the school bell calling them back to class.
Maddy started to move towards the door but Nate was still blocking her exit.
She knew they’d resolved absolutely nothing and she could see her own complicated emotions reflected in Nate’s expression.
She didn’t know how he would take it but she decided to make a first step towards a sort of joint front.
Maybe they could figure things out together.
“Hey,” she said, tilting her head up so she could see his face better.
“How about this? Why don’t you give me your number and we can talk later or meet up or something?
Maybe we can put our heads together and come up with a game plan.
” She knew that there was hesitancy in her voice and she wished she could sound surer, but right then, that was all she could do.
Nate’s eyes were dark in the semi-lit lab, his face almost unreadable.
A few seconds passed until he sighed and, resigned, he handed her his phone to type in her digits.
She did, and went to leave but not before she tried to hold his gaze unflinchingly in an effort to communicate a calmness that she did not really feel either.