Chapter 14
Kyle
I'd spent ten years regretting that day in court. Ten years questioning why I helped condemn an innocent boy. Ten years, wondering if I could have changed everything if I'd just believed Lily's word that she had everything under control at her house.
There were things she didn't know. Things I never got the chance to tell her because after the trial, she refused to speak to me again. Things I couldn't explain in that brief moment in the kitchen at Waldo before the explosion sent us back.
Things that had haunted me for years.
Oliver had been part of my group of friends since middle school, along with Tom, Mike, and Jared.
We told each other everything, or at least I thought we did.
I knew Oliver had been in love with Brandy, Leo's current girlfriend, since freshman year, long before she started dating him.
I knew he resented their relationship and would have done almost anything to break them up.
But I never thought he would go this far.
That was crossing a line none of us would have approved of, which is why he never told us about his plan beforehand.
But there was more to the story. Things that never made sense to me, details that gnawed at the edges of my conscience as the years passed.
"Lily," I said softly, breaking the silence that had fallen between us. "I need to tell you something. Something I should have told you years ago."
She looked at me with her eyes still teary from everything she had just confessed to me, and I wanted to swear right there that I never wanted to be responsible for her tears again.
"One of the reasons I left for Sydney after school was because I wasn't sure anymore. About Leo's guilt, I mean." I swallowed hard. "I couldn't stay here, carrying that doubt, seeing your family broken because of my testimony."
Her eyes widened slightly. "What do you mean you weren't sure?"
"I went to see Leo in prison a year after the accident."
"You what?" She stood up abruptly. "You had no right—"
"I know, I know. But I had to. I needed to hear his side one more time, without the lawyers, without the court, just... the truth."
Because after the trial, none of us was sure anymore if we made the right decision. And knowing for a fact that Lily told me she was with him made everything harder every time.
I remembered the visit clearly. The disgusting visitation room. The guards watching from the corners. Leo was thinner than I remembered, with shadows under his eyes, but still with that same gentle demeanor that made the accusations against him seem so incongruous.
"Even though he was in there because of me and my friends, he was kind, Lily.
He talked to me. And he told me exactly what happened that night, detail by detail.
The movie you watched. The snacks you ate.
The time you both fell asleep. Every single detail was consistent with what you had told me a year before. "
I ran a hand through my hair. "No one remembers a lie with that kind of precision. Not after a year in prison, with nothing else to lose. And that's when I knew, beyond any doubt, that he was telling the truth."
Lily sank back onto the bench again, her expression unreadable. "So you figured it out a year too late. What good does that do now?"
"None. It did no good at all. But now we have a chance to change it all. We can prevent the sequence of events that led to Oliver's death and Leo's imprisonment."
"How?" she asked, looking at me with doubt. "We know Oliver recorded my brother, we know the video spread, we know everything that followed. How do we stop it?"
"That's just it," I leaned forward. "I don't think Oliver was the one who spread the video."
She stared at me. "What are you talking about?"
"On Monday, after the party, Oliver came into class and told us about the video.
He was so happy because he was finally going to get Brandy and Leo to break up.
He told us that he showed the video to Brandy privately that night, and she freaked out, and that day she was finally going to break up with him.
But when he was about to show us the video, teacher Florence came and took his phone away, saying that we should be paying attention to class instead of being distracted. "
I could see her mind working, processing this new information. Meanwhile, I continued telling my version of everything that happened.
"Oliver didn't have his phone back until after 2:00 PM, and the video was already spread everywhere before then."
Lily opened her eyes and looked at me in disbelief, but immediately turned to her serious expression, "This doesn't change anything. He recorded the video."
"We can't prevent Oliver from spreading the video because he didn't do it, or so I think, but we can prevent it from being recorded at all. Without video, there would be no way Oliver and Leo could fight at all."
I'd thought about this so many times over the years—the sequence of events, the domino effect that led to tragedy. If we removed the first domino, none of the rest would follow.
"But the party is in February, and it's still January. What would happen if we returned to the present before then? How would we prevent the video from being recorded?" Lily asked.
It was a valid concern. We had no idea how long this strange time-travel situation would last. We could wake up tomorrow back in 2025, with no chance to change anything.
"We have to make sure Jeremy and Leo don't go to that party."
Saying Jeremy's name brought back countless memories. I hadn't considered that he was affected by all of this, too. He and Leo were best friends, and he too suffered greatly from everything that happened.
"Why, Jeremy? Leo would be enough." She responded.
"We can't afford any margin for error. Jeremy is Leo's best friend right now. They go everywhere together. If we convince both of them that going to that party is a bad idea, and neither of them is in the mood to go, then there won't be any problems."
"There's one more thing," I added, "we need to gain their trust so Jeremy can confess his feelings to Leo before the party, and so Leo can handle this conversation in the best possible way so there are no misunderstandings."
"What do you mean?"
"I have a theory about what happened at the party.
" I didn't remember much about the fight between Jeremy and Leo or why it happened, but I did know that they were very good friends up until that point.
After that, their relationship was affected by everything that happened around them.
"I have a feeling Jeremy was jealous of your brother and his girlfriend's relationship, and that day he decided to complain and confess his feelings.
Your brother probably felt cornered by his confession, but then he changed his mind, and everything went to hell. "
"So if we can get Jeremy to confess his feelings to Leo in a more stable and safe environment, we can prevent them from fighting at the party," Lily finished for me.
"Exactly. And if there’s no fight, there’s no video."
"And Brandy?" Lily asked.
I thought about everything she did at that party, how she was with Oliver all the time, and how she didn’t care that Leo and Jeremy made a scene at all. "I don’t think we could stop her from going; she and Oliver had a good relationship, and I’m sure he planned all this just for her."
I could see her mind working, formulating her own plans and approach. "I will take my brother, and you will start earning Jeremy's trust," she said decisively.
"And we will stop the night that ruined our lives," I finished for her.
"And in the meantime?" she asked.
I reached out, cautiously tucking a strand of her short blonde hair behind her ear, half-expecting her to pull away from my touch. She didn't. That small gesture felt like a victory. She didn't reject me as much anymore.
"In the meantime, we have patients in the hospital that we have to take care of, we have tests we need to pass now with excellent grades, and we have ten years of not knowing each other to catch up. I think I have a month to convince you that long hair doesn't suit you like the one you have now."
Lily didn't say anything. She stayed silent for a few minutes, maybe thinking about my words.
But then she stood up to leave, as if nothing I said mattered to her.
I watched her walk away for a few minutes, but just before she disappeared into the bushes, she turned around and said, “The person you miss no longer exists, so get over it. "
She didn't say it in a bad way; her words felt a little broken, as if she regretted that I still believed it was worth it to get to know her again. So I just let her go without saying anything.
I sat there for a long time, contemplating the city and thinking about those last words. "The person I missed no longer existed," she had said with such seriousness and ease, and yet, I felt like it was all a lie.