“Doing anything over the summer?” I asked.
“Building houses with Habitat for Humanity before I leave for UF,” he said. “I convinced Priya to join me. It’s not quite the kind of quality time she was hoping we’d spend together, but she seems enthusiastic.” Dustin slapped my arm playfully. “Speaking of UF, did you make up your mind about college?”
“UC Boulder,” I said.
“I’m going to miss you, Pinks.”
“You could come. Pot’s legal in Colorado.”
Dustin rolled his eyes. “Which is so wasted on you.” He glanced at his parents again. “But, no. My parents would sell everything they owned to send me if I asked, but I can make this work. Besides, Calvin’s going to UF too, so at least I’ll know someone.”
I hadn’t known that about Calvin, but I was glad. “Good for him.”
The stress of not knowing what horrifying stories his parents were telling Principal Brzezinski was beginning to become too much. “I should . . .”
“We had a good run, didn’t we, Dustin?”
“The best.” Dustin flashed me one last stoner grin before trotting over to join his parents.
? ? ?
I zipped through the crowd looking for Lua, stopping whenever someone I knew grabbed me to tell me how crazy all this was and how they were going to miss me even though we hadn’t known each other well. And I let them, because it was the end of one chapter of our lives and the beginning of another, and everyone deserved to leave with happy memories.
I spotted Calvin and his father across the parking lot, hanging out with some older people I assumed were his grandparents or other assorted relatives.
After I’d stepped through the doorway, the next thing I remembered was waking up in my empty room in my old house, and I’d driven immediately to Calvin’s place. He hadn’t seemed surprised to see me, but he didn’t remember anything that had happened between us other than working on our roller coaster. To him I was nothing more than his lab partner in a class he no longer had to suffer through.
Calvin’s memory of me wasn’t the only thing that had changed. Rather than me spilling his secret to a therapist I’d never visited in this reality, Calvin had been the one to report Reevey to the police. I’d read in my journal that he had shown up at a/s/l that first night, but he’d never mentioned Tommy, so I hadn’t chased him into the boys’ restroom and caught him cutting himself; we’d never made out or had sex or become anything more than friends; and Flight 1184, which I’d never purchased a ticket on, had landed safely in Seattle on August 21 at 7:03 a.m.
Oh, and the universe was expanding.
I watched Calvin pull his graduation gown off over his head. Underneath he’d worn khaki shorts and a bright blue button-down shirt.
Calvin saw me and waved. I waved back.
I missed him. He’d swum into the ocean to find what was on the other side, and had discovered the life he deserved. I could have told him all the things we’d gone through in whatever bizarro reality I’d spent the last few months living in, and he might have believed me, but he’d earned his happiness and I refused to take it away from him.
“Congratulations, Ozzie.”
I turned around to find Ms. Fuentes standing alone. She was wearing a stylish-for-her dress and clip-on shades over her giant glasses.
“Thanks, Ms. Fuentes.”
“Sad to leave school behind?”
I laughed. “Not really. But you were definitely my favorite teacher, and I learned a lot in your class.”
Fuentes beamed. “That’s the best compliment you could have given me. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Did you decide on a college?” she asked. “I saw in the program you’ve been accepted to a wonderful array of schools.”
I nodded. “UC Boulder. They’ve got a great English department.”
“Sounds like you’ve got a plan,” she said. “But if you ever grow tired of reading dusty books, I think you have a real knack for designing roller coasters.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Between you and me, I honestly don’t know what I’ll end up doing.”
“Don’t worry about it, Ozzie. You’ve got the rest of your life to figure it out.”
? ? ?
I finally found Lua and Trent hanging out alone. Trent didn’t call me any names when he saw me, and nodded when he left.
“Still want me to believe there’s nothing going on between you and Trent?”
“Yes,” Lua said. “Because there’s nothing going on.” I frowned and glared down my nose at her. “Look, he needed someone to talk to, and I don’t mind listening. Anyway, it’s not like either of us is relationship material.”
“If you say so.” I held up my hands in surrender. “You ready?”
“Not quite.” Lua made me endure a few more pictures, this time with Dinah behind the camera, before we finally walked to my car.
The moment Lua climbed into the passenger seat, she plugged her phone into my stereo.
“You sure you want to do this?” she asked. We’d both tossed our caps and gowns into the trunk. She’d worn a glittery corset and leggings under her gown, like she was about to play a show.
“I’m sure,” I said. “Are you sure? You don’t have to come.”
“Fuck that, Oz. You go, I go.” She snapped her seat belt into place. “But we have to be back by August first so I have time to practice with the band before the tour.” She held up her hand. Tiny pins stuck out of her skin around the stitches that ran the length of her finger. “And I have to do my finger exercises so I can play.”
“August,” I said. “We’ll be back by then.” I started the car but didn’t put it into drive. I just sat there with my hands on the steering wheel.
“Ozzie?”
“Hold up,” I said. “There’s one last thing I need to do.” I hopped out of the car and dodged through the crowds of smartly dressed students and their families. I searched their faces until I found him.
And I had. I’d found Thomas Ross.
It wasn’t the first time I’d seen him since I’d stepped through the void and returned to this world, but it was the first time I’d worked up the courage to speak to him. I still wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but I had a lot of theories. The one I thought most probable was that I’d somehow been sucked into an unstable parallel world shaped by the feeling I’d lost Tommy. I don’t know if I created that world, but I did know that even if Tommy didn’t want to be with me anymore, I never wanted to live in a world where he didn’t exist.
Tommy stood beside his mom talking to Dr. Eisenhauer, his old debate coach. He smiled when he saw me. I smiled back.
“Hey,” he said, after he’d trotted over to where I was standing.
“Hey.”
“I wanted to see you, but I didn’t know—”
“It’s all right, Tommy,” I said.
“You don’t hate me?”
I shook my head. “Never.”