Transcendence (6 page)

I zipped up the back of the short red dress
and twirled around, feeling the light fabric dance around my legs.
The dress dipped low in the front, and the fishnet stockings
perfected the look of a dancer at the Moulin Rouge. It looked hot
on me, and I knew it. Drew wasn’t going to know what to do with
himself when he saw me in it. When every piece of the outfit was in
place, I smoothed down the skirt, brushed my fingers through my
hair, and opened the closet door to walk back into my room.

Drew sat in the same place on my bed that he
was in when I left to change. My eyes met his dark ones, and a
thrill of joy traveled all the way up my spine. He was so different
from the other boys in Pembrooke, New Hampshire—much more worldly
and sophisticated. He was better looking than most of the guys
around here, too, and he didn’t even have to try. Right now he
looked like he should be modeling for a high-end clothing catalogue
instead of sitting on my bed, waiting to see my outfit for the
Halloween Dance. I also noticed that he looked a little
sad—probably because he missed home. He thought about his past a
lot. Transitioning from living in New York to living in New
Hampshire had to be tough, but I was glad he moved here. He was the
best thing that had ever happened to me.

I wanted to jump on the bed and wrap my arms
around him, just to prove he was really here, but there would be
time for that later. For now I spun around to model the outfit,
fluffing up the skirt with my hands and watching him to see his
reaction. His lips curved into an appreciative smirk, but at the
same time, there was something off in his eyes. Something …
distant.

He’d been that way a lot for the past few
days. I tried a few times to find out why he seemed upset, but he
refused to admit anything was wrong, so I eventually stopped
asking. Hopefully as time passed and he got used to living in New
Hampshire he would relax and not be as moody. For now, as long as I
acted happy and carefree, I hoped my attitude would wear off on
him.

I fluffed the skirt one last time and smiled
at him in a way I hoped was seductive. “You like?” I asked, pulling
the bodice down a little lower so I showed even more cleavage than
before. If that didn’t take the distant look out of his eyes, I had
no idea what would.

“No one’s gonna be able to take their eyes
off you all night,” he said.

“I only care that one person’s looking at me
though.” I took a few dramatic steps forward to stand right in
front of him and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him
closer to me. “I’m the luckiest girl in the school to be going to
the dance with you.”

“About that …” He lowered his eyes, looking
suddenly uncomfortable. “I’m not going to be able to go.”

“What?” I leaned back in surprise, confused
about where this was coming from. “What are you talking about?”

He lifted his eyes back up to meet mine, but
there was a coldness in them that wasn’t there before, making
goosebumps rise over my skin. “My grandparents from London are
flying into New York that weekend, and my dad wants me to go down
to see them,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion, like he didn’t
care at all.

“But you can’t miss the dance.” I pouted,
even though I could feel that any attempts to change his mind would
be futile. Drew wasn’t the type of person I could force to do
something he didn’t want to. That was something I liked about him,
because I hated when guys let me walk all over them, but it could
get downright irritating at times. “It’s the second biggest dance
of the year. You have to go with me.”

He shrugged, and my arms dropped from his
neck, flopping down to my sides. “I don’t
have
to do
anything,” he said, his jaw tense. “I’m telling you that I’m going
to visit my grandparents that weekend. You’ll just have to have a
fun time at the dance without me.”

I sniffed, unable to believe this was
happening. I’d been imagining the night of the Halloween Dance for
weeks—it was supposed to be the first time I told Drew I loved him.
Now he wasn’t even going to be there. “I’m supposed to have a fun
time without you.” I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”

“I think I should go,” he said, grabbing his
backpack from where he’d put it at the foot of my bed when he first
came into my room.

“Yeah.” I reached up to wipe away the single
tear that had started to fall down my cheek. Not that Drew
noticed—or cared. “I think you should.”

I sat on my bed as I watched him leave,
feeling rejected and confused. It sucked that he wouldn’t be able
to come to the Halloween Dance, but even worse was how after he saw
how upset I was about it, he left without trying to make me feel
better. I wiped away another tear, leaving behind a smudge of
mascara on my hand. What was so wrong with me that Drew didn’t even
want to try making this better? It wouldn’t have taken much, just a
promise of something special to make up for the lost night of the
dance, but all he did was leave. I didn’t get it.

I lifted my cell phone off my nightstand and
went to our latest text messages. The last one was sent from him
about twenty minutes ago, saying he was at my house and about to
come in. Not like that lasted long. I stared at the phone, wishing
there was something I could do to fix this.

Way to leave without caring how I feel
about this
, I wrote. I read it over and deleted it. But while
the writing was gone, the curser continued to blink, like it was
waiting for me to type up something brilliant that would make Drew
apologize for treating me so terribly.

I love you
, I typed in its place. I
looked at that for a few more seconds, but deleted it as well. I
didn’t want the first time I told Drew I loved him to be via text
message. Still, I couldn’t leave things like this. Maybe he would
apologize later, but I doubted it. It was up to me to make things
okay between us.

I’m sorry
, I wrote, my thumbs flying
furiously over the keyboard.
You’re right that you should visit
your grandparents instead of going to the dance. I was being stupid
making such a big deal about it. Of course I’ll still have fun. Cya
in school tomorrow <3

I pressed send.

This chapter was in the advanced copy
of
Timeless
I gave to reviewers, but I
removed it before publishing the final version. It slowed the
pacing of the book, and I decided not to have Lizzie tell Keelie
about being reincarnated. So this scene never happened in the
story, but if Lizzie
were
to tell Keelie
everything, here is how it would go down! This chapter would have
occurred after Lizzie’s mom agreed to go to England.

With all of this unbelievable stuff going on
in my life, it was hard to remember that I was supposed to be a
typical sixteen year old high school junior. Ever since the
beginning of the school year when I saw Drew for the first time, my
entire life had changed. But for everyone else who hadn’t recently
discovered that they were reincarnated from Regency Era, England,
and that their best friend accidentally cast a curse to kill them
so they now had to travel back to the past to fix things, life was
still normal.

I reminded myself of that when Keelie texted
me later that night saying she thought Jeremy was interested in
her, and how she wanted to make sure that was okay with me since we
broke up recently.

Seeing that text made me realize something:
Keelie was a kind, considerate person, and I truly wanted to be her
friend. Throughout the years I grew comfortable with the friendship
I had with Chelsea, but it had faults, especially after everything
that had happened within the past few months. I had been afraid to
tell Chelsea about my feelings for Drew, since she had announced
her interest in him first. Luckily, Drew and I had the
reincarnation-bond between us, which eventually brought us together
again, but if circumstances had been normal, what would have
happened? Would Chelsea have gotten the guy, and I would have been
shafted because I was afraid to say something to my best friend
since I didn’t want her to be angry with me? And if I did tell her,
I knew Chelsea well enough to suspect that she would have claimed
that she noticed him first, so I should let her be happy and focus
on mending my broken relationship with Jeremy.

But maybe I wasn’t being fair to Chelsea.
She might have done that before discovering the past lives that
bound us together, but perhaps things had changed with her now. I
wanted to believe that people could change, and that my friendship
with Chelsea could return to normal.

At the same time, I had to branch out and
get closer to other people—people like Keelie, who wanted to be
friends with me. She cared enough about being friends to make sure
it was okay with me that Jeremy was interested in her, even though
I had no claim on him anymore. She also left Shannon’s party early
to help me, even though we didn’t know each other well. On the car
ride back to my house, I’d skimmed over what had happened between
myself, Drew, Chelsea, and Jeremy, because I wanted to keep the
reincarnation stuff secret from Keelie.

Now that I saw the possibility of a real
friendship with her, was it fair to keep so much secret? Could a
true friendship be formed when one person wasn’t being honest with
the other?

It wasn’t difficult to figure out the answer
to that question.

It’s fine with me
, I replied to
Keelie’s text.
What are you up to tomorrow?

I should be working on a paper for class,
but I’m up for distractions!
she said.

Which is why five minutes later, we had
plans to get ice cream the next day.

I couldn’t believe I was planning on telling
Keelie everything. But if I wanted to be friends with her—true
friends—I had to start the friendship off right.

* * *

The next morning, I wasn’t as confident about
my decision as I had been last night. There was a high probability
that Keelie would think I’d gone nuts, which was the same reason I
hadn’t told my mom the full story. But unlike my mom, Keelie wasn’t
a psychiatrist, so hopefully she wouldn’t psychoanalyze everything
I said.

Even though she wouldn’t try diagnosing me
with a mental disorder, there was the possibility she would think
the story was crazy.

Hopefully Keelie had an open mind.

We ordered our ice cream and sat down at a
booth in the corner—as far away from other people that I could
find. I didn’t want others eavesdropping in on this
conversation.

“Are you sure you’re okay with Jeremy asking
me out?” Keelie asked. “If you’re not, I understand. You can tell
me.”

“I’m sure,” I said, meaning it. “Even though
we broke up recently, it had been coming for a while. And remember,
I’m the one who broke up with him, so if he said he’s ready to move
on, he means it.”

She spooned some ice cream into her mouth.
“What
did
happen between you two?” she asked. “If there’s a
reason why I should stay away, you would tell me, right?”

“He’s basically a good person, but we grew
apart,” I said. “We had different interests. I was focusing on
school since junior year is important for college applications, and
doing more with my art. He didn’t understand why I wasn’t as
interested in sports as he was.”

“You did look bored at the soccer game,”
Keelie said with a laugh.

“Because I was!” I said.

“It’s that bad for you to watch?”

“Yep.” I nodded. “I don’t see the point of
watching people kick a ball back and forth on a field. I find it
boring. No offense to people who like it,” I added, since Keelie
liked watching soccer. “It’s just not my thing.”

“I can sort of get that,” Keelie said. “I’ve
never thought about
why
I like watching sports; it’s just
something I enjoy. I guess it’s because I like the unknown … having
no idea who’s going to win, and hoping that sitting there cheering
will encourage our team and help bring them to victory. It’s also
the competition that I like—how passion can trump logic. You never
know how a game is going to end. It’s fun.”

“I never thought of it that way,” I said. I
wasn’t going to turn into a sports fanatic now, but it was
interesting to hear someone’s point of view that was different from
mine. Chelsea only liked going to the games to socialize, and
Jeremy wasn’t well-spoken enough to voice his opinion like Keelie
just did. “It sounds like something Jeremy would think.”

“So you think the two of us will be good
together?”

“I could definitely see it working,” I said.
“You’re a much better fit for him than I ever was.”

“I’m glad you said that,” she said with
relief. “I didn’t want to make things awkward for you if I started
hanging out with him more.”

“It’s totally not awkward,” I assured her.
“I would be happy for both of you—really.”

“Anyway, how are things with Drew?” Keelie
asked. “When I drove you home from Shannon’s party, it sounded like
everything was a disaster and you wanted nothing more to do with
him. I’m taking from seeing the two of you around school that
you’re together now?”

“We are,” I said, although I didn’t know how
to continue from there. How was I supposed to tell her that Drew
and I loved each other in a past life, but we never had the
opportunity to be together, and now we were reincarnated so we
could have a real chance in this life?

I felt ready last night, but now I had no
idea where to begin.

“Is everything okay?” Keelie asked. “You
just got really quiet.”

“Everything’s fine,” I said. “It’s just that
the night of Shannon’s party, when I told you everything that
happened with me, Drew, Chelsea, and Jeremy, I didn’t tell you the
whole truth.”