The painful silence of the hallway was tearing me apart. My eyes were pink and swollen and I had almost backed out of coming to school today. The throbbing in my head was adding to the difficulty this day had brought. Eyes followed me down the narrow school hallway and the whispering groups scattered about, split the students into two different sides; contradicting and drowning out each other. I passed a group of girls, their red faces and tear streaked cheeks turning to me with looks of pure sadness within their eyes. Other select groups were laughing and joking as if nothing tragic had happened the day before. Those giggling morons really pissed me off. If I wasn't careful I could very well snap and punch one of them. Briefly, I felt happy again and I almost laughed out loud at the picture in my head of me running over to a random group of happy students and punching one of them out. But almost as soon as the feeling came, it left once again.
My eyes began to sting once more and I quickly took a deep breath as I neared my locker. I just wanted everyone to go back to their own business and leave their eyes off me.
“Is that her?”
“I heard they were best friends.”
“That's too bad! They were close.”
“She must feel devastated.”
The annoying whispers followed me all around and continued as I slowly opened my dull beige locker. I grabbed my books and closed the metal door before the whispers got louder. Hurriedly, I rushed down the hallway, trying not to pay attention to the eyes and the voices. I wondered how long I would be able to hold up. I felt like I could break down in the hallway at any moment.
Turning around the corner, I saw one of my best friends. Her eyes were puffy and she seemed distant. Suddenly, I couldn't hold it in any more and I ran to her, practically tackling her in the middle of the hallway and breaking down into tears. At first she didn't seem to realize what was happening but soon, I felt her arms slowly wrap around me and hug me tightly. I could feel her warm tears seeping into the cloth on my shoulder, but I didn't care as I was currently doing the same thing to her. I knew the passersby where staring as us, but the throbbing in my head drowned out the feeling of their eyes on my back.
The rest of the day passed by in a blur and by the time I made it into the basement of my house, I was completely worn out. I sighed as I sat down on an old couch. My eyes were dry and I didn't think that I would resume crying any time soon. The reason for my pitiful state was quite simple.
Two months ago, there was a fire that took place in a hotel, the week of spring break. My best friend, Rory, worked there during breaks as a way to earn extra pocket money. He had bragged about how simple and easy it was, as well as being paid a fair amount. We had always joked around about his job and the sort of people that would come in. Sometimes, he would come back with an interesting story about a weird bunch of tourists and we would be laughing for hours. But during spring break, there had been some sort of accident within the hotel that caused a fire to break out. It soon destroyed most of the second and third floors, slowly inching its way throughout the building. There had been a whole week of news about the devastating fire.
The firemen at the scene had assumed that they had gotten everyone out in time and everyone was relieved, but once the fire had been put out and people had gone inside to look for the cause, they found three bodies trapped inside one of the lounge rooms. Apparently, a beam from the ceiling had fallen and had made it impossible for the door to be opened from the inside. Because the fire was so hot, and burned for hours, no one could identify the bodies.
Rory didn't come home that day.
For two months no one could identify the bodies. We all knew that one of them was Rory, but we were all terrified for the day that our theory would be confirmed. Once you knew, there was no going back. The thing about not knowing was that you had a little chance of hope. One little spark in the back of your head asking “What if he wasn't there?” and sending a jolt of hope into your body. But sometimes that little jolt is the beginning of your painful downfall. They had called in a forensic anthropologist to identify the three bodies and finally close the case. Just yesterday the horrifying news came.
I stood up and rubbed my aching head. Maybe if I worked for a while it would take my mind off of it. Slowly, I shuffled over to a pile of large books. I had studied in the time of Rory's absence and read as many books as I could find that would help me build this machine.
Rory had always talked about science fiction and time machines every since he was little. I had always made fun of him for his geeky-ness but a few years ago he came to me with a project. He wanted me to help him build a time machine. The fire had happened when we were almost finishing up and Rory was extremely excited about it.
But now that he wasn't there I feared that the machine would stand idle in the corner until it was found, years later. For these past months I strained my brain reading technology books and figuring out where each part had to be placed.
This was it. Closing my eyes, I slowly plugged in the necessary chords. The machine was designed to make the person using it switch places with themselves from a designated time. The only thing it could not do, however, was go into the future. Since the future has not happened yet, there is no connection shared with the present and therefore, nothing to go into.
I opened my eyes and sighed, peaking at the metallic object before me. It looked almost like a mirror on a platform. There were blinking lights on the frame, each one lit, glowing as proof that each part was functioning.
I used to question why we were making this. I always told him it would never work, but every time, he would just brush it off and tell me I was a “kill joy”. Yet, secretly, I didn't mind. I didn't care that we were doing something geeky and farfetched. I didn't care that I couldn't understand what he was telling me half the time and that I lost countless nights of sleep for something I didn't even believe would work. I didn't care, because we were working on this together.
But now, I was all alone. This cold hunk of metal was the only thing left from him and even if it killed me, I would finish it.
For Rory.
If he couldn't finish it, then I would finish alone. I would finish and get him back. Even if it killed me, that's what I would do. I hadn't realized how much I had grown to love him. How important he was to me. I only realized when I wasn't able to keep him with me any longer.
The night that fire ripped him away from me, I decided that I would finish everything we worked on. That, once I had accomplished his dream, I could forget him and breath again. I was wrong, though, and longed to see his face. I would forget that he was gone. Needing something and saying “Hey, Rory. Pass me that wrench?” and then silently scolding myself.
But today was different. The lights flashed and as I pressed my finger against the start-up button, the machine whirred to life. It hummed, flashing, and brought excitement into this tiny basement. I let out a laugh and couldn't contain my enthusiasm. My smile finally showed, after two months, and I jumped up and down like a little girl on Christmas.
“I did it, Rory! I did it!” I laughed and felt warm tears slide down my face. I wiped them away quickly before gaining composure and taking a deep breath. Silently, I typed in the date and time of my desired destination on the attached keyboard before pressing “Go”. The glass inside the chrome frame lit up with a bright white light. I squinted and walked over to the machine, getting into place.
“This is it. Rory... I hope this works.”
I placed my hand onto the glass. The light had made it warm and my hand burned. Closing my eyes, I prayed that it would work. My body tingled and I waited. Minutes later, I opened my eyes, disappointed to find nothing changed.
I sighed and sat down on the mettle base. Maybe I was just getting my hopes up. I mean, it is a bit illogical, right? A time machine, I scoffed.
“I'm sorry, Rory. I couldn't do it.”
Unexpectedly, the door of the basement opened behind me and someone stepped inside the room.
“Kate?” he asked. “I got some food from the store, are you hungry?”
I covered my eyes with my hands, thinking the familiar voice I was hearing was just another fabrication from my memory.
“Kate?” he asked again.
My eyes shot open and I turned around. There he was, standing in the doorway, his brown eyes staring at me and his eyebrows shifting into a face that questioned whether I was sane or not.
“You okay? You seem kind of spacey...”
I stood up slowly, testing my balance. He came down the stairs and patted my head. “Why are you crying?” he asked. I brought my hand to my face and felt the warm tears as they slid down my cheeks. Despite the salt water leaking from my eyes, I smiled and reached out to him, hugging him with all my might.
“I'm so glad you're back,” I whispered.
“Kate... Katie... Kay...? Stop crying already! I was only gone for like, fifteen minutes!”
Rory could never handle tears.
“I'm sorry.” I laughed quietly, not sure how to contain all the emotions that were flowing out of my body. “Sorry... I just... Was really confused. I mean, how the heck are we supposed to finish this anyway? I have no idea what I'm supposed to do, none of your tech-y talk makes any sense to me,” I whined, trying hard to feign exasperation.
“Same as always,” he grumbled, pushing my arms away.
I sat down on an old bench and watched his work. After grabbing the wrench and picking up some parts off the floor, he droned on about technology. I still couldn't tell what he was saying, even after reading all of those confusing books. He laughed at my cluelessness, throwing me a soda that was cold as ice.
“Hey, Rory?” I asked, fiddling with the aluminum can. He looked at me. “Um... It's spring break, right? So... how about we go do something fun?”
“Come on, Katie, you know I have work tomorrow.” He placed the wrench on a stack of boxes and sat down next to me.
“Please!” My head shot up and I looked him straight in the eyes. He was slightly surprised at my urgency, and his golden brown eyes were wide. “Please... Just call in sick. We haven't gone anywhere together, yet. We... We could go to your favorite places, or maybe even go to a water park so... please, just don't go to work tomorrow.”
His eyes softened and melted into warm liquid gold. “Fine. Whatever you want, okay?” The bench creaked and sunk as he sat down beside me. “I won't go to work, promise.”
I let out a sigh of relief as he placed his arm around my shoulders. The scent that I had missed so much wrapped around me comfortingly. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply. “Thank you,” I whispered.
“Thank you.”
