After I Saw His First Love, I Left

Chapter 2

I twisted the hem of my shirt in my fist and nodded. "I'm sorry, Teacher..."

Incidents like this have happened more times than I can count over the past year.

Any time Isadora got in trouble, Eliseo would throw me under the bus to take the fall for her.

After telling Isadora to sit down, the teacher turned her anger straight on me.

"Calixta, the college entrance exam is next year, and you're still slacking off this bad? If you don't want to study, that's on you, but don't disrupt the other students. Go stand in the hallway!"

I kept my head down and complied, heading out to stand in the corridor.

The dismissal bell rang a few minutes later.

When I got back to my seat, Eliseo nudged me with his elbow. "Thanks for taking the heat for Isadora and me all this time."

Before I could respond, he tugged my ponytail hard enough to yank my head to the side.

He leaned in so close I could feel his warm breath fanning my cheek. "The class is going on a group picnic this weekend. Isadora hates hanging around crowds of people she doesn't know. You stick by us the whole time, yeah? Help out with little stuff, shoo off any randos who try to bug us, don't let anyone interrupt our time together. Don't mess this up for me, got it?"

My stomach dropped a little. I just hummed a quiet agreement.

Eliseo grinned, grabbed his basketball immediately, and called his friends to go shoot hoops outside.

I stared at his retreating back, lost in thought.

"Even a lapdog isn't as obedient as you," my desk mate sniped out of the blue.

I didn't snap back at the jab.

I'd resented Eliseo for treating me like a disposable stand-in plenty of times, but all that anger melted away the second I thought of the version of him I knew.

That version was from the future.

I had a terrible temper in that timeline, and would chew him out over the smallest, stupidest things. But he never got mad. He always apologized first, doing whatever it took to calm me down.

I threw tantrums all the time, too. Once, in the dead of winter, I'd demanded donuts in the middle of the night, and he'd run out right away to buy them.

When he came back, he was covered in snow, his hands and feet ice-cold. But he'd tucked the donuts against his chest under his coat, so they were still warm and steamy when he handed them to me.

He'd put up with every single one of my flaws, no questions asked. Those had been the happiest days of my life...

I stared at Eliseo's empty desk, and my eyes stung.

I told myself all this obedience now was just paying him back for how good he'd been to me twenty years from now.

Once I got back to my own timeline, I'd forget about him slowly. It would be fine.

The weekend rolled around fast. I packed wet wipes, bottled water, and all of Isadora's favorite snacks ahead of time, then followed the rest of the class out to the picnic spot on the outskirts of town.

I stuck quietly behind the two of them the whole time. I laid out their picnic blanket, cleaned up their trash, chased off any classmates who tried to come over and chat. I took care of every little thing.

Eliseo only had eyes for Isadora the entire time. He chatted with her softly, patiently peeling fruit for her, and didn't so much as glance my way once.

I stuck it out until the event wrapped up in the evening, and everyone else started heading home. I cleaned up all the mess left behind, hauled the heavy garbage bag by myself, and tramped back home.

After a shower, I curled up on the couch to write in my diary.

I'd only picked up the habit after I ended up in this timeline. Every entry was about Eliseo. I'd also taken tons of photos of him over the time I'd been here.

These were all my memories with him, proof that I'd been a part of his younger life.

Even if our time together now was nothing like I'd imagined it would be.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Sudden, loud knocks on the door made me jump out of my skin.

I got up to open the door, and Eliseo came bursting in, half a bag of leftover desserts in his hand, his face tight with obvious irritation.

My stomach clenched with nervousness.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?"

He raked a hand through his hair irritably, slumping against the shoe cabinet by the entrance, his tone thick with frustration. "Some people were spreading stupid rumors about Isadora and me at the picnic today. She's furious, said she doesn't want to be seen around me anymore."

I froze, a weird, sharp, bitter ache twisting in my chest that I couldn't put a name to.

Eliseo had always been carefree and laid-back, never toning down his wild side for anyone, except Isadora. For her, he was totally flustered and bent over backward to accommodate her.

I was still sitting in silence when he suddenly lifted his eyes to me, his tone, like what he was asking, was the most obvious thing in the world. "Teachers and classmates are all talking, and it's all because there's no one there to head off the gossip. I've got it figured out. For the rest of the month, you stick by us the whole time. Tell everyone you're my best buddy, follow us everywhere, snuff out every stupid rumor before it spreads, so Isadora can feel comfortable around me again."

It hit me all at once. I finally understood why the Eliseo from the future was always so gentle, so thoughtful, so careful to respect other people's boundaries.

All that thoughtfulness, that maturity, that steady reliability? He had practiced every bit of it, bit by bit, just to impress Isadora.

I had begged him so many times back then to rein in his recklessness, to be more responsible and steady. He'd just thought I was sticking my nose where it didn't belong, brushing me off every single time.

But one word of displeasure from Isadora, and he was willing to completely rework who he was.

I tugged at the corner of my mouth, forcing a bitter, wobbly smile. "Okay, I'll help you. You'll get better little by little, become someone good enough for her eventually."

Eliseo sighed in relief the second the words left my mouth. He glanced casually around the living room, and his gaze locked abruptly on the open diary I'd left lying on the couch.

"What's that thing?"

My heart dropped. I scrambled to grab it, panic flaring in my chest. "Don't look at that! Give it back!"

Using his height and longer reach to his advantage, he easily dodged my grab, raising an eyebrow with a teasing smirk. "You're this worked up about it? Now I definitely have to see what's written in here."

I watched him about to flip open the pages, my face burning bright red with panic.

I automatically stood on my tiptoes, bracing one hand on his shoulder as I stretched to yank his wrist away.

"Calixta, what the hell are you doing?!"

Eliseo lifted his hand to shove me away on instinct, the movement so rough that I lost my balance. I stumbled forward hard, crashing straight into his chest.

For a split second, our eyes locked. The whole world went dead silent around us.

The evening wind drifted in through the window, ruffling the hems of our clothes. The air was so still you could hear both our hearts thudding in our chests.

Before I could even process what had just happened, Eliseo jerked back so fast it was like I'd burned him, shoving me away roughly.

His handsome face was tight, his eyes sharp with impatience and open aversion, his voice so cold it could cut ice. "Calixta, can you have some decency? There are boundaries between guys and girls. Don't just lean into me out of nowhere."

That split second of contact felt like a long-lost, warm flicker of the affection I'd missed so deeply. To him? It was nothing but a shameless, inappropriate advance.

Humiliation and bitter ache washed over me all at once. My fingers trembled slightly, and I opened my mouth, but not a single sound came out.

Eliseo tossed the diary back onto the couch carelessly, his face dark with irritation. He didn't even spare me a second glance before turning on his heel and storming out.

BAM!

The heavy door slammed shut, rattling the walls, cutting off every last wisp of what little warmth was left.

I stood frozen on the spot for a long, heavy beat, until the sharp ding of a chattering notification from the computer sliced through the silence all of a sudden.

It was a message from Eliseo, sent to the fake account I ran pretending to be Isadora, just like always.

Eliseo: Isadora, I'm so sorry. There was almost a misunderstanding just now, but I'll definitely keep my distance from everyone else from now on. I'll never do anything to upset you again.

Eliseo: Just wait a little longer for me, okay? I'll fix every last one of my bad habits and treat you right, I promise.

I pressed my lips together, forced down the bitter taste rising in my throat, and typed a single word in reply.

Isadora: Okay.

I shut down the computer, picked up my pen again, and wrote a neat line of words across the page of my diary.

I'll do everything I can to be good to you while I'm in this timeline. I'll keep both the young you and the older you safe in my memories. All I want is for neither of us to have any regrets when the time comes to part.