Rewritten in Time

Chapter 5

The first bell of the day rang, its sharp tone cutting through the quiet like a reminder of the world that still carried on, unbothered by the performance, unmarked by the memories of last night. The clatter of lockers opening, the shuffle of feet, the low murmur of voices—it all blended into the same background noise I’d grown so accustomed to.

But today, it felt different. The walls of the school felt a little colder, the air a little thinner. The fleeting sense of something extraordinary that had clung to me last night—something between us—was slowly fading, like the last note of a song that hangs in the air before it finally disappears.

I pulled my jacket a little tighter around my shoulders as I made my way to class. The halls felt like they were on repeat: the same faces, the same voices, the same jokes. I was a part of it, yet somehow... distant. It was almost like the performance had created a bubble—a space where the world felt alive, and now that it had burst, everything else seemed dim in comparison.

The day stretched on with little more than a flicker of distraction here and there. Jess kept shooting me these knowing glances, the kind that meant she could see something I wasn’t ready to acknowledge. Maya, in her usual teasing way, remarked on my distracted state, asking if I was “finally obsessed with Luca.”

I didn’t have the energy to argue or explain, so I just shrugged it off, making some half-hearted joke about how I wasn’t the one who got peanut butter milkshakes with him last night.

But the truth was, Luca wasn’t just a guy who showed up at the diner after the show. He wasn’t just Luca—the college student with the smile that felt like a sunbeam, the one who had casually woven his way into my thoughts without even realizing it. No, there was more to it than that. He was... something else. Something I wasn’t ready to name yet.

But, of course, he wasn’t there this morning. No surprise. College life, with all its commitments and schedules, never quite synced with mine. As a senior high student, my world was still small—contained within these walls. But Luca? He was out there, somewhere, in a much bigger world. And as the minutes passed, I tried to shake off the feeling that this moment between us had been just that—a moment.

The truth was, today felt... hollow. The usual chatter of my friends, the usual nonsense that made up a day in school, seemed to fall flat. The energy that usually came from our group—Jess, Maya, Lily, and David—was there, but there was a quiet undercurrent of something that no one wanted to address. The performance was over. We had no reason to keep seeing each other anymore, and without it, it was like we were all just back to being the people we had been before. The normal people.

But then, as I slipped into my next class, I saw him.

Luca, standing by the door, his backpack slung over one shoulder, his face a mixture of focus and slight confusion as he glanced at his phone. The college student who had briefly walked into my life, leaving a mark I wasn’t sure how to erase.

And for a moment, everything else in the room faded. The hum of the classroom, the low murmur of conversation, the rustle of papers—it all disappeared. It was just him. And me. Standing across the room, our eyes meeting briefly before I quickly looked away.

Was this normal?

Was this what it was now?

I was supposed to be paying attention to the lesson, but my thoughts were miles away, tangled up in Luca’s quiet presence, his smile from last night, the way he’d looked at me like I mattered. Like it wasn’t just another night at the diner, but something more.

But, of course, the bell rang, the class started, and Luca disappeared into the crowd of college students again. He was a world apart, a world I couldn’t reach, no matter how many times our paths crossed. I couldn’t decide if it was better that way.

The rest of the day dragged on, heavier somehow, like I was still wading through yesterday’s fog. The final bell rang, dismissing us from the dull routine of school, but my mind was still stuck in that classroom, caught on the edge of an emotion I couldn’t place.

“You’re doing it again,” Jess remarked as I packed up my things. “Luca’s not that hard to forget.”

I looked up at her, a half-smile tugging at my lips. “Maybe I don’t want to forget.”

Jess raised an eyebrow. “Oooh, getting bold now, are we?”

I leaned back in my chair, letting out a slow breath. “It’s not that simple. It’s just... weird. We don’t even really know each other. And I’ve got school to focus on.”

Jess threw me a pointed look, one that could read me like a book. “That’s not what I see in you. You’re thinking about him—again.”

Before I could respond, Luca’s voice rang out across the hallway, calling to a friend. I froze, just for a moment, before shaking myself out of the daze I’d been caught in.

“Hey, Cindy!”

I turned to find him waving from a distance, that same easy smile he always wore when he wasn’t taking life too seriously.

And maybe that was it. That smile, that sense of ease, was the thread tying me to something I wasn’t sure how to navigate.

I walked toward him without thinking—because, honestly, if I didn’t, I might’ve just stood there in the hallway forever, suspended in this strange feeling.

He was still smiling as I approached, like nothing had changed.

But something had. Something always did.

“Hey,” I said, trying to sound casual, though my heart was definitely doing more than casually skipping a few beats.

“I, uh, just wanted to say,” he started, rubbing the back of his neck like he was embarrassed, “that last night... it was fun. Really fun.”

I smiled, trying to keep it light. “Yeah, it was. You didn’t completely ruin the performance with that peanut butter milkshake,” I joked.

Luca laughed, his voice warm. “I think it’s safe to say the performance was ruined before the milkshake, but I’ll take the blame.”

We stood there, the moment stretching out longer than it should’ve. The world felt heavy with the unsaid things, with the questions hanging in the air. What now? What happens after this?

But before either of us could say anything else, Jess’ voice rang out behind me. “Come on, Cindy! We’re waiting!”

I glanced back at her, her grin wide with a certain knowing that I wasn’t ready to confront yet.

Turning back to Luca, I gave him a small smile. “See you around, I guess?”

He nodded, his smile still in place, though there was something else behind his eyes. “Yeah, definitely.”

As I turned to join Jess and the others, my heart twisted in that familiar way again.

Maybe it wasn’t over. Maybe it had just begun.