The Return (Book One in the Wattpad Featured Return Series)

Chapter Three

2014

"Yoo hoo! Earth to Ellie!" Caroline waves her hands in front of my face and I blink up at her from my desk.

"Listen, I know we all don't love school as much as you do," she teases, "but some of us want to get out of here. You know, see where the day takes us."

"You gotta be kidding me!" I raise my eyebrows. "It's not even fourth period yet."

"Oh, please!" She takes me by the arm and tugs me up from my desk. "Do I need to remind you of the facts again?"

"Ugh," I groan. "No."

Caroline loops her arm in with mine and I reach down and grab my bag before she tows me out of the classroom. We make our way into the busy hallway, where she weaves us around the crowd towards the quad.

"Fact number one," she states, ignoring my protests and holding up a finger as we zig-zag through a swarm of freshmen boys. "You have one of the highest GPAs in our entire grade without even trying, which frankly is disgusting."

I try to disagree with her, but she isn't finished.

"Fact number two," she talks over me. "It's your birthday tomorrow, and you are seriously overdue for some fun."

We exit the building and step out into the crisp autumn air, heading for the field behind the gym. It's the only place on campus where you can sneak into the parking lot without getting caught, thanks to a rip in the wire fence, and Caroline uses it often.

She releases my arm, and I tighten my jacket around me as she turns around, walking backwards so that she can face me while she speaks.

"Oh! And we can't forget all-important fact number three..." Her green eyes sparkle with excitement and she leans towards me, whispering under her breath, "Apparently, you've done all this before."

With a playful wink, she starts to laugh, and I stomp around her, walking at a pace that I know her shorter legs can't keep up with. I hate when she brings this up in public, and she knows it. Of course, the only person to blame here is me. I was the one who stupidly told her the truth about myself when we were thirteen.

It wasn't like I had planned on it, but we had already known each other for eight years in this lifetime, and it seemed like the right thing to do. We were at my house having a sleepover, and Caroline had pulled out a Ouija board from her overnight bag declaring that we were going to contact the dead. At first, I didn't want anything to do with it, but after ten minutes of Caroline's incessant nagging, I finally gave in, and reluctantly played along.

After what felt like an eternity of accusing each other of moving the dial, we finally got the hang of it and Caroline asked if she was going to fall in love.

I tried to hold back my laughter as the dial slid over to "yes" and Caroline squealed with delight.

"Awesome," she sighed before shoving the dial towards me and telling me that it was my turn.

When I said she could go again, she looked at me like I was nuts.

"Come on!" she pestered. "There must be something you're curious about. How about whether you'll fall in love? Or if you'll get married? Or have kids?"

The permanent ache in my heart throbbed with each of her suggestions, and I shook my head. I didn't want to deal with the fact that I already knew the answers to all those things, and none of them were good.

Realizing that she wasn't getting anywhere with me, she dropped her voice, and tried another tactic. "How about asking when you'll die?" Her eyes danced at the morbid possibilities, but I just felt bitter.