Chapter 5 TAKE IT BACK
KAYLA
Zayn stared at me, I stared back, and for a long, stretched out second neither of us moved. Then he let out a short breath and dragged a hand through his hair, the corner of his mouth tugging upward like he was about to laugh it off.
"Kayla—"
"Don't." I held up a hand. "Don't do that. Don't laugh."
He pressed his lips together. "I'm not laughing."
"You were about to."
He exhaled slowly, shifting his weight. "Okay. I wasn't going to laugh. I just...what do you mean, you? Like, you as in—"
"You know what I mean, Zayn."
He went quiet. That was somehow worse than anything he could have said.
I didn't plan for any of this to come out tonight. I'd told myself I'd be smart about it this time, that I'd wait for the right moment instead of letting my feelings run ahead of me. But standing here in the dark with the ghost of watching him get kissed still fresh in my chest, waiting felt impossible.
"I think I'm in love with you," I said, and even though my voice didn't betray me the way I expected it to, my heart was doing something embarrassing inside my ribcage. "I know that probably sounds insane right now especially with everything that just happened tonight but I've felt this way for a while and I'm tired of pretending I don't."
He opened his mouth.
"Let me finish." I took a breath. "I know you. Better than anyone. I know you hate the sound of chewing and that you can't sleep without a fan on and that you pretend to hate horror movies but you've never once covered your eyes. I know what it looks like when you're actually upset versus when you're just quiet. I know you, Zayn. And I think you know me too, better than anyone ever has. How is that not something?"
"Kayla—"
"We make sense. You said it yourself, we're the only ones like us left here. We understand each other in ways nobody else can. I'm not saying this because I'm jealous of Rhea, I'm saying it because it's true and I think some part of you already knows—"
"Stop." His voice came out sharp enough that I did. He wasn't looking at me anymore, jaw tight, eyes somewhere on the ground between us. When he finally looked up, something in his expression made my stomach drop. "Just stop, please."
I waited.
"I love you," he said, and for one stupid, traitorous second my heart lifted. Then he continued. "I love you like family. Like a sister. That's what you are to me, Kayla, that's all I see when I look at you and I'm sorry but I don't think that's ever going to change."
The words landed quietly. That was the worst part. Not a fight, not cruelty, just quiet and certain, like he'd already made up his mind a long time ago and hadn't thought to mention it.
"You don't know that," I said. My voice came out smaller than I wanted.
"I do." He said it gently, which somehow hurt more. "I'm sorry. I really am. But I think you've had these feelings for a while and I had no idea, which means I've been making this harder for you without knowing it, and that's not fair to you." He paused. "I think maybe we've been too close for too long and we didn't notice things were getting complicated on your end and I should've—"
"Don't do that either," I said quietly. "Don't make it sound like my feelings are a problem I need to be managed."
He flinched slightly. "That's not what I meant."
"Then what did you mean?"
He was quiet for a moment.
"I think it's better if we give each other some space. For a while."
There it was.
The same ending. Different words, same destination. I could feel it happening in real time, the original timeline reassembling itself around us like it had never been interrupted, and the panic that rose in my chest was swift and total.
"Zayn—"
"I think tonight just got too big and we both need to sleep on it." He took a step back and something cold swept through me all at once.
I reached out and grabbed his wrist without thinking. The energy hit me the moment my fingers closed around him, a sharp, electric pull from somewhere deep in my chest, and the world tilted sideways.
"You know, Kayla, we'd make such a good team. I'll be the muscle and you can be the fairy godmother. Just imagine the fun we could have." Zayn nudged my shoulder, brows wiggling, completely unbothered by the look I was giving him. "You can't tell me that wasn't a pretty solid team effort back there."
I blinked.
We were back. Same street, same night air, same Zayn grinning at me like nothing had happened because for him, nothing had.
Something trembled at the edges of my composure but I pushed it down hard and fast.
"Obviously," I said, matching his energy as best I could. "We've always been a good team. That was never the question."
He laughed, surprised by my enthusiasm. "See? That's what I'm talking about." He fell back into step beside me, hands in his pockets, relaxed in a way he hadn't been two minutes ago in a timeline he'd never remember. "I'm thinking since high school is actually starting now we should make a list. Things we want to do, places we want to go. A proper bucket list."
"A bucket list."
"Don't say it like that, it'll be fun. We can cross things off as we go." He glanced at me sideways. "You in?"
I looked at him. Alive, easy, completely unaware of everything.
"Yeah," I said. "I'm in."
“Cool. We’ll come up with one tomorrow. Sleep tight,” he said, pulling me into a hug just as I realized we'd already reached the front of my house.
I forced on a smile when he pulled back. “Sure.”
He waited at the end of my driveway until I reached my front door, which he'd always done since we were kids and had never once explained. I gave him a small wave and he turned and headed back toward his house, hands still in his pockets, unhurried.
I stood there for a second longer than necessary watching him go. When I finally went inside, mom had fallen asleep on the couch with the TV on, the ironing board still standing in the corner. I moved quietly past her and up the stairs, changed out of my gown and sat cross legged on my bed with my laptop open before I'd fully decided to do it.
The search bar blinked at me.
I typed: can emotions trigger time travel?
Then deleted it and retyped: magic and time manipulation.
The results were mostly fiction wikis and fantasy forums. I scrolled anyway, clicking through anything that looked remotely credible, reading until the words started blurring together. Whatever had happened twice now wasn't a coincidence. It wasn't a dream and it wasn't a side effect of grief. Something inside me had moved time, deliberately, twice, and both times it had been tied to emotion so strong it had nowhere else to go.
I needed to understand it before it happened again without my permission.
I was still reading when my phone buzzed on the nightstand. An unknown number.
‘Hey! It's Rhea. Zayn gave me your number, hope that's okay. I was thinking maybe we could hang out tomorrow? Shopping or whatever, totally up to you.’
I stared at the message for a long moment before setting the phone face down on the bed. My laptop was still open. I pulled it closer and started a list, because if there was one thing tonight had taught me, it was that I needed to organize my priorities before things ended up like last time.
Things to do:
1. Figure out how time travel magic works.
2. Learn to control it.
3. Don't use it unless absolutely necessary.
4. Keep your friendship alive with Zayn.
5. Make Zayn fall for you.
Number four got a tick immediately. I'd managed to bypass him pulling away today, there was no way we were growing apart now. The rest of the list stared back at me, and yet something still felt off. I read the list again, something seemed to be missing. Circling number five, I was about to change it to number one when it hit me. I crossed out all the numbers on my list and started a new one, the most important one of them where everything else fell under:
1. Don't let Zayn die.
