It was painful to think of Brady and Piper living together in a little apartment somewhere, just like the one I had imagined, in some beautiful college town at the foot of a mountain—it was too perfect.
“She would take classes at the college and I’d get a job. I’ve helped Jack out at the garage a lot. I could do something like that.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “That sounds nice.” I suddenly felt overwhelmed by emotion. I felt like the world was spinning without me.
Brady must have heard the defeat in my voice. He knelt down by my chair, so close I could smell the sweetness of his laundry detergent. But I knew he was thinking of someone else.
“I should go,” I said.
“Yeah.”
I stood and headed for the door. “It’ll be okay,” I said before leaving. “You’ll see her again. I know you will.”
He only laughed in response, quietly and without a hint of joy. He was still kneeling on the floor by my empty chair. “You even sound like her.”
I let myself out of the apartment, suddenly missing my brother more than ever.
CHAPTER 7
I stood in front of the door to Today, dumbfounded, my eyes blinking in disbelief.
There was nothing but a brick wall, just like the other two doors. I quickly glanced behind Yesterday and Tomorrow, to see if they had changed as well. But they were all the same now. A thick brick wall, with only a tiny slit of an eyehole to confirm that no magical portal lay beyond. Only darkness.
DW was gone.
And with it went any hope I had of ever seeing that magical version of my brother again.
Suddenly I could hear footsteps in the science room above, and I froze. It was late on a Friday afternoon. The school was open only because spring basketball had started, and so the gym door was unlocked. Nobody was supposed to be in the rest of the school. I had been sure the coast would be clear.
And yet the footsteps grew closer. I tried to find a way to hide, but there was nowhere to go. The only way out of this little waiting area was to go back up the spiral staircase. The footsteps began to descend, and there was nothing I could do but steel myself to face whomever it was that was coming.
I was actually relieved to see that it was Kieren, an ironic reaction considering how many years I had spent being afraid of him. He didn’t seem surprised to find me there, and approached me with a steady but serious look on his face.
Kieren looked sad and too old for his tall, slightly skinny body. The light had gone out of his eyes, and it finally hit me that maybe that was the reason I found it so hard to look at him—not because of what he had done, but because all I could see in his face was the shadow of the friend that I had lost.
Kieren went over to the Today door and peeked inside, closing it only a moment later. “So it’s true,” he said with a sigh. He leaned his forehead against the door, as though gathering his thoughts. It seemed to take him a moment to remember I was there.
“What were you doing down here anyway, M?”
“I wanted to see Robbie,” I admitted. “I know I’m not allowed to take him out, but I can see him, can’t I?”
Kieren and I used to talk to each other so honestly, so easily. I wanted to see if any of that still remained between us.
He chuckled. “You haven’t changed. It’s my fault for telling you to stay out. Should have known you’d just do the opposite.”
“You don’t know me that well.”
“Sure I do. I do know you, M,” he added, locking his eyes on mine.
“What happened to the door?” I could hear some of the confidence in my voice fading a bit.
“I told you, there are consequences.”
I must have looked confused, so he went on.
“Things change. Sometimes they disappear. You can’t take things out of DW. You take out something small, like the egg timer, and there are small changes. But you take out something big . . .”
“Like Piper McMahon’s parents,” I finished his thought.
“You know about that?”
“It’s okay. Brady thinks they crossed back over, so everything should be fine again.”
“The damage is already done, though, isn’t it?”
Kieren looked angry suddenly, as though I were rubbing it in his face that I knew so much about this whole thing, despite all his efforts to keep me out of it. “Come on, M,” he said. “You need to get out of here.” He grabbed my arm and started leading me back up the stairs.
“But Brady said . . .”
“I said come on!”
I stopped in my tracks and pulled my arm away. “Stop ordering me around, Kieren!”
“Be quiet, M.”
“No! You never went to visit him. Because you don’t miss him. But what do I expect, anyway?”
“Just stop talking!”
“You’re the one who pushed him in front of that train in the first place.”
“Stop!” Kieren slammed his palm over my mouth to stop me, and though I don’t think he meant to do it, the force of his hand pushed my whole body back against the wall. I gulped with shock.
Kieren immediately pulled his hand away, and the look of surprise in his eyes made me think maybe he had scared himself more than me.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry.”
He backed away a step and we both caught our breath. I tried to regulate my inhales so I wouldn’t cry. It hadn’t hurt. It had just scared me.
“I didn’t mean to do that.” He was also breathing very hard, almost as though he were trying not to cry himself. “I really didn’t mean it, M.”
“I’m okay,” I said, despite the fact that the tears were starting
