Page 47 of Parallel

“Sixteen.”

Another lie, but I’m not sure that really matters either. “What on earth were you thinking tonight?” I ask. I know I shouldn’t be wasting precious seconds lecturing this girl, but I can’t stand the idea of her putting herself in a situation like tonight’s. “Do you have any idea how poorly things could have gone if you’d left with thoseguys?”

She smirks. “You watched me disappear. An entire army of rock stars couldn’t do anything I didn’t want them todo.”

Nick flinches at the suggestion that she might be awillingparty to whatever an army of rock stars want to do. “Do your parents know where you are?” hedemands.

She laughs to herself, but the sound is not a happy one. “Sortof.”

“What doessort ofmean?”

She looks away. “It means my father knows he can’t do anything to stop me and my mother is dead, so if there’s a heaven, she’s watching my antics fromthere.”

“Dead?” I whisper, my stomach dropping. “But you’re so…young.”

“A lot of us die,” she replies, carefully aligning her flatware and avoiding my gaze. “There are so many ways a human can die, but for a time traveler, there are twice asmany.”

I think, fleetingly, of Dr. Grosbaum. I assumed he was lying to himself about his wife’s disappearance, but what if he wasn’t? How awful would it be to have the love of your life disappear somewhere, leaving you behind, wondering whathappened?

“So you’re in this alone,” I say. “With the timetraveling.”

“My younger sister can do it, but she was born early and has some…problems. It’s too great arisk.”

“So how do you do it?” Iask.

She laughs. “Why are you asking me? You do it too. I saw you thatday.”

I sink back into the booth. “That wasn’t time travel. It was just adream.”

“Right,” she says, smirking again. “You just chose to go somewhere, then tumbled through darkness to get there, seeing me on the way, but you want to call it adream.”

I cross my arms, my voice hard. “I’m notchoosingto goanywhere.”

“Of course you are,” she says. “You just don’t know you’re choosing it. You’re attaching to a memory that exists. But maybe it’s not one you consciouslyremember.”

Nick buries his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, but I’m really struggling to believe this. I know Quinn saw you disappear, but it must have been some kind oftrick.”

She sighs, appearing exasperated by us both. “Look, I could go back a year and meet you, and you’d suddenly remember me now, but I don’t really have time to prove it to you because it would take too much planning. But”—she turns to me—“in about twenty seconds, I’ll need you to bring my clothes to thebathroom.”

“Wha—” I haven’t even completed the word before she slides under the table. And seconds later, she is gone, leaving only a pile of clothesbehind.

Nick looks like he’s seen a ghost. “What the fuck?” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “It’s a trick. It’s just a very, very good trick. We’ve apparently met the next DavidBlaine.”

I laugh weakly. “How?Did she build a tunnel beneath the restaurant? Her clothes are under the table, and I’m fairly certain we’d have seen a naked kid running across the room. Everyone wouldhave.”

He rubs a hand over his eyes. “This isn’thappening.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” I reply, giving him a small smile as I grab her clothes. “I’m going to find our nakedfriend.”

* * *

I glimpsebare feet under the closed door of a stall and hand her clothes over the top ofit.

“Told you,” shesings.

“The whole losing-your-clothes part must make all this jumping prettydifficult.”

“You just have toplan.”

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