I arrive in NYC just a couple of weeks before college starts. I cried a lot having to leave my family behind, knowing that I would never see them again. I could pick up how much pain Chloe was in, and I realized that my leaving probably played a huge part in what happened. She hugged me, crying, and told me, "Don't go, Zeke. I'll miss you too much." It pained me so much to walk away, but Angelina said that I need to do something, so even though my brain is getting foggier on the situation by the day, I need to go through with this.
I move into my dorm. I share it with a man named Eagan. He really gives me bad vibes, so I learn to hide things in Angelina's room.
Meeting her was really amazing. She is a bit confusing, but she's also incredibly inspirational. She has an old soul. I haven't had too many friends in my life, but I already know that she'll be one of my closest. As the months go by, I'm so immersed in the college life, that I even start to forget about Chloe. As horrible as it sounds, I needed to forget that my family needs me and I can't be there for them. Many times, as I'm hanging out in common areas, Angelina waves at me. For a while, she did this whenever she had a blond-haired girl standing next to her. I vaguely recognize her. Is that Michaela? I then decided that the girl couldn't be Michaela, since I should know my fiancé.
During the first few months of college, Angelina usually hung out with me in my dorm, since she lives with her friend's siblings and she doesn't like to bother them, but we did go over there occasionally later in the year. When deciding my major, Angelina recommended me to trust my gut. She said that she chose early childhood education because it was the first thing that came to mind, and now she loves it a lot. Lina even met a guy she ended up liking while she was in class. I know that I'm being an overachiever since I am supposed to be a dropout, but maybe after the time loop is over and resolved, I can go back to school and finish my degree. I don't know what made me choose it, but I decided to go into psychology. Turns out, I'm really good at it.
One day, Angelina really wanted to hang out since she said that she needed help on a science assignment. Luckily for her, I'm great at science. We meet up at the end of our shared science class, and head over to Ben and Grace's house. I enter her room, which is only partially painted, but the wall opposite of the bed now has a desk pushed up against it. It is a small, white desk, with a bookshelf now residing next to it. Angelina takes the pink chair that is at the desk, while I take the beanbag chair that is next to the desk, in the little reading nook. We take our books and notes out, along with our laptops. As we're preparing to start studying, I hear the door open and greetings from the family downstairs.
"Hang on a minute. It's my friend. I'll be right back."
Angelina leaves the room as I start going over the day's notes. It doesn't take long before I hear yelling from downstairs. I can tell that it's the family, and Angelina's voice isn't present in the conversation. It's bringing up painful memories of my parents fighting while they were on the phone with me after Chloe's death, so I grab my headphones and start playing an audio recording of our textbook while I wait for Lina to come back. The headphones mainly make the yelling muffled so I can't hear what they're yelling about, but at one point, I think I hear a name…Michaela.
Is Michaela here? If she is, why didn't Angelina tell me? Also, it sounds like she's in a screaming match with her siblings. This girl seems kind of unstable if it is Michaela. Is this the one who I had proposed to in a few years' time? Is she actually the girl that I'm destined to be with?
Angelina then came back upstairs looking defeated.
"What was that about?" I ask her.
"Nothing," she responds even though it was obviously not nothing, "let's get back to studying." She seemed very zoned out for the rest of the study session.
As I leave the house to drive back to my dorm, I turn back around just before she closes the door, and I see both a defeated and very worried look on her face. The fight seemed intense, but she wasn't taking part in it.
What is that girl so worried about?