Stephanie sat alone in her room, not stopping the tears that ran down her face. She slowly shook her head, not wanting to believe what she had seen, but unable to get it out of her head. Trying to calm down enough to talk, she reached over and grabbed her phone.
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Virgil looked up as his phone rang. He leaned over and picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Uh, Virgil?" a choked up voice answered.
His eyes got wide and his stomach tied in a knot. "Stephanie, what's wrong?"
"Um-" Her voice ended in a sob.
"Hold on I'll be right there." Virgil quickly hung up the phone then ran downstairs.
"Where are you going, speedy?" his dad asked from where he was sitting on the couch.
"I'm going to Stephanie's, I'll be back in not too long."
He ran into the kitchen and grabbed a bag from the cupboard. Looking down at hit he shook his head. It was pasta shells. He quickly put it back and grabbed the pistachio nuts that were there.
As he drove to Stephanie's house Virgil's mind was racing. He hoped so much that it wouldn't be what he thought it was, but something told him that it would be. As he pulled to a stop at the stop sign he banged his fist against the wheel.
"I've changed the past before! Why couldn't I change this?" he wondered out loud. "Why did this have to happen again? I don't understand."
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Stephanie looked up when she heard a knock on her door. She quickly wiped the tears off her face.
"Come in."
The door opened slowly and Virgil stuck his head in. "Hey, Steph."
"Hey Virg," she said softly.
Virgil came in quickly and sat down in front of her. "What's wrong, Stephanie?"
"Well, um, I had to go to the mall today."
Virgil listened quietly. So far it wasn't the same, but she had only gotten one sentence out. He hoped against hope that it wouldn't be about Derek and Jocelyn.
"And, well, I saw Derek there."
He stayed quiet, but Virgil's hope had died.
"He was with Jocelyn Lee." Stephanie paused to brush the tears off her face again. "They were by themselves, and they were holding hands, then Derek put his arm around her. It was pretty obvious that it wasn't just a friendly thing."
Virgil let out a small sigh of relief. It wasn't as bad as last time. But it was still bad. Poor Stephanie. "Steph, I'm sorry."
"I knew it, too," Stephanie said softly, shaking her head. "I feel so stupid. I saw this coming but didn't want to admit it."
"Well, Stephanie, I brought you some pistachio nuts because I knew how much you liked them. I almost brought some pasta shells on accident."
Stephanie smiled a little bit, and took the bag of pistachios. "Thanks, Virgil. You're a good friend." Stephanie looked at him for a few seconds. "Are you ok? You look like you want to say something."
Virgil sighed. "It's not that I want to say something. It's that I feel like I should but can't decide."
Stephanie pushed her hair back and wiped her eyes again. "Well, now I'm curious, so you have to tell me." She tried to smile a little bit but couldn't when she saw how serious Virgil's face was.
He looked up at her and he looked almost as sad as she was feeling.
"Steph, this has happened before."
"What are you talking about, Virg?"
"When we were the minutemen, in the past or the future or whatever it was. In the time that only me and Charlie and Zeke know about. Almost this exact same thing happened. Except it was-" He shook his head. "It just happened."
Stephanie stared at him in shock, unable to say anything.
"Believe me, Stephanie, if there were any way I could have saved you from being hurt like this I would have."
She had to hold back tears again. "You could have told me," she whispered.
"I didn't know he'd do it again."
"He's the same guy, whatever time he's in. I deserve to know things like that, Virgil."
Virgil sighed. "You would have been hurt either way. I wanted to keep you from this."
Stephanie looked down as a tear slid down her face again. "You're right, Virgil. I'm sorry. Derek just isn't the same guy he used to be."
"No, Stephanie. I'm sorry. You deserve to know what Derek's like. I should have told you. He's not the same, and he hasn't been for a long time. I think it started freshman year."
"Oh Virgil if this is about what happened that first day you have to know that Derek didn't mean for things to happen like they did. He's told me that he's sorry for what happened. But it can't be changed."
"Actually, Steph, it could have been. I almost did change it. But not after I realized that doing that would be a mistake."
Stephanie held her head in her hands. "Virgil, what are you talking about?!"
"Ok, when I told you about the minutemen, I didn't exactly include everything."
"What did you leave out?"
"When we went back to shut down the black hole, we went back to the first day of freshman year. I was about to change what happened when I saw Derek. He wasn't trying to stop it. He wasn't even just watching, which would have been bad enough. He was in on it. I'm glad I didn't change it, because I realized that Derek isn't the kind of guy I want for a friend."
Stephanie looked at him in shock, then slowly asked, "Is there anything else you left out?"
"No. I only left out the stuff about Derek because I was afraid to tell you. I was so scared that you wouldn't believe me anyways. I figured that if I included the parts about Derek you would hate my guts."
"I'm sorry about Derek, Virgil. I see why you didn't tell me. But I'm glad that I know now. I just can't keep doing this."
"Doing what?"
"Living this lie," she answered in a whisper. "Staying with Derek when I want to be with you. Being popular but not having any real friends when friends are all I want and I could have that with you and your friends."
Virgil smiled a little bit. "Are you serious, Steph? I want you to be, I really do, but are you sure? I mean, you can break up with Derek and still be popular. If you hang with us, people are going to talk. And people can be pretty brutal in that school."
Stephanie looked at him. "I'm not sure. I'm not going to lie, I like being popular. But not when it's like this. If people talk, that's their problem."
Virgil smiled wide and hugged Stephanie. "I'm glad, Steph."