The Watchmaker's Doctor ✔️

XII

2001, Seventeen Years Backwards

Graduation wasn't the same without Kait. Anaya and Tay weren't 'the models' anymore, just two friends desperately missing the third. She wouldn't take their calls and hadn't come back to school after she'd read the college rejection letter. They'd tried to see Kait many times, only to be turned away by her worried mom or grim dad. She didn't want to see anyone. She'd started home-schooling to improve her score and be ready to apply again next year, they said.

As a final resort, Anaya and Tay had started a chain of daily emails, hoping to keep her spirits up. They'd even gone so far as to tell her to quit being such an overachieving bitch, but still received no reply.

Anaya sighed all hope away when she arrived sans Kait at the models' joint graduation party. We'd been planning for this since submitting our applications, and bought our costumes together months ago! Their whole class RSVP'd, but still no news from her.

Oh my God! The pool area of Tay's house had been transformed into a movie set. Keeping it classy but hip, the girls had arrived at the theme of 'Hollywood Action.' A red carpet and red rope stanchion sets demarcated a runway and seating areas. Silhouettes of prominent action heroes posing on silver and gold LED blocks illuminated the whole area. Black silk covered tables and chairs, with centerpieces of colossal martini glasses containing glowing ice cubes.

"We did well, didn't we?" Tay beamed. Even though Anaya was wearing her sunglasses, Tay was hard to miss. Every inch of her glittered. Her usually highlighted hair shone, spray-painted in gold. And her dark skin was carefully brushed with metallic powder, from the top of her forehead to the tips of her toenails. The honey-colored bikini optimally emphasized her well-endowed figure.

"You're stunning, Tay! Even if no one else here has ever seen Shirley Eaton in Goldfinger, you still look like a Hollywood 'Oscar.'"

"And you're not so modestly attired yourself!" Tay's shimmering left eyebrow lifted as she scoped Anaya up and down, and the corners of her mouth rose discreetly.

Anaya glanced down at her own get-up and smirked. She'd come as Trinity from The Matrix, but with a twist. Her black thigh-high boots reached at least a foot above the hem of her ebony, fake leather trench coat, with neck roll. However, the coat only zipped down to her midriff, where her shiny PVC one-piece swimsuit made its appearance.

"We make quite a pair," Tay declared, in her bravest tone.

Anaya's eyes pierced through the sadness she was trying to mask. "I miss her, too."

"Let's try to enjoy tonight for her as well, okay?"

"Okay." The girls intertwined their fingers and welcomed their guests.

As the party pumped on, the barbecue crackled. The sizzle of bacon, the meaty aroma of lamb, the spicy one of shrimp marinade, and the sweet one of s'mores beckoned to them all. Wannabe DJ Steph from their school radio station didn't do a half-bad job reading the crowd as she cranked up the volume and made them sweat.

Too hot, Anaya put down her drink, discarded her coat and boots and slipped into the water. Her skin tingled as it welcomed the coolness. Her timing couldn't have been better, as the M.C. invited those who wanted to be crowned Hero and Heroine to strut their stuff. No one will come close to Tay. Anaya swam to the far corner by the entrance.

As her head rose above the water, the hairs on her arms and neck bristled to attention. Kait's car was parked by the pool. Her glassy blue eyes met Anaya's for five long seconds, before she fired up her Beetle and drove away, leisurely.

Anaya hung on to the tiles, pulling in deep breaths to calm herself. Just get out of the pool and to the extra dose in the coat pocket... She'd packed it in case of "excessive stimulation." Grabbing her coat and cup from the poolside, she gulped the liquid down and then coughed it back up when it went into the wrong pipe. Well, not all of it; the meds stayed down. Panting, she laid down on a bean bag and willed herself not to create a scene.

She knows! Kait had scrutinized her accusingly. She knows something is off! Only two of us applied to college last time. So by getting into college now, I took Kait's place.

Her doctor's brain questioned it. Was Kait's rejection an actual material change in reality or just my guilt? Do I really believe that just because I travelled back in time and made better choices, a 'cosmic force' demands that something else has to change to balance it? Pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes, she pushed them as if they were buttons on a DVD player to replay her last conversation with Greg.

"Whatever decisions you make along the way may alter how you end up living..." His voice echoed in her ears, and she played it on a continuous loop.

But, then why does it feel like I'm altering how everyone else's life ends up, as well?

Just then, she shuddered, unable to stop a wave of new memories of her past life. Last time around, Kait had majored in art, gotten mixed up with the wrong kind of friends and died of an overdose a few weeks before graduating college.

Hi all!
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G.