Tomorrow Is Today

St. Martin’s Press

THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION. ALL OF THE CHARACTERS, ORGANIZATIONS, AND EVENTS PORTRAYED IN THIS STORY ARE EITHER PRODUCTS OF THE AUTHOR’S IMAGINATION OR ARE USED FICTITIOUSLY.

“Tomorrow is Today”

Copyright © 2011 by Julie Cross.

All rights reserved. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Griffin Trade Paperbacks and
Hardcovers are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

978-1-4668-0417-3

May 14, 2009, 6:30pm

“I don’t get what we’re supposed to be doing,” Holly said as she spread her worksheets all over the gym floor.

I moved next to Holly, who was stretched out on her stomach with a pen in her hand. “Well…the first one is just a bunch of nonsense questions that you answer and then seal it up in an envelope so no one can see it.”

“And the point is…?”

“Mr. Wellborn holds onto them and mails it to you before camp staff training starts next year and you get to see how much you’ve grown in a year,” I said.

She laughed and rolled her eyes. “God, that’s corny…maybe I’ll leave mine blank.”

“Just tell him your life is a blank slate right now,” I teased. “Today is the first day of the rest of your life…”

“Adam, what are you writing?” Holly asked.

“Telling you might put your life at risk.”

Holly laughed and set her future questionnaire aside. “The other assignment is just making camp lesson plans for the first week?”

“Uh huh,” I said, flipping through my own pages. “We got rosters too, so we can start learning names.”

“What’s the point?” Holly said. “Most of these kids probably pay someone to go to camp for them so they can sit at home and play video games like a normal child.”

I shouldn’t laugh since I was one of those kids, but I couldn’t help it. Holly making fun of privileged children had become a high point of our two months of counselor training.

When Holly got up to turn in her lesson plan, I took the opportunity to talk to Adam. “It’s your birthday tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah…”

“My roommates are throwing a party,” I said, lowering my voice so the invite wouldn’t spread like wildfire. My dorm isn’t
that
big. “You know…end of the year celebration. Do you wanna come? Maybe we can do a little more time-travel experimenting in a different setting.”

A grin spread across Adam’s face. “Awesome…actually, I have a few ideas already.”

“I figured.”

He jumped into several ideas for possible experiments and theories to test. I listened for a few minutes and then found my eyes wandering as Holly sprawled out on the floor again, not nearly as close as before. She had her blonde hair tucked behind her ears, flip flops kicked off and lying next to her. I memorized the way her pen moved fluidly across the page. It was almost sexy, which is totally bizarre. Maybe I’m secretly imagining her doodling my name all over her paper. But I’m not sure Holly is the kind of girl to do that. And I’m not sure I want her to be.

She must have felt me staring because her head turned slowly in my direction and her cheeks flushed.

“You’re filling out the corny questionnaire, aren’t you, Holly?” I said to cover for my five minute long session of checking her out. “I had a feeling you’d be all about that.”

Adam snorted beside me and I assumed I was right. Holly didn’t actually want to leave her answers blank.

Her eyes returned to the page, but I could see her smiling a little and found myself doing the same. Then I dug for my own paper and wrote my name on the top. “See, Holly…I’m totally into this too. No need to feel embarrassed.”

“Me too,” Adam said. “Can’t wait to talk to my future self.”

As soon as he said that, Adam and I both glanced at each other and started cracking up. The irony was just way too good to not laugh.

May, 15, 2009, 8:30pm

“Jackson! My man!”

I turned in the direction of the voice. Two guys I didn’t even recognize stepped through the doors of the NYU dorm room I shared with my two roommates. We had a large suite, but had nearly reached capacity and it was still really early.

“Hey! What’s up?” I said, nodding at the random guys. Behind them, smiling sheepishly, stood Adam Silverman. He stepped tentatively from his world of New Jersey high school and into the world of college parties in the Village. I waved at him, grinning as I moved toward the door. One of my roommates, Danny, was already shaking his head and partially blocking Adam’s way in. “No way, Jackson! No babies allowed! We agreed.”

“He’s eighteen.”
Today
.

“Oh man,” Danny groaned, throwing his hands up in the air. “There’s more.”

It took me a second to see the two additional “high school babies” behind Adam. Holly Flynn entered the living room, followed by a very tall, skinny guy who looked even more nervous to be here than Adam did. He stuck out his hand. “I’m David…thanks for letting us crash your party…this is pretty awesome.”

“No problem, man. Glad you could come.”

The music got cranked up about five more notches and Adam grabbed my sleeve and pulled me into the kitchen.

“Sorry, they begged me to come,” he said in a hushed voice. “Well…more Holly than David, but that’s usually how it goes with those two.”

I leaned against the counter and watched Holly chatting with my neighbor. Her blonde hair was long and flowing today, not pulled up like she usually had it on staff training nights. She also had on a form fitting black dress and five inch platform shoes, but she still barely made it to David’s shoulder.

“Those two?” I asked Adam.

“What?” He had his back to the crowd and was now typing something into his phone.
Experiment data
. “Oh…right. David and Holly. Those two.”

“They’re together?”

“Yeah, for over a year now. They’ve known each other since freshman year…I mean…we all have.”

A year? Holly had been with the same guy for a year and in the two months I’d known her and Adam, this had never come up? Or maybe I just didn’t listen very well?

I clapped my hands together. “Okay, ready for the real fun.”

Adam looked up at me, finally. “I’m ready, but we need to hang out for a couple hours…you know, record the current scene, then compare once you’ve acquired some time-travel data.”

“Alright.”

For the next thirty minutes, I played the perfect host and chatted and danced with two girls who lived in the building but on a different floor and another chick from one of my classes fall semester. Then I spotted Holly alone, leaning against the kitchen counter. I wandered over and rested my back on the counter opposite of her. “So…where’s Doug?”

“
David
,” she corrected, then glanced around the living room. “I’m not sure. Last I saw, he was with Adam and they were quoting movies and cracking up.”

“So, why are you in here, by yourself? Mentally drafting important notes to your future self?”

She shot me a dirty look but was smiling. “I was just messing with you the other day. I don’t like doing any of that stuff.”

“Don’t deny it. I know you’re lying. You are so totally all about the ‘future plans’ game…” I paused for a second, choosing just the right words to describe this girl who was still mostly a mystery to me. “More like the ‘dream big’ game…goal setting and all that inspirational crap. I bet you even write in a diary.”

She quickly diverted her eyes from mine, cheeks flushing like they had the other day.

“Ha! I knew it.”

“Okay,” she shrugged. “You’re right…but really, if I’d lived here…in New York all my life, I don’t think I’d have anything to write about. I’d be out there doing stuff…not writing about what I plan on doing. I’m convinced the best writers have very boring lives.”

My eyebrows lifted. “Good answer. Not sure I can continue to make fun of you now.”

She smiled at me. “You’ll think of a new topic.”

“Do you want to see something really cool?” I asked, making a quick and impulsive decision.

“Okay…?”

I snatched a few tools from a kitchen drawer and led Holly out the door, pointing to the coat rack so she’d grab her jacket. When we were in the empty hallway and the door to my suite was shut, I removed the tools from my back pocket. “Tell me if you see anyone coming.”

Her eyes darted around the hall. “Alright…guess we’re not going for coffee or…something normal…?”

My hands froze on the lock attached to the roof access door. Did Holly want to go get coffee with me? Should I have asked that instead?
Boyfriend
. I shook my head and focused on unscrewing the stupid lock without breaking it. Considering the door was right next to our room, the blame for any damage would fall on me and my roommates.

“The roof? That’s where we’re going?” she asked, already opening the door to the stairwell, the second I had the lock stowed in my pocket. She took off her tall shoes and cradled them in her arms.

I grinned at her, loving her unashamed enthusiasm and headed up the steps. “It’s a New York experience you can
not
write about. Mostly because it’s completely illegal…you’re not feeling suicidal, are you?”

“Not today.” She charged up all five flights effortlessly, like she’d been ready for this adventure for a long time. “Do you think we’ll get caught?”

I opened the door for her and both of us were hit with a wave of cool night air. “If we do get caught, we can just say I was talking you out of jumping…it’ll be just like
Titanic
…except the opposite…”

Holly laughed at me and then walked right over to the ledge, taking in the view. “Wow…it’s beautiful…Now tell me what I’m looking at?”

I stood next to her, averting my eyes from the scary ground below and pointed out buildings and parks for as far as we could see. I mentioned favorite restaurants and coffee shops. Holly listened so intently it almost made me nervous…
almost
. This wasn’t my typical conversation with a girl, but then again, I didn’t usually talk to girls like Holly.

The kind with long term boyfriends
.

Then I remembered why she might be so interested in the details of this part of the city. She was starting at NYU in a couple of months. “Wait…have you gotten your housing assignment yet?”

She smiled at me, blushing a little. “Yeah…Rubin.”

“Those rooms are microscopic…I hope you have a single?”

“Triple.” She glanced out at the building across the street. “It’s a thousand dollars cheaper per semester than the double…I can survive the lack of AC and bunk beds piled on top of each other just as long as my address no longer ends with NJ and there’s more to do at night than hang out in a park or field somewhere, sitting on our cars, drinking warm beer and smoking low quality home grown weed.”

I smirked at her, calling her bluff. “You do
not
smoke pot.”

“It sounded better with that part added in, didn’t it?” She laughed a little and then started walking toward the other side to take a look at the city from a new angle.

This gave me a chance to take in Holly from a totally different perspective. After talking to her tonight, I realized she wasn’t really all that hard to figure out, but it scared me that I even wanted to. And yet, I couldn’t think about any of that right now. All I could do was watch her hair blowing behind her, tangled and loose…and the way she stood, barefoot on the tips of her toes, trying to get a better look at the ground below us, the muscles in her calves flexing in response. Nothing about Holly was fake. Of course, all this made me desperate to see a little more of her skin…

Nope…don’t go there
.
She’s Adam’s friend.

“Is it scary?” Holly asked.

“What? Looking down?” I gave the ground a half-second glance, which was all I could manage. “Hell yeah…freaks me out. I prefer to look straight ahead…or up.”

“No, not that…I mean, leaving home. Living with strangers, some stranger than others. Being on your own. Responsibility.”

“Right.
That
.” I rested my arms on the ledge beside her. “You know, I’m probably not the best person to ask. I can almost see my dad’s apartment building from here. It hardly counts as leaving. And my roommates pay someone to clean for us…plus, we have air conditioning.”

She flashed me her biggest smile yet. “I’m proud of you. It takes a real man to admit that.”

I felt myself leaning closer to her without even thinking about it.

Stop! Boyfriend…Adam’s friend…off limits
.

My body followed directions and put a couple feet between us. “I should go back down…make sure my roommates haven’t killed each other…or Brent, the RA.”

Holly nodded and then took a deep breath, walking in the opposite direction of me. “I’m just gonna hang here for a few more minutes, okay?”

I handed her the lock from my pocket. “Sure, just put this on the door for me when you come down.”

When I returned to my hot, stuffy, sweat-smelling place, Adam and David were in the kitchen and Adam was laughing like an insane person.

“Jackson!” Adam shouted loud enough for the whole building to hear before punching me hard in the shoulder. “Guess who’s three hundred dollars richer?!”

David clapped a hand over Adam’s mouth from behind, throwing me a worried look. “Sorry…I think he’s a little…”

“Happy?” I finished, laughing. This less responsible Adam was like a stranger to me.

“Uh…yeah,” Adam said, waving a wad of bills in front of my face.

David let out a breath and shook his head. “Your roommate bet him that he couldn’t drink and entire six pack of red bull without puking…”

It was David’s turn to get punched in the shoulder by Adam. “You didn’t think I could do it, did you, man?”

“Adam and caffeine don’t really mix well,” David said to me.

I immediately took a step back from Adam, just in case. “Bathroom’s around the corner…we prefer not to clean up vomit, but you wouldn’t be the first one to barf in here.”

Adam held up his hand in front of me, displaying the obvious trembling, then he jumped up and down, like it was a pre-race warm up. “I need food…something to counteract the caffeine…”

I pointed to the kitchen. “Danny labels his stuff with blue stickers…don’t eat his food or he’ll throw a tantrum.”

“I’ve never seen him like this before…not this bad anyway. Even one can coke will keep him up all night building bridges out of tooth picks or whatever,” David said, watching Adam stuff potato chips in his mouth three or four at a time. “I just don’t get why caffeine affects him so badly…never have been able to understand it.”

I did…or at least I had a theory. “His brain’s already going a mile a minute…I don’t think he requires much sleep under normal circumstances.”

“I can just drag his ass out of here and grab something to eat on the way…”

“He’s not bothering me if that’s what you’re implying…?” I said. “Give this party an hour and there’ll be much worse creatures than Adam Silverman.”

“Thanks.” He sank down on the arm of the couch and rubbed his eyes. “Those two wear me out sometimes. I swear they’re both like caged animals ready for their first chance to break out and run wild.”

Holly as a caged animal created several images that I had to force myself to shut out immediately. “What about you? What are your plans for next fall?”

Did I seriously just ask another dude what his future plans are?
Damn, what was wrong with me tonight?

He scratched the back of his head looking as uncomfortable as I felt. “Uh…I’m going to community college in Newark…for now, at least.”

“Well, I guess that’s good then. You won’t be too far from Holly.”

Now he looked even more rattled, but stood up, glancing at the door. “Speaking of Hol…have you seen her?”

“I think she went up to the roof…to check out the view.”

I wasn’t sure why I chose not to mention the fact that I had gone with her.
It’s not like anything happened.
Luckily, Holly returned right then and bounded over to David, looking very happy to see him.

He rested his hands against her cheeks. “Is it cold up there? Your face is freezing.”

“My hands, too,” she said.

I only watched them for a few seconds longer, just enough to see David hold her hands and blow on them before kissing her forehead.

The guy’s totally whipped
.
And tall…he’s way too tall for her.

Adam was heading from the kitchen down the hall, his arms full of snacks. “Dude…where’s your room?”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. We should go shut ourselves in my bedroom and see if we don’t confuse a few people.”

“You mean chicks,” he said, laughing. “We’d confuse the chicks you’ve hooked up with. I can’t believe they just wander around this party without kicking you in the nuts.”

I shoved him into my room before he started talking any louder. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He plopped down on my bed. “Right…plead the fifth…I understand.”

I sat down in my desk chair across from Adam. “I’m bored. Can we do some time traveling or something? Try a new experiment?”

“Hey…you could eat stuff…a lot of stuff…and come back and see if you’re still full. Have we tried that yet?”

I rolled my eyes. This was not Adam at his best. It wasn’t just the caffeine. Something else was bothering him tonight. Usually, he was so focused on some kind of very specific goal for me, like he’d been thinking about it for days and days.

“If that’s what you really want me to try, I’ll do it.”

“Why not…got to do one of everything eventually.” His eyes were so wide open, ready to pop out of their sockets any second now. And he kept snapping his fingers for no reason.