Kalvin awakens to an empty house

The hardwood floor was cold against Kalvin’s cheek. He blinked, expecting to see the ceiling of his bedroom and the familiar, comforting silhouette of Nikki sleeping beside him. Instead, he stared at a radiator he’d replaced a decade ago.

He pushed himself up, his joints popping with the stiffness of a man who no longer had the luxury of sleeping on hardwood floors. The house was too quiet. The soft hum of the central air was missing, replaced by the distant, rhythmic thumping of bass from a passing car's stereo.

"Nikki?" he whispered, his voice hitching.

He scrambled to his feet, heart hammering against his ribs. The decor was all wrong. The cheap, matching furniture he and Nikki had picked out after he’d finally landed a decent job was gone, replaced by emptiness. He stumbled to the window, pulling back the thin curtains. The sight of the unfinished neighborhood startling and confusing.

It’s a dream, he told himself, pressing his palms into his eyes. A vivid, stress-induced hallucination.

He spent the next hour in a state of catatonic shock, roaming the familiar paths from his past. He recognized his reflection in the fountain glass—he looked the same, older, hardened by life, while the world around him looked painfully, vibrantly young.

Looking up at the fountain, he noticed his old college crest. He hadn't noticed he had wandered onto the university grounds. That was when he saw them.

Across the quad, walking with a nervous, hesitant grace, was the Nikki he knew from his memories. Her blonde hair catching the afternoon sun, her posture stiff with that familiar, shy apprehension. And walking right beside her, his younger self—twenty years old, gangly, and wearing those ridiculous circular glasses—was fumbling with his backpack straps, clearly trying to find the courage to say something.

Kalvin ducked behind a massive oak tree, his breath catching. Seeing his past self was like looking at a ghost. He remembered this day. In three days, his younger self would confess his feelings to Nikki. She would say yes out of a sense of loyalty and their long-standing friendship, and they would embark on a relationship that would eventually lead to the life he had just left.

But as his eyes tracked the path they were taking, he saw him: Marcus.

The star quarterback was walking toward the library, his stride confident and easy. He caught sight of Nikki and his younger self, and his face broke into that genuine, blindingly kind smile that had made him the most popular man on campus.

He knew what was coming. He knew the way Nikki secretly looked at Marcus—a shy admiration she’d never admit to anyone, not even herself. They were perfect for each other, and in the timeline Kalvin had lived, it never happened because his younger self had acted so quickly. Claiming Nikki all to himself.

A surge of power washed over the older Kalvin. He looked down at his own hands, then at his younger self—a boy who didn't know what he was stealing, who was too afraid of his own inadequacies to ever let her go.

Not this time, Kalvin thought, his jaw tightening. Not this time.

He watched as Marcus slowed down, nodding a polite greeting toward the duo. Kalvin needed an opening. He needed to manufacture a moment where his younger self would get distracted, and Marcus would finally have the space to engage Nikki in the way she deserved.

He adjusted his nondescript jacket, blending into the shadows of the campus architecture. He had three days to orchestrate a fantasy he’d spent a lifetime being too afraid to facilitate. He would be the unseen architect of their lust, even if it meant he would never have the same life he had once called his own.