Strings of Fate: The First Loop

CHAPTER 3

“Uh, yeah,” I said. “Betty.”

She patted the seat next to her. “I’m Inez. Come sit. Unless you enjoy cafeteria wandering like a lost ghost.”

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding and took the seat, offering her a grateful smile. The table had three other students deep in conversation, but Inez made space like she’d been expecting me all along.

“First day’s always brutal,” she said, breaking open a pack of ketchup with her teeth. “Don’t let this place fool you. It grows on you… like mold, but the good kind.”

I laughed, a real one this time, and it felt good.

But then the doors swung open again, and he walked in.

James.

I hadn’t even realized I’d memorized the shape of him in my periphery, the casual confidence, the way he didn’t seem to take up space but somehow owned it. His shirt was half-untucked, his ID lanyard swinging lazily as he walked. He was talking to another guy, laughing at something, that same dimple flashing on one cheek.

And then I saw her.

A girl with a sharp bob and a green ribbon tied neatly into her hair. She said something to James that made him laugh harder. He reached over and tugged at the ribbon playfully. She rolled her eyes but didn’t pull away.

Something tugged at me, an ache I didn’t have a name for.

“He’s cute, right?” Inez said, catching my gaze. “James Andrew Gray. The school heartbreaker. Perfect smile, tragic eyes, charm turned up to eleven. Don’t fall for it.”

I looked away quickly. “I wasn’t—”

She grinned. “You were. But don’t worry, we’ve all done the James gaze-at-your-own-risk thing. He’s got layers. The kind that’ll cut you if you’re not careful.”

I didn’t answer. I just stabbed a piece of lumpia with my fork and nodded like I understood.

But the truth was... I didn’t. Not yet.

All I knew was that when I looked at him, something inside me pulled tight. Like I was on the edge of remembering something that had never happened.

By the time I got home, the late afternoon sun was casting soft golden streaks across the floorboards, filtering in through the slats of our windows like ribbons of light. I slipped off my shoes at the door and made my way upstairs, every creak of the wood beneath my feet echoing a strange sort of comfort. This place still felt foreign, like a sweater that hadn’t quite been broken in yet, but today, today it started to smell a little more like home.

I dropped my bag by the foot of the bed and collapsed on top of the sheets. My heart was still humming. From the walk through the halls, from the noise, from the small but lingering glances, and from that moment in the hallway, James Andrew Gray.

I reached for my journal, the leather-bound one Mom gave me last Christmas, still half empty, still inked with her cursive handwriting on the first page. “Write down the little things, my darling girl. They’ll matter more than you think.” So I did.

> June 20

I survived my first day.

That sounds dramatic. But honestly, it felt like I was holding my breath all day. Everything is new, too loud, too fast, too crowded. But also, maybe… full of promise? There was a boy. Of course there’s always a boy, right? His name is James Andrew Gray. I bumped into him in the hallway and he smiled like he almost knew me. Or maybe I imagined it. I don’t know what it was, but something about him felt… familiar. Like déjà vu in the middle of a place you’ve never been.