Strings of Fate: The First Loop

CHAPTER 16

The white van honked twice outside our gate. I nearly tripped over my own feet as I ran back and forth across the living room, checking and rechecking everything. My yellow dress fluttered behind me like some chaotic flag of girlhood rebellion. My white blazer, the one with the stitched beaded flowers, felt too fancy for a beach trip, but I wore it anyway. I needed the comfort. The sleeves brushed against my arms like a whisper from Mom.

I slipped on my white doll shoes, the ones that made me feel like I was still someone’s daughter before I had to start being my own mother. My butterfly bracelet clinked gently as I reached for my bag, it was hers. It always makes a soft bell sound when I move too fast, like it's reminding me to slow down.

Dad stood by the door with his arms crossed but smiling in that quiet, hesitant way he does when he’s proud but trying not to show it. He looked me up and down, then held the door open like he used to when I was little and going off to a school field trip.

“Sure you got everything?” he asked.

I threw my arms around him. His scent, coffee and fish from the tuyo he reheated this morning, filled me with something both warm and sharp.

“Yes, Dad. Don’t worry.”

He held me tighter than I expected. “Stay close to Inez, okay?”

“I will.”

“And James, ”

“I’ll be fine,” I said before he could finish, stepping back with a grin I hoped would hide the twist in my stomach. “Promise.”

The honk again. Less patient this time.

I ran out before either of us could say anything else.

The morning sun poured over everything like melted gold as I stepped out the front door. The white van looked bigger up close, humming softly like it was impatient to go. The door creaked open, and then he stepped out.

James.

He shut the engine off, climbed down from the driver’s seat, and walked toward me. He wore a plain white sando that clung just enough to show the curve of his toned arms, and loose white linen trousers that danced with the breeze. His hair was a mess, but the kind that looks too good to be accidental, as if the universe had a secret soft spot for his chaos.

His sunglasses shielded his eyes, but not the thick brows above them or the flush-pink curve of his lips below. He looked like a character from a movie, no, like the character, the pretty boy next door every girl falls for before realizing she already has.

The world, for some reason, slowed down. I watched the sun hit his collarbones, the slight squint in his face as he scanned me from behind those glasses, and my heart responded like it didn’t belong to me anymore.

Thump.

Thump-thump.

God, I hated how he did this to me. Just by being here. Just by existing.

He grinned, that crooked, confident kind of grin that always seemed to arrive before his teasing.

“You’re doing it again, Betty,” he said, walking past me to grab my bag. “Staring. Am I really that irresistible?”

My throat dried up. I rolled my eyes to recover. “You are full of yourself, as always.”

But that was a lie. Every word of it. Because what he said rang a little too true. I couldn’t resist him. Not the smirk, not the sun-kissed skin, not even the faint scent of his cologne, Versace Dylan Blue, clinging to the air around him like a secret only I was allowed to notice. It hit me the second he passed by, and it made my knees weak.