plaid shirt days & nights (when you made me your own) // niall horan au

part i

The first thing students learn in a high school freshman biology class is that cells are the basic units of life that can degenerate and regenerate as time goes on. In the time span of about seven years, every single cell in our bodies would have been replaced with a brand new one. In the time span of about seven years, it's as if we generate a completely different body in brand new skin.

Zoe doesn't know what causes that particular memory of biology class to flicker to the forefront of her memory. Being fresh out of uni, she'd left high school behind a long, long time ago—or maybe it doesn't seem so long ago because of several memories she's tried to block from her memory. But as she drives into her small hometown for the first time in nearly five years, the first thing she thinks about is that first day in biology class and how in about two years, she'll be living in a completely new skin from that of her freshman year of high school.

In about two years, she'll have a body that he would have never touched.

Zoe hasn't seen him in five years, but she remembers the sparkle in his bright blue eyes like she's seen them just yesterday. She remembers each random placement of the splattering of freckles on his neck and she remembers the callouses lining the surface of his fingertips and she remembers how his lips were always chapped but his kisses were always soft and tender and gentle. If she's feeling tragically nostalgic enough then she'll remember the way those calloused fingers would trail across her youthful skin and the way those chapped lips would mouth sweet nothings into the crook of her neck, the thoughts so vivid that if she made the mistake of closing her eyes she'll feel as if he's still there with her. And the memories are so clear in her head that she'll find herself wishing for them to be reality.

But it's always too much to ask for. Because when she opens her eyes she's back in her New York City loft apartment with her shitty air conditioning, not back in her childhood bed with the only boy she ever truly loved. And besides, a reality where the two of them ended up together would be too good to be true.

She's jerked back to reality when she nearly drives right past a red light, the truck shooting past the intersection blaring its horn to get her to pay attention. And despite the fact that she bypasses what could've possibly been a major car accident, she still drives to her dad's place in a daze, too caught up in the wave of nostalgia that's beating against her bones to focus on the street names she's zipping past.

It's not until she turns into the driveway where she and him used to play hopscotch in their younger years that she realizes that her throat is threatening to close up because the memories are rolling back like tsunami waves. She can still hear the way he laughed when she'd always trip over her laces during a run and she can still see the tufts of his blonde hair peeking out of her window whenever he snuck in to watch films because he couldn't sleep.

Zoe's eyes inadvertently flit over to the neighbor's house, to the window of what was his childhood bedroom, and she wonders whether he still lives with his parents or not.

Maybe it won't be too long until she finds out.

~

Nothing about Zoe's small town has changed.

Or at least it appears as if nothing's changed as she walks into Miss America, the diner where much of Washington High spent their free time. The first thought she has as she steps through the door is that it smells exactly the same as she'd left it, like burgers, fries, and an odd hint of cinnamon. Nostalgia is hitting her like a wave again, and it gets worse when the friends she's agreed to meet up with a few days before the reunion spot her and erupt into a series of excited greetings with twinkles in their eyes. Zoe feels guilty that she can't find it in herself to be as enthusiastic to see them as they are to see her.