Collecting Polaroids |Slowburn|

Chapter 37

"Excuse me?"

"Man that dementia joke doesn't seem to be a joke anymore," she muttered, knocking her knuckles against my head. 

"Ow!" I exclaimed, glaring at her and rubbing my head. 

"Just look, the water will tell you something. A sign or something from your future."

I stared at her as if she'd grown two heads  but she simply smiled at me. Letting out a sigh, I did as I was told. 

The clear water began to ripple as the color began to change. My eyes nearly popped out of my head as I stared at the ravine hundreds of feet below. It was like an image was projected onto a pool. An image of Elliot and I that night at the Eiffel tower, sipping hot chocolate. The scene changed to us by the lake the first time I had gone to visit his sister. Then the water turned muddy and the image of Elliot and I fighting the man near the train tracks appeared. 

The water started to turn violent as the wind picked up. My hair began to fly around me, the flowy top I was wearing drifting with the wind. 

"What did you see?!" Marleen shouted over the wind as it roared in my ears. 

"I- I don't know!"

"Look again!" she said loudly as the sky turned dark. Leaves rose above the grass as the air whipped around us. I turned to look back into the choppy water. 

The white foam made it difficult to see, but I could make out the image of myself. I was standing in what looked like the square under the Eiffel Tower at night, only it was completely deserted. I squinted, moving closer to the edge and leaning down, trying to get a clearer picture. 

A crack of thunder rang above us and Marleen shouted at me to hurry. 

"Come on," I muttered, willing the scenes to change quicker. My eyes widened yet again as Elliot's face came into view. Dressed in a navy blue coat over what looked like a dress shirt, my subconscious couldn't help but swoon. I stared as he cupped my face, standing impossibly close to me. 

A part of me wanted to look away, to rub my eyes and look again. The other part of me was afraid it would disappear. So I stayed still, watching in anticipation. My lips parted in shock as he spoke the words. I couldn't hear them. But I knew what they were. Two simple words, spoken in the beautiful language of French. 

Je t'aime. 

There was a bang and the image disappeared into the crashing waves below. 

"I don't understand!" I shouted above the wind, staring helplessly at my best friend. She always understood men better than I did. 

"What did you see?!"

"Uh-I- Myself, and this guy that I know. But wh-"

"This guy, he's tall. He has grey eyes, the rarest eyes. And he knows. He knows about me," she shouted, staring straight into my eyes. I nod, not knowing what else to say. 

"Tell him!" she commanded, poking her finger where my heart beat against my ribs. 

"What?!" I exclaimed helplessly, feeling completely lost. 

Then, the scenery began to change. I was outside a house, the sun setting down the street. Chatter sounded around me and I could feel the familiar feeling of bass vibrating in my body. 

Marleen had changed in front of me, her white top transforming into a black bralette I had gifted her, paired with blue high waisted shorts. Her auburn hair pulled into boxer braids, glitter dusted over the top. 

 I felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head. That was the exact outfit I had seen Marleen in, at the hospital. The night she died. 

"You sure you don't wanna come?" she asked, smiling over her shoulder as she walked away. 

I tried, I tried so hard to shout at her to come back. To tell her she was walking into that house to make the worst decision of her life. A decision that would end everything. But my body physically couldn't. 

No matter how hard I tried, I could only shake my head. 

"Alright, suit yourself." she shrugged walking away. 

NO! STOP!  

I screamed, but I was only screaming at myself. 

"Oh, don't forget," she began, turning to look back at me. "Your one wish is to dance under the Eiffel Tower. Make it happen."

And with that, everything evaporated into particles.