Chapter 1The Day I Woke Up Dead

I just finished my finals, the ink barely dry on my SAT bubbling sheet, when I blinked and woke up ten years in the future.

I’m wearing my backpack, staring at a tombstone. My tombstone. The corner of my mouth won't stop twitching.

Cell service is garbage, bars flickering in and out. I rack my brain until I remember exactly one landline number.

It belongs to the most depressed, anti-social, toxic-tongued pretty boy in my homeroom.

The call connects fast, accompanied by the hiss of static.

A voice—familiar but strange—answers. "...Babe?"

I freeze. "Who?"

* * *

The voice on the other end pauses for half a second. "Chloe?"

Okay, maybe he just mistook me for someone else.

Terrified the signal would drop, I rush to speak. "It's me. Don't yell at me, I can't explain right now, but if you aren't married, don't have a girlfriend, and happen to be free... can you come pick me up at the cemetery?"

Wait. He called me "Babe" earlier.

Doesn't sound single.

I backpedal hard. "Ah, haha, sorry to bother you! Actually, could you just call someone else to get me? Like Julian..."

Julian. The guy I’ve been low-key crushing on.

My social standing in high school was mid at best. I only kind of knew these two by accident. They count as friends, right?

"...Wait for me."

It's been—God knows how many years—but Liam is still a man of few words.

I blink, staring at the screen as the call drops from bad service. Bored, I squat in front of my own grave.

It hits me late: Did I just make a prank call claiming to be a zombie?

I wonder how Future Me and Liam got along? He probably thinks this is a scam...

His guard was always insanely high.

Whatever.

My legs go numb from squatting, so I hop up and sit on top of my tombstone.

It’s polished to a shine, reflecting the sunlight. There’s a huge bouquet of sunflowers in front of it. They aren't wilted yet. Someone must have visited "me" a few days ago.

Guess I was popular?

I swing my legs, bored out of my mind.

Not long ago, I was celebrating the end of high school. Classmates were tossing papers, screaming "Freedom!" and "I'm dyeing my hair green!"

I was quietly asking the teacher if I could take the leftover papers to the recycling center for cash. I wanted to buy treats for the kids at the group home.

Liam had helped me pack up, silent as usual. I told him to go home early so his dad wouldn't beat him.

He bristled like a stray cat. Stood up, glared at me coldly.

"None of your damn business."

And walked off.

I spent hours haggling with the scrap yard guy, and finally caught the last bus before total darkness. I took a nap... and woke up here. At a graveyard. At noon.

Finding out I’m dead is shocking. It’s like finding out I flunked out of high school when I was tracking for the Ivy League.

...I wonder which college I got into?

The sun is blinding, but my phone says it’s midnight.

This phone was a gift from the group home director. Cheap, prepaid. She told me not to worry about paying her back, just to study hard.

They must be freaking out that I’m missing.

I sigh.

"Beep-beep!"

A text notification sound.

Footsteps approach from behind, soft and slow up the stairs.

I pivot on my butt, spinning around on the tombstone.

A man in a fitted black suit crashes into my line of sight.

It’s too hot, so I’ve got my school blazer over my head like a hood. I squint at him.

Is that... Liam?

I barely recognize him.

This man is a galaxy away from the boy who cursed me out yesterday.

He freezes, his pitch-black eyes locking onto mine.

It seems like he stopped breathing.

High school Liam was pretty—pale skin, sharp features—but gloomy. His eyes were always cold, his words poisonous.

Current Liam is still good-looking, but the boyish awkwardness is gone. He’s solid, stoic, distant.

He’s staring so hard I stop swinging my legs.

I hop down from the tombstone. "Hi?"