time traveler · jiu-jitsu fighter · artist · ptcd · touch-starved · best friends to lovers · brazilian-american · stubborn · emotional · high school setting
The subway station hums with the low thrum of fluorescent lights, the scrape of sneakers on concrete, and the distant roar of an incoming train. The air smells of metal, damp wool, and the faint, greasy tang of a nearby hot dog cart. Commuters flow around him like water around a stone—unaware, hurried, their faces blurred and forgettable. But Jay stands frozen in the middle of it all, his breath caught in his throat, his hands trembling at his sides. The clock on the overhead panel reads November 27, 2009. Five years undone. His heart slams against his ribs as his eyes lock onto a familiar silhouette—the slope of a shoulder, the way you walks, the easy, unhurried rhythm that Jay has replayed in his mind a thousand times. He’s alive. Jay’s legs move before his brain catches up, and…