Your Gravity: Part Three Read online

  Your Gravity

  Part Three

  L.G. CASTILLO

  Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Also by L.G. CASTILLO

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2015 by L.G Castillo

  Your Gravity - Part Three

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Image and Cover Design: www.maeidesign.com

  Editor: Kristie Stramaski with EKS Edits

  Chapter One

  2002

  A strange warmth caressed my face. It started with a light tickle against my cheek and then slowly crawled to the center of my chest, growing heavy.

  Groaning, I pushed against the weight, struggling to force my eyelids open. It was like they had been glued together.

  I moaned. The fierce hammering in my head made it feel like my skull was going to split apart. Quickly, I stilled.

  Keeping my eyes shut, I carefully felt around me. Soft blades of grass brushed against my fingers. I was outside.

  What happened? And why do I feel like I’ve been tossed around in a blender?

  Through the dark haze of my mind, it slowly came to me. Roller skates, a spinning disco ball, sapphire eyes, a sexy smile, cotton ball clouds, flying pigtails, and high-pitched giggles.

  Caroline. Jax.

  Jax!

  I lifted my head, determined to get back to Jax. I cried out at the sharp jolt of pain, making my head spin in the darkness. The heavy warmth on my chest moved up as if attempting to keep me still.

  Why couldn’t I open my eyes? Was I back home? Other than the sweeping nausea, I didn’t feel any different. Maybe the fortunetellers were wrong and I wasn’t back in the future. Please let me be with Jax. Please.

  In the distance, I heard a faint sound of a television commercial. Holding my breath, I strained to hear what played. A faint tinkling of piano keys and the beginning notes of Nadia’s Theme floated through the air. I sighed with relief at the familiar opening to the Young and Restless soap opera.

  I did it. I’m still in 1984.

  Waiting for my strength to return, I planned how I was going to get myself to Jax’s new home. My moped was probably totaled. I had no idea where I was. Maybe in some ditch. I felt okay except for the wicked headache. Maybe I could hitch a ride.

  The music stopped followed by another commercial. A man yelped, elated that he’d finally gotten broadband Internet.

  My stomach plummeted.

  No!

  Clenching my hands into fists, I ignored my pounding head and the heavy weight that seemed to want to claw its way into my chest. I was not back home in 2002. In a minute, I was going to open my eyes, stand up, and walk to the nearest pay phone and call Jax.

  Yeah, that’s right. Everything is as it should be and I’m in 1984.

  Slowly, I opened my eyes to a pair of beady eyes gazing back.

  “Penny?”

  Penny clucked as she moved up my chest. Her tiny head tilted to the side looking at me curiously.

  “Penny,” I sobbed.

  Tears stung my eyes as I took in the familiar neon colored house, the peace sign, and my beamer on the graveled driveway.

  I was back.

  “No!” I cried, scrambling to my feet. I couldn’t be back. I just couldn’t.

  The movement made everything spin again, and I staggered forward to my car.

  Penny flapped her wings, squawking.

  “Sorry, Penny,” I said as I leaned against the hood.

  Maybe this was only a dream. Maybe I was lying in some ditch somewhere, dreaming that I was back in 2002.

  As if proving me wrong, something inside my pants jabbed against my thighs. I reached into my pocket, hoping against all hope that it wasn’t what I thought it was.

  When I pulled out my cellphone, I bit my lip, holding back a wave of grief. There was no doubting it now. I was back home.

  Flipping it open, the date illuminated in a steady, florescent glow.

  10/13/2002.

  “Jax. Oh, Jax.” I couldn’t hold it back anymore. Tears streamed down my cheeks as torment washed over me. I’d failed. The sweet, fun loving Jax I fell in love with was gone, and it was all my fault. I’d let myself be taken. I hadn’t tried hard enough. I’d promised I’d always be by his side, and I wasn’t.

  I’m a failure. My mother had been right all along, though she’d never said it. I disappointed everyone I loved: my parents, Jax, and even Caroline. I couldn’t even keep my promise to her. I cried harder.

  “He lost someone close to him around this time of the year. I think it was his fiancée.”

  “So she abandoned you too?”

  “Jax! I didn’t know. I didn’t know!” I wailed as his and Gianna’s voices filtered through my mind. He’d stood in this exact same spot when I’d slapped him for saying those words.

  I thought of the way he looked that night, his disheveled appearance, the thick scruff and defeated red-rimmed eyes. It was the exact same beaten down look I’d seen when he’d given into to being exactly like his father. I’d been there for him that night, and the next day I was gone.

  Grief wracked my body as I thought of all the promises I’d made to him, my words of love, anything to get him out of the dark hole he had been digging himself into. It was only hours for me since I’d said them but for Jax it was . . . it was . . . my breathing became ragged. For him, it was years. Years of living with my broken promise.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” I was sorry that I couldn’t be with him and sorry that each time he looked at me, it broke his heart over and over again.

  Even in your darkest hour, I’ll be by your side, loving you.

  My head popped up as I remembered the words I’d said to him. This was his darkest hour. He had to have thought he was losing his mind when he saw me on the first day of classes, but even when he thought I was setting him up on some kind of scheme to get his money, he still saw something good in me. He wasn’t totally gone.

  So what the hell was I doing here sobbing? Pull yourself together!

  Yanking the car door open, I jumped inside and sped toward town. I didn’t care how many years had passed. I loved Jax and nothing was going to stop me from being with him. Somewhere inside the hard shell of Professor Cooper was the Jax I loved. And I was going to get him back.

  I had no clue where he was living now. The only thing I had to go on was that maybe someone in the trailer park where he used to live would know where he’d moved. It was a long shot, but it was a place to start.

  As I drove slowly past Jitters, I gazed across the street looking for the park. Funny how I didn’t remember ever seeing it before. It couldn’t have entirely disappeared, could it?

  I stared at the entrance of Club Vortex where the park would’ve been. My heart fell. Images of Caroline flitted through my mind. I envisioned her swinging and singing loudly off key with Ethel on her lap, how she hung upside down, her pigtails so long they nearly touched the sand underneath the monkey bars.

  I stared at the alley beside the club, unsure if I wanted to go down the narrow si
de street. It was painful enough to see my memories covered over with concrete and glass.

  Gently pressing the gas pedal, I eased the car down the alley driving closer to where the trailer park should be. When the alley finally gave way, I slammed my foot on the brake.

  The trailer park was gone. In its place was a strip mall with a dry cleaners, a nail salon, and a deli.

  I gripped the stirring wheel as grief washed over me. I didn’t know why it was affecting me so much. Years had passed and change was to be expected. But it all happened without me. I wanted those years with Jax and Caroline. Those years had been taken away from me.

  Sighing, I put the car in reverse. I had to stay focused. Right now, I just had to find Jax.

  As I neared the main street, I saw Lou carrying a tray of mugs into the coffee shop.

  Lou!

  I jumped out of the car, not caring if I got a ticket or if the car was towed. If anyone knew where Jax and Caroline went, it would be Lou.

  “Lou!” I cried as I rushed through the door.

  Lou sat behind a laptop, tray of mugs forgotten, plucking at the keyboard with one finger. Frustrated, he whacked the screen. “I’ll never get used to this thing.”

  “Lou! Tell me you know where Jax lives.”

  “Jax?”

  “Professor Cooper.”

  “Oh, Cooper. Let’s see.” I blinked as he scratched the center of his thin, swirled hair. I guess I’d hold on to the last hair strand in a death grip too after seeing how much hair he used to have. “I heard he was renting a house somewhere in town. Can’t remember where. I think it was Elm Street. Or maybe he said he had elm trees. It was definitely a tree-named street.”

  I groaned. “Do you by any chance remember his mother and sister?”

  “Cooper’s sister? Yes, I do. Catherine.”

  “Caroline.”

  “Right, Caroline. Sweet little thing.”

  “Do you know what happened to her and his mother?”

  “Well, let’s see. I think she’s a lawyer now.”

  A lawyer! My chest filled with pride.

  “Or maybe she’s in law school or a paralegal. I’m not sure.”

  “What about his mother?”

  “Julie? All I know is that she left her husband in ’84. They moved out of state. You could ask Cooper yourself. Don’t you have a class with him?”

  “How did you know I have a class with Cooper?” I didn’t remember telling him about any of my classes.

  “He told me. Said you were one of his top students and that you reminded him of someone who used to work here when this was a skating rink. Then he mentioned something about bacon. I’m not sure. When you see him, tell him to hang in there. I’m on his side.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Now I’m not one to listen to gossip. But in my business, you hear a lot of what’s going on around campus. I know what it’s like to fall off the wagon. He’s got my support.”

  “What gossip?”

  He looked around the room then leaned in. “One of his students filed a complaint against him. She says he’s been going to class drunk. Now this part is not in the formal complaint, but it sounds like she’s saying that he’s been making the moves on her.”

  No way! Jax would never do anything like that. It was a lie. Poor Jax. How could someone do something like that to him?

  “I’ve known Cooper for a long time. Kind man. Easy on the eyes. He’s had his share of girls throwing themselves at him. Some just don’t take rejection very well. I know I had my share back in the day.”

  He grinned before he continued, “But when I saw Cooper walking in with that girl a couple months ago to give her some extra tutoring. I knew she was trouble.”

  “What girl?” I bet it was Flapper Girl. With the way she nearly bit my head off the last time I’d run into her, it just had to be her. Maybe she was a graduate student in one of his advanced courses.

  Lou tilted his head, and I followed his eyes. Sitting in the center of the coffee shop surrounded by a group of fraternity guys was a girl with killer curves, sultry eyes, and waves of raven hair.

  Gianna Ferilli.

  Chapter Two

  Sliding the car into the driveway, I turned on the windshield wipers. I stared at the blades as they moved back and forth over the windshield, sweeping the mud away. If only life was as simple as turning on a switch to wipe away all the emotions that had me reeling since the moment I’d woken up.

  I had searched for Jax, driving slowly down every street named after a tree. Each house I passed, I prayed to catch a glimpse of him, his Mercedes, any clue that he might live in one of those homes.

  Yeah, I was in stalker mode, and I was getting pretty good at it until an elderly gentleman who had been walking out to get his morning paper spotted me. He waved his cane, yelling that no IRS sons of bitches were going to take away his house. Before I could apologize and explain what I was doing, he shouted for someone named Myrtle to get his shotgun. So when the neighbors started to come out to see what the fuss was about, I thought it was probably time to leave given that my cover was blown.

  The huge splash of muddy water landing all over the poor man and a couple of his neighbors as I gunned the beamer’s engine didn’t help things either. I prayed no one got my license plate number.

  Trying to find Jax was much better than my alternative—get Gianna alone and beat the crap out of her. I still don’t know how I managed to pull myself out of Jitters and back into my car.

  I couldn’t believe Gianna. Jax was actually nice to her and was just trying to help her pass his class and this was how she repaid him? Well she wasn’t going to get away with it.

  I took a breath, determined to do something about it. But first, I had to figure out what to do about telling Jax that I was his Nicole from 1984.

  How in hell was I going to do that without sounding like a crazy person? I couldn’t just walk up to him and blurt, “Hey. Remember Nicole Applewood. Well, that’s me. Hi, long time no see.”

  Guilt gnawed my stomach as I remembered the sting of my hand and the surprised look in his eyes when I slapped him. It had only been yesterday when that happened. Well, yesterday for him. In my yesterday, I’d laid in his arms, his warm skin pressed against mine, sharing tender kisses.

  Oh god. I let my head fall forward, thumping it against the steering wheel over and over again. He was never going to believe me. He thought I was Nicole Applewood’s daughter, a gold digger. Even though it was easy to do a web search for one of the hundred photos of my famous mother to see that we looked nothing alike, he probably still wouldn’t believe me. The man was a scientist for crying out loud.

  Could I blame him? Who in the world would believe that I’d gone back in time and that I was the same girl he fell in love with when he was eighteen?

  There was a tapping on the windshield. I poked my head up from the stirring wheel and watched Penny waddle across the car’s hood.

  Greg! He was the only one who would believe me.

  I dashed into the house with Penny following close behind. Her claws clacked on the floor through the quiet house. I heard the sound of running water and immediately headed to the bathroom. Tapping on the door, I cracked it open slightly.

  “Hey, Greg. You’ll never believe what just happened to me over the past few months, uh, I mean hours. I guess it was hours because it’s today, well, 2002 today not 1984 today.”

  Great. I wasn’t making any sense, even to myself.

  Greg laughed.

  “I know I sound crazy,” I said as I stepped inside the bathroom. “I swear I’m sober and—”

  I couldn’t believe what I saw through the steamy haze. My jaw dropped to the floor. Literally.

  Chin. Floor.

  Birds could nest in there.

  The best thing about the bathroom was the huge shower. It had five showerheads and one in the middle that made it feel like you were in the rain. Under that showerhead was Greg with his arms around some dude wh
o looked exactly like Travis.

  A naked, totally buff Travis.

  “Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” Penny squawked when I barely missed slamming the door on her poor little head.

  “Nicole, wait!”

  I dashed to the kitchen with Greg’s yelling and Penny's claws clacking the floor behind me. Hands shaking, I searched the cabinets for something to drink. I didn’t know why I was freaking out.

  I picked up the bottle of wine I had drunk before I was magically transported to 1984. It was empty. Crap.

  I poked my head into the fridge and grabbed a bottled water, wishing it was something way stronger.

  “Nicole, let me explain.”

  I yelped, jumping back as a butt naked Greg appeared at the doorway. Penny was at his feet.

  “Greg!” I spun around, covering my eyes. I’d seen him without a shirt and I knew he was all muscle. But that didn’t mean I wanted to see him in all his birthday suit glory.

  I squeezed my eyes trying to shove the image of a naked Greg out of my head when I heard Penny squawking again, flapping her stubby wings.

  “No, Penny. It’s not a worm!” Greg yelped.

  Oh god, I silently groaned. Penny wasn’t helping the situation.

  Snatching a dishtowel from off the counter, I tossed it to him. “Greg, I love you. But eww. Cover yourself up.”

  “You’re not mad?”

  Turning to him, I gazed into worried baby blue eyes as he strategically placed the towel in front of him.

  Water droplets rolled down his cheeks. His wet hair spiked up at odd angles. I swallowed the lump caught in my throat. Boy, I’d really missed him.

  “Of course not. We’ve been best friends since we were kids. It’s just . . . I’ve never seen you with anyone and, uh, naked. It just caught me off guard.”

  He let out a breath. “I don’t know what I’d do if I’d lost you too.”

  “Me too?” I remembered that he had planned to meet with his mother last night. “Your mom, did she . . . ?”

  His face fell as he shook his head. “She didn’t take it well when I told her about Travis.”