It’s too much to comprehend. “Wait, wait, wait. Okay, first of all, no I wouldn’t, I didn’t, in fact, I did stay at that terrible school and live in a shithole dorm with you. In my world, which you don’t believe anymore.”

She bites her bottom lip in a way I forgot she used to do. “I do believe you. I was mad and being mean.”

I pause. “Why didn’t you go to Avalon with me?”

“Because I didn’t want to!” she says, her voice now the one bouncing off the empty seats and through the sky-high rafters. “I didn’t want to.”

“What do you mean, you didn’t want to? It’s literally all we talked about for like two years!”

“No, Meg, it’s all you talked about for two years.”

I shake my head. This is bullshit. “We stayed up every night talking about it.”

She doesn’t say anything because we both know what she’d say. Which is that I was the one who stayed up every night talking about it.

“Okay…” I relent. “So why didn’t you tell me?”

“I knew you’d blame it on Theo. Because, yeah, I wanted to stay with him. I loved him, Meg, I’ve always loved him so much. Even when he was a loser idiot teenager, and now that he’s not, I love him the same. I knew that you’d think I was being a dumb girl staying home to be with her townie boyfriend. I never wanted a big life like you.” The way she says big life, I can tell she’s quoting me. “You could never understand why or how anyone could ever want anything less than to become an icon. To become immortal.” She gives a laugh joylessly.

I seethe. “This is crazy.”

She nods slowly.

It makes sense. It makes so much stupid, stupid sense. I can hardly believe it, because if this is true, and if the timelines diverged when I think they did, then it means she lied in my world too. And in my world, it’s even worse, because she let me stay home without telling me the truth.

I think of how I’m always trying to get my mom to move out of Florida. How she’s always telling me that she and Dad like their life there. How I’m often angry when I get off the phone with her.

More strange, disjointed memories start to pour over into my consciousness like an overflowing bathtub, the hot water seeping over the sides.