What choice did I have? The moment I clicked Enter, Donnie brought me right back to the lab. So, I walked home to our small apartment, where I could see traces of Erin in the moments before she’d left to surprise me. There was our bed, where last night we’d fantasized about a summer trip to Barcelona. There were the dishes from her lunch on the table, and drafts of her thesis by her computer—all glimpses of the life we’d been rebuilding before I’d ruined it. My PlayStation was gone, lost in an alternate dimension. All I had was some weed in the closet, and the six-pack I’d picked up on the way home. So I opened a bottle and loaded the bong for myself, and got high alone for the last time in what had once been our reality.

The door opened early next morning. I blinked awake, the whole world hurting, to find the two of them standing in the morning light looking like sisters. Lake House Erin surveyed our messy living room with the empty bottles, rolling papers, and ashy coffee table, then looked back at red-eyed, hungover me, seeing me for the first time the way my Erin had seen me for the past year. “Get out of bed,” my Erin said before shutting the door behind her so I could get dressed.

When I finally sat across from the two Erins at the kitchen table, the world was swimming behind my eyes. “I can’t believe you lied to me,” Lake House Erin said and looked to the other her. “Last night I finally got to know myself, and I actually like who I am. I’m a good person, Luke, and you helped me stab myself in the back.” She reached out and put her hand on Erin’s. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault; that’s just what he does. He’s selfish and fucked up,” Erin said. Then she looked at me. “I was mad at you both, but now that I’ve had time alone with myself, I realize I’m just mad that I chose you again.”

“But I love you. Isn’t that, like, an even better testament of my love, that I love all the different versions of you?”

“Luke,” my Erin said, “the only reason we’re here is to tell you that this—us—is over.”

“Can we talk about this? It doesn’t have to end this way; there’s infinite realities. What about the reality where all of us love one another?”

“We’re going back to the lab,” Erin said. “Erin’s returning to her reality and I’m staying here in a reality without you. So take your clothes, take your fucking bong, and get your stuff out of here. When I get back, I want the front door locked with your key under the mat.”

“Where am I supposed to go?”