The Time Traveler's Guide to Modern Romance

by Madeline J. Reynolds

  There was mild laughter in response to this tidbit of information, but no one laughed quite as loud as Eli, who followed his outburst with, “That is the most bizarre thing I’ve ever heard.”

  The performer kept her smile tight. She must have prepared herself for such a response. “Yes.” She nodded. “I am certain that to modern people like yourselves, our customs must seem pretty odd.”

  Eli could’ve dropped it there—he should have dropped it there. Instead he persisted, “No family does that. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.”

  Shut up. Shut up.

  Tyler’s eyes grew wide, and he lost the ability to swallow. He wasn’t worried about anyone piecing together that Eli was actually alive during that era…it wasn’t exactly the most logical assumption. But he was worried about Eli making an even worse impression than he’d already made with the interruption. He looked to Zoe and, to his relief, she was smiling.

  Not just smiling. She was laughing.

  Seeing that set off something in Tyler and before he knew it, he was laughing, too. Ever since what he saw in the library earlier, he hadn’t had a chance to process everything. Laughter seemed like the natural response, even if it was a joke that no one else was in on. And it made him feel lighter.

  Their lighthearted moment was interrupted by a man with a nametag and a stern look, briskly walking toward them.

  “Hey, kid!”

  Oscar, Zoe, and Tyler all looked at each other. He could have been talking about any of them. But he continued moving until he was standing right beside Eli.

  “What are you doing down here? You’re supposed to be upstairs in the library, talking about the Romantics.”

  Eli didn’t miss a beat. “Eh, I’m much more partial to Gothic literature, personally.”

  Tyler bit down on his lip as the man scowled. But instead of scolding him, the man grabbed onto Eli’s arm, quickly turning the mood from humorous to severe.

  “Unhand me, you scamp!” Eli tried to wrench his arm away.

  The other patrons looked at one another nervously as Tyler slid over to Eli’s side.

  “Sir, believe me, I totally get the confusion, but my friend here isn’t one of your actors.” He shot Eli a look that was intended to calm him then continued, “He’s just a history enthusiast.”

  “Hmm, well, apologies then, kid. That was my mistake.” At that he should have let Eli’s arm out of his grasp, but he paused for a moment, pinching the fabric of Eli’s sleeve and looking thoughtful. “Do you mind my asking where you got this fantastic costume? I can only ever seem to find the cheaper fabrics used on generic Halloween costumes.”

  Eli blinked, and Tyler was sure he would have to jump in again, but then Eli responded, “My family has our own tailor in our employ. He’s a talented fellow but can turn into a real flirt, especially when taking measurements near the waist and bum.”

  This had everyone in the room laughing; even the presenters struggled to keep their faces neutral and stay in character. Tyler was the only one not joining in, blushing instead as his gaze migrated to Eli’s waistline but then quickly averted.

  The man nodded and chuckled. “You may not be one of my actors yet, but if you’re looking for a summer job, just give me a ring. That British accent is spot on! Very believable.”

  Eli raised an eyebrow as he flashed Tyler a coy smirk. In response, Tyler shook his head, moving toward the hall to make his way toward the next exhibit.

  By the time they made it through the entire show and were back outside, Tyler seized his opportunity to pull Zoe aside.

  “Hey, I’m really sorry about Eli. He shouldn’t have disrupted like that.”

  Zoe smiled. “Are you kidding? I thought it was great. That whole thing with the piano legs is a myth that’s been debunked for a while now. You would think a person working for the historical society would know better. Someone had to say something. If your friend hadn’t first, I probably would have myself.”

  The tension lingering in Tyler’s shoulders eased off. He didn’t know why it even mattered what Zoe or Oscar thought of Eli. It wasn’t like he was staying, anyway. They would figure out how he wound up in a school library in New Jersey in the first place, send him back to his own country, in his own time, and the whole thing would just seem like some weird dream.

  But as he thought of it, the idea of Eli vanishing into thin air just as quickly and as curiously as he had materialized, he felt oddly empty and anxious. It was like he was a kid who had just found a stray puppy. He knew he couldn’t bring him home, that the puppy couldn’t stay, but part of him was almost starting to hope…

  “Hey, Ty! You drove here, right?” Oscar and Eli had been carrying on their own conversation and were now making their way toward him and Zoe.

  Tyler nodded.

  “You mind if we hitch a ride back with you? The back seat of your Honda sounds a lot more appealing than the bus right now.”

  Zoe looked from Tyler to Eli and then back to Tyler. “That is, of course, unless you’d rather just head back on your own. I’m sure you’ve still got a lot to show Eli, since he just got here and all.”

  Tyler appreciated what Zoe was trying to do, and under any other set of circumstances, he would have eagerly played along. But this was not the time for her to be playing matchmaker. He already had too many things to sort out when it came to Eli.

  “Nah, it’s cool. I’m not gonna subject my friends to the horrors of the bus.”

  “The more the merrier,” Eli added with a grin. There was something undeniably endearing about his enthusiasm, even in the face of everything he was going through.

  As they climbed in, Oscar pulled out a cord and hooked up his phone to the auxiliary jack. “Any requests?”

  Tyler smiled. “Turns out Eli here is a big Bowie fan.”

  “Ahh, that makes sense,” Oscar replied as the intro to “Life on Mars” filtered out of the car’s old speakers.

  Eli looked over his shoulder. “Wait, why does it make sense?”

  Oscar shrugged. “Well, you are a Brit.”

  Zoe rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Yeah, and you’re from Jersey and yet you hate Springsteen.”

  Oscar laughed. “Okay…valid.”

  Eli smiled in the direction of the radio. He seemed overcome with pride to learn that he and David Bowie hailed from the same country. To complement this sentiment, he took on an air of mock cockiness—mockiness?—and said, “Ah yes, all the great artists come out of good ole England, it would seem.”

  More laughter filled the car, and Zoe paired a thoughtful look with a shrug. “Well, he’s not wrong.”

  Once they got back to BGA campus, Zoe diverged from the group, heading to the girls’ dorm on the east side while the boys headed west.

  “Well, this is me,” Oscar announced as they passed the second floor entry on the stairwell. He held out a hand. “It was nice meeting you, Eli. Hope you like it here at Briar Grove and that we didn’t scare you off on your first day.”

  Eli smiled and shook his hand. “It was a pleasure to meet you, as well. And I think I’m going to have a splendid time in the States.”

  Tyler warmed from the inside out.

  You can’t keep the puppy. You can’t keep the puppy.

  “See ya later,” Tyler said with a nod. He led Eli up a couple more flights until they were on the fourth floor. Room 407.

  Most of the rooms were doubles. Tyler’s assigned roommate, Derrick Marsh, had gotten homesick and moved back to Minnesota. Technically, the school was supposed to assign him a new roomie, but no one had ever seemed to get around to it, so he was one of the few students who got a dorm room all to himself. He had just barely managed to explain a mystery British guy in Victorian-era dress to his friends. He didn’t really feel like making an excuse-filled spiel again that night.

  “Welcome to my humble abode.”

  “Huh?” Eli asked.

  “Um, this is where I live.”

  “This room? This is it?
It’s so…”

  “Yeah…hence why I said humble.”

  Eli smirked. “An apt description.”

  “Let me guess, you lived in some mansion in the middle of London?”

  “Well actually, it’s called a manor. But yes. It has multiple wings, a courtyard, and a ballroom for entertaining.”

  Tyler blew out a whistle. “Well this place has multiple wings, too. They just happen to be filled with a bunch of other guys.”

  A grin snuck its way across Eli’s face. “You know, when you describe it that way, it doesn’t sound all too bad.”

  Tyler laughed. “No, I suppose it’s not so bad.”

  They stood there for a few minutes, uncertain of what to do or say next. It was late and all Tyler wanted to do was crawl into his bed, but after everything that had happened, the concept of sleep felt far away and alien. He looked to the bed on the other side of the dorm room that had sat there vacant all this time. He should probably offer Eli some pajamas; the poor guy had nothing with him except the clothes on his back. But what would he even feel comfortable in?

  Tyler decided to just go ahead and start undressing, seeing if it prompted Elias to do the same. He peeled off his shirt, and Eli shot him a scandalized look, whirling around to face the wall, but not before his icy-blue eyes had already wandered up and down Tyler’s chest.

  While still facing the wall, Eli slowly began to undress as well. Tyler’s gaze started to drift to Eli’s side of the room, but then, out of respect, he averted his eyes until he heard the rustling of blankets as Eli climbed into the bed. When it was safe to look again he realized Eli had gotten into Tyler’s bed. He opened his mouth to protest, but immediately changed his mind. This new roommate situation was only temporary. Tomorrow they would figure this out and put things right. He wasn’t sure that was even possible, but telling it to himself was the only way to keep from panicking.

  He switched off the light and grabbed an extra blanket from the closet. He attempted to get comfortable on his old roommate’s bed, a challenge, given the lack of extra pillows. As soon as he closed his eyes, though, he knew he wouldn’t get any sleep. His mind was already going a mile a minute, thinking of things like the Butterfly Effect, time traveling heroes from the comic books he used to love as a kid, and Zoe’s comment about how cute Eli was.

  He also couldn’t help dwelling on the strange irony that, for a while now, he’d been wondering what it would be like to have another boy in his bed. All the times he’d imagined it, he could have never dreamed up circumstances like those that had led to it actually happening.

  Chapter Seven

  Back to the Scene of the Crime

  Most of the morning, Elias had simply been lying in bed, buzzing with anxiety and waiting for an acceptable hour to wake his guide to this strange new place. He felt restless, excited…a little scared, yes. But there was so much he wanted to know. To explore.

  Finally there was movement. Tyler flipped onto his side and groaned, clearly adjusting for comfort, but Elias decided he would take it as an invitation to start the day. He hopped from the bed and figured the least rude way to rouse his host would be to let in a little light, but when he went to pull the curtains aside, he was baffled by their strange design. Rather than one curtain on the left and another on the right to be parted down the middle, there was one wall of material with horizontal slats running all the way down.

  He spotted a thin white cord hanging along the side and gave it a tug. As he’d suspected, the strange curtain rose. What he wasn’t counting on was it falling right back down as soon as he let go. He made another attempt, but with the same results. He tried again, and again, and again, but the damned thing wouldn’t stay put. He stopped trying only when he heard groggy laughter from the other side of the room.

  Tyler rose and wordlessly took the cord from him, yanking it at an angle, and just like that, it stuck. The way he made it look so effortless, Elias felt equal parts incompetent and foolish.

  “Did you sleep all right?” Tyler asked, reaching for his glasses on the nightstand.

  “Mmm.” Elias gave a quick nod. He didn’t say yes, so technically, it was not a lie. Elias moved to reach for his clothes, which lay discarded on Tyler’s floor.

  “Ahh—maybe not,” Tyler said, blinking away the sleep from his eyes.

  “Pardon?”

  “You might want to wear something else, ya know, blend in a little.” Tyler went to his wardrobe, and after riffling around, offered him a handful of garments. “Here.”

  Elias looked down at the pieces. Gray trousers, a maroon jacket with a crest featuring a falcon perched on a stone wall covered in ivy and the words Briar Grove Academy emblazoned on the lapel, a white dress shirt, and some long, thin piece of fabric with a similar color scheme of grays, black, white, and maroon.

  Elias frowned. “Come now, you must have something a little more exciting for me.” He peered back up into the wardrobe and spotted a garment with red and white stripes then pointed. “What about that?”

  Tyler grinned, dimples deepening on either side of his lips. “I said blend in. Ironically enough, you’re not going to be able to do that very well in my famous Where’s Waldo sweater.”

  Elias was silent. Tyler was speaking to him in gibberish again.

  He sighed. “Sorry. Look, while we’re on campus, it’ll be easier to just make you look like any other student here.” He nodded to the clothes in Elias’s hands. “And that’s the official BGA uniform.”

  Elias gave a reluctant nod and began to dress himself. The only thing he grabbed from his own clothing was the pocket watch, which he quickly shoved into the pocket of the blazer Tyler had given to him. As inconspicuous as it was, he decided that an object that could transport one through time and space should not be left in a pile of clothes on the bedroom floor. Luckily for Elias, he and Tyler were about the same size, as the clothing pieces all fit properly, for the most part. He had put on almost all the pieces of the uniform, save for the long bit of fabric. He wasn’t entirely sure what Tyler was expecting him to do with that. After Tyler finished dressing, he must have noted Elias’s confusion, because he held out a hand. Elias gave him the garment.

  “You guys were all about cravats and bowties, right? This is sort of similar. It’s just called a tie.”

  Tyler moved in close, wrapping the tie around his neck, and Elias felt a rush of blood through his entire body as his heart rate quickened. He did his best to keep his breathing pattern normal as Tyler fiddled with the length of fabric, looping it in and out until a knot had formed. He left it hanging for Elias to adjust on his own, though he would have been more than okay with him being the one to tighten it, closing the distance between them even less.

  He stared at Tyler for a second longer than he had meant to and quickly covered it up with a question. “So what are we up to this fine day?”

  Tyler led him out the door and said, “I figured we’d head over to the library.”

  Elias let out a groan. “But I’ve already been there, seen that. Hell, I wouldn’t have even had to leave my home to see a library.”

  “Well, you appeared there. It had to have been for a reason.”

  They cut across the courtyard, and already, flocks of students were out and about, chatting and laughing and throwing balls and disks back and forth to one another. Elias yearned to join in their merriment—he wanted to know what they were talking about, he wanted to be in on their jokes and laugh right alongside them. Instead, he begrudgingly trotted along after Tyler, having to jog at times to keep up with Tyler’s determined strides. His curiosity was outweighed by the concern of being separated from one of the few people whose name he actually knew here.

  When they arrived at the library, he noticed Tyler avoided eye contact with the pointy-nosed woman at the front desk as he strode through the aisles and toward the spot where they’d first encountered each other. He thought back on the night before, tried to recall the sensations, what it looked like, sounded like,
felt like to be transported through time. It was all so hazy. It certainly hadn’t been painful or anything. Come to think of it, he really hadn’t had the wherewithal to know what he was experiencing. It all happened so fast that by the time he’d realized a change had even taken place, he was already plucked from his own world and miraculously in another. Standing, living, breathing, blinking, heart beating, chest rising and falling. Real. It was all real.

  “Now what?” Elias said.

  It seemed Tyler was wondering the same thing, though. The red-haired boy circled about the space, searching from the floor to the bookshelves, only to turn his gaze back down to the floor. Elias glanced up at the high ceilings with what he hoped appeared to be a thoughtful expression on his face. He knew he wasn’t going to find any clues or signs up there, especially considering the key to what they were looking for was already in Elias’s possession, but he figured he would humor the bloke by at least acting like he was inspecting something.

  “Do you remember anything about the moment you showed up?”

  Elias reached into the blazer pocket, pressing his fingers around the impossible device that had brought him here. “I had my eyes closed when I disappeared from my grandfather’s room. When I opened them I was here…in this library.”

  Tyler pressed his lips together. It made it seem like the answer frustrated him, and Elias got the strong sense that Tyler didn’t quite believe him—as if he knew there was information that Elias was leaving out.

  “What do you remember from my grand entrance?” Elias asked, quickly turning the tables.

  Tyler took a few moments, rocking back and forth on his heels, but then his eyes widened in some silent epiphany. He rushed over to the table where he’d set down his bag. From it, he pulled out the strange silver device he had been holding the night before. “My camera!”

  Elias knew what a camera was. They were fairly new back home and were used to take photographs. But this was unlike anything he knew of what a camera was. Tyler pulled out a compartment on the side and pressed a button on the device. Elias walked over to stand just beside him and looked over his arm. Tyler continued to fiddle with more buttons and when he pulled his hand away, Elias was at a loss for words.