Chapter Six

Historically Accurate

Being late to one of Zoe’s events wasn’t the same as being late to other social functions. For example, being late to a party was considered “fashionable.” It was almost expected. But the lectures, reenactments, and exhibitions she was always bringing Tyler and Oscar to were generally populated by an older crowd, occasionally a few grandchildren, and they tended to prioritize punctuality. Not to mention the fact that most times the crowd was so sparse that if you were late, there was no way to manage sneaking in.

When Tyler opened the front door, he saw there were only a handful of people scattered at different stations manned by costumed volunteers and wannabee actors and, of course, they all turned their heads to inspect the newcomers. Luckily, only a couple of patrons glared at them.

Tyler scanned the crowd for his friends, which took all of two seconds. He made a beeline for them, trying to piece together an excuse for why he was so late. Then it struck him that his excuse was walking right behind him.

Shit. This night had been so mind-boggling, he hadn’t taken the time to think of how he’d explain his new friend to Zoe and Oscar. All he’d known was that he couldn’t leave Eli alone in some strange place, confused and scared.

A look of relief washed over Oscar’s face, and he smiled as Tyler approached. “Dude, finally! I was worried you were bailing on us.” He nodded to Elias. “Who’s this?”

“Ah…um, that’s why I’m late, actually. I was on my way to meet you guys when Vice Principal Jeffries stopped me. This is Eli Caldwell. He’s an exchange student from England. Jeffries wanted me to show him around, take him under my wing or something like that. I figured I’d invite him tonight.” He looked at Zoe cautiously. “I hope that’s cool.”

Zoe looked him up and down then smiled sweetly. “Of course! The more the merrier.” She leaned in so only Tyler would be able to hear her when she added, “He’s cute.”

Tyler glanced at Eli. He’d been preoccupied with the fact that the guy had traveled through time and space, but he wasn’t blind. Of course he noticed the sharp elegance of the lines in Eli’s face and the way his dark waves framed it perfectly. But he had bigger things to worry about.

Zoe reached to Eli. “Hi, I’m Zoe.” He shook her hand. “Caldwell…that name sounds so familiar. Is Eli short for anything?”

“Elias,” he answered promptly.

“Hmm.” She looked as if she were considering something and then added, “Do you come from a long line of Caldwells?”

Tyler was about to ask why she was grilling him, but Eli just shrugged and said, “As long as I can recall. As far back as my paternal grandfather, anyway.”

“Makes sense. Nice cosplay,” she added with an approving wink. Conveniently enough, his time-traveling friend just happened to hail from the period of tonight’s event. Otherwise, Tyler wouldn’t exactly have had an easy explanation for the regal outfit.

Eli raised a questioning eyebrow and looked to Tyler for an explanation, but Tyler shook his head, hoping that Eli would just play along. Thankfully he took the cue and smiled at her.

“Zoe, it’s a pleasure.” He examined her for a moment then mumbled, “Interesting.”

“What?” she asked.

“It’s peculiar, you have all the grace and elegance of a young woman and yet your hair is styled in the fashion of a gentleman.”

Tyler wanted to die. Zoe frowned. Oscar also frowned, stepping directly between Zoe and Eli. “Hey, hey, hey, new guy. I know you just got here and you don’t really know the pecking order, but the only people who get to tease Zo-Zo are us.” He pointed a thumb upward, rotating the gesture between himself and Tyler.

“You’re lucky you started with grace and elegance,” Zoe said, completely ignoring Oscar’s pathetic attempt at defending her honor. She turned on her heels and moved to the next station of the exhibit.

Eli’s pale cheeks turned a bright shade of pink, and his eyes were wide with worry. “I am so incredibly sorry….it was just an observation. I genuinely meant no offense.”

For a moment, Tyler was worried that Oscar would keep going off on the oblivious English newcomer, but to his surprise, and relief, Oscar started to chuckle. He patted Eli on the shoulder.

“Hey, don’t worry about her, man. She’ll get over it before the night is done.” Oscar reached out his hand. “My name’s Oscar. Nice to meet you.”

Oh god. Oh god. Panic shot through Tyler, swift and unnerving. In the short amount of time that he’d spent with Eli so far, he’d learned very little about the guy other than that he was British, from 1886, and was apparently a Bowie fan. But he knew virtually nothing about Eli’s family or upbringing; if he was sheltered or had been raised in a more progressive household. Would he say something racist to Oscar? Tyler wanted to believe he wouldn’t, but given how little tact he had just exhibited with Zoe, there was no way to know for sure.

Eli just flashed another friendly smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, as well.”

Tyler exhaled; his back muscles went from feeling like concrete to feeling like jelly. Oscar simply nodded to the next station where Zoe was standing, her arms folded. “Shall we?”

The three of them moved to an area that had been roped off around the fireplace and grand piano, which had already been a part of the building’s lobby. Antique furniture was laid out and two of the presenters, a young man and woman both looking like they pulled pieces from the same closet as Eli, stood in front of the crowd with smiles so wide, they looked painful. The small crowd listened on as the duo rattled off details and “fun facts” about their day-to-day lives.

At one point, the woman sauntered over to the grand piano and looked down at it. Until that point, Tyler hadn’t noticed that each of the legs had been covered with some sort of fabric. “It was common for people in the late 1800s to cover up piano and table legs because they were thought to be too suggestive.”

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.