#re-buke

Brain Curds are barely-edited fiction, poetry, or just about anything else - drafted in a day or less. This Brain Curd number is a palindrome - make a wish!

Part 67 of an experiment in progress. Refer to case logs.

I ran to the boys’ bathroom and slammed the stall door behind me. I gripped my head in my hands and began hyperventilating. “That wasn’t supposed to happen that way.”

Celeste popped in and leaned on the wall. “Yes, it was.”

“What?” I looked up at her, shaking. “No, no, last time it was my fault. I kicked the cup over. This time, Mr. Holt knocked it out of my hand!” I punched the divider. “And I only kept the coffee because you told me I had to!”

“You know, if you ask me, this was his fault the first time around, too.” She shrugged. “If you were allowed to keep the coffee on your desk, it wouldn’t have happened. But that’s not important. What’s important is that it happened, and since it did, we’re still on track to stay in this timeline.”

“Geez…” I gripped my head. “How many more people have to get hurt just so I can catch up to being in a coma?”

“Not too many.” She shuffled through notes. “And most of that crap you got up to without me was in another timeline anyway. It doesn’t count.”

“Doesn’t count?” I slapped my chest. “I know what I did, Celeste!”

“What did you do?”

“I…” I almost couldn’t say the words. They came out as a squeak. “At homecoming, I… I kissed her, and she didn’t like it.”

Celeste’s face softened. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” I looked to the cracking grout between the floor tiles for kinship. “I’m not a good person, Celeste. I’m not worth all this.” I facepalmed. “I’m not even good enough to be my father’s son. Do you know how our last interaction went?”

She nodded. “The bicycle incident, right?”

“Yeah. How am I supposed to talk to him again after that? If it counts what he did that never really happened, then it counts what I did.”

“The bicycle incident happens in every timeline, Trevor. He’s… he’s just like that. A ticking timebomb.”

I sighed. “But I still have to help him, right?”

“For the sake of the timeline… probably, yes. We can’t take that risk. There are no more do-overs.”

I rubbed my eyes. “Man… if only I could talk to… wait…” I started smiling again. “Wait, wait, I know what to do!” I ran off as Celeste babbled.

“Trevor! What is it? What are you doing?!?”

There was only one person who could help me now.

Penned 2025.08.04