Chapter 5
Scott's nostrils flared as he looked away from the blonde. His shoulders were tense as his mouth opened once… twice… three times and still nothing emerged. There was such a look of confused pain in his eyes that she immediately regretted telling him.
Delphine sighed softly as she leaned against the counter, looking down at her shoes in an attempt to not think about the throbbing that had started in her arm. "It happens when she's in college. I guess the story is that she gets involved with this anti-doctor, hippie girl who convinces her she doesn't need to go to the hospital when she really should."
"What?" Scott shook his head. "That doesn't make sense. She's planning on going to school for biology… why would she..."
"Trust me. It's the truth. People do awful things for the people they love..." Delphine frowned. "So… I need you to help me figure out what's going on. Am I dead? Am I stuck in the past or did I get a vision of the future?" She looked around the room, glad that no one had class in the chem lab at that time. They were both going to be late for their next class, but some things were more important than sex ed.
"I can't answer that for you. I don't think anyone can." Scott reached up to straighten his glasses, his arms crossing over his chest. "But maybe you've already done enough to alter the future. I mean, as you mentioned with Star Trek, it's totally a plausible situation. By being here in the past, knowing what you know about the future, you have already created an alternate timeline in which the life you lived is no longer the path you're on. The question is, when you go back to your time, if you go back at all, will you be in your old timeline… or this one?"
Nothing sounded more bleak that the possibility of going back to a life where she was married to Paul, a man who constantly cheated on her and had little time for his unimportant wife. "I can't go back to that." She shook her head. There had to be something she could do to prevent it. "So what do we do now?"
Scott gathered his books, a thoughtful look on his face. "I don't know… but you really need to stop cutting class. If you're going to change your future, you probably should graduate first."
Delphine sighed. "Easy for you to say. I had no use for calculus in the past 20 years. I can't remember any of it." She blew out a long stream of air.
"Hmmm." Scott shouldered his bag before a big grin came over his face. "Ok, so we're trying to steer Cosima away from a future bad decision… I think you need a tutor…"
Her brows furrowing, Delphine shook her head. "What are you even talking about?"
"Do you know who's really good at calculus? Cosima."
"Well good for her but…" Sudden realization dawned on her. "Scott! That is a fantastic idea!" She leaned forward and brushed a kiss against his cheek. "Thank you!"
Scott watched as she left, his cheeks burning a bright red. "Hey! Wait did you want her phone number?"
"What are you doing here, Frenchie?"
Delphine took a small step back, not expecting Sarah to open the door. "Sarah, are you ill as well?"
"What?" The brunette gave her a questioning look. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It's… you're not in school?"
"And you are?"
"Oh…" Delphine shrugged. "Sorry I…"
"Hey, Delphine, you're here." Cosima pushed Sarah out of the way, holding the door open for the blonde. "Come on back. Ignore bitchy bitch here." She stuck her tongue out at her sister.
Delphine looked around the house that was colorful and very… lived in. Her own home was very orderly and tidy, but Cosima's walls were filled with family photos and crazy paintings. To her surprise, they descended a set of stairs to the basement where apparently Cosima's room was. "You sleep down here?"
Cosima chuckled. "Cool huh?" Her voice cracked on that word and she cleared her throat. "Sorry. I just have a little bit of a scratch in my throat."
Delphine narrowed her eyes. "Did you go to the doctor?" She asked, trying to sound neutral.
"Yeah my mom made me, but it's just a sore throat. I'll be fine." Cosima took a seat on the circle rug spread in the middle of the room. "So… did I hear you right on the phone? You need help with your calculus homework? Aren't you getting like straight A's?"
Sitting facing the brunette, Delphine nodded. "I did last year, but I don't know what happened this summer. I've somehow forgotten how to do any of this." She pulled out her textbook.
Cosima gave her a suspicious look. "Aren't you supposed to be in school like right now?"
"Perhaps…" Delphine shrugged, pulling out her notebook. "Let's not dwell on that. I'm supposed to be in Sex Ed right now and the last thing I care about learning is how sperm makes its way to an ova." Looking up, she caught the small grin Cosima gave her as she flipped through the Calculus book.
"Well… I hope you didn't come here for that class. I'm like the worse person to ask about sperm."
Looking up from her notes, Delphine shook her head. "Cheeky."
The time passed fairly quickly until two hours later, Delphine felt like her eyes were bleeding as she massaged her temples.
"So we find that the tangent line to the parabola y = x 2 at the point (1, 1) has equation y − 1 = 2(x − 1)…" Cosima looked up and let her voice trail off, the corner of her mouth lifting in a grin. "You look like you haven't absorbed a single thing I just said."
An embarrassed blush spreading across her face, Delphine waved her hand. "Desoleé." She shook her head. "Sorry. Maybe it was just a little too much?"
Cosima laughed softly, closing the textbook. "It's cool. My super health-conscious mother left me money to order a pizza. Are you hungry?"
Just at that moment, Delphine's stomach growled, as if the mention of food were summoning a manifestation of satan.
Cosima's eyes doubled in size. "Holy shit dude… are you ok? Like… are you sick?" Her face was a mask of false concern.
"No…" Her cheeks flushing a dark red, Delphine shook her head. "Maybe I didn't eat my lunch today…" She licked her lips, trying to remember the last time she'd had a pizza. "Will it have spinach and mushrooms?"
Cosima laughed at that, reaching under her bed to pull out a basic corded phone. "If that's what you want on it, then yes. Like we apparently need to feed you before some baby alien tries to claw its way out." She easily punched in a number into the phone, toying with the curled cord.
"You have the number memorized?" Delphine couldn't help but smile, the brunette giving her a look as if it was obvious. It was strange, she thought, remembering a time before cell phones. If she thought about it, she could still remember Krystal and Alison's home numbers when they were teens, but she couldn't remember her mother's cell phone number. Maybe it was because she was actually just going crazy and she couldn't remember her mother's number because it didn't exist.
"You ok?" Cosima asked as she hung up the phone.
Delphine nodded. "Yeah, just thinking." She shifted, hugging her knees to her chest as she watched the brunette stack the books neatly. "Thank you… for helping."
Looking up, Cosima's cheeks colored the softest pink. "It's no problem."
"I thought…" She let her voice drift off, shaking her head.
"You thought what?" Cosima could see they weren't going to get any more studying done at the moment and instead began to fidget, trying to keep her hands busy.
"You left so quickly yesterday… and you weren't in school... I thought I might have offended you somehow…"
Cosima snorted at that. "How would you have offended me?"
Delphine shrugged. "I don't know you just seemed…"
"Sorry, Captain." Cosima laughed, a nervous laugh that wasn't convincing. "Nothing to be offended by...besides I don't really offend easily."
With a soft smile, Delphine nodded. "No you don't." She took a moment to look around the room, admiring the posters on the walls. There was nothing mainstream on the walls, but she noted a few bands that would eventually move away from the indie scene a few years down the road. "I like your room."
Cosima chuckled, pushing herself up and moving to her dresser. "It's pretty trashed." She retrieved a small box, opening the two windows. "Do you blaze?"
"Blaze?" Delphine nearly laughed. She hadn't heard that term in forever. "Non… but is it ok if I…" She pulled her cigarettes from her bag.
"Such a rebel." Cosima joked as she began to break down the buds. "You know those are super unhealthy right? If you're ever interested in trying something more natural…"
Delphine grinned. "I dunno, Cosima. I think breaking up with my boyfriend and breaking my arm, I don't know if I can take any more major changes right now."
Running her tongue along the glue edge of the paper, Cosima retrieved the lighter from her box. "Hakuna Matata, Dude." She mumbled around the joint as she lit the end.
As if sensing what was going on, there was a quick rap at the basement door before it opened. "Hey! Everyone still dressed in here?"
"Shut up turd-face!" Cosima yelled in a cloud of smoke, waving it away as Sarah closed the door and came down the stairs. "Delphine is just a friend, Man."
"Since when are you friends with a cheerleader?" Sarah snagged the joint from her sister, taking a long drag from it. "Did you just use the phone?"
"I am more than a cheerleader, you know." Delphine protested.
"Totally." Cosima grabbed the joint back and pushed her twin. "Sarah is just an asshole. I ordered some pizza, Spazz."
"How about a warning next time? You kicked me off the internet."
"Oh no." Cosima gave her a mock panicked look. "I'm sooo sorry… not! Poor Cal is going to have to wank off to the sound from the Playboy channel like normal dudes."
Delphine couldn't help smiling, watching the two completely different teens bickering. Despite the rougher sister's demeanour, she knew how crushed the brunette ended up being after Cosima's death. "You two are adorable." She commented, unable to stop herself.
"Ew. How much did you let her smoke?" Sarah gave the blonde a disgusted look, taking one more pull from the joint.
"She hasn't." Cosima dug into her pocket, pulling out a 20. "Hey, pizzas should be here anytime." She handed Sarah the cash.
"Tight." Sarah took the 20, handing Delphine the joint before hopping up. "Hope you got something with meat on it."
Watching the girl disappear up the stairs, Cosima shook her head. "Sorry about that."
"Non. It's ok." Delphine looked down at the joint in her hand. She'd only smoked once at a party and she remembered feeling really sick when the room spun out of control.
"You know, you don't have to. I don't do peer pressure." Cosima joked as she held her hand out.
Maybe it was the second chance to relive her life, or the gentle reassuring look on Cosima's face, but she brought the joint to her mouth, inhaling a healthy hit. She handed the joint back over, trying her best to keep it in like she remembered she was supposed to. Cosima was giving her a surprised look just seconds before her lungs rebelled and she was coughing out the smoke.
"Cough it out." Cosima chuckled, sliding over to her side and patting her on the back. "Dude you took that like a champ." She brought the joint to her own lips, unable to hide her own grin.
Delphine shook her head, wincing at the taste in her mouth. She'd forgotten how horrible it tasted. She gave the brunette an embarrassed smile. "It tastes like shit."
Cosima coughed out the hit she had been trying to keep in, unable to stop herself from laughing. "It so does. Sorry, it's completely dried out." She cleared her throat, wincing. "So like… what's the deal with you?"
"Pardon?"
With a shrug, Cosima offered the joint to the blonde, just slightly surprised when it was taken again. "Well… like three days ago you were sitting with your cheer buddies, all cozy with the quarterback boyfriend and content to stay in your bubble… like no offense or anything… but what's with the 180?"
Delphine shrugged. She could already feel a slight disconnect, a blanket of sensation settling over her. "I just… didn't like the path my life was on. 20 years from now… I don't want to be some Hollywood wife to some douchebag who will no doubt cheat on me every chance he gets."
Cosima rose an eyebrow. "Wow… douchebag? That's…" She whistled. "That's pretty intense."
"I... read it in a book." She looked up to see dark eyes watching her closely.
"I like it." Cosima grinned. "It's pretty fly. I think I'll start using it, if you don't mind."
Delphine smiled. "Of course." Her legs crossed, Delphine felt the urge to remove her shoes, fighting with the knots for just a moment before removing them. Apparently her teenage self had yet to discover the wonder of boots. "So… the change is that obvious?" She shook her head when Cosima offered her the joint.
Taking one last hit, Cosima killed the joint with a shrug. "I mean, yeah it's obvious but like, it's not a bad thing." She grinned.
"No?"
"No. I kind of like you this way." Cosima began cleaning up her smoking supplies, not without looking up at Delphine through dark lashes.
Delphine couldn't help but smile, a comfortable silence descending between the two of them.
"PIZZA!" Sarah suddenly yelled, kicking open the door, scaring a few years of life out of both of them.