Chapter 1
Magic was not real.
In Billy Dunnes mind, magic was a myth. Things that seemed like magic, just came from hard work and luck. Pure luck. No magic existed. No matter how many times he wished he could use magic to change peoples minds, make them forget things, or even just go back in time. It wasn’t real.
Billy Dunne did NOT believe in magic.
———
“I’m proud of you Jules. More than you could ever know.”
Julia’s head was laid onto his shoulder, Billy’s head slightly leaning ontop of her. It was a quiet night. It always always quiet now. Ever since Camilla passed, no more life had filled the house. No smell of food or sounds of spanish music. No laughter or crude jokes. It was silent. Too silent.
When the silence became too much, Billy sat outside. Him and Camilla had done it a few times. Watched the stars together. Sometimes they’d even let Julia stay up past her bedtime to make wishes on shooting stars.
“Look!”
Julia points to the sky but Billy already knows what she sees. A bright star is soaring across the sky, somehow visible throughout all of the light that shines upwards from the spirals around them.
“Make a wish Dad.”
Julia snuggles closer to him and Billy shuts his eyes. Usually he wished for the strength to be good and the love to be long. But he had lost his strength and his love. What was he supposed to wish for now?
“I wish…..to do it all over again.”
Billy’s whisper is soft but still prompts a response from his daughter. She sits up and looks to him.
“Do what all over again?”
Billy thinks on his words. He hadn’t even really thought about what he meant, only that he meant it.
“I’m saying that I wish I could do all this over again. Erase everything that happened. Everything I did or didn’t do. Hell, if time travel existed, I’d be the luckiest man on earth.”
He feels Julia’s hand on his cheek and only then realizes that a tear had slipped out his eye. Julia’s eyes are watery too. She knows what he means. All the secrets that the documentary laid out for her to see. The persona that he’d so carefully crafted so that she’d ever know the truth of who her father was, completely gone because of old friends and runny mouths.
He didn’t totally mind it though. Things he’d never be able to say and admit we’re handed straight to him and it had made him reflect. A lot. And luckily, Julia didn’t seem to think differently of him. She was still his babygirl and he was still her dad. She accepted him. The old him and the new him. She was just like her mother.
“I love you dad.”
Billy takes his daughters face into his hands and kisses her forehead before looking back at her face.
“I love you too Julia.”
She smiles sweetly and Billy can feel the pain in his chest ease. Grief was hard. It was draining and deadly. But with Julia by his side, he knew he’d power through.
They stayed out there for a little while longer before both deciding that it was getting late and they needed to turn in. Julia had more interviews tomorrow and Billy had the pleasure of accompanying her. Her recent success had given him another reason to live. A purpose. He would protect her at all costs and make sure she didn’t go down the route he did. And it all started tomorrow.
Once Billy had shut the door and laid down in bed, he shut his eyes. Not to sleep but just to feel the bed around him. He tried to remember what she felt like but it was slipping away. No warmth. No brown hair in his face. Nobody next to him. He was alone again.
But he’d already cried too many tears. So instead he sighed and opened his eyes. His eyes immediately looked out the window next to him and he caught sight of something else. Another shooting star. Flying high and bright like the first one. In the quiet of his room Billy Dunne whispered to himself,
“I wish she was here.”
But his words got lost to the wind this time. His hopes seemed to fall out the open window and he considered doing the same. But instead he shut his eyes and dreamt of brown hair and that pretty face.
———
“DAD!!”
Billy immediately shakes awake and is hit in the face with sun from the open window.
“DAD!”
The voice calls out again. What time was it? Had he overslept? Was Julia gonna miss her interview? Had he already ruined everything?
Billy jumped out of the bed and immediately ran out the room and down the staircase. As he made his way down, he heard two voices talking to eachother. Well, more like arguing.
“Mom, it’s a huge opportunity!”
“I said no. And you can’t just call your dad to try and puppy-dog-eye your way into this.”
Billy’s body stopped in his tracks. That voice it was…
No way…
He had to still be dreaming. This was just one huge extremely realistic dream. He just had to prove it to himself. He stomped down the rest of the staircase and pushed through the kitchen doors to prove it to himself.
“Dad! Thank god you’re here. Tell mom she’s being ridiculous!”
Billy could feel his heart drop to his ass. Daisy Jones was standing in the middle of his kitchen with a young red headed girl sitting in one of the dining table seats. Daisy rolls her eyes, smiles at him, and takes a sip of coffee from a cup in her hand.
“Morning honey.”