That Summer

Chapter 16

I went to the science building to see Hiro again and see what he remembered after I fell into the river. I walked up to his lab and the door was wide open. I slowly walked in and saw Hiro in deep concentration with the weird contraption in front of him. He was using tools I had never seen before and he was adjusting different screws and bolts. Hiro was multitasking between a laptop and pressing buttons on the machine in different patterns. He didn't even hear me walk in and sit on the couch. He was so focused that his eyebrows furrowed and I could see steam coming out of his ears. I never actually asked what he was making. I just assumed it had something to do with his thesis. Everything looked so technical and complicated, I didn't want to ask him because I knew I wasn't going to understand anything.

I unfolded the white blanket on the couch and lied down. I stared at Hiro's back and wondered what made him so motivated to focus. Watching Hiro focus on something important to him was almost awe-inspiring because I could tell he was very dedicated to his research just by how meticulously he wrote his calculations. To me, it didn't matter if he didn't have friends in his age group because he was being himself. That was a trait that I appreciated in Hiro because out of all my friends and myself, we just did things without any actual passion or reason behind it. I thought about why I picked finance as my career path and it wasn't like Hiro. There wasn't any passion in it. I was doing it for the money but it wasn't like I had much of a plan in the first place.

"It works," Hiro screamed while the machine started whirring and I almost fell off the couch.

"That's amazing," I whispered.

"Since when were you here?" Hiro turned around and almost dropped his laptop.

"You're right, this blanket is soft. I'm happy you got it." I ignored the question and hid under the blanket.

"I missed you." I felt a heaviness on top of the blanket.

"I didn't think you would since you were so focused on your research." I popped my head out of the blanket and saw Hiro hugging me.

"I focused on my research because I missed you. You didn't visit for a while and I thought that you didn't like me because of my family." He sat on the floor and pouted.

"It's not like that." I sat up and ruffled his hair.

"It's not?" Hiro looked up at me.

"Of course not." I smiled.

"After you took a car home, I thought that you couldn't stand staying with my family." I see how Hiro's memories were altered.

"No, it wasn't like that at all. I loved your family. Your parents were so hospitable and your brother was very friendly." I laughed.

"Yeah, my mom is hoping that you would come back to visit again." He scratched his head.

"Will you let me come back to visit?" That was the more important question.

"Of course. There's no reason not to." He admitted confidently.

"Well, one day. I'll go back." I smiled.

"That's good to hear." Hiro laughed.

"What are you working on anyway? I never actually asked." I pointed to the machine.

"If you had the chance to go back in time, would you do it?" Hiro looked at the machine as he asked the question.

"It's tempting." I thought about my time-traveling experience.

"For me, there's a time I really want to go back to." Hiro looked at me and grabbed my hands like he wanted to be comforted.

"Why?" It sounded more insensitive than I meant.