the second time we meet

PROLOGUE. THE LAST LOOK

The story starts with two people dying. Not with them being born or growing up. Two strangers standing on opposite sides of an old railway station. It is a bad storm outside. The station has been empty for years. One train still stops there at night.

Eli is at the station because he has a letter in his pocket. He has been carrying it for months. He was going to give it to someone. Noah is there because he is running away from home. He has a bag with him. Neither of them knows the other is there.

Then the lights go out. People are shouting. It sounds like something is breaking. Then it gets really quiet. Eli looks across the platform. Noah looks back. Their eyes meet. They feel less alone.

Then everything goes black. When Eli wakes up he thinks he is in heaven.. Then he sees his old ceiling fan. He had thrown it away three years ago. His phone is next to him. The date on the phone is wrong. It says eleven months ago. He thinks he is dreaming. Until he finds the letter. It is still not opened.

Then his phone rings. It is a number he does not know. He answers. There is silence. Then a boy says: "You were there too." Eli freezes. He knows that voice. Not from when he was alive. From when he died.

CHAPTER ONE. THE BOY FROM THE PLATFORM

Eli and Noah meet again at the railway station.. This time they are alive. Noah is waiting for Eli. Eli notices that Noah looks really scared. Not of him.. Because Eli is alive. They talk about what they remember. They know where they died. They know what the weather was like. They know what they saw last. Each other.

They discover something. Their deaths were not accidents. They were both trying to get to the station because of something they regretted. So they make a deal. They will figure out why they died.

At first Eli and Noah do not like each other. They argue all the time. Eli is calm and sarcastic. Noah is impulsive and emotional.. They have one thing in common. They remember dying. That is their secret. They start spending time to investigate their deaths.

Then they start doing things they never did before. One day Noah says: "We keep talking about not dying. What if we are doing this wrong?" Eli asks what he means. Noah smiles. "What if we are supposed to live this time?" That becomes their philosophy. Of just trying not to die they start fixing their mistakes.

Eli had a regret. He had a letter for his father. His father died thinking Eli hated him. Eli had spent years pretending he did not care. The letter was an apology. In his life Eli gets to fix that.. Every time he changes something important he forgets something. At first it is things. Then it is things.

Noah had a regret too. He had always wanted to be an artist.. He never did it. In his life he decides to become the person he wanted to be. Eli supports him. Their relationship becomes beautiful. Eli takes Noahs dreams seriously. Noah makes Eli stop pretending he does not need anyone.

They start doing things. They eat together. They walk home together. They fall asleep on the phone. They share headphones. They. Make up. Neither of them says what they are feeling. Because they have a rule: they are only doing this to survive.

That is not true anymore. One night Noah asks Eli: "Do you remember what you thought when you saw me?" Eli says: "I thought you looked scared." Noah laughs. "That is not what I asked." Eli realizes he cannot remember. The memory is gone.

Noah has not forgotten. But he realizes something their second life is erasing their first one. Their memories are disappearing. Eli and Noah don't know what to do. They are scared.

Their first kiss happens by accident. They have a fight. Noah tells Eli: "You keep treating me like I have to be saved." Eli says: "Because I watched you die." Noah says: "And I watched you die too." Then Noah says: "We are alive now. Stop loving me like I'm already dead." Eli realizes he has been in love with Noah, for months.

They eventually discover the truth. They were given a chance because their lives were already connected. They had unknowingly affected each other in their life. Noah had submitted artwork to a competition. Eli had voted for it. Eli had written music. Noah had listened to it.

They had passed each many times. They just never noticed. The universe was not giving them a chance to meet. They were being given a chance to notice each other. That is the part.

There is one rule. They can change the future.. The more they change it the less their first lives matter. Eventually all their memories will disappear. Including their deaths the station and the reason they met.. Eventually, each other.

Noah finds a notebook one morning. Most of the pages are blank. He starts crying. Eli does not understand why. Noah says: "I am forgetting you." Eli looks at him. "You have known me for a year." Noah shakes his head. "No. I mean I am forgetting the version of you that met me when we died."

Eli realizes something. They are not being punished. They are being asked a question: if you forget the reason you fell in love will you choose each other anyway? They eventually reach the day when they are supposed to die. The station, the storm, the time. Everything looks the same.

This time they know what is coming. They could avoid the station.. They realize that if they do they will never know if their second life was truly theirs. So they go. Together. They make choices. They save people. They change the sequence of events. They prevent the accident.

Something goes wrong. Noah gets trapped. Eli has the chance to save himself. He does not. He goes back for Noah. Noah screams at him: "You are going to die " Eli smiles. "Then you will remember me." Noah says:

“I do not want to remember you.”

Eli:

“Then do not.”

He takes Noahs hand.

“Just choose me.”

EPILOGUE

Years later.

They are older.

They are living together.

Neither of them remembers their life.

Neither of them remembers dying.

Neither of them remembers the second chance.

They do not even remember meeting at the station.

They still ended up together.

One evening Noah is cleaning out a box.

He finds a sketch.

It is a drawing of two boys standing on sides of a railway platform.

He does not remember drawing it.

On the back there is handwriting.

Elis handwriting.

Four words:

“I think I have seen you.”

Noah looks at Eli.

Eli looks at Noah.

For a second neither of them speaks.

Then Noah smiles.

“Have we met before?”

Eli thinks about it.

He smiles back.

“Probably.”

“Probably.”

Noah laughed softly.

It was a strange answer.

Not yes.

Not no.

Just probably.

For some reason, it made something inside Noah’s chest ache.

He looked down at the sketch again. Two boys stood on opposite sides of a railway platform, separated by empty tracks and rain. Their faces were unfinished. The artist had drawn their bodies, their clothes, even the light above them—but not their faces.

As if whoever had drawn them had been afraid to remember.

“Did you draw this?” Eli asked.

“I don’t know.”

“You’re an artist.”

“I know.”

“You don’t recognize your own drawing?”

Noah shook his head.

“No.”

Eli took the sketch from him.

On the back were four words.

I think I have seen you.

He traced the handwriting with his thumb.

“I don’t remember writing this.”

“Maybe you didn’t.”

Eli looked up.

Noah was smiling.

“Maybe someone wrote it for you.”

“Who?”

Noah shrugged.

“Someone who knew we’d meet again.”

Eli stared at him for a moment.

Then he smiled.

“That sounds a little too much like fate.”

“Maybe.”

“I don’t believe in fate.”

“I know.”

“You don’t know that.”

Noah’s smile widened.

“I feel like I do.”

The room became quiet.

Outside, rain began tapping softly against the window.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

Then Eli placed the sketch back inside the box.

“Should we keep it?”

Noah looked at him.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Noah thought about it.

“I don’t know.”

Neither of them did.

They closed the box and put it away.

That night, they went to bed without thinking much more about it.

Or at least, they thought they didn’t.

Years passed.

The sketch stayed in the box.

Sometimes Noah would find himself humming a melody he didn’t remember learning.

Sometimes Eli would wake from a dream with the feeling that he had forgotten something important.

Sometimes they would pass an old railway station while driving and Noah would turn his head toward the window without knowing why.

Neither of them ever understood it.

They didn’t need to.

They had a home.

They had each other.

And somehow, without remembering the beginning, they had found their way to the same ending.

One winter evening, many years later, Noah came home carrying two cups of coffee.

Eli was sitting beside the window, reading.

Noah placed one cup beside him.

“You still take too much sugar.”

Eli looked up.

“You still complain about it.”

“I’ve been complaining for years.”

“And yet you keep making it.”

Noah smiled.

“Yeah.”

Eli reached for his hand.

Their fingers slipped together naturally, the way they always did.

Neither of them remembered the first time they had held hands.

Neither remembered the station.

Neither remembered the storm.

Neither remembered dying.

Neither remembered being given another chance.

But when Noah leaned against Eli’s shoulder, Eli rested his head gently against Noah’s.

There was no prophecy.

No invisible force pulling them together.

No promise written somewhere in the universe.

Only two people who had somehow, through all the forgotten years, continued choosing each other.

Noah closed his eyes.

“Eli?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you ever feel like we’ve done this before?”

Eli was quiet for a moment.

Then he smiled.

“Probably.”

Noah laughed.

This time, neither of them was afraid of the answer.

Because perhaps they had.

Perhaps somewhere in a life they could no longer remember, they had stood on opposite sides of a railway platform while a storm swallowed the world around them.

Perhaps they had looked at each other only once.

Perhaps that single look had been enough.

But this time, they didn’t need a dying moment to recognize one another.

They had an ordinary evening.

Two cups of coffee.

A warm apartment.

A lifetime still ahead of them.

And when Noah reached for Eli’s hand again, Eli held it.

Not because he remembered.

Not because they were destined to.

But because, even without knowing why, he still chose him.

And perhaps that was the only thing worth remembering.

Somewhere, once, they had met for the first time.

This time, they chose to stay.