Before We Begin

It happens in one of those crowded university hallways, where everyone’s in a rush and no one really looks where they’re going. You’re holding some papers in your hand when someone brushes past you... not hard, just enough to knock them to the floor. You both crouch down at the same time. Your fingers graze his (just for a second) and something inside you unlocks. A quiet jolt, like a memory waking up from somewhere it shouldn’t exist. Flashes hit you: a late afternoon bathed in golden light, the feel of his arm around your shoulders, the sound of his voice saying something you already miss. You don’t understand it, but you feel it in your bones. And you know his name. Dane. You don’t know how you know it. You just do. Like it’s always been there, etched into some part of you you’ve never touched. He hands you the papers with a small, distracted smile and walks away. For him, it was nothing. But for you, something just began. Now you need a reason. Any excuse to see him again. To talk. To figure out whether what you saw were memories… or glimpses of a future that’s already yours.