Keeley helped Aiden carry the hamster tank upstairs and set it on a table in his second bedroom. The room contained a ridiculous amount of technological equipment she didn't recognize.

"Do you really want to keep a hamster tank in here with all this stuff?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, I spend most of my time in here. It'd be cool to have some company."

"What do you do in here?" she asked curiously.

"Mostly video games," he replied. "I also do some IT work from homeand my girlfriend lives in Sweden, so we video chat a lot while we game. We met online."

She was surprised. She never would have guessed this unassuming guy had a foreign girlfriend. "Interesting. Well, good luck with your hamsters. What made you want to get them?"

"All my friends have pets now, so I wanted one too. One of them recently got a cat, and I got a little jealous," he explained.

"Huh, I was actually just helping someone pick out a cat this morning. She's a real cutie! Super sweet, too. She actually purred for him, and he's an ice block that nobody likes."

Aiden nearly choked back laughter, but Keeley didn't notice; she was looking at the hamster tank again. "An ice block that nobody likes, huh?"

"Yeah, super annoying," Keeley sighed. "He's always making me do things I don't want to do. I wish he'd get off my case. You ever meet anyone super clingy and weird like that?"

"I'm quite familiar with someone exactly like that," Aiden said with thinly veiled irony. "He doesn't mean any harm, though; he's justnot so good with regular human beings."

"Not so good with regular human beings" was a generous description of Aaron. Sometimes Keeley wondered if he was even human.

"This guy definitely does mean harm," she said. "He couldn't take a hint in high school, or my freshman year of college, and then he disappeared for a couple of weeks. Now he's back at it. I'm pretty sure he's only doing this to spite me."

"Why would he be spiting you?" Aiden asked curiously.

"He was kind of a big shot at my school, and I offended him the first time we met. I'm pretty sure he's been messing with me all this time because he's trying to control me."

He raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like this guy has his work cut out for him."

"Huh?"

"He sounds like a real piece of work," Aiden clarified. "Anyway, thanks for helping me bring this up. You probably have things to do."

"Unfortunately, I do," she sighed. "I have to start thinking about topics for my doctoral thesis. Wish me luck!"

"Good luck!"

Keeley crossed the hall to her apartment, greeted Valentina (who was on the couch watching a telenovela), and went straight to her room. It was still early, but after the day she'd had, she deserved to be in her pajamas.

She sat down at her desk and stretched before opening the scholarly article search engine available to NYU students. There had to be something that hadn't been done yet, but still had enough similar research to provide a starting point.

Cystic fibrosis was definitely the topic she wanted to research most, but what could she do that was new? Talking about Kaleb earlier had strengthened her resolve.

Since starting school and pursuing her dream of making things up to her little brother, it was easier to think and talk about him (and her mother) without getting upset. Keeley was healing through this accomplishment.

Kaleb would have loved the buffet/arcade today. It was probably his second favorite place after Yankee Stadium. He couldn't ride most rides because he got out of breath easily, but the Twister was gentle enough that he could handle it.

Sweet Kaleb. If he were still here, he'd be twenty-one. She couldn't believe he'd been gone so long. She might bust out the old family albums next time she visited her dad.

She knew she probably wouldn't find a significant breakthrough as a student, but she still wanted to start researching what she was passionate about.

Someday, Kal. I'll find a way to help other kids like you, she thought as she searched for a research base.

Hours later, she was still working. She was considering gene therapy with the mutated CFTR gene—trying to fix the cells individually and cure the disease at a genetic level, rather than just treating the symptoms. Gene therapy had worked for other diseases. Why not cystic fibrosis? There was plenty of base research on gene therapy. She could totally do this if she got her faculty mentor's approval.

Keeley decided to discuss it on Monday. For now, she wanted to relax; there were only a few hours left of her Saturday.

She went into the living room, plopped down next to Valentina, and joined her telenovela binge.

"What did I miss?"

"Jorge and Ana Maria are eloping, but Ana Maria is pregnant with Felipe's baby. Jorge thinks it's his," Valentina replied without looking up.

"Juicy. I wonder how he's going to take it."

"Not well, most likely. He really loves her," Valentina sighed.

Keeley wanted to laugh. Her friend really got into these things. Keeley mostly watched because she found them hilarious, rather than having a genuine emotional connection. The acting and storylines were so over-the-top.

"I have an idea for a telenovela," Keeley said suddenly, wanting advice without revealing her situation directly.

"Oh? Tell me."

"A girl falls in love with the heir to a huge conglomerate, and they date in secret for years because he's ashamed to show her to his high-society friends. Eventually, they defy his parents and get married, but his childhood sweetheart schemes against her, eventually killing her father. Then she seduces the heir and gets pregnant with his baby after the wife finds out she's infertile. He asks for a divorce, but the childhood sweetheart has the wife killed anyway. Then the wife wakes up as a teenager right before she meets the heir and wants nothing to do with him, but he's suddenly interested in her and refuses to leave her alone, even after many years pass."

"And?" Valentina asked eagerly.

"And nothing, that's all I've got," Keeley said lamely.

That's how far things had gotten in her actual life. She couldn't predict the future outside of large-scale events beyond her control. For example, she knew who would win the next two presidential elections and when certain natural disasters would occur, but she couldn't predict what would happen in her own life since the timeline had become so skewed.

In her first run-through of 2012, Keeley had been married to Aaron for almost two years. It was around that time that she experienced an ectopic pregnancy, ending her dreams of motherhood. Obviously, she wasn't married or pregnant now.

The final promotional sentence has been removed as it is not part of the story.