Five years later..
"God the music trending now is awful" I run my eyes to the switch button on my radio, trying to not crash the car into a pole while I do so. Lara laughs next to me, while I try to find the button, and I feel a hand slapping mine.
"Leave the poor radio alone and keep driving, I'll change it for you" I smile, and I hear the various songs change as I repeat 'no' when I hear anything that ruins the definition of music. Then suddenly my ears hear the sound of a guitar, and I refrain from saying the tenth 'no' to her.
Lara lays back, and I hear her starting to sing under her breath the words. I finished my studies in literature, I got my drivers license after failing the drive test four times. Motive for my friends to not trust me when they need a ride. Lara and I got close when we found out we're going to the same university, and we managed to live in the same dorm for three years. Those years have been the most chaotic in my life, but since that one night I felt like I've come to the same pace as the time.
I had new boyfriends that were in just for fun at the end, only one really got close to my heart, but then he decided to cut me off as soon as an opportunity called in France. I don't blame him, but that hurt. However, nothing hurt more than that summer night in London.
Just the memory gives me the chills. Is like reliving everything over and over again. The trip to Italy was passed to entire days on the beach, reading books to detach from reality, not touching water at all. And I love swimming more than anything else. Cami and I parted right after the day we came back. It was just too much to absorb as I spent nights awake rethinking all my life. This called 'depression', which was just aggravated sadness and nostalgia, lasted about a year.
After that year I decided to get a grip on my own life. Some find this stop in kids, but I found my start in writing. I wrote four books in these years, and thankfully they did not leave unnoticed. I started getting called by agencies, by bookstores to do meet and greets, and now my books are viral all over the world, this making me a full time writer. This is my best accomplishment.
The song changes, but the instruments and the voice remain the same. Lara squeaks as she hears the singer speak.
"This last song is dedicated for all of those who, like a person I used to know, are afraid of time flying, of time rushing in between their fingers as everyone else seem to grow old and accomplish the unaccomplishable. This song is called 'Timelines', let's go!"
I feel my heart drop to my ass, and just then I recognize who's voice this is. My voice clears up and I ask Lara "Who's this band?" I have never been more concentrated on the dotted lines on the street as today. I try to calm down my breath, but my lungs seem to not get enough air. She starts laughing her ass off next to me, but my face seemingly tamed her tone.
"You want me to change the station?" she softly asks "I told you you should buy an aux cable" I exhale, eyes never leaving the road ahead of me.
"Just tell me who it is, Lara." I see her in the corner of my eye, smiling at me, as she lowers the window down next to her.
"Oh but is just the best modern rock band ever created" she takes her head out the window " It's Slowburn" she screams the name in the wind as with her fingers she raises the volume to the max. I don't know how I still did not crash into anything at the moment, but my vision fogs, and with my right hand I wipe my eyes so that I can see ahead.
His voice changed so much I haven't even noticed it's his. But oh God it's beautiful. The dedication still replays in my head, and something feels tender inside me. He still hasn't forgotten that night. The words we told each other. Me. I come back to reality and start listening to the song, and a small touch of pride in me, knowing they made it.
His voice warms this car, even if the harsh cold wind stabs my arm. I listen to it cheerfully, until I find myself holding on to my chest at his words. I start recognizing words I never heard. This is the first time hearing this song, but then I remember why.
My poems.
"You couldn't have loved me better, but It's time to move on, It's time to stop recalling your voice in my ears, whispered while your eyes looked at another.
I want to come back, but I guess we were always meant to say goodbye, as we weren't even together, you can't but neither do I."
He hasn't changed a vowel. He took what I thought was shame and morphed it into art. Art that even my friend sings with all her heart, not knowing what they mean or why they're there. I look at the steering wheel briefly, at my hands, pale and calloused, cut by paper and other materials, nails naked, trimmed to the edge so that's easier to write on keyboards.
My hands are naked, but one thing always stands out, something that's so out of my character that most people question why I have it and why I never take it off. A ring that has seen me cry, grow, love and hate, and that has seen more than one person's life.
His ring
So thick that it could hold more than just a piece of paper. But I never opened it, I never even played with it so that the compartment would pop out. Not once have I seen the inside of the ring, and probably now is even too late to do so, as I'm almost too sure he has changed his number.
Lara wakes me up from my trance, and she happily asks me "can we stop by at McDonalds? I crave a burger so bad" I can't even bring myself to turn to her and say yes, I just nod, and change roads from my apartment to the nearest McDonalds. I park the car, and I get hit by a wave of warm air, suffocating me. Lara takes me inside, and I just tell her
"I'll just go to the bathroom for one second, you go and order a Fanta for me" she asks me if I didn't want more than just a drink, but I rapidly shake my head and run to the bathroom. It's a one stall bathroom, so I have no way to worry about anyone listening to me. I grip on the sink as I watch myself in the mirror. I still hear the radio playing in my head, and I start questioning my sanity. I look at my hand, and a sense of excitement and fear grips into me, but I sense something stopping me.
If I let my fear overcome me five years ago, I would've never been born again. I slide off the ring, looking at it as I feel how uncomfortably my finger sits next to the others without the metal ring touching my skin. I pop the small piece with my fingers, and I hear a click, but nothing happens. I have to push with my finger. Years of it being locked up has blocked the seal.
The piece of paper gives me a hard chill on my spine, almost like I saw it for the first time being put there yesterday. I look at it more than I should have, because I can hear voices outside the door. I take it out, and I see the number series on. written in black ink, with the pen on the nightstand we were lying next to. I take my phone up, and as the digits sing under my touch, I finally press the call number.
I hear nothing.
I feel tears coming to my eyes as my hopes start to burn inside me, and I'm ready to hang up, but something makes me jump from the sink.
A beep.
I involuntarily smile, but fear is back. A rollercoaster of emotion is happening inside me, and also inside a McDonald's bathroom. It rings a second time, third time, fourth time.
Until someone picks up.
"Hello? Who's this?" I hear a man's voice, but it's not him. I begin to shake out of frustration, but I decide to answer anyway
"Um, hi, is Owen Marshall around there?"
"Yes, who is talking so I can tell him, he's a bit busy right now so he won't take calls now" I am back in game with trembling and daring to cry and smile at the same time
"Tell him London 2018 is back in time" I hear him a bit unsure of my answer, and I would be too, but I know my name wouldn't ring a bell to him. I hear steps on the other side, and the man telling someone my exact words. I hear another pair of steps, and I hear a door shutting down.
"Hello?" I say to the other side, but all I hear is someone breathing, until I hear It. I hear him. I hear his British accent that made me swoon all night.
"Never thought time traveling exists, love"
And with that, with sobs and laughs in a McDonald's bathroom, our timelines connected again.
THE END.
YOU ARE READING
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒 by A.P.Mary
Romance"The fact that everything has an end scares the shit out of me" Sometimes life doesn't go as planned. Some are forced to change bits of their life, and others are forced to stay in London for 24 hours, because they couldn't find a direct flight to I...
