3TS: The Chances of Starting Again

Warning

Four words that can scare you to death: "You have been warned."

But just as I was rounding the corner of a school building, someone caught my hand, pulling me near the corner.

"I'm warning you, Krissa. Whatever you are trying to do right now...results won't be good."

My eyes adjusted in the darkness to see Ria. Or someone who looked like her. Her sunglasses were gone, her hair was messy, and her eyes looked...tired. She seemed like in a daze as she clutched my arm.

"What? How do you know-"

"I came back to warn you. From the future." She said with a sigh, as if all her problems could wash away with a single sigh.

I should have wondered why she was tired, Journal. In that stretch of time, I should have asked why she came back for me. But I was too caught up in my own problems. I was too busy thinking of my broken-hearted friend.

"So, what? You want me to stay here and deal with not having a best friend anymore? You want me to stay with a ruined friendship forever?" I said trying to pull away my arm, but her grip was like steel.

"No. I'm telling you that whatever is coming...it's much worse." She spoke in a mystic tone.

"What can be much worse than this? How do you know if I'll even go into that future path? I thought you said there were many paths of time? What if I go into another path? A better path of time with no ruined friendship? Where I can finally make things right again with Arlene?" I said, finally slipping out of her grip, turning away.

"You're right. But mostly likely, most probably, you will go where I have seen you go." She said softly, as she followed me.

I couldn't help but feel that she was right. Maybe right. Because...wasn't she the driver? Didn't she know these things could happen?

But I shook those thoughts away, because of one thing I wanted for my best friend.

I turned on Ria, blurting what my thoughts were focused on. "I placed a letter in my heart, Ria. I told myself, that I wanted to make her happy. But I did the opposite, Ria. I owe her!" I shouted the last few words. Because I really meant it.

I couldn't be happy with the cycle I was in, because my best friend was crying herself to sleep right now. Don't ask me how I know, Journal, because I'm the best friend who knows everything about Arlene. And she was wishing for another life. For a button to press as a restart. To start over again.

But the only person in the world I knew of that could press that restart button was me.

Me. And I had to do something about this.

"I owe her." I whispered softly. Feeling the guilt of taking advantage of my own best friend. When she was encouraging me to stand on my own again, she was there for me. But now, when she needed someone to cry with, I couldn't be there. Because I was the thing she was crying about.

"I know," Ria said, next to me. "You told me already."

I don't know where I told her somewhere in the future. But, from her comment, it kind of scared me to think of how much she actually knew about me. What if she really was warning me about-

No. You are doing this for Arlene.

That single thought fueled me, and put my head up a little higher. It made me a little angrier at Ria as I looked at her. "Weren't you the one who gave me the silver card? Weren't you the one who told me all the rules? Weren't you the one who helped me?"

She was silent, so I drove on, "Then why aren't you helping me. Helping me now?"

She looked at the hazy orange sun, dipping in the distance, as if recalling all the past events. "I didn't give the silver card to you. It finds whoever needs it."

"Well, this is my last time to go back. I need this. For Arlene." I said firmly.

With those last words said, I decided to walk home.

But just as I thought Ria was done with me, she said, "You have been warned."