𝐖𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓.
adam and i were still holding hands.
i couldn't let go of him.
it felt like he was the only thing holding me to this reality.
"jets not reading me because of my vitals. i'll need your dna to start her up. when we get to altitude, the bio stop will come down, and then i can take over. we have to move fast, or they'll be on us before we can jump to 2018." older adam instructed.
"wait, what? i'm not coming with you." adam said.
"yes, you are. let's go, we need to go."
"will you stop and listen to me? this is my fixed time. you already had my childhood. you had adventures, you flew planes, and i'm still the nerd with an inhaler who gets his ass kicked! i want the rest of it, and i'm not leaving cherry behind!"
"you want the rest of it?"
"yeah!"
older adam stood up.
"okay, here's the the rest of it. dads death screws you up more than you ever realize. you get depressed. you get angry. you wander around high school without making a social dent." older adam stared right her at his younger self.
"college is a high point, until after a year, you lose your scholarship for something that is so unbelievably stupid i cannot even say it out loud right now." he continues.
"you end up in the air force. turns out you could really fly. and then along comes time travel, and the whole world starts to fall apart, and then you leave the woman you love for another woman because you can't let her down and keep letting her fix you, and you regret it for years, and then your wife and the woman you love gets taken away from you! do you understand me? till you lose.. she just gets taken away." older adam finished, no longer able to speak.
"there's gotta be more than that. my life is different." adam insisted, holding up his hand which was clutching mine.
"there is, kid. and thanks to sorian, none of its good. we can fix it."
"by destroying time travel? and making me lose cherry?"
"that's right."
"how are we even gonna do that? what's your plan? i'm not losing cherry, especially if you don't know for sure if you can even stop this safely."
"i'm not gonna explain my plan to a twelve year old nerd with an inhaler-"
"you don't have a plan."
"because i do not have a plan."
"exactly."
"that is correct. but, i know somebody who might."
"dad?"
"dad."
"you're gonna find dad."
"nope. we're gonna find dad. so are you in, or are you out?"
"will i stay with cherry?"
"there's only one way to find out."
"let's do it." i said.
"but-" adam began.
"you're not gonna lose me." i reassured.
he nodded his head, and held up a weird little battery.
a jet appeared above us.
«───── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ─────»
laura and older cherry had been fighting christos, who crawled out of the exploded black car.
suddenly, a jet appeared above them.
"laura, cherry. you guys should've stayed dead the first time." sorian said. "now, where is your husband?"
lasers pointed out of the bottom of the jet.
another jet flew away in the distance. laura and cherry both knew it was adam.
they looked back at sorian, smiling.
sorian reached for the trigger.
"goodbye, laura." cherry grabbed onto her hand for comfort.
she returned the touch.
"goodbye, cherry."
«───── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ─────»
adam helped me up into the jet, and i somehow made it through once more.
what the fuck was wrong with this reality?
"see. you haven't lost her yet." older adam reassured."all right, give me your hand."
adam pressed his hand against a control panel, and the jet turned on.
"nice, healthy dna right there. okay, we'll park it down there, grab into that railing, hold on for dear life, and try not to pass out from the g's, okay?" older adam turned on the jet.
we sped through the air, and i almost screamed.
"what's happening?" adam asked.
"that." we looked over at another jet, which was shooting at us.
the jet spun upside down.
"holy shit!" i panicked.
"what are you doing?" adam asked.
i fiddled with the ring on my finger.
"hang on." older adam paused us.
"this feels like a roller coaster. i'm gonna vomit." i shut my eyes.
adam and i held into each-other, trying not to fall and hit then top of the plane as we spun upside down.
"i told you guys to hang on! don't you give me that stink eye." older adsm defended himself.
we grabbed onto the railing once more, leaning into each-other.
"shit!" we both called out.
"okay, hold tight. i've always wanted to try this." older adam pressed random buttons, and the plane completely stopped.
"did you just turn the plane off?" adam questioned.
"yes, i did." older adam nodded.
"oh my god!" adam repeated.
"i'm not dying without spending all of my money!" i yelled.
he turned the plane back on, and we stayed put on the ground.
"adam, check your ion readings. the reactors damaged. you have one jump left. if you don't come back now, you never will." sorian told us, somehow speaking to us through the jet.
"what do you say, kid? your call. we don't pull this off, we're not getting back, any of us." older adam told his younger self.
adam turned to look at me.
"you pick." i insisted.
"i don't think i can sacrifice your life, cherry." adam frowned.
"fine, i pick. let's do it!"
"are you sure?"
this could kill me.
this could be the thing that stops me from returning to adam.
what if i time travel, and i can't come back?
if we fix it, i'm going to disappear.
i'm going to forget about adam.
but, this is what it took to make him happy.
"i've never been more sure of anything, besides the fact that i love you." i smiled.
adam looked at his dads watch.
"punch that shit." adam said.
we flew up into the sky, soaring above the clouds.
i cheered. "it's so pretty!"
i immediately took out my phone, and snapped a picture of adam and i shove the clouds.
we were being chased.
a portal appeared in the middle of the sky, and we flew through it.
we landed in 2018 successfully.
brown leaves decorated the ground, and i was not dressed for the fall.
"cherry!" adam called out looking around. "fuck!"
"i'm right here." i said, crossing my arms.
"oh." he relaxed.
older adam led us into a large building.
it was a college; that was my best guess.
we eventually found a room with a man teaching inside of it.
all of the lights were turned off, besides the screen up front with a bunch of words and numbers i couldn't understand.
"listen, guys, instead of moaning about it, give yourself permission to be inadequate, and then get to work. you can't be good at something unless you're willing to be bad at it first!" a man stood at the front of the room.
"professor reed!" a girl called out.
"sophie." adams dad said.
"it'll take at least two semesters just to begin solving that."
"oh, good god, at least that."
"and even then, we'll fail the class, because this is just bonkers."
"sophie, you can do this. listen guys, that is the beauty of physics. that is the beauty of life!"
adam stared at the man silently.
"it's really him." adam whispered.
"yup." older adam nodded.
"he's so.."
"yeah. alive. come here for a second, hey. let me do the talking in there."
"we have to tell him what happens. he doesn't have to die!"
"we say nothing, okay? only what he needs to know. everything else, we can't. i wanna hear you say it. i won't tell him, say it."
"i won't tell him."
i wrapped an arm around him, and leaned his head on mine.