The Day We Never Met

In a world where time can be changed, I believe the only constant is love. Love is timeless.

“Hello welcome to TimeTravelLLC. Where are you planning on traveling too today?” A strange man looks at us with a blank stare. He wais almost more robotic than human.

              It is my boyfriend and I’s two-year anniversary, and we have been saving up all our money to go on this once in a lifetime opportunity as the advertisement had described to us a few months prior. I knew for a while now that they had finally perfected time travel and it was now safe, but I never thought I would be doing it. 

              “Hi um we are planning on traveling two years back from this day,” my boyfriend nudges me with a big grin on his face. “It is actually our two year an…”

              “The exacted date and time please.” The robot guy says in the same monotone voice as before.

              I jump in, “We would like to go to June 15th, 2152, please.” I look back at my boyfriend. “I suppose the time would be like 12pm.,” I say to the guy. “That should give us enough time, right?” I ask my boyfriend, and he shakesshook his head yes.

              “What place would you like to appear in.” He didn’t doesn’t look up at us but continues to annoyingly click away on his computer.

              “The ice cream shop on 3^rd street would work.,” Mmy boyfriend adds.

              “To make sure I got everything down correctly you will be going back in time to June 15, 2152, and will appear at the ice cream shop of 3^rd street at 12pm. Is this correct?” He looks me cold in the eyes.

              “Yes” we both say.

              “Great. Here is a form you will need to fill out. Since you are time jumping together you will only need to fill out one form. Make sure you both sign at the bottom though.” He passes me the form that looks more like a packet. “Please go into the room right behind me and someone will be in shortly to explain all the rules. Thank you for choosing TimeTravelLLC.” A half smile glitches onto his face which sentds chills down my spine.

              We walk into an empty white room that hads a row of four seats and a large set of double doors. “That guy was creepy” my boyfriend says.

              “Yeah, he was weird.” We sit down and start filling out the paperwork which takes us at least 15 minutes. We basically signed our life away and agreed to not sue if anything went wrong.

              A few minutes later a guy that was just as robotic and creepy walks in. “Hello, my name is Simon,” he looks down at his paper. “You must be Eleonor Radecki age 23 and Kyle Summer age 25. Is this correct.” Kyle and I both smile at each other and try not to laugh at how weird this was.

              “Yes, that’s us.” I say.

              “Awesome welcome. I am just here to go over some rules with you so everything can run smoothly, and you can both have a great time. First, I would love to know what happened on June 15th, 2152, at 12 pm.” He says in a lighthearted tone.

              “That is when me and Eleonor met actually so we are just wanting to watch and sort of re-live it. It is our two-year anniversary today.” Kyle smiles.

              “That is so romantic,” Simon looks at both of us. “We have five very important rules I will need you guys to follow when you time jump so listen carefully. First, don’t kill anyone,” Kyle laughs, and Simon’s eyes shot straight up from the paper he was reading. “Is something funny to you?” His tone grows cold.

              “No sorry.” Kyle blushes. He never liked to be the focus of attention.

              “Second, always avoid your past or future self, this is very important. Third, don’t change the timeline in any way. Fourth, you can only stay in the timeline you choose for an hour. Fifth, always have your time traveling device on you. We will be providing those to you shortly. Lastly sixth, make sure to blend in. Now any questions?” Simon asks.

              “How do we travel back to our time once the hour is up?” I question.

              “The small-time travel device we will give you is what will bring you back once time is up. Therefore, you need to make sure to always have them on your person. If you lose this device, you will be stuck in the time frame you choose to visit. Now if this happens, we will send agents to the time frame you choose to eliminate the you that doesn’t belong there.” He says with a cold stare.

              “Wait you mean you will kill us?” Kyle panics.

              “Yes Kyle, we will kill you if you lose your time traveling device, so that is why it is important to always know where it is. But don’t worry this has never been a problem before.” The small smile creeps back onto his face. “Any more questions?”

              “No, I think we are good.” I say.

              “Awesome, Kyle and Eleanor please follow me.” Simon turns around and walks through the double doors. We follow him in a room that was all black. It had a door frame with no door but a blue orb that filled the empty space.

              “This is so cool.” Kyle whispers in my ear.

              “Here are your time traveling devices,” Simon hands a small plainne black cube with a green button on the top.

              “This is it?” Kyle questions.

              “Yes, this is it. It is small enough to fit in your pocket so you shouldn’t have to worry about losing it. If you would like to come back before the hour is up, please hold down the green button for five seconds. If not once an hour is up you will automatically be sent back here. He pauses, “If you are ready, please walk through the door frame at the same time.”

              Kyle and I both look into each other’s eyes with a big smile. We have been looking forward to this for months and it was finally here. “You ready?” He says and reaches out for my hand. I grab his and we slowly walk to the door.

              The last thing I hear before we entering the portal was “Thank you for choosing Time Travel LLC. Remember the rules and have a safe trip.” Then everything goes black. Suddenly a blinding bright light erases the darkness. Before my eyes adjust, I could hear chimes ringing not to fair from me. It brought music to me ears because I knew it was from the ice cream shop on 3^rd street that had closed a few weeks prior. When I turn around there it was with the green and pink strips all around the outside and the sweet smell of candy filling the air.

              “Oh my gosh we actually did it this is crazy.” Kyle says as he ran over to a random person listening to music. “What year is it?” He asks.

              The man annoying looks at Kyle. “It’s 2152 now please leave me alone.” Kyle runs back over to me and kisses me intently.

              “Okay so we got to make it to the beach in about fifteen minutes. It should only take us ten minutes to walk there from here.” Kyle began to look around frantic like he couldn’t process everything, and he was trying to take it all in.

              I put my hand on his arm, “Take a breath we got time.  mMaybe we should go get ice cream and we can eat it on the way.” I try to calm him down but honestly; I was just as overwhelmed. Everything looks how it does in present day except our favorite ice cream shop hadn’t closed yet.

              “You’re right let’s get ice cream. This is probably the last time we will get to eat here. Unless we come back again.” He laughs. I wasn’t even sure if that was allowed. Then there would be three of us in the same timeline and that seems even harder to avoid yourself.

              We go into the ice cream place, and it isn’t too busy at all. If only people knew what will happen to this place in a few years, I bet it would be packed. There is a little boy who seems like he is having too much fun with his ice cream while his mom is franticly trying to clean his face. I order my favorite ice cream favor; bubble gum and Kyle gets chocolate brownie like he always does, and we make our way to the beach. The clouds are blocking the harsh sun as the wind cools us down. As we get closer to the beach, I can hear the sweet melody of the waves welcoming us. This day is already exactly how I remember it being.

              “We must be careful not to run into our old selves. I know you said you were already at the beach party long before I showed up, so you will already be there. We just have to keep an eye out for me.” Kyle laughs “that’s such a weird thing to say. ‘look out for me’” he mocks.

              We walk down the sidewalk to the beach hand in hand. I am having a hard time preparing myself to see the younger version of me. I was starting to think this wasn’t such a good idea. What if this day isn’t exactly how a remember it?

               “That bench looks like a good place to sit.” Kyle points at an empty bench behind some trees. The beach is really crowded that it is hard to even see the sand. I don’t know why I always remembered it being emptier. I couldn’t help but start to worry if we were even going to spot ourselves. “I remember our party was by that lifeguard stand over there.” He points not too far from where we are standing.

              “Okay this probably will be a good spot then.” I start to head to the shaded bench. I couldn’t help but try to start spotting myself which was seemingly more challenging than I was hoping.

              “I can’t wait to…” someone bumps into Kyle cutting him off.

              “I am so sorry.” An oddly familiar voice says to us. We both look up in panic at the guy Kyle just ran into. “Yo, what the fuck.” He says when meeting us eye to eye. Our biggest nightmare was standing right in front of us. Younger Kyle’s face was pale white like he just saw a ghost. The reality of the situation hit me quickly. We had already broken a major rule.

              “We can explain…” I try to calm down young Kyle. I couldn’t help but scan his body as this was the man I feel in love with that night at the beach. He looks just as I remember with the orange swim trunks and the shaggy hair he has yet to cut off.

              “Is this some kind of sick joke?. This is freaky, why do you look just like me?” young Kyle asks.

              “Um here’s the thing.” I wasn’t quite sure where older Kyle was going to take this. I could tell in his eyes he didn’t either.

              “I’m getting out of here. I knew I should have stayed home today.” Young Kyle begins to run the opposite direction from the beach where he is supposed to meet young me in a few minutes.

              “Wait don’t go, please.” Kyle cries out looking like he is about to chase him down.

              “What just happened?” I ask in horror. I could tell Kyle was freaking out as well.

              “We just completely fucked up. What if we never meet now?” Kyle starts to pace back and forth. I didn’t want to think that way. There hasd to be something we canould do. We still hadve twenty minutes until we were forced back to an unknown present day. “I totally forgot, before I went to the party I came and sat on this bench for a few minutes. That’s how I knew it would be a good spot for us to spy. How did I forget that?” He starts to smack his head. I try to comfort him as best as I can while also having my own mental breakdown.

              “What do we do now?” I ask Kyle as I try not to visibly shake.

              “We can go find younger me and tell him he needs to go hangout at the beach and pretend he never saw us,” some hope appears into his eyes. “Yeah, we can tell him his future wife is down on the beach.”

              “Did you just say future wife?” My heart began to flutter. I always knew I wanted to marry this man, but to hear him say it out loud made it real.

              His cheeks went red. “Oh yeah oopss. Forget I said anything to you.” He turns away from me so I can no longer read his expression.

              I put my arm on his shoulder. “No tell me.” I couldn’t help but letting happy tears flow from my eyes.

              “I guess now is as good of a time as any. Speaking as we just fucked up us meeting and all but,” he gets on one knee. “Eleanor you are the most beautiful, loving, and generous person I know. Spending the past two years with you has been the best thing that ever happened to me. Will you marry me?” I look down that the ring that is in a small red velvet box sparkling in the sun.

              “Yes of course.” My eyes leak even more as he puts the ring onto my small finger. He stands up and we kiss so passionately my legs give out.

              When we eventually pull away Kyle says “Not to ruin this but do you think we really messed this up? Like we never actually met each other?” I could hear the pain in his voice. I was thinking the same way, but I knew we didn’t have much time left.

              “No, I’m sure it will work itself out. This has probably happened before, and the time fixes itself.” I didn’t even know what I was saying, and I was just as sure as him that we were doomed.

              “You want to go for a walk then?” His eyes arewere holding in so much pain, and I can ould see the tears trying to spill out.

              “Yes, let’s go for a walk.” I am not sure what wasis left to do. “But don’t be sad because there isn’t anything to be sad about. We just got engaged. When do you want to set the wedding date for?” I let my optimism run wild.

              “As soon as possible. I don’t want to go another day without being your husband.” He looks into my eyes and smiles as tears seep down his cheeks. I wipe them away and kiss him hoping I could take some of his pain away. I never have seen him this upset, and it honestly broke me more. I didn’t think I could hold it in much longer.

              Suddenly my pocket starts to beep. I take the black cube out and look at it. It has started to count down from 60. “Does this mean we only have one minute already? How did time go by so fast” I ask Kyle knowing he knew as much as me?

              “That isn’t enough time. Let’s throw away our travel cube and then we can stay in this timeline forever.” Kyle says.

              “You remember what the guy said. They will come and kill us. We are better off going back to our time and hoping we didn’t fuck up to bad. That is the only place we actually have a chance at a future.” In all honesty I want to stay here and pretend everything was okay. Going back to the present day terrifies me. I lean in and kiss him with all the energy I have left knowing this might be the last kiss we have for eternity before everything goes black.