Chapter 3: Next Stop, 2021

“It won’t start!” future me said, panicked. 

“I can see that.” I said probably not helping the situation any. 

“Now what?” I asked. 

“Help me fix it, please, I beg of you.” She said pleadingly. 

“But I know nothing of cars, not to mention this isn’t an ordinary car!” I reminded her. “Please!” she begged. 

“Ok, I’ll see what I can do.” I got in and looked around. Inside there was an automatic shift except you push a button that lets you choose your year, another for month, and then the shifter was to choose your day. I immediately saw the problem, she had forgotten to switch what time she wanted to go to, so it remained on today’s date. 

“Well here’s your problem, you didn’t shift to the different year.” I pushed the day the year, and the month in which she was trying to get back to. 

“See.” 

“thanks.” the time machine started, before I knew what was happening we were in the future. 

“You could’ve told me to jump out.” I said.

“Sorry.” 

“hey.” came the voice of a tall, very cute man. 

“hi. Hun.” Oh…my…gosh! I was looking at my future husband, and he looked awfully familiar. 

“Rachel called, needs you to watch Cole tonight.” said my husband.  

“Oh, well I’ll talk to her later, but hun we need to talk now.” She said pulling him away.

About 10 minutes later I heard.

“So what you’re telling me is you brought yourself from the past and brought her here to the future!!!!!” “Micah Preston! Would you lower your…” I gasped, and covered my mouth. 

“You weren’t supposed to hear that.” 

 “We married Micah Preston? Melissa Dawn Preston. Has a ring to it although…What ever happened to Brent?” I asked. 

“Brent?” she stopped in her tracks. 

“Yeah, ya know Brent Veens.” 

“Wow, I haven’t heard that name in ages, the last time I checked his wife was going to have a baby.” 

“Yikes! He’s aloud to reproduce?” 

“Anyway.” Micah cut in. 

“Wow you’re really cute!” Did I seriously just say that out loud?

“ANY WAY” said Micah again. 

“We’ve got to send her back.” 

“I know, but the time machine’s broken.” 

“What! Ugh.” 

“Missay!” 

“What?” we turned our heads. To a tall man holding a baby girl. 

“What the? Missy what did you do?” 

“Dean now is not the time for this.” 

“Dean? Is that you?” 

“Yeah but you’re 15 again.” 

“Yeah, we kind of accidentally fried the machine.” 

“Hey I just noticed, they still call you missy. I thought you grew out of it.” 

“We did, but it just didn’t fly.” 

“I told her it was a bad idea to wish for a time machine. Well Dean, will you help me fix it?” 

“Sure, let me set Leah down and get her a bottle.” 

“Take your time.” Micah was tall, Blonde haired, and blue eyed.

“Hey Missy.” came the more matured voice of Rachel. 

“Hey Rach, now isn’t good, I was going to call…” 

“Oh well I just thought maybe you’d like to know that Hope is back in town.” 

“What!?” I watched me turn pale.

“Well do you want to go?” asked Rachel.

“Yeah” we hopped into an actual car and went to Hope’s house. I was jittery the whole way there, not because I was going to see future Hope, but because Rachel was the one behind the wheel. I looked over at myself, I was staring mindlessly out the window, no real emotion on my face. Except for a tear that would fall down my cheek. I left myself in silence. It felt like a few hours when really it had only been 15 minutes before we hit oak valley. 

“So she still lives here huh?” I said trying to break the glum mood, it didn’t work. 

“Yeah,” said Rachel. 

“When Miss Chris and Mr. Lowell moved away, she stayed behind and kept the house.” 

“Oh, I see. So they haven’t heard from each other in 3 months?” 

“Actually, it’s been 6 years.” Rachel said.

“6 YEARS!!!! What really happened?” I asked amazed. I moved to the front seat. 

“Well, Hope got married, and you played a huge role…” 

“Yeah that I know,” I said.

“Oh well, anyway, after that, she just left, without a note or phone call.” 

“Just up and left?” I asked. 

“Yup.” 

“Doesn’t sound like Hope.” 

“We were all very surprised.” we pulled up to the house, it looked way different, it looked a little more homely. The house was painted white, and the shutters were a light green. It looked nice, but interesting. Also she had flowers outside, but they looked foreign, and really sweet. We stopped in front of her house. 

“Well, why don’t you and I stay here while you and Hope have some time to talk it out.” said Rachel. 

“Yeah, ok.” I saw a cute dog in the window, for once it wasn’t a cat. I also saw Hope, she had short layered and blonde, just as it was in the past. 

“Wow, Hope changed her hair.” Rachel exclaimed. 

“It used to be black with red streaks.” My future self opened the door and took a deep breathe. 

“Well here I go.” She then went up to the door, and knocked. After a few minutes the door opened, and I got a better look at Hope. 

“I can’t believe that’s Hope.” 

“Yeah she’s changed since last time I saw her.” I saw myself walk into the House.

 

 

 

In Hope’s House

 

“Hey Mis, how’s it been?” asked Hope. 

“oh, so you leave without a phone call or note, or saying good-bye, and now you want to know how I’ve been!?” 

“Look, I’m sorry, it hasn’t been all peaches and cream for my family either.” 

“When I needed you most! That’s when you decide to leave! When I needed a best friend! You weren’t there! You left!” I started to cry. 

Back to Rachel and I

“So while we’re sitting here. Why am I so devastated with her leaving?”

“Well I probably shouldn’t say anything but, when you turn 18 Brent Veens…” I interrupted. 

“Wait did you say Brent? Myself told me that we haven’t seen him in ages.” 

“Well she hasn’t. We haven’t. Anyway when you turn 17 he asks you out, but you tell him that you want to court and that you’re waiting until you’re 18, so he waits for you.” 

“He asks me out? And he waits for me? What went wrong?” 

“Well you guys courted for 4 years, he then proposed to you in January and that august you were to be married. August comes and Hope gets married and leaves after her wedding, of course you don’t know she won’t be back. He then shows up at your door telling you that you can’t be married, for he fell in love with another girl named Megan, and how sorry he was. You got in your car, when you get there she isn’t home. She’s no where to be found. On your way home you get in a car accident with a guy named Ethan, you come to me, I help you through it, and we become best friends, 2 years later you’re married, and yeah, that’s about it.” I Was Speechless. 

                        

Back to Hope and I

“What do you mean, ‘when I needed you most’? You had your dream wedding, with your dream guy.” 

“Yeah, even if I would have gotten married and gotten my dream wedding with my dream guy and my dream dress, I wouldn’t have had my dream maid of Honor.” 

“Wait would have? Didn’t you and Brent get married?” 

“No, no we didn’t. He came to my house 1 week before the wedding saying we couldn’t get married because he fell in love with someone else…and so I went to Cornerstone.”

“You broke off the engagement a week before the wedding?” asked Hope.

“That’s what I just said. Thank goodness Rachel was still here.” 

“I would have stayed, but…never mind, why do you have a ring then?” 

“Because I went to college I met up with Micah and 2 years later we married, we finished our college courses, and then had kids. Rachel was my maid of honor.” 

“Mis, I really am sorry, I wish I could’ve been there, I wish I could just tell you why I was gone.” 

“Why can’t you, just tell me I am your best friend.” 

“Oh never mind, I can’t. I am here to stay now. So is there any way I could make it up to you?” 

“Yeah, if you ever leave, leave a note. Also I would love for our families to meet.” 

“Deal and I would also love our families to meet. When and Where.” Future me came out to the car. We set a date to meet. Next Thursday.

“Hey Thursday, is division still in existence?” 

“Shoot, I forgot, oh well we’ll meet before and then go.” 

“So it does still exist?” 

“Yeah, I told you my dad will preach till he dies or goes insane, or just loses his mind.” Said Rachel, we all couldn’t help it we laughed.