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New story! It doesn't have a permanent title. Frankly, I'm not sure what should happen next. I've tried several things but none worked....help me out! What's good, what's bad, what the heck should happen anyway?


A vicious wind took the soft snow and turned it into deadly projectiles against my window. I studied the street corner, my mind wandering from each bundled pedestrian to the next. I had an odd feeling, like I had just lost something dear to me. My heart longed inside of me for something that was just out of reach. What was it this time?

More importantly, could I keep rewriting my past and transforming my future? Surely I had lost something irreplaceable this time. I continued to stare at the far away shoppers and carolers, my mind subconsciously scanning each face until one caused my heart to jump into my mouth. I was running out of the shop screaming, would he see me…?

Time seemed to pause as I burst through the glass door. Everything hovered in midair, sharp and full of energy. I shook my head and kept running- that was impossible, time was ceaseless, intertwined and infinite. It didn’t care if you asked nicely, stepped on the right symbol, or flushed the wrong toilet, it wasn’t stopping for anybody.

A truck honked as I darted through its headlights and suddenly I realized I was in the middle of an intersection as the light turned green. He was on the other side of the street- I had no time to run.

“Haden!” I screamed- the truck was so close, too close, I could feel its burning heat. Did the driver notice me? The last thing I saw was Haden’s wide brown eyes.

“It must have been a drunk driver. Witnesses say she was perfectly visible to all the cars on the street. Even though the light was green, he must have noticed her.” A deep voice, manly, unfamiliar. I tried to open my eyes but with shock found them impossible to lift.

“Do you have any idea what she was doing, doctor?” An old woman’s voice, slightly harassed. Vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t identify on voice alone. I stopped struggling to open my eyes and strained to listen.
“Apparently she was just standing there.”

“Did she say anything?”

“Some witnesses say she yelled “Haden” but others heard nothing.”

“Wh-what? My son?”

I jerked in the bed and I heard a faster paced beeping to my left. Haden’s mother was here? I tried to calm myself. I had obviously changed to future. Maybe she had changed. Maybe...not.

“Looks like she’s awake,” the doctor commented smoothly, “You should ask her.”

There was an odd sensation, like suction cups being popped off of my eyelids and I could see. I immediately closed my eyes again.

“Man that’s bright.” I pressed my palms against my eyes, trying to block out all light.

The doctor chuckled indulgently. “Just open your eyes when you’re ready. We wanted to ask you a few questions.”

A few questions from Haden’s mother? More likely an interrogation.

I slowly cracked my eyes open enough to squint at them. The doctor was a kind, middle-aged black man. Haden’s mother, standing next to him in the small but pleasantly bright hospital room, looked like Medusa. Nope. She hadn’t changed. She had red hair that was frizzy, short and obviously hand- dyed. Her makeup was over done, and she looked too old to have a son of only fifteen. Her face wore a mask of mock sympathy and what she thought looked like kindness. I wasn’t fooled.

“I’d like to ask you a couple questions,” she began with the air of someone who was itching put me in cuffs if I said anything loosely related to a confession. “How do you know my son’s name?”

I didn’t answer immediately. If I said anything wrong someone might be in cuffs after all. “He’s…a friend.” I literally crossed my fingers under the blankets, hoping she hadn’t grilled Haden about me yet. Hopefully I could explain things to him before she asked.

She pulled a face of concern. “Really? Because when I asked him about you he said he had no idea who you were.”

Okay, crud. I had to backtrack really quickly. “Well when I say we’re friends, I mean we don’t know each other very well, we just met and I’m sure he forgot. It doesn’t really matter.”

“But how did you meet? Haden has been sick at home for the last week. I’m sure you didn’t meet him today, he doesn’t have that bad of a memory!” she added a light laugh the end of her sentence.

I was so disgusted I couldn’t speak. Sick at home for the last week…that was the old excuse used. The excuse used whenever he had to recover from a particularly bad beating so the school system wouldn’t get suspicious. She could spit out such a lie and then laugh. “It’s kind of hard to explain.”

“But you’ll have to explain it somehow, my dear!”

So she wasn’t giving up. I decided to take advantage of the fact that we were in public. “Why? Why do I have to explain? This has nothing to do with you. It’s over. Doctor, I’m tired.” Medusa is dismissed.

The doctor, thankfully taking the hint, ushered the hissing woman out of my room.

After they left it was so quiet I almost did slide back into oblivion- until I heard the door slide open. Thinking it was the doctor, I sat up to thank him. I was face to face with Haden. My stomach bubbled and I was dizzy just looking at him. But the bubbles went flat as I saw the look on his face.

“Haden?” I asked tentatively.

“How do you know my name?” he asked suspiciously.

I hated it when he was angry. “You wouldn’t believe me. Yet.” I chewed on my lip.

“That’s not good enough. Do you have any idea what that woman is going to do to me? What trouble you’ve caused?”

“I do, Haden, I really do.”

“Stop saying my name!” he snapped. “We aren’t friends. Never were. Never will be.”

I had never heard him speak like that to me before. It crushed me. I could feel my heart crumbling inside. “I’m…I’m sorry.” I choked. “I’ll tell you the truth.”

He waited, aloof, his arms crossed.

“I-I’m a time traveler. And I used to know you. Like really well. We were best friends.” More than that, I reminded myself. But he wasn’t ready for that. “But we got separated once by accident and I traveled back to find you,” I remembered the fear that twisted my stomach, the smell of sweat, “except instead of finding you I changed the future. And now we….don’t know each other.”

His expression was unreadable. “That is for the best.”

The door slid closed as I watched the only remaining person I love walk away.

I had to leave the hospital. Had to convince him. There would be no resting until I did. A constant pain as that of hunger, eating away at me. I had to save Haden again from his mother’s clutches.



“You won’t be walking for a few more weeks. Sorry, honey.”

“I’ve been in this hospital for four months!”

“A fairly quick recovery time so far for five broken ribs and several internal organ injuries.”

I rolled my eyes and reached for the newspaper beside my bed. Truthfully, my torso felt like mush. Painful mush. Every time I took a breath my ribs hurt and various nerves screamed. But I needed to get back out the find Haden. Would his mother have moved again because of me? How much did she suspect?

The doctors had been concerned when I told them I was an orphan. I had visitors every day, all people I didn’t know. They didn’t cheer me up much, but at least I had someone to talk (most times listen) to. I thought the visitors would stop coming when I told my doctor that he could send the bill to my grandparents (who are the kind of couple who give their various poodles not only manicures but their own sun tanning station and miniature spa). But the stream of friendly odds-and-ends people never stopped coming in to tell me about their daughter’s grades or the book they’re currently reading.

On the last day of the “few weeks” my doctor came in with one of my favorite odds-and-ends couple who had visited me several times before.

The woman was a young artist who had spent some time describing the odd architecture and interior design of the house she had designed herself. The man was cheerful and acted a lot younger than his age- as he told it, he spend a lot of his time as a computer programmer dancing around the office delivering gag gifts to coworkers.

The couple came shyly into the room and sat in the guest seats. There was a moment’s pause before the doctor, seeing that the couple wasn’t going to spit it out, began.

“We, uh, have something to tell you.”

Clearly.

“This- this uh couple, the Riders, would-”

“WE WANT TO ADOPT YOU IS THAT OKAY?” the woman suddenly burst forth, unable to hold herself back any longer.

Another awkward pause as I waited to see what else they would say. Then I realized I was the one who was supposed to be speaking. “I, um, I’m not sure.” I thought about this. If I was adopted, I would finally live a normal life. I would have family, perhaps friends. If I got attached to them I wouldn’t time travel ever again. I wouldn’t have to worry about Haden…Haden. His face flashed in my mind and I buried my head in my hands.

“No. I’m sorry but…I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.” What a lie. I looked at their fallen faces and wished I could tell them the truth.

That night it stormed so hard the electricity went out. I sat in the dark, cold bedroom, soaking in guilt and worry. Had I made the right decision?

Yay thank you! Yes I use grammar and spelling, the people who don't are not really trying to write anyway. That's what I see it as.
I have the basic idea that she's trying to save Haden from his abusive parents. She actually did it before but then time traveled and messed everything up, so she has do it again. Does this help?
Thank you for commenting and helping by the way.