Prompt: “You have realized that your best friend is your son/daughter from the future who wants to hang out and get to know you since you die before he/she was born.”
“Hey, what are you playing?”
I looked up from my Game Boy Advanced at a girl starring at me. This was rare, because usually girls kept their distance from me. Actually everyone kind of did. I usually just sat on the bench next to the jungle gym and played my Game Boy Advanced at recess. The teachers were supposed to confiscate things like this, but they let me play it at recess. I never pulled it out during class and I had high grades. Plus I didn’t run around and throw rocks or wood chips at people during recess, so they left me alone.
“Uh… The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap,” I said mesmerized by the girl standing in front of me.”
“That’s really cool,” She said taking a seat next to me. “I love The Legend of Zelda. It’s one of my favorite series.”
“Really, you like Zelda?” I asked her.
“Yeah it’s amazing. That and Mario, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, and Metroid. They are all great,” She said.
“I never met a girl who likes all those things,” I said.
She laughed.
“Well my Dad was really into all of those things and I played with him. His love of those video games made me love them too,” She said.
“That’s really cool,” I said. “Do you want to come over after school? I got Mario Kart Double Dash.”
“Absolutely!” She said with a huge smile on her face.
“My name is Ryan,” I said.
“Lyra,” She said.
That’s how I met my best friend. One day where I was just playing my Game Boy I just sat there and she just walked up to me and told me about how much she loved the things I loved. I didn’t think girls like things like that but I ate my words that day. She knew way more about the things that I did. She was faster at driving in Mario Kart, she had a better battle strategy when it came to Pokemon, and she was a skilled Metroid player.
At first it was a little embarrassing and I felt like my masculinity was on the line, but the more time we spent together, the less I cared about winning. I just loved spending time together. She was like a cool older sister that knew so many nerdy facts. Not only did she talk about video games, but she also talked about movies, television shows, and comics.
“Captain America is absolutely my favorite,” She would say. “But I’m also a huge fan of Captain Marvel.”
“I haven’t read any comics,” I said.
“Oh my gosh. You have to read comics! They are amazing!” She said jumping up and down. “Promise me you will.”
“Ok, ok, I promise,” I said and she stopped bouncing.
My Dad would say that she was my girlfriend, but both Lyra and I would adamantly disagree. My Mom would say that we were more like twins. Best friends that seemed to have a friendship that started at birth. Some people even commented that we kind of looked like each other.
“Do you want to play Smash Bros?” I asked her as I popped in the disc.
“Absolutely,” She said as she picked up a GameCube controller. “Too bad there isn’t any characters from Animal Crossing in this.”
“Do you think they would add animals in Smash Bros?” I asked her.
“Uh..hopefully when the next one comes out,” She said quickly.
“Yeah that would be really cool,” I said as I selected Pikachu.
She chose Samus.
Over the next few months our friendship grew deeper as we spent every minute we could together. We hung out as much as possible during school and recess and after school, she would come over and play video games with me. I never spent any time at her house, but that didn’t really bother me. Whenever I brought it up, she just said that she liked spending time with me here in this house.
“You just have such a wonderful family and nice house,” She said.
About a year later we first met, we were hanging out after school waiting for my parents to pick us up. We were both working on homework when she pulled a book out of her backpack. As the book came out, a metallic bracelet came out with it. It looked like something I would see in the newest Star Wars Movie.
“Woah, what is that?” I asked.
She scrambled to grab the metallic bracelet.
“Uh…it’s nothing,” She said.
“Come on, let me see it,” I said grabbing for it.
“No!”
She stood up, knocking over her backpack as she pulled back from me. I had never seen her act like this before.
I just sat there looking at her.
“Sorry. It’s just that it’s very personal to me,” She said.
“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“It’s fine. It’s fine,” She said. “I think I need to go.”
She knelt down and piled everything in her backpack.
“Lyra? Lyra?”
I reached out for her, but she just turned away from me.
“See you tomorrow,” She said as she walked quickly down the hallway.
I didn’t bother following her that day. I just sat there in confusion, waiting for my parents to show up.
“I thought Lyra was hanging out with you today,” My mom said when she picked me up from school.
“She wasn’t feeling well,” I lied and that was that.
The next day I was dropped off at school and Lyra found me immediately.
“Hey, I need to talk to you,” She said.
“If it’s about yesterday, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to cross any boundaries.”
“Just listen to me. It’s alright. I just want to show you something. Come with me,” She said.
She took me aside and lead me away from the crowd of kids coming into the school. We went towards the bathrooms.
Lyra placed her hand on the door to the boy’s bathroom.
“Woah, Lyra. You can’t go in there. That’s the boy’s bathroom,” I said.
“Just come on. It’s fine. No one else is in there. I checked,” She said as she pushed the door opened and I followed her inside.
She went up to the large mirrors and pulled the backpack off her back. She unzipped the large pocket and pulled out the metallic bracelet I saw yesterday.
“Come here, Ryan,” She said gesturing me over.
I walked over still worried that we were going to get in trouble for being in this bathroom together. Or at least Lyra would get in trouble for being in the boys bathroom.
“Yes?” I asked.
She put on the metallic bracelet and poked at it. It was sleek and seemed to beep as she touched the outside of it. It then began to shine with a green light that reminded me of the matrix.
It opened up and showed off a fancy, glass display with a series of numbers.
“Woah. What is that?” I asked.
“If I tell you, I feel like you are going to freak out on me. Just give me your hand. I’ll show you what it does.”
“Alright,” I said reaching out my hand.
She grabbed it and held it tightly.
“Take a deep breath.”
I inhaled sharply and there was a flash of green light.
Suddenly I felt like I was riding a wild roller coaster. My stomach and heart seemed to be bouncing into my lungs over and over again. The world was spinning around me and I felt sick to my stomach.
There was another flash of light and I was laying on a bed starring up at the ceiling.
“Wow, you recovered quickly.”
I sat up still feeling a little dizzy and I saw Lyra sitting on the floor staring at some kind of handheld device in her hands. It looked like a large Game Boy with a red and blue controller on each side of the device.
“What is that?” I asked her.
“Oh this. It is my favorite Nintendo console. It’s like the GameCube and a Game Boy combined but so much better. It is portable and it plays on the television. It’s called a Nintendo Switch. I’m playing through The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the fifth time.”
Her words dizzied me more. It was like I understood every other word.
“Wait…what?”
“I told you that you’d freak out,” She said. “But this is the future.”
“The future?”
“Yeah we are no longer in 2005. It is the year 2032. This is where I’m from,” She said.
I looked around bewildered.
“I don’t understand. Is this some kind of joke?”
Lyra moved to sit on the bed with me.
“This isn’t a joke, Ryan. This is all real. My name is Lyra and I’m from the year 2032. I was born in the year 2019. You were 24 at the time. Are you with me?”
“I’m….I’m not sure,” I said.
“Ok. Let me add another layer to this then,” Lyra said.
She reached over and showed me her metallic wristband again.
“This is a time travel device. I used it to come back and visit you and play video games with you.”
“Why me?” I asked.
“Because you’re my Dad,” She said plainly. “When I was really little, you… you pass away.”
“Wait…Lyra. You’re my daughter…from the future…”
“Yeah. And I didn’t really get to know you so I use this to go back in time,” She glanced at the bracelet. “That way I got to know you and I got to hang out with you. Then every time I leave your house, I come back here.”
“I’ve known you for over a year,” I said.
“I keep on jumping back day after day, allowing me to live in both time frames,” Lyra said.
I sat there for a moment completely confused.
“Are you sure this isn’t some kind of joke…or dream?” I asked.
Lyra shook her head no.
“I’m sorry, Ryan…er… Dad. It’s not. This is all true,” She said.
With that my head began to spin again and I passed out on the bed.
Header Photo Credit to PlayLSI.com
https://www.playlsi.com/en/commercial-playground-equipment/playgrounds/dr-don-r-roberts-elementary-school/
Writing Prompt submitted to r/WritingPrompts by u/_Azmodan_
Allen The Writer 