Always there

Although Chris didn't want to agree initially, he looked at the watch on his arm. It was either accept or be late, and he couldn't afford to be late today.

"Thanks, I'll make sure to repay you for this." Chris said, as the two of them started to walk off together.

Chris was generally a quiet person, but Mai knew him as someone hard working and polite as well. If she wanted the two of them to have any conversation she would have to steer it, and the only thing she could think about that shouldn't be too awkward was the meeting on the weekend.

"Hey, so Chris, I just wanted to say sorry, sorry for suddenly asking you out. In hindsight, that wasn't exactly the perfect time… or place…."

"A-anyway I wanted to ask you if we can pretend like that never happened? I do enjoy spending time with you and I got the impression that you at least didn't seem to hate that idea. So I thought we should hang out. Maybe you've heard about it, but my friend Simon was kinda throwing a party and was wondering if you could come?"

Of course, Mai was unaware that Simon had already tried to invite Chris, only to be instantly rejected.

"It wouldn't be good if a person like me comes. Despite what you might think, when it comes to conversations I'm not really that and from what my friends told me I tend to bring the mood down. Thanks for the offer though, I do appreciate it." Chris replied.

In all honesty, this was the type of answer Mai had expected, but it did make her think. Who exactly were those friends Chris mentioned. Had she ever seen him hang out with anyone at their school? Sure some of the boys talked to him every so often since he was good at sports, and the girls admired him for his looks and kind voice, but he never seemed to enjoy that type of attention.

Even now he looked so...lonely.

"You know, I've recently come to the realisation that someday all of us will leave this world. We only have one life, so shouldn't we make the best of it and make all the great memories we can? I won't force you to come, I just ask you to consider whether at the end of your life you think you would be happier if you had gone or not."

What had compelled Mia to say this, was the images of the future she kept remembering. The Chris in those photos had looked so happy while the current one looked so sad.

For a while Chris didn't say anything back, but when they had finally reached a turning point, Chris stopped.

"My home is just down here, so I can run the rest of the way without getting too wet." Chris said, with a hint of a smile on his face. "And about that weekend… maybe you're right. I'll let you know if I've changed my mind."

Soon he had taken off running down the street with the book above his head. Somehow Mai's words had managed to convince him. It wasn't a 'yes', but it had sounded as if she had at least managed to turn the 'no' into a 'maybe'.

'I did it, I'm making that future come true!' She thought, with the biggest grin on her face.

She soon realised that her home was in the complete opposite direction and now she would have to walk back the way she had come past the school, and then walk onward to her home.

Nevertheless, Mai considered this a small price to pay. While walking back she couldn't stop but think about Chris' sweet face at those last moments when he had changed his mind.

Even though the walk was tiring, she had walked for thirty minutes with Chris, now there was a third minute walk back and a further ten minutes walk to the convenience store.

'Oh wait, Simon should have gone back with Shirley, so I guess that's an even bigger walk for me.' Mai sighed when she thought about her poor sore feet that were bound to have blisters on top of blisters by the time she made it home.

'Well, at least Simon might have managed to hit it off with Shirley. This is how high school romances should be. No love triangles, no drama, just everyone happy with what they want.'

'Come to think of it, if I do manage to couple the two of them together, will that mean that I can change Future Simon's life for the better?'

The rain had stopped, so Mai put her umbrella away, but as she was approaching the convenience store, she was feeling a little hungry. By now they would have dinner at home.

Just as she was about to walk through the door, a voice startled her.

"Hey, Mai."

"Huh?" Mai took a step back, unaware who could be calling out to her. They had the same uniform but wet hair was covering up the boy's face.

"Don't be scared, it's just me." Simon said, lifting his hair out from his face.

"Simon?! What are you doing here? Didn't Shirley come and meet up with you?" She asked.

"Yeah she did, I accompanied her home like a real gentleman and then peddled back to the convenience store."

"Why did you do that, were you hungry or something?"

"No, you idiot, I did it because of you! Did you forget that you were the one who said we should meet up here at the convenience store? Now come on, get something to eat and let's head back. Your feet must be killing you."

Hearing these words, a heavy lump was felt in her throat, she couldn't believe that Simon had decided to come back for her, a good friend like him she had stopped speaking to for nine years.

She just didn't understand it.

"Thank you." She said with a big smile.

*****

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