My Future Self Called

On the last day before my study-abroad application closed, I was about to give up my full scholarship offer. Then, out of nowhere, I got a call from my future self. "Don't give it up. Click confirm enrollment. Right now." "Harley locked in his own graduate placement three months ago. The only reason he wants you to stay is that Katy needs you to finish her senior thesis for her, and he needs your money every month to live on. "Two weeks after you turn down that offer, the two of them go public with their relationship. "That so-called best friend of yours, Katy? She already betrayed you. She's been sleeping with him." I froze, my finger hovering over the mouse. The voice kept going, speaking faster and faster. "Listen carefully. Once you confirm the offer, take the twenty thousand dollars left in your account and put every cent into the Eklund Growth Fund. It goes public next March. It'll grow eightfold within the year. "Once you're abroad, apply to your advisor's AI lab before your first semester ends. That project gets acquired by Coogle two years from now, and as a core team member, you'll get a share of the payout. "Twenty-two-year-old me, I'm begging you. Stop wasting yourself on people who don't deserve it." The voice cut off. I took a deep breath and moved the cursor to "Confirm Enrollment." The instant I clicked, my mind was made up. I wasn't going to bury my own future for anyone who wasn't worth it. Chapter 1 The instant I clicked the mouse, every ounce of strength drained out of me, and I sank back into my chair. A confirmation window popped up on the screen. [Congratulations. Your full scholarship offer from the University of Elinseburgh has been confirmed.] I stared at that line for a full three minutes. My phone screen lit up. It was a message from Harley MacGowan. Harley: [Babe, did you pay the rent this month?] Harley: [My account's dry. Send me three thousand for now, just to cover it.] A clingy little sticker followed, the kind he always sent when he wanted something. The old me would have opened the transfer screen the second I saw that message, no questions asked. Half of everything I earned tutoring on the side went to his rent, the other half to his clothes and dinners. I'd thought we were building something together, that he was just stressed about his grad school exams and needed me to hold things up. But my future self had told me the truth. He'd already secured his own placement three months ago. He didn't need the money at all. What he needed was someone to bleed dry. I marked the message as read and didn't answer. Then I opened my investment app and set up an automatic deposit for the twenty-one thousand dollars left in my account. Once the Eklund Growth Fund went public next March, I was going all in. My phone buzzed. A voice message from Harley, forty seconds long. I tapped it open. His voice came through lazy and self-assured, the way it always was when he thought the world owed him something. "Why aren't you answering? Holed up in the library again? "Don't work yourself too hard, okay? I booked us a table tonight, somewhere nice. You can front the bill for now." I killed the message and let out a short, humorless laugh. Wonderful. Even taking me out to dinner meant I paid. I typed back one word. [Busy.] Ten seconds later, he called. "What's gotten into you, Anita?" Harley said, laughing, still wearing that same practiced gentleness. "I know you've been stressed lately, but forget about studying abroad, all right? We already agreed. You're staying to study for your grad exams, and next year we do this together." "Mm. Got it." I cut him off, my voice flat, without a single ripple in it. He paused, clearly not expecting me to be so curt, then said, hesitant, "So the money..." "Later." I hung up. Not because I wasn't going to send it. Because I was never sending it. Ever. Less than twenty minutes later, a message from Katy Kirman popped up. Katy: [Anita, my thesis model won't run. Can you take a look?] Katy: [Just a small piece of code, it'll be quick! Please, please!] A string of crying-face stickers and folded-hands emojis followed. I stared at the screen, remembering what my future self had said. 'Katy needs you to finish her senior thesis for her.' Not help her look over one piece of code. The entire thesis, from proposal to defense, I was the one doing it. And the time she'd freed up doing that, she'd spent sleeping with my boyfriend. I took a deep breath and typed. Me: [I've been swamped lately. You should ask your advisor.] There was silence on the other end for a long time. Finally, she sent a single "Okay," with no emoji attached. I knew she was upset. But I knew even better that it wasn't because I'd refused to help. It was because she was scared her thesis wouldn't get finished, that she wouldn't graduate on time, that she wouldn't get to run off into her happy future with Harley. I set my phone face-down on the desk and opened the course guide for the University of Elinseburgh. The AI lab. I could apply before my first semester even ended. It would be acquired by Coogle two years later. My life, starting this very second, belonged to no one but me. Chapter 2 Three days after I turned Katy down, she suddenly asked me out to dinner. She picked Bellini's, the little bistro on the street behind campus, the place we'd been going since freshman year. By the time I got there, Katy was already seated in a booth, makeup done just right, smiling and waving me over. "Anita! Over here, over here!" I sat down. She slid the menu over to me immediately, fussing over me in a way that felt almost excessive. "My treat today. Order whatever you want." I raised an eyebrow and said nothing, just picked two dishes at random. We made small talk for five minutes before she finally got to the point. "Anita, I really can't handle my senior thesis." She set down her fork, her eyes rimmed faintly red. "You know my coding is weak, and my advisor's on my case constantly. If I don't graduate on time, my mother will kill me." She reached out and gripped my wrist, the pressure calculated just right, somewhere between affection and pleading. "Just help me this one last time, okay? I'll take you out for a big dinner once I graduate. I mean it." I looked into her eyes. There was weakness there, and flattery, and even a trace of certainty she couldn't quite hide. She was certain I'd say yes. Because I never had said no to her. Not once. From saving her a seat freshman year, to writing her lab reports, to editing her papers, all the way to carrying her senior thesis. I was her most reliable tool. "Katy." I pulled my wrist back, my voice even. "I really don't have the time." The smile on her face froze. "What have you been so busy with lately?" "Getting some things of my own in order." Something flickered in her eyes, like she was trying to gauge what I meant. Then she recovered that fragile, soft look and smiled. "All right. I'll figure something else out, then." We went our separate ways after dinner. At the fork in the road, I caught her out of the corner of my eye pulling out her phone and dialing someone in a hurry. Her back was to me, her voice pitched low, but the night wind carried a few fragments over. "She's not right lately... she won't help me anymore... what am I supposed to do?" I didn't turn around. I didn't stop walking, either. I didn't need to guess who was on the other end of that call. Sure enough, that night, Harley texted, his tone ten times gentler than usual. Harley: [Babe, are you not feeling great lately? Want me to take you out this weekend?] Harley: [Oh, by the way, Katy said she's stuck on her thesis. If you've got a minute, help her take a look, would you? It's nothing, really.] I stared at the words nothing, really and nearly laughed out loud. An entire senior thesis, and he called that nothing. Of course it sounded easy to him. It always did, for things he never had to lift a finger for himself. I sent back one word: [Busy.] He replied instantly. [Busy with what? Didn't you say you weren't going abroad anymore? It's way too early to be studying for grad exams.] I didn't answer again. He sent three more messages in a row, his tone sliding from gentle to irritated. Harley: [Anita?] Harley: [What's with the attitude?] Harley: [I'm talking to you nicely here. Can you not be so passive-aggressive?] I put my phone on silent, opened my laptop, and went back to researching the application materials for the AI lab at Elinseburgh. The professor's research focus happened to be natural language processing. My future self had been right about that, too. That lab would catch Coogle's eye two years from now. All I had to do was get myself into it before the end of my first semester. As for Harley and Katy? They could help each other if they wanted to. Chapter 3 Friday night, my roommate dragged me to a graduation season get-together. "Come on, come on, it's our last one ever. If you don't go now, you might never see half these people again." I'd meant to say no, but then I reconsidered. Fine. I'd treat it as a goodbye. The party was at a karaoke lounge next to campus, a big private room, more than twenty people packed in. By the time I arrived, Harley and Katy were already sitting together. There was one seat of distance between them, which looked normal enough on the surface. But I noticed the way Katy's elbow kept brushing his arm, and the way his body leaned toward her without him seeming to notice. Details like that, the old me would have looked right past. Now, every one of them felt like a crack in the surface. Someone suggested a round of truth or dare. The bottle spun, and the mood kept climbing. On the third round, it landed on Katy. "Truth or dare?" "Dare!" Katy said with a giggle. Whoever had proposed the round was already a few drinks in, and he shouted it loud enough for the whole room to hear. "Dare! Hug whoever you like best right now!" The room erupted into hooting and cheering. Katy's face went red. She hesitated for two seconds, then stood and walked toward Harley. She came at him from behind and wrapped her arms around his neck, her whole body hanging off him, her voice syrupy. "Ugh, don't blame me, you guys made me do it." The room froze for a second, and then the cheering exploded. "No way! Katy and Harley?" "Seriously? Since when?" "Wait, isn't Harley dating Anita? What about Anita?" Every head in the room turned toward me. The color drained from Harley's face. He shoved Katy off him and looked at me on instinct, his lips moving. "Anita, it's not what you think." Katy stumbled back a step, her eyes welling up instantly, standing there looking helpless. "I'm sorry, I... I had too much to drink." I watched the whole scene unfold, something ugly churning in my chest. Even knowing the truth already, seeing it play out in front of me still turned my stomach. Four years. I'd given Harley my best four years, and this was what I got for it. Humiliated in front of everyone. I set down my glass, stood up sharply, and grabbed my jacket. "Anita!" Harley rushed over and grabbed my wrist. "Let me explain!" I wrenched my arm away, with a strength that surprised even me. "Don't touch me." My voice was shaking, not from sadness. From fury. I glanced at Katy once. She was gazing back at me with those tear-filled eyes, pitiful and wounded, her lips parted like she might start crying any second for sympathy. Disgusting. I turned and walked out of the room. The second I shoved the door open, dead silence fell behind me, followed immediately by an explosion of whispers. In the hallway, I heard Harley's footsteps chasing after me. Chapter 4 "Anita, stop right there!" Harley caught up to me, grabbed my shoulder, and spun me around. His face was a mix of panic and anger. "What's your problem? Embarrassing me like that in front of everyone?" I shook his hand off and stepped back, staring at him coldly. "Harley, do you even understand what just happened? You and my best friend hugged, and you're the one storming out to interrogate me?" "That was truth or dare. It was just a game!" he said through gritted teeth. "Can you not blow this so far out of proportion?" "A game?" I let out a cold laugh. "Was your face going white when you shoved her off you also part of the game?" That caught him off guard. His chest heaved for a long moment before he managed to force out, "Anita, what's actually going on with you lately? "You won't help Katy, you won't send money, you won't answer my texts, and now you're picking a fight over nothing. Are you doing this on purpose?" I leaned against the wall, arms crossed, studying his flushed face. This was the face that had made my heart race for four straight years. Now, all I felt looking at it was revulsion. "Harley, let me ask you something." "Go ahead." "Did you already secure your graduate placement three months ago?" His expression froze, plain as day. His lips moved, but nothing came out. I kept going. "And after that, you still asked me for living expenses. Three thousand a month, like clockwork. "What did you spend my money on? Taking Katy to dinner? Booking hotel rooms?" "You... what are you talking about!" His voice shot up, but his eyes had already started darting away. I didn't bother going in circles with him anymore. I straightened up and looked down at him. "Let's break up." Harley froze for a second, then suddenly laughed. There was a contempt in that laugh I'd never seen on him before. "Break up? Fine by me." He stepped back, hands in his pockets, tilting his head to look at me. "You really think if you dump me, you'll end up doing better than I do? You've got zero backbone, you'll probably fail your grad exams anyway. What do you even have to compare yourself to me with?" He was getting more pleased with himself the longer he talked, like he'd finally stopped bothering to pretend. "Be honest, Anita, what are you even good for besides writing other people's code? You couldn't even hold onto an offer. What gives you the right to act all high and mighty in front of me?" I cut him off without missing a beat. "Harley, who told you I didn't accept the offer?"