Skipping Forward

by Bethany Wicker

  “It’s a noob,” I corrected and shoved him sideways.

  “Whatever. Start it back up so I can show you how awesome I am and you can find me a new nickname.” Rhett’s expression shifted into a determined one.

  Doing as he requested, I turned it back on. He died within seconds, which only fueled my laughter even more. I was just about in tears when the next three rounds yielded the same results.

  “What am I doing wrong?” Rhett grunted.

  I felt bad because he was starting to get frustrated so I told him what Maddox told me. “You have to watch everything and strike before they strike. Always keep your gun up and switch to the bat as soon as you’re out of ammo.”

  I watched as Rhett took in what I said and began the round again. This time, he didn’t die until we were halfway through. He jumped up and started doing a happy dance.

  “How about them apples? Am I still a noob?”

  “Unfortunately, yes you are. You still died, noob. Now, sit back down so we can keep practicing. We have the whole day.”

  “And then I won’t be a noob?” Rhett pressed as he sat back down and picked his controller back up.

  “We’ll see, but you probably still will be.”

  I flashed him a grin and we played until night rolled around. He was a little better, but still pretty bad. He was worse at video games on this timeline than the previous one and I thought that was crazy. Going back in the past shouldn’t have altered his gaming skill like that, but it obviously did. He was terrible, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. Instead, I was going to laugh on the inside and call him a noob on the outside. Well, maybe a little laughing on the outside.

  “I think I could do this for a living,” I mused.

  It was what Maddox wanted to do, but that wasn’t what drove me to want to do it. I truly enjoyed video games and was intrigued to discover how they were made. If I could create one, my life would be complete.

  “Oh yeah?” Rhett raised his eyebrows at me.

  “Yep, and when we have children, they’ll be playing video games with me too.”

  “We’re to the kid step already? Going a little out of order, aren’t you?” Rhett waggled his eyebrows at me and I giggled.

  I rolled my eyes at him. “You’re so crazy. You know I mean if we have kids.”

  “Nope, I’m not letting you get out of that one. You want to have kids with me. You love me,” Rhett singsonged.

  I stole his remote from him and kissed him. “I do love you. How’d you know?”

  He kissed me again. “Because I love you too.”

  The video game was quickly forgotten for the moment, but it wasn’t going anywhere. It was paused on a zombie, which wasn’t very romantic, but that didn’t deter Rhett as he kissed me again and again.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  As the years went by, I mastered my time traveling ability and never used it again. Losing my brother made me lose my will to time travel. I was always tempted to go visit him in the past, but like Rhett said, it wasn’t healthy. I couldn’t live in the past anymore and had to move on. The best way to do that was to live in the present, always. I didn’t want to lose any more memories with Rhett than I already had. I’d missed our first date, the first meal he prepared for me, moments at school, and other occasions. He was amazing and I didn’t want to miss a thing. Things might change one day, but for now I wouldn’t use my ability.

  Autumn and I still hung out occasionally when we had the time to spare. She gave up being a makeup artist and instead, went to med school. She threw herself into it completely to get her doctorate and school and her brother became the air she breathed. I believed she took Maddox’s death harder than I did and still suffocated her brother with affection. At least that was what I last heard.

  We traveled for the first year, and then, two years after we graduated high school, Rhett proposed. We had a beautiful wedding and I even got to meet his parents for the first time. Thinking back, it wasn’t really the first time I met them, but I couldn’t remember the initial encounter. Rhett was shocked that they made it, and that they were there before we were even ready to walk down the aisle. His mom gave me a fright when she poked her head in while I was slipping into my dress to wish us the best of luck.

  Now that we were married, we also shared our first times with each other. I ignored the previous timeline and was thankful I didn’t skip through it this go round. I still never got back everything that I missed when I changed our course, but I thought this road worked out for the better.

  At the age of twenty-four, I was working at a video game company and designed them in memory of Maddox. He made me realize how fun they really were and how large my imagination could expand. My goal was to reinvent zombie games in a way that he would approve of.

  I’d brought Maddox’s game system everywhere we went when we traveled that first year and it became a tradition to beat the new zombie games as they came out. Maddox would be proud of my skills. Rhett had even gotten tons better. He’d graduated from the noob label. I didn’t have a new nickname for him yet, but he was just happy I wasn’t saying noob anymore.

  With Maddox’s game system in my living room, it felt like he was still with us. The heart necklace that still dangled around my neck served as a memory also. I always felt like he was there even though he wasn’t. Rhett tried to buy me new necklaces, but none could replace the heart pendant he got me all those years ago. Mom still wore her cross too.

  As a family, Mom, Dad, Rhett, and I all visited Maddox’s grave on the anniversary of the accident. I would visit it by myself when the need called throughout the year, but I didn’t cry anymore. The tears had all been spent and my visits were a therapeutic way of talking to him. It was a more sane way to talk to him compared to going back into the past. Rhett opened my eyes to that and he would always be my rock. I was lucky that he could read my mind because he always knew how to make me happy.

  Without Rhett, I would’ve never learned how to travel to the past or control my ability. Without him, I would’ve skipped through my whole life without intending to. Without him, I wouldn’t have matured enough to accept living in the present.

  Now, I would enjoy each moment I had with Rhett because you never knew when your time would come. Maddox died at a young age and for that, I would live life to its fullest in his memory.

  One thing that I learned from this whole experience was that life was short and we needed to embrace each day. As cheesy as it was, we didn’t know when our end was going to come, so it wasn’t worth the time or breath to fight with one another.

  Bethany Wicker resides in Louisiana and is a new mom who loves to read and write any chance she gets. Her sun conure, Apollo and her two dogs, Jasper and Drake, usually keep her company while she writes, throwing in ideas of their own. She has a loving husband, Lucien, a beautiful daughter named Henley, and an amazing family who support her passion for writing. Her inspiration comes from her friends, family, and the support from BB. She loves young adult fiction of all sorts and thanks God for giving her the strength to finish novels of her own. She is obsessed with Disney, Dr. Pepper, and White Chocolate Mochas, especially from Starbucks. She also loves food and is always excited to try new things.

  Looking for more from this author… check out her other novel, Unexpected Alpha:

  Female Alphas are unheard of in werewolf society, and the Sapphire Pack is no different. So when Lena’s father dies, no one is more shocked than she to discover that his Alpha powers have transferred to her. Lena has her hands full protecting her pack from hunters and rogue wolves, while simultaneously facing prejudices and power-hungry males who want to mate with her just to steal her title.

  But when the uber-sexy Kane enters the picture, Lena gets a lot more than she bargained for. He irritates her to no end, while giving her butterflies at the same time. With his interference and her new-found power bubbling under her skin, something inside her changes, leaving her confused as to what she truly is. She soon discove
rs that searching for answers is most difficult when the last person she can trust is the only one who has them.

  Or check out Dark Fire

  Kyler Yates has grown up in the elemental society all her life. Her mother, an advocate for human relations, wants her to start attending a human school for her last year. Kyler, unlike her mom, wants nothing to do with humans so why would she try to be friends with them?

  Remy James grew up in the human world and has been taught that elementals are terrible, selfish people. It’s only proven true when he meets Kyler. She’s condescending and cold-hearted, but there’s something there that makes Remy want to get to know her.

  Can the two of them get over their differences and give in to the pull that keeps drawing them together?