Free Autumn's Wish by Bella Thorne

low voices. When they get up to hug Future Me, I check them out. Reenzie wears the kind of black silk power suit I imagine her putting on to stride into a courtroom, except it’s rumpled and askew, like she slept in it for several days. Taylor’s in yoga pants and a sweatshirt, and Amalita wears one of her more sedate purple sheaths. All three of them look like they’ve been crying, though somehow Amalita’s makeup is still absolutely perfect.
    Mom walks up to the group hug and puts a hand on Future Me’s shoulder. “You’re in good hands. I have to take the dog to visit more patients. I love you.” She gives Future Me’s shoulder a squeeze and walks off while the group hug continues…and continues…and continues.
    So my mom’s not crying but my friends are. It’s not a family member in the hospital, then. Is it one of us? Jack? Sean? J.J.?
    I break into a sweat and start shaking my hands just to move and do
something.
“Okay, you guys are freaking me out,” I tell the group hug. “I can’t wait anymore. You have to tell me what happened.”
    Finally, they break out of the clutch.
    “Have you seen him yet?” Future Autumn asks the girls.
    Taylor and Ames shake their heads no, but Reenzie nods. “I flew in from Stanford the day it happened, when they airlifted him in from Tallahassee.”
    Amalita pulls a silver flask out of her bag and holds it out to Future Me. “It’s the only way to handle this.”
    Taylor tries to give Future Me a meaningful look, but Future Me ignores it. Instead I take the flask and tip it back for a long swig before handing it back to Amalita.
    “Okay,” I say, putting it together, “so Reenzie’s still at Stanford, and Ames is still drinking; that’s the same. But my life is better and my mom’s life is better and…” I can’t even say the next part I’m thinking:
Is someone’s life worse? Did one of my friends die?
    Future Me sits down with Ames, Reenzie, and Taylor. They tuck into a corner so they can face one another, and I sit on the floor in front of them to listen as they talk.
    “Come on,” I urge them. “Spill. What’s going on?”
    But my friends and Future Me aren’t talking about whoever’s in the hospital. They’re giving each other the scoop on their lives. I get the sense that they keep in touch but haven’t all been in the same room for a really long time, so they need to fill in the blanks. Tee tells the others about her boyfriend, Drew, and when she shows a picture, I lean in close to look.
    “Yes!” I gush, relieved. It’s the same Drew from the other future. “He’s perfect for you. I totally didn’t want you to lose him just because other things changed.”
    Future Me tells the others all about Jack and Nathan, who are apparently still a couple in this future too. It seems Jack has become my closest friend from high school, which I never in a million years would have guessed. He and Nathan go to school in Boston, like me, and the three of us hang out together all the time.
    “They send their best,” Future Me says. “Jack would have come down with me, but…”
    “After the way he and Paul ended things? Awk-ward,” Tee singsongs.
    “Paul?” I ask out loud. Paul is Sean’s next-to-oldest brother, and he’s gay. Did he and Jack go out before Jack met Nathan? Paul’s four years older than us, which I guess isn’t
that
big a difference, but wow.
    “How’s J.J.?” Future Me asks. “I haven’t heard from him in…”
    Future Me lets the sentence trail. Apparently it’s been too long to remember, and I’m surprised by the sharp pang of loss in my stomach. It only gets worse when Amalita rolls her eyes. “Oy,” she says, then takes a long swig from her flask. “How do you think? Two babies, no college, married to a girl he hates but will never leave because if he does she’ll never let him see his kids.”
    “WHAT?!”
I burst. “
Two
kids?! And he never went to college? Are you
kidding
me?!”
    “Are his parents