Cosmo twisted the bangles on his wrist. “I had a premonition yesterday that you’d be waiting for me at the taco truck. But it didn’t happen the way I expected, so I thought it was just wishful thinking.”
Wishful thinking.But Cosmo hadn’t been wishing for Micah when he exposed his whole chest and demanded Micah check to see if the rumor about him was true.
A waitress stopped at their table, beaming a bubblegum pink smile. “Hello! Are you ready to order or do you need a few minutes?”
Cosmo’s gaze was distant. He pushed his menu back into the rack. “A pumpkin shake, please.”
“I’ll have sweet potato,” Déjà said. “With three maraschino cherries.”
The waitress looked up from her notepad. “It comes with a toasted marshmallow on top instead of a cherry. Do you want to substitute it?”
“No. In that case, I’d like three marshmallows. It’s fine if it costs extra.”
Micah reached past Cosmo for a menu. His arm brushed Cosmo’s, the warm scent of raspberry and spice overwhelming him. Skimming over the milkshake list but not processing any of the words, Micah looked up at the waitress and said, “Surprise me.”
He pulled the paper band off his silverware and rolled it into a tight tube. Once the waitress left, he said, “You know, yesterday, after I failed to get you to come with me, I thought it must mean that no matter how we try to change things, the future is set in stone. But that isn’t true, because originally our argument never happened. Maybe… Maybe we only slightly altered something.” Other Micah hadn’t sat helpless and alone in a Dairy Queen, thinking about his ineptitude until the place closed and the teenage employees kicked him out.
“Did it occur to you that maybe you shouldn’t have meddled with the future?” Déjà asked.
“No. It really didn’t.” Micah flicked his napkin band across the table. “My only thought after the initial shock of meeting myself was keeping Cosmo from getting hurt.”
“I don’t want him hurt either, but what if you weren’t supposed to do that? Maybe it felt like nothing much changed, but you weren’t supposed to be there. People saw and interacted with you who shouldn’t have. Not just us, but Royce, the people eating by the taco truck, whoever you encountered on the way back home, insects you stepped on…”
“Insects,” Micah said. “So, what, I stepped on an ant I shouldn’t have and now I’ve prevented a future president from being born? That seems over the top.”
“Does it?” She looked at Cosmo. “You said you knew Micah would be waiting for you yesterday, and he was. And Micah, you knew he had been thinking about milkshakes even though he never said that to you. Something’s been altered.”
Micah knew Déjà wasn’t the source of his sudden anger, so he tried to cram it down, but he couldn’t help but say, “And you weren’t supposed to be at the bar. We don’t know what would have happened if he didn’t have anyone there on his side, but I bet it would have been worse. And whether that screwed up the universe or not, I’d do it again to keep him from getting hurt.” His voice rose. “I’d run to help Cosmo inanyuniverse. In any timeline.”
Déjà raised her already dramatically arched eyebrows. Cosmo stared at Micah, his lips parted.
“Besides,” Micah muttered, “the premonition of me showing up didn’t happen the way he thought it would. What good is a premonition if it’s wrong?”
“What flavor is your milkshake going to be?” Cosmo gathered the menus and hugged them to his chest. “You knew we were going to come here, which means in our original future we were here and had milkshakes. So what flavor did you get?”
“Um…” He didn’t have any sense of being here before, and couldn’t remember any of the shake flavors. Squeezing his eyes shut, he pressed his fingers to his temples and feigned concentration. “Shrimp.”
Cosmo grimaced. “Shrimp?” He looked at the menus clutched in his fists. “Is that an actual flavor?”
“Shrimp. With pink sprinkles and lemon garnish.”
Pushing the menus back into the rack, Cosmo said, “And did you drink this shrimp milkshake?”
“Of course. But I failed to mention that I have a shellfish allergy, so we had a bonus trip to the hospital.”
“I knowthatisn’t true, because we ate lobster toast together at the bistro.” Cosmo rolled his eyes. “And if you’d like my opinion, I think we’re now in a parallel universe. If all of time exists at once and always has, that would be the only way to change the trajectory.” Cosmo looked at both of them and apparently didn’t get the confirmation he was hoping for, because he said, “It makes sense. I read about the many-worlds theory when I was looking up information about spacetime. Supposedly, a new universe is created each time anyone makesanydecision.”
“I don’t know,” Micah said. “A new universe budding every time I debate whether to brush my teeth or not feels egotistical.”
“You should be brushing your teeth twice a day.” Cosmo huffed. “And flossing.”
“Flossing is against my religion. And I kind of feel like we’re making something out of nothing. We don’t know if what we experienced were premonitions. If Other Micah shows up again, I can compare notes with him about the future, but that’s about it. I kind of hope he doesn’t, though. He’ll just tell me about some other future event that I’ll screw up.”
“It’s not nothing,” Déjà said. “And you shouldn’t be ignoring this new ability, even if it seems benign now. This could be serious. Youaltered time. And you’re being flippant about it. Don’t you think that’s a dangerous thing to mess around with?”
“I don’t know! I’d say I’ve never done this before, but maybe I have. Who knows how many Micahs have fucked up how many universes!” God, he needed some fresh air. He was too on edge. “Will you excuse me?”
“Micah–”
