When I opened my eyes again, I was in my garage, except it wasn’t my garage.
It belonged to someone else, someone from 2017.
I blinked a few times. This was real! I was back in 2017! I was...oh wow! I was 13 again!
I looked down at my formerly wrinkly and old hands. They were smooth and young again.
“I think I heard something in the garage!”
I looked around, panicked. There was someone coming!
I pressed a few buttons and turned the time machine invisible. I slowly began backing it up, trying to get out of their garage.
A man in his mid-thirties stepped into the garage and looked around, glaring. He looked confused when he didn’t see anything there. I breathed a sigh of relief. Invisibility was the one thing I hadn’t tested. I hadn’t thought I’d need it. Andre, you are a genius scientist. How could you be so stupid!
I backed the time machine behind a few bushes, which was so Back To The Future it was funny.
I got out and began to run.

I made it to his house at about eight in the morning.
He better be awake and ready for me!
I bit my lip. I knew I looked thirteen, but what if he saw past that. Even after all these years, I was still insecure, still had no confidence.
Just knock or something! Don’t just stand there!
But I was too scared to knock. Instead I turned and ran.
I sat in the time machine, crying. You screwed that up so bad, Andre, you loser! I was even thinking like my thirteen year old self.
I knew all my friends didn’t want me to do this, or knew I couldn’t do it.
“You’ll get too scared.”
“You can’t change the past.”
“He wasn’t good enough for you anyway.”
“Then who is!” I had screamed at them in a very immature way. “If he wasn’t good enough then who is?! Albert? Danny? Who?!”
They had just stared at me sadly before walking away.
Here I am now, crying, letting him die.
It’s not fair! Why does nobody love me?!
STOP IT! I thought angrily. You are 52 years old! Stop these thoughts! NOW!
I can and will save him. I can…

When I arrive at his house again, he’s sitting outside. He looks up, startled. “Andre? Is that you?”
I nod. “I… I came to see you. And to… and to tell you something…”
“What?” he asks. “What’s wrong?”
“Walk with me?” I say.
He nods and walks up to me, taking my hand in his.
I bite my lip. I am a fifty two year old woman holding hands with a fifteen year old boy.
It feels so messed up!
I take him to where I am storing the time machine.
“What is it?” he asks.
I forgot it’s invisible. I open its door and he gasps. “What is that?”
I hit a few buttons and the machine is visible again. “It’s my time machine. I made it. I’m me from the future. I came to stop you from… from…”
“Wait, how far in the future?” he asks.
“Thirty nine years,” I mutter.
“So… wait… you came back in time thirty nine years to stop from doing… what, exactly?”
“I came to stop you from killing yourself,” I say.
He blinks. Blinks again. “You did.”
“Yeah. I did. I found out July fifth, 2017. I was heartbroken.”
“Didn’t you get over me?”
“Never. I… I was proposed to but I turned her down. I turned her down for you.”
He blinked again. “So… how old are you now?”
“Fifty two. Doing… fabulous. I’m a multi-millionaire and a scientist. I… shouldn’t be telling  you this. There are laws against it. I’m sorry. I should go.”
“Wait! What do you mean, laws?” he asks.
“I mean, I shouldn’t be here at all. Ever since the third world war, which was caused by time travel, time travel has been illegal. I could be punished severely for being here.”
“How would they know?” he asks. “You look thirteen.”
“Take a picture of me. You’ll see.”
He does, and looks at it. “You’re…”
“I know. Old. Just turned fifty two,” I laugh. “And I’m ugly again.”
“You’re not. You’re not ugly to me. Not at all,” he says, and I can tell he means it.
“Promise me you won’t kill yourself,” I say.
“I promise,” he says.

When I get home, I have a very special someone waiting for me.
“Cooper!” I shout, and there he is, alive and beautiful, despite being fifty four.
He kisses me and I clutch him. “Thank you for saving me. Thank you.”
Just then there is a knock at the door.
“I’ll get it,” I tell him.
When I open the door, one of the time police stand there. “Andre?”
“Yes?” I ask nervously.
He grabs my arm. “We detected illegal usage of time travel in your house. You’ve been sentenced to death.”