Prompt 82: If
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"So one little failure, and you wave the white flag? What if my Dad had given up on this time machine?"
"Well neither of us would be in this mess right now, that's for sure."
"Touché. But may I also point out that you wouldn't have gotten to ride in a time machine, and you wouldn't have gotten to see the future, and…
I would never… have met you."
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Lewis thought often about a lot of 'what-if's, but that conversation he'd had with Wilbur always replayed itself the most.
What if he hadn't gotten to see the future? See what was to become his life one day just as long as he knew how to keep moving forward. Would he have come out of that horrible state of self loathing that Doris had caused him? He wanted to think that he might've. But what if he hadn't?
And what if, as Wilbur had said to him, they hadn't met? It was Wilbur who'd come back and managed to fix what he'd screwed up. Wilbur had given him confidence in himself, more than he'd ever known, in that one day. He was the very reason Lewis refused to give up on anything, to ensure that everything went according to plan, so that Wilbur could one day be born as his and Franny's son. If something along the way went wrong, Lewis would never be able to live with himself.
So then, Lewis always continued to ask himself, what if he'd never fallen in love with him? What if, during that conversation, when Wilbur had smiled at him like that, Lewis hadn't felt his heart stutter? What if neither of them had relented to their desires, had been stronger, more rational? What if every smile Wilbur gave him didn't remind him of that very first one? What if the most amazing feeling in the world to Lewis wasn't Wilbur's arms around him, protective and warm?
Well neither of them would be in this mess right now, that's for sure.