Flowers from a lover [rewrite]

3.0

"...I can't tell you much. Isn't it science fiction common knowledge that telling someone of the past too much would mess up the future?" Lucas told Leo. "I suppose you're right." Leo sighed, "Well I know now that I moved out, since you live in my house now." "So who's Dan?" Lucas asked. "My friend Daniel. We call him Dan, and I'm guessing you have his telephone but I don't know why it ended up there at my house." "Really? That's what you're confused about? What about the whole 'talking to someone from a different time' part?" Lucas mentioned. "Obviously I'm confused too." It's like Lucas could hear his eyeroll, "So how old are you?"

"24." Lucas didn't know why he was telling this to a stranger, but his loneliness and desperation got the best of him. "I'm 21." Leo answered with no hesitation, and Lucas only assumed that he was a confident sort of man. "What do you do for a living?" Lucas let curiosity replace his anxiety over the magical phone. Leo chuckled, "I coach baseball for little kids. I love baseball. What about you?" "Do I love baseball? Or what I do for a living?" "Hm why not answer both, I've got time." Lucas lied down on his bed and stared up at the ceiling, "I'm not that into sports. Also, I program video games for computers for a living."

"What kind of job is that?" Lucas smiled, "I forgot you probably don't know what those are yet." "Yeah. Hello?! I'm in the past!" Leo joked. Lucas laughed, "Well I have to go, I should sleep." "Boo." Leo groaned into the phone. As fun as it was to talk to Leo, it was getting late into the night and he had projects to finish. "Goodbye, wrong number." Leo bid him goodbye. "Goodbye old man." "Hey! I'm not old yet." Leo laughed before hanging up.

It had been a week since Leo and Lucas had first started talking, and needless to say they had become good friends. Lucas had started eating lunch up in his room, awaiting a phone call around the same time everyday, and again with dinner in the night. They talked about anything and everything, including their childhoods and favorite things from their time. Leo had made Lucas promise not to look for him in 2020, or try to google him ("Whatever that was.") So Lucas kept his promise, and they continued to speak as if the only distance between them was miles, and not time. "It's weird, we can't physically communicate. I mean we can but I'm assuming you're old." Lucas laughed.

"I have an idea." Leo said. He left the phone on his dresser and told Lucas he'd be back. Lucas waited patiently, counting the many flowers on his wall, when he heard the faint voice come from the phone again. "What's your idea?" Lucas asked, turning to his side on the pillow. "Go to the wall next to the window." Leo urged Lucas. Lucas groaned, indicating his tiredness, but Leo insisted he go. Grudgingly, he got up and walked to the wall next to the window as Leo told him to. "Now what?"

- - -

Leo stood by the window. The walls where he was (in time) were much newer and in tact than Lucas's. He had come from the shed with a bucket of lime green paint. He pinned the phone between his cheek and shoulder and opened the paint can. "Leo ? What are you doing?" He heard Lucas ask. "Just look at the wall." Leo said, as he took a brush and applied a thin coat of paint on his entire hand. "Ready?" Leo said into the phone. Lucas sighed, "Yes. Though I don't exactly know what I'm ready for."

- - -

Lucas waited at the wall, whistling. Suddenly lime paint started appearing on the wall. It was appearing slowly and a bit chipped and worn out, but there nonetheless. "Lucas? Are you there? I hope you see it and no one erased it after I moved out." Leo talked into the phone. It was a handprint. A seemingly former lime green handprint, (it was darker and faint now). Lucas stayed silent and absentmindedly put his own hand over the handprint. Leo's hand seemed bigger than his, with slightly longer fingers. "Lucas?" Leo called out, and Lucas pulled his hand away quickly. "I- yeah I see it." Lucas chuckled. "Did you hold my hand?" Leo asked.

"Wh- I- ho-" Lucas choked out but Leo started laughing. "Calm down, I'm kidding." Lucas could hear his smile, "I wonder what else we could try out." George sat down on his bed, still looking at the paint handprint. "I wonder why you've never visited." "What?" Lucas questioned. "Why future you hasn't visited me yet since we started talking. Like why you never came on July 29 to tell me you're who I'm talking to." Lucas pondered curiously. "Maybe I'm dead." Leo said, half-jokingly.

Lucas hated that thought. It was possible, and he fought back his urge to Google him and find out everything he could about Leo, but the only information he had was that he lived here before, and Leo didn't want Lucas to go looking for him. They bid eachother goodnight, and Lucas fell asleep on his side, staring at the green handprint on the wall.