The Time Traveler's Wife

The Prom

June 2009

"Oh, honey," Carmilla hears Sherman's voice say from downstairs. "If you don't want to go, please don't make yourself." Followed by a troubling sound.

Carmilla frowns and quickly runs to the attic, throwing on some clothes, and stands at the top of the stairs as she can hear Laura's hiccuping sobs below. According to a wall calendar and a clock, it was an evening in June 2009.

"Dad, the prom tickets were so much money. I can't just waste them," she manages to say.

Hearing such a distraught Laura makes Carmilla feel queasy, and she rests on the stair railing. A floorboard creaks from her shifted weight.

Laura's crying pauses, clearly having heard it. She and Sherman both carefully walk towards the stairs and both sigh in relief.

"Hi, Carm," Laura says with a sniffle. "How, uh... long have you been up there?"

"Not long," Carmilla replies.

Sherman looks over at Laura, who nods, and he gestures for her to come downstairs.

"If I-I'm interrupting, I can just go kill time outside til I travel back to the future," Carmilla comments.

Laura shakes her head, grabbing a tissue. "No, no," she mumbles. "It's fine."

"What's going on?" Carmilla asks carefully.

Laura takes a shaky breath. "Danny broke up with me a few days ago," she says, her voice cracking. "I should've listened to you the last time I saw you."

Carmilla frowns and racks her brain. "That was January 2008, right?"

Laura pouts. "Yeah. When I told you that I felt like Danny and I were dating for the sake of being together, or coz it's what we were expected to do after being friends for so long. And that I didn't think it felt like what a relationship should feel like."

Carmilla chuckles as Sherman gets up and goes to the kitchen. "Not like how it is in the TV shows, huh?"

Laura laughs. "Nope. And, I mean, I appreciate the advice you gave me, but... Wish you had given me more deets."

"You know only a dork says 'deets,' right?" Carmilla teases.

Laura grins, and Carmilla smiles at seeing that she's cheered up a bit.

Sherman returns with two mugs of hot cocoa.

"Anyway, a few days ago, I called Danny out on being controlling," Laura says after she's taken a sip and thanked her father. "And it turned into a huge fight. And she broke up with me. And now she won't return my calls and prom is tomorrow."

Carmilla winces. "Oh. Wow."

"And I was all set to go with my friends but then I realized LaF and Perry are going together and my friends Kirsch and SJ are together and I'll just be fifth wheeling. So then I thought about just selling the ticket. But we also already got the dress and the limo. It'd be such a waste of money..."

"Honey, you need to do whatever you think you need to do," Sherman says sweetly. "Don't go if you're gonna be miserable. That would be a waste of money."

And suddenly, it clicks in Carmilla's mind.

The spoiler for the reason why the Laura in her time has always been so grateful to her.

Why Laura's called her her hero.

And the fact that Laura wouldn't let her see any more of the photos in her past and Carmilla's future.