My Future Self Helped Me Win the Campus Heartthrob

On my 18th birthday, I received several mysterious text messages on my phone. The sender claimed to be me from ten years in the future.

"This is not a prank," one message read.

"Go to the Computer Science department and find Liam Blackwood," another instructed.

"He may seem reserved and cold now, but in the years to come, he will be the one who loves you most in this world."

"Save him. Promise me you won't let him die for you this time."

My name is Aria Winters, and I'm a freshman in college. I just celebrated my 18th birthday last week.

It was probably the most surreal birthday I've ever had.

On my birthday, my dad gave me a new phone. That night, after showering, I lay in bed, transferring the SIM card from my old phone to the new one and downloading some commonly used apps.

As I was fiddling with those apps, my phone suddenly notified me of a new message. I glanced at it casually - it was a random sentence that said, "Go to the Computer Science department and find Liam Blackwood."

I had never even heard of Liam Blackwood. It must have been sent to the wrong person.

I ignored it, but soon another message came through: "Hurry, you must find him before Christmas, or it will be too late!"

The sender seemed so urgent, it might be something important. Out of kindness, I opened the message thread and replied, "I think you've got the wrong person."

The response came immediately: "No, I'm looking for you, Aria Winters."

I found this bizarre, so I checked the sender's phone number. What I saw made my blood run cold, and I threw my phone away in shock.

The sender of these messages had the same phone number as mine.

Imagine this: it's exactly midnight, and I'm texting... myself.

Was this a malicious prank or a ghostly midnight message?

I took a few deep breaths, mustered up my courage, picked up the phone, and with trembling fingers, typed: "Who are you?"

Until dawn, there was no reply from the other end.

I had almost forgotten about this incident, but tonight I stayed up late preparing for a club officer interview the next day. As soon as the clock struck midnight, my phone automatically popped up a message, still the same - "Go to the Computer Science department and find Liam Blackwood."

This was the second time. I wanted to get to the bottom of this.

"Who are you? Is this a prank?" I asked.

The reply I got was mind-boggling: "I am you, Aria from ten years in the future."

Are they kidding me? This is ridiculous.

I reminded them: "April Fools' Day was six months ago."

"I'm not lying to you. If you don't believe me, I can prove it. On your end, it's 2020, and you currently have a crush on Connor Sullivan, right?"

My head buzzed.

Connor Sullivan was a guy in our club, a year older than me. He was quite handsome, known as the gentle senior among the students.

He had been particularly caring towards me, and I did have some feelings for him, but I had never told anyone about it. How did she know?

As if knowing my thoughts, the oth...