Richard attends his high-school graduation with his siblings. They take lots of photos for him to take to uni with him.
On his way home, Richard meets a time traveller, who asks for help repairing his time portal, and then invites Richard to come and visit the future with him.
Richard's feeling confident right now. He's young, he's in love, he's about to start university...the only question is, exactly which shade of brilliance his future will be. So he goes, and he asks about the future.
Richard has descendants! This is the first time I've had descendants show up in the future, so that's exciting. They all have Hannah's last name, which is odd, because Richard is a rich and famous celebrity and Hannah is a snob, so it would make more sense for them to have his name. He doesn't meet any, but he does take a class in bot-building - because why would you not take a class in future technology if you had the chance? - tries to find out about winning lottery numbers - no luck - and, on his way out of the town hall, decides to check out a protest that's happening.
...and that's where he sees her. It's love at first sight. Richard thought he was in love before - with Hannah, and with that French girl who made him a werewolf - but this is different. He's never felt like this before. And, from the way she looks at him, he hopes she returns his feelings.
But...he does have a girlfriend. He was thinking of proposing to her when he'd finished his degree, assuming it all went well, because he is loyal, and family orientated, and he thought she was everything he wanted. She could have been - as he's just learned, they would have a large family, and would live very comfortable lives. Because Richard's famous, everyone here knows who he is and constantly asks for photos. That also means that she - Chelsea Gateway - knows who he is. And she knows that he stays with Hannah. It already happened.
They talk about this, quietly, while Richard poses for pictures with excited fans.
Richard has no counter-arguments. He has a girlfriend. He will - and, in this world, already did - marry that girlfriend, leaving descendants for this future world. He never left Hannah, and he never ended up with Chelsea.
He takes a picture of Chelsea, to remember her by.
He knows he should leave, but he doesn't. He stays, and he dances with her, in a future world where he married someone else, and lived a long and happy life, and died a very long time ago.
They try to keep to safe topics, like what this future world is like. Chelsea offers to take him to bar.
When they arrive, she gives him flowers. She says she thought he would like to see what flowers look like in the future. No one's ever given him flowers before.
After a few hours of talking and drinking, knowing that it will break Hannah's heart, knowing that it might condemn his future descendants to never existing, he goes in for a kiss.
Chelsea rejects him. They both know he will already has been married. He never left Hannah. He will have always been married to Hannah. How could he do this, knowing that?
Chelsea leaves. Richard goes home, where he calls one of his old high school friends.
"Hey buddy," he says. "What do you think about - well, just supposing you'd seen the future, and you knew for a fact that if you stayed with your current girlfriend - no, I know mate, just imagine you have one - you would have all these kids, and they would have descendants, and those descendants exist. They're real people, and they have lives and careers and loved ones, and they're older than you are because, you, like, went into the future. Just stay with me here. What if...what if you left your girlfriend for someone else, because you loved someone else, knowing that it would mean those descendants - all those lives, all those hopes and dreams - never existed?"
"Bro, are you high? Sleep it off."
Richard hangs up, and yawns.
"I am trash," he says. "I am actual human garbage".
...and yet, even as he says that, he wishes he could change the future.
The next day is Spooky Day. He calls Hannah to invite her out or invite her over, but she refuses to see him, so he visits her instead. They talk about nothing. He asks how she is. The conversation is utterly superficial.
Richard leaves, with nothing resolved. He's leaving for university the next day and, though he knows it's cowardly, he's glad that this will give him some respite from thinking about the issue.
Hialeah and Remy come to see him off, Remy wearing his own graduation robes, possibly to inspire Richard. "I'm proud of you, little brother," Hialeah says in the elevator. "And mom and dad would be too."
And so Richard sets off for university, still debating his future.
