She answered a phone call from her own number, curious to see what would happen, but what happened turned out not to be as fun as she imagined, in fact, what happened next, changed her life forever.

    Abi Hantz was a 24-year-old woman who craved life, maybe more than she should’ve. She partied hard, losing all her money, gambling, drinking, and living the life of a girl who just didn’t care. Every night, she would start with a dollar, win $200, and party it all away, sounds fun, right? Wrong, but Abi, she didn’t care, all she would do was take headache medicine, reapply her makeup, and head out with only a dollar in her pocket starting her habit all over. She went to the casino, played up to her $200 on her usual slot machine and flirted a little, and went to the club after. That night while asleep on the sidewalk as usual, her sister, Marie, would drive up, pick Abi up off the ground and put her in the car. Marie would drive Abi back to her apartment and help carry her to bed.

    Next morning Abi would wake up in a bed, hungover, sick as a dog, and have a throbbing headache only to find a trash can she could use to throw up in, headache medicine, a glass of water and a note from Marie saying, “gone to work, Ill call at 11:00am”.

    As Abi waited at the kitchen table cleaned up and feeling a little better from her dreadful morning shower, with her cup of coffee In hand, it was finally time for Marie to call. As the phone rang Abi recognized the phone number and picked it up just thinking Marie may’ve switched their phones by mistake. But as Abi answered she realized she was wrong. She picked up the phone, and she heard a familiar voice.

    “h-hello?” she said voice shaking.

“Abi dear.” She heard the voice say.

    “Wh-who are you?” Abi asked with her hands shaking.

“you don’t know?” said the familiar but older sounding woman.

    “Look, I don’t know who you are, but I’m expecting a call from-“Abi was saying before getting cut off by the familiar voice.

“I know, Marie, every day you find the same letter from Marie saying, ‘gone to work, Ill call at 11:00am’”.

    “How do you know?” Abi said with fear in her voice.

“Abi dear.” She said laughing lightly, “I’m you”.

    “What?!” Abi said, “I-I don’t understand… why are you calling me?”

 “Dear, I’m calling to warn you. This life you’re living now. It’s not worth it. Believe me, I’ve seen two ways, and dear it’s not worth it. You’re missing so much. You’re young, but you’re miserable. I can tell you what can happen and what you’ll miss out on, or I can tell you what I did, and what my life turned into.”

    Abi froze “I am miserable, I’m tired of throwing up every morning, I’m tired of letting my guard down to strangers by flirting, I’m tired of being scared what will happen to me if I get too drunk. I’m sick and tired of letting Marie down, how much do I get to know?”. She can feel her future self-smiling over the phone.

 “Oh dear” she said with a quick laugh, “I can’t tell you everything! If you make the right decision, you can live life without hints or stories needed. But I will tell you, it’s a beautiful thing. You have relationships you never knew you needed. And the most important thing is, you break the habit, you get help, and you’re not miserable.”

   Abi hears a small voice on the phone with her future self that made young Abi tear up, “mommy, who are you talking too?”

 Future Abi laughs a little, “dear, I’m talking to an old friend” she directs her voice to past Abi “see, there’s another joy to breaking this habit, and honey, it’s hard, but its worth it in the end. She’s beautiful though. Just like her mommy. She looked like us when we were little, Abi, you’ll make the right decision, I promise. I love you.” A dial tone ends the call.