Over and Over

 

Steve’s right index finger hovered over the blue button. It wasn’t the right color blue. The one on Amazon had been more turquoise, and this one was definitely royal. That’s not the color he’d imagined, the billion times he had day-dreamed about this exact moment. Oh well, there was nothing that could be done about it now. And at least it glowed, so that was something.  

He pressed it, and held his breath.

Nothing changed. The room was exactly the same as before.

Then he realized he was talking to himself, only his mouth wasn’t moving. He whipped around, and, wait a minute, had there always been a mirror there? Except it wasn’t a mirror, it was him, another him, same clothes, same hair, everything. Except this second him was talking, and he was pissed.

“What the fuck is this?” second Steve was screaming.

“I don’t know, this wasn’t supposed to happen.” Replied original Steve.

“Right,” replied second Steve,” I was supposed to jump into another timeline, not create a carbon copy of myself.”

“Exactly, wait, you’re the copy, not me! I’m the one who pressed the button, then you appeared.”

“No, I pressed the button,” before first Steve could react, second Steve had shoved past him and was now standing poised with his finger hovering above the button, “just like this.” Second Steve pushed the button.

First Steve hadn’t noticed it the first time, but this time he was aware of a barely perceptible change when the button was pressed. It was as if the universe held it’s breath, just for a second.

And then there were three.

“What the actual fuck.” Were Steve number three’s first words.

Second Steve shrugged.

First Steve rubbed his temples, “great, just great, now there are two of you.”

“You mean THREE of US.” Second Steve seemed to have anger issues.

“The good news is I’m pretty sure I know what I did wrong, and all I have to do is,” before the first two Steve’s could react, the third Steve pressed the button.

And then there were four, but before the newest Steve could speak the original threw his hands up in the air, “DUDE,” he exclaimed, “why would you do that? You didn't do anything different, you just pressed the button!”

The first three Steve’s started arguing about who, exactly, was at fault for the predicament they were in. Things were said, words were exchanged, there was posturing, and gesturing, and as fists started to ball in anger, Steve number four cleared his throat. 

“Guys,” he said.

The other three Steve’s stopped what they were doing, suddenly aware of how crowded the room had become.

“Oh fuck, how many of us are there now?”

Dozens of eyes blinked back, wordlessly.

“WELL?!”

“Now Steve, just calm down, yelling never solved anything.”

“Yeah, and I suppose you have the solution, hmm Steve number… wait, what number are you anyway?”

“That hardly matters, because at least I’m not you. I would never make a mistake this idiotic. Because what do you do when you press that button, hmm? You make a choice, which creates a new timeline. But the button, it prevents the new timeline from breaking off into it’s own new reality, and now this one is clogged up with far too many Steve’s. I figure, though, there are enough of us now that if we put our heads together, we can set things right."