Timeless (Enoch O Connor x OC)

12: The Pain of Being Eternal

The next day I went to the library again to look for Millard. As I suspected, he was there looking through the books.

"June!" he called out when he saw me, "you left in such a rush yesterday."

"Yes, I'm very sorry about that," I hesitated, wondering what I should say next. 

"Well, it's no problem but you never let me finish my question," he said walking over to me and setting the books he was holding down.  "I wanted to ask you if maybe you would like to go into the town with me?"

"As friends?" I asked.

"Well," he said shyly, "maybe a little more than that."

"Oh Millard," I said, I hated doing this but I knew that I didn't feel that way about him, "that's very kind of you but if I did go into the town with you it would only be as friends."

"Oh," he said, he sounded crestfallen.

"I'm sorry but I only just got here and I hardly know you or anyone as a matter of fact, and I'm just not ready for that quite yet," I blabbered trying to make him feel better.

"No, no," he said, I could hear the disappointment in his voice but he tried to regain his composure, "I understand, there's no need to make excuses."

"I'm glad," I said, relieved that he wasn't very upset, "we're still friends though, right?"

"Of course we are," he said picking up the books again and walking over to the shelves, "it's just that no one new ever comes here so the chances that I'll meet anyone that I like are impossibly small plus being invisible and all doesn't help, so when you came I got excited."

"First of all, I am absolutely positive that you will meet someone one day, after all, I came here so surely someone else will too," I said, "and about the whole invisible thing, it's hardly a negative, it's incredibly handy plus when you meet the right person they will love you for it and not in spite of it."

I couldn't tell but I felt as though Millard smiled at that.

"Yes, well, one day, maybe one day," he said wistfully.

After that, I left the library. My head was racing with thoughts but one reoccurring one was that Miss Peregrine's wards never left this loop and Millard was right that he might never meet anyone he liked. I thought about how lucky Fiona and Hugh were to have ended up in the same loop. Peculiar life was a difficult one to lead, full of uncertainty. Quite boring too but I knew that there was going to be some excitement in the future. Even if it wasn't good excitement I knew that we would leave this loop one day to find that clocktower I had dreamt of. I had to take advantage of the precious time I had left in this loop, however long it may be. 

Deep in thought, I found I had wandered into the garden. Victor was there by himself, kicking the football around. 

"Victor," I called out as I walked over, "how are you?"

He spun around and smiled when he saw me.

"Bored but well," he said, "and you, June?"

"Pretty well," I replied, there was no need to tell him about what had happened with Millard, he'd find out soon enough.

Victor sighed and sat down on the grass and I sat beside him.

"What's bothering you?" I asked, concerned.

"June, I am just so bored of this loop, I've been here for decades and every day is the same. Nothing is interesting, nothing is fun anymore. I just don't know what's keeping me here, you know, I've lived a long life so why not just leave?" he burst out, I could tell he had been thinking about this for a while and it looked like it helped to get it off his chest.