There's No Time

Chapter 3

He’s staring at me, blinking. He’d been unfrozen for too long. I couldn’t refreeze him or else he’d keep asking questions… he’d tell people.

In the period that passed while I stared at him, scared out of my whole damn world, a million things ran through my head. I have imagined countless times about what would happen if this very situation came into play. I have thought of a thousand solutions, all unrealistic; all close to impossible.

I couldn't say anything. I wouldn't have known what to say. I didn't trust myself to say anything anyway.

Finally he spoke, “What’s happening?”

I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t really know what it was like to him. Other people can’t tell when I stop time, so I’m assuming that all of a sudden, everything stopped moving except for the Asian chick hanging from the ceiling, when just a second ago she was sitting in her seat.

So I was silent. I mean, what do you say in a situation like that? The boy looked around. He wasn’t used to this. He’d never experienced this level of silence before. This lack of movement and noise was probably making him feel uncomfortable.

I’d seen him before. He went to my school. I was pretty sure that he was a grade above me, so he was probably about 17 or 18. He had brown hair that was just long enough to flip. He looked like the epitome of the white high school student: average, brown hair, average height (maybe a little over), maybe he played soccer, or football, or baseball, or one of the stereotypical high school guy sports.  He lived in my neighborhood too. Not that I knew him. I've never spoken to him before. I've seen him in the hallways and walking around outside for a while, but no. I didn't know this boy.

Finally my mouth opened. “I…” I cleared my throat. “I don’t, um, I don’t really know.” I was shaking my head so much that I imagine it looked like I was vibrating. So I stopped.

“This is…” He started walking toward me. He was about to bump into some kids.

My heart felt like it was about to freeze right then and there. “Stop!” I shouted with my arm extended like I wanted to catch a falling object. He froze and stared at me.

“Um,” I took a deep breath. “Under these weird circumstances, I think that it’s probably best not to touch anything. Here, come here,” I slowly made my way backwards toward the front door of the bus watching his every move.

He understood the urgency of the situation I guess, because he carefully maneuvered his way to where I was without touching anything. I pulled the red emergency lever and pushed the bus door open. We were onto the street now.

We walked a few steps away from the bus. There were snowflakes suspended in the air. They melted when I got too close.

“Hey, it’s warmer than it was before,” the boy said shedding his coat.

“No wind.” I said as an explanation. Then, I froze and stared at him to see if he noticed my calm and knowledgeable demeanor.

He didn’t seem to notice because he just said, “Huh, you’re right.” He looked around in amazement.

I didn’t share his amazement. Instead, I noticed myself getting cold. I felt goose bumps spread across my body. I didn’t know what to do.

We stood in the middle of the road. I was brainstorming how to get out of this. I couldn’t get my mind straight. All these thoughts were bombarding me and I became dizzy. I clutched my head. I was panicking. I was taking deeper; faster breaths.

Oh God. Oh God oh God oh God. Oh God please help me… I tried to calm myself down by taking bigger, fuller breaths and closing my eyes--It didn't work.