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DAY 1
New York City was picturesque in April.
The temperature reached a comfortable sixty degrees, perfect for bike-riding around the city on wet pavement from the early morning, spring rain, listening to the bustling kaleidoscope of people commuting. Honey Daniels was accustomed to the sounds of beeping horns, subway trains, and sirens. In fact, it reminded her of life - hundreds and hundreds of people traversing through life.
Living life exultantly was necessitous to Honey. Living it to the fullest, like everyday was your last day, always seeing the positive side to every situation. Her dad had regularly harped about taking things with a grain of salt, without reservations or fear.
Honey missed her dad's words of wisdom.
The blip put a halt to a lot of magnificent things in her life, in everyone's life.
It had changed the Earth that humanity had known forever. Only a little over a year ago, half of the planet's population had ceased to exist. The ones who were left battled to rebuild and heal - not everyone, though.
Those who succumbed to their grief resorted to things such as committing crimes or murders, even. Avenging the death of their loved ones in any way that they could. Crime rates were higher than they had even been before, but it sure was a lot better than how it was when it had all first started.
And then there were people like Honey - moving on, enjoying life to the best of her ability.
Today? She would start with a coffee from the cafe she worked at on her way to campus.
Whisking around the corner on her favorite yellow bike, Honey came to a stop in front of the cozy coffee shop where she was employed, propping the bicycle near the entrance as she flicked her dark waves over her shoulder. Her white, ruffled skirt swayed with her hips as she walked inside, shooting Harry, her boss, a friendly smile.
"Better be careful, customers might start to think that you live here," he teased, grabbing a cup and pouring some dark liquid inside, having Honey's coffee order memorized by heart.
"Are you offering? Free rent sounds nice," Honey sighed playfully, tossing her book bag on the counter as she scrounged through the pockets for some cash.
"To you and me both," he shook his head, handing over the hot cup of Joe.
"How much do I owe you?"
"Zilch. As long as you mop the floors tonight."
"You sneaky devil," Honey narrowed her eyes flippantly as she took the coffee. "I'll see you tonight, Harry."
As she hurried out of the cafe, she heard him parentally yell "be careful going to campus!" as she waved him off kiddingly. With her caffeinated beverage in hand, Honey flung her leg over the leather bicycle seat, plopping down as she began to move. Maneuvering her bike with one hand was a task she had mastered these days.
Her journey to New York University was delayed, however, as she sped around another street corner only to collide with a tall figure. As Honey plummeted to the ground over her handle bars, she heard a low voice cursing under their breath as her and her beloved coffee crashed into the concrete sidewalk.
A stinging pain tore through her bare knees and the palms of her hands as she blew the strands of hair that had cascaded over her face, wincing as she pushed herself into a seated position to further assess the damage.
"What were you going so God damn fast for?"
The angry voice made Honey look away from the fresh, bleeding cuts on her knees up at the pair of blue eyes staring irritably down at her. The sarcastic comment she had ready suddenly disappeared from her thoughts completely as she held the gaze of a familiar looking man with longer, blonde hair that fell down past his ears and full beard that accented his chiseled jaw.
The skin of her palms stung even more as she attempted to wipe the dirt off on her over-sized sweater, blinking slowly up at him in an embarrassing manner. "I didn't mean to, I'm really sorry. Are you okay?"
"I'm not bleeding."
"Yeah," Honey trailed off quietly, looking down at the crimson liquid that had begun to trickle down her leg, before sighing as she stared over at the coffee stained pavement. "Looks like my coffee got the worst of it."
As she pushed off the ground with one last grimace in pain, Honey peered up at the man once more, who she noticed towered over her tiny five-foot-three inches. Despite the way he was staring at her like she had just escaped a mental institution, she couldn't help but observe how pretty he was.
Okay, not pretty, he was -
"You should probably take care of that," he muttered in annoyance, undoubtedly because of the way she was ogling over his appearance.
Snapping from her swooning daze, Honey laughed awkwardly as she twisted her legs gently around to see how much blood was seeping down them, still. "Oh, these? Do you know how bad-ass I'll look walking into class like this?"
Her smile faltered slightly when she looked back up to see the man hadn't even so much as cracked a smile - nothing. In an attempt to cover up her growing humiliation, she reached out her hand. "I'm Honey."
His blue eyes glanced down at her wounded palm before flicking back up at her with a peeved look on his face. "And I'm leaving now."
Honey let her hand fall to her side as he turned to walk back the way he came, her full lips forming a pout at his blatant rudeness. As she poked her tongue out at his retreating figure, she picked up her bike from the pavement, muttering the word "jerk" under her breath.
As her brown eyes peeked back up for one last look at the handsome, rude stranger, her heart dropped down into her stomach to see that he was facing her again - hearing what she had said with a scowl on his features.
"Have a great day!" she waved nervously, quickly mounting her bicycle and peddling away as fast as she possibly could.
