Bliss in all its Purity

SEVENTEEN

None of us moved a muscle. James was still sitting on the ground, Brandy had a hand covering her mouth, and I was still covering my face with my arms.

Finally, I lowered my arms to see the blonde-haired boy staring at us. Slowly, he stepped out from behind the counter and started walking towards us. James stood up, and Brandy turned around. The boy stopped a few feet away from me and scratched the back of his head. "My boss is going to be so pissed," he said.

Brandy quickly recovered, standing straight and looking confident again. She picked up the ball that James had thrown and walked over to the machine. She started banging on the remaining glass until all that was left was a wire frame. "If there's no glass left, maybe your boss won't notice. Now we just have to clean this mess up," she said.

Suddenly, the timer on the machine went off, and the number 0 was flashing on a small screen above the box. "Great score," I said for no reason, and James laughed nervously.

We all started to carefully pick up the small pieces of glass. James had offered to do it by himself, but we helped anyway. Even the blonde boy was bent down, searching the floor. When we could see no more glass, we examined the machine. If you just glanced at it, you couldn't tell anything was wrong. "If Mr. Randy notices, I'll just tell him there was never any glass in the first place. He'll believe me. He's 62 years old," said the boy.

"Good idea," said Brandy, nodding. "What's your name, by the way?"

The boy opened his mouth and closed again. After swallowing nervously, he finally said, "Niall."

Brandy stuck out her hand. "I'm Brandy," she said as Niall hesitantly took her hand and shook it. "This right here is... um, James, and that's Elizabeth."

I nodded at Niall, and so did James.

Brandy rubbed her stomach. "I'm starving. And I could smell pizza when I walked in."

Niall straightened up. "A small is 4.99, a medium is 6.99, and a large 8.99."

Brandy looked off into the distance, thinking. "We'll need a large. Especially with four people."

James tilted his head to the side, looking confused. Niall looked toward the door. "Have you got someone else coming?" he asked.

Brandy shook her head. "No. You're eating pizza with us, and that's final."

And it was.

Eventually, we were all seated at a round table talking and eating. I'd offered to use the money I'd brung in. James had said that he'd go out to the car and get his own money, but I'd insisted.

"So," said Brandy, taking a sip of her Coke. "What are your hobbies, Niall?"

Niall's eyes widened, and his face turned red. "I, um... I play field hockey."

Brandy smiled. "Wow. I've never met anyone that plays that before."

Niall was becoming the color of a tomato, but Brandy didn't seem to notice. "How long have you been working here?" she asked.

"Two months. Only, like, five people come a week. You guys are the largest crowd I've ever seen here."

As Brandy and Niall kept talking, I noticed a crumpled up receipt sitting next to my pizza. I wondered what the date was. I picked it up and un-crumpled it. I drew in a sharp breath when I saw what day it was.

It was the 17th of October.

James noticed my odd behavior and leaned in closer. "What is it?"