Timeless

u.

It was such an obvious thing, and yet the realisation hit me like a ton of bricks. Something could actually happen. Oh dear god. Why was this so strange? And why was I just realising this now.

"I know, but it's ... it's different writing something like this from actually saying it out loud, you know?" Brian's voice luckily pulled me out of that train of thought that was bound to have ended disastrously.

I nodded a little. "Oh yes, I know. Believe me. Welcome to the struggle of the modern times."

"The modern times. Oh yes. Wow. We're going to have to talk more about that, I hope you're aware of that," he told me. He stopped for a moment and looked for his keys

"About what?" I asked, holding his share of my bags while he unlocked the door and let me go inside.

"The modern times, as you phrased it so well. I'm a very curious person, you know," he told me with a smile before he took some of the bags from me again.

"Oh really?" I teased, following him down the stairs. Yes, down. He lived in the basement basically, but his windows were still actual windows, if that made any sense at all. I didn't quite know how to describe it. It wasn't bad though. "I hadn't noticed." Of course I had noticed that he was very curious. He couldn't have hidden that from me even if he had tried.

Brian just chuckled and shook his head a little. "I'm glad you seem to be so proficient in the art of sarcasm."

Again he let me go inside first so I thanked him with a small nod and a smile. "It's the only thing I'm really proficient in, my last defence if everything else fails."

"Don't be silly, you're good at plenty of things. I already know you quite a bit, remember?" He took off his shoes before he marched into his bedroom, clearly relieved to be able to put down the bags. "I don't think I've ever bought so many clothes at once..."

I followed him, chuckling to myself. "Well, neither have I. I'm not normally a shopping person you know? Unless I actually need something, which would explain all of these bags because I don't have - well, I didn't have anything before. Except for a pyjama that's hardly fashionable..." My voice had become quieter towards the end and I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to remember the point I was hoping to make. But that didn't happen, instead I seemed to have confused Brian as well, so I shook my head. "Anyway. Do you have something to eat?"

Brian looked at me with a smile and didn't say anything for a moment. Then he nodded. "Yes, of course. Let's see what we can find."

I followed him into the kitchen when a sudden thought crossed my mind. "Hey, can I see your phone?"

"My phone?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "It's right there," he said, pointing to his landline phone that was sitting on the chest drawer he had in his hallway.

"No, not that one," I said slightly amused. "The one that you used for writing with me."

"Oh! Oh that one, of course... uhm, I had it in the bedroom last night when we talked... you can see if you find it there," he informed me. I nodded in reply to that before I returned into the bedroom while he went ahead into the kitchen.

Back in the bedroom I looked everywhere that seemed plausible, on the bed under the covers and pillows, under the bed and on the floor in general, under the pile of clothes that was lying on the chair he had in the bedroom, but the phone seemed to have disappeared. "Where is it?" I muttered to myself, looking for it thoroughly on the bed again, but the phone seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

"Could you find it?" Brian's voice coming from the doorway pulled my attention to the tall man.

"No," I told him and get up. "Are you sure you had it here?"

"Yes," Brian confirmed. "We were talking last night and that's when I saw it last."

"Can you look again? Maybe you're a bit luckier than me.." I ran a hand through my hair and shrugged. "It can't have disappeared, can it?"

"Well... maybe. It did appear from somewhere so who knows? I honestly wouldn't be surprised. Why do you want to see it?" He asked, starting to look for it as well.

I crossed my arms and sighed a little. "Because it's ... it's the only thing that connects me to my time, Brian. It's all I have.."

He looked at me for a moment before he nodded and continued to look for it. "Alright, we'll try to find it, don't worry."

"Thank you.. I'm sorry, it's just... I don't know what's going on at home - in my time, I mean. If time keeps passing which it probably will then hopefully at least Josephine will notice that I've disappeared and I was hoping that maybe I could send her a message somehow. To let her know that I'm safe, because I don't want her to worry, you know?" I sat on his bed, looking at my hands. It was such a strange thing to think about. I was stuck in the past. Physically, not mentally like some people might be, but physically.

If I was honest, part of me was really happy, I couldn't deny that. After all I was able to talk to and hug the person I had thought I would only every be able to write with on the phone and call sometimes. But at the same time I was away from everyone I knew and loved, from everything I knew. It had been easy to forget about that during the day, during our little shopping trip with Freddie, but now, back in the quiet it was hard to ignore that.