The Timekeeper

Chapter Nineteen

I heard my mother yelling for me to get out of bed from downstairs, but refused to leave the warmth of my bed. I felt bad for lying to her, telling her I felt sick and that’s why I couldn’t go to school yesterday. But I wasn’t sick at all; I just couldn’t risk running into Ryan at school, or the questions Claire would be asking me. It was so much easier lying in bed all day, blaring music to drown out my problems, even if I knew that wasn’t the right way to deal with things.

"Honey, you’ve got to get up for school," my mother said as she walked into my room. She pulled my blankets off; the crisp morning air hitting my bare legs instantly sent a shiver through my whole body.

"I’m not going," I groaned, attempting to grab the blankets back off her, and failing miserably.

"You have to go to school, Candice," she sighed, before sitting on the edge of my bed.

I had hardly left my room since Saturday night, when I got home from my run in with Jase and Ryan. It felt like an awful nightmare that I just couldn’t forget about, but it had been real. I had kissed Ryan, not Jace, and I was still struggling to come to terms with that. I had a number of missed calls from Ryan, but I didn’t know how to talk to him or if I even wanted to. Jase, on the other hand, hadn’t replied to any of my messages. I hardly expected him to, after what I did to him, but I still felt the need to try.

“I don’t want to, not today anyway.” I had class with Ryan today, and although I really wanted to go to art class, I knew I couldn’t. I wasn’t sure what he would say to me, probably just ‘I’m sorry’ like his messages, and I didn’t know what I would say to him, either. I wasn’t sure how I felt towards him, mainly because I had been trying to focus on Jase.

“Sweetie, you didn’t go yesterday either.” She gave me a concerned look only mothers could give. “Were you even sick? What’s going on, Candy?”

I sighed, “I’ve screwed things up, mum. Like, really, really badly screwed things up.”

“Is this about Jase?” She asked, leaning over to pull my curtains open. I nodded, not really wanting to go into further details about what happened. What would she even think of me? Knowing that I kissed someone who wasn’t even my soul mate, especially since her soul mate was gone now. I thought I couldn’t possibly feel any worse about the situation, but I guess I was wrong.

“Was there another guy?” she said suddenly, as if reading my thoughts. She sounded relatively calm, which surprised me. If you thought your daughter had cheated on their soul mate, shouldn’t you be lecturing them and telling them how disappointed you are in them? I shot her a look, and was about to deny it with a shake of my head, but it was like she already knew the answer. She walked to the door, stopping to look back at me. I thought she was going to be mad, or even disappointed, but her face was barely readable.

“I was hoping it wouldn’t happen to you as well.” She was out the door before I had a chance to ask her what she was talking about. I scrambled out of bed, tugging a jumper on as I followed her down the stairs and into the kitchen. The kettle was already boiling; mum grabbed two mugs out of the cupboard, placing a tea bag in each before she looked up at me. I sat down at the table, waiting for an explanation of what she had said before, but only receiving silence in return.

It wasn’t until she sat down beside me, placing the steaming hot cup of tea in front of me, that she finally sighed. Her hands hugged the mug in front of her, so tightly her knuckles turned white.

“I was nineteen, and it was a few months before I was going to meet your father,” she began, staring into her cup. “I was at a party and met this handsome boy, Darren, and it felt like I had bet the Timekeeper in the countdown to my soul mate. He was perfect; and we hit it off almost instantly.