Only Us (Justin Fields)

|1| Tick Tick tick

Jillian

Tick, tick, tick.

I study the second hand as it crawls across the clock like a drop of rain down a window. You can barely even see it in this dim room. The white clock propped up on the beige wall across from me, the only way you can tell where one stops and where one starts is the thin outline of grey. The black second hand choppily skipping around in a circle. In this cold, dark room, the only thing moving was time.

Tick, tick.

Part of me wanted to chase the second hand around and around, knowing I'll never catch it. Follow the clock until the seconds cease. Because you will never know when the clock will stop on us until it does. Sometimes someone will notice your batteries dying and replace them. Give a tune up when time seems to be running out. Sometimes it's something a bit harder to fix. Because you can replace the batteries but you can't replace the time that was missed while doing so. Just like how there are difficult moments that you went through and will never get your time back. Sometimes your best option is to just let your time run out until it finally stops. Time... it finally stops.

Tick.

I turn my head from the clock in the inside of the classroom to the railing of the balcony I had been occupying. I sit myself up on the railing so my feet leave the ground, the railing being the only thing separating me and the ground about 50 feet below. I turn my body so my legs hang over the five stories of people in this building hard at work. It was a beautiful day for December. Snow lightly falling but it wasn't cold enough to stick quite yet. Campus looked like something you would see on the schools website to convince people to come to the great Ohio State University. The cold winter breeze almost seemed like it was nudging me, encouraging me to make my way down. As fast as possible. Because unfortunately for me, it seemed my clock was losing its ticks. The sound of the second hand fades as the silence of the snow takes me over. I look down below me and smile. What an inviting feeling it was.

As I go to make my way back down to the ground the door to the room I was in suddenly opens causing me to freeze. I whip my head around to see another student standing at the entrance of the class. My hands now back on the railing. He had on the sweats the athlete here get and one of the backpacks too. His face scrunched up as he looks around the room. There was no denying this man was attractive, beautiful brown skin and curly black hair. These gentle deep brown eyes that I already knew saw the good in this world.

"Shit, this isn't the right class" he mumbles looking at the paper in his hands. He pulls it to his face and away again.

He starts to back out of the room until he stops. Like a sixth sense went off that there was something keeping him here. Seconds feel like hours before he turns to me and his eyes start to widen. Suddenly he walks right back in and closes the door behind him. His eyes never leaving me. Not giving me a chance to escape.

I didn't know what to say. No matter how I explain it, this situation is awful. And it's not one I wanted someone else to be a part of. Part of me thinks he knew that. That's why he stayed.

He finds a open desk in front of the balcony I occupied and takes a seat. The backpack drops off his shoulder and he easily catches it before placing it in front of him. For a few moments he stays silent as he just looks at me. Suddenly the sound of the clock returns.

Tick.

"I'm new here so we haven't met yet. My name is Justin Fields" he starts. I let out a long sigh when I realize he will not be leaving any time soon.