time [short story]

002

"Well, this is awkward!" Chad laughed sarcastically, looking anywhere but at Zara. She knew for sure that she had pushed him off the balcony, so what gives? He cleared his throat, reaching into his pocket for something, Zara freezing as she thought it was the gun that he had threatened her with multiple times. "Relax, Zara," he said calmly before taking out his wallet and setting a few bills on the table to cover the food he took from her. He stood up, looking towards Zara expectantly like he thought she was going to follow him.

She scoffed, "I'm not going anywhere with you until you tell me exactly what happened."

She stared him down, making sure she got her point across that she wasn't going to take no for an answer. "I told my story. Now you have to tell me yours."

He rolled his eyes with a sigh, climbing back into the booth, flagging down a waitress, and ordering two slices of apple pie. "Figure we could get comfy, right?" She just stayed silent as he tried to ease some of the tension that he had created, but he completely failed seeing as she was not having it. "Okay, I can see you're not in the joking mood."

She sighed, "Chad, I'm serious." She grabbed the money off the table, counting it before adding how much it would be for the pie. When she looked back up, he was smiling at her. She just looked away, continuing to speak. "I don't know anything aside from the fact that you were a jerk, which led to you being pushed off the balcony, and now I'm about to eat pie with you. Please tell me you see something wrong with that."

Chad was about to speak when the waitress came back, giving them their desserts, but being sure to pay extra attention to Chad, and he was eating up every second of it. Zara rolled her eyes, clearing her throat to get their attention and snapping him out of whatever thoughts he was having. "Right. Thank you." The waitress sent a glare her way before smiling at Chad once more and walking away to attend to other tables.

"Are you going to tell me or are you just going to stare at girls all day?" she spat sarcastically, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him. "Well, that depends on you," he said with a mouthful of pie. "How much are you willing to believe?" She was about to say something, but he cut her off. "Are you a sci-fi fan?"

Thinking that he was trying to avoid the question yet again, she tried to come up with a witty response. Unfortunately, it was just too odd of a question in this very strange situation to not question it. "Um...what?"

"Science fiction?" he continued to ask like it wasn't as if he practically came back from the dead. "Are you a fan?"

She just sighed in annoyance, knowing that she wouldn't get anywhere with him if she didn't play along. At least he wasn't threatening her with a gun now, but that could change at any moment, so she figured she would play it safe. She grabbed her untouched slice of pie, taking a bite before deciding to answer him. "No, not really. I mean, I think it's cool, but I'm just not really into stuff like that."

He pursed his lips like he was actually thinking about her answer. "Hm..." he trailed off with a smirk on his face. "And here I was thinking you were a cool person." The offended look on her face must have told enough because he quickly recovered. "Come on, Zara. I'm just messing with you." He reached across the table to nudge her arm. "I was just thinking it'd be easier for you to understand, but I'll try my best."

"What do you mean?" Zara asked with a confused look on her face, which she was sure has been permanently etched on her face ever since this conversation started about an hour ago.

"Have you ever heard of time travel?" he asked, ignoring her question once again. She just sighed, nodding as she waited for him to continue. "It's kind of like that. Only what I can do is-"