The world starts spinning, but I know this will be harder for him than for me. One small tears falls from my right eye, I can feel it rush down the top part of my cheek, but then it slows down, it gets slower and slower and slower until it stops. I wipe it off my cheek.
“What….What…” I find it difficult to speak, but I take a deep breath and try again. “What time?” I swallow and then wait for his reply. He looks at the knife on the right side of him, and slides his finger down it. He looks up to me, his eyes sparkling with tears.
“3 o’clock in the afternoon.” I quickly look at my watch on my right wrist trying to figure out how much time I have left with him. 18 hours and 46 minutes. I look back up to him, he smiles which lights up his eyes, and I smile back at him. I feel like we are having a conversation just by smiling, he tells me “It’s going to be okay.” Using his smile. And then I reply, “Okay.” Using mine. We both simultaneously pick up our menus and read them. I find it difficult to read the menu, because of the tears still stuck in my eyes. I may only be fifteen – sixteen in a few weeks – but I think I have already found love.
The waitress comes over and asks us if we would like to order some food. I blink a few times to try to read the words on the menu. The tears that were happily stuck in my eyes, making it hard to read, have now fallen down my face. I bring the menu down and look at Archie, he looks back at me, and then to the waiter. He orders something for both of us. I tell Archie thank you and the waitress takes our menus. Suddenly she turns around to me; I look at her, and seem to recognize her. She comes up to my chair, and bends her knees so she is the same height as me. I look at her still trying to figure out where I have seen her from.
“I’m not letting Squash pay for this. This one is on me.” I’m more shocked than thankful, she knows what I call my brother, and she…she….she is my brother’s ex-girlfriend. She walks off before I can thank her, and I turn to Archie. Aloha is her name. It’s an unusual name, but she isn’t from around here. Her family moved here because of her father’s job. She has very long naturally blond hair, and dark blue eyes. She is very Eco-friendly, so doesn’t own a car. I really liked her. She was so nice and very clever, you couldn’t argue with her because she is always right. But she wasn’t ever annoyingly clever; she actually kept her cleverness to herself for a while, until grades came through from universities and schools. It actually got to the point where Tim proposed to her. Tim never got her father’s blessing, so she had the choice of Tim or her family. She picked her family.
The date ended and we left, hands held hand in hand. Suddenly skateboarding didn’t feel right, so we both walked back, Archie holding the skateboards. We got the road and walked about five-hundred metres before I decided to speak.
“Will you come back?” I look at Archie, who is looking down at his shoes. When I turn my head back, I can feel his eyes stare at me, and then memories rush back to me. I remember that one day when I was in the playground at my school. I was about six years old, and playing a chasing game with my two other friends, I tripped over someone’s foot, and fell. Grazing the whole left side of my face, the side of my left arm and a little part of me knee. I lie on the floor, lying on my front, and my head on the grazed side on my face. I remember one of my friends laugh at me, and the other in shock. The one who was laughing starts to run away, trying to pull the other one with her, but she stays there. She sees my tears falling down my face, she knows that the tears sting my left cheek, and I knew that she wanted to help me, but instead she ran off, leaving me on the ground to cry. I remember someone sitting next to me, and he just sat there and stared. Not the way my friends did, but in a sympathetic kind of way, he was there because he wanted to see if I was alright, but he didn’t know what to do either. In the end a teacher came, and took me to the nurse, but I remember the face of that boy. And that boy was Archie.
“I promise I will sort something out, I will try.” He tells me, but that adds no hope to me. I look at him, catching his eyes for a few seconds. “You know I will try.” He says, I turn to him and kiss him, putting my arms around my neck. I hear birds calling as we kiss, but they all call at the same time. For about 8 seconds those calls turn into beeps. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. I let go of Archie, and look around me. There is nothing here that can make those beep noises. I tell myself that it must be my head playing with me, I turn back to Archie, and he has a concerned look. “Are you okay?” His look tells me, I reply with a simple nod and I hold his hand, but then the beeping comes back to me. Beep. Beep. Beep. I let go of Archie, and look around again. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. I put my hands by my ears, but it’s not working. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. I crouch down and end up hugging my knees on the floor, still hiding my ears. Archie looks at me worried, he crouches down next to me, and puts out his hand for me to take. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. I start screaming to get the beeps out of my head, but whatever I do, the beeps stay in my head. They keep on getting louder and louder, no matter how much I scream. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. What is it? Why is there beeping? Before I know it, I pass out, and later waking up in my bed at home. Archie is on the chair next to my bed, when he sees my eyes open, he smiles. Did he carry me the whole way home? I look at my alarm clock; it has fallen over, so I move it with my right hand, and check the time.
Six hours.
Six hours left of Archie.
