Tick Tock - Time's Running Out

Tick Tock (16)

Chapter Sixteen

Robbie

The ‘Thimble’ scene. The scene I had been waiting for since we first started the play and I knew Tiffany Gold, the love of my life, was going to be playing the role of Wendy.

Tiffany had broken up with Kevin. I had heard her, yelling at him for cheating on her. That, in itself was funny. Not only did he get dumped, but Tiff knew about his cheating! It made me laugh. True, this wasn’t fair on Kevin, but I never liked him anyway, so it was undeniable that I was a bit smug at the fact that he didn’t have Tiffany anymore, and I was going to kiss her.

I was internally debating with myself. Should I dump Amy, and have it all done with? But what good would that do? Sure, Tiffany was now single, but there was nothing that ensured I was going to have a slimmer of a chance with her, even if I was single too. I didn’t know what to do. In all honesty, I was torn. Amy was there for me, she fulfilled my teenage needs. But Tiff was utter perfection, and I loved every inch of her.

What should I do?

Tiff wouldn’t hang around forever. If I told her how I felt about her, what could happen then? Then again – If she didn’t return my feelings and I had dumped Amy, what then?

“Robbie?” a quiet, timid, womanly voice said. I turned suddenly, seeing Tiffany standing before me, her hand held out, reaching for mine. Silently, I took her hand, and together we started walking to the stage, taking our places for the scene.

* * *

Her face was getting closer to mine. I was starting to panic. This was it: this was the moment. I didn’t know what to do, which was ridiculous, seeing as I’d had a lot of experience in the last couple of days in the kissing department. But the whole idea of kissing Tiffany scared the crap out of me. I had been wanting and wishing for it for so long, it seemed unbelievable that it was actually going to happen!

I was so confused as her face got closer and closer, her eyes flickering closed as mine grew wide with shock as she placed her lips carefully on mine.

Sparks flew – literally. And Tiffany ripped her lips from mine and turned to face the back of the hall.

I gaped, open mouthed at the scene before me. The whole crew, and part of the cast were running around like lunatics as they panicked, running around the spotlight – which was on fire.

Beside me, Tiffany was wide eyed, just looking at the fire. She looked like she was going to faint.

I quickly jumped off the stage and ran to the left of the hall, ripping the fire extinguisher from its case. Ripping out the pin, I ran towards the burning spotlight. I pulled down the lever and foam went everywhere, enveloping the fire and putting it out quickly.

I didn’t even know what I was thinking. No – that’s a lie. I knew exactly what I was thinking. I wanted to be Tiffany’s knight in shining armour. I wanted her to look at me and think: ‘he put out that fire, he’s so brave! He’s my hero. You know what, I really fancy him!’

That would be the icing on the cake of a really good day.

So I fearlessly ran into the midst of the fire to put it out, to save my damsel in distress. And I did not rest until the flames were totally gone. That took about ten minutes of solid hard work on my part, and the flames did not want to succumb to my fire extinguisher.

When I was finished, I was sweating and tired. I walked casually back to the stage and climbed up using the steps down stage right of the stage. I walked up to Tiffany and casually said: “shall we proceed?”

Then I wrapped her up in my arms and kissed her furiously.

Ha! I wish. I didn’t kiss her again. I wished I had though, because at that point, Mr Howard said: “okay, I think that’s quite enough drama for one day. Rehearsals are over! We’ll go over that scene again next time.”

Part of me was overjoyed at this news, as it meant I would be kissing Tiffany again. But the other half of me was disappointed that I wouldn’t be kissing Tiffany again, today.

“Want a lift home?” I asked, glumly. Tiff nodded and we gathered our things together and walked out to my car. I say ‘my car’, but I should really say ‘my shared car’, as I share it with my Dad. He let me borrow it today, because I had a lot to carry, and did him a favour earlier in the day.

I unlocked the car and got in the driver’s seat as Tiffany clambered into the passenger’s seat.

“Yours or mine?” I asked; my voice devoid of emotion.

“Mine,” she replied. I nodded to myself and started up the car, driving to her mansion.

As we neared the looming black gates that symbolised the entrance to her domain, she said: “eventful rehearsals, huh?”

“Yeah,” I said quietly. “It was rather eventful.”

There was silence in my car as I drove up Tiffany’s house.

As the door came into view, I began to get desperate.

“Tiff –“

“Robbie –“

We said each other’s name simultaneously. We laughed together, nervousness leaking into our voices.

We stopped and silence once more dominated the car. I sighed loudly as I stopped the car outside her house.

She didn’t say anything as she stepped out the car. Closing my eyes, I counted to two. Then I jumped out of my car and ran towards Tiffany, screaming her name.

She turned and I slammed my lips on hers.

* * *

We sat together, our hands entwined, on a park bench. I was kissing her neck and her hand every so often. I was just so shocked that we were going to actually be together.

“I can’t believe it,” Tiffany whispered, placing her head on my shoulder. “I really can’t. I’ve loved you for so long! I always just thought that my feelings wouldn’t be returned, and I didn’t want to wait around for you, because I always thought I was deluding myself.”

“I can’t believe it either,” I told her, putting my face into her hair. “And as of Amy: she’s history.”

“Really?” Tiffany enquired.

I nodded, pulling my phone out of my pocket. Putting my phone to my ear, I waited for three rings before Amy answered her phone.

“Hey, baby!” she said. “I’ve missed you so much! We’ve not spoken in ages!”

“We spoke not two hours ago,” I told her bluntly. “And a lot has changed since then.”

“What?” Amy laughed on the other side of the phone.

“Okay, let’s cut to the chase, Amy,” I said sharply. “We’re over. You and I both know I love Tiffany and she loves me. So you and I are done, finished, come to our end. It’s not me, it’s you.”

“But –“

“You can’t blackmail me. You can’t touch me.”

“Just you wait, Robbie. You’ll regret this!”

“Yeah, sure,” I said as I hung up. Then I turned back to Tiffany, the love of my life, and pressed my lips once more on hers. Three minutes later, we broke apart, and I whispered to her: “we’re together now, baby. No one can come between us.”