When Time Runs Out

Chapter Six {Complete}

Chapter Six

I woke up at about five in the morning, from another horrible dream. These nightmares haunted me every night, only having a break once or twice every month. They were always something terrible, always something gruesome, always something different. I decided to get up and get ready, because I knew that there was no way that I would be able to get anymore sleep today. I took my time with my prep of the day, because I had an extra three hours. I managed to somehow shake off the dream and look decent today, doing my signature spider-eye mascara perfectly. Unfortunately, that's the only makeup I wear beside a bit of moisturizer and a minuscule swipe of brown eyeliner on the outside of my lids, so I still managed to look terrible, at least to myself. I put my hair in a ballet bun on the bottom of my head, right above my neck so no hair would get into anybody's food. I took a final glance in the mirror, put on my now-usual frown, and walked downstairs. I looked into the pantry for some breakfast, and the only thing I had left was, literally, oatmeal. Perfect.

When I was working in the kitchen today, I realized that I hadn't spoken since I was upgraded from a waitress,  three weeks ago. I tried to speak to a co-cook, but all I did was open and close my mouth like a fish out of water. I only managed to emit a tiny squeak. To finally make everything so much worse, I was losing my skin color and eye color. My skin used to be a natural caramel, now I had almost achieved the color of milk. My eyes used to be a brownish-hazel, now they were the color of rain clouds, a depressing gray. Between my pigments and the dark blue circles under my eyes, I basically looked like the stereotypical zombie. Unfortunately, my appearance didn't throw off the boy who entered the diner that morning. He looked exactly like Dominic, but he looked... older. His hair grew out, and there was wear on his face and in his eyes. No doubt about it, it was Dominic. I sprinted away from the table that I was delivering food to, (getting it everywhere, by the way) and leaped into his arms. You see, this kind of thing happened ed every day in this diner, so nobody seemed to be too thrown off. Except for the food covering a private-looking couple in a booth, which I came to realize in a moment, that it was the table I was trying to serve. Oh well. 

I took my break early to talk with Dominic, which I was happy to do. I was glad I still had my voice, and the words flowed with ease.  We sat in a booth (across from each other, of course) and just talked about the events that had occurred in the past, now three, months. He was same old-same old, but he was looking for me since the day I left. I was telling him about how I had lost basically everything that I had come to known, and that I was working overtime. He offered for me to move in with him, which I declined, but I offered him to live with me, I had nothing else to fill the space. He happily accepted. I decided to take the day off so we could walk and talk in private. I ran to the bank to grab some cash for ice cream, where I basically had a heart attack.

The balance was $2,485,295.63! 

How the heck had I gained so much money so fast? I called my work to see if they made a mistake, and they didn't. My pay had temporarily risen to $50,000 a day! This was insane! When I asked them why they had so much money to spare, they simply said, "Keep going. You can do this. It will all be okay." And that's when I fainted!

+++

I woke up in my bed, the entire room fuzzing into and out of focus. I sat up, and looked around. The room was filled with soft morning light, and I looked onto my usually empty bedside table. There was a vase of fresh picked flowers, my favorite book, and a plate of cookies resting peacefully on it. I sat up all the way, grabbed a cookie, and opened my book to page 1. I got through about half a paragraph when Dominic walked into the room. All of a sudden, he got quite attractive, with the light hitting his face perfectly, and that soft, gentle expression and his beautiful ey- BANG! My head went off like somebody pounded a gong in my brain. 

"MY JOB!' I yelled. 

"Oh yeah..." Dominic started.

"They called a few hours earlier. They said you didn't have to work anymore."

"They fired me?"

"No, they let you go, so you could be free and time travel again. So you could become Nia again. Look, you're already starting to get better."

He handed me a mirror, which I reluctantly glanced in. I looked almost normal- my skin turned to a light tan, my eyes lit up to see that they were hazel again. The dark blue circles had faded to a subtle light blue, and if anything, they highlighted my eyes. I decided to get ready for the day so I could go get some breakfast. It was a special day, because, 1. I was free of work! Yay! And, 2. I heard that today there was a little fair in the yard of the Human Resources Center, and I wanted to look okay for that. So I put on a little more makeup than usual, and curled my hair and pinned it to one side. Then I grabbed some high-waisted jeans and a cute floral shirt, with black flats. This usually wasn’t my summer look, or looks overall, because I went for more natural. It was nice to dress up for once, though. 

We still had eight hours until the fair, though, so we decided to hang out around town for a bit, and go to the little shops around. My town that I grew up in was so friendly, but once in a while you see a person a little sketchy looking, so you've got to be pretty careful. Okay, I’ll shut up. I just can't believe how happy I am that Dominic is here. I really needed a friend.

+++

"He that commends me to mine own content

Commends me to the thing I cannot get.

I to the world am like a drop of water

That in the ocean seeks another drop,

Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,

Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself:

So I, to find a mother and a brother,

In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself." 

I kept reading, and reading, and reading. I love Shakespeare, and right now I was reading his play, The Comedy of Errors, and I was on Scene II, the Mart. It's quite a read, I’ll tell you that. 

Out of nowhere, a teenage boy with auburn hair, about my age, snatched the book away from me, glanced at the cover, laughed, and tossed it to who his friend, who dumped it into the trash can. 

"What was that for?!" I stood up and yelled at him. 

"It's a stupid book. You're lucky. I just did you a favor, Princess. You should be thanking me."

"That is NOT a favor! You're probably just jealous because you wouldn't understand a word in this book."

"Shut up, Princess. You look new here, so I’ll give you a bit of advice. Reading is dumb, and if you want to look cool and get noticed, you'll get up and try to talk to people."

"I don't want to get noticed, you idiot. That's why I was sitting here, reading!"

"Whatever, Princess." He winked at me and walked away, with the most stupid smirk i've ever seen on anybody. It made me want to punch him in the jaw. I've never met anybody like him before, but in this case, that was a good thing. 

<<< Author's Note;

OHMYGLOB! 112 READS! THANK YOU ALL I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! THIS IS MY DREAM AND THIS IS INCREDIBLE, I'M JUST SPEECHLESS! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY, BUT THANK YOU ALL AGAIN! <33333333

love and a zillion internet hugs :3, 

emily

p.s. mean book-destroying boy seems kind of sketchy... but where was Dominic when this was happening? >>>