The Girl With Five Watches

3: First Lunch

Once church ended, we both agreed to have lunch at Luna's Pizza. Apparently, it was both of our favorite restaurant discovery that semester. We both decided to order a sausage pizza and share it only to find out that we had a love of sausage pizza. With the hot and juicy sausage pizza on the table, we sat down with our hands taking a couple of slices out of the tray and putting them on our plates.

"Who's going to say grace?" she asked with a smile.

Grace? My heart began pounding as I found myself volunteering. Hopefully, I wouldn't sound like an idiot. With both of our hands in the prayer position and our eyes closed, I opened my mouth and began speaking to the best of my ability.

"Dear God, thanks for this pizza and please bless and nourish it to our bodies." What else was I supposed to say? "Amen."

"Amen," she repeated with a bigger smile. She took a sip of her drink and began eating.

"How are you getting home after finals?" I asked while picking one of the sausages from my pizza.

"I actually have a car," she claimed with much glee. "I don't know if you know my roommate Karla, but she wants to get in driving practice before she gets her license. I agreed to help her practice on the way home." She paused for a moment. "I take it you're going to be driving home in your car?"

I found myself snickering. "Yeah, I'll be driving my car from the other side of the parking lot. But I was going to say, if you didn't have a ride home, I could've driven you home."

"Well, maybe you can drive me to the zoo or something next semester in your car."

The zoo? Alone and together? What was she implying? "Sounds like a plan." We both raised our cups and made a toast to next semester. And it honestly sounded like it was going to be good.

For the next minute, neither of us said anything and enjoyed our pizza in silence. Sara was the one to break the silence.

"Why don't you like the snow?" she asked.

That question completely caught me off guard. Yes, I hated snow, but I never really thought about it.

My cold body was doing everything It could to survive the cold and icy water. There was no way in the world that my hand would let go of the little girl's hand. My lungs had other plans. It was almost impossible to breathe and I was moments away from passing out. My fingers slowly began slipping with them growing colder by the second.

"If we don't make it... I'm sorry." I yelled trying not to cry.

My eyes closed and couldn't be opened. My body was barely conscious. Were we actually going to make it out of this? There would be no way of knowing.

Sara had to bring me back to reality again. Looking at my three rings, I delivered a large sigh and took off the real ring. A moment later, I put it back on my finger. Both my heart and head felt like they were about to explode. For a second, I was about to let out a few tears. Thankfully, I was able to hold them in.

"I rather not talk about it right now," I answered. Hopefully, that was fine with her.

She nodded and gave me a warm smile. "That's OK."

With her response, all the pain I was experiencing in my body had vanished. I could breathe easy. And there was no problem finishing our meal. Once we finished and paid, we walked back into the cold. And Sara still had my jacket. With my hands freezing, I tried to get my phone out of my pocket to check the time, but my fingers were minutes away from getting frostbite.

"In case you're wondering," started Sara. "It's almost three in the afternoon." She pointed to one of her watches. "And that's according to all five of my watches."

"Guess I don't need my phone anymore," I chuckled as I playfully pushed her.

She gave me a push in return. "Might as well just throw your phone in the snow."

That went without saying that neither of us got rid of our phones that afternoon while we walked back to campus. On our walk back, Sara told me a few snow stories from her childhood. I couldn't believe how easy it was to listen to her. She had an interesting way of describing each story that she told and my ears never wanted her to stop. I almost wished this walk could last the entire day. Of course, we eventually did get back and made our way to the student union for Vitamin Water. She paid for mine. Sitting down, she told me one last story about a snow experience. As a child, she built a snowman and legit thought that it would come to life. But it never did. Once we were feeling warm from our cold walk, we decided it was time to part ways.

"Guess I'll see you next semester?" she asked giving me a tight hug.

"Guess so. I'll text you as soon as I get back on campus."

"Sounds good," she smiled. "Let's meet at the union again at the spot we first met."

With one last hug, we parted ways. Walking back to the dorm, I couldn't believe that I spent my entire childhood not talking to her. Heck, why didn't I hang out with her? I suppose there was no point in questioning. The only thing I could do was be grateful for the time I had spent with her in the last couple of days. And hopefully, there would be many great memories on their way in the upcoming semester. I could only hope.

Well, I do hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to comment, vote, and share!

Any new flashback theories?

Are you hoping for a zoo date?

This chapter is dedicated to @Musaddika00 Thanks for being a romance fan and giving this story a chance!