If the world was ending..

The world is ending

National News Broadcast!!
Citizens across the globe there's a meteor headed straight towards earth, all inhabitants have until the end of the day until it reaches the surface destroying everything and everyone. Go be with your loved ones, say your prayers.  May God be with you all.

Julie looks down at her phone staring at the message on it in shock. Her brain was not comprehending what she was reading. The phone slips from her grasp as she turns to run to the tv. Every news channel was running the same message news anchors giving their final speeches before running home to their families. A family was something Julie lost a long time ago and now she felt almost thankful for it. Her body couldn't support her as she fell to the carpet underneath her. Silent tears escaped the fate that was in store for her.
Buzz. Her phone vibrates on the floor where she dropped it. Julie looks over realizing she's been sitting in the same place for a little over an hour. She slowly crawls over to her phone fearful there would be another world-ending message. Picking it up she sees the long list of names of friends who were checking in on her. Saying they're going home to visit their family and that she should come with them. Her heart clenched as tears ran down her face knowing she couldn't do what they asked. As she reached the end of her friends' texts she saw the newest one wasn't from any of them. Instead, it was from someone she hoped to never see again.

"Hey. Are you okay?" Julie stared at this text for what seemed like forever in another stunned silence at the crazy messages her phone has given her today. Thumbs hovering over the letters trying to figure out what to say back.

"No, hbu?" was all she could come up with as she hit the send button. Anxious for his response she got to her feet and found herself headed to the kitchen. In the doorway, she stood watching the figures in her memory dance across the tiles. Her holding a wooden spoon as a microphone spinning around and him trying to cook while making sure she didn't spin into the stove. She could hear the laughs echoing when she felt another buzz come from her pocket."Me neither. Can I come over?" Julie looked from his text to the empty kitchen in front of her and replied, "Yes."

She didn't bother to clean or change in anticipation of his arrival. Instead, she texted back her friends the lies they wanted to hear from her. That she would try and meet them where they were going and they were all going to be okay. Her friends weren't stupid and knew she was lying but this was her decision. They exchanged loving farewells and she let her phone turn dark. Knock. The sound came from her front door signaling he was standing outside ready to face her. Her body started to shake as she slowly walked towards her annoyingly bright yellow door. She gingerly unlocks the barrier keeping him from her and swings it open.

"May I?" Alex asks, nodding towards the inside of Julie's house. She doesn't respond but moves back so he can get past her. Once he was in he started to look around at what's changed since he was there last. The little figurine she threw at him and the picture that sat next to it were both gone. Probably left the same night he did.

"Do you want anything to drink?" Julie asks headed towards the kitchen. Knowing she was about to pour herself something containing alcohol he follows after her, "Yea do you still have that bottle of-" before Alex has the chance to finish his sentence Julie interrupts him.

"Jack Daniel's? Yea you're the only person who ever drank that stupid thing it's in the back somewhere." Julie shuffled through the bottles in her cabinet finally finding the half-empty bottle Alex was asking for, remaining untouched since he last asked for it two years ago. When she turned around she saw Alex in the kitchen with her. "Tennessee Honey," she says looking down at the bottle, "I don't know how you can stand the taste," shaking her head as she holds the bottle out to him. He looks from Julie to her peace offering and turns around to grab a couple of glasses.
"Have you ever actually tried it?" Alex asks with a small smile, grabbing the bottle from her grasp, careful not to touch it. "Only once for your birthday in twenty-sixteen, remember? We had just started dating and you talked me into it," Julie watches Alex move across the kitchen almost like he never left. "Ah yes I remember, that was a fun night," Alex is fully smiling now looking at Julie, no doubt memories from that little house party playing vividly in his mind.
"Yea fun night for you, I distinctly remember ending up over the towel bowl and the contents in my stomach being expelled from my body," Julie grimaces thinking back to that night. "Oh come on Jules it's been six years I think it's definitely worth another try," Alex is now standing right in front of her holding two glasses in his hands both containing around a shot of Jack Daniel's. "Tennessee Honey though? Shouldn't we be easing me back into the whiskeys? This might leave them with a permanently bad rep," Taking the glass from his hand she sniffs the strong scent in the glass. "Well I don't want to go shopping right now and you already have it pegged as the enemy so what does it have to lose?" Right then Julie was transported back in time to when she first fell in love with Alex and his charm. "Alright but if I get sick again you're the one cleaning it up," Julie responds, stomach turning at the thought.

The two of them tip back their glasses and set them down empty on the counter. "See, was it that bad?" Alex asks, leaning in a little closer. "Ugh just as bad as I remember," Julie gags, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "What?! No way, you're just being stubborn," Alex backs away with a slight laugh. "Or you just have shitty taste. I think that's more believable than me being 'stubborn'," Julie uses finger quotes around the word stubborn then moves to fill her glass with water to wash away the taste. "You have not changed at all these past two years you know that?" Alex states rather than asks. "Neither have you," she says in almost a whisper. The good memories that had been playing in her head since he arrived were now replaced with ones of fighting and tears.
Julie in an attempt to run away from those memories turned and headed toward the living room. She had turned the TV on low when Alex showed up and decided to turn it up again to see if there was any new information. Instead in bold numbers on the screen was a ticking clock counting down to their inevitable end. She could feel Alex walk up behind her, both of them afraid to break the fear-filled silence. "Why did you come here?" Julie asks not looking back at Alex letting her curiosity get the better of her.

"Mom died from cancer not long after we broke up, you know my dad was never around and my brother is with his wife and kids. I couldn't bring myself to go see them and for some reason, all I could think about was you," Alex says all of this in almost a whisper bringing his hand up to lightly graze hers. She turns around painfully aware of how close they were to each other. One hour left. The ground underneath them started to rumble causing them to reach out to each other grabbing on to the only stable thing they could find. After a minute or two, the earthquake stopped and everything fell quiet.

Julie and Alex were still holding onto each other as they looked around at the damage to Julie's apartment. Julie suddenly let go as if Alex's arms had caught on fire. She walks back towards the kitchen to find the bottle of Jack shattered across the floor. Laughter erupts from Julie taking in the sight in front of her looking from the floor to Alex. "See, even the earthquake thinks your Jack is shit," Julie lifts her hand to cover her mouth trying to stop the laughter. "For fuck's sake," is all that Alex can say before he erupts in laughter as well.

Julie walks forward looking to see if anything survived the rumbles of the earthquake. She spots a bottle of vodka lying on its side still intact. Stepping over the shattered bottle of Jack Daniel's she picks up the bottle and heads back to the living room. Alex comes over to sit next to her on the couch, "Why am I not surprised that your end-of-the-world drink is a bottle of Vodka?" Alex laughs watching Julie take a swig from the bottle. "Hey what can I say? I'm classy like that," Julie laughs along with Alex offering the bottle for him to take. Alex accepts and takes his swig of the bottle.

"So is finishing this bottle your plan for the rest of our last day?" Alex asks, handing it back to Julie. She takes another shot from the bottle before responding, "Sounds like a pretty good plan to me, unless you have any other ideas?" Julie refuses to look at Alex as she asks this, cheeks flushing from the alcohol or from Alex's stare she wasn't sure which. Alex lifts Julie's chin to look at him, the clock on her TV dwindling. "Yes," is all Alex says leaning in for a kiss as a giant explosion goes off in the distance, the meteor's impact crumbling the world as they know it around them.