(57 years before the universe dies)

“Be careful, sweetie!”

I sighed, “Mom… it’s not even 700 yards…”

“You never know what could happen in 700 yards!”

“Yes, Mom…” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll be careful.”

I opened the door. “I’ll see you in the afternoon.”

I could feel her smile behind my back, “Love you!”

But the door was already closed before I could respond.

Mom was quite the… worried type of person, which could get quite annoying at times, but I knew she meant well.

It was always worse in the beginning of school than later in the year. I didn’t really know why… probably because I didn’t have a kid to worry about yet…

But seriously, I’d been doing this trip to the bus stop for about two years straight now, and I’d been just fine. The roads were pretty quiet in the morning anyway, no real danger to be aware of here.

I was pretty tense for the first day of school. Not really stressed so much as excited maybe. There was this girl who recently moved into town, and I’d picked up from my mom she’d be going to the same school as me. And with her being the around my age, there was a pretty good shot she’d be in my class.

I hadn’t really interacted with her much though, and frankly, I don’t think anyone had.

She moved in during the summer vacation, but I hadn’t really seen her outside much. Not in the main parts of town, at least.

Sure, when strolling through the streets with some friends I’d sometimes catch a glimpse of her in a shop, or quickly passing by, but it’s not like I’d had an actual conversation with her yet. And none of my friends had either.

They’d bring her up from time to time though, often mocking her for her fashion choices, or how she always seemed to carry a notebook close by, or her habit of going to the hill outside of town, all on her own, to just sit on the bench there, writing in that notebook.

“Weird” or “strange”, they called it. I called it “unique”.

I found a lot of intrigue in just about everything surrounding her. She was this personality nobody knew much about – if anything – and very shy, at that.

It was as if she was completely clad in mystery.

Incidentally, I happened to like a good mystery. And with some luck, I’d get a chance to explore this mystery too.

A smile appeared on my face when thinking about it, and my mind started to wander its own path.

To such an extent, even, that I didn’t hear the sound of feet running from behind the corner.

Yeah, she ran me over. Literally ran me over, which caused her to drop her notebook, scattering loose papers all over the sidewalk.

“Oh… oh no…” It was the first time I heard her voice. It had a sweet and soft tone to it, something very calming hidden behind a moment of panic as she got on her knees to pick up her notes, her brown hair dangling over her eyes. I liked it, a lot. “I… Excuse… I’m sorry… I didn’t…”

She was struggling to apologize while frantically trying to grasp the notes from the ground. It was weirdly charming.

I decided to follow her lead and got on my knees to help her collect the papers.

“It’s… it’s fine. No worries.”

While collecting the notes, my eyes couldn’t help but glance over the content of them.

I didn’t know what I was reading… The sentences were… odd – sorry, “unique”. There was a certain disconnection between them, with massive leaps in time and logic everywhere, but they did all feel like they fit together.

It wasn’t written out neatly and completely correct, not like a novel or a writing task or whatever. It felt more like blabbering on paper…

These… stories – due to the lack of a better description – were extremely surreal. They couldn’t have happened, surely…

It almost felt like… dreams… maybe?

We got back up on our feet when all the notes were picked up.

“There you go.” I said, handing over what I had collected.

“T… thanks.” She shuffled around, looking at her feet instead of at me. “I’m… sorry again…”

A quick glance of hers straight into my eyes, before anxiety struck them and they turned to the ground again. But I’d had enough with that one quick glance.

“Hey, it’s alright…” I smiled, which she didn’t even see. I scratched the back of my head nonchalantly. Well… I thought it was nonchalantly, but it was probably just awkward…

She looked up again, saying, “Sorry, I have to…” before turning around and walking away… not in the direction of the bus stop.

Impulsively, I ran after her.

“Wait!” I said. She turned around. “The bus stop’s over there…” I pointed.

She shook her head and started walking again.

I was very much inclined to run after her again, but I was torn…

If I ran after her now, there’d be no way I’d catch the bus in time for school…

I sighed, thinking I was probably making a mistake, but I couldn’t help it.

I started walking next to her on the sidewalk.

“Hey, listen. If we hurry we might still catch the bus.” – We probably wouldn’t – “We’ll be late for school if we–”

I fell silent when she shook her head again.

“I still have to tell dwarfy today’s story…”

My walking stopped for a second, dumbfounded at what she just said. Dwarfy?

She just kept walking onwards though, so after I shook my amazement from my mind, I made an effort to catch up again.

“Go. It’s fine,” she said, “I don’t want you to be late because of me.”

“I’m not going anywhere without you.”

I didn’t even know this girl.

Yeah, I was making some questionable decisions right there, but against all odds, it seemed to work apparently; she stopped walking, clearly hesitating if she should still go on.

“Why don’t you tell your story when you get back from school?” I tried.

She looked at me.

“Do you think… he wouldn’t be mad…?” She hid her mouth behind her notebook.

“I’m sure he doesn’t mind…” I gave her a smile, and I somehow felt she smiled back, even with her mouth being invisible.

She still hesitated a little, but in the end she turned around and slowly started walking in the direction of the bus stop.

“If we hurry…” she said, “we might still be on time.”

We weren’t.

In fact, when we turned the corner just before the bus stop, we could just barely still see the bus driving away.

“Well…” she sighed, “so much for that…”

“There’s another one in ten minutes. With some luck we’ll still arrive on time at school…” I said, making my way over to the bus stop and took place on the metal bench inside of it.

“Care to join me?”

She sat down beside me.

“I just realized… I never asked your name, did I?”

She shook no.

“Would you mind telling me…?”

A warm smile appeared on her mouth as she started speaking with that same soft voice I liked so much.

I suppose Mom was right this morning… You never know what could happen in 700 yards, do you?