Three

“Hey Quincy, get up!” I moan in response and fall off of a couch. Ow. I look up from the floor and see Amber standing above me, holding a spatula for some inexplicable reason. I’ve restarted the day, and I’m back at Amber’s place. It seems like I’m stuck in a time loop. I don’t have any problem believing that that could happen, and I don’t mind that it has happened, I’m just sort of annoyed that I have to constantly re-live today of all days, because it seems like a lot of things go wrong today. I don’t want to stick around for the first couple of wrong things, so I leave as soon as I can and go to the store. If I avoid my problems, maybe they’ll never happen in the first place? It's worth a shot. I get the biscuits before the strawberry blond man even gets to the store, and then I go wait at the Egg & Rye for Lev to show up. It takes a while, but he comes eventually. 

“Sorry, is this seat taken?” He asks, just like last time. He’s as pretty as he was yesterday. I tell him it’s not, and he sits down. So far so good. Instead of asking him a cliché question, I decide to compliment his dark, wavy hair instead. He smiles in a sort of embarrassed fashion, his cheeks turn slightly red, and part of his hair flops in front of his eyes. He's too adorable.

“Thanks! Your freckles are really cute,” He returns the compliment, avoiding eye contact by looking down into his coffee mug. 

“I’m Quincy, by the way,” I tell him. I feel like I’m forcing myself to have a conversation here. I’ve got to chill.

“Cool, I’m Lev.” I knew that already, of course. But there’s no way that he could know that, because clearly everyone’s memory except for mine is wiped at the end of each day. They probably don’t even know that they’re reliving the same day over and over. There’s an awkward silence in which I think Lev is going to leave, but then I think of a question to ask him.

“So… what’s your favourite type of biscuit?” I ask. Now that I’ve said it, the question sounds almost as bad as my ‘So, do you come here often’ from last time. I’m not very good at this conversation thing. Lev smiles in a way that suggests it was a weird question.

“Um, probably… well, I guess I’d have to pick Lemon Stars,” He answers. I had Lemon Stars at a party once, and they were completely alright. I think the company that makes them is Space Snacks, the same company that makes Cosmic Crunch biscuits. 

“Well, it was nice talking to you.” He gets up and leaves, and I realise that I’ve lost him again. I decide that next time I’ll bring him some of his favourite biscuits. I check my phone and see that I received a message earlier when I was getting groceries.

Freddie broke her arm :(

The text is from Astraeus, and I realise that even if I’m not there for that particular disaster, it will happen anyways. I suppose that Robespierre ruined the breakfast, and I suppose that I’ll have to prevent all that from happening in order to escape this time loop. I put my head in my hands; I don’t want to go home yet. I’ll just sit here for a while, and even though I know it’s not a good idea, in fact it’s an incredibly terrible idea, I sit in the café until it’s long after dark. 

When I finally leave, an ambulance drives past, its siren sounding deafeningly loud. It’s the only sound in the otherwise-silent street. I know that it’s not Freddie in the ambulance, because she went to the hospital much earlier. Some other unfortunate person must have been involved in a different accident. A couple passes me on the street, with hoods drawn up. They’re speaking in hushed tones, and I hear the words ‘violent around here’ and ‘broke his arms’. The couple start walking faster as they pass me. I don’t blame them: you shouldn’t stick around if a strange man passes you after dark, and especially not around here. I wonder what they were talking about, and if it had anything to do with the ambulance that just raced past. Probably. I’ve heard rumours of a notorious crime boss around here that wouldn’t hesitate to break somebody’s arms, especially if they got on his bad side. So far he’s just a rumour, but a fully believable rumour nonetheless. They do say that all rumours have an atom of truth, or something like that. I suddenly feel a lot more eager to come home.