Tick Tock

 
Unwrapping the plastic around my cheese sandwich, I watched my best friend, Carter, and his girlfriend, Victoria, walk by. He didn’t even glance at me as they walked by, holding hands and laughing about something. I sighed and took a bite from my sandwich, resisting the urge to call out to him.

  We’d had an argument about her yesterday. In the end, he said I was a jealous little girl, which I just laughed off.

   But wasn’t it true? It was only then that I realized that really liked Carter. A whole lot more than just being best friends. And I finally knew that was why Victoria irritated me so much.

   Carter and I had met in Kindergarten, while playing with the puppet theater. He had said that because I was a girl, I had to play with the princess puppet. I promptly proceeded to hit him over the head with it.

  We had been friends ever since. That was nearly eleven years ago now.

  I glanced at my watch. 12:08. The bell for the end of lunch would ring in about three minutes. And then it was off to math class. Carter used to sit with me, but as soon as he had started dating Victoria, he had begun sitting with her. I pretended not to care.

  A strand of my long hair fell in front of my face and I pushed it away impatiently.

This is so stupid! I thought. I should just tell him I like him and get it over and done with.

  I looked at my watch again and pushed the button that switched it to the timer, like any normal digital watch. Except my watch was counting down, not up. It told me that I had two days left until I blew up.

  Perhaps I should explain.

 Two years ago, I had been kidnapped by a little known terrorist group. They experimented on me and finally implanted a tiny bomb inside my spine. They started the timing mechanism, and then let me loose, assuring me that the bomb would go off if someone tried to remove it. So I had never told anyone. What the terrorists were hoping was that I would be at school or some other crowded place when it went off. What they didn’t know was that I knew exactly when it would go off, thanks to a very talkative terrorist who had tried to kiss me.

  So I had two days left now. That was it. After that, I would blow up and stop being. Stop talking, interacting, existing.

  I wasn’t really doing anything special in my last days, like some heroic people seem to have done. I just kept living my normal life, although ever since I had been kidnapped, I hadn’t fought with people as much. My life was too short for such silly things.

  But now there was one thing that I wanted to do; to tell Carter how I really felt. At least he wouldn’t have to deal with it later on, because I would be dead.

  I truly hoped it would be quick and painless, the explosion. I simply wanted it to happen at the time it was supposed to, all short and sweet. I spent nights wondering if there would be some sort of fluke, and I wouldn’t be dead right away. Just in little pieces, lying there in fiery pain. Short and sweet was what I wanted.

  Short and sweet.

*        *         *        *        *

  Call me a coward but I decided not to tell Carter. This decision was made after I saw him and Victoria making out after school. I ran away, tears threatening to spill all over.

  I now had three hours left to live. Not even that, as I looked at my watch again. Only two hours and fifty nine minutes.

  I knew where I was going to go when it was time to die; a place where I wouldn’t hurt anyone else when it happened. I would take a nice long walk in the park near my house, and then…poof.

  The park was huge, filled with lots of trees and bushes, and yet there was almost never any where there. It was a sad lonely place, always grey and rainy. I was sure it was the best place to go, because it was so secluded.

  So I walked around for awhile, thinking about…well, everything. My family, to whom I had said goodbye earlier, though they didn’t know it would be for forever. Same for all my other friends. Carter…I hadn’t been able to find him. I had looked everywhere that I could think of. I had even broken down and asked Victoria. She looked at me down her nose, scowling and said “I’m not sure why you care…but actually, I don’t know where he is at the moment. Why?”

I had smiled grimly and said “Time is nearly up.”

She had looked at me like I was a freak and then walked away.

  So here I am now, thinking about Carter once more. I sat down at the foot of a tree and sighed, looking at my watch again. One hour left, and then ka-boom.

  “Tick tock. Tick tock.” I whispered in a sing song voice. Time was running, running away from me, leaving me with nothing.

  After awhile, just as I decided to get up again, I heard a noise. I tensed and looked around. “Who’s there?”

  The bushes in front of me moved and out stepped Carter.

  I stared at him, not believing he was really there. “C-Carter? What are…what are you doing here?”

  Only twenty minutes left.

 “Karen…I wanted to apologize for our fight on Monday.” He said, sitting down in front of me. I kept staring at him, painfully aware of the minutes ticking away. Like I had said, tick tock.

  “Carter…did you follow me out here or something?” I finally asked, not sure what else to say. He grinned a little sheepishly. “Well, not exactly. I went to your house but your mom said you went for a walk in the park. So I came out here and finally heard you. So I kind of followed you…but not really.”

  I laughed a little, glad to be talking to him again, for one last time. Tick tock.

 “Oh Carter…well, I’m sorry I argued with you too. It’s just that…” Do I dare tell him? What do I have to lose? Ha, nothing.

 I glanced at my watch again. Fifteen minutes left. Hurry up! But before I could say anything, he spoke.

 “You see, Karen, there was something I wanted to…to talk to you about.” He paused and I suppressed the urge to yell at him to hurry up. Just say whatever you want to and get it over with!  Time is running away from us!

  But he didn’t speak. It was like he was trying to decide something, to make up his mind about something. I finally rolled my eyes and said “I have something to say too. So while you sit there thinking, let me say it.”

 Twelve minutes until I died and was gone forever.

 “Carter, I love you.”

 Okay, so that wasn’t quite how I had wanted that to come out. I had wanted to be a little more reserved, with a nice ‘I kind of like you a little bit’ or something. But I guess when you’re about to die, the large, painful truth will come out no matter what.

  He was staring at me in shock. His mouthed moved but no words came out, not even an incoherent sound. I kept a steady gaze with him, not turning away. I wasn’t even blushing, though I had surprised myself as well.

  Ten minutes.

 I willed him to hurry up and say something, anything, no matter what it was. He looked away, running his fingers through his dark hair. “Karen…”

  My stomach doing the butterfly thing, despite myself. “Yes?” I asked, almost wanting to laugh. I mean, here I was, telling him I loved him, and all the idiot could do was say my name. He couldn’t even look at me.

  But….I really loved him so much. Why didn’t I say anything sooner? I’m the real idiot.  Eight minutes.

  I stood up. “Carter, I don’t care if you don’t feel the same way, okay? I just thought you should know, before it was…too late.” I started to walk away.

 He stood up too and grabbed my arm. “No, Karen, wait. I’m sorry, it’s just this was such a surprise. I mean, the reason I came to find you was to tell you-”

  “Tell her what, Carter?” A new voice shrilled and I winced, wondering how this could get any worse.

  Of course it was Victoria.

 She toddled out from behind a tree on her extra high heels and draped a delicate arm around Carter. “What, Carter?” She asked again, her voice dripping with poison. I hit my head with my hand and then looked at my watch, anticipation starting to bubble up inside me.

  Six minutes.

  Carter looked confused as he looked at Victoria. “Hey, I told you we were through.”

 My jaw dropped. “You broke up with her?

He nodded, looking at me. “I just…I didn’t feel the same way about her like I felt for-”

  Victoria put a hand over his mouth and said “Shush, Carter. You’re just being silly.”

 Something within me wanted to scream at her. I could just tell that Carter was trying to say something important, and she kept getting in the way. Once more, I looked at my watch and my heart dropped.

 Four minutes.

Carter must have finally noticed that I kept looking at my watch. “Is something wrong?”   

 He asked as he pushed Victoria’s hand away. I sighed and nodded. “I’m going to die in exactly three minutes and fifty eight seconds.”

  They both stared at me and then Victoria gave a little laugh, as though I had told a bad joke. “Honestly, what kind of joke is that?” She asked.

  I shook my head sadly and looked at Carter. “What do you mean?” He asked, looking worried.

  “Remember when I was kidnapped? By the terrorists? I told everyone I was fine, but I lied. They implanted a bomb inside my spine, set off to go in two years time. That’s why I came here. To blow up in peace.”

  Victoria curled her lip. “Pieces, I suppose you mean.”

 Carter whirled around and shoved her. She lost balance and fell over, screeching. Then he turned back to me. “You’re serious, aren’t you.”

  I nodded and showed him my watch. The little numbers ticked down and down, taunting. Three minutes and twenty seconds left. I looked up at Carter and saw that his eyes were glassy. “You’re going to die.” He whispered in horror.

  I nodded, biting my lip. “Which is why I told you that…I love you. I wanted to say so before I died.”

  Before I knew it, his arms were around me and he was hugging me tightly. “You can’t die!” He said, tears falling down his face and running into my hair. I hugged him back, my own tears falling as well. “You should have told me.” He said and I pulled away.

  “Told you what? That I was dying or that I love you?”

 “Both.” He said.

 My watch beeped. One minute. I pushed him away and said “Grab Victoria and get out of here. I don’t know how big the explosion is going to be.”

 He was shaking his head. “I can’t…I can’t let you die!”

I laughed. “There’s nothing you can do. I have fifty seconds. Run! Now!”

 I pushed him extra hard and he started walking backwards as Victoria tugged at his arm. I walked away from them, still looking at them both. Thirty seconds left.

 Tick tock.

I was far from them both now. I could see Carter trying to run over to me but Victoria was hanging on to him tightly. Good. He wouldn’t get hurt.

 Twenty.

Ten.

Five.

I blew a kiss to him, just as he yelled something to me. I almost hear what he said, but then the roar in my ears covered all other sounds, and then I was on fire, and then…

  Carter yelled as Karen blew up, hot fire engulfing everything around her. He struggled weakly, still trying to get to her….

….but it was too late to tell her. He cried and screamed her name, shock hitting him like a rock.

 Victoria, though shaken, didn’t think much of what had happened. She hadn’t liked Karen. “Carter, it’s alright. It’s all over.”

 He shook his head violently, sobbing. “You’re right.” He said, burying his face in his hands. “It is all over. I never got to tell her…”

 He trailed off, sobbing harder. “Tell her what?” Victoria asked, feeling a little impatient. She barely heard his reply, he was so quiet. But she heard the pain in his voice, and for a moment, she felt a little guilty.

“I never got to tell her….I loved her too.”

End