115

Afterward, Sarah and I put our clothes back on. She took out her glasses from her pocket, which had stayed perfectly intact, fitting them back to the bridge of her nose. She surprised me with another tight embrace when I turned to her. I was more than happy to accept those any time. When her arms fell away from me, she took a deep breath through her nose. I looked to her with a smile upon my face.

"You good?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said with a content sigh, "I'm great, actually." The two of us shared a laugh. She then took a brief look around. "It's so strange. How everything looks normal, but ... it's so quiet and so... still. It really is peaceful, but after the way you explained it, it feels kind of like an eerie peaceful."

"I know what you mean," I replied as I rested against the nearby wall. "The day I figured out I even had this power, I stopped time and walked around the city I lived in. For a little while, it was so cool knowing that I could just run around anywhere I wanted and there was nothing around to stop me from going anywhere. It kind of felt like ... being in a video game, I guess." She chuckled. "But after that, it was really stale. Not having any interaction with anyone or anything was boring. I had this amazing power to stop time and I was disappointed with it. That's why it feels a million times better to be able to share it with someone else."

"I can understand that," she said as she touched my arm. "Why have a one-player game when you can have a two-player game?"

"That's true," I replied, grinning. Then my grin faded as I thought about how I'd come clean about my power to so many different people. "You know, I feel like ... you're the last one I can share this secret with." She looked at me inquisitively. "I've told and showed some people before you. After this, I don't feel like there's anyone else to tell."

"Will you keep using your power to share with your friends or ... will you give it up?"

"Give it up?" I asked, taken aback by the very idea. "Wow... I never even considered that. ... Like I said, it's just not as great when there's nobody to share it with. ... Maybe I will do that. Maybe I'll just ... I don’t, keep it on a 'shelf' or something until I need to really use it."

"But you wouldn't abuse it, right? I mean, you haven't used it to ... do anything bad?"

I couldn't help but chuckle and smirk. I felt like she knew me so well.

"I haven't," I replied with a reassuring nod. "Sure, I pulled an innocent prank on my teacher with it the day I'd gotten in, but..." I trailed off, furring my eyebrow. I found myself deep in thought for a brief moment. She stared at me, eagerly waiting for what I had to say next. "You know, there was a moment when I thought to myself about how much trouble I could've caused. I could've just ... stopped time for one car in the middle of the street and caused all the cars behind it to crash. I could've stopped the weather completely. I could've halted the tides, heck, I probably could've stopped the moon from orbiting around earth." Then, I sighed heavily and shook my head. "But I don't want to do that. What's the point of causing harm to people with my power? Really, all I've wanted this whole time was to lay low about it as much as possible and just be careful with who I let know about it."

"Wow," she softly spoke. "I'm so proud of how responsible and ... reserved you are. I don’t that I wouldn't have just freaked out and told everyone at some point."

"It crossed my mind once or twice," I said with a laugh. She smiled at me.

"Well, I'm happy you decided reason over craziness. It's just another reason for me to be happy to call you my friend."

"Thanks," I replied, feeling so very fulfilled by her words. Maybe it was just the kind of closure I needed on using my time-stopping power.

Her eyes then lit up as terror came across her face. "Oh, shoot! What about Jordan? We left her there this whole time."

I laughed, waving my hand to calm her down. "It's been a while for us, but for her it's still only been those few minutes since we left her and came out here."

"Oh, that's right," she said with a relieved sigh. "You know, with how calm you've been about all this, I completely forgot time's been stopped."

"Ready to go back?" I asked with a grin. She nodded and smiled.

"Whenever you are."

I gave her a nod back and then casually blinked to restore time. I turned my head to the staff member who continued on his stride, having not noticed a thing. Sarah and I chuckled to each other knowingly and went back into the building together.

"By the way," she said as we walked back through the halls, "you don't have to worry about me telling Jordan. I mean, yeah, we tell each other everything, but ... some things are better off kept personal."

"Thank you, Sarah," I said with gratitude in my voice. She chuckled.

"Anytime."

Then, we headed out into the courtyard, bustling with students chatting and walking every which way. We approached the picnic bench Jordan was waiting for us at. She spotted us while sipping from her soda can with a straw. There were two plates with pizza slices waiting for us on the table. I was pretty hungry after all of that, so it was a very welcome sight.