The Watch – Part 104:

‘Can I ask you a question?’ Amy asked during dinner. After we had awoken from our sleep, we felt hungry from not eating breakfast or lunch. It’s mid-afternoon and we just couldn’t be bothered to cook anything, so we just ordered takeout instead. Our pizzas arrived early, which I thought deserved a decent tip, which the delivery boy was very happy about. We were sitting at the dining room table, eating our pizza with our hands. I did ask whether Amy wanted to watch anything whilst we ate our pizza, but she said that she didn’t feel like focusing on anything like that at the moment, so we sat discussing stuff.

‘Have you ever thought about just breaking away from it all and doing whatever you want, because you can?’ she asked taking a bite out of her second slice of pizza.

‘Actually, I haven’t thought about it in that specific way,’ I said. ‘I mean, I have thought to myself that I can now do anything I want, but I never thought about actually doing it,’ I explained.

‘Is that because you are afraid of what could happen, or because you are afraid of what you’ll do?’ That nap really allowed her mind to calm down a lot and think clearly. That is a rather deep question. This brings me to a topic that I guess I should have thought about a long time before now. I wanted to voice my thoughts instead of through my thoughts as that would include Amy in this. Maybe she could help me straighten things out.

‘I didn’t necessarily accept this watch through a long thought process, weighing up the pros and cons. My curiosity got the better of me and I put it on my wrist. Of course, I didn’t know what was going to happen. No one would. I guess I was so shocked at what I had that I never thought about what I could actually do.’

‘But you did think about what you wanted to with the watch. I mean, you’ve saved a bunch of people on a train. Twice, and from what you’ve told me, an entire planet from a crazy person. Those actions just prove that you did think about what you wanted to do.’

‘You think so?’ I questioned.

‘I believe that to be true,’ Amy said, ‘but what do you believe. Are you afraid of the consequences or because of what you will do?’

‘I was thinking before I acted,’ I wanted to clarify. ‘When I realised that there was a strong chance that I had caught the attention of whoever was in charge of the robot that attacked all those people at the arena, I couldn’t leave without doing anything. I would always know that I could have done something, but I didn’t, and I didn’t want that to press down on my conscience. I saved that world not only because it needed saving, but to make sure that I wouldn’t worry about the consequences of leaving. I guess I am more worried about the consequences rather that my actions. I know that actions lead to consequences and so I should worry about what I do, which I guess is why I over-think things a bit too much, because I just want to do the right thing without it leading to anything complicated. So I guess that’s my answer,’ I started eating my third slice of pizza.

‘That’s a very mature answer,’ Amy smiled with satisfaction.

‘I’m a very mature guy,’ I said immediately realising what I had said, which made me physically shudder with shame. Amy just chuckled at the increasing awkwardness. She said whilst trying not to laugh fully.

‘I’m going to put quotation marks around that and immortalise that statement.’

‘Please don’t.’ Amy’s smile was infectious, and soon I was smiling away the awkward situation, and that too naturally turned into laughter. We laughed so hard, we struggled to swallow our slice of pizza. As we were gulping for air, we got rid of our pieces, which helped us breathe better.

And then I said three words. Spontaneously. It was as if I wasn’t in control of the part of my brain that deals with language anymore, and the words just fell out of my mouth.

‘I love you.’ We instantly stopped laughing. Amy’s eyes widened with shock. She could see that I said that unexpectedly. That was the first time I openly expressed my love to Amy. She had to take a full minute to comprehended those three words and their meaning. I went red. Should I have waited to say that a lot later? I hope I haven’t made things flip upside down all of a sudden. I just sat there in silence, waiting for Amy to say anything. If I said something else, I might make things worse.

‘I love you, too,’ Amy said suddenly, making me copy her wide-eyed expression. I wasn’t expecting that. We stared each other in the eyes, not knowing what to say or do next. There is a way to move on from this, I just need to find it. There are about a billion wrong things and one right thing hidden in between. A needle in a haystack, if you will. I should let my instincts take over. They haven’t let me down yet. What’s the best thing to do in this situation?

‘Come here,’ Amy moved closer. I knew instantly what she wanted to happen.

‘No, you come here,’ I said, also moving forwards, only stopping until she was merely inches away from me. We were now in a stalemate. I wouldn’t move towards Amy and Amy wouldn’t move towards me. But then something amazing happened. Both at the same time, as if we were reading each other’s mind, moved closer and connected passionately. We kissed deeply. The pizza dropped out of our hands and fell onto the table, but we didn’t care. All sense of time was lost. Our eyes were closed, blocking out the world around us, making the Universe revolve around only us for the next few moments.

Then the doorbell rung, spoiling the entire situation. We jumped out of our moment. We opened our eyes and came back down to earth with a bump. Whoever was at the door, I would not be happy with. I’m going to give them a piece of my mind.

I didn’t have to excuse myself since I knew it was OK for me to break away and open the front door.

‘Get ready to get an ear-bashing,’ I thought to myself as I grabbed the door handle and opened the door with force. I was about to shout at whoever was behind it, when I noticed my friend Tom standing there, crying.

All anger left my system in a split second. He looked at me with bloodshot eyes, indicating that he’s been crying for some time now.

‘I need your help,’ he said.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)