Time Out (BxB)

Believe the unbelievable

"Oof I'm stuffed. That was so delicious." I said as I put aside my plate. "Thanks for the meal, Jordan."

"You're welcome." He smiled in response. "Does your head feel any better now?"

"I told you already, I didn't hit my head." I gave him a blank stare.

"Ahito, are you sure you can walk home by yourself? I can come with you if you want." He offered.

"Thanks but I'm really okay, I brought my sister's bike so it won't take too long for me to get back." I glanced at the pink junk that I 'parked' near the tree, just to make sure no one stole it. Not that anyone would. That bike was so old the thief would have to carry it on his back.

"I'm still not convinced that you're alright." Jordan couldn't help but be concerned.

"Geez, since when did you become so worried about my health?" I grinned playfully. "Besides everything's fine."

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow. "Because a few minutes ago you said you could control time. That doesn't really sound like a sane person to me."

"You don't believe it?" I was slightly offended. "Fine, I can prove it. Let's go outside."

I went behind the restaurant in the alleyway where no one would be able to see us. Jordan followed me without any objections.

"Okay, you stay there." I told him as I took a few steps away from him. "Now I'll snap my fingers and teleport to you so don't freak out okay? Well technically speaking I won't exactly be teleporting. I'll just pause time, walk towards you and resume it."

"I can't wait to see that..." Jordan added a sarcastic remark.

"Are you ready?"

"Yep..." He let out a soft sigh.

"One, two, three..." I counted. "Here goes nothing."

I pressed my middle finger on my thumb and the time froze yet again. The sound of the cars that were driving just a moment ago suddenly stopped and got replaced by pure silence. I put my right foot forward as I closed the distance between me and Jordan whose face had an extremely weird expression stuck on it. It was actually quite funny and I certainly would have laughed my ass off if it weren't for the fact that I was feeling pretty sleepy after that meal and all I wanted was to get this whole thing over with so I could go back to my bed and continue my beauty nap.

Once I was close enough to Jordan's body I snapped my fingers and his watch started ticking again. "Voilá"

"Aaah ," Jordan jumped back and fell on his butt as his heart started racing. "What the heck!"

"I told you." I offered a hand to help him get up which he took after a second of hesitation. "So do you believe me now?"

"How is this possible?" He asked.

"I don't know..."

"How long were you able to do this?"

"Since this afternoon." I replied.

"Have you told anyone else?"

"No, and you can't tell anyone either." I demanded.

"I don't think anybody would believe me even if I tried to tell them." He said jokingly.

"I have to go now." I felt the sleepiness coming over me so I decided it would be best to get back home early. "Thanks again for the meal."

"Alright but we'll have to have a discussion about this whole thing later, okay?" I sensed the slightest bit of disappointment from his tone which disappeared soon afterwards. "Thanks for saving me by the way." Jordan flashed his white teeth at me.

"You're welcome." I waved my palm before grabbing my bike and getting on it.

"See you at school." His voice was fading behind me as I started riding back home.

When I was on my way I finally got the chance to think about what happened. I knew this whole thing was quite strange but I was actually pretty grateful that I received this power. I just needed to keep it a secret or people would start thinking I was going crazy.

To be honest the main reason why I demonstrated my power to Jordan wasn't because I cared about whether he believed in me or not. I actually wanted to test my powers or if I had them at all in fact. There was a possibility that I had dreamt the whole thing or something, at least now I knew that wasn't the case. I actually could pause time and I actually saved Jordan's life. Good job, me!

Once I returned my sister's bicycle to where I took it from I noticed that the car was still at the front which seemed strange to me considering it was almost 5 pm and that was when Hitomi's figure skating practice usually started.

"Hitomi!" I called out my sister's name when I was at the porch.

"Over here..." Her voice echoed through the building from upstairs so I went to her room.

"What are you doing? Shouldn't you be getting ready for your figure skating practice? Where are our moms?" I asked.

"Sakura's at work and Dominique is downstairs drinking." She replied.

"I thought one of them was supposed to take you..." I stated.

"Dominique's too drunk for that." She seemed pretty upset as she said that.

"Why is she drinking? What happened?" I questioned her.

"I don't know... Just leave me alone." Hitomi stood up from her bed angrily and slammed the door in front of my face.

"You little brat!" I frowned as I muttered under my breath.

Afterwards I decided to go downstairs to check what Dominique was up to since according to Hitomi she was quite drunk but Dominique I knew never liked alcohol.

"Mom," I called out for her. "Where are you?"

"Over here, sweetie." Her voice reached my ears from the kitchen. Her thick French accent was still distinguishable even though I could barely hear her mumbling.

"Is everything okay?" I couldn't help but worry a little bit.

Seeing Dominique in this condition was definitely not something that happened often. Her naturally curly brown hair was usually very clean but now it was quite the opposite of that. Her light red lipstick was smudged on her cheeks. One of her fake eyelashes was stuck on her forehead and the mix of her eye shadow and tears was creating lines on her face that kind of reminded me of a river.

"Why were you crying, what happened?"

"Oh it's nothing, really..." Even in this state she was still trying to assure me.

"It doesn't seem like nothing." I said as I noticed a piece of cake stuck on her beautiful dark skin.

"I'm sorry that you have to see me like this..." Dominique's eyes widened as she recalled something. "Oh f**k, I completely forgot about Hitomi's practice."

I stopped her as she tried to reach out to her purse to take the car keys. "I'll take her, don't worry."

"Thanks, sweetie." She gave me a nurturing smile.

"It's no problem but you should probably take a shower and clean up because when Sakura comes back home she won't be happy about this." I suggested.

"Crap, I have to clean this place up first." She started grabbing the empty wine bottles.

"I'll take care of everything. You just take a long shower. When I take Hitomi I'll come back and tidy up the house."

"Have I ever told you that you're the best son I ever had?" Dominique grinned at me.

"I'm the only son you ever had." I responded warmly.

"I'm really sorry about all of this. I promise you'll never see me like this ever again." Her tone changed into something more serious and I knew that she meant every word. Dominique was someone who never broke her promises and I was sure this wouldn't be an exception.

"Can you tell me what happened though?" I couldn't help but wonder.

"I was fired..." She sulked.

"What?" I was genuinely surprised. "But you love your job and you're really good at it. Why did they fire you?"

"I'll tell you all about it later but now you have to take Hitomi to practice or she'll be late." It looked like Dominique was already sobering up a bit. "Please be careful, sweetie. I know you don't have much experience in driving so go super slow if you have to. Your safety is more important than anything."

"Okay, I love you." I gave her a short hug.

"Love you too."

A few minutes later Hitomi was all dressed up and ready to leave but once I sat in front of the wheel she quickly buckled her seat-belt and started praying.

"What are you doing? You're not even religious." I raised an eyebrow.

"I was baptized, remember?"

"Yeah, we both were but I was four and you were two, we didn't really have a choice." I replied. "You never even go to church with mom."

"I might start going there if I survive this car ride." I couldn't tell if she was being serious or not. "Besides you don't go to church either."

"Yeah but that's because I'm not religious." I answered as I started the car.

"Oh, Sweet Baby Jesus, save me please." She closed her eyes.

"Girl, do you want me to take you to your stupid figure skating thingy or not?"

"Fine... I'm sorry." She finally apologized. "Just don't kill us on the way."

"I make no such promises."