At 11:59

Yeh

And then suddenly she turned towards my direction.

There she was, the most beautiful girl I had ever laid my eyes on; maybe because I had never laid eyes on another girl since I met her. Not necessarily that we've met personally and thats what kills me slowly.

She stood there elegantly with her her hair permed to perfection, then she adjusted her glasses with one finger e little up the bridge of her nose.

Her eyes meet mine for a split second for me to realise maybe could actually notice me but she doesn't. I'm probably just one of the many people she sees on a random Tuesday morning. Her phone in one hand and a small coach bag in the other.

I stop walking, not because I wanted to but because something in me refused to move forward.

I knew her. Of course I did.

But not in the way people know each other, in the way you know something you've been near your whole life...without ever touching it.

My throat tightens slightly.

I should walk away which is the normal thing to do, but I don't. Then I see her walking towards me.

My mind starts doing what it always does when I get too close to something I can't control.

It goes somewhere else. Then I think about my mum.

The tired eyes and the visible weakness. The slow tears that ran down because she had given up while fighting. I think about what I had seen before and my mind goes about it over and over again like an endless loop.

I had seen it and learnt it the hard way.

Don't do it the hard way.

A shout from one of the students bolts me back k to rally and I see her again.

Still walking stealthily towards me, unaware that my entire life had paused without permission. And like I always did-

I looked