"Do you usually do this?" I ask the strange man sitting in front of me, he glances at me quizzically as I take a sip of my drink. The Doctor and I had decided that after his outburst of speech accompanied by my own we should try to escape the harsh coldness of winter and take shelter in a nearby coffee shop.
"Do what?" The Doctor asks, crossing his arms and leaning slightly closer over the table we are sitting at. I place my coffee down unbelievingly, seeing he has no clue concerning what I'm talking about.
"Do you always try and impress girls with poetic words to get them to have a coffee with you?" He opens his mouth to reply but I put one hand up gesturing for him to wait. "It's the whole thing. The outfit, your strange name that's really just a title. Everything about you is confusing, like I'm constantly trying to figure out why I trust you so much. I must admit it works well."
"I... Have a nice face?" He shrugs, probably trying to make a joke. "I don't know. People just like me."
"Can you give me some of that? Life sure would be a whole lot easier if people would just like me." I look down glumly as The Doctor stirs the milkshake I bought him with the bendy straw he demanded.
"Why? Are you a horrible person?"
"What? Of course not!" I exclaim causing him to grin. "It's just people take one look at my nonexistent confidence and say 'Yeah I'm not leaving any responsibility in your hands'."
I mimic the voice of a horrible dance teacher I had at school, I must have said it too loudly though because a few customers in the store waiting for their drinks start to look at me with disapproval. I hate small towns.
"You seem pretty confident with talking to me."
"That's only because I'm half convinced you're actually some figment of my imagination. Either that or you're a con artist. And I must warn you, I'm prepared for anything." That's a lie. "But the fact you mentioned not knowing what year it is earlier is really intriguing me because part of me really wants you to be real."
"You're kind of weird Lia Marie." The amusement on his face makes my cheeks go instantly red as I stumble for words to reply with.
"Call me Lia, and you can't say I'm weird, you're infinitely more weird."
"True." His warm smile seems to melt my thoughts and I find myself instead smiling back.
"2016." I blurt out.
"Hmm?"
"The year, its 2016. When were you aiming for?" I tease, picking up my coffee again to finish it off. "Wow my jokes are lame..."
"No! That was entirely accurate." I look up at him in confusion. "I'm exactly in the right time zone, though that is strange... My friends wanted to go to some festival I've never heard of that happens every leap year, I thought I had the date wrong."
"Oh you mean the Leap Year Birthday Festival? That's awesome, maybe I'll see them tomorrow."
"Its tomorrow? Well, at least I was almost accurate. Anyway!" The Doctor stands up abruptly and I follow him out the door. "I better get back to my friends."
"Oh... " I can't seem to hide how disappointed I am, I wish I could follow him to wherever he is going. But my whole 'conquering the world' goal is waiting for me. "Yeah, well I guess I should get back to job searching."
He stops walking as we reach the exact part of the street we met not long ago. "You should try the library around the corner next."
"Why? Are there some books in there to show me how much of a failure I am?" I ask sarcastically. I am now decided, I will never end up with a job, the entire world hates me and the one person who first shows interest in me is a stranger on the street who only wants to get back to his friends.
"No. I heard one of the workers there just left." He leans close to me, before whispering in my ear. "I think she won the lottery."
If I didn't know any better I would assume the smile on his face was a smug one. But I shake it off and stand up straight with whatever confidence I have within me.
"I guess I could become a librarian. Sounds more interesting then feeling bad for myself." I say to out loud.
"Exactly!"
We stand in silence for a few moments, me, not wanting to move away from this moment, while The Doctor seems like he never wants to leave but can't wait to get moving at the same time.
"It was a pleasure to meet you Lia Marie. And don't worry. Spring is coming, Spring makes everything better." The way he speaks gives off an air of meaning. That he is trying to send me a message in some strange way that I sadly do not get.
Within a few seconds we say our goodbyes and part ways. I am left on my own with the feeling of loss of a potential friend. Maybe we should have exchanged numbers, or arranged to meet up again, but something about that man tells me he isn't the sort to do that.
So I walk away and hope that it isn't the last time I will see him. I hope that I find him or his friends at the festival tomorrow.
He was right though, there was a job available at the library, it was like a dream come true to find work where I'm surrounded by stories and adventures, even if they aren't me own.
I did go to the festival the next day but I couldn't find the man in the bowtie walking amongst the crowd and ended up going back to my hotel room filled with disappointment. I waited days, which quickly turned into two months searching everywhere for the strange man. But eventually I had no choice but to give up all hope. He really was someone who was gone in the blink of an eye. So I stopped imagining stories including this Doctor, and instead focused on my job at the library.
My Father always told me when he was alive that there is always calm before the storm, that no matter what happens there must always be nothing before something good happens so we can really appreciate it. And so as I swept the floors inside the public library I thought back to those words trying to find the real meaning.
It was like the moment the idea struck me that maybe the storm could be a good thing, the entire world decided to go quiet. I looked around the room to see nothing was immediately different, but the sounds of people talking, the noises of birds outside, were gone. Everything was replaced instead with an eerily silence.
I don't know what a normal person would do in this situation. So instead of being normal I ran out of the building into the street, turning around on my feet as my eyes took in the sight of everyone frozen completely in place around me. Every bird and animal in sight was frozen too, whether they were midair or sitting in a tree. As I finally completed my turn my eyes landed at my feet, taking in the sight of that man. The man with the bowtie, still wearing the same tweed coat.
Lying in front of me was the very unconscious Doctor, who hadn't been lying there moments before. He had a gash on his head and a hand where his heart must be, looking like he is in a great deal of pain.
I rush to his side and make sure he doesn't have any other bleeding cuts not immediately obvious to me, but as soon as my hand touches his arm he flinches away. His eyes opening wide to realise that I am kneeling over him with worry.
"What- What is going on? Where am I?" He sits up slightly and rests on his elbows, looking around the street uncertainly. "Well I'm definitely on earth... Did you kidnap me?"
I look at him with bewilderment, me? The girl holding a broom like it's a weapon that means the difference between life and death? Sure, I totally kidnapped him.
"Kidnap you? I'm just as clueless as you are right now. Why has everyone stopped moving?"
"That's not the question you should be asking right now. The question is, why did I wake up right next to you immediately after we said goodbye?"
And there we have it. Chapter Two! I'm really looking forward to this story and I hope everyone likes it, I'm writing it for me and not the reviews but they do make my day. I hope everyone has a great week, until the next time!
Special thanks to Charlie, Sabye andRosesroses25 for reviewing, you literally made my week.