Happy Endings

21. truth

"I've been staring at the world from a tightrope. Worried sick, but I'm hanging on to high hopes."

☼

A narrow hallway.

A crowded room.

He didn't know where he was. Not that it mattered. He felt like a spectator to some kind of movie. The kind of movie he'd seen before but for some reason forgot. He was seeing everything and everyone as he stood there. Or floated. He didn't know. He couldn't feel anything other than– he couldn't feel anything at all actually. He was just... there.

Watching.

He wasn't alone. He could feel the presence of other people around him. A blink, and they were all gone.

An empty room.

Light comes from big, square windows. To his left.

To his right, someone. A person sitting there beside him. But he couldn't see them. He couldn't turn his head. He could only stare at the paper in front of him.

He was sitting too. He couldn't make out what the paper said. He knew he was supposed to write down something. He didn't know what.

The person beside him was writing too. He could see the movement of the pen, but not the person holding it.

Hands.

Steady hands scribbling on paper. Confident words splattered in ink.

He felt something then. Some sort of pain, but he didn't know where it came from. He tried to move again. This time he could. He held the pen in his hand. Turned to look.

The person wasn't there anymore.

A blink and he was standing in the middle of a football field.

That person was there too.

Another blink and he was walking down a street.

They walked with him.

A blink and he was nowhere.

And they were still there.

Another blink.

They were everywhere.

And for a second he understood, he knew everything and everything made sense.

He made sense.

But just as fast as it came, just as fast it was gone...

... And the harmonic, beeping sound of the alarm clock on his bedside table woke Kellin up.

——

Tuesday morning found Kellin Quinn texting his boss Phoebe, asking if he could go to her office to talk about something important. The answer came seconds later saying of course.

He expected her to be busy.

He'd been delaying the inevitable for a day already. He was going to finally talk about the budget issue on Monday, but he procrastinated enough time with work to actually ask during the day. Plus, he noticed Phoebe was barely at her office during the day too. It wasn't entirely his fault. Now though, it was time.

When Kellin walked into Phoebe's office he was greeted with the smell of freshly brewed coffee, and somehow that was comforting enough. Kellin's boss was typing away on her laptop and, realizing he was there, motioned for him to sit in the coral chair in front of her desk.