The Air Out Of [Wattys2018 shortlist]

002 - oscar

"I'll see you tonight, babe." She kissed him, wrapping her tender fingers around his next, although intended as a quick peck, it was as passionate as ever, he hated to break it off, but caressed her cheek as a form of temporary goodbye, "Bye, Oscar."

"Nat." he nodded, the door clicking shut behind him.

Like every other day, he had begun to take a routinely detour to the coffeeshop down fifth
avenue, almost rushing to the moderately sized store as soon as he managed to slip out of the elevator. Oscar had begun to tuck himself further into his hood as the morning wind breezed by as he slipped through a familiar set of glass doors.

Isaac, the bartender had an eye for regulars, and gave Oscar a subtle nod as he approached, "Rough night?" he asked, already working on his order. A large mug of Americano, "Your usual?"

"Please." He groaned, rubbing his eyes one more time. "Birthday last night. Nat and I went crazy."

The bartender, who nearly matched his age merely offered a small smile before passing out his order, "Good luck at work today, bro. From the looks of it, you'll need it."

He nodded, sliding over to one of the couches at the back of the store. If there was one thing he needed now, it was peace. After all, he had a lot on his plate today. Foreign guests were a rare occasion, and he had been appointed to cruise them through their day.

The city buzz enclosed him, as he, a typical Wall Street (not really, he's only twenty-four!) businessman ran out to hail a cab before the feeling of disastrous traffic sunk in. He spared a glance at the clock, he wouldn't be late.

Oscar missed the good old days, and by that, he meant college. High school. School. Anything. When his hands first touched the elegant feel of his diploma, he felt nothing but pride, but now, he suddenly wished if said diploma could be dumped in the bin and he could redo everything.

He hadn't kept in contact with the others, and to this day, his lack of effort was his biggest regret. They had chosen to go their separate paths, but yet, he knew that he secretly missed the ever-so-radiant and annoying group that the five had completed.

The four of the latter repeated their senior year, Jess, taking a jump to college with her passable GPA, but the different high schools hadn't kept them apart, the four meeting up on a daily basis, sometimes joined by Jess on a phone call, but soon enough, the year had passed and when everyone had gone to college, they had separated in an instant.

Oscar used to think that it was simply meant to be, but he knew, deep inside that it wasn't.

He regretted it, but he knew that there was nothing he could do to change it. They had all simply drifted apart, and to him, only time could fix something like that. And time was something they didn't have.

"Oscar." His boss nodded in his direction as he smoothed down his tie one last time. He had clocked in his shift just over five minutes ago via a fingerprint scanner and now the two were waiting outside the grand building complex for their guests who were no doubt just around the corner.

He nodded, offering a confident smile. It was one thing to be nervous, and another to be so nervous that pretending to not appear nervous was making you nervous. Life was wonderful, wasn't it?

Soon enough the familiar look of the company limousine had just pulled up and the guests begun to file out, shaking the hands of him and his boss in the most systematic manner in mankind, the amount of etiquette it took to proceed to the second hour of the day was unbelievably overwhelming, and it was getting really boring. Oscar wanted to be any place but here.

Any.

Fast forward to the first meeting of the day, the hour which Scar had dreaded the most, boring, at this moment was something he was wishing for, at least it was better than publicly humiliating himself in front of the most powerful people in regards to his job.

Jessica and he were rehearsing their lines, going over the fundamentals of their general scheme of work. It had taken months to draw a definite conclusion, but it had definitely paid off, and he had to be ready, just like he had to be ready to leave Covia despite desperately wanting to stay and avoid all other arising problems.

In short, it had to be done.

But, ten minutes before the two were scheduled to make the reveal of the season and talk with highly flowery, complicated and artistic words that would leave the audience without any opposition, his phone, stationed in his pocket had begun to buzz. At first, he thought it was Natalie, excusing himself to deliver a short message that he was busy, but it had appeared to be an unknown number.

A closer look upon which would reveal that it was a familiar number, a very familiar one. Jess. And she wasn't just calling him. She was calling everyone.

Your past and present will always collide, his mother's words echoed in his head. You can't escape it.

His breath hitched, and against his better judgment, he joined the call, feeling a sharp thrust of nostalgia as he did such.

"Hey," her voice echoed, and her voice took him back. To the good old days.