9 Arc One (8)

In the blink of an eye sound poured into the changeroom as the world once more returned to normal.

"Nicky?" Louisa called again, her voice sounding slightly concerned at Nicholas' lack of a response. "Sweetie? You okay in there?"

"Of course I am. I'm just stunned speechless at my own good looks." Forcing cheer into his voice, Nicholas quickly wiped the last traces of tears off his cheeks and took a deep breath before dramatically flinging open the curtain and posing in the new shirt. "What do you think?"

The woman waiting outside took one look at Nicholas' face and dropped her bags on the ground. Not giving Nicholas a chance to protest she pushed him back into the changeroom and down onto the chair. Once he was seated, she parked herself on his knees and held his face with gentle hands.

"You're not okay. What happened? You were just trying on a shirt… how did that bring sadness to these gorgeous eyes?"

Said eyes met her own brown ones and Nicholas' found himself inexplicably blinking back tears— still emotionally fragile from the events that had really only happened approximately half an hour ago.

"I'll be okay. I'm just having a mood. Maybe it's that time of month?" He joked, trying to avoid a serious conversation. Louisa was smart though and saw right through the attempt.

"It can't be that time of month— best gal pals often sync their cycles and I'm not due so you're not due. What's really the matter?"

Nicholas sighed and closed his eyes. He couldn't keep making eye contact with Louisa if he wanted her to believe him. Thanks to the original's memories, he knew that the two of them had bemoaned getting older., and the original in particular had bemoaned getting older on his own.

"I look so damn hot you know… And for who?" When he opened his eyes Louisa was searching his face before finally accepting his excuse and slapping his shoulder.

"Cheer up buttercup. You've got me and Gabe…"

"Gabe and I."

"Shut up. It's me and Gabe, loser."

"It's not."

"It is."

"It's not."

"Hey! Which one of us actually studied English Literature at university?"

"You didn't study it. You studied the lecturer. There's a difference."

"Doesn't mean I'm not right. Nicky!" Louisa slapped his shoulder again, harder this time. "You distracted me. As I was grammatically correct in saying, you have me and Gabe growing old with you. Stop moping around about being single. There is a man out there who loves you for you. And the two of you will be awesome together. It's just obviously not the right time yet otherwise he'd be at your side already."

"As awesome as you and Gabe?"

"More awesome."

It was with a lighter heart that they continued their shopping in much the same vein as Nicholas' first experience with the World. This time, however, he remembered the poor assistant with the unfortunate name and managed to steer them past her store without incident. And without needing to apologise once more.

Throughout the day, Nicholas continued to try and work out a way around the fast approaching murder attempt.

A curious thing happens when you find yourself in a mental quandary— the more serious the problem you are trying to solve, the more knots you tie yourself into and the faster it becomes impossible to see a way through.

As a result, when the day drew to a close, Nicholas still had not figured a way through the maze. All he could think was to insist on walking to the car with Louisa, keeping a wary eye out for the stolen car. He couldn't let her get hit— he knew her death wouldn't save his life and even more so, the more time spent with her, the harder and harder it was to see her as merely a character in a game— but he also couldn't let himself die. The only option he'd thought of was to dramatically rescue her without sacrificing himself at the same time.

Unfortunately, as they waited for the lights to change before crossing the road, the details of his plan were still fuzzy.

1. Save Louisa.

2. Don't die.

Easy.

Oh, and establish his lack of connection to the (hopefully) attempted murder weapon.

"Do you have plans for next weekend?"

"Brunch with the girls, but I'm free for the afternoon. Why? What did you have in mind?"

"Brunch? With the girls? You are such a walking stereotype," Nicholas shook his head in mock exasperation. "I bet you even have mimosas and claim they're just juice."

"Sometimes we have Irish Coffee and say it's only Irish because the barista is called Sean. But I'm not a complete stereotype until I have a gay best friend to go shopping and brunching with," Louisa jostled him as they started to cross the road. "Only when I have a GBF do you get to call me a walking stereotype."

"GBF? Do I want to know?"

"Gay Best Friend. Duh. You are so 2000's… abbreviations are all the rage."

"Mutton-dressed-as-lamb alert."

"Anyway... why the interest in my brunch plans?"

"The police still haven't found my car and the insurance money came through. Want to come car shopping with me? Bout time I got myself some wheels again."

The screeching of tyres barely registered over the sound of their laughter.

Frozen in place, Nicholas stared at the car barrelling towards them.

"That's my car…MOVE!" At the last minute, Nicholas pushed Louisa towards the gutter and then threw himself forwards at the same time. Unlike his previous rescue attempt when he was still standing and therefore hit dead center, pun not intended, this time he was horizontal at the moment of impact.

Someone fired a gun— or was that the sound of his bones cracking under the tyres— and lightning danced behind his eyes. Mind numbing pain made his stomach roll and the last thing he saw before succumbing to the wavy darkness at the edges of his vision, was Louisa's panicked face as she hovered her hands over his body, hesitant to touch him but desperate to help.

"Stay with me Nicky… stay with me… it'll be okay… You'll be okay… Nicky? Nicky!"