*Beep!*
*Beep!*
*Beep!*
Summer drowsily reached a hand over to her bedstand and turned the alarm off, she glanced at the hour like she had been doing every now and then throughout the night.
6:45.
'Cheer up, cheer up, cheer up!'
Since she no longer lived in her family home, Summer gave herself the much needed pep talk that none of her brothers could give her anymore. She got up registering the burning sensation in her eyes and the aching sensation in her muscles because of all the tensing over the prophecy during the night. She walked like a corpse to the bathroom and went through her morning routines.
***
"SHE SAID WHAT!"
"Shh!" Summer placed her index finger on her brother's lips to seal them, when she was sure that he wasn't going to shout again, she removed her hand then turned around and pressed the button that lifts the windows of the car up to close them.
She didn't plan on sharing anything with her younger brother about the Gipsy. She was only dropping Gabe off at his university like she did every morning since it was on her way to work, but he kept nagging her to tell him why she looked that depressed and what had bothered her that deeply, Summer simply couldn't lie or hide things from him.
It was unbelievable! The man had an installed lying detector in his brain by default! He always called his big sister out on her half-truths.
Summer sighed, "I thought you weren't superstitious,"
"I'm not of course," He made a case of pointing his thumb behind his back, Summer followed the direction his finger pointed at and mentally read the name of the faculty he went to.
She narrowed her eyes at him, "So what if you're going to med school? Are doctors not allowed to believe in metaphysics? That's really close minded of you,"
He gave her a bemused look, "YOU, on the other hand, are the most superstitious person I know, this will control your life if you let it…"
"Ha..haha…" Summer tried and failed to laugh the whole thing off in an attempt to refute him, she ended up squirming under her brother's intense gaze.
"So, what now? Are you planning on dating the whole neighborhood until you find Mr. what's his face?!" He almost squeaked at the end, his sharp words had Summer's face falling.
Gabe couldn't digest the fact that his sister who had very little experience around men had to go under that amount of pressure. 'A literal deadline to find love?' He racked his brain trying to find a great guy he can send her on a date with, the idea was less than comfortable, but he had to give her a diversion seeing how she stayed up the whole night after believing the made-up crap some fraud spewed.
'I was an idiot to think that he wouldn't be like the rest of them,' Summer misinterpreted her brother's vocal and then silent concerns, she thought he was treating her the same way her older brother and parents would. Still, she couldn't get herself to become mad at him. Summer owed him big times.
In fact, the only reason why her family was okay with her changing the state was that her little brother decided to tag along with her, of course, they had no idea that the siblings were living separately. Gabe crashed at his friend's house while she rented an apartment on her own.
"…You have to get going now, I'll be late for work," she murmured. One of his friends passed by their car right then.
"Okay… I'll talk to you in the evening, don't do anything stupi-… I mean don't do anything without really thinking about it, okay?" He opened the door and slammed it behind him without waiting for her to give him an answer, he started running after his friend.
"…What a nice way of showing love to your dying sister," Summer mumbled sarcastically. She didn't regret telling him, in fact, she knew that as Valentine's Day got closer, she'd grow more anxious and seek the comfort of being near Gabe, it would be more awkward to cling to him in the very near future if he lacked the context behind her actions.
Her eyes flickered over to her wristwatch. She wondered if she should just resign and then book a ticket to somewhere exotic where she could spend the rest of her days enjoying life on a remote island with lots of handsome men… preferably in a swimsuit.
"Haaa…" Summer bumped her head against the steering wheel. 'Just because my time is over, it doesn't mean that I should harvest my parents remaining life force and take them down with me,' Fleeing the scene was not an option for her, and an island full of handsome single men who'd dote on her or empathize with her for dying young was downright some little girl's fantasy.
*Knock*
*Knock*
Right when she was about to start the engine, she heard a light knocking on the window. When she glanced up to her left, she smiled and waved back at the hand that was waving to her, the man's sparkling hazel eyes seemed lighter under the sunlight and were as warm and as kind as ever.
Summer lowered her window again to talk to him.
"Good morning, Summer!" Her childhood friend who happened to work in the accounting department at the university Gabe goes to greeted her with a wide smile.
"How are you, professor?" She teased; he wasn't a professor at all. She started calling him that when he first got the job at this university.
He gave her a fake frown then smiled again right after, "A little better now after seeing you,"
The words that should not have conveyed an undercurrent meaning on any other normal day suddenly twisted and turned in her sleep-deprived head. Summer couldn't help but remember a few of the many ideas that taunted her throughout the night. The fortuneteller told her that true love was right around the corner. 'Could it be Patrick?'
She threw a glance at her rearview mirror and then checked her side ones to see if there was a 'literal' corner where she had parked the car today, if she happened to be parking in a corner, then perhaps it was a sign from universe?
The road was as flat as a pancake.
"Summer, are you okay?" Patrick glanced right and left, wondering why she looked this jumpy and wondering if there was somebody around bothering her.
"Yeah… I'm alive and kicking…" she murmured. 'For now,' She added mentally.
"…Hey, I was wondering if you'd like to go up and have a cup of coffee in my office, er… to check it out, I mean," Patrick scratched his neck awkwardly.
"Some other time, professor, I'm late for work… bye now…" she sounded half dead as she closed the window.
"Oh, some other time then," he waved with a smile beneath a frown and went ahead on his way.
'Not him,' Summer started thinking about other men she might've neglected since Patrick wasn't on her list of possible true loves. Her mood got a little bit better after seeing her childhood friend since she had completely forgotten about him. Maybe she still had hope of locating 'true love' and surviving Valentine's Day after all.