The Alpha Timebound’s Mate

****Lyra*****

The street outside my pastry shop buzzed with people. Vendors were calling out prices from behind their colorful stalls, our counters were piled high with croissants, muffins, and pies. The aroma of sugar, butter filled everywhere.

Inside , the afternoon sun streamed through the front glass, turning the shop warm and a little too bright. I stood up from the chair I was sitting in and walked to the counter where I arranged my pastries ( croissant, pies, tarts) in order to adjust them from the sun's rays.

“Give me one croissant,” I heard a manly voice say.

I turned to the direction of where the voice came from and my gaze landed on a man, probably in his late thirties. His eyes were impatient.

“How many do you care for?” I inquired, sliding open the glass door of the display. The rich aroma of butter, and sugar wafted up, making me sweet and proud.

“Just one.” He snapped, his voice laced with order.

I gave him what he requested and swiped his card for payment. He took a bite, and he suddenly spat it out.

“This croissant tastes horrible!!” He yelled while he threw them back at me. “If you don't know how to make pastries, why even open a pastry shop?”

As he blurted out those words, I felt like entering the ground. Words failed me at that point, not knowing what to utter. Because, in all honesty, the pastries I made today were the best I have made.

For the past six months, I have been encountering different complaints from my customers, which was never like that before, not until Gabriella, my ex-friend decided to open her pastry shop beside mine.

“I’m s-o-rry ” I finally said with my voice trembling tears sufficing my eyes.

I could hear different voices uttering horrible statements besides me, those voices were obviously from Gabriella and her other friends.

“She looks like her croissant—flat and dry,”

“A winch selling pastries.”

“Horrible just like her”

The last voice was from the man that came to me, it was then it hit me, that he was from Gabriella’s camp.

My throat tightened. For a second, I thought about fighting back, shouting that they were jealous, that my pastries were still better than theirs, but what were the points? They didn’t deserve my words, and I don’t wanna get beaten up by them again.

I turned, blinked away my tears and walked back into the shop. But was it that easy to shake off… no! Different thoughts of when Gabriella and I, laughing, baking, sharing secrets and goals, swirled into my head.

“Even when people try to bully you,I will stand up for you,” Gabriella had told me, when I was in her room, crying about how my classmates harassed me in the class that day.

During high school, life wasn’t easy for me because I was an orphan, but Gabriella made me smile in the position that I ought to have cried.

Although, she kept to her promises before and after high school, not until she changed drastically. What made her change? I don’t know!! And I tried to talk to her, but instead of talking I was beaten up.

Grrgh Grghh

The sudden rang of my alarm jolted me out of my thoughts, I picked up my phone, and time stared back at me ‘8:00pm’

“It's late already,” I said, as I hurriedly packed my bag, locked my stalls and left.

••••••••••••••••••

The street was buzzing with different means of transportation, the smell of alcohol mixed with the engine steam filled the air, and different people walking around the street, minding their businesses.

I got to the train station payment segment, I dug through my bag, but I couldn’t find my train payment card, it was then it hit me that I didn’t pick it.

My hands trembled searching all through the bag “Oh, no…” I breathed. “I didn’t pick it,”

Going back to the shop meant a long walk in the dark and looking at the trouble I could find myself in, it’s better I trekked since it was just a 15minutes walk.

“Let’s walk it,” I said, while I pivoted to my street.

As I was walking different thoughts swirled into my mind, I had nothing in my refrigerator to eat, and I didn’t make any sales either to buy groceries.

Suddenly, my gaze landed on something that drew me away from my thoughts.

“What is this?!” I exclaimed with a tone laced with curiosity.

It looked like a leaf, but not normal leaf like I have been seeing around, it had a golden shining color, unlike the most popular green ones. I moved closer to it, still lost in awe of how beautiful, unique the leaf was.

“Let me pick to add to my flower collection,” I declared, while my hand was already on the floor.

But something unexpected happened as my hand touched it, the wind started blowing, turning me around, my eyes were twirling, the wind was carrying me around. My hair whipped my face; my feet lifted off the ground.

“What’s happening?” I screamed, but the words vanished into the wind.

Suddenly, I felt myself landing on a hard surface. My eyes darkened immediately and I lost consciousness.

****************

“She’s a new student,”

“If she is a new student, she ought not to be in this room,” I heard a voice reply to the first statement, but I wasn't sure what they meant.

I moved my body, but the softness on what I was laying on was totally different from the one I landed on when the storm carried.

I opened my eyes expecting to see the pavement… of my room, or maybe a hospital but everything took a turn when my stare landed on a moving mechanical metal, and I tried to rub off my eyes. Maybe I haven't awakened fully, and I opened again. But this time I was looking at two same mechanical objects conversing exactly like human beings.