My Universe

30: “I was thinking about peaches.”

“Which came first? The egg or the chicken?”

The brunette got to successfully recruit the raven to join her one-member club in avoiding school. The main purpose of wanting to skip classes was to distract Winter from thinking too much about her ex-girlfriend’s alternate self which was clearly making her feel overwhelmed with mixed emotions; though there was another purpose beneath it secretly and that was the fact that Aster did not like going to school or doing anything related as it was boring. After all, Aster was not a bad person who would skip school just to do whatever she wants and leave her alternate self on that universe with a much more miserable life after six months.

Currently, the both of them were having a walk around together with Aster asking random questions to Winter, who had been silent for the whole time. It was obvious that the raven was thinking about the blue-haired woman that she saw earlier and the brunette knew just what to do to make her think of anything but that woman. For the past ten minutes that they had been walking, it was all just about the brunette asking random questions that would make the raven think hard for the answer.

“Uh. The chicken, maybe,” Winter answered without giving much thought on it as she kept her eyes glued on the direction that they were going to since her mind was flying elsewhere.

“Are you sure about that? You’re not even gonna think about it?” Aster replied while raising an eyebrow.

“All right, fine.” The raven let out a sigh as she rolled her eyes before analyzing the question in her mind that the latter asked, putting the image of her ex-girlfriend’s alternate self aside for a while.

There was a park from a distance as the both of them decided to cross the street and take a break from walking on a bench. There were only a few people, mostly adults, around the park. A man was having a walk with their golden retriever, a man in an office attire was having a smoke on a bench as he obviously looked like he went out to take a cigarette break to relieve stress from work, and a woman was having a video call with someone on her phone under a tree. The park was not filled with a lot of people than usual since it was a weekday, after all.

“Have you thought of your final answer?” The brunette slumped down the bench and patted the empty space next to her as she looked at the latter.

“Yeah. The egg definitely came first.” Winter shrugged as she took a seat beside her, letting out a sigh of relief while she leaned back on her seat.

The bench that they chose to take a rest on was under a tree, which made the sunlight be unable to burn and blind them. Though the weather was sunny, the temperature still threw in some coldness which made both of the women satisfied while they rested under the tree and watched the dog run in excitement to catch the frisbee that its owner tossed.

“What made you change your answer?” The brunette raised an eyebrow as she turned to her.

“Chickens come from eggs, so eggs are obviously the answer.”

Aster nodded in agreement as she let out a chuckle in a bit of surprise that Winter could actually be clever sometimes. The both of them leaned back on their seats comfortably with the both of them having different trains of thoughts going around in their heads. A familiar tune interrupted the two women from pondering about whatever they were thinking about as it immediately caught their attention.

“You like ice cream,” Aster spoke that sounded more like a statement rather than a question as she stood up from the bench like it was the national anthem that played.

The ice cream truck parked on the side of the park when the driver noticed the brunette walking toward his truck with her eyes looking like they were sparkling from excitement to get to eat a cone of ice cream. Even though Winter was still not completely fine at that moment, she did not waste a second to get up from her seat and follow the brunette to go get a frozen treat as well.

A small smile crept up on the face of Aster when she noticed how the face of Winter lit up a bit as they stood by the ice cream truck while waiting for their ice cream to be served. As usual, the raven got cookies and cream flavored ice cream since that was her favorite ice cream flavor since she was a toddler; she did not become the president of its fan club when she was eight years old for no reason. Since the brunette wanted to share the happiness with the latter, she decided to get the same flavor.

“Remember when you spilled my ice cream on my white hoodie?” Winter spoke as they walked back to the bench where they were sitting on earlier.

“Yeah, my bad.” Aster let out an apologetic chuckle that did not sound like she was even sorry. “I bought you ice cream. That should make up for it, right?”

“Sure.”

Ice cream had always been Winter’s comfort food as she started to feel better and return to her normal self. The cold treat cooled down the burning flame inside her that was caused from the impact of Claire’s alternate self as she came into the realization that it was pathetic of her to look like a broken glass shard that was begging to be glued back to its fellow shards while panicking over the fact that she just saw her girlfriend in person.

Pull yourself together. That was not Claire, the raven told herself multiple times as she took deep breaths while eating her ice cream.

Though it was a weekday, the environment was actually pretty peaceful like it was a Sunday though it was most likely because lunchtime was already finished which meant that people had already gone back to their workplaces and schools. Aster held out her hand when she saw an orange butterfly flying close to them. Like she was a lepidopterist that the butterfly recognized, it landed on her index finger which made the brunette flash a small smile on her face.

“I have a question, by the way.” The brunette stared at the graceful wings of the butterfly as she continued to eat her ice cream.

“You usually just straight up ask questions.” The raven raised an eyebrow as she turned to her and ended up staring at the butterfly on her finger instead.

“Yeah. Right.” Aster let out a chuckle before moving her hand up to allow the insect to fly away. It had enough rest already.

“So, what is it?”

“Can you specifically describe the last thing you recall before passing out and waking up in this universe?” Aster asked as she turned to look at her.

“I already told you. I was walking around the street on my way home after drinking almost a bottle of rum,” Winter answered as she let out a sigh when a few vague images suddenly appeared in her mind, which made her stop from eating her ice cream.

The raven noticed the change of expression on the face of the latter as she leaned a bit closer and waved her hand in front of her face. “Hey? Are you okay?”

Scenes from the last night that Winter stayed in her original world flashed in her mind that she was not able to remember days ago. Though everything was blurry in her head, she was not slow-witted enough to not understand what the flashing lights in the scenes were. Realizing what actually happened right before she passed out in her world, the raven widened her eyes as she turned to look at the brunette who had been staring at her with a huge question mark drawn on her face.

“I crossed the empty street without looking around and ended up getting hit by a truck,” the raven blurted out as she placed her hand over her mouth. “But the mysterious part was that I felt someone embrace me before everything turned black.”

“Really?” The brunette turned to stare at the grass that was dancing because of the wind as she pondered about the possible reasons why she ended up travelling to another universe when she did not even have the same special ability as her.

Suddenly, Aster recalled something when she was digging in memories from the last night of Winter in her world as she realized that that night happened to be the last day for her in that universe as well before she travelled to another universe at midnight.

That night, Aster went out of her dorm out of boredom to take a walk around the street thirty minutes before midnight. People often stayed indoors with no desire to go out starting at 11 p.m. in that street, which was why it was often more fun to hang out outside at around those hours because of more peace and freedom. The brunette thought that it would be no fun to switch universes while she was just on her bed in the dorm, so she decided to take a walk around the street and randomly lie down on the sidewalk when the time turns 11:58 p.m.

Though the plan that she made was clearly ruined when she happened to see a woman that was obviously drunk because of the way she was stumbling on the road with a tall truck going to her direction from a distance. Aster often did not care whether a person dies in front of her or not since she had already experienced and witness almost all kinds of suffering that she eventually learned to get used to it. The brunette was already seated on the sidewalk that was made of concrete with her legs comfortably spread forward and a bit apart when she saw her.

Aster was just supposed to watch the drunk woman get hit by a truck. But for some reason, her body seemed to move by its own as she pushed herself up from the pavement and used all of her energy and speed to run toward the woman, jumping from a distance to have her in her arms with hope that she had another special ability to use to bring the woman to a safe place.

Though Aster did not remember being able to clearly see the face of the woman that she attempted to save from the truck, there was only one thing that she remembered about her and that was her fruity scent mixed with the bitter scent of rum.

“Hey!” The brunette flinched in shock when the latter suddenly clapped in front of her face, which brought her back to reality.

“Huh?” Aster turned to look at Winter whose eyebrows were furrowed.

“I was asking you a question two times already.” Winter let out a sigh as she continued to eat her ice cream cone.

“Oh, my bad. I was thinking about peaches,” the brunette answered to be followed with a chuckle to look natural as she used the paper that the ice cream server gave to wipe off the melted ice cream on her fingers that she just realized.

For some reason, it seemed like she just said the wrong answer when she suddenly felt like a laser was piercing through her head from her left. Slowly, Aster turned to see Winter, who was looking at her with a grimace in fear and disgust.

Aster was about to question her why she was looking at her like she was the most disgusting person in the world when she suddenly realized too late the reason why she reacted like that after telling her.