He always tried to hide his clock. It made him feel uneasy, and he preferred not to know. He wanted the moment to feel right, to feel spontaneous and real. He did not want to rely on numbers on his wrist, however accurate they may be, to define him.

Even so, he knew his time was close. The last time he even caught a glimpse of his right wrist said so. He knew that there were only hours left before he would meet the one. He imagined the girl short and scrawny, with flowing brown hair and blue eyes. He smiled at the thought of her. What if he had already seen her before? Oliver casually wondered what would become of him when he met the girl, when the clock finally reached its final seconds.

And so on this day, the most important day of his life, Oliver made no unusual effort. He parted his hair the same way. He wore his old jeans and just a simple t-shirt with one of his favorite band's names on the front of it. He tied his usual red scarf around his wrist to stop his nerves. He stepped out of the house in the same way that he usually did. But where was he going? Fate knew.

With his feet under his board, Oliver was distracted. He thought about how coffee sounded, but with only a few minutes left on his clock, he thought that a coffee shop would be a bad idea to visit. Grinding to a stop on a busy road, his eyes were drawn to a girl in a bright blue sweater, carefully unwinding a pink scarf from her right wrist. She had her eyes closed and appeared to be holding her breath.

Suddenly she opened her eyes, but before she looked up, she glanced at her wrist. Oliver felt the thump of his heart stopping as their eyes met for the first time.

The girl in blue began to run to Oliver with a wide smile on her face. Her brown hair flew past her shoulders like a surfer on waves. She was the one. He could tell by the look on her face that they were meant to be together. He thought about dancing with her underneath the stars. He would be her modern-day Romeo and she could be his Juliet. He saw his whole life flash before his eyes.

The girl continues to run, face full of happiness and uncertainty, forgetting to watch for the traffic.

Oliver was too late. The only thing he could do was shout.

Blue was turning red as Oliver ran to the fallen girl. He lifted her right wrist to find that the clock had stopped at 0d 0h 0m and 1s and wish a haunting feeling he had begun to unwrap his own. He didn't know what to hope for.

Oliver's clock had stopped at 0d 0h 0m and 1s.