A horrifying loud boom shocks the whole city. Screams fly while windows from sky-scrapers shatter into a million see-through pieces that seemed to have exploded out of the buildings. I whip my head to the right tilt my chin up and glare at the tall business buildings all around me. Then suddenly, the echo of what seemed to be an explosion in all of the buildings stops, the little tiny pieces of glass that were once windows freeze in mid free-fall. With my chin pointed to the sky, I do a full three-sixty. I rub my eyes in disbelief with my clammy palms. As I tilted my head down, I screamed “What the hell is going—“. Not only did the world seem to stop in mid-air. People around me froze like there were statues in a museum.

The city that never sleeps was at a standstill. Yellow dirty taxis that crowded the streets seemed to be in a traffic jam. The grey, pillowing exhaust from the exhaust pipe stayed in the same position. The bicyclist next to me is in mid-pedal and is motionless, standing straight up on a two-wheel bike. “This isn’t real” I screamed. “Someone help me!”

I dress shoes thump against the pavement, and my black tie flies back behind my shoulder as I sprint over to the nearest person on the sidewalk. I tap her shoulder, like somehow they would come to life. Her legs in mid stride, her blue eyes wide from the explosion that halted time, the cell phone she was holding was floating just below her hand. I cradled my head in my hands. “This isn’t happening, this is a dream, and this is not real!” All I could hear were short, sharp breathes. I was making the only sounds in the whole entire city.

“I have an idea!” I exclaimed, silly enough to myself. I rummaged through my black dress pants pocket to find my phone. “11:44am? I left my office building for lunch at 11:40am!” Time seemed to halt too. I try to dial the number to my office, but the button was just as frozen as the people on the sidewalk. I chucked my phone at the grey cement. I fell off-balance at my violent throwing, I caught myself, but I taped a person behind me with my arm. The man I hit fell over like he just fainted. As his body hit the ground, dust flew up, and his body was no more than what looked like grey sand. “Did I just kill him?” I screamed. I couldn’t bear to look anymore.
“Is this a punishment from God? What did I do to deserve this?” I sit there and sob like a little baby.
“HELP!” someone yelled in the distance. I stood on my feet and instinctively run towards the crying girl. “HELP!” I hear her again; I pick up the pace and run as fast as I can towards the girl. I turned the corner of Washington and see a young lady, maybe in her twenties, her head cradled in her hands like I just had mine. She must have heard my footsteps, she looked up as me with her big greens eyes, her dark black hair hung in her face.
“You’re not a statue!” She exclaims as she stands up onto her high black heals and hugs me.
“Uh, no I’m not, and neither are you!” I say in shock. “Do you know what’s going on?”
“I have no clue, I was walking to the café that is just around the corner when I heard an explosion, all of the windows in the city seemed to have shattered, and then everything stopped. The clock on the bank over there hasn’t changed, its stopped at 11:44.”.
“My phone says 11:44 too. I don’t know why this is happening, and why it seems that only we are alive.” I say as I shake my head. I put out my open hand “My name is Sawyer”.
“Mine is Juliet”. She says as she cups my hand with a firm grip.
As our hands are clasped together the world started again. The city sounds were back, the cars moved on the street, and people were walking on the sidewalk. I turn to look around me, unhooking our hands. The world freezes again.
“That was weird… when our hands were together the world continued” Juliet sad with a puzzled look on her face.
“Let’s try it again, give me your hand.” She put out her hand and this time, she interlocks her fingers within mine. The welcoming sounds of the city are back. We both look up to see that the windows are intact.
“This is very strange” I say with a chuckle.
“Ya’ Think?!” She says and laughs, showing her white smile.
“What if we let go” I whisper.
“Let’s not try” She says and a smirk comes across her face. “What if time stopped just so we could met”
“That crazy!” I proclaim. “But I am very glad at this moment that time did stop; otherwise I would have never met such a beautiful young lady.”
She looks into my blue eyes with hope. Then she glances down at my lips, I glance at hers. She closes her eyes and I lean in to kiss her, ever so gently. Our lips touch and I pull her close. She pulls back and quickly says “Time stopped for us, just so we could be together. I think that was the best kiss in my life”.
Our hands split, and yet the world continues to flow on like it did before we met. Never did I think that I could ever meet a girl this wonderful, under this type of circumstances.
We agreed to never speak of how we met, to anyone. We also agreed to never leave each other for the sake of the world stopping.
“I love you” Juliet says to me in a warm tone.
“I love you too, you are my world”