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Meme: x
Tabitha had stopped watching it years ago. She knew people who had notifications on their watches, set to go off more frequently as they got closer, and people who had calendar after calendar on their walls, marking off day after day. People in cafes would talk to each other about it for hours on end, older women would smile at glowing younger women and ask how much time was left. Even in bars. Drunken chatter would eventually turn to the same old subject. But Tabitha had stopped watching, because she didn't care. She knew people who had died before their time ran out, leaving their 'soulmates' alone. The timer wasn't a guarantee. It was a guideline. And she was sure she wouldn't make the line.
So she'd stopped watching.
She'd looked down one day. Just to itch something. She had to pull her sleeve back to reach it. She saw 20 seconds count down. Fifteen. Ten. She didn't move. She couldn't move. It was counting down her doubt, her logic, the entire philosophy of life she had. That nothing would ever, ever turn out how it was supposed to. Either she was right, and everything was hopelessly wrong, or she was wrong, and something could go right. If one thing could go right, how many other things could?
It was hope. Or dismay. And there were five seconds left.
Glass looked up. She looked around. She was in a parking lot, of all places. Down again. It was finished. Done. No one was there. So she'd been right, then. She stiffened and grit her teeth, resigned to the fact. And then she looked up, about to continue to walk. A woman ran into her, stumbled, and Tabitha frowned, reflexively steadying the stranger. And for the first time in her life, she asked.
"How much time do you have?"
The other woman looked up and then blinked, looking down while she spoke. "I don't know, I haven't looked at it forever. It's probably a few years or something-" She broke off, and Glass glanced at her arm.
Six zeros.
They looked up at each other, both with a measure of disbelief. Tabitha swallowed and held out her hand. Cynical comment after embarrassing thought passed, none of them coming from her mouth. Finally, she managed a few words. "What's your name?"