LIMINAL

Helena had had better birthdays before. She was sure of that.

Never had she spent an entire birthday forcing a smile onto her face. But then, never had her birthday also been her graduation party.

“What’s next, Helena? A job or a masters?” her aunt asked.

“Nothing yet. I’m still figuring it out,” she answered.

This wasn’t the first person to ask her the same question that evening. Her friends, her cousins, and practically everyone else at the party had already asked her the same thing. At first, she had laughed along with them, making a joke out of it.

By the eleventh person, she’d stopped laughing and simply started nodding.

By the eighteenth, she’d retreated to a corner.

From there, she looked around at the small makeshift party her father had arranged at their aunt’s house. A half-eaten cake sat on the table at the centre of the room, surrounded by plates and glasses. Balloons hung from the walls, some already beginning to droop. Music played through a pair of borrowed speakers while a few of her friends danced in one corner. Her older relatives had settled themselves on the sofas, talking amongst themselves.

Everyone knew what they were doing.

Everyone knew what they wanted to do.

Except her.

Don’t they have anything better to do than collectively laugh at my jobless state?

It wasn’t that she needed a job immediately. She had graduated only a few months ago. At twenty-one, she had plenty of time to figure things out. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to start working right away.

The problem was that she didn’t know what she wanted to do.

Most of her friends seemed to have already figured it out. Their internships had turned into full-fledged jobs, some had joined their family businesses, and a few were doing mundane part-time jobs while they worked out their next step.

Helena didn’t even have a next step.

She had a degree, a perfectly decent résumé, and absolutely no idea what she wanted to do with either of them.

Maybe that was why the questions bothered her so much.

It wasn’t that they expected her to have a job.

They expected her to have an answer.

And she didn’t.

Julian had never had that problem.

Julian, her best friend, was still missing from the party. At twenty-five, he already had the job he’d dreamed about. Marketing suited him so naturally that Helena sometimes wondered if he’d been made for it.

He could walk into a room full of strangers and somehow know exactly what to say. He understood people—what caught their attention, what made them laugh, what made them listen. He could turn the most ordinary idea into something people actually wanted.

He loved what he did.

Helena admired that about him more than she’d ever told him.

She wanted to know what it felt like to be that certain.

“Planning to run away, are we?”

A smile found its way onto her face at the sound of the familiar voice.

She turned and found Julian towering behind her, his dark eyes resting on her from behind his glasses with that familiar amusement. His hair was all ruffled up, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. He had probably come here right after work. His smile already showed off the dimples in his cheeks, though the tiredness in his eyes gave him away.

“Considering it,” she replied. “I might die of boredom if I don’t.”

“No need to run now. I am here. Your knight in shining armour, my princess.”

He gave an exaggerated bow.

“The princess would not like to see you, Sir Reed of Grimshire,” she said dramatically, turning away.

Julian laughed, a genuine laugh that reached his eyes.

“I am offended, my princess. Do you not enjoy the company of this humble knight?”

“You are late. I had to face these bandits all by myself.” She fake-cried.

“Heroic rescues require preparation, my lady.”

Helena laughed—a full, genuine laugh, the first she’d had all evening.

For a moment, she wanted to freeze the scene exactly as it was.

She wanted it to last just a little longer—the music playing behind them, the familiar warmth of the room, and Julian standing in front of her with that ridiculous smile on his face.

If only I could freeze time.

The music changed.

It wasn’t quite a song anymore. A strange, deep vibration replaced the melody, low enough that Helena felt it more than heard it.

Her smile faded.

Julian’s face held the same confusion. His eyes darted around the room.

Helena looked around too.

A startled breath escaped her.

Everything was frozen.

No.

Not frozen.

Slow.

Very, very slow.

She could see it in the hand of her friend standing nearby, reaching for a glass. In a strand of her hair suspended in the air. In a stray drop of wine falling towards the floor so slowly that Helena could make out its shape.

But she was not frozen.

Neither was Julian.

“What’s happening?” Julian asked.

Helena turned towards him. He was looking at his hand, moving it back and forth, testing its speed.

His eyes darted around the room, trying to understand what had just happened.

Then they locked onto hers, questioning.

“I... I don’t know.”

Panic began to rise in her chest.

“Hey,” Julian said, calling her attention back to him. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

He took her hand in his.

His voice was calm, but Helena could see the fear in his eyes.

“I’m here. Deep breaths. Relax. I’m here.”

Helena nodded.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Then another.

She concentrated on the sound of Julian’s voice, on the warmth of his hand around hers, trying to convince herself that whatever was happening would stop.

The music returned.

Helena opened her eyes.

Everything was normal.

Her friend’s hand had reached the glass. The strand of hair had settled against her face. The drop of wine had disappeared onto the floor.

But no one around them seemed to have noticed anything.

They were still talking, dancing, laughing.

No panic.

No shouting.

Nothing.

Her eyes returned to Julian.

Something had happened.

Something weird.

And only she and Julian had felt it.

“I have to ask,” Julian started. “Was it just me, or did everything here slow down for a while?”

Helena had already started nodding before he finished.

“Thank God.” Julian let out a breath. “I thought I was going insane for a while. Now we are both going insane.”

A chuckle escaped her.

Only Julian could make her laugh at a moment like this.

“Jokes apart...” His expression grew serious. “We need to seriously talk about what happened.”

It must have really scared him to make him lose his smile.

Helena nodded.

She looked at the people around them.

“Later. After the party. You could drop me home.”

“Later,” he agreed.

Neither of them talked about it for the rest of the evening.

Helena still felt shaken. She spent the rest of the party forcing smiles onto her face. Julian greeted a few of her relatives and managed to joke with some of her cousins, slipping back into his usual carefree self as though nothing unusual had happened.

But Julian never left her side.

He stood beside her until the very end, never straying far.

And Helena was grateful for that.