The Timekeeper

Chapter Five

I lay in bed, refusing to get up. My mother kept calling me from downstairs to say that breakfast was ready, but I kept pretending to be asleep. I didn't want to leave my bed at all today; I just wanted to lay there and try to forget everything that happened yesterday.

Once I got home last night, after my chat with Ryan, I was bombarded with questions from my family. The funny part is, I wasn't even exaggerating. As soon as I stepped through the front door, the questions began. But do you want to know the worst part? I lied to them. Lying was a big thing in my family; we never lied to each other and would always tell the truth no matter what it was or how bad it might be. But I couldn't tell them what Jase was really like, or that I would probably never see him again. I tried to keep things as close to the truth as I could, and hoped that they would leave it at that.

After the family had settled down a little, Claire called. Even though I didn't want to tell her about my eventful day, I did. I felt like I needed to get it off my chest to someone that would actually understand, and I knew she would. She told me not to worry though, and that the Timekeeper has a way of always bringing soul mates together, no matter how badly they wanted to stay away from each other. The Timekeeper seemed to be getting more advanced and smarter the longer it was stuck to my wrist, and I still couldn't completely understand how on earth it could control you.

"Candice?" A polite voice called as my door opened slowly, revealing my mother. She walked over to my bed and reached across me, opening the window and letting sunshine flood into my room. I squinted my eyes and let out a groan, before pulling the covers over my head.

"Come on sweetie, time to get up." She laughed, pulling the covers back and blinding my sight.

"Your breakfast is going to get cold." She said before walking out the door, leaving me to follow after her.

As I got to the kitchen, I noticed that the whole family was sitting at the dining table. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen the table so full, or seen so much food. It looked like a feast! As I sat in my seat, I noticed that everybody was smiling at me.

"What?" I said, as I spooned food onto my plate. They all looked down at their plates before looking back up at me again.

"What is it?" I asked, putting my fork down and resting my elbows on the table. There was definitely something up. It was weird enough that the whole family was here, but they seemed to be hiding something from me as well.

"When are we going to meet Jase?" Lucy announced, before covering her mouth as though what she had said could have insulted me. Now it all made sense. They were all here expecting to meet him, my soul mate. They wanted to meet him, the one that I had tried so hard to forget about and hoped that there was a big mistake. I wanted it to be a dream, and that my wonderful, loving soul mate was still out there waiting to meet me. But no, it wasn't a dream and no matter how much I wished for it to change it wouldn't.

"Yes, Candy, when are we going to meet this special boy?" My mother grinned widely. I knew they were expecting to meet him soon, but I wasn't ready for that. How was I supposed to introduce him to the family if he didn't even want to know me? And how was I supposed to tell them that he was a thief? I would rather them never meet him, but that was highly unlikely.

"Uh, I'm not sure yet." I said, hoping there will be no more questions. But of course, it didn't stop there.

"We want to meet him, Candy! You can't keep us waiting forever!" Patricia said excitedly.

"I just want to make sure he won't hurt you." Daniel said sternly, which I knew was no joke. Everyone started to pick on him for being so protective, which is when I began to leave the table.