12:00 AM

Quick notice: This story was originally written in French since it's my first language, I did my best to translate it but it is possible that there are still a few errors in my text!

Don't hesitate to give me feedback on my story, so that I can improve my skills in the future :)

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"Tell me I'm going to die. Tell me that the sun is going to explode. Tell me the world is ending, and there's nothing I can do about it. Because if I hear everything is going to be okay one more freaking time, I. Will. Scream."

It was October 8. I had just gotten my scholarship for the art school I cherished so much, the Pearson School of Design. I was coming straight out of this restaurant so bad-looking that it could have been considered a slum if it had not owned a sign. Now, the lane in which I was walking perfectly represented my emotions: a mixture of imbroglio and impassibility. Its walls were filled with graffiti and dilapidated partitions, yet they seemed unruffled. It could have been the storm of the century, they would resist again and again. I stopped for a moment to realize that everything was going to change: I would finally love my school, take my life back and maybe even confess to the girl of my dreams that I was sickly in love with her. I let my thoughts drift wherever they wanted; I floated above the ground, I had the impression that the planets were aligned in my favor.

Finally arrived at home, I saw that my mailbox was signaling me that something was wrong. You see, I was not really the type of classic teenager portrayed in movies; I had three or four friends, I preferred to stay locked at home on a Friday night to write or draw and I hated being in a crowd of people. A true introvert, basically. Did I really want to know what this poor voicemail was saying to me when everything was going so well? The answer was no, not really, but I had to. The automatic voice told me I had only one message. I saw that it came from my best friend Alice, but yet the call came from her home ... Why hadn’t she take her cell phone to join me? The broken voice of her mother made me realize the horror of the thing ... "Alice is in the hospital, she tried to... She's dead. I'm sorry, Alex. The funeral will take place in a week."

It was from this moment that my life became a nightmare from which one cannot wake up.

We were now on October 10. It had been two days since; I ate little, slept little and lived little. I felt totally neurasthenic. I only wrote in that shabby black notebook that Alice had given me for my birthday. That day when I realized I had never felt anything so strong for someone. We knew each other since when we were kids, and she knew me better than anyone. She was my lifeline when I was tired of pretending everything was fine, or when I wondered what I was doing here. She always comforted me with her warm and reassuring voice, as if she was enveloping me with her words. Besides, how could her mother leave such a laconic message? She had not even taken the time to answer my calls or even called back to take my news. To change my mind, I made the difficult decision to return to the shabby restaurant, where I had learned that I was finally getting my scholarship. Two hours later, I was there.

"A black coffee, please."

"Perfect, it'll be three dollars fifty," said the barista.

That's what I liked about this place. Nobody spoke for too long, everything seemed simple, clear and no one lingered over the pathetic details.

"I will take the same thing. But with a bagel"

'But who is this girl? I don’t like her, she’s getting too close to me.'

"Oh! And I would also take a chocolate," she added.

At the moment I turned, I felt a shock run through every vein in my body. The girl who had just uttered these words, which seemed to me so intrusive, was Alice's perfect doppelgänger. Even today, I do not know how to explain it, but it was as if she pierced me with her icy blue eyes and that they attracted me irresistibly, just like two magnets. I felt inflamed by this unexpected meeting. I had always been told that at a certain moment in our tiny existence, we would meet someone who would capsize our life, who would turn us upside down the second we see her or him. In my case, her long blond hair, her porcelain white skin, her slim body ... Everything about her was perfect. I felt bewitched by her charisma and natural ease that emanated all around her. We began to exchange, sitting at a table. Her name was Clemence and had just moved into town. Our conversation lasted hours and hours, and we stayed until the closing of the small restaurant.

I still could not believe it... she was Alice's exact look-alike. Everything was the same: her pace, her attitude, her eloquence… Both at the moment of separation, we exchanged our numbers without a word. One last look before leaving, but I had the feeling that this separation would not last long.

Several days passed. It had been a month since Alice was dead and 28 days since I had not heard from Clemence. Her voicemail was full for 13 days and I was starting to go crazy. I was upset, her image was the only thing in my head... Perhaps I had been too insistent on my messages? Yet she had made it clear to me that no matter what our lives, our schedule, and our occupations were, we would find a way to meet each other and I truly believe it. She was the only one who gave me hope, the only one that, from one day to the next, had made capsized my heart and my spirit. Two days later, I felt more dead than alive. Even reduced to despair. How could I have disillusioned so much? I did not even want to admit that something was wrong...

I received a call that same morning.

"Hi, Alex? Why do you keep calling like that all the time? Are you trying to twist the knife into the wound after all I've been through? I emptied her room and found her old phone with a voicemail filled with calls from you that you have left her for a month... Gosh, you know that Alice is dead, so stop torturing your mind and soul and let go of the idea that she will come back someday!"

At this moment, I swear to you that I had the horrible sensation of feeling so empty.

My incomprehensible reality changed, in a fraction of a second, into true hell.