He accompanies her

This chapter originally written by BiBiComte, minor edits by Samus1001

Caleb caught up to her just as she was leaving. "Wait up!"

She turned back, elegant hair flipping over her face. "Yes?"

"Where you going?"

"To look for a shirt for my cousin."

"Cousin?" Caleb repeated as he reached her side. "And here I expected you to say boyfriend." His laugh was creaky.

The woman proceeded to the wall of shirts, where they lay stacked and folded on a series of shelves. Caleb eyed her, breathed in, and stepped to her left.

"So... you're single?"

"Yes," she said as she took a shirt and it fell open.

"What's your name?"

Her eyes scanned the top in that familiar, casual gaze. "You're a curious one, aren't you?"

"Sorry," Caleb backtracked, but the woman put the shirt back down and patiently smiled, the hint of a slight smirk on her lips.

"My name is Sophie," she answered. Finally, a name to the face. And a fitting one, for someone this cute. "What's yours?"

"I'm Caleb."

"Nice name."

Caleb looked her over, then took a breath.

"So Sophie." Sophie paced down the line of shirts. Caleb followed slowly next to her, his eyes fixing on her gently moving behind. A finger twitched. Just be blunt. "Why'd you allow me and that other guy to touch your butt back there? Is it just a normal way of saying hi or affection between men and women, like a hug?" he joked.

His lady-friend took it in stride apparently. "That's right," she smiled back for a frame. "It's really nothing to fuss over. As long as they don't start taking it for granted or as an invitation, then there's nothing wrong with a little goosing of someone you like or are saying hi to."

Caleb looked at her, but the shoe never dropped.

Just like last time, he felt like he'd just fallen into a weird side of the lawn. After all, she couldn't be serious, could she? What part of the joke was he missing?

Swelling his chest with another bout of air, Caleb stepped towards her and once again dropped his hand down to her ass. This time he rested it there for a good couple seconds, lightly squeezing it. No change in expression on Sophie's face. Unless you counted a neutral, converging brow as change.

"You're seriously okay with this?"

"Hm?" Sophie said, eyes still fixed on the pickings before her.

"This!" he relented and gave her ass cheek a slap. "You feel this, don't you?"

"Yes, and what of it?" she turned back to Caleb with relative disinterest. "Like I said, Caleb, there's nothing wrong with a little goosing."

"Or slapping?" he said, slapping her butt again.

"Or slapping."

"Or caressing?" he said, caressing her tush.

"Or caressing."

Huh.

Caleb opened his mouth then closed it. This was not normal. The past few minutes have in fact been supremely odd. Some of the supremely oddest minutes he'd had all year, if not ever.

Everything seemed to be as boringly dandy as usual, actually, until...

The teenager's eyes widened. He removed his hand from Sophie's rear and looked at the wrist from which it protruded.

Could this thing... somehow be... He stared down at the mundane watch, and the display covered behind its glass covering. A chill of Twilight Zone-esque goosebumps trickled down his person. 'N''s on each three-hour interval. Why 'N'? At least give the kids more letters of the alphabet to learn. Unless of course it signified something.

N... he did use 'normal' when he had spoken earlier.

And those images. He just really paid attention to them; a sighing face at the left, a smirking one at the top plus the outline of what looked like a child, a flat-lined one next to the right alongside an image of some random man, and on the bottom 'N' were two faces apparently mid-laughter, with one of the faces somewhat bigger, and on the other side of that, what looked like the earth, or whatever planet.

Caleb's eyes narrowed slightly. As before, the two hands were both situated under the top N. However, there was a third one now that he hadn't noticed before. Unlike the others, it was moving, smoothly, without stopping, in a clockwise direction.

So it isn't broken?

His fingers slid against the edge of the watch. They eventually found a set of wheels, and what felt like a button or two also occupied its surface from either side of the display. He wondered, for the heck of it, if he should tamper with the thing. Wasn't 12 o'clock anyway.