LOGINShare
Chapter 185: Gold Tipped
Last Updated:
2024-10-29 19:42:56Lila's cafe, Emmet had to begrudgingly admit, was tastefully decorated with dark browns and and warm ochres giving a warm homey feel to the place, with a starlingly rich deep purple wall and decor sitting idly on the front counter of the store.
There were various glass cases set up in the corners of the shop and on the book case, housing more of the shiny and valuable looking items that sat around there, with round tables sitting along the edges of the room to form a middle parting clearly marked out by long vertical panels of wood that interrupted the rest of the horizontal floor pattern that made up the floor of the cafe.
There were privacy screens set up around some tables with potted plants separating out a good few seating areas and other tables.
Gold tipped lanterns also hung from the book shelves, with the other lights of the establishment set up in a similar style, all made up of multiple squares and rectangles in complicated geometric patterns that a
Related chapters
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 186: Stone
Emmet couldn’t believe that he hadn’t noticed it before. It had just been sitting there in an open, public setting for all the world to see and he hadn’t realised that it had been in front of him the entire time. The time machine was sitting there pristine and in a glass case, tucked away within the shadows of the corner of the cafe, its grey surface gleaming in the gold light, dulling the sharp brightness that seemed to reflect and refract over everything else in the store. Jasper's jaw was tensed, and Emmet sucked in a harsh breath as his eyes raked over the surface of the grey, his gaze eventually set on the gleaming, bright red button that was there on the side of the machine. He crawled back a little, before gulping down large breaths of air, bringing a shaking fist up to his chest, flinching when his back hit the front counter of the café. He closed his eyes and brought his head down to his chest, tensing all his muscles up as pure panic flowed
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 187: Shame
Jasper, without any of the hesitation or grimaced faces that Emmet would undoubtedly pull, pressed down on the bell again, calmly and patiently and without any annoyance. After a few more moments, when she didn't appear, Jasper called out in a stronger, louder and a far too kind voice," Lila! I know that you're back there!" If it was up to Emmet, there would be no such unnecessary kindness in the voice that he would use. Lila was a manipulative little shit through and through, and is he wasn’t so uneasy of the extent of the power that she was currently holding over him, and by extension over Jasper in this situation, he would undoubtedly at least attempt to strike a bargain. She probably held the keys to the glass case and time machine, the item that he wanted, while he himself several broken bones, leaving half of his limbs out of commission and a long journey ahead of them to healing properly, considering her non attempt to try and administer some kind of h
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 188: Bread Crusts
Lila's face held the expression of somebody fundamentally unimpressed. She looked as if she was a nursery teacher who had just stumbled in to watch her students try to put glitter up their noses in some misguided attempt to look more pretty. Her hair was slightly frazzled, and her eyes were set into narrow slits trained on Emmet as if he was the prey that her hawk was aimed to rip apart and devour. From the corner of his eyes, Emmet saw Jasper turn around to face him with an expression of slight confusion that quickly morphed into amusement as he seemingly realised something that Emmet didn’t know. His face turned back to face Lila quickly enough, allowing Emmet to still grasp at some of his rapidly diminishing dignity, not that there was much left of it anyway. Emmet looked Lila in the eyes and told her, with a steady, unwavering voice," I don't like crusts," hoping against hope that the bold faced lie would be enough to make her drop the subje
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 189: Over Me
There was some sort of history between Jasper and Lila that Emmet wasn't privy to, and it hurt him somewhere in the chest that he was essentially excluded from whatever relationship that the two of them had cultivated. To an extent, he knew that he was the goal of their efforts, but their specific actions and experiences were so far, far away from him that he had to wonder if he had become some sort of McGuffin to them both. He had been through hell, abandoned, injured, and then kept in isolation, but he had still come out on the otherside surviving, through both of their efforts no doubt. But to learn that Jasper was now years older than him, far more learned and tempered, far more restrictive with what he now said about his life here, about his life back in the future, and was just more subdued and pressed inwards, hiding more of his jagged and broken edges under layers of soft, fluffy, warm kindness. It hurt Emmet with how much he was being kept in
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 190: Ask and Ye Shall Receive
Lila, quieter than a mouse, took out a key from the pocket of her skirt, and unlocked the glass cabinet, lifting the glass top off and turning around to pass it to Jasper. Not that Jasper was actually looking at her. Lila didn't say anything, and instead just moved over to the work top at the front of the shop that housed the till and the butterfly display, placing down the glass cube there, tugging her sleeves up to cover the palm of her hand so she could wipe away her own finger prints and the dust that had collected. From the slow manner of the way that she moved, it was obvious to Emmet that she was stalling for time, which made him wonder whether Jasper was as well. Jasper wasn't exactly moving from where he had been stood for a short while, and Lila seemed reluctant enough to make Emmet and him stop what they were doing; she was far too busy slowly rotating the glass box around to make sure that no prints were left on its surface, while co
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 191: Yanked Back to the World
Jasper held a glint of superiority and playfulness in his eyes, and Emmet, still in his arms, still in a tight hug that suddenly retightened itself after relaxing steadily over the past few moments, could not see who exactly he was looking at, but he felt he felt his own blood drain out of his face anyway, fully recognising the voice behind him and fully recognising just might what was going to happen next. Jasper - still holding him and very, very much not letting him go - had said that Emmet's own future self had held some sort of grudge against his own past self, and considering that he was future Emmet's own past self, Emmet wasn't seeing much ground or reason for negotiation to get himself out of the predicament that he had now landed himself in unwittingly. Lila was sniggering in the background as well, which didn't make anything better. Emmet sucked in a deep breath, trying to be as silent as possible, until those seven, magical, damning words were spo
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 192: Can we Live a Real Life?
"Lila may be a heinous bitch, but you cannot judge her, as a person, without assessing yourself on why you feel that way, why she might have reacted the way that she did, and the ways that you still need to grow up." The weather outside was uncomfortably hot. The sun beat down on Emmet's head, and considering his hair was loose and down and messy, in a bird's nest of tangled knots and a rough, matted stack that was unevenly distributed almost everywhere within those once shiny, smooth, rippling locks. Emmet gulped, his throat far too dry and sandpaper like, hurtful to the very insides of his body. His face was burning a bright, burning red, and wondered whether it was the heat, or the words of his own future self. "There was no need for that stupid martyrdom. There was no need for any of that in the first place. You could have refused and then gone on to live a quiet life, working the same way as Aunt Minnie did with black market connect
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 193: No Sympathy for that Angel
"What we were planning to do was sending you to thr future to try and get Jasper out of the... painful, dangerous situation that he had ended up in," Emmet's future self stated as forcefully blandly and calmly as he could, failing in almost every way as he turned his head downwards and away, looking off down the street at nothing in particular, as he crossed his arms and balled his fists. His voice as well cracked, and there was an uncomfortable pause when he had spent time trying to find the adequate and necessary words that tried to make at least some light of the situation that he was trying to describe. "What kind of situation? Be specific," Emmet almost immediately demanded, seeing at least the courtesy to pause before broaching what was clearly a sensitive topic to the man in front of him. Whether or not his future self's feelings were hurt was irrelevant. His future self had been placed in a position just like this before and he had asked
Latest chapter
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 371: Schematics
“Why’re you sleeping on the floor like that? Come on, get up. You’ll hurt your back doing that,” Doctor Marigold chided, dragging all her bits of heavy machinery around the office space to prepare for her demonstration.Behind her, Lila remained still.“I know that you’re not dead. Come, get up already,” she called out, stepping over a few sheets of paper that she had laid out to grab Lila by the shoulder and heave her up into sitting.The stubborn girl just flopped down again, not opening her eyes.“If you get the fuck up, we can move the flight a week forward so you can stop worrying about it,” Lucy Marigold shouted across the room.Like a rubber band, Lila snapped back up and finally opened her eyes.It had been harder to see the bags below them when they had been closed and Doctor Marigold wondered if she should buy the girl some sleep tablets.“I’m awake,” Li
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 370: EXTRA GRETEL
Yolanda seemed to understand that she needed to back off and stop teasing Gretel, when the other woman's eyes suddenly misted over, and it was if she was no longer a part of this world.She kept the bubbling annoyance within her away from her face, putting on instead a mask of concern as she reached out and poked Gretel's arms, trying to maybe prod her out of her stupor and bring her back from the recesses of her mind.Yolanda had never actually seen somebody collapse inwards to a catatonic state over her own actions.It was interesting to see it all happen and fold out in front of her.She poked Gretel again, touching her in the face lightly to see if that would possibly work to pull the other woman out of her mind and back into the world where she was needed proper.It wouldn't reflect well on her if Gretel didn't wake up within the hour.It didn't feel as
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 369: Thanatos
When she awoke, she was sat ready to eat and was dressed just like her mother, in a pastel blouse and a lungi down to the floor.Lila looked down at herself and jumped when she heard rattling, noticing the ten, or so, bangles on each arm and the lines of mehndi that ran down all the way to the hems of her sleeves, resting halfway between her shoulders and elbows. A pin held her blouse shut at the top and a quick once over of her hair, with one of her hands, revealed that it had been styled in a simple bun and adorned with flowers.“This is weirdly romantic,” Lila commented, staring at the lit candles nestled in the variously sized candelabrums set around the circular room.There was no door, but a giant window which led to a balcony outside. There was no ceiling but the walls reaching upwards, all the way up, until they formed a dome in the same shade of dull brown that coated the floor and the giant, round table in the centre.The only dishes
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 368: Sleep
“So, is she finally asleep?” Emmet asked the boy stood behind the counter. He was exceedingly slim for someone surrounded by sugar all day and Emmet could make out the outlines of his spindly elbows through his shirt. His face held a no nonsense, blunt, and almost bored expression. “Yeah, she is. She’s been knocked out on the sofa since I sent her back there,” Kai answered the long haired man in front of him, his hair pulled back by a ribbon matching his eyes before being pulled over his shoulder once more. He looked vain. “Oh good. Don’t tell her that I was involved,” the man asked, putting both his palms up to face Kai. “I’m telling her that you’re a fucking weirdo for that,” was the scowled answer. “No. Seriously, don’t tell her. She doesn’t like me and I don’t like her. She’s known my partner for longer that I’ve known him. She doesn’t trust me with him. Why’re you making that face?” Emmet tried to justify himself before giving up
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 367: Tired
“Are you sure that you’re getting enough sleep?” Kai asked Lila, watching her sway on her feet and clutching the front counter.“Yes,” she gasped, dropping her head into her hands, elbows on the table.“Go and lie down on the sofa. Go to sleep for a bit. I’ll wake you up when I have to leave for college,” Kai instructed her, tapping her on the shoulders and shepherding her towards the office.“… fine,” she conceded, letting Kai move her along towards the back.“You know that this just proves my point,” Kai pointed out, pushing her through the boundary of the door and closing it behind her.“Fine,” she whispered back to him, talking into the silence of the office.She let herself fall over the sofa, draping her upper body over the arm rest and letting her head be cushioned by the pillows. Shuffling a bit over to put her body entirely on the sofa, Lila f
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 366: Punching Bag
“One! Two! Three! Four! Five!Now again!One! Two! Three! Four! Five!Now keep on going!”Lila landed each punch, timing her breaths to the count as she moved her fists, dodging underneath the swing that came towards her head, before blocking the second hit that came to her and moving along with the force of the fist that hit her arm.The swinging punching bag forced distance between Lila and Tweedle Dum, and she stepped back to where she was stood before, within the path of the moving bad, to put more distance between him and her.“One! Two! Three! Four! Five!One! Two! Three! Four! Five!”Lila punched the bag once more, landing all of her hits.“Okay, time for a break,” Tweedle Dum announced, grabbing the punching bag and pulling it back to him as Lila moved away from the centre of the room, sitting down on one of the rickety plastic chairs at the side of the room.She took of
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 365: Much Older Nephew
“Bitch! Why’d you run off and abandon me like that!?” Lila shouted from behind the counter when Kai finally walked back into the store.She was waving her hands about and wore an apron covered in flour as the single customer in the store, an old man precariously balancing on his cane, slept whilst leaning on the radiator.“I thought that you wanted some bonding time with your family so I left you to do that it private!” Kai answered her, tiptoeing past their unconscious patron, in a combination of whispering and shouting.“They’re hardly my family and you left us in the middle of a public café!” Lila cried, not modulating her voice at all.In the background, the old man began to snore.“But you still talk to them a lot like you do to me, so I let you, and besides, I got about fifty more pages of Good Omens done in Waterstones,” Kai appealed, finally at the counter and opening up the
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 364 EXTRA GRETEL
Gretel and Silver had their fun as he continued to teach her how the interface worked and how he had managed to figure out that the system was an older model from the lack of integration between the screen and the touch pad, and explaining how easily it would potentially be to do so once the technology, as displayed in this device, had been demonstrated and established to work in a functional product."We were working on something like this as well, back in the workshops back home for the company that I was in the research and development department for. We were trying to get our motion sensors to be as small as possible for more commercial and personal use of technology that we could sell to the public and those who couldn't afford the contact computers.We had no idea on how their tech worked, because of trade and company secrets and all, but we managed to piece together a few things by looking at the patents and when we bought a few and m
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 363: Alcohol and Sleep
“Alright, the shop’s free. Why are you actually here?” Lila questioned, crossing her arms and staring down at the tablecloth of Jasper and Emmet’s table.“I’ve got lesson now. I’ll be back in a few hours,” the teenage boy behind Lila announced, picking up a bag that had been hidden behind the counter the entire time and rushing outside.Lila continued to stand there, waiting for a reply.Jasper couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t meeting either his or Emmet’s eyes.“Are you planning to leave us?” he asked her back.Lila’s fingers dug into the creases of her shirt,” I’m going to be leaving for a trip soon, and I’ll be back as soon as I can. Kai’ll be running the shop and will be looking after things, broadly. He lives here now and I scheduled my leave for when his school term ends so he can take care of things.”“On thi
