Otis and I rushed toward the lab where Oona was joyfully pulling two perfect pieces of toast out of her toaster. We had defeated the time loop and avoided being doomed to eternity together. Which is great because eternity is an awfully long time.

Oona smiled joyfully at both of us as we ran up to her. In triumph she held up the two pieces of toast. "They're perfect! Well, now we know that if you want a perfectly toasted piece of toast all you have to do is get caught in a time loop with it for a few years and ta-da! Perfect toast. You have to be super patient though. Thanks for your help guys."

I smiled and adjusted my glasses, "No problem. Now we're time loop escaping experts. We could even start our own business. 'Otis and Olympia's Time Loop Solving Co; You Have a Time Loop, We Have a Solution.' It'd be great! Although, if someone was stuck in a time loop it might be hard for them to get to us, or for us to get to them...We'd make it work somehow." I glanced excitedly at Otis. For some reason he didn't seem to be a fan of my idea and shook his head.

"Weeellll, now that we're back in normal time I'd better work on fixing the Before-Now-Machine. I should probably put some sort of safety lock on it so this doesn't happen again. In fact, I should probably put safety locks on all of Oscar's time machines, which will probably take me all night...but that's cool." Oona thoughtfully bit off a piece of toast and closed her eyes savoring the perfectness of it.

We stood silently for a moment while Oona chewed her toast. After about seven seconds I decided to break the awkward quiet.  

"Well if you have so much work to do we should get back to our work. Or we could go to the Cake Room to celebrate the fact that we don't have to live the same short segment of time over and over again. What'd say Otis?"

I began to leave when I noticed that Otis wasn't behind me. I turned back to find that he hadn't moved from where he was standing. "Otis?"

Otis stared at the floor and mumbled a reply, "You can go if you want. I think I'll stay here and help Oona put safety locks on the time machines."

"But you don't know anything about gadgets. And besides, we're done working in twenty minutes. Oona doesn't need help. She'll be fine." I felt a strange desperateness rise inside me. Why was Otis doing this?

"Oona might need someone to get tools for her or something. I could help. It would be hard for her to be here all night." Otis glanced at me as if trying to make me understand. But I didn't understand. What was he doing?

Oona popped out of the back room; her arms piled high with gadgets. "That'd be awesome Otis. If you helped, I might be out of here before midnight." She looked gratefully at him and then looked at me. "It would be double awesome if you want to help too, Olympia."

I was momentarily stunned. For some reason the last thing in the world I wanted to do was to help Oona and Otis work on gadgets. I usually wasn't a selfish person but at the moment all I wanted was for me and Otis to just have a nice, celebratory piece of cake in the Cake Room, BY OURSELVES. No one else. Just us.

"No, I want to finish up some paperwork or something. You two should have it covered." I started walking away but quickly turned back. If I had to put up with this, there was something I wanted to know. "Actually, Otis, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure." He walked over to me looking uncomfortable and confused. "What?"

"Why do you want to help Oona so badly?"

"She looks like she needs help and it's a nice thing to do." Otis made eye contact with me and I was surprised to find that he looked...angry?

As he continued to speak, he held eye contact, "If you have a problem with me helping people then maybe you should try helping more people yourself instead of always being so self-centered."

It felt as if I had been slapped. I tried to say something but words simply wouldn't form in my mouth. Without looking at him, or Oona, I ran as fast as I could in the other direction. I had no idea where I was going but I didn't care. All I knew was that I wanted to be as far away from everyone as possible.

 From somewhere behind me I heard the strangled voice of Otis calling after me, "Olympia please, wait. I'm sorry. I didn't mean any of that. Please come back."

Even if he was sorry I didn't care. I just needed to be alone. There was too much for me to think about.

After running past more strange doors then I had ever seen in my life, I leaned against the nearest wall and slowly slid to the floor. I would not cry. I was not going to cry. I hadn't cried yesterday when I had found Otis and Oona alone in the back of the lab and I was not going to cry now.

I was so preoccupied with my thoughts that I never heard the footsteps coming down the hallway towards me. The figure of Ms. O came into view and, without asking any questions, she came and sat down next to me.

Despite the turmoil I was in, I couldn't help slightly freaking out. I had no idea what to do. I mean, was she going to talk to me or were we just going to sit here in silence? I had never actually talked to my boss before. Nothing happened for a few moments until Ms. O took a breath and spoke, "Otis didn't mean that you know."

"I know." I sighed. It was the truth. I did know. Otis just had an outburst. I knew him too well. He would never actually mean something like that. It didn't mean that this changed anything though, "But why did he say that? What's wrong with him?"

Ms. O glanced at me and stated matter-of-factly, "I know this isn't easy for you but seriously this is difficult for him too."

"It doesn't seem too difficult for him." I needed a better explanation.

"He's in a tough spot right now." Ms. O sighed and pulled a juice box out from behind her back. "Otis is being forced to make a choice between you and Oona. He can be friends with both of you but he can't like both of you. Understand?" Ms. O expertly stabbed a purple straw into the juice box and continued speaking before I could answer.

"He feels differently about both of you and he's struggling to make a choice. Go easy on him. He doesn't know quite what's going on and he might hurt you accidentally but believe me he doesn't mean it."

I watched silently as she took a long slurp of juice. She was right of course. I knew that. She was the boss after all, I wouldn't be surprised if she was always right. But, despite the problem at hand, my curiosity got the better of me. "How do you know so much about this?"

Ms. O fixed me with a frosty stare and I felt that maybe I had touched some sort of nerve that should have been left untouched.

"Let's just say that there was once a boy who had to make a choice between me and another girl and it was hard for me to deal with."

I knew I probably shouldn't ask another question but I couldn't stop myself, "Who did he pick?"

Ms. O let a brief smile flash across her face, "He choose me and we became some of the best agents to ever work on the squad. You and Otis are almost as good as we were."

The mention of Otis's name sent my mind crashing back down to the problem at hand and I could barely keep the tremble out of my voice when I spoke,

"But Ms. O, about Otis, it really seems like he likes Oona more then he likes me. He's been spending a lot of time with her lately. I mean I used to think that he sort of, might have, maybe liked me, but really I have no idea anymore. Maybe I should just let them be. I mean he's probably happier with her anyways. I got carried away to ever think that he could ever possibly like m—

I stopped abruptly as Ms. O held up a commanding hand to silence me.

"Olympia, I would suggest you do is this, 1: don't be so hard on yourself, and 2: treat Otis like you always have. Don't act differently around him, just be his friend. Believe me he needs you more than he knows. He'll make the right decision soon enough. Just be patient and be there for him." Ms. O took a satisfied sip of juice, stood up, and walked confidently down the hall without another word. Apparently she thought no more discussion was needed.

One thing was certain, I had plenty to think about. Ms. O had said that I should just be Otis's friend and act as I normally would around him which meant pretending that the whole Oona thing wasn't happening. That was going to be difficult. But maybe, just maybe I could do it.

A new found determination rose within me and I felt more confident than I had in days.

Just as I was about to get to my feet, however, I heard the unmistakable sound of laughter. Otis and Oona's laughter. No doubt caused by some sort of joke made on Oona's part.

Even though I had just gained fresh determination the sound of their laughter snapped the last bit of resolve I had. As the lights above me switched to a mournful blue in preparation for the night shift to take over, I buried my face in my hands, and let the miserable tears of a broken friendship trickle down my cheeks.

...............................................................................................................

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to say don't lose hope! There is a light at the end of the tunnel! Believe me, I'm way too big a fan of OtisxOlympia to leave them stuck in a situation like this. 

I also wanted to give a big THANK YOU to every single person who has read, commented, and voted on my story. It truly amazes me just how many people take time out of their busy lives to read something I've written.  I hope you all have an awesome day!

High-fives and fist-bumps, --Sara S.