The plaza buzzed as if it had a life of its own. People went about their day, friends chatted, and bicycles zipped by merrily. The sun was shining brightly, and the sky was as pretty as an oil painting. Clara soaked it all in while she waited for Cyra by the fountain at the round-a-bout, just like they agreed upon. She watched the windows of the cafes and shops and inhaled the smell of baked goods and flowers.
"Hello there Princess."
Clara switched her focus to the tall lean figure in front of her. Cyra was in his usual all black attire, his mid-length, pitch-black hair was styled, unlike yesterday's unruly mane. He had a laptop bag on his shoulder, and one hand in his pocket while the other one was holding out a cup of coffee. A half smile gleamed on his perfect lips. "You look as pretty as a picture my dear." He continued and she accepted the offering with a small, cautiously optimistic smile.
"Thank you… for the coffee that is." She took a big breath of it and let the steam nip her face. "Maybe he isn't so awful after all. Maybe I was too hasty in my judgement. He's actually kind of sweet." She took a sip of her coffee and kept it near her face and smiled. She paused for a moment. "Cyra, who's Tom?"
"Hm? Tom?" Cyra lifted an eyebrow.
"Tom, the name on the cup says Tom… why does it say Tom?"
His eyes suddenly flashed to something sinister. "Oh. Tom is a pompous imbecile that doesn't deserve to breathe nor less have the pleasure of a refreshing drink." His accent gave drama to his words.
"Did… did you steal Tom's coffee?"
"No." Cyra defended. "Tom was being horrific to a poor barista and calling her dreadful names on the account of him being late. He seemed to feel that she wasn't working fast enough. The poor little mouse was almost in tears."
"So you stole his coffee."
"For the last time Princess, no. I did what any gentleman would do. I paid for his order." He stated nonchalantly."
"Well, that was nice of you."
"Tom thought so too. Until the timid little mouse called out his name to pick up his coffee and I cut him off and reached for it instead. You should have seen the dunce's face!" he proclaimed. "I paid for it, that makes it mine and I'm taking it."
"That's horrible!" Clara cried. Her mind was a stew of emotions. Tom might have deserved it but Clara's respect for justice bubbled to the top. "He probably didn't even have time to order another one."
"I know! Well, we can only hope." he sighed. "Shall we?" he mused, his smile returning.
Clara couldn't believe what was just confessed to her. She could understand where the vigilant urge was coming from but you can't just make up your own rules, that's not how things work. He didn't even sound remorseful. Either way, she decided to press through and proceed with the date and drop it.
Cyra led Clara to a large building with a glass dome ceiling a few blocks from the plaza. "The Museum of Science?" Clara puzzled.
"Yes Darling, I figured an intelligent woman like you must have been here before. Am I correct in that assumption?"
"Well, yeah just once but it was a long time ago, class field trip." Clara looked up at the building and couldn't imagine dragging Emily or her parents in there. She was genuinely happy that it wasn't a dive bar. She smiled secretly.
"Then you will adore the new tour of space they have. Come along Love, we mustn't miss it."
The museum was much larger than Clara remembered. There were many people on the tour with them, and Clara found she was enjoying herself much more than she originally anticipated.
They arrived at a weird looking rock on a pedestal that was inside of an acrylic box. The tour guide explained that this rock is called a moon gem and it came from a rare meteorite that originated all the way from Venus, and collided with the moon on its descent. The pressure from the collision and the heat when it entered Earth's atmosphere created the peculiar stone. At first glance it looked like lava-rock. Black and dense, with little holes and crevices and it was about the size of a softball. But when it caught light it had the most outstanding iridescent gleam. Beautiful blues and greens with a purple shift, it was like an oil slick on the pavement of a parking lot after an old car idled for too long.
"It says here this moon gem is the only one of it's kind to have ever been discovered." Clara read.
"Oh do I know…" Cyra trailed off while he fidgeted with something out of Clara's sight. "Ah huh! There we are." Cyra announced as the acrylic box loosened and Cyra popped it off with ease.
"CYRA!" she desperately whispered, looking around frantically. "What the hell are you doing?! They probably have silent alarms! Security and the police are going to be here any minute, put that down!" She panicked.
Cyra snorted, "Relax princess, don't you think I have thought about that already? I have been, let's just say… friendly… with the night staff. Last night I convinced a new little friend I made to take me to the one place without cameras to have a little privacy. I suggested the security room. And following our little rendezvous I convinced her that it was best if we didn't come out together and that she should leave first. Once she was out, I installed a bug in the security system that put this room on an endless loop."
"Ew, you are disgusting!" Clara rushed to his side. Cyra leaned in to grab the moon gem just as Clara whipped forward, grabbing it simultaneously. They both tugged at it with all of their strength.
"Let go!" Clara demanded, pulling the moon gem towards her and away from Cyra. She pulled so hard that her hands turned white and then red from the sole force of her will power. Her furrowed eyebrows pinched together closely and she strained.
"This no longer concerns you, Love." He struggled to keep his voice steady. She's a lot stronger than she looks, he thought. He gave an even harder yank, but Clara's dainty hands did not waiver. Without warning the moon gem started glowing bright red between the cracks that were starting to form. The bright glow was coming from within the core of the stone. They both stood in awe as the heat created from their friction and body heat made the gem glow brighter and the temperature rise higher.
For a heartbeat of a second, Clara had forgotten what she was doing, too stunned at the event unfolding before her that she let go of the glowing red sphere and jumped back. A short little spark of electricity transferred to her from the moon gem and she stared at her hands in complete puzzlement. She felt an electric hum, some sort of buzz radiating off the gem and penetrating into their hands and up to her arms and the rest of her body. Cyra took advantage of this and plopped the small stone in his laptop bag and slinked away into the next room where a crowd was looking at a piece of the Apollo. He blended into the crowd and vanished.
Frightened and also confused as to why her hands were now buzzing, Clara tried her best to look casual as her heart beat out of her chest and her throat closed up. She was an accessory to theft and now had to get home without getting arrested. She thought about running up to the security and telling him everything, but nothing couldn't prove that she wasn't in on it. Many people witnessed both of them arriving together.
When she finally made it out and was safe at home, she plopped on her bed and cried. Her hands buzzed even more with that electrical current and it was climbing up her wrist; it crept deeper yet, her whole arm tingling.
When she finally calmed and the tears subsided, so did the buzzing. It was as if the strange electricity was controlled by her emotions. It felt very odd. Before Clara could ponder it farther her wet, swollen eyes became too heavy to keep open; and in moments she was fast asleep, her body in total shock from the day's events.