00:00:00:00 (Love Shots Contest)

zeroed, tuesday may 13th 2199

Zenon

You know how you feel when you’re doing something crazy nerve racking? Like when you’re singing a solo, or announcing something in front of a crowd and your heart starts doing crazy stuff? It just leaps into your throat, clogging up your airway, and suddenly the ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump is getting faster, and your breathing is getting shallower.

Good.

I’m glad you understand, because that is how I felt.

My heart stuttered in my chest as I observed the built in countdown watch on the inside of my wrist. The numbers that had been green and ever moving for my entire life up to this exact moment, were now dim. They stared up at me, 00:00:00:00. Twenty-three years of waiting, and wondering, and watching. Watching my countdown, watching those around me find their partners. Wondering who my partner was, what they were doing. Wondering if the time would ever hit zero. Waiting, sometimes patiently, and sometimes with baited breath and dreamy sighs, waiting angrily at times. Twenty-three years of uncertainty.

But now the moment had arrived and I was afraid to look anywhere but at this clock. Who’s eyes would I find when I looked up? Brown hair or blonde? Or maybe black. I knew my preference but had the Timekeepers really taken that preference sheet from my sixteenth year into consideration? So many questions assailed me, and I was overwhelmed.

“Excuse me?”

I jumped at the low voice that sounded over my shoulder and whirled around to meet green eyes.

“Are you zeroed?” asked the man before me.

You know how when you run into someone hot, it’s like your tongue sort of gets stuck? And it’s kinda like lead, and you can feel it, but you can’t move it? And you know you must look insanely stupid, but you can’t do anything about it. You know that feeling? Okay, good—are your picturing it? Because at the moment that was me.

“Uh, no. I’m Zenon.”

He tipped his head back in a chuckle, “No, I mean your watch.”

Briefly I squeezed my eyes shut at my stupidity, “Mhm, yeah.”

I held up my wrist to show him. Lame, I know.

“May I?” he gestured to my hand and I took a deep breath. I knew exactly what he wanted.

See in the year 2199 things were different. Our superior alien race had come to earth in the year 2017 and basically absorbed the human race. Nothing like the movies where aliens are depicted as weird green, or grey hairless little aggressive freaks. In fact we looked a lot like you, even more so now that humans and aliens had started procreating. Anyway, we came and slowly assimilated, taught the humans our advanced ways, and in turn learned about their culture and customs. We’ve lived peacefully ever since 2060.

And now everything was different.

If the Jettisons, Back to the Future, and that one Michael Jackson music video had a love child—that would be how everything looks. Okay just kidding. The earth surprisingly looked pretty much the same. Of course due to our superior alien help and the adaption of our techniques (because—holy crap your ancestor really messed up your planet). Anyway along with flying cars and cool holographic stuff, we had these nifty little countdowns literally built into us—as in you pop outta the womb with one embedded in you.

Once earthling scientists mingled with alien scientists the inventions were off the charts. One of the inventions was the watch. Scientists thought it’d be groundbreaking to tell people when they’d meet their “soulmate”. Eliminate the uncertainty and what not, but in reality it didn’t work out that way. What they didn’t take into consideration was willpower. See you have a set date for meeting your soulmate when you’re born, but the choices you and the other person make could totally screw it up. There were so many flukes—so many times my watch had been at 00:00:05:32, or something close like that. But then I’d turn down the wrong street or he’d decide he was—I don’t know?—going to a different grocery store.

But now here he stood before me in all of his beautiful raven haired, green eyed beauty and all I could think was dang, the Timekeepers did a helluva good job this time. I wouldn’t be one of those sad, sad girls that got stuck with someone completely unattractive to them.

“Uh, Z?” he looked at me expectantly.

I blinked, realizing that—holy crap I just completely zoned out on him. Embarrassing right?

“Oh, shi—shoot, sorry,” I held out my wrist to him, “uh here.”

In order to make sure it wasn’t a coincidence, both of our watches being at zero and all, the way to make sure we were each other’s soulmate was to touch each other. If you didn’t within an hour of meeting, the clock would reset. If we did touch—well if we did touch I wasn’t exactly sure what would happen. I had heard many stories. You became ‘connected’, or your watches both shattered. I’d heard stories of ‘sparks flying’—whatever that means, and stories of there being nothing at all.

“Nice to meet you Z, I’m Ky,” and with that he took my small hand in his.

I’d touched boys before. I’d even kissed other boys, dated—just because I was waiting for my soulmate didn’t mean I wasn’t gonna have any fun, I mean are you kidding? But all of those strokes and caresses and hot touches that had been exceptional in the moment seemed somehow muted in comparison. There were no real sparks, but I could feel something that started in my stomach, a low simmering. Something hot and electric where his skin touched mine. It was a simple handshake, but I knew, and I knew that he knew. His eyes were clouded with—what was it desire? Adoration?

 It was nothing like the stories as our watches both disappeared, we didn’t even realize until after since we were so entranced by each other’s touch. Our watches had receded into our skin because the job was done. We had met, and touched all in the spate of thirty minutes. I knew it was only the tip of the iceberg. I knew there was much more to come and I knew it was crazy—like that ancient story Ronan and Julia or whatever—but I was certain that this was forever. And the best part? Was I knew no matter what that we’d work out because this was it – we were soulmates.