Soulmates - More than just a simple love story

Chapter 01

"Did you hear that? He actually said he found his soulmate", my friend said. Her eyes were looking at me expectantly.
"Sure thing", I said while rolling my eyes. It was already the sixth time that Jess has told me about the rumor which was the hottest topic in our semester. Some guy who never got out of his "popular highschool jock"-phase was probably just looking for attention and started all this talk about soulmates.

"How can you be so cold! Don't you wanna meet your soulmate?", Jess asked. I just shook my head.
"Not really. I don't really believe in that fantasy kinda stuff.", I said dryly. I meant each and every word. This society surely cared about this whole thing with "finding your soulmate" a lot. It was even commercialized!

It was said that soulmates could share each other's feelings and senses and even communicate with each other in their heads. Who would actually believe that stuff?

"You sure are cold", Jess laughed.
"You are just a hopeless romantic, you dummy." I packed my bag and stood up from the place we were sitting at. "Come on, our next lecture is gonna start."

She rolled her eyes. "All you do is study. You should enjoy your college life, Elle! You are twenty! We should go to parties and -"
I laughed. "I am enjoying my college life, Jess."
"By studying day and night?"
"Don't exaggerate and let's go now." She groaned and reluctantly stood up.
"You will see, one day a freshly-baked handsome young guy will just come your way and -"

I immediately cringed at the thought and cut her off while laughing. "No way in hell, don't make it weird and stop dreaming." She only laughed and followed me through the hallways.
There were already too many people rushing through to get to their classes. Was it always so full in the afternoon? They normally just skipped it at this time. Well, whatever.

We almost made it to the door to our lecture as I suddenly felt a nauseating sensation climbing up my limbs. Not again. I stumbled before getting into the room.

"Is everything okay?", Jess asked. Her eyes starting to worry. "Is it your illness again? What should I do? Does it hurt?" She started rummaging in her own bag. "Do you need pain killers? I still have some. Hang on, I -"

"It's alright. You know pain killers never work on me", I managed to say - leaning against the wall.
"I'll just go out for a second. Don't wait for me." I felt like I was being choked out of air. Well, nothing new, I thought to myself.

Jess didn't move. "Are you sure? You don't need any help?"
I just shook my head and waved with one of my hands. "Just go. I'm used to this." A shaky smile on my lips.
Then she let out a dramatic sigh. "You always say that. If anything happens - call me - immediately, alright?"

I just nodded and tried to slowly make my way through the crowd. It felt like I had to plow through all these people. Why are there so many people here?

I started coughing. This sensation was too real. And yet again - it didn't feel like it belonged to me.

Needless to say, this was actually quite common. I have lived with it all my life.
These sudden waves of random emotions I couldn't explain.
These sudden sensations rushing through my body which just didn't feel like mine. They felt misplaced and yet right. Ironic, right? I didn't even know myself what was wrong with me.

When I was younger, I thought that everyone felt like this. But then I started to get small pain attacks and weird sensations randomly without knowing where they came from.
Back then my parents sent me to various doctors who just told me that my hormones were not stabilized enough yet. I had to do various check-ups just to end up with no results. Well, thanks for that, I guess.

And when I went to the doctors in my high school years as the weird sensations got more frequent, they just laughed at me and told me that this was a normal thing for women. I was pretty sure that my symptoms were definitely not normal but I just started to live with it. No one had an answer to it anyway.

As the hallway were nauseously full, I decided to use a short cut to get outside of the building. I got to a small place. There was only one bench placed against a grey dusty wall in which little letters and notes were carved in.

As I looked around, I was relieved to find out that I was the only one here. The pain which was almost unbearable before was starting to gradually fade away. I slowly exhaled. Thank God.

While looking around, I found a used magazine next to my feet.

"Want to find your soulmate? Test yourself in SKIA!"
I felt the urge to roll my eyes at these overdramatic headlines.

SKIA was some kind of popular entertainment industry which contained some really well-known celebrities which were rumored to be soulmates. It mostly made their money by advertising and romanticizing the thought of having some kind of fated partner.

I just couldn't believe this kind of thing. SKIA even produced some testing method in which people could find their fated one - however, nobody knew how it was done. I heard from Jess that everyone who underwent the test had to sign a contract of confidentiality, so the whole testing procedure was kept a secret.

It was also said that you could get lucky and meet one of your favorite celebrities who worked for SKIA - but then again, this wasn't confidential information. I knew that Jess wanted to meet that one Italian celebrity guy named Alessandro she crushed on since she was 15. I always told her that getting tested didn't mean that she would get to see him - but she already booked a testing date and I was sure that she would drag me with her. I smiled at the thought of it.

College life was already hard as it is, I couldn't even imagine something near as a love life, let alone a so-called soulmate.
As I texted Jess that I was alright and was going to skip classes, I heard something rustling behind me. I turned around.

"Oh, sorry - did I surprise you?" Some guy I have never seen before, stared at me.
He had that kind of charming smile - his perfect white teeth nearly blinding me. Jess would have drooled over this guy, I thought to myself.

Although his gestures were friendly, his sharp eyes seemed observant - nearly intimidating.

"No..." I finally managed to say.
He started to move towards me.  "Were you the only one here?"

He had something in his hand. Some kind of device. What kind of phone was that?

"I guess?", I didn't know why I sounded sassy but something about this guy who had an angel-like appearance just didn't sit right with me. "Why?", I added.

"Well, just something which popped up on my radar." He shrugged. His sharp blue eyes twinkling. I looked at him confused.

Although I just didn't understand what he meant, a sudden urge to escape overcame me. My head started to throb slightly. It was as someone was trying to break through but I ignored it.

All I knew now that this guy was dangerous. It was an instinct.

"I gotta go", I mumbled in a low voice and slowly stood up from the bench. The guy squinted his eyes and wanted to say something as someone suddenly screamed.

"Hey, watch out!" I jerked back as a rugby ball flew right past my head. What the heck.

"Damn, are you alright?" The person who screamed came right towards me. It was Matt - the guy who started his own rumor of finally having found his soulmate.

"You could've given me a heads up but yeah." I nodded, trying not to sound too sarcastic. He only shrugged and said, "Well, it's not like I didn't warn you."

Oh, really now? Matt actually thought he was still the shit in high school everyone wanted. Well, not my problem.
"Your so-called soulmate must be very unpleased.", I said mockingly.

Matt only scoffed. "You have no idea. Who the hell are you anyways?" I only shrugged and started walking away. Before I completely turned around, I glanced at the unfamiliar guy from before one last time.

This time around, his attention was fully focused on Matt. His sharp blue eyes stared at him with a strange kind of intensity which even made me uncomfortable although I wasn't the one he looked at. Weird guy.

Not thinking about it any further, I finally turned around and walked away.