Twenty Seconds Before

Chapter 5: Chalk White

      I woke up at about six A.M to my phone's alarm. "Call Tansen to Wake Him Up" crossed the screen. I couldn't fall back asleep so I changed into my swimsuit, grabbed a key card and snuck out of the hotel room that we'd gotten late last night. I eventually found my way to the pool and swam my regular lap's. Tansen and I were on the swim team together back home and would always race to see who could finish our 10 length warm-up first. I smiled at the memory and was about to start again when I heard my phone start singing "Drops of Jupiter" by Train. That was Tansen's ringtone. I leaped out of the pool and grabbed the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey av! Why didn't you call me?! I was late to first period!"

"Tan- You should be able to wake up without me by now. You are a senior" It was nice to hear his voice again, even though it'd only been 2 days."

" You and I both know that will never happen till the day I die" He laughed and I wanted to run to him. I wanted to be with him more than anything in the world.

"Hey," I started- "so im sorry about the way I left things. I should have been more considerate of your feelings, rather than what I wanted."

"Ava I-"

I could hear the bell for second period in the back round and knew that he had to go.

" Im sorry Tansen. I hope you don't hate me. I'll talk to you later. Have fun with Amberly in Physics." I hung up the phone and held back tears.

The thought of him with her made me gag. They were always holding hands, or walking arm in arm to their classes while I awkwardly third wheeled. It's my fault though, I was the one who dumped him.

After we performed in "Midsummer Night's Dream" we were even more inseperable. I was with him constantly and loved every second. We even spent a whole week building this dorky tree house together so we could hang out without getting crap from anyone. We built it in the forest behind my backyard, and it was our pride and joy. We went thrift shopping for all the furniture and decked it out too. The tree house has four rooms- the main room with a couch and this really old t.v. we got for five dollars from our neighbor Mr. Gallaseo down the road, the kitchen- stocked with a bunch of junk food and soda's we had been slowly collecting, the bedroom with three twin beds (one for me, one for Tansen and one for Austin), A bathroom and the attic. Most of it was professionally built and paid for by his parents just to get him to stop asking, but we spent a full week trying our best to help the builders so we could claim we helped make it.

After it was complete we basically lived in there. Our parents didn't really ever care about where we were as long as we didn't miss school or get arrested, so over spring break we spent a full week there. It was our little world. It was those nights where we sat on our couch and watched our T.V. that made me hope that he was my soul mate.

I've always thought too much about my soulmate, but that's the one thing we disagree on. Tansen wore the same band that my mother and father did, and absolutley refused to ever take it off- well- that's not completely true. He'd taken it off once before. It was the day that my soul tracker began to tick downward.

"TAAAAAANSENNNNNN!!!" I screamed while running through the tree house.

"Av?" his face was full of consern. " Is everything okay?"

" My tracker. Its counting."

He looked at my face, then down at his satin band. He took my face in his hands and kissed me with passion. "Av. No matter if our clocks line up or not, you will still love me. Right?" "Of course I will silly. Now show me your time." I was hoping and praying so hard that he was meant for me. I didn't want anything else in the world but him. I loved him with all my heart. I watched with eager anticipation as he twisted the dial and pulled apart the two edges. His face turned chalk white.