Delta

"Mmmmm..." Alex lowered herself down into her chair with a low moan and a painful wince.

"You doin' okay?" Her best and only friend at her college asked with concern. Charlotte had first approached Alex in their freshman year. They were both psyche students, and soon became close friends by the end of that semester. The past week, Charlotte had never seen Alex so lethargic and annoyed.

"Nope. I haven't slept more than an hour at a time in the last week."

"Have you eaten anything?" Charlotte asked, her blonde hair tumbling out from behind her triple pierced ears.

"Not since lunch yesterday." Alex rubbed her eyes, as if it would get rid of the nausea in her stomach and the pain that ached all over her body. "Did your love mark hurt this much?" Alex couldn't help but stare at the crescent moon and stars that started at Charlotte's collarbone and spread towards the tip of her shoulder.

"I mean... it hurt for like a day. I got a little nauseous but nothing major. I guess I've heard about people's marks being this painful for them, but it's rare."

"Well it's annoying. Why the hell does mine have to hit me like a truck? It better be frickin' worth it."

"It will be! When I finally met Mark, it was all worth it!" Charlotte always beamed about her perfect husband. That was what the mark was for. Ever since the dawn of time, people would get their love piece when they were ready for their soulmate. People's soul mates would get the same mark at the same time. Charlotte got hers when she was 19. She uploaded a picture of that bad boy up to SoulMatesMark.com and wella! She had a husband.

"Yeah... I bet my butt head of a soul mate will have to be some sort of trouble. This sucks..." Another wave of nausea. Alex thought she might throw up right there in class if she didn't move with some sort of urgency. The professor for their class was just beginning to look alive when she had to practically throw her chair out from under her and bolt for the bathroom. She made it to the men's and decided it would have to do. Stumbling through the door, she held her hand over her mouth in fear of what might spew out if she didn't. Pushing open the door, a tall dark haired asian kid she sort of recognized, gasped upon seeing her. He was at a stall caught with his pants down. Alex didn't care. Couldn't care.

"What the hell are you doing?"

She ignored him and ran into the only closed stall. Upon seeing the toilet, out came a spew of water and a little bit of yesterday's salad. Her stomach was pretty much empty, so most of her men's toilet experience was spent gagging and spitting into the porcelain bowl. Her body had been wrecked in what felt like a high speed crash. When she couldn't throw up anything else, she slowly eased herself down to the far end of the stall. She couldn't help the tears, or the panicked gasping. Why was this so hard?

Therer was a knock on the stall door, "Hey... uh... are you ok?"

A broken, "Yeah." was her only response.

"Do you need me to call someone?"

"No."

"Okay... well. Uh. Take care, Alexis. I guess I'll see you in bio."

Oh gosh... Bio. She had seen him before. "Yeah." She wiped her mouth in an effort to start cleaning herself up, "I'll see you there." She couldn't help but think that she wanted to smack this soul mate of hers upside the head. It had been a week of this torment. Within that stall, she was hit with another wave of pain. A burning sensation flamed up on her wrist, and for the first time she could see some sort of black color coming through. "Well finally." She forced herself to stand. More pain made her realize that it might be a good day to skip class.