Unforeseeable

one.

I remember the first time I properly noticed my mark. It was a fairly simple concept my parents tried to open my mind to, but my 6 year old self had so many questions.

"It's how you find your soul mate." My mother told me as my small fingers traced the lines I'd been wondering about since I was old enough to understand anything.

I looked at her with wide eyes, "what's a soul mate?", I asked, utterly confused.

"I'll explain more about it when you're older, Della."

My full name is Delilah Auden Dale, but everyone calls me Della. I live in a world that seems almost normal, except that we are all pre-programmed to fall in love with a specific person before we're even born. Everyone is born with a 'mark' on their right wrist and if you're lucky enough, someday you'll find your 'match'; the only other person in the entire world with the same exact mark.

I'm in my last year of high school, and all of my friends are completely and constantly infatuated with the idea of finding their match. Every minute of every day is talk about the next place they will go or the 'psychic' feelings they get about how and when and where they will meet their soul mate. However, I choose to not obsess over my supposed 'perfect' future. Only 25% of people actually find the person with a matching mark. The rest of us, well we either find someone else who's also given up looking, or we just accept that we'll be forever alone. When I really sit down and think about how many people aren't even with their match, I get it. The challenge of finding them out of 7 billion people is almost impossible and I pity the people who pause living their own life so that they can dedicate their precious days to searching for something they may never find.

Don't get me wrong, I imagine finding your match would be indescribable; you're practically famous if you do. Magazines want to write stories about you and news channels want to put you on TV. Sometimes people only want to find their match for the fame. But, I also wonder, how could it be promised that your match is perfect for you? There are so many unanswered questions that I personally think about every day.

Today is the first day of my last semester at high school. I'm 18 and I'm the oldest out of my friends. We have a fairly big group but when I shrink it down to the closest of us, there's an easy 4 best friends I couldn't live without. I grew up with Layne, he and I have lived only one street away since we were kids. Our dads work together and we regularly have blended family lunches; he's more of a brother than a friend. Next is Selena, she transferred schools at the beginning of the year and fit in with our group immediately. Her bright red hair captures everyone's attention and her carefree personality has everyone wishing they were her friend. Eden is practically our schools 'it' girl and every few months she has a new guy wanting her attention. Despite being the most popular girl in school, she's extremely down

to earth and the best person to go to for advice. Lastly, we have Kye. Kye has come from a complicated past and doesn't really have any other friends besides us. Despite experiencing his mothers death and his fathers abandonment, he's still one of the best friends the four of us could ask for.

We all meet each other outside school before our first class. I drive myself and Layne to and from school every day because he hasn't gotten his license yet. He's promised to give me unlimited lifts once he has his license too. We see Eden, Selena and Kye at the gates waiting for us as we pull up. Selena is carrying the conversation, it's obvious to see from my car, as she always does. Her energy is infectious and she always has something new to talk about each day. Eden is trying to stay interested but I can see in her eyes that she's struggling to keep up with Selena's pace. Kye seems distracted on his phone, we didn't hear much from him over the holidays. He went to Western Australia to see some family and he tried to check in as often as he could.