When I was born, I received a small wristwatch. Everyone gets one. They are all exactly alike, but instead of a watch to tell time, it is a watch that counts down time. They all countdown to a certain time, and whoever you are with at that time is supposed to be your soulmate. Some people die before their time expires, or their time is too long of a wait for them, so they marry someone else. My watch, however, never came with a time on it. When my parents received my watch, they were confused. They kept asking if this was the right watch. No one knew what was wrong, so they labeled it as defective. They labeled me as defective. None of the kids would ever play with me at school, except for one, Poppy. She has always been nice to me, even though I will never have a soulmate. Her watch says that she will meet her soulmate the day she turns 17, and tomorrow is her birthday. She tries to pretend as though she isn’t excited or nervous, but the look in her bright blue eyes says otherwise. Her light brown hair falls in her face as she keeps glancing at her pink watch. Sometimes I catch myself looking at my own blue watch, even though it is completely useless. We’ll see what happens tomorrow when her time runs out. She said she had a feeling that we needed to be in the park. I walked to her house to pick her up and make sure she was ready. She was wearing her “birthday shirt” that she has had forever, and it’s light purple color makes her look really beautiful. Her long tan legs walked alongside mine as we made our way down the street together. When we arrived at the park, she had 15 minutes left. She said that when her times got to 5 minutes she wanted to walk along the sidewalk alone. I respected that because I knew that having your time run out is a special moment for two people. She glanced at her watch, 10 minutes. We hugged for a while before sitting on a bench. “I just want you to know, that you will always be my best friend no matter what happens, and that you’ve always been there for me. Everyone always made fun of me for hanging out with the ‘defective boy’, but you aren’t and never will be ‘defective’. I love you Rhett, and I don’t know if I could go through this without you. I hope that my soulmate will love me at least enough as you do, because if he does, that will be the greatest love anyone will ever have.” Poppy said as a tear slid down her cheek. “I love you too Poppy, but don’t cry, it’s almost time.” I said, comforting her as I wiped the tear away. “Ok, well I’m going to go now. Something’s telling me to start walking down the sidewalk. I’ll see you at home, bye Rhett.” She stood up, put in her headphones, and waved goodbye, but just as she was walking away, her friendship bracelet fell off. We made them as kids, and we’ve never taken them off. I started to make my way to her when I heard a loud commotion coming from the street. A police car was chasing a motorcycle down the street, going too fast. I began to realize that if the motorcycle doesn’t turn soon, it’s going to run into the sidewalk, right where Poppy is walking. I start running toward her, screaming to get out of the way, but she can’t hear me. I keep running faster and faster to try and reach her. The motorcycle is getting closer. And closer. And closer.
|
|