I wake up around 9:30 the next morning to a silent house. Normally this early on a Sunday, Mom would already be up, and Dad would be working in the garage, but there is nothing. I guess last night's events wore them out more than I thought. Looking toward the floor, I guess we were all exhausted. Andrew and Ruby are still asleep, facing each other, hands intertwined. Their eyes are slightly puffy from crying, as are mine, but with their breathing in sync and the way they are holding on to each other's hand, you can tell they were and are meant to be soulmates. Sitting on the edge of my bed, I look at them, not wanting to separate them yet. I head to the bathroom, but when I come back out, I hesitate for another minute before waking Andrew up and sending him back to his room.
"Andrew. Hey, Andrew. Hey bud, I need you to wake up for a second," I whisper, shaking him gently, trying not to wake up Ruby.
"Go away," he mumbles, brushing me off and snuggling closer to her.
"You need to wake up. Mom and Dad are still asleep, but you need to get back to your room before they wake up."
He turns and looks at me over his shoulder. I can see the disappointment in his eyes, mixed with worry, a hint of enchantment toward the girl next to him, and the smallest bit of anger that if I couldn't see it, I would have never guessed.
"Don't worry, I will move her to the bed, she will continue to sleep, and when I walk her home, you can come with, though you probably would have anyway," I say as the anger disappears and is replaced by hope.
As gently as possible, he loosens his grip and stands up, then he carefully picks her up and carries her over to my bed. She snuggles deeper into it as I pull the blanket over her. He caresses her face once more before he silently turns, hugs me, and walks down the hall to his room. As Ruby sleeps, I shower, dress, and pull her clothes from the dryer. I come back just as she wakes up, slow at first, then bolting upright, tears forming. I rush over and hug her, trying to soothe her, seeing that fear and alarm are the two main emotions present. As she calms down, they are replaced with gratitude and reassurance. She gets up and goes into the bathroom to change and shower.
Once she is composed and feeling better, we head down to eat breakfast. Parents, grandparents, and Andrew are all sitting around the table as quiet as church mice. Ruby picks up on the intense atmosphere pretty quickly and keeps her head down as she sits between Andrew and me. After a few minutes, Mom breaks the silence.
"So, when's the wedding?"
I choke on my cereal, and Ruby freezes, her silverware falling out of her hand and clattering on the floor. Andrew stares at Mom, eyes wide; confusion, embarrassment, and a sliver of fear swimming to the surface. Unable to hold it any longer, Mom and Dad double over laughing, and Grandmother and Grandfather chuckle as well.
"I'm kidding. Ruby, you seem like a great girl. It's great to officially meet you."
"N-nice to m-meet you t-too," she stutters, still frozen and slightly shaking.
Seeing this, Andrew gently places his hand on top of hers, and she relaxes immediately. Ruby looks around, and I see a feeling of security and a small amount of embarrassment passing across her eyes. Though I'm glad she feels like that here, I have to get them out of here before someone decides to play another joke.
"Ok, well, look at the time. Ruby, let's get going," I say, standing to leave.
"Oh yeah, ok," she says quietly, still with a bit of fear in her eyes.
Andrew stands without a word and follows us out the door. As soon as we get out, the two are joined at the hip, hand in hand, slowly walking down the street toward the park; I stay back a little, watching them. My brother has always been the type of person to be by himself. He has never shown interest in the Counters or the meetings we would see on the street. For a while, we started to think that he wouldn't meet his soulmate until he was old.
Watching him as he walks with her now, last night when they met, before bed, and this morning when I woke them up, he has always had love in his eyes, but up until yesterday, it's been buried. Now it's one of the only emotions present that you can read easily, written all over his face that he's smitten. I look at my Counter, 458 days, 23 hours, and 56 minutes still ticking down. Rubbing my thumb across it, I can't help but think something's off. I know my feeling is probably paranoia; the Counters are never wrong. Even the guy who tried to change his Counter changed both his and his soulmates; however, both paid the price in the end.
We break into the park, and Ruby and Andrew move to sit on the fountain's edge, and I sit on one of the benches. We are there for maybe 5 minutes before heading toward Ruby's house. My phone starts to ring just as we leave the park. Digging it out, I see Mia's picture that she took with a face mask on. She did it as a joke when she stole my phone but didn't realize I would set it as her contact picture.
"What's up, love?" I answer.
"Hey, do you have some time to spare this afternoon?" she asks.
"Sure, what's up?"
"Well, about 10 minutes after you left lunch yesterday, Sky broke out of his trance and started asking question after question until he realized you had already left," she lets out a sigh.
"And he won't stop asking you?" I finish for her, laughing.
"Yeah! I'm sorry to ask, but would you be willing to help explain it to him? I'll buy you lunch in return."
"Well, I'll never say no to free lunch plus we didn't get the chance to eat much breakfast this morning. Also, I seem to remember someone else asking a lot of questions when she found out," I say, smiling.
"But I'm special. You already knew that I talk a lot," she retorts.
In the background, I hear Skylar asking Mia if I agreed or not.
I laugh again. "Yeah, I'll meet you guys at the cafe after we drop off Ruby."
"Ok... wait, whose Ruby?"
"I'll tell you later, bye," I hang up before she hits me with another question.
Tucking my phone in my pocket, I catch up with the love birds before we turn onto Ruby's street.
"Ok, guys, I hate to say this, but this is where you have to say goodbye for now, at least until Ruby talks to her parents," I say.
Tears start to form in both of their eyes; their smiles turn down immediately. They look at each other and hug so tight that I swear they will become one person. Andrew gives her a peck on the cheek, wipes away her tears, and hesitantly says goodbye. Ruby and I start to walk down her street in silence until she finally speaks.
"Thank you for your help. Really," she says quietly.
"I should be thanking you; I have never seen my brother so happy or so full of love," I laugh, nudging her shoulder.
"Weird question, and don't tell Andrew I asked please, but how did you know that we were going to meet? I wasn't even paying attention to my Counter, or I would guess, but I hadn't looked at it in a while," she asks.
A big, stupid smile spreads across my face, thinking about two days before, talk about Deja vu. Stopping in front of her house, I hug her and say, "I'll tell you next time," waving goodbye, she goes inside.
I turn around and walk back to where we left Andrew. He gets up when he sees me, sadness swallowing his eyes as I throw my arm around his shoulder.
"So, I have to meet Mia and Skylar for lunch, as he keeps pestering her with questions. Do you want to come? She's buying," I nudge him.
"Sure, why not," he sulks.
As we started walking
toward the café, he doesn't say anything, and he doesn't need to for me to know
what he's thinking or how he's feeling. Though I have yet to find my soulmate
and experience this feeling, I imagine that it's like losing a part of
yourself, even if it's only temporarily. I have seen the same look with a few
of the couples I have helped, Mia and Skylar the other night, and Andrew and
Ruby just now. Looking at him now, he looks exactly like that, like half of him
is gone. Though they won't be apart forever, of course, after they had just
met, I'm sure it's hard
*****
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