When I was a little girl, I spent my night listening to my grandmother's attempts to describe colors. She'd tell me about the time she first met my grandfather as my mother braided my long hair for the night.
"Mija, it was magical. One second everything is dull but it was fine. Then, I blinked and everything suddenly burst with life. No two shades were exactly the same and when I looked at the man who had just touched me, I knew he was seeing this incredible display of life as I was," she would tell me.
I would always sigh and dream of the day that I would meet my soulmate for the first time and have my perception of everything altered.
Everyone was familiar with the idea that one day they might be lucky enough to see in color and know who they were made for, but the system had some flaws.
Luckily, there seemed to be a pattern in whatever cosmic force decided who was meant to be with who. Firstly, soul mates were never more than five years apart in age. Secondly, they weren't related. Finally, and most importantly, their paths were destined to cross at least once in their lives.
As populations grew, more and more problems arose with the old system. Sometimes soulmates would be born thousands of miles apart and their paths would cross only once, in a busy airport, for instance, and before the two people could introduce themselves they would be whisked away by the crowd and they'd never met. Sometimes a baby would meet touch their soulmate before they even left the hospital, and they would float through life trying to find others who were lost and figure out who their match was, or not even know that they saw all the colors because they never saw in monotone.
Luckily, with modern technology came new ways to reconnect these lost pairs. Children would be administered tests in school to see if they had made initial contact or not, and desperate adults would post the approximate time and place they made initial contact on forums in hopes their soul mate would be searching the same places looking for them as well.
Even still, there were people who would reject their match. People would lose faith that soul mates existed and begin to date others. Others would grow up in a family that rejected certain types of love – like two people of the same gender or two people of different races. They'd make initial contact and jump out of their skin when they realize who they were made for and simply run for the hills.
Even so, my grandmother lived a happy life with my grandfather before he passed away years ago. She raised me to always have faith in the universe's plan for me. My mother, however, had not made her initial contact and had grown bitter with the passing years. She taught me to live my life as I wanted to and to never depend on some silly tale about true love.
When I reached my teenage years and began to develop my perspective on things, I realized both of my influential forces had valid points.
I sat with my best friend, Kylie, as she cried her eyes out one late night in our sophomore year. She told me she touched a girl in geometry and her world burst into color. When she asked the girl, named Savannah, if she saw this as well, and Savannah just stared at her like she was crazy. Somehow, the universe messed up and Savannah was Kylie's soulmate but Kylie was not hers.
I took this in stride and lived with a little more caution. I studied hard and tried not to focus too much on making contact with as many people as possible. Years passed by me quickly but I took little notice of all my peers who had made their initial contacts and were busy falling in love.
There were some particularly exhausting nights where I would lay in bed, unable to sleep, and simply daydream about how my initial contact might happen. Maybe I'd be sick and they would bring me soup or maybe I'd look drop dead gorgeous and they would kiss me right then and there.
The first week of college brought our campus three new couples – which was impressive. Six people had found the love of their lives in just seven days. I admit I was jealous, but a new school year brought more work to do and more goals to meet.
One thing I did not realize, though, was it also brought a lot of people who I had yet to meet.
Hey again! I'm trying something a little different with this story - I'm going to upload a few chapters at a time. Hopefully, you guys will like it. I've had so much fun writing this story so far and I love playing around with the idea of soulmates. I read a story about B99 that was also a soulmate au and I can't find it for the life of me - if any of you know about it just shoot me a message and I'll totally give them a shoutout because I loved that story.