Red String of Fate

The red string of fate. The belief that a little red thread connects two people who are destined to be lovers are connected, regardless of time, place, or circumstances, and can never be broken. Soul heard about it once in an anime he watched years ago. He watched as the two characters were bound together, but never truly became a couple. It wasn't until later on that Soul realized it was all a part of the man's wild fantasy, he was just chasing after his dream girl, so he never really believed in it. That is until by some weird turn of fate, he saw her again. The on girl he thought he would never see again, and the only one he really ever loved.

Soul Evans lived in New York City for 139 days before it happened, keeping track on the uncool puppy calendar he bought a week after moving on the spur of the moment. Every night he ticked the day off, and writing the number that followed the one shown on the next day. When he first moved to New York, it was meant to be an escape. He was overwhelmed with the pressures of being around his parents again after four years of living in another state. New York City was meant to be his safe haven, but after a week of his arrival, Soul realized there was no solace here. The city was constantly abuzz with life, cars honking and the rumbles of the crowds outside his apartment window as they spoke to people who were in another state. As he travelled to and from work, the streets made him feel claustrophobic, there was no room for his thoughts to grow, and his breathing felt more ragged. New York City was hell, and Soul was ready for his lease to be up and the contract he signed with the company to be over.

On day 140, rain was pouring down the sky and the air around him smelled musty with a mix of sweat and heat from the people around him. Soul stood on the street corner waiting for the light to change, holding the shitty blue umbrella he bought from a mom and pop store, amongst the people around him who were all on their cell phones. It was a mixture of different faces and hair color, all holding different umbrellas or no protecting themselves with jackets draped over their heads, people he would never see again. The woman to his right was shorter than him and yelling on the phone in a language he did not understand, and the man on his left in a business suit was complaining about some project that needed to be finished that day. All the conversations around him were about things that were meaningless to him, but he still felt the voices rumble through his body. Soul closed his eyes, willing the anxiety to calm down. Soul took three deep breaths, clenching his hands to his side, and counted to ten before opening his eyes. When he was exposed to the world again, his lazy crimson eyes focused on the lively green ones of a small blonde girl standing across the street who was smiling at him.

A mixture of blonde and green flashed in his mind, the smell of the beginnings of summer reached his nostrils, and the heat of the sun radiated down on his skin even though the yellow orb was hidden behind dull grey clouds. He knew this girl from a time that happened long ago. At the time he was nine, his parents drove him and Wes to their grandmother's house in the south for the summer, and that was when he met her, the eccentric little girl who lived next door. She was peculiar when they first met, being upfront with him unlike the other girls he met up to that point in his short years. When he was out, she was too, wanting to play with him along the small creek or climb the willow tree on the bank of that same creek. At first, Soul was cautious of her, afraid she would treat him differently because of his unnatural looks, but as the days turned into weeks and she never strayed, he began to feel comfortable around her. There was hardly a moment where they weren't together that summer, and on the way home he talked Wes' ear off about her. The only thing he really knew about the little girl was that her name was Maka, she was two years younger than him, and he would never see her again after that summer.

But as he stood in his little cramped section of the street, Soul realized that fate was a mysterious thing and sometimes she'll sneak up on you with the surprise of a lifetime. New York City was not the place he dreamed of seeing her again. It was always in some dingy jazz café or by a creek like the first time, but there she was standing on the corner of 5th and Broadway, a small smile playing on her lips as her scrutinizing green eyes watched him. Puberty had been gracious for Maka. Her glossy blonde hair framing her slender face and draping past her shoulders was pinned back by two braids. Her body was subtly curved, cinching in at the waist a bit to make her appear more womanly, was adorned in a black pencil skirt and red blouse that accentuated her eyes perfectly. Soul was dazzled by the sight of her. He forgot the people around him, the stress of work and life escaping him, and in that moment it was just the two of them. Is this how fate feels sometimes?

The light changed, and the people on both sides of the street crossed, intermingling together but remaining strangers, but Soul remained still in his spot. Maka never broke eye contact with him as she crossed, holding her orange umbrella, and the smile never faded. Soul's heart quickened with anticipation and want. After years of thinking of her, after breaking up with his first girlfriend, he knew she was his first love even at the tender age of nine. Maka was constantly in his thoughts, dreams, and every day encounters. He never lost the memory of her, never stopped hoping they would meet again. It was all leading up to this one moment. This one fateful moment where they would cross paths once more, years of growth and maturity behind them.

"Hi." Maka was in front of him, clutching the umbrella a little tighter.

"Hey." Soul could feel the goofy smile twitching on his lips. He wanted to pinch himself to assure him that this was not a dream like it had been so many times before.

"Soul, right?"

"Yea." He was far too nervous to speak more than one word, fear taking over him that it would come out sounding like a pubescent fourteen year old boy talking to his crush for the first. It was later that night, reminiscing on the events of the day, Soul realized that meeting her here did make him a neurotic fourteen year old boy.

"Do you remember me?"

"You're Maka. We met when I was nine at my grandmother's home."

"I'm glad you remember me or else this would have been really awkward."

"Like it isn't right now?" Maka's smile grew wider, her lips releasing a small giggle. Her laugh was intoxicating and Soul wanted to, no needed, to hear more of it. He didn't want to let go of Maka again now that she was here. "Where were you heading before now?"

"I was actually going back to my apartment so I could eat the ramen soup I bought last week and watch Orange is the New Black by myself." She smiled at him, hoping he would catch the hint, and for once in his life he did.

"Do you maybe want to grab something at this burger place not far from here? My treat?" Maka bit her bottom lip and lightly bounced on her toes. Soul could see the excitement building up in her.

"Yea. That sounds a hell of a lot better than what I had planned." Soul nodded and moved to lead the way across the street before she pulled him back by the nape of his shirt as a cab roared by. "Maybe we should wait for the light to change?"

Heat began to rise to his cheeks. They just barely met again and already he was embarrassing himself. "Yea it would be unfortunate if I died, wouldn't it?"

Maka smiled up to him, fondness coating her eyes. "It would be very unfortunate especially after meeting once again."

They crossed the street when the light turned from green to red, the sound of their shoes splashing water. Maka remained near Soul, her umbrella tapping his should every now and then, and her hand lightly brushing his hand intentionally as they walked. Their conversation stayed on the path of sweet pleasantries, both waiting to reach their destination before asking the deeper questions that played on the tip of their tongues, begging to be released out of curiosity. At the burger place, Soul ordered one of the biggest burgers they had and Maka ordered a vegan burger, and once they had their meal chose to sit at a small table meant for two by the window.

"So, do you have a girlfriend?" Maka finally asked the one question that was buzzing around her mind their whole trip there. Soul almost spit out the bite of burger he had taken due to being caught off guard by her question.

"Um….no. I'm not seeing anyone in that way right now." Maka nodded her head, and popped a fry in her mouth to hide her smile. He already knew she was single but the hint she laid out in front of him earlier, so rebounding the question was out of his court. Soul settled on the simplest question he could think of. "What brought you to the city? You always seemed like a small town kind of girl."

"I'm working as an intern at one of the law firms here in town."

"You want to be a lawyer?" Maka nodded. Soul had guessed she was only twenty-four, and was surprised that someone as young as she was already doing what people his age were. "Aren't you still a little young, though?"

"I finished high school a year early as well as college. What do you do?"

"I'm a one of the music teachers at NYU."

"Do you like it? I remember you played the piano for me the day I cut my leg. You wanted to cheer me up."

"It's alright…the students are a bitch to work with though." They ate in silence for a moment more, the diner was almost empty and the rain outside had eased up a bit. Soul had run out of the things to talk about, things he felt were safer for conversation. "Do you like your burger?"

"It's really good." Maka was picking the sesame seeds out of her burger, refusing to make eye contact with him. Soul began to worry that she was going to leave, proclaiming that their meeting again was a mistake. Then Maka looked back up at him, her smile small like when she was standing across the street not too long ago. "Isn't this funny? You and I meeting after years of not seeing each other, losing contact with one another, until we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. We only met once on a whim because we both happened to be spending the summer at the exact same place."

"It is a little funny. Almost like fate was telling us to be together or something." Maka looked at him quizzically. "I mean, I personally don't believe in all of that, but I know there are some who do."

Maka's smile slowly crept back on her face as she watched him. "I've actually been thinking the same thing since I noticed you on that street corner. I've met tons of people since you, but you're the only one that this has happened with. Maybe it is some weird higher power that's trying to tell us we belong together." Maka looked away from him, a slight blush working on her cheekbones.

"Maybe we're both right. That this is the world's way of telling us we should be together." Soul would never admit it to anyone else, but she was different. She wouldn't judge him about it because she felt the same way and understood. "Kind of like the red string of fate belief in Asian culture."

Maka's head snapped back up to look at him, her eyes wide. "You've heard of that too?"

"I saw it in this anime I watched a long time ago so I don't know much about it just that there's an invisible red string attached to two people that are meant to be together."

"Yea, that's exactly what it is…" Maka leaned toward him, her meal long forgotten. "So, tell me what has happened in your life since we last talked. There should be quite a bit since it's been fifteen years."

They spoke more about their lives and laughed at each other's jokes and embarrassing moments until about two in the morning when the diner started to become packed with people after a long night of partying. Soul and Maka chose to share a cab, having Maka be dropped off first since she leaved the closest and Soul wanted to be a gentleman by not leaving her alone with a strange male taxi driver. When the cab arrived in front of her apartment complex, Soul walked her to the front lobby so he could bid goodbye to her without said man staring at them to hurry up.

Maka was about to leave when Soul gently grabbed her wrist to have her face him again, and then he did the one thing he never thought he would. Soul cupped her face, warm to the touch, leaned down and kissed her. It was a few seconds of awkward kissing, Soul felt like he was kissing his pillow similar to around the time he first noticed girls, before Maka moved her lips in time with his with a few nose bumps. If Soul didn't know any better, he would say this was their thousandth kiss, it felt like they had practiced for years, learning the other's movements, instead of just a few short hours. Their lips were so in sync with each other, and his mind was too preoccupied with focusing on where his hands should go, her dainty little waist, that he didn't notice her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. They bid farewell to each other, promising to see each other the next day, before going their separate ways, both in a state of heaven that nothing could break.

Fate has a strange way of putting the pieces of puzzle together, bringing two people that by all odds were believed to never meet again, only to show that they were always meant for each other, and only each other.