Hopeless

Prologue

I couldn't stop staring at him as he sat down in front of me. Even his back was gorgeous. I recognized the plot: ordinary, lonely girl with a new classmate who turns out to be this amazingly stunning boy. They fall in love and live happily ever after. I almost had a Deja Vu from that romantic movie I watched last week, and if it was as simple in real life as it was in that movie I might have just ran up to him right then to kiss him. But it wasn't that simple. In fact it wasn't simple at all.

"Hi, I'm Vincent." He said and reached his hand in front of me. He had turned around in his seat and was now facing me. I jumped at his sudden approach and had to breathe for a second to be able to talk.

"H-Hi." I said, even though it came out as more of a whisper. I could hear myself stutter even on that tiny word.

"Well are you going to tell me your name?" he laughed as I snapped out of my own world where the unknown creature in front of me was kissing my neck and making me moan. "Or should I just call you drooley?"

"No, I'm sorry. I'm Hope." I smiled weakly, but quickly shut my stupidly smiling mouth when I realized how dumb I must have looked. He smiled back.

"Hope...?" He said questioningly.

"Hope Cather."

"That's a breath taking girl."

"What?"

"Name, I meant name."

Was he flirting with me? I wasn't sure. His eyes glanced down at what I first thought were my chest, but I quickly realized it was my necklace, which was completely visible around my bare neck. I touched it slightly to feel the temperature and noticed to my surprise that he did the exact same thing. Both of us giggled in embarrassment and I pulled my hand away.

"So, what's your name besides Vincent?" I asked to push the conversation for it to not end.

"Just Vincent." He looked up and replied with a smirk on his face. He was mysterious, and I kind of liked it. "God." He blurted out. "Mine wasn't warm, but you already knew that."

"Yeah... I said. I didn't know how to proceed since I didn't want to be an easy catch. I've always heard you were supposed to play hard to get but it was difficult when his eyes went right through me, touching my heart on the way.

"There's not much to do about it." He continued when I didn't say anything else. I nodded as a reply. He turned around in his seat when the teacher told him off for chatting.

When I got home that day I went straight up to my room, waving at mum on my way up the stairs. I'd never thought about the necklace as much as I did that afternoon. I had never been a fan of the rules of it, but on the other hand I had never thought I would meet someone I liked so much who wasn't my soul mate. It was weird thinking of Vincent as someone I liked, considering we had only met a few hours ago, but it was something about him that made my brain explode whenever he spoke to me. I grabbed my laptop and went down to the kitchen in which my mum was cutting chicken for dinner. I pulled a chair and climbed up to reach the highest shelf where the mugs were. The tea was a relief for my tense body as I sat down in front of mum. She was done cutting the pieces of chicken so she had went on to the vegetables.

"Can I ask you something?" I said after swallowing the first soft sip of tea. "There's this guy."

You see the stone, it is individual. Or at least almost. There are only two people in the world with the same shape, and those two are meant to be together. The temperature of it rises when you get closer to your soul mate, it's like a little GPS. Many people never find their partner, but the government only see to the rich people. The people who can afford help, because there is help. With the right amount of money you can hire special agents to find and bring your soul mate for you. If you don't have the money on the other hand, you might travel to find them, or rebel against the law saying you cannot be together with someone who doesn't have the same shape as you. You would have to hide, from everyone. I don't even want to know what the punishment is, I just know it's something you do not want happening to you in a million years.

To understand what I'm talking about, just imagine a world with no divorces, no fights and no abuse in marriage. Imagine a world with just love and love and more love. Imagine all new-borns being tested in all sorts of ways to finally get a result and then, when they are 10, being given a necklace. A necklace with a remarkable odd shaped stone, and with a chain made of a pretty much indestructible material called Xendria. Looking down at the stone attached to a Xendria-chain around my neck made me wonder if it had always been like this. When I was smaller and my mum decided to tell me what the necklace meant I tried to get it off of me. It was easier said than done. The chain had no opening and it was too small to pull over your head. It was there, and it always would be.