Broken

Love is Never Easy: The prompt that started it all

I looked at the clock and smoothed down my jeans and my favourite button up shirt. The invitation said to dress in what made you comfortable because what you were wearing didn't matter.

Today was my 18th birthday and the day I was to meet my soulmate. I felt nervous, so nervous the urge to throw up was nearly overpowering but I tried to force my body into submission. Everything would go smoothly, everything would be perfect. He would be perfect. I smiled at myself in the mirror, I fairly glowed with excitement and I hoped he would too.

"Liv, it's time to go." At my mum's voice the nervousness returned and I could see my face pale in the mirror. I forced myself to smile to hide it. After a moment of looking at myself, thinking how everything would be different when I came back, I turned away.

"Coming, mum." I rushed down the stairs and kissed my dad on his cheek before doing the same for my mum. They both looked so happy and I couldn't blame them. Their only daughter going out to meet the one she would love for eternity.

"We love you, sweety. Come back before the move and tell us everything." There were tears in my mum's eyes and she pressed her hand to her mouth.

"Bring your boy with you, we want to meet him. Deep breaths and don't forget to be respectful." My dad's eyes looked slightly watery and I flashed them one more smile before I rushed out the door. It was the beginning of forever.

The building wasn't as grand as I thought it would be. It was simple and grey. Its professional looking, I concluded as I stepped out of the government mandated vehicle. I would leave with a new car and a husband that would take me to our new house, government provided for all the new soulmates.

I took a deep breath in, my dad's words echoing in my head as I pulled the door open and stepped inside. The air was cool and I headed towards the front desk and the man sitting there pointed to a chair without looking at me.

Nervousness flooded my system once again as I sat down. It took all I had to not bounce my legs on my toes. My muscles jumped and twitched under my hands and I wondered if everyone felt like this before their meeting. If they felt this crushing mixture of nervousness, excitement, and pure happiness. This was the most important meeting in my life.

Since I was young everyone had told me what I was to expect on this day. That I would see him and the world would stop because in that moment all that mattered was him. That my heart would flutter in my chest and my mouth would feel dry because he was just so handsome. That I would want to laugh because I would know he felt the same way.

I clutched at my medallion where it hung between my breasts. Everyone was given one on their tenth birthday and it was to never be taken off until your eighteenth. On that day it would be removed and your soulmate's would take its place as yours would take theirs.

I worried that my medallion would be too plain. It was so simple, a flat metal oval, the edges worn slightly, with some strange symbols a gypsy at a fair I went to a few years ago said was Orrian. She told me she couldn't read it but my soulmate's medallion would look similar, his symbols completing mine.

The thought of the Orrians was a heart stopping one. Their species was divided. Half wished to help the humans and the other half wished to destroy us all. They had appeared over three hundred years ago and it was their intervention that started the soulmate program.

A tall woman walked towards me and I quickly got to my feet, nervousness twisting my insides once again. Her smile was calming and I felt myself take several deep breaths in, trying to relax. She motioned me to follow her and I do, mentally counting the steps it would take to lead me to my forever.