The airport was crowded with herds of people and stretched so far down in either direction the stores and whatnot were blurred. I had missed my home. Before the war had torn this place apart, the skies were beautiful and the grass was really green. Never mind that the sky was a dim orange and the grass was yellow and long dead nowadays.
The scenery wasn’t the piece of home I was running back for. There was one guy I needed to see. One person I couldn’t completely leave without seeing one last time. Even if he wasn’t my One.
See, in my town, everyone is born heartless. It is only when you touch your true love, your ‘One’ that your heart materializes, and beats in sync with theirs.
Ethan had been my best friend since before I had lost my first baby tooth, and I had been sure he was my One.
In kindergarten, for show in tell I had been the embodiment of TMI. I told everyone my likes, dislikes, fears, boo-boos, everything nobody cared to know about. Yet I was still surprised when nobody wanted me to sit with them.
Turns out, nobody wanted to sit with the nerd either. I had sat with Ethan at lunch since he was alone too and I shared a half of my turkey sandwich with him because he hated the school food. Then later that day, he chose me to be his work partner for math time. We began to hang out, in and out of school. I fondly remember us benging funny videos online or biking up and down the neighborhood. So when we got into middle school, can you blame me for thinking they’re was something between us?
One cold day, I tapped his shoulder while racing him to the bus stop.
As we ran, I expected my heart to form. My Mom had said a heart felt like a drum in your chest, so I calmly waited to feel a drumming in my chest. When It didn’t come, I felt awful.
“You’re slouching. What’s wrong?” Ethan asked.
“Oh! well, see…don’t freak out-but I-thought-you-were-my-One-so-I-touched-you-while-we-ran-and-nothing-happened.” I said that whole thing as if it were one big word, while staring at the sidewalk. Then (reluctantly!) I looked up at him to see what he thought.
His face was plain. “Oh.”
He then grabbed my shoulder. “Maybe you have to wait a while for it to work.” he held my shoulder for a moment, and then after a while he let it go. “Feel different?”
I tightened my chest, trying to make a heart appear, but honestly, I felt nothing.
“No,” I said sadly.
“Maybe we’re just not meant to be,” He said, shrugging putting his ashy hands in his coat pockets.
He huffed a breath of fog out in the chilly air. I kicked a rock off the curb. Awk-ward.
Then his eyes widened. “Wait… I-I think I do feel something!” He said, his dark brown eyes widening.
“What?” My face snapped to look at him.
“...Your disgusting cooties!” he shouted.
I had yelled at him and shoved him, but after that, we just dropped the whole soulmate theory. But I never really stopped feeling sad about it. Ethan and I were so close, I think he knew me better than my own parents did. I loved him, or at least, I really liked him. When I told my Mom this, she just reminded me that no friendship lasts forever. That I would meet someone who looked better and knew me better than Ethan, that I would forget all about my childhood friend. But what boy in the entire world could come to know me better than Ethan!?
In all my years, that proved to be none.
The people of this town may change, but the state of war didn't. Once a boy turned 17, he had to go into the military, so the last time I saw Ethan was the day he left at this very airport years ago. Staying here meant you would either die, or get sent to war and die. So of course, after I finished school and piled up enough money, I planned to move away. Here I was at the airport, thirty minutes before departure, moving out of the country. But when I had heard the army was being sent home today for some time off, I knew who would be here. And I just knew I had to say goodbye.
When I got to the army division of the airport, I searched far and wide for him. There were so many men, all in the same uniform, but varying in skin tones and height.
Would I even recognize Ethan!? In five years, he could be taller, have grown facial hair, or who knows what else. But then, my eyes locked with one of the guys, who was already staring at me. I knew that face.
I practically ran over to Ethan. He looked just fine, a few red slits on his face and hands, but he seemed okay.
Before my doubts formed I kissed him straight on the lips, then gave him a quick hug so I could bury myself in his fatigue jacket and sweet cologne.
I couldn’t believe it was finally over. The worry, the tension, the searching. I had found him! After five years of being apart, I had found Ethan, and had him all to myself for five minutes, before I would have to leave to catch my plane. I would miss Ethan so much. More than I felt I could admit. Heck, maybe the kiss would freak him out and he’d end up remembering me as a weirdo!
I worried about that for a while until I felt his warm arms wrap around me, and I relaxed and squeezed him tighter.
I couldn’t hug him forever though. Reluctantly I looked up, and I saw him smiling at me with his lazy, low-lid smile.
“I take it you’ve missed me, huh?”
I laughed. “Duh,”
He didn’t make any motion of pulling away, and neither did I.
“Your hair has gotten longer. Has it always fell past your back?” He pinged.
“Nah, but your hair’s surely gotten shorter,” I ponged back.
“I see you haven’t lost a single freckle on your face,” Ethan pinged.
“But you’ve lost all those pimple’s you had back in highschool, pizza face,” I ponged.
I backed up a few steps to take a good, long look at him. I wanted to remember his velvety dark eyes which had reassured me over one-thousand times growing up. I wanted to remember how it felt to be in his warm, strong arms long after this moment was just some distant memory.
We just kept staring at each other and smiling as if this moment could never end.
Then, I felt it. A beat so strong my whole body vibrated. Then, I felt one again. I put one hand to my chest, and felt something drumming in response to a beat I’d never heard nor felt before. Ba-Boom! Ba-Boom! Ba-Boom!
Ethan raised an eyebrow at me. “Do you have the shakes or something? Why are you-” he began, but didn’t finish. He just stared off as if he was lost in his thoughts.
“Ethan…do you feel that?” I asked.
“Like my chest is pounding!? Yes!” he said, looking back at me.
“But…but…we tried this before! In middle school, remember!? I touched you but we didn’t feel anything and-”
“Ah, you can’t find your soulmate in middle school, it doesn’t work like that. You have to be eighteen or older for the touch to work.”
One of the army men had seen us! I felt so embarrassed! But then, I saw all of the people around were staring at us, smiles on their faces.
I felt so embarrassed I avoided all their eyes and chose to stare at Ethan, who was smiling at me.
“Well, we’d better give the people what they want right?”
He yanked me closer and kissed me. I kissed him back. I was so close to him I could feel his heart beating in his chest, in sync with mine.
And from then on, our hearts never missed a beat.
I’ve loved books since I could read, and decided I would write books I wanted to see written for others! Check my children’s book Imagination on Amazon!
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