[Asher]

It started when I was young. I grew up in a neighborhood that was right next to a street with the three school's I'd be going to throughout my childhood. Obviously half of my elementary school lived in this neighborhood and my best friend in the whole world lived next door.

"Ash!" Bryson Gray, my best friend, called out to me, "Look!" he came up on a sick new scooter. We both were around 8 and at that time I was playing in the front yard drawing with some chalk.

"WOOOOAHHH!" I said in complete amazement. Bryson always had the coolest things. "That's awesome Bryson!"

'Wanna Ride it?" He asked with one of those big kidish grins. Every missing tooth showing and the ones that were there too.

My eyes widened in amazement. "Can I?"

Bryson nodded and held the scooter out for me. "Go for it."

I remember that day as one of the best days of my life. Me and Bryson. We were the inseparable forces. That was until we were 11.

The last day of fifth grade was the day we all went to the lab for the first test. They asked us questions about what we liked to do and other things like that. Simple questions and then they asked about situations. At the end of the day, I remember everyone sharing their answers to their parents. My mom was working so she wasn't able to make it. The story about why my mom is alone is for another time, but this caused me to share my results with Bryson and his parents. I didn't right away though. I really couldn't because literally everyone had gathered around Bryson. He had gotten the closest result anyone in my town had seen- EVER!

The problem was, Bryson and I had the same exact result. After everyone calmed Bryson's parents asked me. I was a shy quiet kid so I just held up my paper. Their eyes widened and seemed almost upset. What had changed? His parents instantly started to shout that the results were wrong for their son and they requested a retake. Bryson and I were completely confused. Bryson tried to come over to me but was ripped away by his parents. The lab assistants took me away from Bryson and his raging parents. I truly didn't understand what was going on and Bryson didn't seem to know either.

I remember when my mom showed up. She kept saying that I didn't do anything wrong and that Bryson's parents were acting ridiculous. I still didn't understand. What exactly did the lab mess up? Why did they not let me and Bryson stay together? Wasn't it just that Bryson and I were going to meet the girl we were marrying the same day? We were always together so it makes sense, right?

I didn't get to see Bryson at all throughout most of the summer. On the last week of summer, I snuck out of the house to try and meet with him. We normally did our summer work during the break and this time we were moving up to middle school, so that meant the work was extra important.

I knocked on Bryson's front door and waited. I was so excited to see him after a whole summer of not seeing my best and only friend. He opened the door and my excitement instantly faded. He had an angry frown.

"u-um," I instantly felt nervous. Why was he angry?

"what do you want?" Bryson asked angrily. I had noticed his dad standing behind him. His arms crossed and glaring. I had never felt so uncomfortable.

"w-well I was w-wondering if..." I held my notebook of summer work up.

"No." Bryson said. "You ruined my life! I don't want you to ever show your face to me again!" Bryson screamed. Tears coming to his eyes. He slammed the door straight in my face.

It felt like my heart had been ripped straight out of my chest. I let out a whimper before tears began to stream down my face. I ran all the way into my house and up the stairs. I remember tossing my summer homework all over the floor. It spread everywhere around my clean room. It made a complete mess. I buried myself in my blankets. I stayed there for a long time.

A knock came to my door signaling my mother had come home. "Ashy." She said sweetly through the door. "I'm home. I brought ice cream!" She seemed extremely happy. Her happy words only stung.

"Go away!" I screamed. My voiced cracked and my mother instantly opened the door ignoring my words. That was the first time I had ever yelled at my mother. She was a good mom.

She came in and instantly sat on the edge of my bed. "Ashy..." she said pulling the covers off to reveal my red, teary, (and probably snot covered) face. She instantly took her sleeve and wiped away the tears.

"You went over to Bryson's, didn't you?" she asked quietly.

I didn't even fully get through my nod before I cried out. My cries had been mostly silent until my mom came in. I buried my face in her chest and let my screams come out. She stayed there and hummed while tracing shapes on my back and running her hands through my hair to calm me.

Once I began to silence she sighed. "Why don't I take the next two days off and we can go school supplies shopping and I'll help you with your summer homework okay?" she said quietly. I slowly sat up and looked at her. I gave her a small nod and a sniffle. My mom brushed some of my brown hair out of my face then tucked a piece of her loose brown hair that had fallen out of her pony tail behind her ear. Mom rarely took days off, and when I got older I learned that these days were already scheduled to be taken off just for the things she had mentioned.

Bryson and I lost our friendship status so quickly. Bryson also being popular and well liked made people ignore me a through middle school and I found out that Bryson was wasn't the only reason. People often avoided me because I wasn't born from soul mates. I was considered a "Soulless." Bryson began to use this to his advantage. We weren't supposed to be together, but Bryson kept coming. Not in the good way either.

Throughout middle school and high school, he (and his idiot friends) bullied me. You know now that I think about it Lab Test day was always the worst. Bryson and I kept getting the same date. It would move up a bit each time. That is until Junior year. At the beginning and end of junior year the date hadn't changed for once. Bryson and I had though. Bryson was popular and on the soccer team. He hated me. He threw me in lockers, he beat me up after school, he'd destroy my work – basically anything stereotypical bully thing he could do he did. The worst was that he never got caught, but I didn't rat him out either... On the other hand, I was the loner kid that sat in the back of classes drawing and writing. No one talked to me and I didn't talk to them. That's how I liked it. Until today, I was looking forward to the day I would meet my soul mate. Each day, I would imagine how beautiful she would be. How she'd love gaming. How she'd not want kids, and want to travel the world.

Sadly, my luck isn't that great. On the day of my soulmate meeting, I'd meet them after school. I had an alarm set on my phone for the exact moment so I knew. August 28, at 4:01 at the 23rd second. It was set down the second. I sat in my math class with anticipation. At 3:55 the bell rang. I jumped out of my seat and quickly pushed my way through the crowd. I had no clue where I was going but I was gonna get there fast. There was no way it was anyone at this school right.

I almost ran. I was bumped (or pushed) from behind though just as I got to the stairs I normally took. They had less people going up or down them which made them a quick escape from this hell hole. Being pushed at the top of the stairs though was horrible. I fell face first into someone coming up and we both ended up tumbling down the stairs. I bet you can guess who I fell into.

Yep.

...

Bryson Gray.

I instantly apologized (which I regret) and then noticed the blood dripping from his head. A teacher instantly rushed over. "Oh my god. Boys you need to go to the infirmary."

I looked around at all the shocked faces. I got up and instantly fell the floor seething in pain. "I can't!" No way was my soul mate in this school. This was all wrong.

The teachers nor Bryson took no for an answer. Bryson clicked his tongue. He picked me off the floor. Yes, princess style. Before I knew it, I was sitting on a bed next to Bryson Gray in the infirmary.

I looked at the clock full of worry. It was already four and time was ticking. I wasn't really listening but the nurse was saying something about a sprained ankle and being careful. The clock then hit 4:01. "Am I free to go?" I asked rushed.

"No. I'll be back with a brace that you can use." That's when I noticed she was walking towards the door.

"Ah! Wait!" I panicked, but it was too late.

As soon as that door clicked two alarms went off in that room. Bryson and I both froze. We turned to look at each other. We were nothing alike at this point. But I think I realized why Bryson's parents were so upset. Bryson instantly jumped to his feet.

"Goddarn it! It can't be the freaking soulless!" He screamed angrily. He looked atme and pointed with disgust. "Screw you. I refuse to be your soul mate!" atthis point I was still processing. "YOU AND YOUR GOD DAMN BEAUTIFUL BLUE EYESCAN JUMP OFF BRIDGE!" he yelled. "My soul mate was supposed to be Ashley andyou ruined it!" he sprinted out with nothing but rage and distaste filling hissoul. The nurse had just opened the door before Bryson stormed out angrily. Hehad bumped into the nurse's shoulder making her gasp a bit. He ran leaving meto sit there... processing how my soul mate turned out to be my ex-best friendand current bully.