Universe of Soulmates

"Soundtrack of You"

𝄞𝄢
I'm guessing you thought if it didn't hurt you
It didn't hurt me
By the way, all those months weren't just a harmless reprise
If I'd listened to me instead of playing this fantasy
Then we wouldn't be here
We wouldn't be here
𝄞𝄢

The tune plays in my head over and over; the same words echoed with a slightly different melody each time. Whoever is singing this, wherever they are, is in a lot of soul-crushing pain. I mean, no one can write something this beautiful—I assume they wrote it because it's nowhere online no matter how many times I look it up—and sad that hasn't gone through it themselves. The voice echoing in my head plays the same chorus on repeat, and I've heard it enough times that I can sing most of it without screwing up the words or melody.

"Zach, what are your thoughts on the budget? It has to be approved at the next chapter meeting." Shaking my head to snap out of the trance her voice always puts me under, I focus on the spreadsheet on the board, bouncing between it and my pile of notes written in my leather notebook. The president of the Epsilon Iota chapter of Beta Theta Pi looks to me—the secretary of the chapter—for the questions I always manage to come up with that are far better than the ones most of the brothers ask. It's not because he likes me better, but because I tend to do research into everything I need to know.

"Well, the recruitment budget seems a bit high this year. Are we doing something that we don't usually do?" That was the biggest thing I starred in my notebook to bring up. Recruitment is a big deal here, but our budget is still high compared to past years.

"What is it usually at?" Surprised James doesn't know the answer, I flip back a few pages and find the numbers from last recruitment.

"We budget around two grand. Last year, it was $2340, and we spent $2125.37 of it." Judging by the nearly three thousand dollars in the budget, there's no way they knew what the budget was for last year.

"Jackson, is there any reason it's this far away from last year's budget?" Jackson is the recruitment chairman, and the person who organized his part of the budget.

"There's an extra event added in, plus a few Sunday dinners with the PNMs that are in this budget, too." Interesting. I can't believe IFC (the Interfraternity Council) would allow another event on the schedule, but they don't regulate much in terms of recruitment. Their few rules are that there is no alcohol at any official recruitment events, an equal number of recruitment events for all the frats, and none of the frats can give out a bid before the second Monday of the recruitment period.

"Alright." I note that next to my question and move onto the only other question I had about the budget. "What's the dues per brother?" Of everything I saw, I don't remember seeing that.

"Right now, with the seventy-six brothers, we're at $421.05 per brother." Being a statistics major, I know that's right at the average per brother, at least using the last five years' budgets. We also have a few more members than usual, but it all works out just the same.

"I don't have any more questions." As soon as I say that, the treasurer motions to adjourn the meeting and let us all go. Right now, we're just in our chapter house, which can house all the brothers by some miracle, but I'm planning to go back to campus to practice my pieces for my piano minor. One thing I've learned about most people is that, if they don't major in some kind of music-related program, they minor in it. I guess it comes with the fact that we can all hear our soulmates singing, but I've never cared enough to research the true roots of the musically-inclined world I live in.

"Are you seriously heading back to school? Didn't you just have six hours of class today?" Brady—one of the twenty-two brothers in my pledge class—stops me at near the side door of the house. The side door is the closest to our parking lot that has upwards of a hundred and fifty spots ready and available to use. I would know, I figured out it can hold that many people during a huge party we hosted last spring. "And it's a Friday. It's party day. Come on, even you can get wasted just once."