The Perfect Promise

Chapter 1: The Soulmate Equation:

 ~ Chapter Song: I want it that way, Backstreet Boys ~

"Why don't you have a boyfriend?"

Ugh, that question!

It was a normal Sunday, the nineteenth of September and I was sitting at a table at 'Starbucks' with my best friends, to celebrate the last day of summer, before the school year started.

You would think they would want to talk about our senior year, but... nope. My dating life was one of my friends' biggest problems at the moment, especially since I didn't have one.

Like we say non-existent.

Christine was sitting across the table from me, holding a cup of cold chocolate with chocolate syrup, extra whip cream, and sprinkles on top, staring at me with her you-are-not-getting-away-with-this-again face. A face I knew very well by now.

I knew Christine since we were eleven. We bonded through our love for food -especially anything with sugar and have been best friends ever since. She was a ray of sunshine, the kind of friend with that positive energy, and a smile that could light up a room, which became annoying at eight o'clock in the morning, but when she wanted to, she could be a real pain in the ass and pretty freaking scary.

"Yeah, why don't you?", Ben backed her up, while eating his fruits and watching me closely waiting for an answer.

Ben was the new member of the group, we met in the last grade of middle school. He was the exact opposite of me.

Athletic.

"You're the one to talk.", I gave him a judgy look.

He has been crushing on the same guy in our class since the first grade of high school, Mark, and he hasn't even asked him out yet.

"It's been three years. Ask him out or get over him.", I added.

He broke eye contact and ate a banana from his plate, ignoring my comment. His swimming coach had him on this new diet. He wasn't allowed to have anything with sugar or coffee in it and only allowed a specific amount of carbs. So basically, he couldn't eat anything tasty. And he was afraid enough of his coach finding out he broke his diet, that when he went to a cafe with his friends, out of all the delicious -unhealthy- choices, he ordered fruits.

As easy as it was to make Ben shut up, it was that much harder to make Christine give up. When she set her mind on something, nothing and no one could stop her.

In this case, she was determined to find me, the love of my life. Even if I didn't want one.

"Oh, come on you have like a million childhood friends who would make excellent boyfriends, which is by the way-", she took a quick glance at Ben and they both turn towards me, "-the perfect love story."

I have seen this sketch at least a hundred times by now and I'm pretty sure that Ben and Christine were rehearsing their lines every night before we went out.

"Why don't you just pick one?"

I have to point out that I did not in fact have a million childhood friends. I had five, which I know sounds like a lot, but if you ignore the summer holidays, I only hang out with two on a regular basis, and that was because our parents were best friends.

I moved my mochaccino a few inches away and pressed my forehead on the table.

"Ugh, not this again. I feel like we've been having this conversation non-stop every week for the past year."

From the moment, that my parents' best friends only had boys close to our age, they've been trying to convince me of choosing one to date. As if it was that simple.