The Countdown

Late Night Snacks and Emotional Breakdowns

(Kelsey's Pov.)

The four of us sprawled around Ashley's room, just talking and joking as always.

"Im bored" complained Natalia

"Lets play a game" Ash offered quickly pulling out a selection from under her bed.

Of the few spread out all of us seemed to agree on one almost instantly. Cards Against Humanity. Ella almost ripped the box open, so eager to play. Dealing out the cards as everyone laughs at their choices.

The game went on for forty minutes but by the end we were all in tears laughing at how it turned out, Natalia the most innocent out of all of us, had won with her extremely inappropriate answers.

"Im hungry!" Ella screams out rushing down the stairs as i chased after her. She went to the fridge and pulled out some ravioli for the two of us, by the time it was cooked the other two had met us in the dining room and we all sat around the table in silence.

"Nat... What's it like to be matched?" Ella bursts out quickly shocking everyone with her sudden question.

Natalia paused, thinking of her answer "Its exactly what you would expect, like finding a missing puzzle piece, like meeting someone you had known about but never met, until that moment."

All of us were taken aback by the answer, but we were all secretly jealous, or at least i was. However this one question, led the four of us to talking about everything. The future, our matches, our feelings. And all was going well with our talks until Ashley broke down.

I was extremely worried because Ash was not one to cry in front of people, if at all. Placing a hand on her back i tried to soothe her.

"I'm never going to find someone! Because i don't want to be with some pre-picked guy and no one will date a freak who defy's the system!" she cried out causing me to withdraw my hand. This was so unlike her.. We all spent a few minutes calming her and it did work eventually but left us all stunned.

Her outbreak seemed to break something in me though, because suddenly i was having overwhelming feelings about Ashton. None of the girls knew about my feelings towards him other than Natalia, but even she didn't know everything. I had known him for so long and i hated that i knew he wasn't my match because of this. If he was my timer would have went off when i was 10. Knowing this fact did not stop my feelings, i felt attached to him and his Hazel eyes. The way i felt when he hugged me. The way just thinking about him made me feel.

That's when i snapped.

I told the girls, venting my heart out right in that moment because i couldn't hold back anymore. Once i finished venting Ashley looked at me, her cheeks still tear stained, and kissed my forehead our way of saying "it's gonna be okay". Then the girls pulled us both in for a big group hug. These girls were my life, the family i never had growing up, and i was so thankful.

After that we spent the rest of the night snacking and chatting, everything back to normal even after the break downs. We all finally crashed around 2am, Ashley and i cuddled on the couch, Ella curled up on the floor, and Natalia across the room in a recliner. We stayed in these positions until around ten the next morning when the luxurious smell of food made by Ella woke me up.