Lily was born two years before the Soulmate serum, Amorium, was released to the public. The fairy tales told to her by her mom while she was growing up were slightly reworked to ensure that little Lily knew the prince and princess of the story were...
I unintentionally slept in, so I'm posting it a little later than I wanted to.
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October 18th
There is a god awful banging in my head as I open my eyes to the still darkened room surrounding me. It takes me a few minutes more to wake up enough and realize that the banging hasn't stopped, and it's not actually coming from within my head at all. It's coming from my door. Before even addressing whoever is making that racket, I grab my phone and glance at the digital display. Six in the morning?!? Who on Earth would bother me at home this early?
I tear myself out of bed and trudge slowly over to the door. When I stare through the peephole all I see staring back at me is a large blue eye. I continue to stare hoping the person will move back a step or two so I can make sense of who is actually disturbing my sleep. Granted I wouldn't be so grouchy about being woken up if I had been asleep for more than three hours. The excitement of waiting on my Soulmate Marks was a bit too much for me. Almost like a kid staying up all night on Christmas Eve, only for me it was a whole lot more important and exciting than attempting to catch Santa Claus leaving gifts under the tree.
A series of rapid knocks vibrate against the door before a voice calls out from the other side of it. "Come on, Lily. Open up."
I roll my eyes when I am easily able to connect the oversized eyeball and voice coming from the other side of the wooden barrier between us. Raina.
I open the door and she traipses in as if she owns the place, which kind of makes a bit of sense due to her inherited familial wealth. At one point I technically worked for her mother, Talia Atwater, who is one of the few rare fashion designers who reside in Chicago. I worked as a personal assistant of sorts to the few other designers that worked under her label. Imagine the workshop where Cruella worked in the prequel by the same name. I worked in a similar workshop; I was the one they sent to pick up coffee, deliver design ideas to other departments, pick up fabric, etc.
I met Raina one of my last days there.
She walked up to me, and directly addressed me. "I don't know you. I know everyone that works here. How don't I know you?" I was in the middle of one of my deliveries, and instead of answering her I continued to work. I didn't know who she was after all; I couldn't think of a legitimate reason she needed to know who I was. She found me later picking up a box containing spools of thread and promptly apologized. "I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself first. I'm Raina Atwater."
I was shocked by the immediate realization that I was rude to my boss's boss's daughter. The box of thread in my hands dropped, the flaps on the top of the box opened, and countless spools fell out wheeling off in every direction. The beginning of our friendship was due to the fact that despite the fact that she was a spoiled rich young woman she started helping me pick up every last spool and return it to the box. By the time the box was full once more, several strands of hair had escaped the pseudo bun I had pulled it in. "Are you really sure you want to work here?" She asked me.
