Engaged

Chapter 3: Memories

I hate Eli Graham. I hate Uncle James. I hate him for always being right. For knowing we weren't meant to be, despite my protests. For rubbing it in my face about the engagement.

His words echo into my brain. 

"What did I tell you Tayla? I told you to stay away from him. Now all of that time you put into him went to waste. And now you're going to be sad about it. For ten whole years, I told you, not to get too close with him. But what did you tell me? 'Uncle James, I got this under control. I know we're meant to be together. My intuition is really strong.'" He mocked me. 

During that phone call, I was frozen. I couldn't say a damn thing because he was right. I fought him tooth and nail over Eli, just to be proven wrong in the end. I know Uncle James had a good laugh over that. 

I should've known. The Elders told everyone who they were going to marry. Just not when. That was for you to decide. Therefore, if you were a matched couple, you still had to agree to it. You weren't forced into these relationships. But your match was you soulmate, and it was nearly impossible to reject them. The Elders just found the matches for the citizens of Applonia, because not everyone could easily know who their match was.

Even so, being with anyone other than your match, resulted in a lonely and unfulfilled life. Needless to say, Applonia was a country full of happy citizens. I was once happy. Now I'm miserable. 

Eli wanted this. Eli Graham lied to me. Uncle James just had to rub it in. He wasn't satisfied with my world crumbling down with a simple sentence. 

Business trip my ass. He's coming back here my ass. When he comes back home, he'll be with that bitch. They're going to plan their new lives together and move on. He's going to forget all about me like I meant nothing at all to him.

It hurts because I still want him. I still want to marry him. I still want him to love me and give me that ton of kids I've always wanted. But we couldn't. I know that. 

To start off, we'd have to tell the Elders, because everything went through the Elders. 

Once you reached 21,  the Elders picked who you were supposed to be with, and for some reason, those couples sure as shit fell in love. It's not like I don't know why. I've got that talent too, to be able to know who belongs together. It's like they have this undeniable connection, whether they know each other or not.

Whether they hate each other or are the best of friends. They have similar energies that are simply unmistakable. I mean, I thought I had this talent. Apparently not. I obviously was wrong about my own pair mate.

How can I be right about other people's? I seriously overestimated my abilities. Its a shame, because I took secret pride in that ability. 

Now the person I took so much pride in is going to see his fiancee. I know it disgusted him to kiss me. When someone is finally with their pair mate, they didn't even look at other people. 

Cecilia Cruz. She has all of my dreams with her. She's going to be the new Ceecee Graham. I swore I would take that name. What kind of name is Cecilia Cruz anyway?

Uncle told me Cruz was a Hispanic name. Cuban to be exact. I don't even know what Hispanic is. Well I didn't, After a quick google search, I've learned, they're unofficial descendants of the Spanish empire. Either they were from Spain or one of those colonized countries where they mixed with Africans and Natives.

But doesn't that make them the same of African American. Black, white, and native? Stupid American terminology. I don't understand why they separate from each other. Like seriously, Jamaican is considered black. The only real difference is food and language.