Walk in my Shoes

Chapter 1

Erin's eyes pierced me, her mouth dropped open, her left eyebrow had risen until it was almost in line with her hairline. Her face spoke only of disbelief.

"Eve, you can't be serious?" She exclaimed. "This is going to be one of the best nights of our lives and you're shaking."

"I know. I know." I let out a breath. "But there are so many things that could go wrong. I mean, what if even after this we are never able to find each other?"

My hands wouldn't stop shaking, so I tucked them under my legs.

"Oh, come on. You couldn't be any more prepared!" Erin shouts, exasperated.

She is right though. I forced her to help me clean the apartment we have been sharing since our second year in college. I set out paper and pencils for our soul mates to write on.

"I knew it! You agree with me!" Erin exclaimed, sticking her finger out at me.

I slowly sank back into the armchair. "I have everything prepared, but I'm not prepared." I crossed my arms. "There's a difference."

She rolled her eyes and went back to waiting for the next singer to go up on stage. For the past half hour, the hosts have been running their mouths and commercials have been rolling nonstop.

"We have one performance left and then the ball will drop! I hope everyone is ready, because I know I sure am," The host announced.

My hands shook, and I jumped out of my chair without sparing a look to Erin. I stumbled past the dining table and into the bathroom, slowly closing the door behind me. My forehead rested against the solid wood and my eyes drifted down towards the hand still resting on the doorknob. It shook so much that the loose doorknob rattled in its place. I took my hand away and slowly turned until I saw myself in the mirror.

My hair had fallen out of the hair tie and had settled around my face, that was just about the only thing that happened to be working in my favor at the moment. Even my nice clothes were wrinkled from nervous tugging. The eyes that looked back at me were bloodshot and judgmental, checking over every inch of my appearance. How could my soulmate see this and not feel as though they had been cheated?

"Stop it," I told the mirror and took a deep breath. This was not the way to start this journey, if they are my soulmate then they won't be bothered. And they have to be my soulmate because otherwise, they wouldn't end up in my body in just a few minutes. Crap! There really are only a few minutes left and here I am in the bathroom. I rinse my face with water and leave without a second glance at the mirror.

Erin watches as I sit back down with new resolve. I can handle whatever is thrown at me tonight, so why should I worry? She smiles at me and I smile back. "Now that you've joined me back on Earth, let's enjoy the beautiful  voice of Ed Sheeran."

"Yeah, alright." I chuckle at her and turn to face the tv. You can see the entire stage and people crowded together in front. None of them seemed anxious, they were all happy. Maybe they were with their soulmates or maybe they wouldn't have to worry about meeting them for a while.

My thoughts were cut off by the song ending, the screen changing to show an announcer standing on a roof, the ball in the background. It slowly descended as the announcer counted down. On the other side of the room, Erin had gone silent, our eyes met and the lights flashed. She turned back to the tv, the bright white light illuminating her face.

I turned to look at the tv too. The bright white light was coming from the ball, it sat at the bottom of its pole. Blinded by the light I had to look away, only to not believe what I now saw in front of me. Erin now sat slumped in her chair, completely unconscious. Before I could begin to freak out because if she was already gone then why wasn't I, my eyelids started to droop and I leaned back into the chair, falling unconscious. 

When I came around it was so bright that I couldn't see, squinting didn't even help. I tried to sit up and shield my eyes with one hand but realized how dizzy I felt. Instead, I held my head with one hand and blocked the light with the other. I finally opened my eyes only to be confronted by five strange faces extremely close to mine.

Suddenly all of them open their mouths and strange sounds pour out like some kind of strange word waterfall. They're speaking another language but I can't even tell which.

I cut them off. "What?" My mouth hangs open and I just stare at them as they look at each other, raising eyebrows and quirking mouths. I start to get irritated watching them, I don't have a lot of time here.

I push myself up off the floor and head for the closest door. I slip through and close it behind me, turning to realize I'm in the bathroom. Why do I always end up in the bathroom when I'm upset? Whatever, it doesn't matter. At least now I can see who this is. In the mirror, I see a guy with curly brown hair and the most beautiful eyes. Should I say handsome? Nah, it doesn't matter. I should go back out and leave something for him with his friends though.

"Hey! Look at me," I huff. I mime writing and stare at them, watching their eyes grow wide and talk to each other again. One gets up and grabs and pad and pen from a table in the middle of the room. He hands it to me and I nod in thanks. 

After thinking for a moment, I begin scribbling down as much information as I can think of. Including my name and language, that wasn't something I thought I would've needed to do. I guess I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was.