Dysfunctional Soul Mates

Chapter One: Blaire

That November 13th, the snow was relentless. The snowflakes swirled, reflecting the light given off by the streetlamps. It was almost dusk, and the temperature was dropping quickly. Blaire Anderson shivered as she walked on the sidewalk past the homes of the rich and well to do. Sometimes she wished that she could live in a house like that. Yet each time the thought entered her head, she felt guilty for finding fault with the perfect society created by the Caucus hundreds of years ago. But then again, that seemed to be what she was good at: finding fault in things.

She was torn from her thoughts when she almost slipped on a large patch of ice and once again renewed her determination to pay more attention to her surroundings.As she walked on, keeping her eyes on the ground, she almost walked into a lamppost when someone stepped in front of her and took hold of her wrists. She looked up, surprised, and found herself looking into the eyes of her neighbor, Drake Johnson.

"Maybe you should pay a little less attention to the ground there, Blaire," he said with a grin.

"Maybe I should," she said with a laugh.

Blaire and Drake had been best friends since they were in kindergarten. Now, both at seventeen years old, nothing had changed. They were just as close as they had been years ago.

"How was work today?" she asked him. He worked at the Intel Center, where the city's leaders kept track of everybody in the metropolitan area.

"Oh, same as usual. Just monitoring more boring people. You didn't tell me you got a promotion."

She worked at the mail room in the Justice wing of the city hall. She had been working as a regular mail sorter, but today she had been promoted to supervisor. It made her job a little more interesting, talking to more people than just those near her. Especially because her friend Claire worked on the opposite side of the mail room from where she used to work. Now, she had free roam of the entire mail room in the Justice wing. To be specific, they sorted all the mail for the lawyers and attorneys-at-law and all their secretaries and everybody else who worked in the Justice wing. The higher-ups could then pick up their mail on their way home, or whenever they dropped by.

"Well, to be fair, I haven't really had the opportunity to tell you, seeing how I just got promoted today and I've been talking to you for under two minutes," she said with a dry smile.

He inclined his head in recognition of the truth of this, then asked, "How's your dad?"

"Oh, you know. The usual." A feral dog with rabies had mangled her dad's leg, and he had ended up having to have it amputated from the knee down. That was a year ago. He was having chronic phantom pains where his leg had been amputated. Lately he was having trouble walking, and he had recently begun to get intense migraines that no painkillers could help.

"Of course, the usual. How's it been affecting you and your sister? Like, you have to do more work than usual now with his headaches?"

"Yeah, but we try to split it up fairly, which also means that I do most of the harder work," she replied. Her sister, Anya, was twelve, and was as delicate as a porcelain doll, and just as beautiful. Blaire, on the other hand, was more like a tree: dependable, sturdy, always grounded. She didn't usually let her emotions run her life.

"Well, if you need help, I'm two houses down, as you perfectly well know. Just holler for me," he said, feeling a little bad that his life was so different from hers. He got a great job, both parents (Blaire's mom was currently taking care of Blaire's grandmother in another state and hadn't been living at home for about three months, and nobody knew how much longer she would be taking care of Blaire's grandmother). He had two older siblings, one sister and one brother, so sometimes he wasn't sure how to empathize with Blaire, who was the oldest child in her family. His older siblings had practically raised him, what with his both his parents working to support the family. Although they weren't around much during the day, his parents still ate dinner with them and listened to their problems and were just kind of there for them. Blaire's dad was usually away at work, before his problems with his leg, and her mom was a more social person and always liked to be out doing something with friends rather than cleaning the house or something like that. Blaire didn't really talk much to her parents, now especially more than ever since her mom was away and her dad was injured. So she and Anya really just had each other, and he really tried hard to let Blaire know that he was there for her. He knew that she knew he was, but that she just had trouble asking people for things. Which made her response all that more surprising. It was a pleasant surprise, but a surprise nontheless.

"All right. I might actually call you over to chop some firewood for me before dinner, though, if you have time."

"But you won't feed me? How cruel," he said teasingly.

"You don't even know what we're having!" she exclaimed, laughing. "I don't even know what we're having, and I'm cooking."

"Oh, you'll figure something out. You always do."

There was a pause, like Drake was about to say more, but didn't.

"So how is Lucy doing?" Lucy was the Johnson's dog, and she was about to have puppies.

"Oh, pretty good. We just have to figure out what we're going to do with all of these puppies that will be running around in a few days. Do you want one?"

"Well, Anya has been trying to convince me to ask you for a puppy once it's old enough to be away from its mother, but I told her it was just another mouth to feed. Honestly, though, I would love to have a dog. It might help our dad get over his pain, and it'll make Anya and I happy. I just don't know what my mother will say when we tell her we got a dog. She's never really been an animal person."

"Yeah, that's true, but if you already have the dog when she comes back, and all three of you are attached to it, then she can't really kick the dog out of the house, can she now?"

"I didn't really think about it like that, but you're right. She couldn't possibly be that selfish as to kick it out into the streets."

Drake stopped walking, and Blaire realized that they had reached her house. It was nice to have somebody to walk home with, especially in the winter when darkness came so quickly. And the fact that it was Drake walking her home made her feel safer than she felt almost anywhere else. The exception was her house, of course, but that was kind of a given.

"I'll come back in about half and hour to chop your firewood, if that's not too long," Drake said.

"Sure. Whenever you're ready. Thanks, Drake," she said as she opened the door and walked into her house.