Dysfunctional Soul Mates

Chapter Five: Blaire

     Blaire was setting the plates on the table when Drake closed the back door behind him for the last time that evening, setting the last of the firewood he had chopped next to it. She glanced up and said, "There you are. I was just beginning to think that the trees had carried you off to become one of them."

     Drake just grinned. "What's for dinner?" he asked, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

     "Nothing, at least not until you wash your hands," she said with a pointed look at the offending appendages.

     "Well, then, I suppose I'd better go wash them, otherwise I may never know what you had for dinner," he said, then disappeared into the tiny bathroom to wash up.

     Blaire smiled at his back as he walked away. Sometimes it seemed like he lived to aggravate her. She hurriedly rearranged her facial features as he walked back into the kitchen to help her finish setting the places at the table.

     "Now will you tell me what we're having?" he asked.

     In answer, she walked over to the stove and went to tilt the frying pan toward him, but he had followed her into the kitchen space. 

     "Eggs and toast," he he said in an Italian accent. Blaire looked at him and giggled. Drake was using his finger as a mustache.

     "Come on, let's eat," she said.

     Once they were all seated and eating, they all started talking except Anya. She sat and scooted her eggs around on her plate with a dreamy look on her face. There came a lull in the conversation, and Blaire's father asked, "What are you thinking about, Anya?"

     Anya smiled and sighed. "Well, I was just thinking how tomorrow's  the Assembly!! I can't wait until I'm seventeen," she said with another dramatic sigh.

     "Oh, brother, Anya. The Assembly isn't anything big, it just means they recognize that you've grown up, that you've matured. Obviously they shouldn't let Drake participate, because he isn't mature whatsoever," she said as she poked him in the arm.

     "Hey, that's not fair!" Drake protested. Then he elbowed Blaire in the ribs.

     "Thanks for that, Drake," Blaire said with a mock glare.

     "You're welcome," he said cheerfully.

     Anya had gone back to daydreaming about when she turned seventeen, and their father excused himself. Blaire and Drake were left to clear the table and do the dishes. As they worked, neither could help but think about the coming Assembly, where they would receive their symbols and then begin looking for their soul mate.

     "Anya's probably right to be excited. I mean, it's not like it's anything big, right? Nothing to be nervous about. We'll have our entire lives to find our spouse after tomorrow," Blaire said.

     "Right, nothing big," Drake said sarcastically. "Only the event where you are virtually assigned your lifelong.....well, I don't know what to call it, but whatever."

     "Yeah, but how do you know you won't get some convict or something? How do you know if you'll get somebody that you won't be constantly fighting with?"

      "Want to know who I think you'll get?" Drake asked with a sly smile.

     "No."

     "Vladimir Alenin."

     "Who?"

     "That guy we used to see at school, the one who was always goofing off but nobody liked him? Now he works at, like, Burger King or something like that. Actually, I think he works at the morgue."

     "Where they prepare dead people for funerals? Eww."

     "That's who you're gonna get."

     "No. I'll hide my symbol, leave the community, complain to the Caucus, something. But I'm not marrying Vladimir Alenin."

     "Whatever you say," he said with a smirk.

     "Do you want to know who I think you'll get?" Blaire said.

     "Not to answer a question with a question or anything, but do I want to know?"

     "It was a rhetorical question. You'll know if I want you to know."

     "Who is it, then?"

     "You know that your symbol doesn't have to match the symbol of someone our age, right?"

     "Really?"

     "Yes. I think it will be Anya's best friend Clarrisse."

     Drake turned from the soapy water in the sink to face Blaire, who was putting dishes away in the cabinet opposite the sink. "Are you kidding me?"

     With her back still turned to him, she said "Yes. It's still better than Vlad."

     "At least Vlad is actually your age!! Clarrisse is, like, seven years younger than me!"

     "Actually, I'm pretty sure that your mental age would be the same as her age." Blaire smirked.

     Drake gaped, open-mouthed, then recovered. "I think you're afraid it would be me," he teased her.

     Blaire blushed. "Well, you would be better than Vlad. But think of Clarrisse! She would be so disappointed! I think she has a crush on you."

     Drake laughed. "Well, better her than Bella."

     Bella was a girl their age who most of their peers thought was rather........odd, to put it mildly. But she was nice, and Blaire didn't see why she didn't have more friends.

     "She's not that bad," Blaire protested.

     "If you say so," Drake replied.

     Blaire swatted him lightly with the dishtowel, and soon they had finished. "Well, I guess I'd better go," Drake said. "You know, so I'm not a complete wreck tomorrow."

     "Oh, please. Since when have you ever been a complete wreck? Never," Blaire said. "But you're right, it is getting late. See you tomorrow." She waved goodbye as he walked out.

     "G'night," he said as he left. As he walked home, he thought about how that conversation could've ended. Thankfully it hadn't gone in a different direction, one where they were each forced to consider their feelings for the other. They had avoided it, for now. As he thought ahead to the Assembly the next day, he got a sinking feeling in his stomach, but he didn't know why.