Sick of Losing Soulmates

01

What a Strange Being You Are

The smell of strongly brewed coffee filled Lilliana's nose as she waited for Maribel to pick up their order. While waiting, she anxiously looked down at her phone to see if her new boyfriend had texted her. They had only been dating for three weeks and that day was their first day apart since then. And, truthfully, if it wasn't for Maribel literally dragging her by the hand from her dorm room and to their favorite cafe, Lilliana would have spent the day with him.

She looked up to see Maribel walking towards their table with two mugs in her hands. Lilliana looked back down at her phone one more time, before sighing in disappointment and putting it on the table. Maribel sat down directly in front of her and placed the mugs down.

"One french vanilla with three creams and four sugars for you," she slid the cup over to Lilliana, "and one black coffee with one sugar for me." She brought the mug up to her lips and took in a big sip, sighing in contentment afterwards. "This is just what I needed before midterms start next week." Lilliana smiled but didn't say anything, staring at her phone and making it very obvious that she was waiting for it to light up with a message notification. Maribel frowned, the warm feeling from the coffee immediately ruined because of her friend's behavior. "Lils, if you don't want to be here then just go."

Lilliana looked Maribel in the eye, knowing that she was being rude to her best friend. She normally never used such a sharp tone with her unless she was really pissed. "Maribel, you know that I want to be here! I'm just-"

"Waiting for your new boyfriend to text you? Yeah, I know," her best friend replied with an icy glare. "You've been staring at that phone ever since we got here." Maribel was hurt by the fact that her best friend made it seem as if she didn't want to hang out with her. She had been acting that way ever since she started to date her new boyfriend, Aiden. He had been stealing all of their precious time together and she was honestly extremely jealous that Lilliana had been spending all of her time with him. Maribel got so sick of it that she had to force her best friend to go out that afternoon.

"Come on, Maribel," Lilliana said, sincerely hurt that the closest person in her life was being so mean to her, "don't be that way. I love you so much, you know that. I've just been spending most of my days with Aiden because I'm trying to get to know him better. I really think we might be perfect for each other." Her normally pale cheeks were going rosy at the thought of him.

"Okay, sure," Maribel said, her voice still carrying a slight edge. "Whatever you say."

"I'm serious! I think we might be soulmates!"

"I thought I was your soulmate?" Maribel said, hurt by the thought that she could be replaced so easily. A few months after they had met, the two girls became really close and declared themselves soulmates because how insanely well they got along despite their enormous differences. Maribel thought of that day as one of the happiest days in her life. But now she's not so sure, seeing as Lilliana was declaring another as her soulmate.

"We are, Maribel. But Aiden and I might also be soulmates. You can have more than one soulmate, you know," Lilliana said in the know-it-all voice she sometimes possessed.

"But how are you so sure about Aiden?" Maribel backfired, letting her jealousy peek through. Her hands tightened around the mug, trying not to get too angry at the clueless girl in front of her. "You started dating him a few days after you met him and you barely know anything about him. I just get a bad feeling about him, Lilliana."

"No, but you don't understand!" Lilliana said, getting all defensive. "We are meant for each other! Our horoscopes say so! He's a libra and I'm an aquarius, so that means we'll have a very passionate love! Besides, I am bound to have good luck with relationships anyways because I'm a Valentine's baby. Do you know how sad it would be if my relationship with Aiden didn't work out? If it doesn't, I don't deserve to be born on Valentine's Day, I swear!" Lilliana just kept rambling on about random things at this point, talking about how Aiden and her were compatible with each other because their favorite colors were on opposite ends of the color wheel, and at this Maribel just lost it. She started laughing, quietly at first, but then hysterically as she thought about it more and more.

Lilliana stopped mid-sentence, and looked over cautiously, as if she thought that her best friend went mad. "What's so funny?"

Maribel's laughter died down before she spoke. "What a strange being you are," she said, trying to stifle her giggles. "I've never met someone who thought they were soulmates with someone because of their favorite colors." Maribel continued laughing, leaving Lilliana to pout.

But she couldn't stay upset for long, because Maribel's laughter is just like music to her ears. She didn't get to hear it often because Maribel was normally such a pessimistic person and she's normally so miserable because of school. So seeing Maribel laugh as if she wasn't stressing out about midterms was enough to make Lilliana forget all about their little argument and join in on the laughter.

So there they were. Two girls laughing in a cafe in the late afternoon. One who laughed as if it were as easy as breathing and one who laughed so little barely anyone knew what it sounded like. One who thought she was falling in love and one who definitely knew that she was in love. Both who have no idea what is yet to come.

this has been a long time coming lol. anyways here's the first chapter that has been sitting in my docs since november. enjoy. let me know what you think. comment, vote, and all that jazz.