The Final Countdown

Chapter 1

Mary Ellen's Point of View

He was my best friend. Best friends since before birth, he grew up protecting me from everything. His countdown was broken from the start, a rare thing, but there is nothing you can do about it. My parents kept my countdown covered until I decided that I wanted to know how long I have, I have never uncovered it. I think I only care now because I've fallen in love, or at least I think I have. I have fallen in love with Xavier. He is taller than me by a foot, his beautiful green eyes, and beautiful brown hair. He is my best friend, my protector, and my love. He, sadly, doesn't believe in love, he never has; I guess it's because his countdown is broken.

I'm sorry I haven't explained. My name is Mary Ellen Greene, I am 17 years old. When someone is born they are born with a countdown on their wrist, it counts down to when you meet the person you are meant to be with, your soulmate. Xavier is my best friend, his countdown is broken and I have never seen mine. I'm hoping we are soulmates, but I'm terrified to look.

Xavier and I were on our way to school, him talking about how he is hoping to make starting quarterback now that we are seniors.

"You should try out for cheerleading." He has been trying to convince me to be a cheerleader since freshmen year. What he doesn't seem to realize is that I'm not the cheering type, I'm more of sitting on the bleachers reading a book. In middle school, it was just Xavier and me, but now that we are in high school he has more friends. Nothing reminds me better of that than the school's bad boy twins, Hunter and Logan Shaffer. They push me aside to, what I call "bro-hug", each other. Hunter is talking about the latest girl he "banged" as they nicely put it. Hunter doesn't care about his soulmate and decided not to wait for her, he has a bandana covering his countdown constantly. Logan is a little nicer and doesn't sleep around, but he pretends to not care about his countdown but I have caught him looking at it. Hunter and Logan are 6 foot 3 inches of pure muscle, chocolate brown hair and bright blue eyes. All the girls fall for them, all but me anyway.

Logan seems excited today, he says it's because of football but I don't think that's the reason. He isn't covering his countdown today and I notice that today is the day. He has 11 minutes and 42 seconds till he meets his soulmate.

As I head to my locker I hear a squeal, I look over and see Logan twirling some girl with blonde hair and hazel eyes. They look so happy together, it makes me want to check my countdown. I can see that Hunter is happy for his brother but also looks like someone shot his puppy. I see Xavier walking away sadly. I go follow him, I turn the corner to see him swapping saliva with the school slut. I feel my heart break in two.

"You look upset." I hear behind me. I whip around and see Hunter.

"I am. God, why do I even care? I have a soul mate out there somewhere." I say bitterly.

"I wanna look at my countdown," I look up in shock. He has never cared about his soul mate.

"You do?" I ask.

"Yep." He answers.

"Me too..."

"I think we should."

"Wanna do it together?" I ask.

"1..."

"2..."

"3..." We rip off our covers at the same time. They were at 1... now 0.

Hunter... Hunter Shaffer is my soulmate....

"YOU'RE MY SOULMATE?!?!?!!?" I yell in surprise, startling Xavier breaking him from his kiss. "This can't be happening! You are the school's bad boy, we can't be soulmates! Why would it just now count down to 0? We have known each other for 4 years..." He kisses me, effectively, cutting me off. I can't help it, I lean in and kiss him back. It doesn't last long before we are yanked apart and I see the back of Xavier beating Hunter up. I am frozen in shock before I get ahold of myself and get in between them. Xavier was mid-punch and ended up punching me in the jaw, effectively pissing me off. My head whips to the side. Xavier starts to apologize but I cut him off, "Don't... Why in the fucking hell would you start to beat Hunter up? He is your best friend." They both looked shocked because I never cuss.

"Be.. because it was supposed to be me...." was Xavier's response.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Asked Hunter while I stood there in shock.

"I was supposed to be her soulmate! Not you, not anybody else!"

"Why would you be her soulmate? Your clock is broken!"

"Because I love her. That's why!"

"You love me," I interrupt, "If you loved me you wouldn't have been making out with Roxie." That silenced him. "And you!" I shout, pointing at Hunter, "You don't even want a soulmate, so why do you care?"

"Because now that I know you're my soulmate-"

"What? You suddenly care? You didn't care when you were banging the redhead like you were talking about 20 minutes ago." I interrupt him. I can't take their stupidity anymore and walk away.

Throughout the whole day, they both try to talk to me, but I ignore them. Even on the ride home. When I'm getting out of the car I tell them that I just need time to think. When I get to my room I couldn't take it anymore, I break down crying. It was too much, the boy I grew up loving, loves me but isn't my soulmate. And my soulmate doesn't necessarily want a soulmate. How am I supposed to deal with this? Just ignore it? I need time to think about all this. I know I should choose my soulmate over anyone else, but what if my countdown was wrong?

No, a countdown can't be wrong, it has never happened before. Maybe if I talk to Hunter about it we can find out if we actually want to be together. I can't decide if I hope he wants to be together or not. It's frustrating.

The next day at school I tell Hunter that we need to talk. He agrees and says we can at lunch. All morning I was nervous, I couldn't focus in any of my classes. When lunch finally comes, I go to our normal table to meet up with Hunter. When he gets there we go out into the courtyard to talk.

"Ok so what do you wanna talk about?" He starts.

"Well, I want to know if you actually want me as a soulmate or if you are gonna continue sleeping around," I state.

"Wow... um... ok... Well, I want to be your soulmate, but not yet."

"What do you mean 'not yet'" I question, "you are confusing me."

"Well, I was hoping I wouldn't meet my soulmate until after high school."

"Why?"

"I don't want to be tied down to one woman yet. I always thought my soulmate would try to change me or want to fall in love right away instead of taking time."

"Of course we would take time, I have always thought you were an idiot!" I realize that wasn't the best thing to say but he was aggravating me.

"Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence!"

"Well, you do sleep around! You have always been rude to me, and you a week ago you told me that you hate me!"

"Whatever, so what do you want to do?"

"I want to get to know you better and I would also like you to stop sleeping around." At that, the bell rings signaling third period. He stands there frozen, so I walk around him and go inside.

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