Soul Mate - Clove and Cato

Chapter 2:

The shops are filled with the people from 2 all out getting their groceries. Me and Cato are walking side-by-side, hand-in-hand. The streets are filled with the smaller children playing tag and hide-and-seek in-between the trees with each other while their parents shop.

We walk into one of the poky little shops. It may be small, but they sell all that we need. We go around in a team, Cato with the basket and the list and me picking up the items. We make our way around and pick up the items needed, "Eggs." Cato tell me and we scurry off down the small isles to collect the eggs. I pick them up and place them in the basket gently, being careful not to break them. " Check." I tell Cato, and were on to the next item.

Pretty soon we've collected everything and we go to the till. Cato puts the basket up to the counter and the cashier puts everything through the till. Every few seconds you can hear a "bleep" as the food goes through the scanner. "That'll be P$10." The cashier says to us. Cato hands over the money, " There we go." He smiles at the cashier as he wishes us a good day and smiles back. We take out bags and head back out onto the streets of 2.

"Umm... wait here." I say to Cato.

"Yea, yea, sure." He puts the bags down and smiles.

He knows exactly where I'm going.

I hop on into the pharmacy and go straight to get more pregnancy tests. Don't want to run low. I think to myself. I go straight to the till where my friend, Eva works. Eva is like me, 15, although she doesn't train much for the games, shes busy at home looking after her little brothers and sisters while her parents work. Today the children will be out playing as it's still the weekend.Eva too is a bit of a wild-child, although she doesn't stick to the same boyfriend for a long time.

"Hey." I say and I smile at her, "How are you today?"

"Hi! Yea i'm doing alright, what about you?" She smiles back as I hand her over my purchase.

"Yea, i'm really good. Just out getting some messages."

We chat for a while before we say goodbye and I go back out and get Cato. He's looking at something, with his back turned to me. I sneak up on him.

"What you got there?" I gleam at him.

He shuffles around almost dropping what he has. He quickly puts it in his pocket.

"Oh! N-n-nothing. God Clove you scared me." He sounds startled. He looked startled. Then he smiles.

"Sorry." I laugh. "You've clearly got something there, are you going to tell me?"

"Maybe later, yea?"

"Sure." I really want to know. Really want to reach straight into his pocket and steal what he has but that would ruin the surprise and make him mad so I hold off.

"Right then. Home?"

"Sounds like a plan." I tell him and we begin on the journey home chatting endlessly.

* * *

I stock up the fridge and make sure everything is where it's meant to be.

"What do you want for lunch then?" I ask Cato.

"Emm, why don't we skip lunch today and go for a walk..." He replies. He looks nervous, scared even. I hope and pray to god that he's not going to tell me he's breaking up with me. Why would he? What did i do? We're so happy together though. There's someone else... These are the thoughts currently going through my head. I gulp and take a deep breath. "Yea. Yea ok then." I must look nervous too, he can sense it.

"Don't look so scared." He says and he hugs me. I nervously laugh and he takes my hand. We walk out of the door.

"Where are we going?" I ask Cato.

"I thought maybe we could go down to the old swing-set and talk for a while." He smiles.

"Sounds nice." I'm still nervous I can hear it in my own voice. My hands are shaking slightly.

The walk is short and we say nothing at all. It feels like we are walking to death, to nothing. I feel empty knowing what Cato is going to say.

We reach the swing-set, abandoned, silently swinging in the breeze. The grass around it is thick and green and some fallen leaves from the trees around lay softly on the ground.

I go and sit on one of the swings expecting Cato to sit next to me so he can get it over with then walk away.

I'm not ready to be alone... Not ready to face the world without him...

Instead Cato stands behind me and starts to push the swing gently. A small smile starts to form on my face as do tears. I think back to all the fun me and Cato have had throughout the years, everything we've done together...

He pushes me for a while.

Time stops.

Cato stops pushing the swing and comes round infront of me. He kneels on the ground and looks at the ground for a while then looks up at me.

He clears his throat.

He starts to speak.

Time starts.

"So. Umm. Clove? Well... we've been together for a few years now and we've been through so much together."

I get ready for it.

"I love you. You make me happy, make me a better person. When i'm with you I can be me, truly me. Clove. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. So I want to ask you something..."

He reaches into his pocket.

"Clove? Will you marry me?" He opens up a small velvet ring box to reveal a silver diamond ring. It's beautiful...

My face lights up as I take in what he just said.

"YES!" I scream at him.

He looks so happy, so relieved and he slips the ring on my finger. I jump of the swing down to the ground where he is on one knee and hug him so tight.

"I thought you were going to break up with me!" I burst out at him, half laughing, half crying.

He laughs, "Why would I do that? Your the best thing to ever happen to me!"

"Oh Cato, I love you!"

"I love you too Clove, so much."

We get up and i jump up my arms still around him, his around me. He spins us around. We both laugh and then we kiss for what seems like forever...

* * *

I can't stop putting my left arm out in-front of me as we walk home and look at the ring. It's amazing, so beautiful, so shiny, so special.

"And look.' Cato says. He presses on a certain part of the band of the ring and a small knife comes from the ring. Engraved on the blade I can see my name and above it an '8' for infinity.

"It's perfect!" I scream. And it really is perfect. Everything about this day, this moment is perfect. My life is perfect. Nothing in it right now could go wrong.

Nothing...