String of Fate

Chapter Ninety Seven

On the morning of my sixteenth birthday, I was woken up to the sound of my alarm clock and my brother stomping around the landing. It was too early in the morning for this. Then again, it was a Friday, so, Rory was probably just looking forward to the weekend. I noticed that he had been getting more and more excited over our classmates house party that was happening tomorrow, though. "Ryan, are you getting up or not?"

"Yeah! I'm on my way!" I called back as he headed back to his bedroom. I reached over and shut off the blaring alarm, getting out of bed at the same time. I stretched, actually causing my shoulder to click, and wandered over to the bedroom door. I headed to the bathroom as Rory headed back into his room. "Happy Birthday, dumbass!"

"Happy Birthday to you, too!" He yelled as he shut his bedroom door, laughing like mad. It was strange that, even though we had both just turned sixteen, we were still the idiots that we always had been. Still, I was stuck with an idiot brother and that much was not going to change.

I headed back into my room to get ready for school, wondering if Rory was going to make a big deal of our birthdays. He always did like to make a big deal out of our birthdays when we were in school. I looked forward to the days when our birthday was on the weekend so I didn't have to deal with every lesson starting with everyone singing a round of happy birthday. It was always torture.

It wasn't until I was attempting to make my tie look decent that I noticed that there was a red string on my finger. I was surprised; of course, I was, because I didn't think that I would be the youngest person in the relationship. I had expected to need to wait a couple of months before my string appeared. This had not been part of my plan. I had to try and follow my string before school.

I quickly picked up my phone to check the time and cursed to myself. I was cutting it fine and would not have time to follow my string this morning. Maybe I could skip breakfast. That would be a good idea. It would give me a couple of minutes to try and follow my string.

"Dude, come on! It's time for the birthday breakfast." Rory spoke, opening my bedroom door. I slipped my phone in my pocket, grabbed my bag, and slung my jumper over my arm. It looks like I couldn't skip the birthday breakfast considering how excited Rory was for it. I would be a terrible brother if I left him by himself. I gave a little laugh as I followed him down to the kitchen.

By the time we finished breakfast, we had to head straight to school. We were already cutting it fine for that. I had no chance of actually following my string before school. Sadly, it was something that was going to have to wait until after school. Hopefully, school wouldn't take too long. I could get out of there as soon as the last bell rung. It didn't even occur to me that the person at the end of my string would be in the same school as me, even though it was likely to be obvious to anyone else.

"You've been a bit distracted this morning, haven't you?" Rory said as we walked in the direction of school. The closer we got to the school, the busier it was getting because it was in the middle of the town centre. "Anyone would think that your string has appeared, or something."

"Well, it has." I admitted, making Rory stop a little with surprise. I continued walking and he didn't waste any time catching me back up. "I was surprised, too, but it was going to happen. I guess I'm just lucky that I don't have to wait. I was going to follow my string this morning, but I really misjudged the time. Now, we really need to get to school."

"Are you worried?" Rory asked. He was determined not to change the subject even though I was clearly a little uncomfortable with it. Still, he wasn't going to let up until he had the answers that he wanted. I nodded, not wanting to speak. Of course I was going to be worried about it. It was the most nerve-wracking thing that I could think of. Rory laughed and squeezed my shoulders as we walked. "You'll be fine. You're destined to be with them. I know this is probably not going to help, but you're going to be okay. They're going to love you."