Miss Incomplete | ✓

57 | He Loves Me

"Happy birthday Francena, happy birthday to you,"

Iris lowly sings in the nail salon, and I shake my head, laughing as I wave her off from continuing. Knowing Iris, she would try to make the whole nail salon to sing the song for me.

"Iris, stop, you're gonna embarrass me!" I whisper-yelled, causing her to giggle. I gave her a weird look, before she points down to her toes showing that the nail technician was at the scrub part—where they scrub the bottom of her foot to make it smoother.

"It's your birthday?" I turn away from Iris' laughing figure to the girl doing my pedicure. She had a mask on, covering half of her face, but from what I see, she's pretty young. My best guess is that she's fourteen-fifteen years old at best. She had long black hair, and pale skin. This was the first time she talked to me.

"Um, yeah," I nod, answering her question. "I turn eighteen."

"Oh, happy birthday!" She tries to sound cheerful but her voice was low and in an almost whisper. I concluded that she doesn't like to make that much noise. "You're in high school still, right?"

"Yeah," I nod, giving her a warm smile. "It's my senior year."

"How is it?"

Oh god; little child, you don't even understand. "It's okay, classes has been good and it wasn't that hard but... I just got a lot of drama going around with me."

"What do you mean by that?"

I debated telling her, especially when she's probably just entering high school and her beliefs on how high school is will change, but then again, she's a stranger and I wouldn't have to worry about her telling people I know. "I, um, got into a lot of problems with my crush. He likes me, and I like him, but y'know, the time isn't right?" I stopped myself, "I mean, you're probably still young and relationship is probably not a thing on your mind right now—and focus on your education—but yeah."

She giggles. "What's his name?"

I paused. "Julian."

"Is he the one? Like, your soulmate?" She asks, generally curious. She couldn't keep much eye-contact with me because she was doing my toes, but she did try to make a glance up every once in a while to make sure to let me know that she was listening.

"No," I shake my head.

She stopped, and looks up from my toes. "Then why would you like him if he's not your soulmate?"

"Because I found my soulmate, but he's not my true love."

"What's the difference?"

I sigh, trying to think of the time I told Julian about the same thing. "A soulmate is like, someone who is meant to be with you—in your life, forever. They help you, empower you, and care about you deeply but it doesn't always have to be romantically. It could be platonically. Or sibling love. It's just someone who is meant to be in your life, and make you better."

"A true love is like someone who you're meant to be with romantically. Someone you love, someone who is like your best friend but together in a partnership. They are the one for you completely. Soulmate are there forever. True love, despite being the one for you entirely, could leave."

"And before you ask," I saw that her mask moved, indicating that she opened her mouth to ask another question. "Soulmates and true loves can be one person. In my opinion, it's just extremely rare. It's like the best love out there, I believe, soulmate and true love."

"So..." the young girl trails off, as she falls back into her job, "is this Julian your true love? And who's your soulmate?"

"Well, I don't know if Julian is my true love, we aren't even dating." I answered simply. "I kinda hope he is, but who knows, maybe this crush on him will fade and I'll find my true love afterwards."