Eternity's Dime

Chapter one: Countdown

Three minutes.

Phineas looked away from the number on his wrist as if that would remove it from his mind. His eyes traced patterns on the worn roof's surface. Three minutes until his life changed forever.

Most people looked forward to the day they would meet their soulmate, but he had to be weird. Like always. No one else would hide on a roof trying to avoid it.

A breeze whipped at his hair, sending red locks flying into his eyes, and he combed a hand through them. He'd chosen a spot in the middle of the roof to sit; the last thing he needed was someone to see him and think he was planning to jump. He wasn't that desperate to escape fate.

Not that he was even sure anyone would be able to see him forty stories up if he did. They probably wouldn't be looking anyway.

His eyes traveled back to the timer. Two minutes.

A guitar riff cut through the air and Phineas flinched before realizing it was just his ringtone. Despite knowing it was unlikely his soulmate would come in the form of a wrong number, he tried to ignore it. Logically, it was probably Isabella. His childhood friend knew his time was drawing to a close.

He still didn't answer the phone. Not worth the risk.

But thinking about Isabella made him smile ever so slightly. She'd only met her soulmate last week. The day before she met her soulmate, she called Phineas to confess that she had a huge a crush on him ever since they were little and how she had wished that he'd been her soulmate. Some part of him wished he could have told her the same. He did love her, but not like that.

Why did soulmates have to be a thing? Who decided that everyone should be forced into this instead of making their own choices? His smile disappeared behind a scowl. Why did he have to be with someone at all?

He had spent years going over the history. Nowhere did it explain why this happened, why people were born with numbers on their wrists counting down. It didn't explain anything. Except that it meant you were to be together til death do you part. Or you were ostracized and generally considered a horrible person for dooming your soulmate to an eternally single life.

And as much as he hated the idea of a soulmate, he couldn't do that to someone.

One minute.

What if they didn't like him? Or he didn't like them? Could that happen? His breathing hitched. His heart began to pound in his ears. He couldn't fake wanting this if they didn't like him. Watching the seconds count down, he knew he needed to slow his breathing before he started hyperventilating, but couldn't. He slapped a hand against his chest, feeling it rise and fall too quickly, but it didn't help without someone to copy.

Thirty seconds.

He gasped for air, eyes wide.

From somewhere behind him there was a whooshing wind grew louder with every passing moment, but that went unnoticed by Phineas due to the sound of his beating heart filling his ears.

As the countdown hit zero, something large slammed into his back.