As the Time Stands Still

Chapter 1

"Remind yourself it's okay not to be perfect. "

Artemis POV

Everyones been talking about how long they have until they meet their soul mate, except for me and my friends.

We're kinda the outcasts, the time on our watches have stopped. We don't know what that really means. A watch that counts down till you meet your soul mate, stopping? No ones heard of something like that ever happening, my generation was the first to experience it.

When I was younger I would always look at my watch, wondering when I would meet him or her. It was awfully slow. I watched as my older brothers watch would go the way a real watch would. The seconds of the watch at the same pace of a real watches seconds.

Sometimes the watch on his wrist would jump a few seconds forward. But, sadly for me it would take 30 seconds to get 1 second down. I didn't mind it being really slow I always brushed it off when I was younger. My parents would tell me that it happened to some people but their faces were always filled with concern and fear when they spoke to me about my time.

But that never happened to my brother. I watched my brother get more and more excited as the days went down quickly. He would talk on and on about how she would look when he would meet her, he didn't even consider his soul mate being a guy. Oh how surprised he was when he finally met his soulmate.

I was 10 and my brother was 17 when he met his soulmate for the first time. The memories are so fresh in my mind like it had happened yesterday.

My brother and I wanted to go get ice cream from our favourite ice cream shop nearby. My brother had insisted on dressing up nicely to get ice cream. Although it was his casual attire except everything matched with one another.

The time on his wrist said 30 minutes so he took 15 minutes to look good. He wasted so much time to look "good".

I had quickly thrown on a pair of jeans and a light blue shirt while he went for a black shirt with a greenish blue flannel over it, jeans, a black belt, and dark blue vans. If my brother hadn't asked the worker at the ice cream shop to take a picture of us all together I honestly wouldn't have remembered.

When my brother was finally finished getting ready we were off to the ice cream shop. The ice cream shop was a 10 minute walk away from where we lived so it wasn't that bad. Although he did keep talking about how I should act around his soulmate. He talked and talked the whole walk there.

When we arrived we had 5 minutes to spare until he met his soulmate. We got our ice cream and sat down next to the window so we could have a great view of the people outside.

I had gotten Cookie Dough which is my favourite flavour of ice cream and my brother went for his personal favourite which is Mint Chocolate Chip. We silently ate our ice cream as we watched people walk by the shop, both of us deep in thought about different things.

My brother was getting really anxious and jittery as the time on his watch got closer and closer to 0.  His leg wouldn't stop bouncing and his hands wouldn't stop shaking.

He made a mistake with the seating arrangement since his back was facing the door. The only door that people could come through. So I saw him before my brother even knew he was there.

He had a grey shirt on and black basketball shorts. His golden blonde hair was a mess of curls. Sweat covered his face and he was trying to control his breathing. From the looks of it he ran here.

I turned my gaze to my brother, who had no idea someone else was in this shop. Someone who could most likely be his soul mate.

The time on his watch was 1 minute and 30 seconds now. My brothers soul mate didn't even look at his time in the duration he was in the shop, well not until he saw my brother that is. He had walked straight to the counter, ordered his ice cream and stared at the door with a smug look on his face.