Lime Colored Strings

Flour

          'Lime colored Strings', Aspen typed into the search bar frantically. He had never heard of red strings of fate being anything other than, well...red! For the last two hours, he had been searching up phrases similar to the one he had just typed in, that and been trying not to freak out. No answers, not a single one. He hadn't found one helpful thing so far. Was he the only one this had happened too? Or were people just not talking about this online? If they weren't talking about, why? Was something wrong with him?

          "Aspen." His mother said to him later that day, "You haven't brought up your soulmate, or soulmates, all day! It's your 18th birthday for heaven's sake, tell me how many red strings you have? Aren't you excited?" Aspen looked up from the book about soulmates he was reading and over at his mother. He momentarily considered telling his mother the truth, but then decided there was no point in worrying her, "Oh, nothings wrong mother, It's just I have 3 soulmates, and that is a lot to me. I just didn't expect to have so many." He said, looking down at the 3 strings around his fingers. "Three soulmates! Oh my, that is so wonderful honey, I'm so happy for you!" His mom said. Aspen forced himself to smile.         

        The next day at his job at the bakery was hard. People kept asking him about his soulmates and red strings of fate and he kept having to lie and act happy. Aspen had calmed down quite a bit and realized there was probably nothing wrong with him. He was different, but he didn't feel broken. Though this whole thing still made him nervous of course and so he didn't tell anyone about the odd color of the strings. He simply stayed in the kitchen and tried to keep his head down as he baked, avoiding talking to others and focusing on doing his job. People left him alone after awhile.          

          Baking had always been relaxing for Aspen, it was something that he found simple and he was incredibly good at. Right now he was listening to his best friend, who was really more of an acquaintance, ranting about some jerk she had met the other day at an audition for a play as he baked. "He really was so mean!" Orchid said, "He pushed me into the wall as I walked down the hallway just because I got in his way!" She shook her head. "Mhmm," Aspen responded, not really paying any attention, too focused on making flower patterns on a cake with frosting. "I mean it really was so rude of him, Aspen! Afterward, he had the nerve to tell me to watch where I was going-" Orchid's voice droned on and faded into the background for Aspen, as he completely stopped paying attention too it.        

          Currently, all Aspen was focusing on was smoothing out the frosting on his cake and making it look nice. The flowers on it were stunning looking, a simple design that made the white cake look fun and magnificent. He smiled as he thought about how happy the kid who ate this cake would be, he hoped they had a fantastic birthday even if his hadn't been so great. He picked up the thing of black frosting and started too write on the cake, a simple happy birthday message for the kid, 'Happy birthday, Tulip!" It said when he finished. He stepped back and looked at the cake, deciding the black writing wasn't pretty enough he grabbed the yellow frosting and gave the letters a yellow shadow, knowing that would look more interesting. Once he was finished he put down the frosting, feeling satisfied with his work.       

          "Aspen, have you finished that birthday cake?" His boss asked, walking in a few minutes after he had added the final touches to the cake. "Yes, sir," Aspen answered, picking up the cake and placing it in a box gently. "Could you deliver it please?" His boss asked. "Of course, Sir," Aspen said, picking up the box. After his boss told him the address he headed quickly out the door. Aspen jumped into the company delivery car and set the cake in the seat next to him, taking care to buckle it in so it didn't go flying if he had to stop the car suddenly. He entered the address into the GPS and began to drive. He followed the directions carefully.

          Driving had never been enjoyable for Aspen, it was usually an extremely stressful experience. He never got mad while driving, road rage wasn't really something he experienced, road panic would be a more accurate term to describe what Aspen experienced. He nearly had a heart attack anytime anyone else got even close to his vehicle. He would never tell his boss that of course, he didn't want to get fired after all. A cat jumped in front of his vehicle last minute and he swerved violently to the right, almost hitting another car before getting back in his lane. The other car honked repeatedly and the driver flipped him off. Aspen knew the driver's anger was warranted, so he just kept driving, extra careful to look out for cats.        

           It wasn't until Aspen pulled up to the house and parked in front of it that they realized one of the lime-colored strings around his finger seemed to be coming from inside the house. He cautiously stepped outside of the car after grabbing the cake. Aspen walked slowly towards the door, stopping in front of it. He waited for a few anxiety-filled minutes, debating whether or not he should turn around and run or stay and ring the bell, before finally gaining the courage to ring the doorbell. It was around 90 seconds before someone finally answered the door, though it felt like a dozen lifetimes.              

          The first thing that Aspen noticed about the person at the other end of one of his strings of fate was their eyes. A lovely light soulful sea foam green that seemed to be tinged with sadness trying to masquerade as apathy and coolness. The very next thing Aspen noticed was the smell of smoke, which brought him to reality. His potential soulmate was smoking, Aspen started coughing, his asthma acting up pretty quickly. The person grabbed the cake from Aspen before it fell to the ground. Aspen covered up his mouth with his hand as he coughed a bit more. Aspen tried very hard to stop coughing, he didn't want to have an asthma attack in a moment as important as this. "Huh...you should come inside." The person said. Aspen nodded and took a step forward, he was distracted by his own coughing and in shock from what was going on right now. So it wasn't a surprise that Aspen, as distracted as he was, didn't notice the step in front of him, and fell forward.                                                                                                                                             

~~I hope you all enjoy! Please comment and I will make sure to respond! I am sort of new too wattpad, so I'm a bit nervous about posting this. Please tell me if I do something wrong. The next chapter should be up in the next week or so.~~