Transcendence: A Request Prompt (2/5)

New York City
United States of America
November 2118
Jones, Elena

The catty smile matched Elena Jones’ personality; sly and deviant, quick-thinking with touches of sophistication all around.

“An order for Marion,” she called out, her sugar-sweet voice disguising the boredom that lay behind. “Americano and a Toffee Nut Latte.” She watched as a tall girl with an equally tall boyfriend approached the counter, the one named Marion flashing the receipt. Elena smoothly scanned the paper and stamped it, the male sweeping the drinks into his hands afterwards.

Out of habit, she scanned the male and saw what she was looking for:

A black heart outline located on his wrist, colored in with gold.

“Marion,” she heard him speak. Elena quickly turned away and pretended to check on the coffee machine, listening to the male speak. “Did you know that birds of the same feather are the same bird?”

Elena wanted to faceplant into the coffee machine. The man’s odd choice of words, punctuated with his deep and slow voice made him seem like a –

His girlfriend, Marion, gave a disgruntled sigh. “Shut the fuck up and let’s leave.”

                    

“How cruel,” the man sighed, and she heard the retreating steps of the pair. Elena couldn’t help but laugh to herself at the odd pairing that those two made.

Ever since her childhood, Elena Jones firmly believed in the existence of a soul mate.

She was born with the same heart-shaped outline on her right forearm; meanwhile, twelve tick marks were easily locatable on her right wrist. As she grew up, her parents explained to her the significance of those marks, persuading her to look for said soul mate when she grew up. 

Elena agreed – but it didn’t stop her from dreaming or fantasizing about how she could meet the person or who the person was.

Back in her hometown of Connecticut, nearly all her friends had already found their respective match/es by the time they had graduated. Elena recalled feeling happy for them, but deep down, a small feeling of envy began to foster in her heart. Despite that, she could only smile and listen as they recounted tales of how it finally felt to find someone.

Others would usually scoff and comment how boring it was, to have a lack of adventure in finding them. Elena merely shook her head.

As much as possible, she wanted to find her true love – the person who was meant to be with her. So she packed her bags and moved to the Big Apple for college, anticipating for whoever the person would be. Irritatingly enough, however, said person didn’t appear at all.

The outline on her arm didn’t even fill up with the slightest hue in color.

Frustrated, Elena shut herself away from the idea and instead focused on her studies. Sadly, the world around her seemed to want to remind her that Mr/Ms. Soul Mate still wasn’t there.

By the time the brunette received her degree, most of her college peers were squealing over the fact that they had managed to find their OTL – One True Love.

“You look halfway between amused and pissed off,” someone remarked. Elena jumped. In front of the counter, a young Korean male raised his bleach blond brow at her. “Everything okay?”

“I’m fine,” she forced out. “Sorry – anything you want?”

“Send me two of those banoffee pies.” Elena got right on that, taking the two desserts and placing them onto separate plates, then a tray. “How much?”

“Six dollars.” The male handed her the exact amount and she gave him a receipt in turn as well as the tray with the desserts. “Enjoy your meal.”

* * * * *

Elena got off work at half-past four in the afternoon and quickly zoomed away from the counter as soon as the clock indicated just that. “Excited to leave today, Jones?” one of her co-workers inquired. Elena nodded impatiently, removing the hair tie which bound her hair. A wave of brown hair swished down her back, even more curled than usual.

“Yeah. I just want to go back to my apartment and rest up,” she admitted. “I wasn’t able to get some sleep last night and tonight, I intend to do just that.”

“You go do that. See you tomorrow,” another said perkily, and Elena gave a smile before leaving the staff room. People had started to line up for their usual fix; particularly college students who studied nearby. Nearly tripping over her feet, she got out and breathed in the cold New York air.

On that night, Elena just wanted to rest. What she had told them earlier wasn’t a lie – as of Monday that week, she hadn’t been sleeping so nicely.

The brunette walked down the stone pavement, the wave of people coming in from all directions. She grimaced; crowds weren’t the best. She clutched her bag a little closer and dug in for her iPod, plugging the red earphones into her ears and turning the volume up as she listened.

Her apartment wasn’t that far off; it was merely a ten to fifteen minute walk, depending if she got distracted by the knick-knacks being sold on the streets. On that particular day, she chose to go home as soon as possible, avoiding knocking into people and making conversation.

Elena couldn’t shake off the sight of the couple at the café. They seemed like the oddest pair in every way – the way the girl was nearly taller than the male, how she gave an irritated huff at his ridiculous saying. Then there was the guy, who was a different story. While the girl named Marion was stylish and seemed like a runway model, her partner seemed more like the academic type, someone who would prefer to stay in than go out, a man who would rather debate obscure theories than turn a listening ear to things like pop culture and such.

How odd. They seemed to be miles, light years away from each other, yet there they were. He had gold on his wrist. Elena didn’t catch Marion’s mark, but she strongly assumed that it was filled in with color – his color.

Besides, cases of un-matching soul mates were practically non-existent. Once Matched, there wasn’t any other choice unless you were fated to be in a polygamous relationship. Those who dared to defy fate did try and get with someone else…however, they didn’t end up happy.

Elena was hella sure that she didn’t want to defy fate.

* * * * *

Elena’s apartment was surprisingly comfortable and worth the money she had paid.

It wasn’t deluxe-sized nor was it uncomfortably cramped; Elena thought that it covered every inch of space she would need. It wasn’t too shabby either – the place had a moderate amount of decorating, the walls already taken care of once she moved in.

So when she had arrived back, she stripped off her shoes, her coat and jumped into the plush bed. Immediately, her eyes closed and she didn’t bother to pull up the covers or check the time. What mattered at that moment was that she’d be able to get some of that well-deserved shut eye which she had been craving for.

The familiar tug of sleep pulled her into the dream world, and Elena began to dream.

For the past few days, she had dreamed up of the most interesting ensemble of people. Elena dreamed of couples in particular – lesbian couples, gay couples, straight couples – and she noted how different their experiences seemed to be.

It was enough to make her jot down her observations into a small dream journal upon waking up. So far, the most peculiar couple had been two gentlemen who frequently expressed their worries about others finding out about them. That one was enough to make Elena frown.

Why would they have to worry, she thought upon writing, This society isn’t like that anymore. Diversity…it’s even encouraged.

That evening, she found dreamself in a restroom, looking at another girl whose cheeks were flaming red, a semi-amused grin on her face. Elena was about to ask what was wrong when she felt it – a light tingling on her lips, the racing of her pulse.

And she realized what had just happened.

“Were they rough?” the other finally asked. Elena blinked.

“No,” she heard herself reply. She was a girl as well, apparently. “Soft. Yours were soft.” A relieved look came upon the other girl’s face and Elena didn’t understand why until her own eyes fell on the other’s lips.

Chapped. Rough-looking. It looked like the other girl frequently picked at her lips.

With a start, Elena realized that she too had the same habit.

“We should probably leave,” the girl managed. Elena felt herself nod. “Come on.” She felt a warm hand slip into hers and the pair left the restroom, the scenery soon melding into a road leading elsewhere. Their hands were still connected. It seemed like neither of them spoke. Finally, Elena felt the words come naturally.

“That doesn’t count as my first.”

“Oh?” the other blinked. And then she smiled a little sheepishly. “That was my first.”

And Elena laughed – an amused laugh – and it felt good. The laughter wasn’t forced at all. “That’s good. So we’re even.”

“I guess we are,” the other murmured, and they stopped. Elena had turned to face her and found herself staring at someone shorter by a couple of inches, her hair reaching just above her chest. She seemed younger than Elena.  “See you tomorrow?”

“I’ll see you.”

And it sounded like a promise.

* * * * *

Elena woke up with a smile on her face, although it vanished quickly after coming to terms of what she had just dreamed of. Sitting up, she immediately grabbed for the pink notebook on the bedside table as well as a ballpen, flipping to the latest page and scribbling down her thoughts.

Two girls who might have just had their first kiss.

They seemed young – probably college or high school? There was some sort of nice afterglow about them, a mild awkwardness after the kiss. It was like they had just gone on a date. I don’t know how it led to a kiss in a washroom, but…the whole thing was undeniably sweet.

The more these dreams happen, the more I believe that they’re real – real memories which, for some reason, come to my dreams each night.

But it can’t be, right? Dreams are mere constructs of the human subconscious. They can’t exactly mean anything more than that.

Elena bit her lip all of a sudden.

Her hand moved, writing the last sentence.

…if they don’t mean anything more, then why do I feel a sense of foreboding for them?