Hey everyone,
So, I wrote a short story for uni last
year that I haven’t yet shared with you. I got a fairly good grade on it (I
can’t remember the number, but it was better than the previous one) so I
thought I’d jazz it up a bit and put it out there for all to read (and
hopefully enjoy).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I moved into
Hudson’s house over the course of a month. I didn’t have to take many things
with me, because he had furniture already.
We
sat down on his grey leather couch in his – our – living room once we finished
unpacking and putting my stuff throughout the house, each with a plate of
leftover strawberry and cream surprise birthday cake sat on our laps. I could
almost hear Mum’s laughter as we found the surprise: chocolates in the centre,
tumbling out all over the plate. I really miss her sometimes. I wish I could go
home. I miss my bed. I miss seeing Mum and Dad every day. I miss home. But I
have this new home with Hudson, I should be happy. I trust the system; they’ve
never been wrong before, so I should have nothing to worry about.
While
finishing off our cake, we sat in silence, the spoons scraping our plates the
only sound. Occasionally, one of us tried to start a conversation, but trailed
off back into silence. I kept my eyes on my plate, not daring to look at him
and make this situation more awkward than it already was. How did we end up as
a Perfect Pairing? This isn’t going well at all.
He
finished his cake and put his empty plate on the coffee table, leaned back on
the couch, resting his feet on the coffee table and his hands behind his head.
He let out a sigh and I looked at him, and immediately wished I hadn’t. Even
with the discomfort of the situation, his eyes were still as green and alluring
as they were when I met him a month ago. I found myself getting lost in them,
but shook myself out of it.
“I’m
not very good at this. I’ve never been in a relationship before,” I said to
him, breaking the silence. I looked back into my lap in shame.
“Hey,”
he said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay. We can learn together.”
I felt the corners of my mouth quirk upwards
slightly, “You think so?”
“Yeah.”
He
looked into my eyes and I felt like he was staring into my soul. He leaned
closer to me and rested his hand on the small of my back. I’d never noticed how
freckles dotted his nose and cheeks, or how he began to close his eyes, or how
I closed mine, too.
The
sound of my phone ringing made me pull back from him and open my eyes. Hudson
looked at my still ringing phone with disgust, as did I. I picked it up,
feeling slightly frustrated as I pressed the speaker to my ear.
“Hello?”
I asked.
“Yes,
hello, is this Ebony Wolfe?” a calm female voice asked.
“Yeah,
that’s me.”
“There
has been a mistake with your file. We paired you with the wrong person,” she
explained. My mouth fell open. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“B-but
you always get it right,” I replied, my voice shaking. “Always.”
“Not
this time. You must come to the Pairing Centre immediately, so we can issue you
your correct file.”
“And
if I don’t?”
“You
will be arrested.”
“Oh-okay,
I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I said before immediately hanging up. I ran to
my bedside table and yanked open the drawer that I kept Hudson’s file in. All
his details were printed at the top of the page, his picture attached below it.
Name: Hudson
James Wolfe
Date of birth: 25th April 2074
Gender: M
Height: 177 cm
Hair colour: Brown
Eye colour: Green
Skin tone: Fair
ID No: 742811
How
could the Pairing Centre be wrong? They’re never wrong. No one in living memory
had ever been re-paired before. Mum and Dad’s was correct. I don’t know much
about Hudson’s parents, but I assume theirs was correct as well. We were the
first mistake. The first mistake since the Pairing Centre was set up. Since the
war. 75 years ago.
“You’re
not actually going, are you?” Hudson asked after I filled him in on what was
happening. I was sitting on my side of the bed, staring at Hudson’s file
clutched in my hands.
“Of
course, I am. The Pairing Centre works,” I said, not taking my eyes off the
file. If I looked at him, I’d change my mind. I couldn’t let that happen.
“No,
it doesn’t. They made a mistake with us. Do you know what they do with
mistakes?” he said, sitting down next to me on the bed, his voice raised in
fear and desperation.
“No,
but I have to go. I don’t wanna get arrested, or worse,” I replied, beginning
to stand up. I needed to leave.
He
grabbed both of my arms, forcing me to sit back down and look at him, “W-what
about us? What about learning together?” he asked, his words catching in his
throat.
“I
care about you, okay? But I can’t get arrested,” I said, resting my head on his
shoulder and taking a deep breath, then I lifted myself back up and looked him
in the eyes. “It won’t work out. The woman said so.”
“Fine,”
he huffed, almost in tears, releasing my arms. “Go.”
The
drive to the Pairing Centre was agonising. I found myself trying to rationalise
it all. He can’t be the one. The Centre said so. Then why was this hurting so
much?
The
Pairing Centre was as dreary and mind-numbing as I remembered it. The line of
people stretched back to the door and was moving at a snail’s pace. When I
finally got to the front of the line, I told the woman my name and handed her
my ID card.
“Ah,
yes, Mrs Wolfe, right this way,” the woman said, ushering me down the hall to a
door marked Error Correction Office.
“Now
sit and wait here, miss, I must retrieve the file,” she said, seating me in the
wooden, blue cushioned chair facing the plain, white desk laden with files and
a computer in the centre. I sat with a hopeful smile on my face. It will work
this time. It will. A couple of minutes passed, and the woman returned with a
new file and a syringe filled with a clear liquid.
“This
might hurt a bit,” she said, placing the file on the desk and picking up the
syringe. I squinted to read the label on the syringe. Memory Modification Serum. I jerked my arm away from her and stood
up from my chair.
“Why
would you have a whole office devoted to errors if I was your first one? That’s
how you have a perfect record. No one remembers your mistakes,” I accused,
crossing my arms. The woman opened her mouth to reply, but no words came.
No
one’s marriage was correct. No one knew of the Centre’s corruption. Of the
government’s corruption. No one except me. I have to get out of here. They’ll
be after me. What will they do to my family? To Hudson? To me? People have to
learn the truth. Things have to change.
I
sprinted for the door, pulled it open and let it slam against the wall on my
way out. The woman slammed a red button on the wall. They’re coming for me. I
flew out the front doors to the car, running as fast as my legs would carry me.
I wrenched the door open and shoved the keys into the ignition. I sped all the
way home, paying no mind to the speed limits. I wrenched opened the front door
of our house.
“Hudson!”
I yelled as I got inside. “They’re after me. Come quick!”
“Where
are we going?” he asked, breathless, as he sat down in the car.
“I
don’t know. Away from here. Where no one can find us. Somewhere safe,” I
answered as I sped down the road. The sirens rang in my ears and the blue and
red lights danced around the car with a blistering fury. My hands gripped the
wheel tighter than I had ever gripped it before, my foot pressed the
accelerator pedal into the floor and tears threatened to stream down my face.
“But
they’re everywhere. They can always see us. Always.”
“We’ll
just have to keep running then.”
We
drove and drove until the car whined and trembled with exhaustion, completely
out of fuel. I pulled the car over to the side of the road, next to a sprawling
wheat farm. We lost the police a while ago and the stars dotted the sky with a
glistening light. Even out here, in the middle of nowhere, I still had the
unnerving feeling of being watched.
“What
now?” I asked. We were leaning on the side of the car, staring out into the night,
into the wheat farm we’d been stranded next to. The only light came from the
stars in the sky and one flickering lamppost on the other side of the road.
“I
don’t know. We could walk, but we don’t have food so…”
“What’s
going to happen to my family? How do we save them?” I thought out loud. Those
questions rocketed around my mind like a swarm of angry bees.
“That’s
something we’ll have to work out later. We have to focus on us right now.”
“You
mean that?” I replied, turning to face him, his eyes sparkling in the
starlight.
“Yeah,
I do,” he said, leaning towards me and closing his eyes. He’s going to kiss me.
Oh my God. Am I ready?
Too
late. His lips were on mine before I could make up my mind. I felt my heart
race inside my chest and I kissed back, which surprised me. I rested my hands
on his chest and stood on my tippy toes to reach him better. Then he pulled
back – all too soon in my opinion – and rested his forehead against mine,
looking deeply into my eyes, and I into his.
“So,
you’ll stay with me?” he said in a hushed tone.
“Absolutely.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank
you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.
Love, Nicky x
