{{Dedicated to @maffies for leaving sweet and elaborate comments on every single chapter. I appreciate it greatly.}}

"It is a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up."

Rhea would second J.K. Rowling's words in a heartbeat, because as dread had grown in the pit of her stomach by the second, the clock had seemed to tick faster and faster, bringing closer the unwanted yet inevitable arrival of Monday.

The digital screen of the clock on her nightstand read 1:08 AM –six hours fifty two minutes until she had to wake up and get ready to face whatever the dreaded Monday would throw at her.

She stared at the now-and-then-flickering screen of the clock and the digits she saw changed countless times without her being able to rid herself of the anxiety that was coursing through her veins.

The situation she was in was unfathomable, to say the very least. Sometime within the next twenty four hours, she would meet her soulmate. What were you even supposed to do with that sort of knowledge? Would possessing such knowledge derail her off the track of meeting her soulmate, or would it drive her right into his arms? What if she stayed home and avoided any and every human contact for the entire day? The paradox was too much for her to comprehend at what was now almost two in the morning, so with a sigh she turned to lie on her stomach, placing her hands under her pillow.

The last thought she had before she finally drifted off into a restless sleep was of the snippets.

She'd got her fair share of snippets over the course of the week, ranging from a television screen to the freezer section of the big supermarket in the town center. Yet she still had no clue as to who her soulmate was supposed to be. Couldn't he have looked into a mirror or something, making the situation a lot less complicated for the both of them? Though he probably wasn't aware of her existence, so any anxiety that was to be felt about the situation fell on her lap; he'd just get to reap the benefits and she couldn't help but resent him for it, even though she knew full well it wasn't his fault.

On Wednesday evening, she'd seen him picking up cartons of milk, going through them to check their expiration dates –something Rhea always forgot to do whenever she went grocery shopping on her own. Oh good, she'd thought, at least there'd be a sensible person in the relationship. 

Thursday morning, it had been a Bruce Willis movie that she'd seen through his eyes. She couldn't tell which one, even with her vast knowledge on movies; the guy had made a shit ton of action movies.

Thursday afternoon, she'd got another one; one that made her insides feel like goo, making warmth course through her. So much so, that she'd had to fight off a smile for the rest of the day whenever she'd thought back to it. What she'd seen was the same little brown-haired girl from before –probably a sister or a niece– and the little girl was painting her soulmate's nails with bright, neon pink nail polish. 

To allow something like that, he would have to be someone full of love for this little girl, someone confident and someone with a sense of humor. By far, this snippet was the one that made her feel the most excited to meet her soulmate. 

The concept of soulmates had never sat well with her before; her view on love and relationships was a pretty cynical one. She believed that people mutually decided to settle for one another, thinking it was the best they would find; and then as they came to accept this fact more and more, they fooled themselves into thinking it was love.

Such a view didn't mix very well with the predicament she'd found herself in. Being destined to be with someone, actually, fell on the opposite end of the scale, as if there was some deity out there who was mocking her.

On Friday afternoon, she was lounging in her usual spot on the living room couch when she'd seen him driving, his fingers drumming against a pretty beat-looking steering wheel. His car was most likely an old one, if the state of the steering wheel and the dashboard was any indication. She'd wondered what sort of music he listened to when he drove, if he rolled down the windows to let the wind run through his hair.

What Rhea had found very odd was the one she got on Friday night, or rather the Saturday morning. It was almost three in the morning when she'd woken up and, upon realizing her mouth felt like sandpaper, padded downstairs to the kitchen to get some ice-cold water.

She hadn't bothered to turn on the lights, had instead located the fridge and made use of the light it provided in pouring herself a glass of water. After she'd drunk the entire glass and quenched her thirst for the time being, she'd started to pitter-patter her way back upstairs, but she'd come to an immediate halt when she'd got the heady feeling that she'd by then known to associate with the snippets. 

She'd been taken aback, to say the least, when she'd seen a dimly illuminated, unfamiliar street instead of the inside of a room. What was her soulmate doing out on the streets at three in the morning? Was he a party-goer? Was he returning home after having snuck out of the bed of some girl?

After she'd snapped out of it and returned to the familiar surroundings of her house, she'd resumed her trek upstairs and lain in the darkness, thinking about what might have kept him out until such an ungodly hour as sleep had eluded her.

Saturday afternoon, she'd finally seen a second human being through his eyes. In all honesty, it was seriously worrying how little human interaction her soulmate seemed to engage in. The human being in question had been a guy, looking almost the same age as her. His brown-haired head was thrown back in laughter and his shoulders were shaking uncontrollably as bouts of laughter left his lips. Even though this guy was supposed to be a friend or a relative of her soulmate Rhea couldn't help but notice how attractive he looked with his olive skin and the way the corner of his eyes crinkled as he laughed.

The last snippet she'd got was on Sunday evening, and it had rendered Rhea a jumbled mess of conflicting emotions. She'd seen a girl, sitting across from her soulmate at what looked like a diner. She was chewing on a French fry, and intently listening to whatever the guy across from her, Rhea's soulmate, talked about.

As the snippet had faded away, she'd felt jealousy rip through her with startling intensity. Did her soulmate have a girlfriend? The idea hadn't sat very well with Rhea, simply because it would complicate things beyond measure, and if there was one thing Rhea despised, it was complicated. 

***

When Rhea woke up with her alarm clock blaring her ear off, it took mere seconds for the sleepiness to completely vanish from her system, leaving in its wake an anxiety stronger and more crippling than she's felt all week. This was it. This was the day.

As she scrambled off the bed and starting going about in her room, she realized that going through her usual morning routine had become a feat in itself seeing she was having trouble controlling her motor functions, her brain seemingly having hung up its hat for the day –she dropped her brush and sent it clattering in the sink and got mascara all over her brows.

Seeing anything more would take a tremendous effort, she threw on a pair of black jeans, a white V-neck shirt and her green army jacket.

When she finally managed to make herself look presentable –and put in that little bit of extra effort to look nice for her fricking soulmate– she went downstairs to the kitchen.

She found her parents leaning against the kitchen counter with cups of coffee in their hands, talking in hushed tones, which ceased altogether as she made her presence known by stepping a little more heavily against the wooden floor.

"Good morning sweetie," her mother gave her a cautious smile, studying her face carefully to try and gauge her reaction.

"Morning Mom, Dad," she said, giving them slight nods as she passed them by and went straight for the fridge, pulling out a carton of milk to prepare herself a bowl of cereal. She didn't know if she could manage to keep anything else down with the way her stomach was a ball of frizzling nerves.

"It'll be alright, you know," her mother said with a sweet voice.

"Yeah," she answered gruffly.

If there was one thing she didn't need right now, it was a pep talk from her mother. Unfortunately, it seemed like she was going to get one anyway, if the way her parents exchanged looks was any indication. She heaved a deep sigh and stuffed another spoonful of cereal into her mouth.

"Honey–" her mother started off. She was rescued from whatever was coming when she heard the honk of a horn, marking the arrival of Willa to pick her up.

Willa had been giving her a ride to and from school for two years now; her parents had bought her a second hand Honda for her seventeenth birthday.

She quickly slung her backpack over her shoulder and dashed for the door after exchanging quick "Have a nice day," and "See you,"s with her parents, ignoring the disappointed look her mother had on her face.

She made her way to the passenger door of Willa's car in quick strides and swung the door open, getting inside swiftly.

"What took you so long?" Willa huffed. Rhea could tell she was trying to act normal; not wanting to make a big deal of what they knew was coming later in the day. She loved her for it.

"Pre-soulmate pep talk," she said in a flat tone.

"Ah, the usual," Willa deadpanned.

Rhea snickered in response, and turned on the radio. As soon as she did, Taylor Swift's Shake It Off came on, making both girls throw their hands up in glee; though Willa a lot more briefly, lest she lose control of the steering wheel and end both their lives before she'd even got a chance to tease Rhea about her soulmate.

The ride to school was no longer than ten minutes and they spent it dancing to Taylor Swift and then Bruno Mars. She even got distracted enough to not think about her soulmate situation.

As soon as Willa pulled into her usual spot in the school's parking lot, she killed the engine and turned to face her best friend.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, concern evident in her features.

"Like I might throw up any second," Rhea answered truthfully.

"You're going to be okay," Willa said reassuringly, "You just have to–"

 Don't say it," Rhea cut her off threateningly.

"–Shake it off."

***