Soul Mates

Isabella and I were walking down the right side of the pier, towards the ocean. We were passing a lot of booths with all sorts of games in them. You know the ones, where you have to pop the balloon full of paint, or the racing ones where you shoot water into something to make your horse go the fastest. I always lose at those. They’re fixed, I’m telling you.

And then, I saw it. It was situated right behind a stand full of giant fuzzy teddy bears. The cotton candy stand. I love cotton candy. But before I could even take another step towards it, I heard a scream. A scream that could only come from one person. Charlie.

I turned around, unbelieving, and was faced with Charlie running at me. No way. Impossible. And then before I knew it, she tackled me. Yep, tackled.

“Oh my God! Charlie? What are you doing here?” I said, trying to stand back up again. You see, I moved away from New York five, gosh nearly six, years ago to live in California. Charlie and I were best friends then. We tried to stay in touch, but you know how it is. Almost six years is a long time, and 3,000 miles is a long distance.

“You’ll never believe it! I’m going to Berkley in the fall!” Charlie shouted, jumping up and down. My jaw dropped. She’s been dreaming of Berkley since she was six!

“Oh my God, that’s awesome!” I started to jump up and down with her. In-between our reunion, Isabella cleared her throat awkwardly. Oops.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so rude. Isabella, this is my best friend from when I lived in New York. Charlie, this is my best friend I met here.” New best friend meet old best friend. Awkward…

Okay, so I know I should’ve been a better best friend and talked to both of them to get them to know each other better, but that cotton candy was so calling my eye. I tried to walk away sneakily, but I know they weren’t fooled. They actually rolled their eyes at the exact same time. Weird.

“Hi there. Could I get that pink one? In the back there?” I asked the attendant at the counter. Yes, the biggest one. I paid for my delicious pink sugar, and backed away from the counter without looking. Of course I back into someone.

“Oh, I’m so sorr-” I said, as I glanced up at the person I backed into. Woah. I think I’ve gone temporarily speechless. He’s…gorgeous.

He kind of looked speechless, too, but I can’t imagine why. Do I have something on my face?!

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it.” He said, sounding kind of breathless. I didn’t walk into him that hard, did I?

“Hey, you two are holding up the line. People want to buy their cotton candy!” The attendant said rudely, interrupting my staring contest with this guy.

“Oh, right.” I mumbled, shaking my head to clear it. I stepped out of the line and walked away, back towards Isabella and Charlie. I glanced back over my shoulder, and the guy was still staring at me, smiling slightly. I smiled back.

Woah.