Interweaving Lines
A/N: This is kind of a rewrite of a story I wrote a few years ago that was originally a piece of fan fiction. Let me know what you think. Thanks.
Prologue
Victoria Freighton walked quickly into her apartment with an unabashed sense of relief. Shaking her head, she dropped her keys on her front table and slipped her shoes off her feet. I'm not dating again for a very long time, she thought dismally before dragging herself tiredly to her room. She flipped on the light, dropped her bag on the floor, and without changing out of her clothes collapsed tiredly on her bed.
Love wasn't worth it. If she had to date to find it, then she'd be single for the rest of her life because it definitely wasn't worth putting herself through boring guys, obnoxious conversations, and lewd suggestions.
She closed her eyes and an image flashed through her mind: an image of a girl, about twelve years old, dressed in a nightgown and smiling madly at her friend. It was a snapshot of a moment that was almost a decade old, but Victoria could remember it vividly.
It was nighttime at Lisa's house and Lisa had just taken out her new Ouija board. A nervous tension was in the air, the kind that only occurred when you anticipated something happening and feared it at the same time.
"Okay," Lisa whispered. "Let's ask something,"
Victoria grinned. "What should we ask?" she whispered back.
"Something about love," Lisa said her eyes sparkling.
Victoria giggled. "Okay. I've got it. Great spirit-" A nervous giggle escaped from Lisa. "Lisa, don't interrupt!" she said, shooting her a fake glare before continuing, "Great Spirit, will Lisa and Adam Richardson ever kiss?"
"Tori!" Lisa gasped, a flush of red covering her cheeks.
Victoria continued to giggle gleefully until the arrow moved. Looking down at the board with a mixture of alarm and excitement, she watched the arrow move beneath their fingers. Slowly it moved from the center of the board to the word yes.
When it stopped, both girls turned to each other slowly.
"Did you move it?" Lisa asked, eyes narrowing.
Victoria shook her head. "No way. Did you?" she asked.
"No," Lisa whispered before removing her hand from the arrow. "I don't think I want to play this anymore."
Victoria looked back at the board, her eyes intent. "Lisa do you swear on your life that you weren't moving it?"
"Yeah. I swear I didn't move it," Lisa said, crossing her heart as extra proof. But Victoria wasn't looking at her; she was too interested in finding out what the board could tell her.
If she could ask one thing it would be … She took a deep breath. "Sometimes I wonder if love is real," she said softly to herself and to Lisa. "With mom and dad splitting up…"
Lisa looked at her friend sadly. "Don't think like that. Of course it's real."
"Mom said that she just wasn't-," Victoria stopped herself and looked over at her friend. "How can you fall out of love with somebody? If love is real…how can it just go away?"
Lisa didn't know how to respond to that. How could she?
"I have to know." Victoria took a deep breath and put her hand back on the arrow. "I have to know if it's real. So, if you're still listening, whoever you are…I want to know, if it's true. If love can last forever."
The arrow jerked on the board so fast that she almost lost her grip of it. She looked down at the distinct yes.
Victoria felt a leap of happiness knowing that at least that was real. "And me? Will I find love? The forever kind?"
The arrow moved down and up again to yes.
She heard Lisa say something behind her but she ignored her not wanting to break the spell and look away.
"Can you tell me his name?" she asked, her heart pounding against her chest.
Yes.
She felt her stomach clench and stiffen as the arrow moved again.
..J…
She watched as it slowly moved to the next letter.
…A…
…D...
There was no other movement.
"Jad?" she said aloud.
It didn't move.
"His name is Jad?" she said with some despair, willing the arrow to move again but the board remained quiet.
Lisa's hand fell on her shoulder. "Maybe it just left, Tori. It probably meant to spell out Jaden or something."
Victoria wasn't so sure about that and was disappointed that her soulmate had such a ridiculous name. But the fact remained that she had a soulmate. He was out there.
She turned to Lisa smiling. "He really exists."
Lisa grinned. "Wouldn't it be awesome if like, some new guy showed up at school on Monday and it was him?"
Victoria's heart leapt at the thought and she grinned at her friend. Deciding that they'd had enough Ouija for one night they put the board away and crawled into bed.
"Tori," Lisa said, turning over to face her friend.
"Yeah?"
"Next time, we ask about my soulmate. He's gotta have a better name than Jad," Lisa said bursting into laughter.
"Very funny," Victoria said before she smacked her friend with a pillow.
It had been a long night, Victoria thought. Even after Lisa's eyes had drifted close, she had stayed awake, thinking about what the spirit had told her.
She opened her eyes and sighed as she remembered her feeling of disappointment when Jad hadn't shown up that Monday. And when he hadn't appeared by the end of that week, or that month, or that year, she had to finally give up on the idea that he would come for her. How silly she had been to believe in something so foolish. Love, she knew, was real. She saw varied forms of its existence everyday. But soulmates? Soulmates were as tangible and as real as unicorns.