I wiped my forehead with my back of my hand, huffing in exhaustion. "Was that the last box?" I yelled to my sister, hoping my voice would reach her outside the dorm.
"No," came her muffled reply, only for her to walk into the room the next second, carrying a box that reached well over her head. I quickly went over and grabbed one side of it, and we slowly let it down on the tiled floor. "That was the last box," she sighed triumphantly, just as glad to be done with the moving as I was.
I picked up the half empty water bottle and handed it over to her as we both jumped onto my tiny bed. The room was almost suffocatingly small with all my stuff in it, and I didn't even have a roommate yet. I'd have to live here for the next four years, a 5 hour flight away from my home. My stomach dropped in nervousness and excitement, I couldn't tell one emotion from the other. It was getting too real all of a sudden.
"Hey, did you text Dad?" Paula asked, swinging the bottle that was laying flat on her back, her eyes glued to the ceiling.
"Not yet, but he'll probably be back in a bit anyway."
"What parent leaves their two young daughters to do all the moving?" she grumbled like she had been all this time, and I smiled to myself. Was I really only going to hear her grumble like this over Christmas dinners now?
"Hey, Maggie," she said a couple seconds later, her voice softer than it had been. "How are you and Tylor doing?"
The question shocked me a little. Mostly because I hadn't had all that many conversations about love with Paula. We were only three years apart, but somehow she still felt like a kid. "We're doing fine. His University is only 3 hours away, you know. We can see each other on the weekends."
"But it won't be the same, will it?" Her voice had gone quieter, and I felt compelled to lower my voice too.
"Sometimes you just have to manage with what life throws at you."
"In that case, you sure got lucky, huh?" She turned her head to look at me, her eyes now twinkling. "I wish the world would throw someone like Tylor at me too. He's so dreamy."
"Paula, he's my boyfriend," I gave her a disgusted look, but wasn't all that surprised. She was practically in love with him. Well, most of my family was.
"I want to match with someone like him too," she dragged the last word, pouting a little. "Why do I have to wait two whole years before I can take the test? I'm wasting my youth without a boyfriend here."
"You could always get a boyfriend. It's really good experience for later." I told her, a half smirk appeared on my face and her eyes widened.
"Wait, don't tell me..." She stared at me, and my smirk only grew wider. "You had a boyfriend?!"
I laughed a little at her reaction, and she didn't give me the opportunity to speak before she went on, "who was he? Did Mom and Dad know? How long did it last? Why did I not know about this?!"
"He was a classmate, really cool guy. We kept it quiet at the time, but there were a few...issues and we had to break up in a few months. Dad accidentally found out after we broke up, and he just looked very disappointed. He never told Mom though. You were only 13 at the time, not too focused on your surroundings. But yeah, I had a boyfriend before Tylor."
Paula was quiet a couple seconds, taking it all in, "I didn't know people still did things like that. We see it in the movies but who would've thought someone so close to me could do it?"
I laughed again at the way she spoke of it, like it was taboo or something, "it's not illegal to like someone before you find your match, you know? If you find someone before you turn 18, you don't even have to take the test."
"But then it won't work out, will it? Everyone knows that. Isn't that why you and your ex broke up too?" There was no malice in her question. I could tell she genuinely believed what she was saying, because that's just what she had been raised to believe. Even so, I felt a pang in my heart at her reasoning.
"It was a little more complicated than that. Besides, the test isn't always right. People do break up even after being matched."
"Yeah, but not as much as they did before."
It's true that couples matched via the compatibility test tend to not come across major problems in their relationships. Research has been conducted on various couples time and again to prove just how reliable the test is. Which is why, after years of it's release, it's become the top method people use to find a partner. You don't have to date multiple people to find your perfect match, you just have to wait till you're 18 and fill out a 100 questions and the person you're most compatible with just shows up on screen. It's that easy. So why waste time and effort in trial and error, right?
"I'm just saying, if you do find someone you like, it's not wrong to go after them," I looked at her, my expression conveying how serious I was. "I probably wouldn't be who I am if I hadn't dated him, and I'm really thankful for it. Don't go missing opportunities just because the others around you are too, okay?"
"Okay," she said softly, looking back at me with what looked like admiration in her eyes. If my emotions weren't weighing me down at the time, I would've done a double take for sure.
Instead, I smiled, "Let's go get something to eat now, okay?"
***
Goodbyes are always difficult, but my Dad tried to make it as happy as he possibly could. Looking at him, you wouldn't think one of his kids was leaving his home forever. He met up with Paula and I at a restaurant we found closest to my college campus. He refused to address that this would be our last meal together for another four months or so, despite being overly sentimental on any normal day. We laughed around, and Paula complained about him leaving us to do all the work for the umpteenth time, but I couldn't be mad.
Only when it was time for him to actually go, did tears well up in his eyes. "We'll miss you, Maggie," he said, his voice shaking.
I bit down on my lip, trying my best not to cry. "I'll miss you too." Despite my best efforts, I found tears rolling down my cheeks in seemingly endless streams. I didn't want to be alone.
I'm scared. Don't go.
That's what I wanted to say.
But I kept it all in, and waved them goodbye until our beat down black Volvo disappeared from my view. I inhaled deeply, wrapping my arms around myself and rubbing my arms in an attempt to comfort myself. It seemed to work, and I walked back towards the dorms. I still had a lot of unpacking to do, and I had to prepare for whenever my roommate would show up.
I don't know if my mind, although being distracted, had unconsciously recognized him, or it was fate, or maybe just a hunch, but I found myself stopping in my tracks. I turned my head to the right, my eyes focusing on one person in particular. I could feel my heart beating out of my chest, the sound of my heartbeat travelling up to my ears.
Was it him?
His back was turned to me as he spoke to a few other boys, and he seemed taller than I remembered. Maybe it wasn't him, and this was just wishful thinking, but I knew I wouldn't be able to rest until I confirmed it. Hesitantly, I took a step towards them, and then I took a few more until the guy next to him noticed me.
The boy gave me a questioning look, and when they took notice, all the others turned their heads to look at me as well. All of them, including him.
It was him after all.
"Maggie?"