65Claire Valencia pushed open the door that led to the roof of her apartment building, a brisk wind blew Claire's short back hair into her face as she closed the door behind her. Pushing her hair out of her eyes, Claire walked to across the roof, past the make shift garden that the elderly tenants of the building had created, past the chipped wooden tables and chairs that served as a patio area, to the very edge of the roof.
She sat there, sandaled feet dangling over the edge, palms resting on the roof behind her back. She had been unable to sleep, so at this late or rather early hour she had come outside to the roof to think for a bit. Claire frowned when her solace was interrupted by a new billboard going up, she rolled her eyes when she realized what it was for.
'SOUL MATE...HAVE YOU FOUND YOURS?'
Was proclaimed in large bold printing across the entire billboard, a couple embracing pictured behind. Claire shook her head, love was something intimate, to be discovered by you and the one your heart desired...not exploited like it was being done. Not cheapened like the newest trend, it disgusted Claire.
A few years ago the discovery of Soul Mates had taken place, or rather the re-discovery, the age old notion of a soul mate had been around, but now it could be scientifically proven. A scientist in Holland, had come up and proven the fact that in every person there was a certain unique chemical that when in the presence of the same chemical would react.
Sweaty palms, increased heart rate, erratic breathing, flowing adrenaline, slight dizziness, flushed skin, an uneasy stomach, dry mouth, most of the symptoms associated with 'love' occurred happened when a person came into contact with their "Soul Mate", the effects lessened as the pair spent more time with each other and the chemicals became dormant.
What had began the soul mate promoting was when the scientist concluded that no two pairs of chemical were the same, that only one pair of the same chemical existed. So only two people in the entire world possessed the same chemical, let this out to the media and they had a field day with it. The media had exploited it as they always do when they get their claws into something.
Now, the media had taken the idea of Soul Mates and marketed it, services existed to track down a person's match. Television shows had developed following contestants as they figured out which person was their match, billboards, radio shows and commercials never let anyone forget.
Claire shook her head as a blimp with shining lights flew slowly over head, it displayed the same message the billboard now had. Claire let her eyes drift to the busy city below her, the twinkling lights of the streets and cars soothed Claire and soon she felt her eyelids becoming heavy, giving herself a shake she unsteadily rose to her feet.
Claire took a final sleepy look at the questioning billboard before she disappeared inside building heading straight for her bed.
A few hours later, Claire was glaring at the alarm clock that was raising hell in her bedroom, she turned it off with a smack and with a sigh rolled out of bed. Rubbing her eyes she pushed open the french doors that acted as her bedroom door and made a beeline for the coffee maker.
Claire was just measuring out enough coffee to make her fully coherent when suddenly there was a thud at the window that was above the kitchen sink. Claire raised her eyes and nearly dropped the coffee to the floor.
"AHH!" Claire jumped back from the blue tiled counter as the back of a person's body was pressed against the window. Claire scratched her head clearly confused as to what was going on, she did after all live on the 11th floor only a few below the very top.
She took a step closer to the window, the person was being lifted away as she did so, she frowned when a banner the person was clutching pressed against the window.
'SOUL MATES' was all that Claire need to see before she groaned in disgust. The person who had hit her window had been hired to put the banner up on Claire's building and had slipped from the scaffold he was using and now was dangling from the safety harness as his partner pulled him back up.
"That crap is everywhere!" Claire muttered as she finished with the coffee maker, she stretched casting one last glare at the disappearing blue banner before she turned on her heel and made for the shower.
After testing the water, Claire sighed as she stepped into the warm shower, this was just what she needed to get going in morning. Claire began humming along the song that was playing the radio she kept in the bathroom, she reached for the soap and uttered a slight curse as it slipped away from her fingers.
"HELL-O ALL YOU KWAP FANS AWAKE THIS MORNING! I HOPE YOU LOVE SUNSHINE BECAUSE THAT'S ALL YOU ARE GOING TO GET TODAY! WE'LL GET BACK TO THE TUNES, BUT FIRST! A LITTLE HOPE FOR YOU SOUL MATE-LESS PEOPLE OUT THERE!"
Claire picked up the soap and stopped as the usual annoying voice of the announcer continued on with what he was saying.
"DON'T WAIT, FIND YOUR PERFECT MATCH TODAY, ITS AS EASY AS 1-"" the announcer never got any farther as Claire hurled the bar of soap at the radio and smiled in satisfaction as it fell silent. She was smiling over her victory over the radio when she realized something, she had no soap now...
"Crud." Claire sighed.
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