1Chapter One
Even after nearly twenty years, Rhys Brewin still had trouble getting used to his new name. It just didn't seem to sit right with him, despite the fact that he'd had it longer than he'd had the name Degan.
"Rhys, Rhys! Yo, Brewin, back to planet Earth please!"
Rhys blinked at the sound of his name being called, before focusing back in on the person in front of him. It was a girl, eighteen years of age, with shoulder length, heavily layered dark brown hair, and honey colored eyes. Lila Wilde was the reincarnation of Jacqueline, and currently the only one of his friends that he had managed to find again.
They were currently seated at their usual booth at their local McDonald's. It was a couple weeks after graduation, leaving the two of them with almost nothing to do for the rest of the day. Neither one of them had work for the next two weeks as they were both going on a cross country road trip as a post-graduation present to themselves and in hopes of the off-chance that they might actually run into Raphael or Lydia on the way.
"Sorry," he cleared his throat, and leaned back. "I guess I spaced out there for a second."
Lila rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I got that much. What were you thinking about?"
Rhys shook his head. "Nothing in particular. What were you saying?"
"I was saying that I'm going to have to leave soon if I have a chance of getting packed before we leave."
"You're not packed already?" Rhys raised an eyebrow. Lila wasn't exactly know for being the girliest person in the world, but she had been excited to get away for a while. She already had everything else figured out, somehow he'd expected her to have been packed for months. After all, they had been planning this for nearly six years.
"No," Lila shook her head. "I knew today was going to be the longest, so I was putting it off until now."
Rhys chuckled, before sighing. "Do you think we'll actually find them on this trip?"
Lila shrugged. "We wished we would all find each other in this life, so I'm sure it'll happen." then she licked her lips and glanced away.
Rhys narrowed his eyes. He knew that look. She always did that when she had something she wasn't sure if she wanted to say or not. "Just tell me, Lila, don't make me pry it out of you."
Sighing, Lila turned back to him. "Remember how we discussed how, if this dying wish thing actually worked, we're lucky that Lydia seemed to have thought ahead enough to wish that we would all remember each other. Otherwise we might have went about our whole lives walking by each other without realizing who we were?"
Rhys nodded. "Yeah, why?"
"Well, it occurred to me a couple of months ago, that that still leaves some... unfavorable changes in these lives." Rhys raised an eyebrow at her, to show that he wanted her to explain in further detail. "Unless Raphael thought to make sure we were all the same age and met when we were young-"
Rhys winced as what she said sunk in. "So you're saying they could be eighty right now."
"Or we may not meet until we're all eighty." Lila frowned slightly. "After all, the heavens gave us this much. We don't really have the right to ask for more."
Rhys clenched his teeth together in aggrivation. For nineteen years he had been looking forward to seeing his best friend again, and it didn't sit well to think that he might not meet him again for another sixty years. Or that Raphael might be on his death bed when it finally did happen.
Lila's frown deepened and her eyebrows drew together as she glanced at something behind Rhys. "Of course, something else could have gone wrong."
Rhys raised an eyebrow, before turning around to see what exactly she was looking at. There was a girl with blonde hair that was pulled up into a high ponytail with a thick set of bangs falling right above her eyes standing just beside the counter. She was wearing the same uniform as some of the employees, suggesting that she was just getting off of work. Standing with her was a boy with red hair, assumably her ride home.
He had never seen the two of them before in his life, so by defalt they shouldn't be anyone of importance. However, he recognized both of their souls, in the same way he recognized Lila's.
They were, without a doubt, Raphael and Lydia.
Only something was off.
Without realizing what he was doing, Rhys was flying out of his seat, and following the reincarnations of his two friends. He was vaguelly aware of Lila following closely behind him but he was solely focused on the two in front. This could not be happening.
"Raphael!" he called, out of sheer desperation, once they had reached the parking lot.
The two froze, and turned to face him. Familiar ash-violet eyes shone at him from the girl, causing his heart to stop. No.
"Degan?" the girl gasped, her eyes growing wide.
Rhys skidded to a stop, staring at the two of them as he worked to catch his breath. In the back of his mind, it occcurred to him that they were being insanely stupid, standing in the middle of a parking lot but at the moment he couldn't care.
"Well," Lila smirked, coming to stand beside him. "This is a plot twist I wasn't expecting."
"Jacqueline..." the boy breathed.
"What's going on?" Rhys demanded, really not in the mood for pleasantries.
The girl shrugged, before smiling in what seemed to be almost a smirky way. "Isn't it obvious?"
"I've been recarnated as a boy," the boy-Lydia-stated.
"And I a girl." Raphael finished.
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