"Severing The Ties"
Written by Deidrew Tuazon
Here I am again, sitting at the cafeteria table alone, snacking on my cold sandwich with some
apple juice that I bought from the convenience store. And there I saw her again, beautiful black
silky hair, porcelain skin, and hazel eyes. I can see why everyone is attracted to her, she was an
all rounded girl, balancing being an athlete and being the top student in school. Whenever I look
at her it always makes me wonder what it'd feel like to be popular, to be surrounded by people
who love and adore you. What I hadn't known was that I was already staring off into space,
looking at her, she must've seen me staring as she flashed a warm smile at me, I just went to class
and tried to forget about it. The next day I realized I slept in and was already late to class. As I
hurried out I just saw my mom on the couch, already on her third bottle, I paid her no mind and
started running without thinking of eating or bringing food. Once lunchtime came, that's when I
realized I don't even have money to buy food. So there I was, sitting down in the cafeteria alone,
hungry, that's when I saw her, she radiated a bright and warm energy wherever she may go. This
time she waved and approached me," Hello there! I noticed that you didn't bring food today, here
you can have some of this bread if you'd like," she said with a cheery voice. "I'm Rina by the
way, Rina Lunari," she said with a smile on her face. I introduced myself as she sat down to eat
with me, we started talking about things that interested us and who would've guessed, we both
liked a lot of the same things. Time passed by quickly, she asked me if we could walk home
together so of course, I complied. As we were walking, I felt an aching sensation in my head, the
next moment I woke up I was already in a hospital bed. Completely clueless about what
happened, a nurse came in and told me that I passed out due to lack of food in my system and
that I needed to eat more. I then checked the time on my phone and saw that it was half past
midnight. I kept staring at my phone thinking, isn't my mom worried even in the slightest bit?
she sent not one even one message, does she even love me? Does anyone even love me? It
dawned on me that this is what loneliness must feel like, I am completely alone, with no one who
truly loves me. As I was spiraling, this was when I felt something gripping my hand, it was Rina.
She was sleeping as she held my hand, I didn't know how to react nor how to feel. I've always
been alone in situations like this, it's not like it's the first time I've been in the hospital either. As I
was staring at her I saw something red, a thin red line that was wrapped around my finger. I was
confused as to what that string was but as I was staring she woke up and flashed another one of
her warm smiles at me. "Solana, how're you feeling?", Rina asked. I told her I was fine, that I
just needed a bit more rest, after that she escorted me home and gave me a get well soon basket,
"that's very sweet of her" I told myself. The next day, as I was showering I noticed that the red
string was still tied around my finger, curiously I tried untying it which only made my finger
hurt. So after I showered I tried following the string to see where it'd go. As I was walking down
the hall, I saw my mother again, drinking her life off, but this time I also saw a red string tied
around her finger. I tried following it but it led to my Dad's urn which made me wonder what that
meant. I tried going on my phone, searching through every bit of the internet to see what it could
mean, and I saw an article about an urban legend called, "The Red Strings of Fate." Seeing what
it meant made me light up, does this mean that there really is someone out there for me? A few
weeks had passed, somehow everything went back to normal, although Rina wasn't going to
school anymore, I'm worried about what had happened to her.
These past few weeks I've also seen how there really is someone for everyone, seeing how they
have strings that connected them, may they be happy or not, they were still each other's
soulmates. I decided, today is the day I find my soulmate, I need to know who'll actually love
me. So this is when my search began, I followed the strings but to no avail, I still haven't seen
them, the person at the end of my string. It was almost midnight by the time I reached the train
station, here I have a gut feeling that I'm getting closer. As I was nearing the boarding station, I
saw a girl in the distance, I saw how my string had connected to hers. I thought this is it, I finally
got to meet them, running as fast as I could I realized who it was. It was Rina, just standing there
at the edge of the train tracks. I yelled out to her and she heard me, she smiled warmly at me, I
smiled back realizing that Rina was the person I was meant to be with all along. Then it
happened. She jumped in front of the train. I couldn't react, what do I even do? This was when I
decided to sever the ties.











