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In a world where everyone was born with a red string of fate connecting them to their soulmate, you seemed to be the odd one out. Apparently whoever was watching over you never got the memo, and you were left seemingly without a soulmate. Not everyone’s soulmate was also theirs, a rare occurrence, but it did happen. Some people were even born with multiple soulmates. Maybe one of them took yours.
Whatever the case, growing up pretending to be just like everyone else was hard. At first you thought it was some big joke, and you were the victim of circumstance. You and some friends had planned to have a soulmate party, where each time one of you turned 18, you spent the night walking around the town and seeing if you could find them.
It never worked, things couldn’t be rushed simply because you wanted to. But it was fun. On the bright side, when it happened you were surrounded by your closest friends. Were it not for the sympathy and astonishment on their faces, you would have thought they were all in on some elaborate ruse to get kids to believe in soulmates.
It was only when all your friends slowly started meeting their fated soulmates that you started to feel the weight. You were going to be alone forever.
Seeing someone else was a possibility, but it never seemed right. They would always find their soulmates and eventually leave you behind. You didn’t want to wait around with someone, fall in love and just have your heartbroken because of some spiritual mishap.
Years had passed, and you had grown used to the idea of not having someone there. You could always stay with friends, but there was always a small part of you that had some form of hope. There was no telling why until you woke up one day and a glimmer of red caught your eye.
It had to have been a half hour of you staring at the string tied around your finger before you noticed…it was tugging. That was only supposed to happen when they were close…right? But why now?
A flicker of fear settled in. What if it was a mistake, what if you wished for it to happen so much that you’ve tricked your own mind into simply seeing what you want to see?
You rushed out the front door, not bothering to say goodbye to your roommate and set out to search for your soulmate. If you had one.
After so long of trying to believe the opposite…the fact that you could have one out there was almost too much. There were so many emotions mixing together that you couldn’t tell one from the other.
In the end, you came to the front of an electronics store. You soulmate had to work there, or be buying one of the latest appliances. You walked in sweating, not realizing how much the run to the store took out of you, but you were too excited…or perhaps nervous to care.
Looking around, you locked eyes with a few patrons of the store, all seeing you glance between your finger and somewhere in the store and smiling in understanding. There were no rules against searching for your soulmate, but sometimes people wandered into places they shouldn’t be all in the name of finding them.
As your string started to move, shifting farther away you began to panic. They couldn’t leave now! You were so close! Weren’t they looking for you too?
Rushing out of the store, you followed the string as it moved, locating the source to be in a truck that must have been parked outside of the electronics store. It was a company truck, could your soulmate be the driver?
You tried racing after it, but you immediately regretted rushing out of your apartment without considering the distance you would have to travel. It was out of your sight before you knew it, leaving you disheartened at best.
The next several weeks went on like this, your soulmate definitely had to be on one of those trucks. They moved from building to building, place to place. You determined they must work in electronics, as they only seemed to end up in places where appliances were either sold or manufactured.
Luck didn’t seem to be on your side, and every time you would arrive it seemed they were leaving or moving to another location.
It took some convincing of your concerned roommate to give it a break for now. They were worried about how much you’ve exhausted yourself over the last several weeks trying to find your soulmate. They didn’t blame you, they had already found their soulmate. They would have moved in with them already had they not decided upon moving slow in their relationship. It’s not common when you know the person you’re with is to be with you forever, but it does happen occasionally.
You and your roommate had come to a compromise, they were set to be on a small break from their job in less than a week. In that time they’d spend a day or two of their break driving you around and looking for your soulmate. You hadn’t heard much from your other friends lately, all of them being busy with work and their own soulmates, but it didn’t bother you.
There was rumor around the group they were all planning some kind of surprise for you when you found your soulmate since you never properly got to have the “party” they all did for theirs. You attempted to pester a couple of them about it for details, but they never budged.
Your roommate wasn’t even on their break yet when you woke up one morning to the sound of your doorbell. Shuffling out of bed you went to get it but your roommate yelled at you to stay in your room. Was it time for your “surprise” already? You tried to listen in on whatever was happening outside your bedroom, but whoever was here was being very quiet.
The door almost hit you in the face when it swung open, showing all your friends that yelled “surprise” at the same time.
You couldn’t have looked more confused when they held out a small box. It looked to be around the size of a laptop, but you already had a working one, so this couldn’t be it.
What you did see…was somehow there was a red string coming out of it. Tied tight, going right through the box and directly to your finger.
It was official, the universe hated you. Your soulmate was a box, or at the very least something small enough to fit in one. What a life you live…
“Uh…not to be rude but what exactly is it?”
One of your friends stepped up, patting you on the shoulder as a kind gesture and explained, “well, we all pitched in and ordered this before we knew you had a soulmate! It was an early access thing, and we figured you could use a little company!” The grin on their face implied you were supposed to understand what that meant. You didn’t.
“That’s…cool? But that doesn’t tell me what it is…” There was no way it could be an animal, not a moving one anyways. It better be damn good if you went through all the trouble of trying to find it because of your stupid broken string.
Another friend grinned, clearly proud of their gift, “well! We’re glad you asked, it’s called a Google IRL, it’s like a robot that can do basic tasks and chores! Kind of like a walking Siri or Alexa!”
Your expression was more than displeased, not needing some…company created AI as a companion. Well, apparently you did. But how could something small enough to fit in that box have a soul anyways?
“Well aren’t you gonna open it?” Your roommate chimed in, clearly waiting to see if you’d change your mind. They of all people knew how lonely you could get seeing them all run around with their soulmates, and because of their pet allergy, a small, fuzzy companion just wasn’t an option.
You sighed, already accepting that your new string was a complete joke, and went to open the box. You were on the ground before you knew it. Whatever popped out of the box was clearly heavier and bigger than you initially thought if it was capable of knocking you over.
Needless to say, a full grown man was not what you expected to see when you looked to see what came out of the box. One who looked almost as startled as you did.
Sending a glare over the man’s shoulder as your friends all began to “whoop” and whistle at your current predicament, you wanted to bury yourself in blankets and never come out. Luckily, they seemed to get the memo and left you to your privacy with this…thing.
“Hello…” His voice was much deeper than you were expecting, and didn’t sound as robotic as any other digital voices you heard. It almost sounded like a real person.
“…hi…can you maybe…stand up?” Having your possible soulmate trip and fall on top of you might be an ideal scenario in some books, but not yours. Not after all you’d been through and done to convince yourself that they…he…didn’t exist.
The man blinked, almost looking confused for a brief moment before replying, “…is that an order?” There was no ulterior motives behind it, only sheer confusion. It was honestly a bit endearing, but you were far from comfortable.
How can something that weighs maybe five pounds in a box weigh so much more when he’s not in the box? And what kind of space alien tardis nonsense allowed a full grown man to fit in such a small box anyways! This whole scenario had your head spinning, and responded with the only “yes” you could muster.
As soon as you said the word, he was standing up, looking around your room as if to gather his surroundings. Standing up and brushing yourself off you looked at the man, “uh…do you have a name?”
He tilted his head, looking at you with an analytical stare, “putting to memory that questions double as orders.” That made you scoff, this was going to be a lot more work than you initially planned on. And you spend the last several weeks running around town aimlessly. “I am referred to as my serial number and or Google IRL, which would you prefer?”
Squinting, you didn’t want to know how long the serial number of some…android would end up being, so you replied with “is just Google okay?”
“Are you asking for my opinion or if the name is acceptable within my coding?”
It took a few seconds to register, and you only ended up being more confused, “both?”
“Do you always say everything as a question?”
“…no.”
The awkward silence in the air was somehow more deafening than any noise you heard before, and you were at a complete loss of what to do. Had he even noticed that his soulmate was in the room with him? Do you point it out? What is the protocol for this kind of situation?
“Permission to ask if something is bothering you?”
“…didn’t you just ask?”
“No, I asked for permission to ask.”
“…you’re my soulmate so I don’t think you should have to ask permission if you’re just going to ask something.’ That seemed natural to say…right?
Either way, Google looked a bit surprised for a moment before looking down to his hand, then following the short string to your own finger. He looked back up at you with a stare that seemed to go right through you. It was almost unnerving.
Without a word from either party, a small screen popped up in front of you, seemingly projected from Google himself.
‘Allow root access. Give Google admin privileges.’ Followed by an ‘ok’ and ‘cancel’.
While his stare was unnerving…surely he wouldn’t hurt you. Could he hurt you? You’ve seen Terminator. It was definitely possible.
But after spending most of your life believing he wasn’t even real…and considering he was apparently made in a factory you supposed he wasn’t until recently, you decided it couldn’t hurt.
Clicking the ‘ok’ button you barely had a second to register what was happening before you were pulled into…a hug? It was awkward, and definitely didn’t feel as warm as a hug you would get from a regular person…but it wasn’t bad.
“No one believed me…” the sad tone of his voice made your heart break, and you raised your arms to hug him back if only to comfort him. “None of the others had one…they said we don’t have souls. We aren’t even alive…they said it was a fault in my wiring.” You rubbed his back, feeling his grip on you tighten at the gesture.
“I went through so many tests…they convinced me you weren’t real.” If your heart was broken before, now it was completely shattered. You knew what it felt like to not believe you were worth love.
“Before…you were…made…I guess, I had no string. I was the only one without it. Everyone thought that…I just didn’t have one. That you weren’t real either.” He stilled at your words, clearly processing what you had told him.
He pulled back, and you were almost reluctant to let him. He scanned your face, more emotions on his own than you had so far seen, almost to see if you were telling the truth.
Google leaned in, wiping away tears you didn’t know were there, and held your face in his hands. For a robot…or whatever he may be, his touch was as light as a feather, a stark contrast to how tight he was holding you before.
What seemed to be an attempt at a reassuring smile graced his face, and he leaned forward to put his forehead on yours.
“I’m sorry for making you wait.”
With a smile, you said words that you never thought you would. Something that you had only uttered in your dreams. Before your string appeared, you would have never been able to say the words and mean them. Today, upon only knowing him for what seemed like minutes, you knew you would say them with certainty.
“You were worth the wait.”