When Jade is born, the doctor presents her already-feuding parents with the soulmate watch. It reads 15:04:12:10:05, 15 years, 4 months, 12 days, 10 hours, 5 minutes. Her mother is surprised. "She's got it good. Took me 20 years to meet my supposed soulmate."

"Maybe you ran into the wrong guy," her father gripes.

Jade cries. Neither of her parents rush to pick her up.

.

The watch reads 10:01:11:02:08, and she climbs into bed with her father. "Daddy?" she asks. "What do the numbers on the bracelet thingie mean?"

"I'm busy, Jade."

"Mommy said you'll tell me."

"Mommy lied."

Jade scowls, stomping back into her room. Her father doesn't even pause to comment on her dramatics. She throws herself onto her bed and tries to dream up what the numbers could possibly be counting down to.

She's scared to think about her death, so she tosses that possibility aside. Maybe it's the day she becomes a grown-up. She imagines herself, fifteen and the numbers hitting zero. They'll give her the key to her first car and another key to her own house, and maybe in a couple of years she'll have a baby or something, because that's what grown-ups do.

She smiles and decides that's what she'll believe.

.

The watch reads 7:02:09:01:36, and some kid is sneering into her face.

"I heard your parents were getting divorced," he says.

"No, they're not." She scowls.

"They fight all the time, my mom says. She says you're gonna be just like them. You're gonna fight with your love all the time too when your watch gets to zero."

"What does that mean?" Her anger has dissipated, turned to confusion.

"It means when your clock hits zero you're 'sposed to find your soulmate. Your love. Your BOYFRIEND. Understand?" He sneers in her face. "My parents were right. You really are dumb."

Jade won't let him see her cry. She runs, and suddenly she realizes the past few years have been a lie.

A boyfriend has never been in her imagined future. But she sees him there now, on the edge of the picture, blurry but present, and she is scared. She cries.

.

The watch reads 5:03:10:09:25, and her parents are finally getting divorced. She fingers a piece of her brown hair as her brother's eyes well with tears. "Is Daddy leaving forever?"

"You'll see him soon," she answers.

"But will he ever live here again? With us?"

"No."

"I'll miss him," Jeremiah says.

"You barely even saw him." Jade brushes past her brother, sliding back into the house and away from any emotions she might be feeling.

She wishes she could escape the fear that her soulmate might end up being just like her father.

.

The watch reads 1:01:20:02:37, and her mother is staring at her with harsh eyes.

"You're going to live with your father, Jade."

"No, I'm not," Jade retorts, fire blazing behind her eyes. "You can't make me go live with him. I absolutely loathe him. And what about Jeremiah? You can't separate us. You can't do this to us, Mom."

"I can't support both of you anymore, Jade," her mother replies wearily. "I'm working forty to fifty hours a week and I can't do it. You'll go live with your father and he'll pay for everything, even that fancy school you want to go to, Hollywood Arts or whatever. Just please? It'll make life so much easier for all of us."

"It'll make my life a living hell," Jade growls. "But I guess you're okay with that."

Her mom doesn't have a chance to reply. Jade slams the door.

.

The watch reads 00:00:00:03:59, and Jade's heart is pounding.

Her (only) friend, Cat, had squealed in her ear yesterday about how Jade's day was finally coming. Cat's timer had gone down to zero already, but she claims she'd had her eyes shut when it finally hit the zero mark so she didn't actually meet anyone. It doesn't work like that, and both of them know it, but Jade thinks Cat just doesn't like her soulmate. Jade's scared that'll happen to her too.

2:15. She closes her eyes as she puts her books into her locker. She tries to remember what she'd read online – just go through your day like normal, it'll all go according to plan.

She shuts her locker door and locks it. The sight of her collection of scissors on the front of her locker is soothing, but her heart still beats just a little too fast. She's learned to control her emotions (for the most part), but she also knows this could be the most significant moment of her life.

00:30.

It's coming. She closes her eyes, terrified that when she opens them she'll see someone she's terrified of seeing: someone that will leave her just like everyone else.

Suddenly she is met with the sensation of burning. Is this normal? She wonders for a second, before she realizes the sensation is also wet, and then she screams, her eyes jerk open, and she's met with a sheepish-looking dark-haired boy.

"What. The. Hell." She growls.

"I'm sorry. I'm new here, and I was just trying to get to class on time, but I got lost, and um yeah." He smiles one of those smiles that she's sure gets every girl he's ever met to melt. She freezes.

"Your watch is beeping."

"So is yours." He grins. "I had a feeling. I'm Beck Oliver." He extends a hand.

"I'm Jade West." She doesn't extend her hand. He makes a move as if to go for the handshake anyways, but she snarls, "Don't touch me."

"But…" he looks thoroughly confused. "I'm your…"

This is not how he expected this would go, she realizes. He thought it would turn into a beautiful happy-ever-after. He thought she'd fall into his arms and they'd kiss for a while then get married and have 1.5 kids. But he wasn't prepared for her.

And she's not prepared for this.

"I know," she says simply. "I just don't think I'm ready. Sorry."

"I can wait," he says.

She's not prepared for this, either.

"Yeah, I doubt it."

"You're my – my soulmate, right? So it's not like I'm going to find anyone else. And I can handle the wait if I know you're at the end of it." He stares at the ground, a hint of red in his dark cheeks.

"We'll see," she says, but she feels a little better, because she'd never heard her father utter any words even close to as romantic as those.

.

The watch is off her wrist now. She'd gotten used to having it resting there, so to have it off of her, a completely separate entity, is strange. Now in its place rests a tall boy with puppy dog brown eyes that trails along behind her, watching her every step.

"I can walk by myself, you know," she reminds him. "I've been doing it for fifteen years now."

"Right, but I like to watch." He grins.

"You're annoying."

"So you're an actress, huh?" he asks. "People say you're really good. I'll have to come to one of your shows."

"Everyone's too scared of me to say otherwise."

"You aren't really that scary. You give yourself too much credit."

"Shut up already."

"I think you're scared to admit that people actually like you."

She groans. "Leave me alone."

"Never," he promises. She's starting to believe him.

.

The watch is still off, and she is still scared. She doesn't want to give in to his advances. She doesn't want them to turn out like her parents. But they're talking more and more, and he's waiting for her at school every day, and they're together most of the time.

One day he brings up the inevitable. "So, um, sorry if this is a weird question, but are your parents still together?"

"No."

"Sorry about that. Um, well, I have a confession too. I'm adopted, and my parents and I don't always get along too well. I've wanted to find my birth parents for a while now, but they aren't exactly supportive of it."

"Hm?" She's genuinely surprised by that. Somewhere along the way she'd kind of assumed that he had the perfect family – two parents, himself, in a happy old home – so it's weird to find out anything different than that. "I'm, well, I'm sorry."

"Yeah. I think maybe they think I'll get hurt or something. But I think it's better to know about my parents, like why they gave me up. I think it'd make me feel better in the long run."

"I think so too," she says. He looks at her, smiling, and her face is burning a little bit, so she looks down. "I don't get along so well with my parents either. My dad left when I was younger, and I stayed with my mom and my brother for a little while after. But then my mom kicked me out to go live with my dad and…" She bites her lip.

He places a hand on her arm. "I'm sorry," he says sincerely.

"They were soulmates, Beck. I don't want that. I don't want to be miserable. I don't want to be left."

He stares into her eyes so deeply she feels like her eyes are burning. "I won't leave you."

"Prove it," she says.

.

He keeps showing up, day after day. He's at her locker in the morning, at her class door after the last class of the day. The year is coming to an end and he's still showing up and Cat is still asking who in the world he is.

Then, on the day before the last day of class, he isn't there.

She's not sure whether to feel devastated or vindicated, because she was right all along.

He'd given her his address a while ago, told her to stop by if she ever needed him, and though she has his number, she's much better at yelling in person. So she gets off the bus at his house and bangs on the door.

An older-looking lady with much lighter features than Beck opens the door. "Hello?" she says, looking Jade up and down.

Jade suddenly feels a little self-conscious about her piercings and hair dye. "I'm looking for Beck."

"He's in the driveway," she says, raising an eyebrow. "Tell him I said I'll be watching, you hear?" She shuts the door in Jade's face.

Confused, Jade spins around to see an RV parked at the very front of the driveway. She walks towards it and taps lightly on the door. Beck answers, and immediately she realizes why he wasn't at school.

He looks like death. His normally flawless hair is tousled to the extreme, the bags under his eyes are like black holes, and his nose is running a little bit, too. Coughing as he speaks, he says, "Jade, I'm so sorry. I was going to text you to let you know I wouldn't be there today because I'm sick, but I fell asleep, and I couldn't find my phone, and I –"

"It's fine," Jade says, feeling a little embarrassed.

He suddenly looks a little more confused. "Well, look, I'm glad you're here and everything, but, like… why are you here?"

"You said I could come," she says defensively.

"Yes, I did, but I never thought you'd actually come, especially without a reason." He looks puzzled. Then, a few seconds later, it hits him. "Oh, did you come over to yell at me?"

She stares at the floor, tracing puzzles in the cheap carpet with her mind. "Maybe."

"You were hurt," he realizes.

She steps away.

"Jade, I'm so sorry," he continues. "I'd never hurt you like that, okay?"

"Stop talking to me like that," she shoots back. "You don't need to pity me. I know everyone's going to leave. I get it. Now just leave me alone."

He steps toward her. "I said never," he says, with more passion than she's ever heard, and suddenly he's kissing her, his lips moving against hers with more feeling than she knew was possible, and for a second she gives in. But that's all it takes.

He pulls away, smiling. "Sorry," he says. "Didn't want to get you sick too."

She rolls her eyes. "Stupid."

He smiles even wider.

.

The watch has been off her wrist for a year now, and Beck Oliver's hand has replaced it as Jade West's favorite lower arm accessory. He holds her hand and runs his thumb along the back of her palm, and she relaxes, but just a little.

Sometimes, fate makes mistakes. Sometimes, it brings together people like her parents, people who are doomed to fail. But sometimes, fate rights its wrongs, and brings together two unlikely people who just might work.