When the world filled with color, my body filled with life. I was one of the lucky ones. My world erupted with vibrant greens, blues, oranges, and reds when I was only in 6th grade. Most people only see color for the first time in their twenties. I however met my Kendall in Newport Middle School on my twelfth birthday, September 7th, 2036. That day felt as if I was breathing air into my lungs for the first time in my life. For the first time in my life I felt love, as silly as it is to say. It was said by the governors that your world would meld from a bleek black and white world, to a bright and colorful one once you laid eyes on your soulmate, but I didn’t believe them until Kendall moved to Newport, and waved to me in the hall on that first day of school, as she walked with a girl named Melanie who was new to our school as well. The years that followed where as great as could be. Kendall and I became best friends, pranking together, laughing together, and feeling each other’s pain. We were made for each other, sticking together through the hardest times. Come time sophomore year of highschool, I finally mustered up the courage to ask her out, but her reaction made that the day when the colors I saw no longer made sense. I was rejected. She didn’t see me. She didn’t know. She didn’t love me like I thought I loved her.
     Five years later I stood in a ill lit office, working at my new job for staples in the sales department. Kendall and I stayed friends through the madness of our high school and college years. I figured that maybe that your soulmate was meant to be your friend instead of your significant other, so I left that part of me behind. I began to love Kendall in a different way. It was a love that was more powerful, and one that would last longer than any teenage love story. Kendall was family, and I was ok with it staying like that. As I was staring into the blinding blue of my computer screen, fulfilling my mundane purpose for living, everything around me went black. Oceans of darkness bombarded my vision, until the only thing I could see was a soft, silk like black. It was frightening and calming all at once. Was this the end, or just Jimmy playing a dumb office prank on me again? It was hard to tell as I flailed in the endless pit of darkness, but once I heard the people around me shouting for help it became too apparent what was happening. I heard the sirens of an ambulance approaching, and the sound of bodies huddling around me. People calling my name, but the only thing that could come out of my mouth were heavy and long breathes. I wanted to tell them I couldn’t see, but I had a feeling they already knew exactly what was happening.
     When I could start to make out shapes, and the remorseful faces that surrounded me, they were just as ill lit as the office. They were black and white. Kendall. It couldn’t be possible I had just seen her the other day, no it couldn’t be. I refused to let myself believe that it was true. I sprung off the cold, dark floor, almost losing my balance, with fear and determination only keeping me on my feet. I heard the paramedics shouting behind me trying to chase me down, but I wouldn’t let them. I bolted down to the parking lot, and started driving all the way to Brown University where she went to college. She’s only 21. Her life is just beginning. This is some mistake. Some glitch in my body. This isn’t possible. This isn’t happening. She can’t be dead. I thought that it was a mistake, I knew that it was a mistake as I pulled into her dorm parking lot, shoving people out of my way as I ran through the crowded corridors of the ancient building, up to her room on the fifth floor. Wheezing and out of breath, I stopped in front of her room, terrified to open the door and to be proven wrong, but it turned out that I didn’t even have to open the door, because Kendall opened it as I was about to walk in.
     I stared into her big beautiful green eyes only to see the tears that slowly dripped down her cheeks. She fell into my arms, and held her closely to my chest, happy to be proven right. It was only when the door behind her creeped open that I realized what was happening. Kendall was alive, I was holding her in my arms, but my vision faded from the world of bright beautiful color, to the tinted world of black and white that I dreaded. If Kendall was alive, that meant...she was never my true love. She was never my soul mate. But if it wasn’t her, then who was it?
     Kendall lead me into her room heavy with grief, so heavy it became hard to breathe. She lead me to a girl lying on the floor with her eyes wide open in terror. I got closer to the girl, to see if she could still possibly be alive, and I realized who she was. I was shot back to the 6th grade when I first saw Kendall and my world erupted into color, or really the first time I saw Melanie. It was her that I saw, but her that I didn’t see. This was the first time I had seen Melanie since the 6th grade, and the last time I would see my soulmate, forever. I would never get to know her. I would never become her friend. I would never get to hold her hand. I would never get to tell her how much I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, because I was just too stupid to see that it was her all along. It suddenly all hit me like a bus, her trying to be in on my jokes with Kendall, and spend time with us, laugh with us, cry with us, and be with me, but we didn’t let her be a part of our exclusive club. As the paramedics explained to us that they are not sure how her death occurred, they were already putting her in a body bag too big for her frail body. This was all my fault. With the slam of the door Kendall fell into my arms again, sobbing at the loss of her friend, as I did not shed a tear for the loss of the person that should have been my soulmate if I wasn’t blinded by the colors I saw. It was her small blue eyes that would be the last shred of color I saw for the rest of my life, and a memory that would haunt me for eternity.