"The red string of fate. Also known as the Red thread of destiny. It is the invisible red string that supposedly connects two people together. Similar to the idea of soul mates. It is said that the red string may stretch or tangle but can never break." -Urban Dictionary

Mm, not quite.

Samira sat idly with one of her legs dangling off the couch. Her black hair was a mess. Not that she cared. Her novels were scattered across the coffee table. Not that she cared. Her neighbors were causing a racket again at 8 PM. Apparently, Mr. Rogers finally got caught cheating on his wife. It was about time. Not that she cared.

The transparent red string tied around her left pinky, that only she could see, was now raised to the direction of the sky. Her fated partner's probably out traveling on the plane again. Not that she cared.

It was a lazy Saturday today. Her goal was to stay on this couch until bedtime. Boardgames, books, empty mugs, and chips rested on the fur mat made of something that isn't real fur. No one was going to force her out of this soft comfy couch even it meant cooking dinner. She slept until noon and didn't eat lunch. On Saturdays, she only survived on chips, chicken sandwiches, and Nutella.

No one's going to stop her!

All of a sudden, a figure with loud footsteps stepped inside their house, closing the door right after.

Except for maybe this one person.

"Sam?" A handsome old lad, in his mid-forties, poked his head into Samira's view. He goes by the name, Derek, or just Samira's dad. "What are you doing?"

"Lazy Saturday."

"It's Wednesday," Derek replied monotonously.

"Everyday is a Lazy Saturday." Samira replied similarly.

"You have school starting in three weeks."

"All the more reason to be lazy," Samira replied as she crunched on a handful of chips. Besides, Elena, her private tutor, wouldn't mind a little bit of unpreparedness.

Derek knitted his eyebrows. "Have you cooked dinner?"

"........" Samira avoided her father's eyes and pretended to focus on the movie playing on her laptop.

"I don't even need your mother to know you didn't."

Samira glanced at him, only to discover her red string ghosting through the center of his forehead. It was a hilarious sight for her. She refrained from laughing by puffing her cheeks and went back to watching her movie.

"Clean your mess while I make you an omelet."

Samira cheered internally, "Yay~!" She sent her father a lazy thumbs up before using one hand to arrange her things into something more pleasing to the eye. Once done, she pressed the "Play" key on her laptop again.

Ten minutes passed, Samira who had been so absorbed in watching the movie didn't notice Derek approaching her with two plates of omelet until a long red line obstructed her view.

"Dad, it's getting in the way." Samira lazily groaned as she grabbed the red string of fate away from her line of sight. She was the only one capable of doing this.

"Can't do anything about it." Derek chuckled. "Lift your legs up, baby." He politely asked to which Samira obliged. Derek sat down and handed her the other plate he carried. Samira muttered a small "Thanks." before taking the plate and utensils and taking a bite.

Sound of tiny clangs of spoon and fork hitting the surface of the plate and movie dialogues filled the quiet living room. The daughter and father were both sucked into the movie. Both were never talkative in the first place.

Derek was a level-headed man who loved to express himself through photography, painting, and writing. Not talking. He traveled a lot too. Samira inherited the man's artistic streak and sensibility. His never-changing passive face too, but she conjured more facial expressions than her father.

The movie ends and rolled the credits. The two similar couch potatoes sighed. Samira swallowed her last bite and handed the plate to Derek, who lazily placed it on the coffee table. It seems like she inherited her laziness from the old man too.

"Heard Mr. Rogers finally got caught."

Samira replied while fixing her spectacles, "You never really show it, but you're the type to like juicy gossip, huh?"

Derek shrugged, "Whatever floats your boat, darling. I just happened to see a forty years old man-in his underwear, walking with a briefcase on my way home."

Samira face scrunches in disgust as she imagined the flabby man walking with only his boxers on the streets. "Wow, you've had a great day. I'd kill to see a naked flabby man on the streets any day." She was half-serious, but her father didn't need to know that.

"It was a great day until I saw him. Disgusting. Elena is a sweetheart, how could he possibly cheat on such a good woman?" Derek shook his head in disappointment.

"Hey, at least, you got a new inspiration for a new nude model painting."

"Hell no."

Samira chuckled which was shortly followed by a bittersweet smile. She remembered the first time she saw the Rogers couple's string blacken and that was about a year ago. "He deserved it."

Derek and Mrs. Rogers, Elena, were good friends. She and her mother were friends too before she died. When she first met the couple, the two looked like they truly loved each other and maybe they did, but unlike her parent's bright red string, their's were slightly duller. The fact that Elena couldn't bear a child may be the main reason.

"How is it?"

"The string?" Samira glanced at her father.

Derek nodded.

"Black like my soul," Samira replied monotonously. "The knot's been undone a few minutes before you came home. I can already see a divorce coming."

Derek sighed.

"Take care of her, Dad. She needs someone to be by her side right now."

"Yeah..."

Silence ensues. Derek, who was usually quiet, was actually trying to start a conversation. The old man's shoulders have been quite tense for a while now, but Samira decided to give her socially awkward father some time to prepare himself. Whatever the old geezer wanted to tell her, it must be something important. Not even a gun pointed to his head could get her father sweating beads. Just talking, in general.

Samira was getting quite sleepy from waiting. Just when she moved to pull the pillow behind her, her great father decides to finally speak.

"Sam?"

Samira immediately turned to him with expectant eyes. "Yah?"

"You can cook, right?"

"Yah."

"You can clean, right?"

"Yah."

Just where is this going?

"Do you remember your cousins living in the city?"

"Yah."

"You like them, right?"

"Yah." In fact, she was like their reliable older sister and they adored her as much as she adored them.

"Do you remember the loft apartment we bought for you but was never used?"

"Yah."

Ah. It finally clicked.

"Dad's going traveling. He'll be gone for three to five months. You're an independent woman who can take care of yourself, right?"

"Yah." Derek left for a year once after her mother's death. And she was fine, though she did receive a lot of help from Erica. Her father also made sure that she was being educated by giving her private tutor an advance payment with a lot of extras.

"Your uncle and cousins will help you settle in. I'll arrange everything. So...wanna move to L City?"

"Yah." Who doesn't want their own space? She'll be with Lyla and Sara too. She was fine being in the city. Unlike her mother, her abilities weren't so intrusive to induce excessive stress. It was nothing to be super nervous about.

Turns out the real question has yet to be asked.

Derek hesitantly looked at his daughter with apologetic eyes. "So...wanna go to high school?"

Samira stared at her father as if he had just asked her to kill a puppy. The raven-head sat up from the couch and slowly tiptoed backward to her bedroom door while never breaking eye contact with the man she used to trust with her life until today.

Seeing his daughter close the door on him, Derek turned back to Samira's laptop screen, expressionless as ever.