Swiped

Chapter One: Initiation

A brisk cool breeze filtered in through the open window, birds had already begun to rouse and chirp as they welcomed the rising dawn but Gracielle Watson could only be heard snoring loudly. It had only been a few years since Graci had fallen asleep, after having spent the better part of the night pouring of her anatomy books for the exam that was to take place on this very day, in four hours’ time to be exact. Elen, having risen to take a walk down to Dutch Brothers, had decided to be a dear of a bestie and picked up a huge Caramelizer coffee for each of them. Graci and Elen had been best friends since the tender age of ten, when Ellie’s mother had died of breast cancer, and Elen had moved to Dexter Lake with her grandparents. Both girls had been thrust into the school year with the loss of a parent, or in Elen’s case parents, but this commonality made it possible for an amazingly tight sisterly bond to flourish between them. So strongly that they both planned to go into nursing to help other kids maintain having parents. In fact, Elen and Graci were so inseparable that for many years during their high school season some classmates made up a terrible rumor regarding their sexualities. Now, the two were room-mating comfortably in a dormitory in Titan Tower, right smack in the center of a place totally unlike Dexter; Eugene, Oregon. It was close enough to home but just far enough from Elen’s meddling and devout Baptist grandparents and Graci’s constantly working logger father, allowing for both girls to continue to perform with their choir at Mount Olive Baptist Church and participate in the chamber choir competitions across the state.

All in all, it was a great gig because Graci was with the one person she trusted most but Elen had obtained the one thing she had not: a boyfriend, and when Staff Sergeant Jonathan Reese Michaels sat his sights on Elen Martas, Graci came to the sobering realization that Elen wouldn’t always be around and would need to live her own life someday. That day was coming faster than Graci had bargained for and it prompted her to do something drastic and completely out of character, something that up until this point Elen had no clue about. She came rushing through the door with both Caramelizers in hand and bellowed at the top of her lungs, dark black locks bouncing with her walk as she jogged over to Graci’s bedside,

“Wake up, Graci!!” she shrieked. Ellie immediately jumped up in her bed, waving her arms in the air as she brought one hand down to slap against her heart.

“Oh, my God, Elen!” Graci’s eyes widened as she looked up at her and realized what she was holding out in her right hand.

“Look what I got us!” Elen winked with a bright grin. Graci leaned forward and took the coffee drink and sat back exhaling loudly as she lifted her head to the ceiling.

“You scared the crap out of me. You’ve really got to stop doing that.” Graci said, drawing the straw up to her lips and inhaling a greedy gulp, “Oh, that is forgiveness in a cup though. Thank you.” She smiled to her as she patted the mattress. Elen took the signal as an offer and happily sat beside the heap of notebooks and textbooks, along with Graci’s laptop and smartphone, which so happened to light up to an opened app. As the screen lit up and drew Elen’s attention her lips widened to form a shocked o-expression as she realized what it was, “You signed up for Singe!” she exclaimed, as she leaned forward and gave Graci a light and playful push to the shoulder, “I thought you said those kinds of apps are for desperate idiots with no other alternative?” Elen smirked as she took a gulp of her own drink. Graci gave a light shrug and pointed at herself.

“Guilty, as charged.” She said with a chuckle and a lift of her glass

“Cheers to that!” Elen said, chuckling as the plastic cups clunked together, “So, have you found any good candidates yet?” She asked somewhat over-enthusiastically.

“Well, there was one guy not too far away. Looks like he lives in the City View area.” Graci admitted.

“Oh, and what does City View dude look like?” Elen asked curiously. It was a well-known fact that people from the City View area of Eugene typically were of the upper middle-class stature and traditionally belonged to families who had been influential to the city. This made Elen even more curious to find out about the single dude Graci had swiped and liked on Singe; a dating app where you could swipe from left to right and select and find people in your area to date or hook up with. Graci had often ridiculed people for downloading it and thought it to be a complete and utter waste of time or at least that is what she had been maintaining.