Randomized relationships can be messy

Entering through the backdoor, you’re surprised to find the house so quiet. Your loud and abrasive younger sister, Harley, should already be home, and your parents are usually more talkative around this time of the evening.

Sliding around the corner and entering the kitchen, you find that your parents aren’t making dinner together like usual. Your mother is in the kitchen… alone, quietly cracking eggs, her face tired and emotionless. Looking past her and into the living room, you find your father on the couch, newspaper in his hands and a grumpy demeanor covering his face.

Sitting down at the dinner table, your mother slowly begins bringing over some drinks and a plate of bread to enjoy while she prepares the rest of tonight’s meal. She puts a drink in-front of you and in-front of her own seat as well, though nothing in-front of your father.

“I’ll have one as well.” your father mumbles under his breath, grumpily.

“Go right ahead, they’re in the fridge.” your mother replies, sarcastic and yet emotionless.

The room is… well… TENSE as all fucking hell, to say the least! You can’t believe this, “What the fuck is going on right now? The hell happened between these two!?” you think worriedly to yourself.

Your sister was very obviously hiding away upstairs in her bedroom, your father looked like he wanted to kill himself, your mother looked like she wanted to kill your father first, and your dog sat in the corner looking terrified. Your house has never been THIS damn depressing.

Something had to have happened, “The RULES had to have done this,” you keep thinking to yourself.

You spend the next few hours eating with, occasionally talking with, and over all just watching your parents, slowly attempting to discern what aspect of your rules might’ve caused this animosity and tension between them.

By the end of the night, lying sprawled out in your bed, you feel as though you have a pretty conclusive theory. In this new timeline, your parents were chosen for each other during their High School years by a randomized lottery, obviously. This being the origin of their relationship has caused them to feel as though they were **** into things, also obvious. So, whenever they have any kinda argument or disagreement, the anger they feel towards each other is amplified far more then it would be if they’d actually chosen each other for themselves.

As you fully formulate your theory, you can’t help but feel like an idiot for not envisioning this obvious result when you wrote the rules. Of course this would be the result.

Quickly, you pull out the notebook once more, and begin writing out what you hope will be a solution to the problem of couples in this new world feeling “**** into things”.

Old Rule: The randomized lottery system of choosing romantic partners is extremely accurate. “Accuracy” being in reference to the fact that relationships started using the lottery system have a 100% chance of being successful, fulfilling, loving, sexually active, and long lasting. Since the abandonment of dating, and the implementation of the lottery system, not a single divorce, breakup, or act of cheating has ever occurred. No matter how much partners may think their relationship won’t work after being paired with each other, it somehow always ends up developing into a truly loving bond.

Closing the notebook, you step out of bed and quietly open your doorway to glance down the hall and into your parents' room. Their door is open, and you can catch a good glimpse of them in bed. Their eyes are unable to hide their love or lust for one another. As your mother leans inwards towards your father’s lips, you turn away, having seen enough to know your rule worked.

All comments, questions, and suggestions are heard and appreciated.