February Prompts

Did They Ever Love Me?

Credit for this story goes to JacksonBlack66

"Goooooodmorning USA! And happy Valentine's Day, especially to those who will be finding their soulmate today. Hmmm love don't you love it Jerry?"
"Oh Valentine's Day, the one day dedicated to love, Samantha how can anyone hate Valentine's Day?
The two radio host went on talking about the importance of the day while Liesel turned off the radio alarm and started to wake up. After she wiped the sleep out of her eyes she got up and walked to her closet, where she agonized over an outfit that wouldn't make her feel judged. After a minute or two of looking she decided to put on a light washed pair of jeans with a maroon hoodie, she finished the outfit with a classic pair of converse. As she checked her self out in the mirror she went into the bathroom to brush her hair, as she continued her morning routine the smell of breakfast snuck into her nose. Liesel quickly finished getting ready and raced down the stairs, to see her mom prepare her breakfast.
"Goodmorning Liesel, how'd you sleep?"
"morning, I slept pretty well, whatcha cooking?"
"That's good, well lets see, eggs, bacon, hash browns, orange juice, you know just the casual breakfast for a girl who's gonna meet her soulmate" she smirked at her daughter.
"Well thanks, it all looks so great! But mom I may not find my soulmate"
"I know, I know, just trying to encourage you"
"I appreciate it bu-" Liesel glanced at the clock on the counter, "mom what time does the ceremony start?"
Liesels mom looked at the same clock and responded.
"10:30"
"Oh good! I thought I was gonna be late" she chuckled under breath.
"Well you will be if don't leave in the five minutes"

   After about a twenty minute drive, I finally made it to the ceremony in the middle of the towns park. I quickly parked my car and walked towards the entrance of the park where my closest friend, Theodore, waited for me.
  Theodore stood at 6' 1" which was a whole foot taller than me. He had curly ginger hair and a smile that shone like the sun, he has always been there for me as a friend and has always been like an older brother, even though we were the same age.

"Hey Theo!"
"Liesel!" He embraced with me a hug and then we started to walk towards that crowd of other teens our age.
"How was our night?"
"It was alright, kinda nerve wracking but good, what about you Theo?"
"Eh it was alright, didn't do much"
We both realized that we were at the front of the crowd, but we continued our conversation until we were interrupted.
"Welcome everyone! All of you know why you are here so we can skip the 'boring' introduction and move on to more...interesting matters"
The man on the stage(who sounded a lot like the guy on the radio this morning), started talking more about the process that we all were about to experience, meanwhile a few people in uniforms passed out a pen to all the 17 year olds who attended. The man then explained to everyone in the crowd how to use a pen.
"Pretty boring if you ask me" Theo whispered in my ear.
"Shhhh listen. It's getting to the good part"
"Now everyone grab your pen and go ahead and write on your arms!"
As everyone obeyed there was a pause.
"What should I write?" I asked Theo.
"Well it is Valentine's Day" he smirked, "so how about 'I Love You'?"
I shrugged and decided why not, as I wrote the phrase on my arm, I heard many gasp and sounds of awe, I looked up and saw that everyone had writing on their arms. I looked at Theo and grabbed at his arm, eager to see what was written. 'Hey?'
"Hey? That's all she could've wrote? No! I refuse, no find a new lady Theo please, I'm begging you! It's a question mark. A QUESTION MARK! She wasn't even sure if thats what she wanted to say!"
"Liesel...look at your wrist"
I did as he said and was shocked by what was written, "LOSER"
"WHAT!?!?" I followed the letters down my arm as they faded away.
"I cant believe it, who did this? Theo who did this? Where can I get a new one? Theo?"
I looked up at Theo and saw that he was staring at a girl across the crowd. She was definitely pretty, but didn't seem like Theo's type.
"Theo? Is that her?"
He nodded while still staring at the brunette headed girl.
"How do you know?"
"She looked at me first after she saw her arm"
"Okkaaaaayyyyy and what did you say?"
"I just wrote 'hey its Theo' seemed like an easy thing to say". As his soulmate returned to her conversation with her other girlfriends, Theo finally acknowledged the writing on my arm.
"Sorry but what did your arm say again?"
"L-O-S-E-R. Loser"
"What?! Who do you think it is?"
"Probably one of the jocks, not caring as usual"
"Well maybe write back and see who it is?"
"I don't know if i want to right now, but hey what about your girl? Isn't her name Melanie or something"
"It's Monica. Monica Sanders"
"Well at least I got the M right" I gave a small laugh, "You should go talk to her"
"Umm okay?"
"Hey don't be questioning it. Unlike her" he rolled his eyes, "Just be you and plus y'all are bound to be together"
Theo left with a huge smile and as he started talking to each other I could see their conversation flying to another universe. As I starred at them, I felt a tingling on my arm, I looked down and saw more writing from my pathetic soulmate. At the same time a boy came around and grabbed my arm to see what was written.
"Umm excuse me?" I questioned him, before slapping him across the face.
"Oh uh hi!" he realized that he was holding my hand. He let it go, thankfully.
"I'm Marcus, and you are?"
"Confused"
  Marcus was about 5' 8" with jet black hair, he wore a maroon hoodie with a black bomber jacket on top, he had black jeans with white shoes to finish the look. From what I remembered he was on the soccer team.
  "Uhh I don't think that's your name, aren't you Liesel?"
"And aren't you the one who wrote 'loser' on my arm?"
"Oh yeah well about that, that wasn't me, it was my teammates who wrote it, they saw the 'I love you' and flipped out"
"Hmm sure your teammates...well I don't believe you"
"So how am I gonna make it up to you?"
"I don't know, but lets start as friends, how does that sound?"
"Sounds good to me" as we started to head towards Theo and Monica we started our own conversation, which lead us on a rabbit whole of questions and conversations. It wasn't til six years later that I realized that Marcus isn't who he says he is.