𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑅𝑒𝑑 | 𝐴 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑎 𝐹𝐹

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑇𝑒𝑛

As the realization dawned on Maria, she jumped up, quickly grabbing her phone can calling Theo. When Theo picked up the phone, she was bombarded by Maria's voice.

"What's your girlfriends name?!"

"Angelica...?" Suddenly, Maria heard a voice in the background. She wasn't sure who it was, so she just assumed it was the girl she was asking about.
"Are you with her right now?"

"Yeah, she just got here... Why are you suddenly asking about her?"

"I need to talk to her. Like... Right now."

Sighing at her best friend, Theo just went with that Maria was saying. Handing the phone to an unknowing Angelica, Maria's voice scared her as well.

"Angelica!"

"Yes, that's me..."

Maria flopped back down on her bed, relieved she was able to talk to the girl.
"Ok, there's something I need to know." Nodding, Angelica listened to Maria talk. She had recognized the voice, so she was guessing that the girl had some sort of question for her about her and Theo's relationship. However, she definitely wasn't expecting what came out of Maria's mouth.

"What's your last name?"

"Um... it's Schuyler."

At that, Maria knew she hadn't heard wrong. She was stunned to say the least, but now she had even more questions.

"Like... with an S? And that's not like... changed or anything, right? Eliza has that last name too?" With all the questions, Angelica was suddenly confused. She didn't know why Maria was asking questions, but she was also confused by why all of the questions were about her family name.

"Hold on, hold on. Slow down Maria, what's going on?"

"Your sister's my fucking soulmate!"

Eyes wide, Angelica looked over at Theo. She mouthed something that Angelica didn't catch, but Angelica just went back to talking to Maria.

"You... Hold on. Eliza? Like, Elizabeth Schuyler?"

"Yes! Do you maybe... maybe know her soulmates initials?" Maria sounded nervous, like she was terrified about what Angelica was about to say. She didn't want to be let down, because she was actually really excited about the possibility of Eliza being her soulmate.

"I know them, yes. Where do you live...? Me and Theo will be over soon so we can figure this out." At that, Maria quickly told Angelica her address, even though Theo already knew it. Telling the girl bye, Angelica quickly turned to her girlfriend.

Theo was looking back at her girlfriend, confused as to what has just happened with her best friend. Before she could even ask, Angelica had grabbed her hand and was pulling her out to her car.

"Come on, we have to go see Maria." Theo just nodded. She wasn't going to question Angelica, because clearly whatever Maria had said was important enough for Angelica to rush to her house.

——

Maria paced back and forth in the hallway of her apartment, waiting for Angelica and Theo to arrive. Suddenly she heard the doorbell and rushed to open it. Hurrying her best friend and her girlfriend in, the three sat on the floor in her living room.

Sighing dramatically, Maria threw herself down so she was laying on the floor next to Theo. Angelica sat down next to Theo, laying her head on her girlfriends shoulder.

"So... Eliza?" As soon as Angelica said that, Maria launched into a long speech about how she thought Eliza was her soulmate, and then quickly switched to begging Angelica for the letters on Eliza's shoulder.

Sighing, Angelica finally told her the letters. Maria didn't realize she had gone completely silent until Theo was snapping her fingers in front of her face.

"Maria!"

She had been right, she hadn't seen wrong.

"Maria!"

Eliza's shoulder had said M.L., she was right.

" 'Ria! Snap out of it!"

Shaking her head, Maria looked at Angelica.

"How did you know Theo was your soulmate?" At that, Angelica looked slightly stunned.

"Well... I don't know. I was just automatically drawn to her, and we became friends. I happened to see my initials on her shoulder one day, so I told her." Maria nodded, listening to every word that came out of Angelica's mouth.

"But... what about the whole 'the first kiss with your soulmate' thing?"

When Angelica heard this, she chuckled softly before looking at Theo. The couples first kiss had been at a bar, and both of them were pretty drunk. Angelica laughed at the memory as her girlfriend blushed. Instead of telling Maria the story, Angelica decided to just show her the mark.

Pulling the her jacket off, Angelica was left in a tank top that showed the small mark on her shoulder. Maria looked at the mark, stunned by the color. She knew that they were supposed to do something when soulmates first kissed, but she wasn't aware that they actually changed.

Angelica's mark was a pretty pink color, and she smiled when she saw it. Looking over at Theo, her best friend showed her that the mark on her shoulder was a light shade of orange. She then looked back to Angelica for further explanation. 

"They change color after the first kiss. Everyone's starts out black, but they change to an individual color later on." Nodding, Maria understood what she was being told.

"So... what do I do about Eliza?"

"Well Maria, honestly... just tell her. That, or if the moment is right then just kiss her."

So those were her options... Either tell Eliza she thought they were soulmates and risk embarrassment, or just kiss the girl she thought was absolutely adorable.

Well... she sure as hell wasn't doing the first one.