//soulmates\\ karlnap

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"Watch, watch, watch." Myla said to Nick, basketball in her hands. She ran around him dribbling the ball and jumped up, shooting it into the net and getting it in.

"That's my girl." Nick smiled and grabbed the ball, ruffling her short hair that was constantly getting in her eyes and stepping back, shooting the ball from the line that they drew halfway across the courtyard and missing. "One day." Nick laughed with Myla.

Myla was thirteen, me and Nick were both thirty six. "Dad." Myla called from the bathroom two hours later.

"Yeah?" I asked, standing up.

"Can you help me?"

I frowned a little. "What do you need help with?"

"I think I got my period. Can you come in?"

I opened the bathroom door to see her on the toilet, blood in the toilet bowl and on her underwear. "Here, put these on." I handed her a new pair of underwear and took a pad out of the plastic bag. I explained to her what to do before leaving, after she came out of the bathroom she hugged me, her head resting just below my collarbone, she was crying. I kissed the top of her head. "Hey, it's okay, it's okay." I said soothingly. "What's something we can do to get your mind off of it?" I asked, pulling back and tucking her hair behind her ears. "Do you want to watch TV or call dad—"

"Can you sing to me?" She asked, her voice nasally.

"What do you want me to sing?"

"Can you sing me the new one? All my friends love that one."

I nodded and pulled her back into a hug.

[Just listen to Willow's song called t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l—I don't have the energy to write all the lyrics, sorry.]

"I wrote that after I met your dad." I said into her hair.

"Tell me the whole story again."

"I'd been living in Florida for awhile and I sung at Sarah's bar a lot one night I was just there drinking and I saw your dad, he was like, taller than everyone there and I poked him and I said something like "you're like a fucking giant" and he laughed and we talked for a little bit before he asked if I had a boyfriend and I said no and so he kissed me and I went back to his hotel with him. Max did not like me, your dad kept trying to bring me on the bus and stuff and after awhile we basically moved in to my apartment together and for my birthday he got us tickets to Greece. I found out I was pregnant with you like a week later, your grandma actually gave me the pregnancy test because she knew but I didn't, I found your dad and told him. He was so happy that we were going to start a family together. The next day he proposed to me and somewhere in there he said we should stay here and raise you, I, of course, said yes. So we got married and I had you eight months later." I kissed the top of her head.

"Wait... That means you guys had sex?" She looked at me wide eyed, just like she would do as a baby.

"Let's... Let's go find your dad." She ran in front of me through the trees.

"Dad." Myla shouted, looking over the cliff at Nick, he was sitting at our spot, a beer in hand with his shirt off, Delilah next to him asleep. I took off my skirt and converse, leaving me in a red bikini that Nick told me he liked a lot. Myla followed suite, Nick couldn't hear us over the wind.

"Ready?" I grabbed her hand and we jumped down into the water on three.

Nick looked startled when we came back above the surface. "I didn't hear you guys." He stated, folding the corner page of his book and putting it in the sand.

I smiled when he handed me a towel, kissing his forehead before dropping down next to him. "What are you doing?"

"You guys had sex." Myla stated, digging her feet in the sand and looking back and forth between us.

Nick looked at me, I ran my hand through the warm sand. "We... We did, yeah." Nick said awkwardly.

"Don't have sex at twenty two." I told Myla. "That's too early."

Nick gasped. "What are you trying to say, Jacobs?"

I rolled my eyes but let him pulled me into his lap. "We rushed things, a lot. Don't do that... Unless you find someone that's perfect for you and you know their perfect for you."

"And we'll be the judges of that." Nick added, kissing the top of my wet shoulder.

"No we won't." I held a can of root beer out to Myla, she took it and opened it.

"When can I get married?"

"When you find a person that treats you right and you love them."

She hummed and we looked out at the water before she asked another question. "How come all my friends parents aren't like you guys?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Cause we're gay?"

"No. Well, kinda. But also you like show affection and you never yell or fight."

Nick smiled. "Hopefully we're setting a good example for you then."

"It makes me think soulmates actually are real. Like there's hope in everything."

"Of course soulmates are real." I climbed out of Nick's lap and pulled her into mine, kissing the top of her head. "You just have to find your person." I shifted so my cheek was on top of her hair, smiling at Nick.

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