Beyond The Sky

37

SERENA'S POV

I'm home! I can finally talk to my mom about everything with Lance. It's been eating me alive and I hate it. I've never been so worked up about something before. It is the absolute worst. Today's one of the first days where I'm grateful my mom gets off earlier on Fridays. I set my backpack down in the entryway and headed to where she was, sitting at her desk playing an easy computer game.

"Can I talk to you?" I ask, hoping that gets her attention.
She hears me, pauses her game, and turns the chair to face me. "Of course you can," she starts, "What's up?"
I sigh. "I've... been hiding something from you."
"What?!"
"Nothing bad, nothing bad -- I've just been worried you'd freak out."

"Hiding it from me is only going to make me freak out more, Serena. But, what is it?"

"So... you know the last text I had gotten from Arlo? The one from his friend?"

She thinks for a moment. "I do."
"Well, the guy texted me a few months ago for the first time from his own phone. We've been texting back and forth, and yesterday he told me he could see a little bit of color. I'm ... not."

She looks at me. "Wait, wait, wait - so let me get this straight - your late soulmate's best friend texted you from his phone a few months ago -"
I cut her off. "- Actually, it was like two or three days after Arlo's death if that puts it into perspective..."

She nods, just letting me go. "- and you've been texting on and off for the past few months, and now he's seeing color while you're not?"
"Weird, huh?"
"You've met this guy in person?"
"Yes. I've met him -- his name is Lance, by the way -- in person. Just the other day, when he noticed he was seeing color."

"It had to have been the meetup that sparked it."
"It could have only been," I say. "I can't think of anything else that would've done it other than that, unless it was like a Spencer and Isla situation."

"If you live close, it usually doesn't happen like theirs did." She shakes her head.

"However," I continue, "I've been thinking about it, and the situation in general is just kind of strange."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Spencer took the words out of my mouth this morning - 'It seems like you're cheating on Arlo with his best friend'."

She pauses. "Yeah, I can see why that'd be weird."

"Do you think Arlo would've wanted this?"

She hums a little in thought. "Perhaps, but there's really no way to know."

"True."
"What did Spencer say to that?"
"He thought that he probably would've... At least wanted us to be close."

"But not this close?" She asks.
"But not this close." I echo.

"I wouldn't give it too much thought, Serena."

"Why not?"

"Because if you're okay with it, everyone else is going to have to be, too. No one has to know about your previous soulmate being Arlo other than you, him, us, and Isla. And maybe Evynne, if you told her."
"I did."

"I'd go contact Lance as soon as possible. I'd see if you could meet up again and see if anything sparks. You've got a whole weekend ahead of you, Serena."

"You're right. That's not a bad idea. I'll go text him right now. Thanks Mom!" I start off towards my bedroom to go text him. My phone was in my pocket, but it's always nice to be in privacy.

"Don't be stupid about it either!" She shouts towards me.

"I won't!"

I take my phone out of my pocket and unlock it, opening my messages. I open my messages with Lance, and see he's typing.

That's strange.

I'd never seen him try to text me the moment I opened my phone.

I start typing anyway. I just have to let my thoughts out now.

I send my message at the same time his pops up.

That's funny, but also maybe a coincidence.

I read his.

'Serena! Hey! I was just talking to a group of friends of mine about ... well, us. I don't know if you did at all, but I guess it was good to tell you.

Anyway, they had mentioned to me, after I told them about the fact that I was seeing a little bit of color (and you weren't), we had come to the conclusion that it would probably be best if we met up again in a few days. I mean, hey, it's the weekend, so why not tomorrow?
Maybe that'll trigger more color in my sight... and maybe yours too? I dunno.

Let me know if you're free tomorrow.'

I smile a little bit, knowing that my text was similar. I quickly sent another message, saying that tomorrow would work just fine for me as long as it did for him. And now we play more of the waiting game. I was almost certain that it wouldn't be much longer for another response, though. We'd already gone back and forth once by accident.

Maybe he's just reading my text? That's it, right?

It's gotta be.