Life, Love & Other Short Stories

:no love lost:

"Hey, you're that new kid, right?" says an unfamiliar voice from beside her.

Ava Coleman shrugs but doesn't even attempt to look up from where she's sketching in her notebook to see the guy standing over her. Her bracelets jangle as she scratches lines onto the blank paper. It's her first day at a new school and her plan is to just lay low. She had come to the library during lunch to avoid these types of Welcome to East High conversations.

"Coleman, right? You're from New York or something."

"Maryland," she says shortly, still refusing to look up and acknowledge the guy talking to her.

"So, here's the thing, Coleman," starts the guy before there is a hand over her work with the wrist facing her. She stares down unblinkingly at the handwriting imprinted into the guy's wrist.

* * *

"Why do you have scribbles on your arm, Ma?" said a young Ava, looking up at her mother questioningly. She had rarely seen her mother without any jewelry on since her father died and it was shocking to see the black marks beneath the golden wrapped bracelets. Madhavi Coleman had moved to America when she was only in her teens to get married to Stephen, Ava's father. It had been almost 15 years since then but she still smiled softly at her eight-year-old daughter before crouching in front of her and explaining soulmates.

"Someday," her mother said, reaching out and flipping over both of Ava's hands until her palms were facing upwards. "That little black line is going to become a name and they're going to be special. They won't be perfect, but they'll be someone who will love you for always."

"Was Daddy your soulmate?" Ava whispered sadly and her mother only nodded. She looked into her mother's eyes, still lost without her husband, even with a house full of children. "Does everyone get a soulmate?"

"Of course they do, beti, though not everyone gets to meet them."

"What if I don't want a soulmate?" said Ava a lot quieter, staring at the unmoving line on her wrist.

"This just gives you the option. You never have to find them."

"You promise?"

"Promise."

"Can I take it off?" she said, lifting her left hand as if her mother couldn't see the line from where she sat in front of her.

"No, we can't," her mother said, laughing before standing, pulling Ava to her feet and leading her to her bedroom where she grabbed a group of thick bracelets and hooked them around her daughter's wrist. "This won't stop them from finding you and if you meet them, it won't stop you from bonding. No one can stop that." She caressed her daughter's face lovingly.

* * *

"Wicked tattoo, but I'm kind of busy if you hadn't noticed," Ava says, brushing his hand away, but it's too late because she's already seen her name. She doesn't know his name, but the one on her wrist feels like it's burning to bring her closer to the guy still standing next to her. When she looks down and notices that it is burning— that it's glowing she almost freezes. She swallows down the lump in her throat. Her whole life seemed to be a research project on soulmates and how to avoid them. She'd only ever seen the name on her wrist once and it was by mistake. She hadn't planned on doing it again any time soon. She hadn't planned on meeting him...well ever.

"I'm Orion," he says, taking the seat next to her.

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?" she asks, ignoring the feeling that thrums through her very being to look up and check what makes him different. What makes him her Orion. What makes this guy so special that the universe fated her to be with him, but she doesn't. The look of devastation she remembers on her mother's face when her father died is emblazoned inside her eyelids every time she blinks, and it's enough for her to keep her head down.