Casey Anderson isn't expecting much from her Mark - but when her soulmate turns out to be Prince August, the boy next in line for the throne, everything changes.
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In a world much like our own, Casey Anderson is trying to navigate her senior...
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I don't see Del till Monday. She texts me happy birthday and I respond with a happy face, but that's it.
It's an agreement that we made years ago - if we fight, we have to make up in person. And honestly...I needed the weekend to get over it. What she said hurt, even if she meant it in the nicest way.
And she's busy anyway, helping her dad at his job. He's the local vet, and he volunteers at the local adoption fair.
I was busy, too, celebrating my birthday with my mom, doing all of my favourite things and trying to ignore the way my Mark still itched faintly.
Going shopping and avoiding anything with short sleeves, trying not to study the wrists of every guy around my age, wondering, wondering, wondering if one of them matched me.
Most of it was fun, when I could forget, or the times when I remembered that it didn't have to matter if I didn't want it to. But it's hard, when something's that new, that unfamiliar, to pretend like everything is normal.
It's better, now, three days past - my mind has had time to accept it as part of me. My eyes don't stop so violently on the Mark anymore, if I happen to catch a glimpse of it in the mirror.
"Ask," I say, still smiling. "I know you want to."
She bites her lip. "Was it awful?"
I hesitate. "It was... a lot more painful than people say. But it honestly is over so quick."
"Dang," she says. "I knew my sister was lying when she said she didn't feel anything."
I laugh. "Yeah, unless she had a very different experience than mine, she definitely didn't feel nothing. Honestly, I'm still a little annoyed about being lied to."
"Gosh, me too, girl," Del says, linking her arm with mine. We walk in silence for a few moments, then she clears her throat. "Can I - Can I see it?"
I take a deep breath. "Yeah," I say.
"Yeah?" Del asks, looking a little shocked.
"Yeah," I say, feeling something light inside me. "Honestly, I haven't shown anyone yet. Not even my mom. At the time... I was feeling pretty fragile about it." I rub my fingers over my wrist. "It kinda feels like, I dunno, sacred at first or something. But... I want you to see it."
"Okay," she says, smiling. "I'd be honoured."
I shove her in the shoulder and smile. "It's kinda cool, though. Like having a tattoo." We pause before crossing the street, Del's apartment building just in front of us. "I'll show you when we're in your room."
"I'm excited," she says, squeezing my arm. "This way, I can keep a lookout for your soulmate."
I groan, shaking my head. "Del, just cause I'm kind of okay with the whole Mark thing doesn't mean I'm suddenly super eager to find my soulmate."
