The Numbers on Our Arms

Chapter 28

Remi's heart thumped as she greeted Blyke at the door. Her hands went to fiddle with the bracelet at her wrist as he took a seat down on her bed and she stood in the space between her bed and desk.

She glanced up to the note board above her desk where her calendar was pinned up and open to May, notes written onto the boxes.

"Hey." She took a seat next to him on the bed, her light blue jean shorts ridding up her leg. "So I wanted to bring up something before we go away on the vacation."

"We only live a few hours away from each other with the trainline," he replied to her. "If you're so hesitant, we can discuss it when you're ready. We'll be able to see each other over the holidays in decent regularity."

"I'm going to have to at some point anyway." Her eyes flicked away from him. "Our soulmarks match."

"What do you mean?" A look of confusion crossed his face as his eyebrows knitted together.

She pulled up the edge of her white top to reveal the edge of the top of her soulmark, the golden five. "I... It's kind of always been your level and it's risen recently and then there have been other details too."

Blyke bit down on his lip. "I guess it does match."

"I know. It's just that it's been so long." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I feel kind of stupid at not realising sooner that one of my best friends had a soulmark that reflected mine, but I guess it clicked eventually."

He nodded in agreement. "But if we didn't realise it for so long, isn't there the chance that there is a coincidence?"

"I know your soulmark is a 5.4 in red." She poked him in his hip where his mark would be. "But if you are suggesting that we should check it, I agree. However, we also wouldn't be the only ones who didn't realise it for years. You hear about it all the time, but there are other situations like Seraphina and John."

"I think that one required lying." He activated his ability and the gold glow surrounded his eyes. She glanced down to her bare patch of skin revealed at her to see the glowing aura around the numbers.

She threw her arms around his neck and buried her face into his neck as her t-shirt fell down against her skin. He wrapped his arms back to just below her shoulder blades.

"I'm glad it's you," she whispered into his ear.

John's thumb flicked up and down his phone screen whilst he tried to navigate through the most recent game of Sera's choosing until the end scream pulled up to show the end score. His smile grew larger as he compared his score on this game and his high score overall to see that they were the exact same number. He took a screenshot of it and sent off the message to her.

His eyes looked up to the door to the rooftop as it clicked open and he expected to see Seraphina standing there in her school uniform and her magenta hair flying in the wind only to see the tall blonde other ex-King of the school. His school uniform was emasculate as ever, shoulders straight with sharp corners and not a single crinkle in sight. Still, his blonde hair was kept tousled and his eyes shown purple bags beneath.

"What are you doing here?" John asked. He slipped his phone into the pocket of his blazer.

"I would like to be able to talk to you," he said with a sigh. "It's something I should have done a long time ago. Well, I did say it a long time ago, but I want to do it properly this time."

John pushed himself up to his feet. "About what?"

"I would like to apologise," he replied, refusing to meet his eyes.

"For what? You already apologised!"

"That's what I meant, but it was clear that you didn't accept it that time so I thought why that would be the case so I decided to do it again."

"But you don't have to. I was looking for any excuse not to accept it at the time. It wasn't your fault."

"Just let me speak, John," he replied. "I do get now why you didn't see it as genuine. I mean, to me it was, but I was concerned with different details. I felt guilty because my own actions hurt me and were going to hurt my friend, not because it hurt you. I didn't want you to hurt Remi and I was willing to do anything to stop it. Also, I thought the hierarchy going away would go wrong, but I guess it turns out that the Joker thing never hurt the hierarchy anyway. My own actions blew up in my face and that's why I was sorry. I went down the thought whether I would be sorry if it didn't blow up, if you didn't act up and just took it or if I was wrong and you were actually a cripple, and I thought at that moment I wouldn't me.

"Maybe I would be later. Seraphina still would have lost her ability. A lot of the stuff that has happened would still happen, but I guess it could also be in a different light. Then I wondered what would have happened if I went a different way; maybe I would have asked you, got undeniable evidence and confronted you in private with it, and I probably would have thought you crazy in that circumstance. I wouldn't have anything to be sorry about then but I'm also not sure I would have come to the outlook I have on the current way things are run in this country but I guess you wouldn't care about that. What I mean is that I'm not the same person I was before and your partially the reason for that. I don't want to be the person I was before – I didn't see the hurt that was in others and if I did, I thought it was deserved when it really wasn't. I thought society functioned properly the way it does now when it really doesn't and your one of the reasons I came to that," he explained. "So I'm sorry for what I did too you. All of it. And I hope you can accept that."

"I'm glad you feel you've improved, but I don't think you should credit me with it. I was a horrible person. What I did was wrong and I'm trying to be a better person," John replied, refusing to meet his eyes.

"I get that. I know that you weren't well at the time and I hope you do get better."

A/N: Sorry this is late. I was travelling all of yesterday and was too tired once I was home.

Thank you for reading. Please share your thoughts and opinions in the comments.