Through Your Eyes

Chapter 5: Valarie

As per usual, work was a lot. Thankfully no one mentioned how the smell of alcohol followed me around, but I did get a few weird looks. Especially when I started looking people in the eyes out of nowhere. One of my newer coworkers even noted how my eyes glowed slightly and seemed brighter than the day before. She didn't straight up ask if I'd found my soulmate, but it was clear she could tell.

Whenever you find your soulmate, your eyes glow, even if only slightly. I didn't want to talk about what happened, especially with our embarrassing meeting. I never should have let myself get so drunk. I barely remember anything after sitting at the bar, only vaguely recalling the pronouns of my soulmate for some reason. Wait... I didn't do or say anything offensive, did I?

I groaned softly into my arm resting on the tabletop while waiting for my burritos to be done. You only realize how little you know about someone when you try to order food for them, and I just met this person. I didn't even know if they ate meat! For that reason, I made sure to get a veggie burrito just in case. At least I knew the food here would be really good; this local restaurant always made delicious Mexican food, so I came here fairly often.

Once I had my takeout bag in hand, I began the lonely trek back home. Every time I strolled these streets in the past, my sister would be right there beside me gossiping about her coworkers and laughing at my stupid jokes. Every building, every street reminded me of her. I never had many friends growing up and the fear of meeting my soulmate never made that any easier, so I had no one else to walk with but her.

It didn't help that while in uniform people avoided me like the plague. Whether it be from fear or respect, thinking I was working, people would even cross to the other side of the road to avoid me. Only those too high to process their surroundings stuck around. Thankfully, they hadn't bothered me so far, so the walk itself was always fairly peaceful.

When I made it inside my building, I entered the elevator since there was absolutely no way I'd climb up all those stairs each day. I unlocked my apartment door and braced myself for the worst. Seriously, what possessed me to let some stranger into my apartment unsupervised? Let alone someone who raised so many red flags. Something really must have been messing with my head lately.

For all I knew, they could have totally trashed the place! I shuddered at the thought.

I took a deep breath and swung the door wide open, revealing a seemingly empty room. I cautiously removed my black boots, tiptoed out of the entranceway, and peered around the corner of the wall into the dining room. Realizing how that area was also completely empty, a small chill ran down my spine.

Before any real panic set in, a head full of tight curls popped up over the top of the couch. "Oh, you're back?"

I breathed a sigh of relief. Reese had simply been hidden by the top of the couch while laying on it. They sat up taller and I noticed they were reading one of those silly self-help books I bought a while back. I barely even read any of them and had no idea what nonsense their pages might be spewing.

Trying to hide my embarrassment, I answered, "Yeah... And I brought burritos!" I held up the plastic bag dangling from my left hand and approached the couch.

Reese put the book back down on the stack and stood up to greet me. They examined the bag briefly. "Smells good! What kind?"

"Well I have absolutely no clue what you like, so I just got you a veggie burrito. I also got a chicken one though, if you'd prefer that," I offered.

"Nah, veggie's good. I actually had a small garden growing up that I took care of, so I mostly ate vegetables anyway."

"Perfect!"

I led them to the dining room table and placed the bag down. Then I opened the cupboard behind me to pull out two ceramic plates and set the burritos on them. After setting everything up, I noticed Reese still standing and motioned for them to sit. We both sat on opposite sides to face each other and waited awkwardly for a few seconds.

They broke the tension first. "So how was work?"

"Oh, yes! Um..." I stumbled over my words a bit. "It- it was good. I just patrolled the city for a while. And I thankfully didn't have to deal with any major issues. Were you alright today? I am sorry I just left you like that."

They finished chewing before answering, "Yep. I just relaxed on your couch for most of it. Had to explore the place a bit to find the bathroom, but other than that I just stayed put. You do a great job keeping this place clean too. I almost felt bad for just being here!" They laughed a little but I still felt super bad. I hadn't even given them a tour of the apartment before leaving. I was the worst host!

"Sorry about that... I'm glad you were able to find it on your own, though."

"No worries!"

We both took a bite at the same time, leaving only silence to follow. I stared into those nearly pitch-black eyes, noticing a subtle red glow around them. A strange color, no doubt, since the soulmate glow usually emulated the same color as one's eyes. They blinked slowly and almost seemed to smirk at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You have a cute face."

The random compliment completely took me off guard and I almost choked on my food. My eyes widened and I had to take a moment to compose myself. "I'm sorry?" I asked, assuming I had misheard them.

"What do you mean? You look cute! Can't I say that?" They stuck their tongue out teasingly.

A small laugh escaped me as I realized how funny this whole situation was. I only realized in that moment how on edge I'd been the entire time. Reese probably noticed and was fooling around to calm me down a bit.

"You're right, thanks." I smiled softly in response.

We idly chatted for the rest of dinner which was surprisingly fun; I almost didn't mind having someone else in my apartment. They helped me clean everything up and kept cracking jokes to keep the mood light.

While discussing our plans they suddenly asked, "So where will I sleep tonight? Will we share a bed?"

I completely stopped moving when remembering this dilemma. Would it be weirder to say yes or no? Like yes we were soulmates, but I hadn't even considered the idea. I just assumed they would sleep on the couch, but that might seem rude since it wasn't really made for that.

After some silence while I panicked, Reese added, "I mean, I just thought it'd be fine since your bed is so big. At least three, maybe even four people could sleep in there without even noticing each other's presence."

I slowly nodded while considering that. It probably would be fine to share such a large bed, and by this point it would surely be ruder to force them to sleep on the couch.

Almost seemingly backed into a corner I acquiesced, "Sure, you can sleep in the bed too."