AH collections

Taking the long way home

Jeremwood
Word count: 2255
Chapters: 1

Ryan is sixteen years old when the tattoo first appears. He's sitting in his English class, ignoring his teacher's lecture on Hamlet in favor of doodling in the margins of his paper when a burning sensation begins on his wrist, making him drop his pen. His classmates stare at him in utter confusion as he grips his wrist and tries not to scream because holy hell it hurts like a bitch. His teacher eventually approaches him, asking if he needs the school nurse, but gasps when she notices the tattoo on his wrist.

Most soulmates tattoos are pretty, representing innocent things such as flowers or even tiny little music notes. They were meant to represent love, or even a shared interest between you and the one you were meant to be with.

Ryan's tattoo was a skull.

Soulmates had always been fascinating to Ryan. The fact that the universe worked in such a way that they would leave you something to find your soulmate with was incredible in his eyes, even if such a thing didn't end up working with his parents. The world had its faults, and sometimes soulmates weren't perfect for each other in the end. Ryan believed he could be the exception.

His friends don't exactly share the sentiment. Since the moment Ryan gained his tattoo, his group of friends took it upon themselves to express their complete disinterest in ever finding the one person they were meant to be with forever, claiming that the universe had no control over who they wanted to be with. Ryan ignored them; it wasn't as if they had received their tattoos yet anyway.

Sometimes Ryan would lie awake at night and simply stare at the skull, and wonders what it could mean for him and his soulmate. Would they meet as one of them is dying? Was it possible one of them would save the other from death? Was his soulmate just weirdly fascinated with skulls? Whatever the case was, Ryan couldn't help but smile every time he looked at the little tattoo, knowing somewhere out there, someone else has received the same exact thing. The one person who could love Ryan unconditionally.

**

Ryan is twenty years old when he overhears a conversation at his local grocery store, the two girls ahead of him in line giggling as they show each other their soulmate tattoos. One of them has a little peach on her wrist, which, in hindsight, makes Ryan roll his eyes. They were in fucking Georgia, for Christ's sake. She could be anyone's soulmate for all he cared. What was so unique about a fucking peach?

The other girl, however, tugs the collar of her sweatshirt down to reveal her tattoo, though Ryan cannot see it from where he stands. Her friend pulls a face at the tattoo, and comments, "A skull? What could that even mean?"

Ryan stiffens at her words, now craning his neck awkwardly to see if he could catch a small glimpse. Could it be her? He eventually clears his throat, hoping to make it sound as if he wasn't listening in on their conversation, and the girls eventually turn around to look at him.

The thing is, the girl is pretty. She is definitely the type of girl Ryan could see himself falling in love with, having a life with, but as their eyes meet, he feels nothing. There isn't a sense of 'you are the girl of my dreams' or even the calm sense of comfort everyone else has described to be feeling when they meet their soulmate. Instead he is just left with empty.

"Sorry," he apologizes, and the girls turn back to the front. Ryan tries to ignore the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

**

Ryan moves to Los Santos when he's twenty-four, and college wasn't at all what it was supposed to be. He figured he could make it, could really push himself towards a degree a pursue a career that could eventually lead him to his soulmate. A skull must have meant something medical and saving lives was a thing that would make his parents proud. In the end he ended with debt that would take forever to repay and no way to even repay.