The Only Bruise On Your Heart

Soulmates

Since the beginning of time - or what was recorded, anyway - people had always had soulmates. Sometimes the process of finding yours was more difficult than others, and not everyone had just one, but every single human being on Planet Earth was "blessed" with markings on their body that showed them who they were meant to be with. 

Your soulmate would have the exact same markings as you, identical in every way. These tattoo-like patterns would most often appear on the sternum or lower back at birth, and would be fully completed by the time the person turned sixteen. 

Most people's "soul tattoos" as they were nicknamed in the modern age were black; some people had colours mixed into theirs, and occasionally those of darker skin tone would get bright white markings instead. However, the variety of and science behind the soul markings isn't what matters to us: we're here to tell the story of the Timids. 

Since they were little kids, everyone assumed that Drew Woolnough and Shane Sumner would turn out to be soulmates. They were very similar in their interests, and they both possessed a certain shyness (which was what gained them their affectionate nickname from their friends and, eventually, their families). They even shared the same birthday! Almost everyone they knew secretly hoped and suspected that the two of them would end up spending the rest of their lives together. 

In all honesty, both of the boys thought the same thing, though perhaps not in as much detail as the adults who knew them would. For example, Drew, when asked at the age of eleven who he wanted to he his soulmate, answered "Cyrus!" without hesitation. (Cyrus Barrone was the name Shane often used, and Drew was the first one to use it for him regularly. They didn't use it all the time; it was generally around people that Shane didn't know too well. No one really knows why.) 

And if you asked Shane who he loved most in the world, he would always, without a doubt, answer with "Wooly". Simply put, Drew was meant to be his best friend, and vice-versa. It was always going to turn out like that. 

When they were younger - when Shane was more confident, and it was more socially acceptable for boys to run around half-clothed - they would privately speculate the similarity of their markings. Although they were very similar at that point, it didn't really mean anything, since the boys' tattoos could turn out completely different by the time they'd finished developing. 

The Timids were now fifteen years old: it was one day before their sixteenth birthday, in the late October cold. Drew was eagerly awaiting the completion of his soul tattoos, excited to discover who was was meant to spend his life with; Shane was more nervous about the whole ordeal, half hoping that it turned out to be Drew, and half wishing that it wouldn't be so he could avoid confronting his feelings for his best friend. 

Laurence, Kier and Luke, the best friends of the two boys, were all convinced that they were going to be revealed as soulmates. They were just so obvious, with their utter comfortable manner around each other, their overwhelming similarities dotted with complementary differences. 

So yes, everyone knew how this was going to turn out. How could they ignore it? It was just the aftermath of their joint sixteenth birthday that was a bit more of a mystery, both to the boys and the people who knew them.