The Raven Tattoo

Chapter 24: Her Thoughts

A/N
Hey! This chapter was written by one of my gorgeous friends bibliophilejane , go check her out! (If you're wondering who the other gorgeous friend is, then it's JemElaine_ )
~Bri :)

Artemis P.O.V
I didn't want to walk home. I just didn't want to go home full stop. Sure, my parents were ok sometimes but lately I felt like they were putting so much pressure on me to find my 'soulmate'. Ugh.

The thing about my parents were that they were both super strong believers in the whole soul mate thing and because of that, I was expected to be as well. Even Mia and Elaine, my best friends, didn't know that I hated that whole idea. According to them, I was the firmest believer in soulmates that they knew.

Ok, to be fair my parents had tried going against the soulmate thing but it didn't work out for them. So, at least they tried I guess? Ugh, who was I trying to kid! I would never accept this ridiculous idea that some stupid mark on my skin marked me and my 'soulmate' for the rest of my life!

I walked along the path home, kicking pebbles and muttering about stupid bears when I quite literally ran into someone. By the loud 'Oof!' that escaped the, I guess they weren't prepared either.

"Ow!" I exclaimed, "What the h-oh, hey Dan!"

Mia's brother smirked and rubbed his head. "Jesus Art, how thick is your skull?!"

Daniel was the only person who I allowed to call me Art, apart from Mia and Elaine of course. But even then, they only rarely said it more often using 'Artie'.

"Ha ha, hilarious. Your's isn't exactly soft as a pillow either you know!"

He laughed and held out his hand. "My apologies".

I laughed and shook it.

"So where were we of to in such a bad temper? Well, worse than usual I mean"

I rolled my eyes at his comment and kept silent.

"Hey, Artemis, are you alright? Honestly"

I laughed it off.

"Pffft, you know me. Always got something to complain about! I've gotta go or my parents are gonna rile me about being late! Cya Dan!"

I took off before he could make another comment.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mum, Dad, I'm hoooooome!" I dropped my bag at the door and went out back.

"There you are! There's my little girl! Hey Astrid, hey!"

My year old puppy abandoned her toy and raced over to where I was. We tumbled for a bit, until I escaped and chased after her toy. Unfortunately she saw through my trick and bet me to it before racing off.

"Ok, fine, I give up" I puffed and chuckled to see her racing around the garden, proudly showing off her toy.

I sat down on the old swing set and thought. What had been going on with Mia today? Her, Lachlan and James were all acting strange at lunch. Well, more than usual. Mia kept looking at me and then towards James and argh! What was going on?

Our lives had just completely tumbled. The girls had both found their soul mates and I was left there as the awkward third wheel. Well, sort of seeing as they weren't all dating yet. It had all become so awkward at school now. Were Mia and James meant to go out now, marry, have kids and live long and content lives with each other? I knew Mia well enough to know that she would never agree to that. Neither would Elaine for that matter.

And then there was James. He had been acting strangely around me for the past few weeks. I had wanted to ask the girls about it but what could I say? 'Hey, James is acting really weird lately. Do you think-' Nope, I'm not even going there. No way. I mean, he was nice and all and I guess it wouldn't be that bad but still! He was soul mates with Mia! My best friend! No way could I do that! Besides, I was probably reading into things. I had the tendency to do that. A lot.

I shook my head. Damn it, why couldn't people just like who they wanted to like and be with who they wanted to be with without all of this soul mate crap! I sat and tried to think about it. A world where people got to freely choose who they wanted to be with, where there were no soul mates, no tattoos and definitely no stupid new boys and confusion!

If only.