Lock & Key✔️[l.t. soulmate short story]

Louis. (Loo-ee)

Eighteen years old. That's the oldest anybody has ever been when they receive their soulmate tattoo.

I just turned 23.

Most people get their tattoos between the age 16 and 18, nobody knows why or how. It's just something that's been happening for as long as anybody can remember. Two people that are made for one another wake up with new tattoos. They appear on on you at the same moment they appear on your soulmate, a tattoo that describes your soulmates relationship to you perfectly; before you know anything about one another.

Problem is, about 1 in 5,000 people don't get a soulmate. Some get the tattoo and never meet their soulmate because they passed away at some point in life, others are simply born without one and never discover a tattoo.

I'm one of the latter.

I waited for my tattoo up until my eighteenth birthday, I always had hope that it would come before I graduated. I still had a shred of hope when I tried out for X-Factor, even though it was past the time when everyone I know had gotten theirs. When I met the boys and we became a group they comforted me as well, telling me I'd get my tattoo and find my soulmate soon. They were wrong, and I'd watched as each of them ran to the rest of us with their own news of a tattoo appearing on their body.

Usually, because it's the only way to identify who is your soulmate, nobody is allowed to get any other tattoos until they find one another. If you were to be allowed to get tattoos, then you could get the same one as another person and pretend that they were your soulmate.

If you were soulmateless, like yours truly, then it didn't matter. Since I couldn't have the one tattoo I wanted, I got several random ones to make up for it. It's now 4 years since I've turned 18, and our management hasn't minded at all that everyone in the band but Niall has gotten a few tattoos. Harry and I of course have gotten more than a few.

Basically, since we're so popular now, having more tattoos makes it less likely that people will claim to be our soulmate. Of course we also have the option to put our tattoos in the public eye and search for the one person in the world with the same one, but then we'd have to check the authenticity of the markings. Even we don't have the kind of money to pay for the man power behind doing that, especially not for all of us. Minus me of course.

By now, as you can imagine, I've given up. I understand that I have no soulmate, and I can't say I'm okay with it. But I suppose I'll live. There really isn't anything else that I can do about it, I could find another person like me to spend my life with but its not worth it to live a miserable life.

Though I suppose that's not much different than what I'm doing now.

"And boys, which of you is willing to share what tattoos are your mysterious soulmate tattoos? We know Niall won't show us his." The interviewer laughed with Niall shortly, then looked to the rest of us. Harry refuses, as always. The boys and I know why, but nobody else does. Liam smiles hesitantly before speaking.

"Ah, well let's just say it's on this arm." Liam says with a laugh, holding his right arm up.

"Well that narrows it down." The interviewer says sarcastically, followed by a laugh from us and the small audience. "Louis, what about you? The rest of the boys have given us hints at one point or another, but you've never spoke on the matter."

I could answer this one of a few ways. The first way, would be to admit that I'm one of the rare few who were born without a soulmate. That would be humiliating and invade the walls I've worked hard to build up, but it could help other out there with the same problem have the courage to live another day. Just knowing that someone else is strong enough to live without a soulmate, can give someone else that courage as well. The second would be lying, and pointing out a random tattoo. The third would be to, yet again, say that I'm leaving meeting my soulmate up to chance. That I don't want to meet them through an interview. Though the first option would potentially lift a weight off my shoulders, I go with the last.

"I dunno if I'm quite ready to resort to just telling everyone. I think it's better to leave it up to fate, that's what we trust in the first place right?" The audience cheers and the interviewer purses her lips before moving on. As she asks us more stupid questions, it's all I can do to restrain myself from showing the world just how angry I am that I've been left alone for all of eternity.