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

•One•

[Kealleigh]

I woke to the sound of my mom scream-singing "happy birthday" from downstairs. I chuckle a bit before groaning and rolling over.

"Kealleeeeeeeigh!" I hear my mom yell, her voice becoming obnoxiously high pitched as she stretches the second half of my name.

"I'll be down in a few!" I yell back.

I rest my arm over my eyes for a few seconds before realizing that my left shoulder blade feels odd, which for some reason reminds me what today is.

"Oh my god." I whisper to myself, before looking at my left arm which had been draped over my face. I inspect it for any differences, not finding any, and then sit up to look at my other arm. But as I sit up, for just a split second, the skin behind my left shoulder sticks to the sheet beneath me. As soon as I reach over my shoulder with my right hand to feel the skin there though, it feels the same as the rest of my body. I look at my right arm momentarily to double check that there's no sudden tattoo.

I stand up off my bed and make my way to my closet, figuring I'll just throw on one of my loose night shirts and shorts since I'm changing into that dress my mum hemmed later.

After showering I make my way downstairs, meeting my mum in our kitchen and sitting at the table that's against the wall opposite the stove.

"Hey mum."

"Oh, happy birthday sunshine!" She starts singing "happy birthday," making it to the end of the song before saying, "I love you." And hugging me.

"I love you too, mum." She continues to stare at me expectantly. I fiddle with the ring on my forefinger, knowing what she's expecting from me.

"Okay so, there's no tattoo on my arm or anything." Her face falls.

"Maybe you're just a late bloomer. Or maybe they show up at the time you were born, we were all born in the morning aside from you." I try to take what she says to heart, but it's hard to listen as my shoulder blade starts to feel weird again, it even starts feeling itchy.

"Are you listening to me? Why are you making that face? You look constipated." She remarks. I scoff and answer.

"Sorry, my shoulder blade feels weird and itchy. It stuck to my bed sheet when I got up this morning, but it feels normal to the touch. I just can't see it or anything." I reach back to feel my shoulder blade again, and again it feels normal to the touch but still itches. My moms eyes widen and she asks me to turn around so she can look.

"Oh wow. Lee, this is beautiful."

"Uhm, thanks?" I say, confused. My mother waves my comment off.

"I don't mean just your back, you have a tattoo!" My eyes widen and I flip around to face her.

"What! We need a mirror or, your phone! Take a picture, send it to me now!" I stand up and turn away from my mom, using my right hand to hold my long hair to the side and my left to hold my shirt down as far as I could.

"Okay, got it." She says, followed by a squeal. I look to her, expecting her to show me but she's tapping away on her phone. Then I hear the text noise I'd assigned her coming from my room and sprint upstairs, not bothering to wait for her to show me instead. After a few minutes she follows, holding the dress and setting it on my bed beside me as I inspect the picture I got from her.

"Meet me downstairs when you're ready, nan will be here soon." She says softly, leaving my room and closing the door behind her.

I stare in awe at the tattoo in the picture, my tattoo. It's a key ring, only one key on it but several charms on it as well. The entire piece is in grayscale but it looks incredible, each charm is an item that's been made to look as if it's a charm, the shadows around the design anchoring it as if it was actually in space. I've never seen a soulmate tattoo with such detail before, usually they're matching quotes or cute little doodles. The occasional bad ones of faces, but never something realistic yet simple like the one that showed up on me today. I felt so lucky for getting something so beautiful, yet confused at the objects on it.

The key itself looks old fashioned, like it would fit a lock on a very large door for an old mansion long ago. I just don't understand why an antique key would be accompanied by a microphone, King of hearts card, a soccer ball, and a skateboard. The the other charms made sense: a music note, iPod, even the bleeding heart flower charm made sense. These were all things I could relate too, maybe I could relate to the skateboard, but I wasn't obsessed with skating. My eyes narrowed on a part that was just barely covered by my hair. Taking the mirror from my beside table, I backed up as much as I could to the full length mirror on my bedroom door. After putting my hair up in a bun, I succeed in seeing that there was in fact another charm in my tattoo. It looked to be a more realistic thing you'd have on a keychain, except it was rectangle with numbers on it.

I went to grab a pen and paper, coming back to write the numbers on it and find out if they meant anything to me. They didn't, so it must mean something to my soulmate. I was told that my tattoo is supposed to assist my soulmate's in explaining both of us perfectly and what we'd mean to one another, but so far most of it didn't make sense. I mean, this wasn't even a phone number. It was only six digits. I rolled my lip between my teeth before saying it out loud.

"One five five, two zero four." I squint at the numbers written in my handwriting one last time before putting my dress on and running downstairs for the party.