Ink

The Present

I was standing in front of my mirror, frowning at my stomach. The words on it always made me wonder who will be the one to say them. "I cannot stop thinking about you." I had heard them a few times, but the words stayed invisible to everyone else. So I still hadn't found my soulmate. I sighed and proceeded to get dressed.

I had sincerely thought that by the age of twenty-five I would have found them by now. That's not to say I hadn't dated anyone the words didn't pertain to. It was possible to have feelings for someone the universe didn't pick for you. In the end, those relationships didn't work out because of course they didn't.

I pulled my ratty Converse on, and proceeded to brush my hair. I often get a lot of stares because half of it is bright blue. I kept the outer half my natural black color, to keep it professional looking for work. I'm the manager at my job and have to be taken seriously. Thankfully, it's the weekend and I can look and dress however the hell I want.

Today I was going downtown with my best friend. I wanted to check out the new music store opening up and do a bit of shopping. The doorbell rang. I hurried to the front door to find my beaming best friend, Jennifer.

"Hey!" She said as she pulled me into a hug, "ready to go?"

"Yeah, let me just grab my bag," I replied with a grin. I hadn't seen her in a week because of work and I missed her.

I quickly grabbed my purse and we got into my car. As we were driving, the subject of the tattoos came up.

"I wonder when we're going to find our soul mates," she said wistfully, staring out the window.

"I wish I knew. Mine is so weird! Like, it implies that they know me, or have seen me, but they're still invisible!" I exclaimed.

     "Consider our tattoos lucky though. Did you see what was on Lainey's? 'Hey I'm looking for treasure, can I look inside your chest?'"

     I burst into laughter. "No way! Her soulmate used a stupid pickup line? I can only imagine what his tattoo says then!"

     "It says, 'Are you fucking kidding me?'"

     I laughed so hard, tears started running down my cheeks. You would think that, knowing full well your first words to someone could be permanently etched onto their skin, they would have been a bit more careful with what they chose to say.

     We got to the music store, still chuckling about Lainey. I guess it was sheer luck that mine wasn't something dumb. Jennifer's too, "You are the reason why I find this world beautiful." I thought hers was rather cute.

     Jennifer wandered off to look at the guitars, and I went straight to the piano section of the store. I finally saved enough money for a keyboard, and I wanted it to be just right. As I was strolling through the aisle, someone started to drum loudly from across the store. Curious, I looked up to see who had the guts to play in front of a bunch of strangers.

     He had bright red hair and wore a black shirt and some skinny jeans. His ears were gauged pretty wide, and I saw he had a tattoo of a tree covering his entire right arm. I couldn't help but notice that he was extremely attractive.

As he finished drumming, he looked up and met my gaze. He grinned. I realized I was staring at him and blushed furiously as I turned away.

Congratulations Sam, you just made yourself look like an idiot. I shook my head and redirected my focus on what I came here for.

     After a few minutes, I finally found a keyboard I really liked. It was well within my price range and had everything I needed. As I scanned the room for Jennifer, I spotted the drummer again.

Another guy was walking up to him and said, "Josh, are you done? I need some caffeine in my life."

     "Yeah I am. Just wanted to test these out. Let's go," Josh replied, and they walked out of the store without purchasing anything.

"There you are, Sam! Is that the one you want?" Jennifer said as she walked up from behind me.

"Yeah, I think this is it!" I said with a grin.

"Alright, let's go pay for it then. I could use some coffee right now," she replied.

"That sounds great actually. That cashier is open," I said, gesturing towards the till.

"Did you ladies find everything okay?" the girl at the register asked with a smile.

"Definitely," I replied happily.

She laughed and handed me my change. "That's great to hear. Have a wonderful day!"

We thanked her and walked to my car to load the keyboard into the trunk. Since the coffee shop was in the same shopping complex, we decided to walk.
As we walked, I told her about the guy on the drums.

"Ooooh, you always did have a thing for musicians! Did you catch his name by any chance?" she asked excitedly.

"His name is Josh," I replied with a shy smile.

"You need to find him! What if he's your soulmate?" she exclaimed loudly, causing a few people nearby to stare.

"I'll see what I can do. Hopefully he's local," I said thoughtfully.

Shout out to my friend Memo for supplying me with the stupid pick-up line 👌🏻
Also important, any time italics are used in the story, it's Sam's anxiety flaring up. This will be further explored in future chapters.