Marry Me | NatePat

Chapter Two

"I'm in love with him, Nathan. I've never loved someone more, but he doesn't love me. Yet I'm okay with that constant ache in my heart because as long as he's happy, I'll be okay."

Sean McLoughlin was head over heels in love with a boy who didn't know he existed.

His best friend worried that he was in far too deep and would never be able to recover from this if something... happened.

Still, the green haired teenager would giggle whenever he even saw his crush. He would continue to day dream about romantic dates during tests.

"I'm worried about you, Sean. Do you ever think about what's going to happen when Mark finds his soulmate?"

"I don't like to think about that," Sean was sitting on Nathan's carpet while the shorter of two paced around the room.

"It's going to happen. You have to prepare for this, man," Nathan flopped down on his bed, lifting his arm and staring at his tattoo.

"Why? Why does it have to happen like this?" Sean's voice cracked, and Nathan felt like he was going to cry. He managed to get back up, pulling Sean to his feet by his own wrist.

"Because of this."

The wrist he held was bare.

Just as his other wrist was.

---

School was hell for people without tattoos. They were outcasted, beaten up by bullies with awful words tattooed onto their wrist.

Sean wore bracelets up to his elbows on both of his arms, looking ridiculous constantly but he had to if he wanted to be safe. Nathan helped, he was somewhat small but still very capable of slamming anyone who dared to hurt his best friend.

It irritated Nathan how people with tattoos had the audacity to hurt someone without them. He knew it was only because there were hateful words on their body and they wished they could just be erased.

I hate you.

Stop, you're hurting me!

Don't hurt me, please.

Leave me alone.

Fuck you.

Some of them were lucky enough to have less than awful words on their skin.

You're kinda cute.

Amanda!

My name's Ally, and you're? (those two hadn't found each other yet, and Nathan internally screamed whenever they passed each other by.)

No one ever seemed too happy with their tattoos, and it was sad to see anyone so horrified of their own skin. There was only one person he knew that even looked at his tattoo on a daily basis.

The same person that smiled whenever he saw it.

Matthew Patrick.

Matthew Patrick's face broke out into a grin and he was unable to stop giggling whenever he looked at his wrist. Nathan didn't know what it said, but he wished it did. At least he knew that whoever would get to have and hold that beautiful boy for the rest of their life was going to treat him with everything he was worth.

The ebony haired boy didn't even have the nerve to speak to him, much less ask him what his soulmate's first words to him are.

"You're staring at him again."

"What?" his head snapped up, speaking a bit louder than he should've in the middle of class. His teacher shot him a warning glass and he turned to Sean, lowering his voice, "what?"

"You're staring at Matthew again," he hummed, flipping through the pages in his textbook.

"Of course I am. Have you seen him? He's gorgeous," Nathan sighed, turning from Sean to Matthew again and letting himself drift off into a land of peace. The brunette sitting to the right of the person in front of him had his tongue poking out of the right side of his mouth, shaggy hair falling into his bright brown eyes.

His soulmate didn't deserve him. Any mortal being could only offer him the world and Matthew Patrick deserved the universe. He didn't understand how he hadn't met his soulmate, whoever they must be they had to be shy. Even with shyness in place, who wouldn't be attracted to that radiating beauty?

Nathan had never even talked to him before and he knew he was an amazing person. The way his eyes lit up whenever he spoke about something he was passionate about, his giggles in the hallway whenever his friends said anything silly and his gorgeous voice that could drone about absolutely anything and Nathan would listen to intently he could recite it word for word.

And he'd never be his.

"Mr. Smith? Is there something you'd like to share?"

Shit.

Was he talking out loud?

Fuck.

Did Matthew hear?

"No, ma'am. Just thinking out loud about... a book. Yeah, a book I read. Completely fell in love with the main character."

"Do share, this class gets boring," the history teacher pulled themselves up on their desk and rubbed their tattoo, it's dark ink still ever present after years of wear.

"W-well, their name is Mitchell. Mitchell is a really complex character that everyone can't help but adore, yet never understand. They talk a lot about topics that no one cares about, but they don't care. They love what they talk about and it makes them so happy so talk about them! Not to mention the author made them sound like the most beautiful human being in the world. They have milk chocolate eyes that sparkle whenever light hits them and fluffy brown hair that's really messy but it just accentuates their character even more."

"Wow, you really do love this character," the teacher exhaled, "does this character have a lover?"

"Yes, but Mitchell doesn't know who the lover is. They get so nervous whenever he comes around and completely lose their vocal ability. But they're so meant to be and the book ended before they even spoke. The author announced a sequel but they didn't say anything about a due date."

"Would you like to share the title?"

FuckshitwhatdoIsay.

"The best things are ones you find yourself."

And maybe he was delusional, but maybe he saw Matthew smile when he talked about the character he didn't even know was himself.